Job Discussion Forums

[Trebek]

Finally my last child is grown and left the house and I will finally get out and teach out of the US. I have applied for jobs in both Bulgaria and Romania (and many other places). Is $35000 enough for a decent lifestyle in these two countries?

[spiral78]

Do you mean the jobs are offering to pay 35,000 USD per year - or is this what you can spend on top of your teacher's pay per annum?

[Trebek]

$35,000 total salary.

[naturegirl321]

Mike_2007 woudl be someone to ask abotu Romania. But from what I gather, that should be enough for Romania. If you don't plan to live the high life in the capital.

[m27]

I can't speak to cost of living in Romania, but living in Macedonia for the last 2 years I can give you a bit of an idea re Bulgaria. First, costs will vary greatly depending upon whether you are in Sofia or anywhere outside the capitol. Also, your lifestyle and 'home' debts will influence this greatly.

But to give you an idea, I've lived in Skopje for the past 2 years on about the same amount you mentioned, and been very comfortable. I eat out often, have a modest but modern furnished 2 BR apartment in the center of town, take taxis when I like, and have taken FULL advantage of European travel opportunities. Granted, I don't go out and shop without thinking like I used to on my Western salary - because I'm storing that all up for travel when school is on break. I have a colleague who is in Sofia on the same amount, and he and his wife are comfortable, tho not rich.

Just a side note - I have found people in the region to be overwhelmingly kind and welcoming. This is a HUGE benefit!

[Globetrotting Teacher]

Over the course of the period from June 2002 - October 2010, I not only lived in Romania for a total of around 4 years, probably a little bit more, but also spent a total of roughly of roughly 20 months in the neighboring Republic of Moldova (where the state language, officially called Moldovan, is fundamentally the same as Romania, though there exist differences between these these tongues that quite posibly would entitle us to declare them two different dialects.) During the entire said 8.3-8.4 year period of time, I also spent a few weeks in England, Bulgaria and Macedonia and 2-5 nights in countries like Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia, Transnistria (the place that is de jure part of Moldova, but de facto an independent country,) Austria, and I can assure that with around 35,000 dollars a year in Romania, you wll be able to do just about anything you want, when you want.

Ok, when I was living in Romania, I spent the great majority of my time in Cluj-Napoca, but also visited Bucuresti and Iasi many times (actually lived and worked also in those two cities for around 3 months and 3 weeks, respectively,) and Bucuresti is somewhat more costly than these two other cities (Iasi is the cheapest,) but in Bucuresti with 35,000 dollars a year, even if that is your pre-tax salary (which I doubt that it is) you will be able to live pretty much like a damn king.

[fractal]