If your company is relocating you, they are likely to help you monetarily and service-wise, or at least pay for the move. Company benefits depend not only on the condition of the economy but also on whether the employee is transferred from a relatively low-cost community to a higher-priced one and, to some extent, on intangibles such as the value of the employee and the desirability or undesirability of the new locale.

Many corporations offer career-counseling services for spouses in the new locale, for which they pick up the tab. They also sometimes have relocation agencies help the employee's parents or in-laws find housing there so they can come along as easily as possible. More than one relocation agent these days is asked to find a house for the transferee as well as an apartment for his mother and one for his mother-in-law in the new locale.

All of this is mentioned so you can see what some businesses are doing, how much you can ask from your own, and what you can reasonably expect to receive. The bottom line here is to ask. Relocating is expensive and is likely to cost you something, no matter how much of the tab the corporation picks up. But you may find the company transferring you is willing to pick up the bulk of your expenses and contribute in other ways to assure an easy transition.