Since launching Crossborderliving.com and posting to this blog, I had received email correspondence from many expatriates and otherwise internationally mobile people who "get" what cross-border living is, but I also get a number of queries from others asking me to describe it for them.
I'm curious, what does crossborderliving mean to you? Please post your comments or email me directly and perhaps I'll post some of them in the upcoming days to start a conversation about what I think is a very important topic.
In the meantime, I have listed below what I call the "Four Dynamics of Cross-Border Living", which are expanded upon in my book When Families Cross Borders: A Guide For Internationally Mobile People. I believe that these dynamics are part of the core of cross-border living from a life and financial planning perspective:
- Globalization continues to break down barriers. In the current era of globalization, individuals can now ask themselves "where do I fit in" and "how can I collaborate with others?" People and assets are in motion across international borders regularly.
- Despite some international conventions, laws are jurisdictional. Although the world is increasingly "flat", tax, matrimonial and succession laws are still defined by national and municipal boundaries and are often in conflict with one another.
- While the world may be flattening, people are multidimensional. Individuals have a need to live, to love, to learn and to leave a legacy. Increasingly, internationally mobile people and those living a cross-border lifestyle are seeking ways to find balance among these needs and the four dynamics of cross-border living.
- Cultural and familial imprints regarding money. Faced with the complexities of certain aspects of cross-border living, many of us know that we could be making greater strides in taking control of the life we most want to live, but often belief systems that tie back to cultural and familial imprints, hold us back.
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