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View Full Version : How To Get Rich Teaching! Part 1


ViciousVocabulary
09-18-2008, 10:24 AM
Here's a story I heard from another teacher about how he made $360,000 tax free his first two years of teaching.

I met this guy on a commercial. He and his wife had amassed a huge sum of money in about two years, but he had to finagle his wife to pull it off. They were both teachers and so he knew he wanted to teach overseas in Saudi Arabia but he knew she wouldn't got for it.

So, the first thing he did was to get her hooked on scuba diving. Then he said, "Honey, you know where the best scuba diving is? It's in the Red Sea." She went for it. They both applied to teach somewhere in Saudi Arabia. They were both paid $85,000 a year--tax free! They both got an extra 10 grand, to stay an extra year so they both made $95,000 for the next year. The entire time they taught there they lived on a compound where they didn't have to pay rent. All they had to worry about was money for food and their scuba habit.

Let's do the math:

$85,000 + $85,000 + $95,000 + $95,000 = $360,000

That's $360,000 in two years tax free! Wow! They spent some of it traveling Europe but the bulk they brought back and bought a home up in the Northwest--cash! This was years ago so homes were still relatively cheap. They got some paltry teaching jobs there but with their home all paid off and still with much of the nest egg saved, they were riding high.

Now, there is a catch. (There always is.) At one point the wife was shopping outside the compound and the religious police got upset at her lack of clothing (think burka) and she was chased back into the compound.

Here's the other catch. This was long before 9-11 so if you were to go now, there would be an extra worry about safety. But still . . . we teachers always worry about low pay and such. Here is a couple of teachers who in the first two years of their teaching career made a bundle.

Anyone else have a great story?

By the way, I'm thinking of heading back to the classroom in the San Bernardino area. If you know of something, let me know. I have two credentials (English and Multiple Subjects) and a Masters.

kmurphey
09-19-2008, 06:13 PM
I'm not sure any amount of money is worth sacrificing the freedom we have in the USA. It looks like this story just bears that out.

merrynl
09-22-2008, 03:53 PM
My husband had the option of transferring to Saudi Arabia for work... he was told that I would be unlikely to find a job and would have to stay at home most of the time for my own safety.

teacher5
09-22-2008, 04:57 PM
The times have changed. The place has changed. The salary has changed. The politics has changed. Probably even the math has changed. Even with the crazy economic crisis last week, I'd rather be in America where at least the polluted air is free.

ViciousVocabulary
09-23-2008, 10:21 PM
Though I appreciate everyone's comments, I think there still might be places to teach in the Middle East where the salary would be comparable. Dubai, for instance. This adventuresome couple made it work. If you are squeamish about it, then it's not for you. There are other places around the world and here in the United States where a teacher could do more than okay, even in this economic crisis. I'll try to post some of those options soon.

Keep in mind, the freedom you enjoy in your town may be completely different than it is for a teacher in a tough neighborhood. I'll give a few examples: I replaced a teacher found dead in the wash of a freeway with stab wounds from school scissors. At Fremont High, in 78, I think, a black teacher was beaten to death by her own students. A teacher took an ice pick in the back at one of the junior highs that fed into our school. Another teacher was bludgeoned. Many teachers aren't physically threatened but, nevertheless, are demoralized. A teacher friend I know came to school one day and found her door had been smeared with excrement. She managed her key through the door only to find porn pictures plastered on her windows, on the outside so she couldn't remove them. The broken blinds only covered so much. The administration said they were too busy to remove them. She figured it was a kid who had a crush on her. He tried to commit suicide at another school yet was mainstreamed into her class. He left a diary on her desk about his fantasies regarding her.

Another teacher in New Mexico was bludgeoned by a kid and put in a coma. The kid was admitted back into the school before she was out of the hospital. So . . . it's not just Los Angeles I'm talking about.

Those are just a few stories. I've got a million. And so do many of you. So . . . think of my story as not a suggestion that you teach in Saudi Arabia; think of it as a suggestion that you look around, here in the States, abroad, where ever your heart leads you. My sister took a teacher job in a small college town in Colorado. She only made $21,000, but real estate was cheap and she bought a great home for $40,000. She had the American dream. There were certainly no discipline problems there.

Keep watching: my next post will be about a couple who made some big dough teaching right here in the good ol' US of A.

Helix
09-26-2008, 04:33 PM
I make $36600 a year starting and bought a 3 bed, 1 bath with a sunroom and mudroom on a 1/4 acre plot for $64600. That's my success story. haha