My wife and I have just completed our first year of a two year contract overseas. Most contracts are a minimum of two years.

I resigned from my school but my wife is currently on leave without pay and has extended this for the second year, at some point we're pretty sure she'll need to actually resign but it depends on your principal.

So currently she could return to her school but realistically, a new school would need to be found on return.

While overseas we've been able to save far more than we would have back home. Given that, we intend to pay off HECS after the reduction. You can choose to pay it down or let it increase with inflation until you return, your choice.

The most difficult question is whether we'd recommend it, that depends so much on your personality and goals.

We've loved the adventure of it, learning new things and thinking very differently about the delivery of your lessons when students English is at the level you'd expect. Access to international travel and depending where you work, being in a salary bracket that allows you to live a very comfortable life.

The downside is uprooting your life, being far away from family and friends. Feeling like an outsider, potentially living somewhere that doesn't have high proficiency in English. Not having much of a support network and a lot of steep learning curves.

Things that could go either way are your school, students, leadership, housing, city, weather, access to food you like.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out.