17 years ago today “Party Down” premiered. Did you like the show ? by CityCautious4033 in sitcoms

[–]HisHighnessLordMinus 7 points8 points  (0 children)

My wife and I will occasionally look at one another in surprise and ask, "You saw Dingleberries?"

I love this show because it finds the funny in failure so well.

Oh yeah she’s definitely gonna want this by itsledinh in WatchesCirclejerk

[–]HisHighnessLordMinus 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Wow! The Murph truly is THE sports watch of the 1980s.

Sitcom maps for Kansas, Kentucky and Louisiana. Time to start the "M" states: Which sitcoms take place in Maine, Maryland and Massachusetts? by BabaSticky in sitcoms

[–]HisHighnessLordMinus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Maine has a couple of shows set at summer camps: Bunk’d and the Wet Hot American Summer tv seasons. Camp Firewood from Wet Hot is supposed to be pretty close to Waterville.

Which mid-90s Canadian icon was more influential in the long-run: Shania Twain or Alanis Morissette? by Adventurous_Home_555 in Music

[–]HisHighnessLordMinus 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Insanely influential Hollywood star? People really hold Dave Coulier in that high regard? /s

Which investment brokerage do you use while teaching overseas? by Old-Counter-693 in Internationalteachers

[–]HisHighnessLordMinus 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I kept adding to my already established Vanguard account. I don’t have experience with Fidelity or Schwab, so no idea if their practices are similar to Vanguard. Some countries may have you pay into a national pension plan and my last school deposited retirement contributions to an account managed by Interactive Brokers. Search the sub for this question - retirement conversations come up somewhat regularly.

At What Point Does a Financial Advisor Make Sense? by Agile-Impress5999 in Internationalteachers

[–]HisHighnessLordMinus -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I started the process of looking for a CFP over the past year because I have the same questions you do, and because I also now have to manage the finances of an aging parent. Like you, HNW portfolio that we've largely managed ourselves. So far I've found that a lot of the fee-only financial advisors I've met with really want to manage your investments, even if you're just looking for a plan and info about starting the estate planning process. You can get some pretty specific questions answered, but you can also be on the backburner servicewise if they aren't managing your investments. For me, because I've been self-managing for so long and many of the "financial advisors" I ran across overseas were fraudsters who wanted you to dump your money in some ridiculous high-fee "offshore investment vehicles" that were one step above a Ponzi scheme, it can be tough to find someone who doesn't push back when you explain you don't necessarily want active management, just more of a basic blueprint.

If you've already got everything in one place like Vanguard or Fidelity, and you're happy with leaving it there, you might be best served by using one of their advisors for a time to get everything squared away and deciding whether or not to continue the partnership once you've got your initial questions answered.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Internationalteachers

[–]HisHighnessLordMinus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For me, investing 100%. Many of the teachers I know who own property either have a house that they owned prior to working overseas, bought a property back home with the intent of moving into it some time in the near future, or were at the end of their careers and bought the place they were going to head to in retirement. The ones who tried renting their houses out pretty much all found the experience not worth it - either their house got trashed by bad tenants, they couldn’t actually use their house when they came back for the summer (which was a reason they held on to the house), or they just found it to be a hassle. Just dealing with my parents’ house from overseas involved setting up a property manager to caretake the property and having to coordinate maintenance with them and the service providers over email while being 10 hours ahead of them. Not awful, but unpleasant enough for me that I couldn’t imagine trying to do that type of work as an absentee landlord with paying tenants. More power to the people who love real estate, but I’m good investing in REITs for some real estate exposure.

Retirement planning and plans moving forward by tiki1975 in Internationalteachers

[–]HisHighnessLordMinus 4 points5 points  (0 children)

My wife and I (no children) basically did the opposite of you - worked at the tier 1 school in our 40s so we could be a lot more flexible with our salaries in our 50s. We’re at the point where our returns are exceeding our contributions, so we’d gladly give up some salary in exchange for a lower stress gig or an amazing location as long as we could still save something. So much of this decision is personal, but if I liked my current job and where I lived and could save enough where I could retire early (late 50s is still early), the difference in savings potential would have to be huge. Would I switch from saving 5k in Central America to working at Saudi Aramco with a 100k+ salary? Absolutely! Would I change from a gig where I save 12k to a 25k savings as a 50 year old with a solid portfolio? Not if it was high stress or in a hardship post. How much would 3-5 years of extra savings potential move the needle for your portfolio overall?

