Job Discussion Forums

[Justin Trullinger]

Hah! Made you look.

But seriously, I'm just curious about all the "saving money" queries on this board. Everybody seems to want to save money in their first job overseas. Understandable, but is it reasonable? I'm asking, and I have no preconception here. I really don't know. I certainly haven't been everywhere. (yet!) So to the old hands out there, did you save money in your first year? Or any years after that? How? Where? do you think the times have changed?

In my first year as a teacher, I saved enough, in an average month, to have a croisant, and pehaps a cup of coffee. But then, I'd been a jobbing actor/childrens entertainer/street artist around Europe for long enough that I was pretty much used to it. Even the croisant was appreciated. (Sometimes I got a chocolate one!!)

And to the newbies: would you expect to save money in your first year in a new career back home? Again, I'm not criticising, just asking. But the last time I was working in the states, where I'm from, my first year was a scraping by exerience. And I didn't have the start up costs of flying to a new place, getting situated in a new city, etc. Have things changed back home? It's been a while...

My personal experience is that saving in a second (or third, etc) year in a new country is reasonable, but with the set up costs in a new place, I've never really recouped my costs in less than a year.

As a DOS, I try to see to it that my new teachers could save up for a flight, home or onwards, after a year of service, but this obviously depends on a teachers spending habits...

Just trying to find a little food for thought,

Justin


PS Miami Herald columnist Dave Barry said his smartest money decision was not to have any until after he was thirty, which prevented him from simply spending it all on beer. Whadaya think?

[Chris_Crossley]

Saving money? In my case, I have saved NO money in the 3 1/2 years that I have been in Wuhan, if only because I had allowed myself to become a participant in the "consumer society" for donkey's years back in Blighty. Yes, you've guessed it - I had massive (relatively speaking) credit card debts.

Fortunately, since marrying, my Chinese family has helped me with low-interest bank loans and I managed to pay off ALL my U.K.-based creditors just before Christmas 2004. Since then, all I have had to do is pay back 4,100 RMB per month, and, happily, under the terms of my next full-time contract, I will be earning a comfortable sum each month.

Will I be saving what is left? No! Why? Well, if you have been reading my other posts, you'd know that my wife and I have just bought a brand-new apartment, so we are actually investing rather than saving. Providing that there is no negative equity, like there was back in Blighty in the 1990s, we should be able to sell our flat in a few years' time for more than a few $$$, provided that there is no slump in the property market.

Of course, once the mortgage is paid off, we plan to save, but who knows when that will happen?

[dmb]

I was in this game for 10 years before I saved anything.

[VanIslander]

If you're interested in making money, then you're in the wrong profession, seriously.

Unless you like looking at desert or eating gimchi.

[Glenski]

Maybe I'm doing something wrong. I saved quite a bit here in Japan from day 1. I also planned to do it. <shrug>

[Gregor]

Seriously. Man oh man.
Justin, thank you for sensitively bringing up this topic. I've wanted to do it, but the only way I have been able to think of approaching it is, "wHAT?? What are you TALKING about??" For exactly the reasons you stated.
I haven't done so both because it's uncouth and also because I just don't know. The notion sounds absurd on the face of it, but I really don't know what's possible. I've heard and read a lot about people wanting to save money and I've occasionally heard and read positive advice for those people, but I have never heard of anyone actually saying, "Yes, sure, I saved money in my first year."
No serious amount, anyway. I had first-year teachers in China save money because they made a concentrated effort to do so, and they saved a lot by Chinese standards, but paying off student loans on a first year contract? Come ON.
What about the JET program? I don't know. I've heard that it can be done but I've never heard of anyone doing it. I've even heard teachers who have been in some of these jobs (JET, Korea, Saudi) say, "Yes, it can be done," but never, "Yes, I saved a ton of money that way."
The thing is, the jobs that pay big money are very competitive. They're not going to take newbies if there's someone with qualifications and experience who want to do them.
I too would very much like to hear some first-hand experience from someone who actually saved a ton of money on their first ESL gig, and how did they do it (i.e. it was easy, they lived like a pauper, what?).

[Zero Hero]

[denise]

In my first teaching job, no. I was in the Czech Republic. I earned enough to live comfortably and pay my flight back home. On top of that, I think I took about $400 out of the country with me. It's just not a high-paying country.

In Japan, I had more money than I knew what to do with--the equivalent of maybe $30,000 or so, free rent, and other benefits. Not scads of dough compared to corporate America, but it was quite enough at the time to enjoy life and save.

Now, in Chile, I am back to hoping that I will have enough to pay for my flight home, potentially made more difficult by the lifestyle that I got accustomed to in Japan. I am really having to retrain myself here--I can no longer afford to go out to restaurants, movies, etc. whenever I want to!

Oh, and as to the question regarding our first jobs back home: yes, I did save a bit. Enough to pay for my TEFL course, at least, and also enough to live on comfortably at the time. I left it because I just didn't like answering phones and making photocopies for people.

d

[ls650]

I've found that life tends to hit one with unexpected bills at the worst possible times. Having some savings changes such an incident from a major crisis into a minor annoyance.

Saving money = fewer worries. And I don't like being worried.

[moonraven]

I have been saving half of my salary--or more--since 2000. That was in Ecuador and Mexico.

I am in the Middle East at the moment, and will probably save about 80%.

[Glenski]

[Zero Hero]

Is "250,000 yen/month" a "standard" salary for someone with a BA, MA, PGDE, a CELTA, doing a PhD in a related field, and who has NET and university experience in HK? I think not. If I had taken a university post I was offered in Tokyo I would have earned a good deal more than that, I can tell you. In fact, I would have been asking you if that 250,000 was for a 5- or a 6-day week. As it happens I decided to move into material development and I can tell you that 250,000 is well below standard.

As for that other, ridiculously low wage you quote, my housing allowance alone is (much) greater. I suppose that only those with few qualifications and not a great deal of experience take such posts.

As for the supermarket prices you cite, it may well surprise you to learn that such items are not that much cheaper in Mainland China, though of course not many people there earn more than 9,000 RMB. Thus, as I said, in terms of percentage of one's salary supermarkets in Tokyo are dirt cheap, and the quality is high, too.

[Zero Hero]

[Deleted - double post]

[Justin Trullinger]

Thanks so far, for a lot of different perspectives on this issue. I, too, agree with the value of saving money, which is why I'm doing it now. IS650 is right, I worry less with a good balance in the bank.

But that's an Ecuadorian bank, and a good balance for Ecuador. If I were looking at it for relocation back to the US, it would go VERY fast...

It seems, from what I've read, that it all comes down to the local economy. Strong economy, able to save. Weak economy, maybe able to save, but only according to local rates...

Keep it up,

Justin


PS For those who said they're saving for want of a better use for their money, I would accept any...oh, never mind.

[moot point]

Average monthly salary for a family in Japan is 554,000yen. Average grocery expenses are 70,000yen. I read that somewhere in some little brochure that was in the lobby of a business hotel on information in Japan. 250,000yen is by no means good coin.