![\"8593533521_f6c29c0913_z\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/8593533521_f6c29c0913_z.jpg?resize=640%2C450\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nTip #1 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Work at a school that allows you to save at least $18,000 USD as a single or at least $25,000 USD a year as a couple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you can\u2019t save at least this amount, and you\u2019re not just \u201cexperiencing\u201d international teaching for a year or two, then go home or find another school. Otherwise, you might be eating dog food when you retire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At private international schools abroad, you often won\u2019t be contributing to Social Security (for Americans) or its foreign equivalents. Nor are you always contributing to a defined benefit pension plan, offering guaranteed income for life. Don\u2019t glibly suggest that Social Security or your home country equivalent won\u2019t be around when you retire. In one form or another, it will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No, you don\u2019t need to work at a top-tier school to save these amounts. Meet Andreas Clesle<\/a>. He saves $20,000 a year teaching in Myanmar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tip #2<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Work at a school that doesn\u2019t FORCE YOU to invest in an offshore pension. How can you tell?\u00a0\u00a0Ask this one question: Can I pull my money out at any time, without penalty? If the answer is no, find another school. These are usually expensive, inflexible products. They cost so much in hidden fees that the only person they make rich is the joker who\u2019s selling the product. Unfortunately, many international school administrators haven\u2019t caught on to the racket. When their recruitment pools start drying up, perhaps they\u2019ll start asking why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tip #3 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Pay off your student loans, car loans, and credit card debts before investing. Then, invest at the beginning of every month. Those who invest while carrying credit card debt are categorically insane. They\u2019re paying interest of 18 percent per year (or more) and expecting to make 9 percent per year in the stock market. \u00a0Enough said.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Tip #4<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Buy low-cost index funds<\/a>. Avoid buying actively managed funds. Active funds are pricey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Alexander Beard Group<\/a> is a favorite among financially illiterate administrators. The firm sells actively managed funds. But Jeri Hurd, at the Western Academy of Beijing<\/a>, is one of the smart teachers who refused to invest. Including the company\u2019s platform costs and actively managed fees, investors pay more than 3 percent per year. So if global stocks make 6 percent, investors will be giving away 50 percent of their profits to the firm. If global stocks average 3 percent in a given year, investors will give 100 percent of their profits to the firm. If you think bonuses, paid by your school, can offset this leakage, think again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tip #5<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t let anyone convince you to trade currencies. Trading currencies is not investing. It\u2019s speculating. The only person who makes money, long-term, will be the broker or the bank. And they\u2019ll be making their money from you, not for you. Here<\/a>, I describe a woman at my former school. Her bank decided to trade currencies on her behalf. It\u2019s a very foolish move indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tip #6<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Diversify your assets.<\/a> This means buying a variety of low-cost funds (preferably indexes), allowing exposure to a multitude of different markets: your home country stock market, international stocks, and a bond market product for added stability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tip #7<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t base investment decisions on economic outlooks or predictions. Most of them prove to be wrong. The average person listens to forecasts. Often, it\u2019s their broker\u2019s. But consider this. U.S. stocks averaged more than 9 percent per year from 1994-2014. According to Dalbar,<\/a> the average investor in U.S. stocks made about 5 percent a year during the same time period. Why? The biggest culprit is behavior. They listened to their gut and investment speculators.\u00a0\u00a0 Remember what Warren Buffett says: \u201cStock market forecasters exist to make fortune tellers look good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tip #8<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Share your annual savings goal with your friends. Studies show<\/a> that if you want to succeed, write down your goals and track your progress. If you don\u2019t want to save enough for retirement, keep it all to yourself and ignore your expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tip #9<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Write down what you spend each month. By writing down your spending, you\u2019ll simply spend less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tip #10<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember that you aren\u2019t on a holiday. You\u2019re working overseas. And your future is in your<\/em> hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This top 10 list was submitted to us by guest author Andrew Hallam. \u00a0He is the author of The Global Expatriate\u2019s Guide To Investing<\/a>. He\u2019s a columnist for AssetBuilder and for The Globe and Mail. He\u2019s also the author of the international bestseller, Millionaire Teacher<\/a>. He taught at Singapore American School<\/a> from 2003-2014.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Check out the pension plan details of 100s of international schools on the ISC website<\/a>. \u00a0Currently, we have 836<\/strong> comments that have been submitted on the comment topic “Pension plan details<\/strong>” on our school profile pages. Here are just a few of them:<\/p>\n\n\n\n “There are 2 things:\u00a01. 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.\u00a02. 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.” –\u00a0American School Foundation of Monterrey<\/a>\u00a0(Monterrey, Mexico)\u00a0–\u00a0195 Comments<\/p>\n\n\n\n “For certain nationalities, the required contributions for staff members and schools into the Employee Provident fund are locked in until the age of 60, so people leave without this money and have no hope for ever retrieving it.” –\u00a0<\/strong>Kodaikanal International School\u00a0<\/a>(Kodaikanal, India)\u00a0–\u00a053 Comments<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The school provides no pension, but 9% is deducted from the monthly paycheck to pay into IPS, which is sort of like Social Security. If a teacher retires in Paraguay, he or she will receive money through IPS. So for the most part, saving for retirement is in the hands of the foreign hires; they must have the discipline to do it themselves.” –\u00a0American School of Asuncion\u00a0<\/a>(Asuncion, Paraguay)\u00a0–\u00a0149 Comments<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The school has to do a pension plan because of being in Korea. They take money out every month for the pension. I do not know if the school matches it, but that’s what I heard. You also get a severance, which is one month’s salary for every year you worked at the school. They also started a 401k plan with a company, but the school does not match anything you put in.” St. Johnsbury Academy Jeju (SJAJ)<\/a> (Jeju-do, South Korea)\u00a0–\u00a047 Comments<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"5206199427_b32a919a36_z\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/5206199427_b32a919a36_z.jpg?resize=640%2C439\")
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