Job Discussion Forums

[MamaOaxaca]

I was thinking...
I hope I won't be remembered as a man!

(mental note: forget retirment, use savings for electrolysis!)

[kuberkat]

This very worthwhile thread has chilled my blood. Never mind the biological imperative bit...

Some posters mentioned that their home countries would allow continued contributions- and thus full payout- of their state pension funds. Not so for many of us rate race refugees, so scratch that one.

In response to the OP's request for info on online fund managers, one would expect these to be international, but all those I have applied to have rejected clients from abroad.

The financial services available in many TEFLing countries are directed at CEO-type income brackets and just not viable on a teacher's salary.

Real estate may be one of the best options, but again this requires either sterling tenants or employing an agent to take care of things. And time one often doesn't have.

But the rudest awakening is how clueless we seem, as a group. (True, finance may not be our field- but it is our business!) Most of us are in a position to save. It seems that many (who didn't even bother to read this post?) dont, while others are drawing minimal interest in a bank account for lack of decent investment vehicles.

What do you think? And where should we put our money?

[Van Norden]

[bigbadsuzie]

I made a promise to myself that I would not be left old ,feeble and broke in my latter years . I sold what assets I had in the U.K. and got as much of it as poss into a Turkish bank account converted it into the lira and let the interest pile up ,within a short time ( 5 years) I had enough interest to get a foothold on the property market . That was 10 years ago .
Since then I've ploughed funds into more property and purchased a long term savings/pension plan . I still have another 10-12 years to consolidate as long as my health lasts,I intend to live here until I croak ,so I may as well invest in the place .5 years later will be too late .

[Stephen Jones]

The TEFL teachers who have gained from property are normally those who had bought the property on a mortgage before they started tefling, or those who have settled down in their adopted country. In neither case was investment the main incentive.

The housing markets where there has been massive appreciation are nearly all those where there is an artificial shortage of land for building, and you're not going to ever be able to save up the deposit on a teacher's salary.

[Deicide]

[gaijinalways]

This is/was my problem. My wife and I want to go into property, but I actually didn't start making more money until recently in our 1.5 income household (my wife works semi-full time, which works out to a little more than part-time). I have some money in a mutual fund, and contrary to what was stated earlier, the fees don't eat up all the profits. We also have some money in postal CDs, though I don't like the time length (10 years), though that is maybe 1-2 years away from maturing.

Just keep working away at it, and start young if you can as the earlier you start saving, the better. I did save when I was younger, but I managed to spend a lot of it too. Later, I just wasn't making enough, and a first wife didn't help matters.

Kids, well they might help, but nothing is guaranteed .

[cangringo]

It seems more natural to me to be nomadic than to just stay in one place, but then I get bored easily. I don't know about this fluttering term though...

And having kids in any country is no guarantee of anything. What if you have kids who end up making less money than you and aren't in a position to support you or say they just don't want to. It happens all the time. Not to mention the cost of raising the kids in the first place...hmm seems counterproductive to me. Of course it would be handy to have someone to do the chores and torture with "because I said so" and "do as I say not as I do"

As for the point of this topic, we don't have any interest in teaching in the higher paying countries such as Asia or Saudi Arabia but would still like to save some money. So I guess I'm wondering what the best idea is besides moving to Asia or Saudi Arabia - Europe is out because of the EU passport. Any other ideas? We don't have RRSP's or other savings unfortunately - flying by the seat of our pants right now. If we have to move to somewhere we don't want to just to secure some cash, well - we may have to but I'm hoping there is another way...

[naturegirl321]

What about Swiss bank acounts?

[Gordon]

[shuize]

[Kramer]

I am new here and I am still working in the states as an engineer in Silicon Valley but probably starting an ESL career soon. I can probably answer many of your questions about investing and finances.

A good place to start (for US citizens, at least) is to go to www.diehards.org and look at the "Recommended Reading" links on the left hand side. The first two books in the "Books of Interest" section are quite good and readable by novices. You only need to read one of these books, for instance, to know 80% of everything you will need to know about saving and investing. The information in their forum is generally trustworthy. It is more dedicated to the idea of investing in index funds to get market returns and minimize taxes with extremely low fund expenses rather than counting on a fund manager and paying him high fees. In my opinion, this is the proper approach.

Just a quick note for US citizens: You want to be sure to get enough working credits in the US system, as was touched upon briefly earlier in this thread. This means working for 10 years (and yes, my understanding is that part of this can be under treaty in another country). This will not only get you social security payments, but medicare coverage. And both will help you, even if you retire to another country. You can get your social security check direct deposited regardless of residence. Medicare does not generally cover you abroad, but it would cover you if you needed to go back (for those 65 years or older), even if just for temporary medical reasons. Social security benefits are a very good deal for lower earners as the payout system is skewed heavily in that direction. BTW, the other way to get benefits is to marry someone who has worked in the system for 10 years.

And the person that mentioned around 4 percent annual withdrawals (inflation-adjusted) from savings for retirement is correct. This is the general rule of thumb. There are lots of variations, but that should give you a general idea of how much you need to save to supplement other retirement income.

My personal preference is not to own investment real estate because the disadvantage of managing it while working remotely (opportunity cost, cost of remote management). But this is a personal preference. There are very efficient index funds that invest in real estate investment trusts that generally track the income you would make in the long run from your own real estate investment investments (in fact, this was the highest performing asset class category in 2006). In the US, one of the main reasons to own investment real estate directly is because of the tax advantages. But ESL'ers receive little benefit for this because of their low tax bracket. On the other hand, there can be good reasons to own directly and many have succeeded with this approach.

Kramer