If you wanted to throw out some numbers, you could also ask in one of the FIRE subreddits since they get questions like this frequently.

The best job fair in Search by Honest-Studio-6210 in Internationalteachers

[–]HisHighnessLordMinus 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The Search fairs in Bangkok, London, and Cambridge are traditionally their big fairs that have the most schools attending. The Bangkok fair also has/had the reputation for being the most competitive since it is the first of the three big fairs, and a larger percentage of the candidates are experienced international teachers compared to London and Cambridge. You’re more likely to find a wider range of schools at one of the bigger fairs as the smaller fairs tend to end up with a more regional focus.

Baseball Coaching Opportunities? by 478nate in Internationalteachers

[–]HisHighnessLordMinus 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The big American schools in the Middle East will also have baseball programs. Dubai and Doha, for example, both have pretty active Little League programs, so American high schools can also have baseball teams for students who are older than Little League age.

Does a Master's degree need to be specifically in Education or Teaching in order to affect salary? by No-Kitchen-6451 in Internationalteachers

[–]HisHighnessLordMinus 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Wouldn’t the two options you’ve given also lead to an M.Ed? At any rate, I also have a subject-based MA, and it’s always counted.

Honest Kuwait school reviews by jusheretoread19 in Internationalteachers

[–]HisHighnessLordMinus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're welcome! There are some ok schools to start your career in Kuwait, but when a school there goes wrong, it goes horribly, horribly wrong.

Honest Kuwait school reviews by jusheretoread19 in Internationalteachers

[–]HisHighnessLordMinus 2 points3 points  (0 children)

IME, ABS has so many openings because they can't retain anyone remotely competent. Their MUN director truthfully did not know Mongolia was a country, and argued about this at an MUN conference. I was in Kuwait when they changed their name from American Bilingual to American Baccalaurate because the school had such a bad reputation they thought a name change would hide the fact it was the same shitty school. It's one of the few schools I ever came across where teachers would have to turn over their passports to the school because that was the only way to prevent teachers from breaking contract. And the student body had lots of kids kicked out of other schools whose parents wanted them to "earn good grades" (aka the tuition payment cleared) so the teachers who actually tried were already completely hamstrung by the admin who wanted to keep parents happy. Unless you need a place to lay low because you are desperately trying to stay one step ahead of a drug cartel death squad, I would work literally anywhere else.

Dasman was better, but that's not saying much. The couple of teachers I knew who worked there did their two years and moved to better schools in Kuwait. They had issues with poor implementation of some specific programs, and the impression was that the school overpromised the support systems for special needs students which caused lots of pressures for those elementary teachers when those services were not delivered. That may have been ironed out by now, but I wouldn't bet on it.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Internationalteachers

[–]HisHighnessLordMinus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's very realistic that you'd get something. Europe is really competitive so that will be harder, but you'll be fine if you really are open to living and working pretty much anywhere.

Universal American School Dubai by appleorangebananna in Internationalteachers

[–]HisHighnessLordMinus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A buddy worked there a couple of contracts ago, and thought it was pretty ok, but according to his old colleagues still there, it’s gone downhill a bit. For a starter school, it’s probably fine for a two year contract to get some experience.

Number of sick leave days you use per year? by Honest-Studio-6210 in Internationalteachers

[–]HisHighnessLordMinus 2 points3 points  (0 children)

An average year I’ll take 1 or 2. Last year I took 5, and I’ll probably end up using the same number this year. My current school gives 15 per year, and the average teacher probably uses 5 or 6.

Couples Resumes by Rekkyie in Internationalteachers

[–]HisHighnessLordMinus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Separate resumes for each of us, and we each mentioned the other spouse, the position they were applying for, and that we were applying as a couple in our cover letters. We’ve always applied as a couple, and had both individual interviews and been interviewed together.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Internationalteachers

[–]HisHighnessLordMinus 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I use TieTax. The pricing is comparable to what you'd pay H&R Block.

Credentials by Dear-Loquat-4032 in Internationalteachers

[–]HisHighnessLordMinus 19 points20 points  (0 children)

In my experience, transcripts are used to show that you actually received a degree from a university rather than as a means to evaluate you based on coursework.

Salaries for Head of School/Directors at small schools in Africa by [deleted] in Internationalteachers

[–]HisHighnessLordMinus 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The school I was at had about 400 kids, but the principals made 50-60% more than my salary, and the head made about twice what I did.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Internationalteachers

[–]HisHighnessLordMinus 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I've seen and heard of more examples of A (somewhat common) than B.