Exact same thing happened to my wife (she was 19, never convicted,etc) and essentially forgot about it but it came up on an FBI check a few years ago. We thought it was automatically expunged after 10 years but not the case. We paid a lawyer a couple grand and it was officially expunged after a few months. I would highly recommend doing this.

Agree with the OP. This site looks completely outdated (~15 years). I've stopped paying for this site until it gets a proper makeover.

Personally, I would never take this route for these reasons:

-The idea of cutting expenses so drastically that you succumb yourself to McDonald and fast food? Really? That alone should kill you in 12 years. I can easily save 25k/year without this (over 50k/year with my wife) and we live a very comfortable lifestyle
-There is a lot of risk and you aren't diversified (all in housing). What happens if you buy and the housing market collapses? What happens if you can't find someone to rent out your house? You need enough income to be able to pay off the mortgage?
-I'm not so sure you can assume a 4-5% increase in housing
-The headache of managing property (or paying someone else to manage it) isn't worth the return on investment
-Taxes, repair and renovation will eat away of your profits

If you do want the income and shares in the housing market, I would put a portion of your portfolio in REITs (ie. VNQ), you still get a higher dividend return (4-5%) while still "owning" shares in the housing market without having to deal with the headaches above.

I would instead diversify your 20k per year in low cost index funds of stocks and bonds(Vanguard)..12 years later you should have 300-400k. Keep it for another 10-12 years and you should have 1 million. Done. This helps reduce your risk and diversify your portfolio.

To answer the OP's original question, the only two that come to mind are Morocco and South Africa. AISJ in Joburg gives you a contract in USD and the Rand has devalued 35% over the last year. Prices were already very cheap to begin with but now, you are looking at a nice 2 bedroom house for around $500-700USD, dinner for 2 at an upscale restaurant around $15-20, really nice bottle of wine $3-5, and so on. South Africa produces most of their own produce so it's fresh, delicious and affordable. It really is a hidden gem.

> @psyguy

> I did do research, your diversity studies aggregate multiple subject
> demographics /characteristics. The general body of research support a the
> position that diversity is beneficial to group/team dynamics. thats an
> excellent conclusion to the wrong question. The issue isnt diversity its
> specifically gender diversity, and gender diversity only. There is no
> statistically significant research basis that you can extrapolate the
> general characteristics of multi diversity specifically to gender
> diversity.

Yes there is. You just didn't read the 3rd article in which they stated "This question has been the subject of numerous empirical studies, - and literature reviews (e.g. Baugh and Graen 1997; Bowers et al. 2000; Chatman and O?Reilly 2004; Ely and Thomas 2001; Jackson et al. 2003; Joshi and Roh 2009; Mannix and Neale 2005; Myaskovsky et al. 2005; Pelled 1996; Stewart 2006; Webber and Donahue 2001). Overall, existing research suggests that gender diversity can have a positive effect on group process, while its effect on performance is fairly equivocal and dependent to some degree upon the context of the work."

Let's read the key words psyguy, "numerous" and "meta - ". Seems pretty comprehensive. Again, you argued that gender doesn't have an effect. Where's your evidence? *crickets*

You citation clearly indicates that diversity is a
> multidimensional factor, not that the singular factor of gender is
> significant. While you provided a nice collection of research articles they
> dont support your claim. Your first article in your collection is a
> literature review, its not an empirical study.

The literature review (based on actual empirical studies) does not support your first claim that diversity doesn't affect team productivity. Again, you go on the offensive without any data to support your arguments. Show me a single empirical article that supports your claim that homogenous grouping improves productivity? *crickets*

They study aggregates data
> that woman increase collaboration, it states nothing about added benefits
> of men on homogenous womens teams. It specially addresses collaboration.
> Collaboration is not efficacy, efficiency, or productivity.

Yes, yes that's exactly the point of collaboration; to improve efficacy, efficiency and productivity. Synergy is just that, the sum of the total is greater than the sum of the parts.

This theme is
> just repeated through out the article, with either insignificant finding or
> trivial differences. Its not empirical research, it adds nothing to the
> prevailing body of knowledge and doesnt support the claim that adding males
> to group dynamics improves anything.
> Your third citation is again nothing more than a literature review (this is
> not empirical research), on page 13 of the article in summary of gender
> differences. None of the conclusions summarized indicate that females
> improve efficiency, efficacy, or productivity in group dynamics. none of
> their conclusions support the claim that add value by improving or
> increasing group outcomes.

