Job Discussion Forums

fancynan · Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 10:42 pm Post subject:

Oops - I meant $65K, but sometimes it feels like $65. Laughing

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 11:03 pm Post subject:

Sunny-side Up · Joined: 03 Sep 2007 Posts: 3 Location: Pacific Northwest

I am deeply embarassed at how negative my post sounded. I think I was trying to be sarcastic, but it was not well done.

I think teaching abroad would be a wonderful experience, with many rewards. I hope your experience will be successful.

Please accept my apology for sounding so rude, as I was.

zaylahis · Joined: 01 May 2007 Posts: 59

I earned twenty times more, had a car, house, travelled business class and lived in Knightsbridge. Went to Ayvalik and later Istanbul. Started by sharing a flat with two other teachers and later moved to a flat with no heating in Istanbul. Supported three kids as a single parent, work seven days a week but the kids and I now look back at how much fun we had living just above poverty line. Was later invited to return home to a very very senior position in my old job..back came the car, chauffeur, maids, house and stress, stress, stress and more stress. After two years I quit! If I were younger, I would go back to working abroad.

KaiFeng · Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 8:41 pm Post subject:

I had the opposite experience. After twenty years in Taiwan, I was making $10K a month. Man, those were good times! Enough to support the family, pay the mortgage, and have cash to stow away. For me, the paycut was when we came to the US! Years later, I still haven't re-achieved that level of income, in IT. Sad

But, as some posters have suggested, there are other considerations than economic. For us, we wanted our children to grow up as native English speakers for the professional benefits that would accrue from this. The US schools are a major disappointment, of course, but that's part of the price one pays.

When the kids are out of college and in business school or medical school, we're think about returning to Taiwan and making money again.

FuzzX · Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 122

The girls you meet and the friends you make will more than make up for the 60k pay cut your about to take.

jpvanderwerf2001 · Joined: 02 Oct 2003 Posts: 1117 Location: New York

Well, I wasn't a high roller, but I made upwards of 40k as an editor when I left the States 7 years ago. The first few years of EFL I made 1/3 of that, but I didn't feel it (I actually felt "wealthier" making 1/3). Now I make about 40k again and still love the job. Love the job, be good at it, and the money will follow (well, hopefully:-).

jillford64 · Joined: 15 Feb 2006 Posts: 397 Location: Sin City

I went from making $60/hour as an engineer/project manager in the US to making a little less than $6/hour in Mexico. I wasn't nervous about the pay cut because I had some savings to tide me over if I needed it. Now I am back in the US and pondering what I am going to do to support myself. I do not want to go back to what I was doing before, but I have decided not to pursue teaching English as a full-time, permanent career either.

Deano1979 · Joined: 02 Mar 2007 Posts: 34

Im in the same boat as the OP. Im also making good money, but Im just so bored with life. My entire life consists of work. I have to force myself to exercise. I see my family maybe once a week. I have almost no free time to date anymore. I see my friends maybe once or twice a week, which is normally at a bar or a nightclub.

I might be poorer, but at least I would have done something I can look back on. Im throwing in the towel too. I can always come back to this if I need to.

I would rather die a pauper and have lived an extra ordinary life then die an upper middle class schmuck who spent his prime writing reports and chasing sales targets

Julieanne · Joined: 18 Mar 2004 Posts: 120

I was a pediatric nurse but I chose to change for awhile and to travel. I couldn't afford to just go and travel so teaching was a good way to pay the bills while seeing different cultures....but it only pays the bills.

comenius · Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 3:23 pm Post subject:

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

When I left Mexico five months ago I was making about $1000 per month after deductions. I've been at an office job in Canada for a few months and I'm earning about three times the pay. I'm able to bank well over a $1000 per month, but I'm bored already with the job and I'm thinking about returning to Mexico in 2008.

Coogar · Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 12:15 pm Post subject:

I think the question cannot really be answered like that, the question is if the paycut automatically means a lower standard of living. Earning a fifth of the money in Argentina I used to make in Dublin, I am still considered middle class here. So the paycut is not really a paycut, plus here the sun is shining and I am happy Wink

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 1:23 pm Post subject:

It's not about the income per se, it's what you can buy with it in terms of standard of living.

The most I ever made in the US was probably a bit more than twice what I'm earning now. But, on that wage in the US, I spent most of it on a midrange apartment and a dogged out car. Here, earning half, I travel when I want, do pretty much what I want, and have resources and time to actually have hobbies!

Even though the wages are lower, the cost of living is SO much lower, I'm probably saving more than I could have in the US. Dollar for dollar, more; not adjusted for cost of living. More dollars.

I know, though, that this depends a lot on the individual. I have a fairly simple life, and I like it that way. I don't have a television, my apartment is maybe 50 years old, and I don't bother with a car. Suits me great. But if I insisted on trying to maintain a first world comforts kind of life, here in Ecuador, I might be even worse off than I was in the US.

Just food for thought-

But not too many are raising the prospect of making good money at EFL.

Best,
Justin