Great reply. Finally someone who comes to the table with the real goods. Instead this Pprune thing seems to really have too much of sarcasm and negativity, or people who think they are really funny and clever in their comments but are really not. I like the points you put forward. They make sense. So I guess it really comes down to the fact that maybe you can make some money in HKG if your single and you get on the house allowance at the right time before a big value increases. Of course that would be the same as anywhere. I did pretty well with my house back in N America the last 5 years. And its pretty expensive for education in the US....and really expensive if your kids are in sports. In Canada education is cheap if you dont mind your kids in public schools...and to have them play sports is a bit cheaper to. Point is, you pay it all out of your salary. There is NO education allowance, and NO housing allowance. I would love it if my company gave that too me..I would be glad to pay the tax on it!! Really...what a benefit...for a company to give you 8-9k USD to pay your mortgage after a salary of about 100k/year?? Plus only taxed at 16%? I have a great salary in N America at about 90k us/year, and about 40 is taken away by the govt for tax. That leaves me with about 4-5k/mo for disposable. Take out 3000 for your house, 800 for cars, 1000 for misc groceries/bills/etc and you have absolutely nothing left. My wife and I have to watch our pennies every month so we don't spend a dollar more than we make. We save nothing. So forgive me for looking at the deal my friends are always happy to brag about over at Cathay and Dragon...and it looks pretty damn good from where I sit! Any comments???