How do I plan and budget for the transition back home?

Heading back home can be expensive!

Returning home is often more expensive than heading overseas.  Usually, heading overseas, you'll already have a job set up.  Your employer might be picking up your plane ticket, housing and other start-up expenses.  Also, life overseas is often a less competitive environment.  You won't feel nearly as pressured to have a nice car, have the latest bling, all the latest gadgets, and so on.  Many people are overseas to enjoy a more relaxed lifestyle.

Plan  your Costs

If you haven't bought a home with your overseas savings (many people do!), plan on several months rent, plus security deposits of a month or two.  Don't forget the costs of turning on the utilities or changing them over to your name.

Transportation Costs

Some places you just can't get around without a car.  Public transportation is inadequate. So, the costs of a car and insurance must be factored in (big expenses!).  If you drive and insure a car while you are overseas - be sure to get a letter from your car insurance company.  Assuming no accidents and no claims, have them write a "to whom it may concern" letter documenting your driving and insurance history.  Insurance companies in your home country will consider you to be a very high risk if you have not been insured recently.  You can save several thousand dollars a year with that letter - don't forget to get it!

The Reverse Job Hunt

Plan on at least a month or two of expenses before you land the right job.  Add in the cost of appropriate clothing if you don't have it.

Can Do Attitude!

Approach the return home with the same spirit you headed off overseas.  For me, after being overseas since 1989 - it really would be heading to another foreign country!  I truly feel I belong on Phuket Island, it is my home now.  And when I go back to the States to visit family, I feel a bit out of place.  It would be an enjoyable challenge to re-establish myself there.

Read the section about Reverse Culture Shock to understand what you might go through.