Living and working overseas has provided significantly more economic stability to our family than working in our home countries. The cost is that our family has to travel about 25-30 hours and spend about $10K USD on flights every time we want to visit family and friends in our home countries. While our school does cover some of this, by the time we add the flights, the rental car, potential accommodations and general travel expenses for summer months, it really starts to add up.
As a result, even though we are in a great region and at an excellent school that we and are children our happy at, we have wondered about moving closer to home due to this long and expensive annual travel home. If we did move closer to home, this definitely would mean less pay as the schools in these general regions do not cover housing etc.
Has anyone been in a similar situation, and did you decide to stay in the good economic conditions, or move closer to home and give up some of the economic benefits?
Economic Stability v/s Closer to Home
Response
Overseas. Holiday for about 1 month a year involving actual travel, whereas living and working for the other 11 months. Why go through all the woes and work for 11 months just to make the 1 month of holiday easier and less coin
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Heliotrope
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Re: Economic Stability v/s Closer to Home
@PsyGuy
I assume they mean to be 'overseas' in both scenarios, with 'closer to home' likely meaning a country that is a shorter (and cheaper) flight to their home country.
But @zenteach, please correct me if I'm wrong - it's not 100% clear from your post, although you would have probably written 'back home' instead of 'closer to home' if you meant to move back to your home country. I could be mistaken though. Either way, I would just calculate in which location you would ultimately save more.
I imagine that moving closer to home would would cause you to lose out on more in savings potential than that 10K in travel expenses. Plus you would still spend money on travelling home even if you would move closer, and cost of living might be higher along with the lower salary.
Long flights are indeed a hassle (I know from experience), but it's only once a year (plus return). Also, being in a great region and at an excellent school that you and your children are happy at makes you very, very fortunate, in addition to the economic stability you mentioned. I would count my blessings if I were you, and just accept the hassle of long annual flights. Maybe look into using HomeExchange(.com) to cut down on costs - some homes even include the use of the owner's car.
I assume they mean to be 'overseas' in both scenarios, with 'closer to home' likely meaning a country that is a shorter (and cheaper) flight to their home country.
But @zenteach, please correct me if I'm wrong - it's not 100% clear from your post, although you would have probably written 'back home' instead of 'closer to home' if you meant to move back to your home country. I could be mistaken though. Either way, I would just calculate in which location you would ultimately save more.
I imagine that moving closer to home would would cause you to lose out on more in savings potential than that 10K in travel expenses. Plus you would still spend money on travelling home even if you would move closer, and cost of living might be higher along with the lower salary.
Long flights are indeed a hassle (I know from experience), but it's only once a year (plus return). Also, being in a great region and at an excellent school that you and your children are happy at makes you very, very fortunate, in addition to the economic stability you mentioned. I would count my blessings if I were you, and just accept the hassle of long annual flights. Maybe look into using HomeExchange(.com) to cut down on costs - some homes even include the use of the owner's car.