đ Hey expats, this is Dexter. Welcome to a new edition of Money Abroad, my weekly newsletter where I bring you fresh tips on building wealth while living abroad.
Today in 10 minutes or less, youâll learn:
𧰠Popular personal finance tools for expats
đŻ Surprising use cases
đĽ Quick tips & hacks
Letâs go!
𧰠Expat Personal Finance Toolkit
đş Top Expat Hubs
We are going to cover tools for the top subscriber regions:
Singapore
Hong Kong
United States
United Kingdom
𤊠Criteria
Low or minimal fees
Fast, easy-to-use UX
Accessible for foreigners (and Americans)
Responsive customer service
Secure
𧎠Track and manage money
Lunch Money (paid: $10 USD / month)
Lunch Money is a simple personal finance tool with bank integrations across 17 countries, crypto wallet integrations, budgeting, and trend visualizations.
Who is it for: Expats that want an easy-to-use budgeting tool that works across currencies and importing crypto & supported bank accounts
Surprising use case: âIt was super easy to label all the expenses related to our wedding to figure out at the end exactly how much it cost / the breakdown of different categories for itâ - Canadian expat
Tip: Try the Rules Engine to auto or manually create rules to automatically categorize your transactions and trigger notifications.
Pocketsmith (paid: $9.95 USD / month and up)
Pocketsmith is a more comprehensive personal finance tool with auto bank integrations across 49 countries (rarity!), budgeting, and cashflow management features.
Who is it for: Expats that want max coverage with automatic bank imports and more sophisticated analysis features
Surprising use case: âI use it as a searchable archive since bank statements go into the ether after 90 days.â - German expat in US
Tip: Tap into the cashflow reporting tool to project out your future budgets.
Caveats:
Janky bank connections. Multiple Singapore & HK banks are labeled âExperimentalâ. I personally tried linking my DBS Singapore account, hit an error, and couldnât proceed further.
Outdated design. âUI and mobile are kinda oldâ
Expat Money Review (free)
Expat Money Review is a simple Google Sheet template for tracking net worth, income, and expenses across currencies as an expat couple or individual. (My fiance and I currently use this tracker.)
Who is it for: Expat couples or individuals that want a free solution to consolidating their assets and liabilities across multiple currencies
Surprising use case: I track unpaid taxes using the net worth tracker, so we keep enough cash buffer to avoid nasty surprises during tax season.
Tips & hacks: Calculate your âguilt-free spendâ using the Income & Expenses tab. Then setup automated transfers so the remaining balance in your bank account is always yours to spend on whatever you want.
