Why I recommend moving abroad to teach
Sorcha Coyle, Empowering Expat Teachers
Having been an expat teacher for the last 10 years in Qatar and Dubai, I’ve a hundred reasons why I recommend moving abroad to teach, but I believe that this is the most important one. Let me give you a clue… It is something I used to pay religiously every month. I would spend half my teaching salary on it. I felt very helpless and frustrated by it as I saw it as “dead money.” Yes, you’ve guessed it- RENT. The inescapable obligatory bane of all of our lives. When you get your ideal teaching job abroad, you won’t have to use your salary to pay for your rent ever again. Let me repeat that. YOU WON’T HAVE TO USE YOUR SALARY TO PAY FOR YOUR RENT EVER AGAIN.
In all teaching packages abroad, either accommodation or a rental allowance is provided so you do not spend your salary on rent. However, depending on the type of package provided by your school abroad, you can boost your savings! In some teaching packages, your accommodation will be provided free of charge as part of your contract, so you aren’t spending any of your salary. In other teaching packages, you will receive a generous rent allowance. With this, you can decide where to live, how much rent to pay, or if you’d like to have housemates. Most importantly, you can set a rent limit and decide how much of the allowance you’d like to spend on rent and how much you’d like to save. So you’re actually saving even more money!
I was born in 1986 so I am part of the Millennial Generation (aka Generation Y). Many of us (teachers included) are finishing university without secure jobs or a steady income. In 2016, research from the Resolution Foundation found Millennials in the UK earned £8,000 less in their 20s than Generation X (those born between mid-1960s and early 1980s), describing Millennials as “on course to become the first generation to earn less than the one before.” Moving abroad to teach can help us save A LOT MORE and buckle this unfortunate trend.
Psst… Read 5 Factors to Consider when Choosing an Expat School HERE
According to the 2016 Millennials & Money research carried out by Edelman Financial Services Sector, 1 in 2 of us don’t have enough money for day-to-day needs. Our generation is burdened with huge student loans and high rents to pay (2 in 5 of us have debt), which stop us from saving. In fact, 60% of us are unable to save for the long-term, so we are forced to rent long-term rather than buying our own property. If our parents can’t help us out, some of us may never ever own our own homes. Teaching abroad and saving as much as we can may help us save more quickly for a mortgage deposit for our first home.
Thanks to my time as an expat teacher in Qatar and Dubai, I have saved six figures, which I have used to purchase 2 beautiful properties (a 4-bedroomed house in my home country and a 3-bed apartment in Spain), start a profitable investment portfolio, complete my Masters, set up a side business, and travel the world. I have fulfilled these goals solely from my earnings as an expat teacher, so if I can do it, you can too!
Psst… Read 5 Factors to Consider when Choosing an Expat School HERE
Hi, I’m Sorcha! I’ve been an expat teacher in the Gulf for over 10 years now and I run the Empowering Expat Teachers community, whose mission is to empower future and current expat teachers to lead personally, professionally, and financially rewarding lives. I am especially excited about the financial empowerment aspect of expat teaching because it allowed me to save six figures in my first teaching job in Qatar and if I could do it, anyone can! I’m also a Certified Professional Résumé Writer and I am currently completing my level 7 ILM Coaching and Mentoring qualification. If you would like daily CV, cover letter and money tips, follow me on Instagram or Facebook.
In my free time, you can find me either planning my next bucket list trip (Covid permitting, of course) or fighting the urge to Google the ending of a movie I’ve just started watching (I *HATE* suspense)!
A huge thank you to Sorcha for this months Empowering Expat Teachers Series. We’re already looking forward to reading the March edition “How I saved €100,000 in 4 years as a Teacher”. Sorcha is also hosting our upcoming CPD webinar “Teaching in Dubai – 10 Things You Need to Know“.
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