I already shown you exactly in the article where is shows the opposite. Again where is your counter evidence?

It is nothing more then a list of
> characteristics that define communication styles differences between
> genders.
>
> Differences do not equate to "better".
>
> No Asia does not account for all of ISs, they do account for a far greater
> number than other regions. Your research was focused on western cultures,
> which is not representative of Asian cultures, which account for a
> significantly large number of ISs within IE.

And where do you think all the parents of the international schools are from? All mine had over 70% from Europe and North America. I am referring to top international schools where many from Europe and North America. Perhaps you haven't worked at any top international schools so you are basing your judgement from local tier 3 schools in Asia...

>
> No thats not evidence, thats a claim, and its not a self authenticating
> claim. You dont know their recruiters, and assuming they are, is a self
> serving and disingenuous claim. As i stated recruiters talk and say a lot
> of things that arent supported by evidence. No you wouldnt find evidence on
> SAs database to support that claim. Various equity in labor laws would
> strongly prohibit an IS from advertising a vacancy specially to a gender.
> The exception is when you see such advertisements in regions like the
> Kingdom and other ME regions or in ISs that only employ specific genders
> for their single gender ISs.
>
> We agree it is an issue of supply and demand, there is no demand for male
> primary ITs which is why the supply of them is so low.

There is a huge demand for them as I have already argued. You don't work in Elementary (thank god) so clearly don't understand this.

> I dont find that claim to be true, there has been little variation in the
> demand for male primary educators. Recruiters are no more engaged is
> specifically recruiting male primary ITs, and there is no evidence that
> their low numbers has increased demand or increases their marketability.
> Basing a hiring decision on a protected class like gender such as hireling
> a male IT or a female IT based solely on that factor, would be illegal in
> many regional jurisdictions.
>

I may as well pick apart your other argument as well. So even though 2 recruiters have already said in this thread that they actually do specifically recruit male ES ITs, that doesn't count as evidence? I know many admin well and they tell me that they do specifically recruit male ES teachers. That doesn't count as evidence either? I suppose if I had access to the Search database, I could give you statistics of this. It's simple economics of supply and demand. To your other point about legality, outside of the US, unfortunately this happens a lot. Schools have quotas and numbers to fill and people are discriminated for number of dependents, age, culture as well. It's not fair but it happens.

@psyguy

Too easy. This topic has been extensively studied but didn't expect you to do any research before you speak. Here you go " High-performing collaborative research teams consist of diverse members who are committed to common outcomes"

"Diversity is a multidimensional factor (Uriarte et al. 2007) that includes not only gender, ethnicity, religious beliefs, career stage, personality, socioeconomic class, life experiences, viewpoints, and skills, but also how people represent and solve problems (ie identity and functional diversity; Hong and
Page 2004). http://www.esajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1890/130001

More here on the specific effects of gender: http://www.researchgate.net/publication ... erformance

and another "Gender is among the characteristics associated with diversity and is known to influence team behaviours (Barrett & Lally 1999)." from here: http://www.conta.uom.gr/conta/publicati ... 0Teams.pdf

So now it's over to you to actually come up with peer-reviewed research to support your point that it doesn't have any effect. It's clear to many on this forum that you just spew out what ever random thoughts you have without having done any sort of academic research (or experience) on the subject and then quickly go into "challenge mode" and ask others to support their claims with research without having done so yourself.

So Asia only counts for international schools now? I see how you side-stepped my point and said "yeah but it doesn't occur over there.." Since I actually gave you research to show you that men do play a shared-role in parenting, why don't you show me some actual research to support your point that it doesn't happen in Asia?

@psyguy

"Male primary ITs are perceived as less nurturing. In many of these cultures thats exactly what the family dynamic is. Fathers work and provide for the family and mothers take care of the family. It doesnt matter if its sexist, its true."

It was true.... in 1973 but let me bring you into the 21st century. Fathers and Mothers both work now. Both play a shared role in taking care of the family. More often, we have stay at home dads taking care of the family. Here's an example in Sweden: http://www.buzzfeed.com/lynzybilling/th ... .jtXxrrNBZ

Since I know you'll say "yeah, but that's Sweden.." let's look at some actual statistics. Now, there were over 2 million stay at home dads in 2012 (16%) in the US. http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/06/ ... -the-kids/

Those are just stay at home dads. Many fathers play an active role in parenthood (I could quote numerous other stats from parenting books) so your point that "fathers work and provide for the family and mothers take care of the family" is simply untrue.

