Everyone always has a shot, but being realistic, I wouldn't say the odds look good for landing a job in a good school for next year.

What is going against you:

1) Your husband needs to get certified as a teacher.
2) Your husband needs experience in a school. A community art center is not the same as a school.
3) You have no extended classroom experience. Early elementary is a saturated field and you've only done two years, each at a different level. Few schools will have a full time position for an elementary curriculum director, especially given that you've probably not worked with the systems in place in most international schools (such as IB PYP).
4) Neither of you has any international teaching experience.
5) You want outside a major city -- most schools are in the big cities because that is where there is a population for the school. You can always live on the outskirts of a city and a lot of schools are on the edges of cities, but you'll still be close to a city.

The 2016-2017 year recruitment is in full swing. Are you signed up with an agency? Do you have your resumes and recommendations in order? There is still hiring to be done, but it takes time to get yourself ready and you've missed the signup deadlines for the major fairs.

Do a little research on Eritrea and you'll see why. The government is horribly repressive and all male citizens are conscripted for life into the military. Its human rights record is considered one of the worst in the world. I don't know how all this would affect an expat teacher...

A lot of international schools in Singapore offer Mandarin.

Another lead might be to look into Pamoja. It is an online company that does IB courses. They offer Mandarin ab initio. I have no clue of their needs, requirements, or hiring practices, but it might be something to look into.

I see two main options:

1) Lower the standard of school you'll apply to. There are many IB schools that will hire people without experience to teach DP. They aren't the top-tier ones, they are usually mostly local students, they aren't in the best locations, etc. QSI is one that will hire people to teach DP without experience, but they only have DP at their schools in Kyiv, Bratislava and Shekou (perhaps other locations in China as well -- my intel is a few years old).

2) Get a job at a school that offers IB and another curriculum. Land the job in the non-IB section and work your way into DP. Same option could work with middle school (6-10). Get hired to teach in the MYP or middle school and prove you can do DP.

Having TOK on your resume will not help with landing a subject-area IB position. It will give your resume a boost, but it really depends on what a school needs. TOK is not enough for a full-time load so you'd be hired for the other position with TOK being a bonus you bring to the table. I would recommend taking the TOK for now and seeing if you can work your way into an IB-DP position in your subject area in the next year or two.

To me the biggest red flag is the fact that you've taught in an IB school, but didn't teach IB classes (I'm assuming the school was only DP and you didn't teach in the DP) and the same for the AP school. If you are a good teacher, you should be able to move into those classes. Perhaps this is where the two years at each school come into play -- if you stayed more than two years, you could get the IB or AP experience, but few schools will put an unknown teacher straight into DP classes with the stakes being so high. There are a lot of social studies applicants most years and many will have the DP experience you're lacking.

There are a few states known for their easier renewal process or their permanent certificates. You'll have to see if you qualify, but here are some you can check out:

1) Montana - only requires 4 credit hours per renewal
2) Missouri - offers a 99 year certificate (but has funky divisions ie: grades 5-9 - the divisions may work for you -- I have a friend who teachers kindergarten who transferred her certificate to MO with no issues)
3) New Jersey - offers a permanent certificate

@spawnboy99

I was saying that you can live and travel on S$6000/month. It all depends on how you live as far as how much you spend. If you live conservatively, don't eat out much (except hawker stalls - eat at those as much as you like!), and limit how much alcohol you drink at home or out, you can easily live on S$3-4K/month. Groceries are expensive, and since Newton is in the downtown area, the grocery stores will be more expensive than if you lived further out of the city area. It is very doable for two people without kids to live in SG for that salary and save, but you won't be saving a ton.

That seems decent. The higher paying schools are in the S$7000/month range, so S$6000 is competitive. This is for teachers however, and I would imagine that management should be higher pay -- but you are at a very small place... You may want to ask if you'll get a 13th month bonus -- most schools give it (it's a SG thing). Yearly flights is a bonus. The only two things I would do more research on is the accommodation. Most schools in Singapore give you a housing allowance and you find your own place. Will the school be choosing for you or are you getting an allowance? Condos in SG run between 2-4k/month depending on your location and size. With only one salary, you won't be able to save much, but you can live on $6000/month in SG very comfortably and you should be able to do some travel as well.

One thing to keep in mind is that you'll need to be certified in whatever state you will be living and teaching in. In the US, each state will have it's own certification. Generally, you can teach on another state's certificate for your first two years, but then you'll need to get it changed over to the state your in. Some states may even allow you to work on your European certification initially. Regardless, you'll eventually have to get the state's certification to work in public schools. Some states will require you to take a specific course (usually in the state's history) to get their certificate, but some may just transfer your certificate over. The usual rule is that the more desperate a state is for teachers, the easier it is to get certified. Unfortunately the low paying states are usually the ones that are desperate.

So, to start, if you know what state you'll be moving to, you need to check out their department of education to see what you need to do to get certified. I know that both Missouri and New Jersey offer certification routes for individuals educated outside of the US, but I do not know the exact requirements. I am sure there are more states out there that do similar things, but it is just a process of searching through their websites to find out. The US is all about local control for education which makes it difficult if you move around between states...

QSI is a good starter school. If you have previous international school experience, you'd probably find it difficult to work for them. There are lots of threads about QSI, so I'd suggest combing through those to see what has been said. There are many pros and many cons for the organization.

Just to clarify for everyone, you will get tax residency when you arrive -- even for your first year. If you look at the IRAS site, you'll see that tax residency is 183 days BUT it can be "at least 183 days for a continuous period over two years" and you will be considered a "resident for both years". This is taken directly from the IRAS website. As a teacher, you'll reach that within your first teaching contract, and so will be counted as a tax resident for your initial and subsequent years. So, the link I posted earlier will work to figure out your tax residency and you don't need to use the non-resident tax rate.

To get an actual idea on taxes in Singapore, you can use this tax calculator from the government: http://www.iras.gov.sg/irashome/taxcalculators.aspx. Expat teachers are tax residents. Housing allowance provided by the school is taxed, so include that in your calculation. As others have said, S$1700 is not enough to get a decent apartment. Most places run closer to S$3000. I think the savings potential is higher than S$7000 for the year, but I don't think you'd hit the S$3000/month mark. Of course, with all things, it does depend on how you live...

FYI - the "better" schools in Singapore pay roughly S$7000/month, include a thirteenth month bonus (it's a Singaporean thing) and provide housing allowances in the $2500-3000/range.

Thanks everyone for your feedback. My husband and I are on track to hit our retirement savings goal, but most of our IT friends probably aren't! I always figured we were saving excessively, but it sounds like we are lucky to be doing enough. From my math, the $15,000/year represents a couple's saving needs in order to hit the $2 million mark for a comfortable retirement. Are others suggesting a couple should save $30,000/year? I guess this is my big question. We are lucky to be able to save about $55,000/year in our current positions, but in our first seven years of teaching we only put away between $10,000-15,000/year.

So people have been talking about savings for retirement. I have been a bit surprised by what some posters have said is the bare minimum needed to retire comfortably. One post said the bare minimum was $15,000. I wanted to survey everyone to see what others think.

Is this $15,000 per person or for a teaching couple? At what age are people starting to save? What is the final amount people are aiming to have at retirement? Just curious what other ITs feel is safe. I know everyone has different ideas about what is comfortable, what age they want to retire at, etc. but I'm curious how other ITs are planning for retirement.