The report shows that the US, Thailand and South Africa are the expat locations which suffered most from the crisis so far. To the point that almost half of the expats surveyed in the US are considering returning home. Financially, Asia remains very attractive, with around 25% of expatriates earning more than 200K USD per year.

Overall, and despite the economic crisis, expats are wealthier and save more than in their home country. They also are more sophisticated investors – not a surprise – with 46% investing in shares, 53% doing so in property, while 42% using managed funds.

All in all, a good read, and an interesting lifeline on the expat situation worldwide. I just have a nagging impression that it does not represent the different type of expatriates out there. Seeing the results, I guess most expatriates interviewed were of the Executive type, who are posted internationally by their MNC. By experience, expatriation is very diverse and more and more expats* are not in this situation.

* To me, an expat is a person who is voluntarily absent from home or country

First surprise, the website itself was not user friendly. It did not display nicely in my firefox and the information was not straight forward. Still, I found my way around.

I started with the idea to run a 10K. Not that impressive, I know. But on 10K I could run with my wife and frankly, while I can run 10K easily, the stretch to 20 may be a bit much. Still, I started thinking about it and getting motivated to run the 20. After all, with a little dedication and two months training in front of me it should not be too difficult.

So I went to check the registration process and fees. Everyone told me it would be RM40, I though ok, sound a fair deal to me. Unfortunately, the RM40 deal is only for Malaysian citizens. Foreign passport holders fee goes up to USD40. Even if you live in Malaysia, have a work permit, pay your taxes and all, still USD40. I was pissed. So pissed actually it tainted the all experience.

I spent some time checking the run, their “run for a cause” concept, questioning myself whether I was going to run 20 or not, started gathering motivation and other, only to discover that I was a wallet to be plucked. Like so many times in Malaysia.

It really gave me a bad image of Standard Chartered and the KL Marathon thing. Should it rain on the day, I wouldn’t feel bad for them…

A tradition of new year is to reflect on the past year and set new resolutions for the year to come. My main resolution for 2009 is to be more optimistic. Instead of procrastinating, and being passive, I will focus on the half full glass, and get going !

May 2009 be the best year yet !