Your other point of "I dont see how a Y chromosome increases team productivity especially in an environment that is largely under the direction of an individual IT. " shows you clearly don't understand team dynamics or how teams operate. Teams don't operate in a top down fashion (at least not in ES), they are a shared collaborative dynamic entity that require diversity. Gender is something that adds to this.

I'm not sure what programs you are talking about as incentives. I do know that admin do want higher numbers of male teachers in ES and they are in high demand (simply because the supply is low) and will more likely than not, add a male teacher to a team given all other things equal. When I talk about balance, they will never be balanced gender-wise but my point is that they will try and add at least one male ES teacher to a grade level team if possible.

@psyguy "I wouldnt disagree with your characterization of primary. What I dont see is IE and recruiters looking for male primary ITs. They are okay with one in upper primary and mainly year 5 and year 6, but I dont see recruiters getting excited over a male year 1 IT or anything even close. Parents (moms) still want those maternal female ITs with their little ones in the classroom."

So male teachers can't be nurturing? Pretty sexist comment psyguy. It's pretty obvious you don't have any experience in ES. As a male elementary teacher in many top international schools, I would totally disagree with you on both points. Firstly, I can tell you that admin do go out of their way to look for ES male teachers (many of my admin friends have told me this and I have gone through many recruiting fairs). They always want a healthy balance (although always lopsided towards females) and ideally, one male per grade. A good male ES teachers are always high in demand. Good functioning teams need diversity to succeed and gender is one of those that adds to it.

Secondly, I would argue that many parents (moms as you say), do want their kids to have at least one male teacher through their ES journey. They tell me how great it is for their kids to have male role models at an early age. I've had countless parents tell me how great it was for their son/daughter to be in my class and have a male teacher.

Our school's salary is fixed in USD and actually with the devaluing of the local currency, we are making about 25% more over the last year with any local expenses.

Psyguy is incorrect

I have worked at 3 different Tier 1 schools that award based on credits (called bands). Those are BA, BA+15, MA, MA+15, MA+30, MA+60 (PhD). Each band gives a significant bump in salary in addition to years experience.

I think you are competitive and it might not be you, it could be the timing. It is May right now and you are well past the competitive window for applying to schools (Oct-Feb) and it could be that most schools are already done their hiring for the next academic year.

Job 1-Feb/March? Can't remember...so long ago. (fair)
Job 2-Feb (fair)
Job 3-Jan (fair)
Job 4-Dec-Skype/direct contact w/ school
Job 5-Nov-Skype/direct contact w/ school

PsyGuy wrote:
> They likely would not let you volunteer and even if they did at most they
> would let you do is work a teaching assistant, they wont give you a
> classroom or be in a position as teacher of record. As such none of that is
> going to count its just going to be seen as ESOl experience with a hobby.
>
> Well I started because I was running away from a whole bunch of student
> loans (among other things), and having been a JET and did very well at it I
> started out in the ME in the Kingdom, had a HORRIBLE experience and then
> pulled a runner to Thailand just as the November term was starting, was in
> the right place (meaning I was there) I was hired by an IS, then made my
> way back to Japan (Kyoto), then got to work in a lot of different schools
> and regions, first in Asia (Singapore, HK, China, Thailand, Vietnam,
> Myanmar, Taiwan, Malaysia) then WEurope (Italy, Denmark, UK, and several
> others) then went into DoDDS.
>
> I have a bachelors, 3 masters, and a doctorate. I am certified in 5 states
> (plus DoDDS) have 32 independent educator certifications (29 teacher, plus
> librarian, diagnostician, and administrator) a PGCE w/QTS (I got my QTS
> before I got my PGCE) in the UK, am licensed/registered in Canada, my
> ??????? (special teacher license) in Japan and have an IBO Advance
> Certificate in Teaching and Learning Research.

So by my calculations you have been working for a minimum of 24 years overseas (with 2 years at each school which isn't a good sign) or you have been fired/breaking a lot of contracts along the way...

American International School of Johannesburg
International School of Tanganyika