“What’s the most positive thing you can say about living abroad?” Just for fun, I sent out an e-mail posing that query to expats living in a variety of places around the world. The obvious replies came in about overseas life being a time of tremendous personal growth and providing the opportunity to live and travel in diverse regions of the world.

But more honestly to the point, was a reply I received from a woman living in Shanghai: “I love having a maid to do everything for me!” she told me, and not half-facetiously.

For many expats who move to countries for assignments that include big houses, chauffeur-driven cars, and lots of household help, these are indeed the finest perquisites that come with living and working overseas. Having the household drudgery taken away, especially if you are starting families or raising young children who require hours of care giving, can be a priceless perq. Never mind that so often that ordinary housekeeping tasks increases ten fold due to the nature of the city you are living in (dusty places for instance, or cities where grocery shopping can take an entire day), it’s still great to have help you would not otherwise have been able to afford.

I’ll be honest and admit full time help was certainly a huge appeal on our first overseas assignment in Bangkok. I survived my first pregnancy nicely with a maid to prepare healthy meals for me and keep me company when my husband travelled a lot (I sorely missed both when I was carrying our second child living in the Quebec countryside and buried under several feet of snow for most of it!) Not only that, but when our daughter Lilly was born in Thailand, I was able to hand her over into the arms of someone prepared to literally love her to death. A positive of life abroad? I think so.

But there’s certainly more than maid service which attracts people to the good life abroad. Money works well for most people as money generally does. Not only is there more of it with expatriate pay packages and hefty compensation and benefits, but very often, a woman does not feel as obligated to seek a second income for the family since her husband’s paycheque covers everything.

“I really enjoy having the stress of earning money lifted from me,” one wife wrote to me on condition of anonymity. “I would still like to be doing something productive and useful to feed my identity, but not having to be a two income family to enjoy the good ‘expat’ life has been a real bonus. We are even able to save quite a bit of money.” She also told me her husband, like most employees who see a rise in their incomes abroad, certainly agrees that money is a big positive for luring people to live overseas.

Health clubs, when paid for by the sponsoring company and organization, are another positive perk of expat life. Being Canadian, and in particular presently living in my country’s healthiest region on the west coast in British Columbia where recreation centers are as ubiquitous as sushi bars, I wouldn’t feel compelled to move abroad again just for health clubs. But for others who move from cities where going to the gym can be as expensive as paying the mortgage, health clubs are definitely on the bonus side of the balance sheet. When we lived in tough postings like Beijing and Seoul, I don’t think either my husband or I would have survived without the local expat health clubs. Recreational memberships, as well as being therapeutic, definitely contribute to a higher quality of life in general and certainly a better social life.

To view the rest of the article please go to www.expatexpert.com/rr_living_abroad

April 16, 2008