It’s never too early to think about your retirement plan. As many of you know, we have a wealth of information on the International School Community website. There are now over 55000 reviews and comments submitted on over 1200+ international schools across the globe. We’re certain to reach 60000 by the end of 2026! Several schools have reached the 200-comment milestone (with a few even going over 300 and 400 comments!).
A number of our members are curious about their future, especially if their future is to become a “seasoned international school teacher“. Part of our future is planning for retirement. Many of us have unfortunately stopped contributing to the retirement plans we were paying into before we moved abroad.
In turn, we are now hoping that international schools will help us do the saving. But not all international schools are a great help in this area; the truth is that many have non-existent retirement plan options for their teachers!
There are a few, though, that are leading the way in terms of helping you save something for when you retire. Using our unique Comment Search feature (premium membership access only), we found 354 comments that have the keyword “retirement”. After scouring through these comments, we would like to share nine of them that highlight some schools that appear to have excellent retirement benefits.
1. Seoul Foreign School (Seoul, South Korea)
“SFS is a treasure amongst international schools. It is not spoken of as much as other “top” Asian international schools–this is what keeps it special. This school has allowed me to grow professionally and in my faith, has set me up with a hefty retirement for my future and plush savings for the present. The amount of on-site training, college certificates, and international conferences I have been allotted to participate in has been fully funded by the school. The package retains teachers, and the demand for hard work keeps the professional teachers here for the long haul. It is a living, learning, and growing community with lots of busyness and potential to never become stagnant.”
2. American School Foundation of Monterrey (Monterrey, Mexico)
“There are 2 things:
1. Mexico has a “social security” plan, and you pay into that so you pay in for your years, leave, and you can come back when you are 65 to collect.
2. The school has a 13% matching program that you can collect 1 or 2 times a year, based on your choice. This is the retirement plan, but it is up to you to move the money somewhere.”
3. International School of Kuala Lumpur (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
“We get paid monthly, but receive July’s salary in June also. Salary is paid in RM with up to 40% at a fixed USD rate. Tax is around 21-23 % depending on salary. Average for 8 yrs experience (max entry point) and an advanced degree would be appx 5000 USD after tax and deductions (this includes travel and housing allowance) Additionally, 11% is previously deducted for the retirement fund, with an extra 17% added by the employer. On the same criteria, this would be 1500 USD per month into a retirement plan.”
4. American School in Japan (Tokyo, Japan)
“The school provides a retirement plan and contributes 5.27% of base salary in each of the first two years, 11.57% in year three, and increasing each year up to a maximum of 16.82%. The school does not participate in US or Japanese social security. The retirement age at ASIJ is 65 years old.”
5. Escola Americana do Campinas (Campinas, Brazil)
The retirement plan is an 8% school contribution a month. The school pays 8% of the salary to the local savings plan for the employee.”
6. United Nations International School (Vietnam) (Hanoi, Vietnam)
“Instead of a school-established retirement plan, the school currently reserves an annual salary supplement of fifteen percent (15%) of the annual base salary and disburses the total amount of this annual salary supplement to the expatriate professional staff member upon termination of employment with UNIS. Alternatively, this supplement may be paid to the employee on an annual basis.”
7. Hong Kong Academy (Hong Kong)
“With a reasonable mix of some travel and eating out, it is possible for a single teacher to comfortably save anywhere from 8,000-12,000 US$ per year, not including the 10% +10% of base salary matching retirement plan.”
8. American School of the Hague (The Hague, The Netherlands)
“The school offers a retirement plan that is open to all employees voluntarily. ASH offers two different plans: Nationale Nederlanden (pre-tax) and ECIS. ASH contributes 8% of the pensionable salary to the plan. Participation in the ECIS scheme on a pre-tax basis is only possible if one has vested and contributed regularly at another school before coming to the Netherlands. The teacher may make additional pre-tax pension contributions based on his/her age, ranging between 0.2% and 26% of the pensionable salary for employees. The pensionable salary is the gross annual salary minus about € 12,500 (on a full-time basis).”
9. Seoul International School (Seoul, South Korea)
“I have 14 years of experience and my Master’s. I earn about $1,500 per month in Won (about $400 of that is taken out of my paycheck for a retirement plan, which is matched by the school, which I have access to at the end of the school year), and then another $2,000 in US dollars, which is sent to my US account every month. I pay no taxes. The school takes care of it. I am paid 12 times a year, although we get the summer pay all at once, in May.”
Of course, many more schools have attractive retirement plans for their teachers, but the nine schools we’ve highlighted here sure do seem nice! It all depends on what stage you are at in your career and how old you are, regarding how attractive a retirement plan would be to you. But we suppose that any retirement plan option is better than none at all!
Please share what you know about the retirement plans of the international schools you’ve worked at. Log in to our website today and submit some comments here!
