Expats in Myanmar have more than enough money

Foreigners working in Myanmar are overwhelmingly happy with their financial situations, and they are the happiest in the world about their disposable income, according to a recent report by the global expat network InterNations.

The report, titled Expat Insider 2017, ranks the world’s top 65 expat destinations based on a survey given to at least 75 expats in each country. In one of the survey’s five key factors – personal finance – Myanmar comes in at #3 in the world, behind Vietnam and Colombia.

The personal finance ranking is based on two questions: how respondents perceive their personal finance situation and whether their disposable income is enough to cover their expenses. In response to the disposable income question, 67 percent of respondents living in Myanmar said they have more than enough to cover their costs – the highest proportion of any country included in the survey.

In fact, 38 percent of respondents in Myanmar said they have a lot more disposable income than they need – nearly four times the global average (10 percent). Overall, three quarters of Myanmar expats said they are generally happy with their financial situation.

These results may be explained by the fact that Myanmar has an above-average proportion of expats working in management positions (32 percent). So even though Yangon is among the 40 most-expensive cities in the world, a high number of expats living here still make more than enough to spend freely.

However, after factoring in the other four criteria – quality of live, ease of settling in, working abroad, and family life – Myanmar ranks toward the bottom (#48). Myanmar ranked low in most of these sections, but there were a few exceptions. For example, Myanmar came in at #6 for job satisfaction and #12 for friendliness.

The survey also includes a section on how foreigners view their local neighbors. Expats in Myanmar said Myanmar locals are the second-most “constant and traditional” in the Asia-Pacific region (as opposed to “dynamic and innovative”), just behind Japan. They also characterized Myanmar locals as “emotional and welcoming” rather than “rational and distant.”