Reflecting on Lisa Macdougall Trailing Spouse Journey

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negative effect on their psychological wellbeing. Furthermore, the fact that living far away from their family might cause them to feel lonely and excluded.

• Make friends

It is very important in to make friends during your childhood. Yet, since Amelia and Emily had a relentless feeling of rootlessness, it might be hard for them to recognize themselves and then establish long-term and stable friendship with others, which may also influence the formation of their personality and destinies.

The Impact of International Mobility on the MacDougall’s Marriage

The MacDougall’s marriage is seriously impacted by international mobility. She had to leave her fresh career and even uproot her children. Certainly this affected her husband but he was not challenged to become a stay at home mother. Their last international tour has been a few years removed, so they had to readjust as a unit. The marriage itself was positively affected because the children developed into third culture kids and revived a good education. Their marriage was negatively affected because she began to doubt her decision that she made to no longer be a working woman in the corporate world and become a full time stay at home mother.

Options

Option 1: Remain in Singapore

Option 2: Accept the China assignment and maintain permanent residency (PR) status

Option 3: Accept the China assignment and dissolve the PR status 5

Recommendation

It is recommended that the MacDougall’s take Option 3. This option will allow for Lachlan to advance his career and though a raised was not mention, they will retain more of their income because they will have an allowance for housing and school. The amount they are now saving could be worth more than a raise. Also by dissolving the PR, they will have to pay the 50 per cent tax in China verses the 20 percent in Singapore. Paying the 50 per cent in tax is far less than what they will be paying if they maintain their PR status in Singapore.

• Because they are not citizens of Singapore, they would have to pay out, in advance, two years of taxes - on their income, on stock and shares given as income for pay-for-performance, and on existing and future stock and shares

• A freeze, by Singapore law, would be put on the existing and future stock and shares for the two years they are in China. This could create a financial short fall during their retirement if the market performance is very active during that two year time period. A lot of money could be gained if not frozen and a lot could be lost if frozen.

Once the MacDougall’s complete their assignment they can then return back to their home in Australia. To put a lot of stress in how this will affect the kids, don’t, kids of today are very adaptable to change. Lisa should look at it as a great opportunity to start on their resume: multilingual with a sense of affective dimension and intercultural competence, something a lot of us today lack and that is just going from state to state within the US.

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