I made a huge mistake! I totally neglected to figure out how big my American bills were before I started applying to all of my dream locations. What a blunder this turned out to be, especially when I started to have all of these offers come pouring in after many successful interviews. It’s not that I doubted in my ability to land a job, but to have such a successful run of things made me start to think I was the luckiest teacher around. Being more of realist, I should have known that something was amiss. Before I tell you how badly I messed up, allow me to first explain a bit more about how to figure out international salaries and packages.

It’s true that money can’t buy you love, and perhaps happiness, but it certainly can be the prime motivation for you to be willing to pick up roots and move elsewhere. Money does play a huge part in the decision making process when trying to choose between job offers. However, in the world of international teaching, the salary is just one piece of the pie. There are many other other sweet pieces to consider such as if housing, flights, baggage allowance, visa assistance, tuition for dependents, health insurance, disability insurance, retirement, and taxes are also part of the pie a school is offering. All of these benefits make up the “full package” that should be carefully evaluated as they can add up to quite an excellent quality life.

As you start to make sense of what is being offered, it is important to notice if the offer is written in local currency, or in another standard currency like USD or Euros. Just imagine being told that you are about to be paid more than half a billion a year, but in Indonesian Rupiah? Now before you get too excited, you should take a moment to convert that into your home currency. I like to use the website: https://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/ because it not only allows you to convert back and forth between currencies, it also charts the strength of the currency over the past year (which is incredibly important if you follow the news and understand how missiles being launched, coups being staged, and hurricanes hitting islands can effect your earnings). The goal ought to be to acquire a salary that will remain stable enough during the duration of your contract. This website allows you to track currencies over time and can send you notifications when there are changes. So let’s go back to that thrill when you read that you could be receiving a near billion dollar payout – by using XE.com, you will now see that being an almost billionaire in Indonesia only equates to $38,830.72 USD, a little bit less impressive, right? But hold up, there is more to consider.

The next step to take is to go to the website: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/ which will help you determine the real value of your salary based on the cost of living in the host country. I typically look at the top of the page “Summary of cost of living” to find “A single person estimated monthly costs.” This helps me decide if I will be able to live within my means (something I struggle with living in California on a teacher’s salary). More importantly, this number lets me know if I will be able to save some money to travel, to pay off debts, or to retire. Numbeo also provides a summary for “A family of four estimated costs” in case you are traveling with others. These numbers, along with the sampling of other expenses like restaurants, markets, transportation, utilities, sports and leisure, childcare, clothing and shoes, rent per month, buy apartment price, and salaries and financing, can all help you discover how expensive or affordable a city truly is.

To give some further context, many of the schools I have interviewed with pay less than $40,000 USD. If you are coming from America where the average salary for a first-year teacher is $46,590 per year, you might be wondering why anyone would want to teach abroad. But then you see listed on Numbeo that a single person’s estimated monthly costs without rent are only about $500 USD and you realize most schools offer housing as part as their “pie.” Suddenly, you ought to start seeing cash signs rising before your eyes because that is a fabulous savings potential. I certainly am not able to save nearly $3,000 USD per month stateside.

Have I convinced you yet to try teaching abroad? Hopefully you are at least starting to imagine all the big bucks you could earn if you wanted to give international teaching a whirl.

However, I wouldn’t be doing my due diligence if I didn’t share how badly I blundered so that you don’t have to make the same mistakes. My mistakes were due to my not realizing that leaving my cherished child in the states to continue his university education would also mean that for the first time in two decades of international teaching, I would have big bills to pay still in America. This had never been the case before because my son always traveled with me and was always well cared for by international schools in terms of flights, tuition, and medical insurance. If only I could find an international school that would cover a California university education!

So basically, I neglected to factor in what I would need to pay for tuition/room/board and alternative health care (since he won’t be covered by any international contract). Unfortunately, I also have some credit card debt that doesn’t seem to want to go away no matter how often I pretend its not there. All of these factors make my chances of being able to accept the offers I am receiving currently impossible unless I am willing to go into debt further. Having high monthly financial obligations in America makes it unwise for me to accept offers, no matter how beautiful the location is or how great the opportunity is to teach your favorite class, Cultural Anthropology.

Therefore, I urge you to take stock of your financial situation in your home country before you try to bounce to a foreign land. Once you determine your financial obligations, then you will have a better understanding if the salaries and overall school packages are lucrative enough for your to realize all of your dreams. As for me, I have had to spend some painfully sad moments writing to schools I adore, to let them know that I won’t be able to accept their kind offers. Instead I have to focus my attention on finding other schools that will provide me some of the financial freedom that so many of us are desperate for these days. Until then, I will have to continue seeking financial liberation living in my van while working in Silicon Valley – living the dream.