Plan B, cash and minimal physical attachment will help you relocate stress-free
Hi friends, this morning I finished shipping off my belongings to Vietnam for my job relocation. The process was anything but stress-free and pleasant, even when I was working with teams of global agencies who have had excellent expertise on this matter. Looking back at my three relocation for work purposes — to Hong Kong, Singapore and then Vietnam, I would have done these three things differently to alleviate part of the stress off my shoulder:
1. Plan your timeline: You should initiate moving process long ahead, at least 2 months and 3 months to be safe, follow up, follow up and plan a cut off point.
Why? Internal processes usually take ages to go through and you never know how long each system error will take to resolved. Also, you need to factor in holiday like Christmas, Lunar New Year celebration, Thanksgiving, all possible public holidays that might affect the timing for this. I submitted my shipping request in December, aiming to move around February and totally forgetting the 2 big holidays in between consume around 1 month already. Not to mention, towards the beginning and after the end of the holiday, it’s easier for people to forget the pending items they need to get back to you on.
Once you initiated this process, remember to give yourself a plan B and a clear cut-off point on when to execute this plan B. For example, if you need to vacate your apartment, it’s good to have your shipment scheduled the weekend before. You probably need 2 weeks to pack. Altogether, the cut-off point in this case would be 3 weeks. If 3 weeks before the moving date, you haven’t heard anything yet from the agency and the company, it’s time to communicate your change of plan and execute plan B: whether to sell your furnitures or to bring everything as excess baggage. If you don’t have a cut-off point, it’s hard to know when to stop “following-up” on your first request and when to make your own decision. And when you know, it’s probably too late. Hence, this ends up wasting your efforts and money.
2. Keep your cash: For any physical move, new expenses will always pop up and cost you quite a big chunk of cash. Even if your company reimburses you later, remember to have some cash ready for this.
Moving means horrendous and stressful processes of logistical coordination. And more often than not, this costs money. From paying for people to dispose your big furnitures, to paying for the meals you cannot cook since you already shipped off all your pots and pans; from hosting your farewell dinner to paying for your excess baggage at the airport. The scope and scale can range from 2$ to 2,000$ if mishaps happen.
Another point to note is that given these charges, your income stream might not be as stable during this time, especially if you are moving country. Governments usually require company to with-hold your last-month salary before you clear your tax. And again, since this is a public service whose process can take up to weeks, it might take you a long time until getting your salary to fence off these expenses. So no matter how much I usually dedicate to investment and spending, I usually try to not make any big purchases and keep my 2nd and 3rd to last month salary as cash in my bank account. Remember to do this, and check your tax before leaving.
3. Destress by declutter — basically, relax: ffs, I know it’s annoying to hear this, but really sometimes things are not as bad as they seem to be.
Every time I relocated, I always lost hours of sleep due to stress and anxiety. So many things can go wrong, so many things are out of my control, and resources regarding money, energy and time are usually also not in abundance. Altogether, this equates STRESS. It is unavoidable in some ways, but you always can have a level of control on things — so plan and remind yourself of this. For example, while worrying about the confirmation from the shipping agency that the shipment might not be possible, I knew that in the worst case scenario, I can always sell things and bring things back home.
In fact, I started assessing what I do not mind not having at home already, and posted on Facebook marketplace. They refer to stress as something non-physical. But to me, stress can be minimized if you reduce the amount of physical assets and things that can be affected if things don’t go well. As I decluttered my space and sold some furnitures, gave away my plants, and also stopped buying new clothes in the last month, I felt much better. If I cannot ship things, at least I don’t have to bring any oversized boxes on the plane or sell any of the goods that could still be of good value to others.
This applies to other risky processes as well. When packing for my shipment, I placed myself in the mindset where I question myself: “Is there anything here, if lost, will make me go wild and really hurt my wallet?”. For those items, I pack them on the plane with me. So eventually, not only will the stress be minimal, you will also know that you have mitigation plans in place and money to cover for any urgency. After all, you are in control, and the relocation seems more exciting than terrifying.
Happy moving and happy settling in! Remember, it will always work out — it has always been working out :)
