Many of us think that working as a teacher at an an international school is a way to work and save way more money than we used to working in our home countries.

Is that reality or fantasy?

We have seen and read many discussion boards, Facebook groups, review websites and published books all discussing this topic, and the reality of this savings potential gets confusing and complicated to understand or predict fully.

Some people state they are saving upwards of USD 60000 a year at certain international schools. Many other people are stating that they are struggling to save USD 1000 or even USD 500 a month working at their international school. Even others state that they are saving USD 0!

Of course, there are many factors at play: Veteran international school teachers state that the more you limit the number of times you go out to eat, and travel during your many vacations, the possibility of saving money is higher. That is obvious, but a large number of us aren’t always willing to do that, at least not in the first few years of teaching abroad.

Another main factor for savings potential is the amount of money you are getting in your take-home salary versus the cost of living where you are stationed. Seems like the trend is that fewer schools offer that “amazing salary and benefits package” that we all hear about, and landing a job at one of those schools is getting increasingly difficult.

There are also many, many other ways to NOT save money while working abroad; many of these factors have nothing directly to do with the school’s salary and benefits package. We have a whole ISC blog series about that here.

But if one of the main goals of teaching abroad is saving some money, then we need something to help us figure out how it all works and how we can set up an opportunity that will help us actually save.

ISC has done its best to create an online community that can help us figure things out easier about saving money while teaching abroad. Besides the comments that members submit about the savings potential on the school profile pages at their international schools, premium members are also able to compare these comments on savings potential using our unique Compare Schools page on our website. The Compare Schools page is really helping prospective teachers figure out exactly how much teachers are saving at those international schools and which school they would prefer working at in the future.

Luckily, International School Community has a comment topic on our school profile pages related to this topic of saving money while working at international schools. Our teacher members shared what their experience has been working at various international schools around the world. There are a total of 981 comments (July 2024) that have been submitted by our veteran international school teachers in one of the 66 comment topics called – “Average amount of money that is left to be saved.”

Here are a few of those submitted comments:

“A single person could save half of their salary, and a couple with kids could save a full salary. There are several families living on one salary…” –
Korea International School (Jeju) (Jeju-do, South Korea) – 36 Total Comments

“Most teachers can save 70-80% of their salaries. Huge savings. It is not expensive to live in Mandalay. Eating out is very cheap. Families can save a lot compared to other Asian countries…” –
Ayeyarwaddy International School (Mandalay, Myanmar) – 69 Total Comments

“Saving potentials are great as living in Zengcheng is cheap and the school provide meals during the week…” –
Utahloy International School (Zengcheng) (Zengcheng, China) – 156 Total Comments

“I save over 50% of my salary, even after factoring in my 15% car payment. This means my living expenses are around 35%, allowing me to comfortably explore Kuwait, eat out frequently, and enjoy other entertainment…” –
Kuwait Bilingual School 2 (Al-Jahra City, Kuwait) – 40 Total Comments

“I’m able to save 10K AED each month (around USD 2800)…” –
The Arbor School (Dubai, United Arab Emirates) – 29 Total Comments

“The amount on Search Associates is quite accurate. A teaching couple can save around $30,000 a year here…” –
The American School of Kinshasa (Kinshasa, Congo (DRC)) – 188 Total Comments

“As a teaching couple, we save around 25000chf per year and live comfortably…” –
International School of Zug and Luzern (Baar, Switzerland) – 63 Total Comments

“Depending on your lifestyle and habits, you can save a significant amount of money. As a single person who uses the metro to travel, orders in for most dinners (but does not go out to eat often), has an ayi clean weekly, but generally doesn’t have many other large expenses, I can save about 25,000RMB/month…” –
Shen Wai International School (Shenzhen, China) – 70 Total Comments

“I can save 2,000 USD per month and live on the other 1,000 very comfortably in Taiwan…” –
International Bilingual School at Hsinchu Science Park (Hsinchu, Taiwan) – 39 Total Comments

“As a single person who lives fairly frugally during the school year, I save around 60-70% of my pay…” –
British School of Ulaanbaatar (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) – 18 Total Comments

“You can save almost all of your salary. A family of four will do fine here so long as you don’t blow money on expensive restaurants and bars every night. Lagos is expensive, but most necessities are included in the housing package. Everything you will spend money on in Lagos is extra…” –
American International School of Lagos (Lagos, Nigeria) – 73 Total Comments

“Two full time teachers here will be able to save at least 1 full salary while also taking vacations and eating whatever you want in the city…” –
Western Academy of Beijing (Beijing, China) – 194 Total Comments

“A single person can save well. A working couple will be able to live off of 1 wage and save the other. It is a very good position to save money but travelling can be expensive due to the limited direct flights from Tashkent (growing though)…” –
The British School of Tashkent (Tashkent, Uzbekistan) – 30 Total Comments

If you work at an international, log in today and share about the savings potential at your international school!