🐧 12 financial tools I can't live without

Save Up to 100+ Hours with Investment Tools, Tax Service, Property Calculator, & more
Dexter Zhuang
Dexter Zhuang
August 13, 2023

As an expat, you don’t need 1,000 personal finance tools.

You need the ones that actually work.

I have spent 50+ hours researching money tools that work for professionals living overseas.

Today in 10 minutes or less, you’ll learn:

  • 📊 Multi-currency net worth & expense trackers
  • 🏡 US expat tax service & SG property calculator
  • 🌱 3 cost-efficient brokerage and investment tools
  • 🛫 How to travel visa-free in APAC

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12 financial tools I can’t live without

Here is a list of tools I personally have used or know others who have (includes affiliate links):

 Tracking Finances

Kubera

Price:

US$15/mo (DM for $100 off)

What is it:

Holistic tool that auto-tracks your family’s net worth across currencies and accounts, analyzes your portfolio, and plans future scenarios.

Lunch Money

Price:

US$10/mo (Use link for 1 month free)

What is it:

Simplifies expense tracking and budgeting with easy bank integrations across 17 countries, even including crypto accounts. I don’t use this avidly, but know expats who do.

Free Net Worth Tracker

Price:

Free

What is it:

Net worth tracking template designed for expats, like myself who have non-US accounts, multiple currencies and shared partner finances.

Free Net Worth Benchmark Calculator

Price:

Free

What is it:

Benchmarking tool that lets you find out your net worth percentile amongst Money Abroad subscribers in your age group - including expat professionals working at top companies like Meta, Google, Amazon, Stripe, and BCG.

Save & invest

Interactive Brokers

Price:

US$0 account min, 0.08% per trade

What is it:

My go-to international brokerage. Most brokers are tied to a local country, but IB allows you to keep your account open when you move, with very favorable low FX rates.

Stratosphere

Price:

Free (Paid: starts at US$19.99/mo)

What is it:

One-stop shop for all investor research, Stratosphere provides global equity coverage on 40,000 stocks and funds with 35 years of historical financials.

Portfolio Visualizer

Price:

Free (Paid: starts at US$19/mo)

What is it:

Comprehensive suite of portfolio analysis tools that helps you compare and analyze portfolios and investment products. I personally use the backtest asset allocation tool to compare portfolios.

Send money abroad

Wise

Price:

Starts at .43% per send

What is it:

Wise is an online money transfer app with low-fees and 50+ currencies.

Top tip: Use scheduled transfers to automate your cross-border investing.‍

 Travel visa-free

APEC Business Travel Card

Price:

What is it:

My favorite, lesser known life hack for business travellers to save 100’s of hours. The ABTC card (available in 19 countries) enables visa-free travel in APAC for up to 5 years, with designated express lanes at immigration.

Receive mail virtually

Stable

Price:

US$49/mo (Use link for 20% off)

What is it:

My US business mailbox. When you’re on the move, Stable offers a permanent business address for all your company documents and mail, and forwards any physical packages worldwide.

 File taxes

Greenback Expat Tax

Price:

Starts at US$485/filing

What is it:

One-stop shop online tax service for American expats. I used Greenback to file my 2020 & 2021 US tax returns with a positive experience.

Buy real estate

Singapore Residential Property Calculator

Price:

Free

What is it:

Created by solopreneur friend Michael Duyvesteijn, this Google sheet helps foreigners like myself research Singapore property. It breaks down P&L & Cashflow projections for 3 scenarios (Don't Buy, Buy & Occupy, Buy & Rent).

🌐 Beyond your borders

🇸🇬 HDB resale market may have peaked, stabilizing now (link)

🇯🇵 Japan is Asia’s most expensive location to send expats: avg of $370k package (link)

🇪🇺 15 European countries with the best healthcare for expats (link)

🇺🇸 Healthcare jobs drove 35% of US job gains in last 3 months (link)

🇺🇸 20% of cheapest US funds had inflows of $394B vs outflows of $734B for the rest (link)

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📆 How I can help

That’s all for today!

Whenever you’re ready, here’s how I can help you:

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Dexter Zhuang

Dexter is the founder of The Portfolio Path, an education platform that helps high-performers live on their own terms. Through courses, content, and coaching, he helps professionals build thriving portfolio careers and finances. He has 10+ years of experience building products and teams at public companies (Dropbox) and scaling startups (Xendit)—across Silicon Valley, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. His work has been featured in global outlets like Business Insider, CBS, and Tech in Asia. He graduated from Dartmouth College.

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