This just came up talking about passive income with an English speaker who wanted me to lay out the specifics of how they could retire 40 years early:
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Take a $9000, 40-hour-per-week in-person ESL job.
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Live on $1000 very comfortably abroad, invest the other $8000 at 5%; index funds are a good option and often outperform 5% returns.
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After one year, you have $96000 invested, returning 4800 indefinitely, $400 USD per month.
That’s enough to live in dozens of countries in a private bedroom with utilities/wifi and afford groceries and data.
- After two years, your return will rise to $9600 per year at 5%, $800 USD per month.
That’s enough passive income to live in most of the world in a private house/condo/apartment with utilities/wifi included with $400 left over for food and entertainment.
If you want to work 20 hours a week instead of 40, it takes 4 years instead of 2, working 10 hours a week takes 8 years.
8 years might sound like a long time, but it’s a lot shorter than 30 or 40 years and you only work 10 hours a week.
You can also blitz 40-hour workweeks 2 months of the year and work 10-hour weeks the rest of the year, there’s a lot of customization to be had.
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Nope, all you need is to speak English to start teaching, although a TEFL certificate maximizes pay quickly.
Teaching English is perfectly legal, an English teacher is like any other language teacher.
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I understand this information is surprising, it’s why I post it, but there is nothing sketchy about teaching English. You are not accurately representing your former comments and your assertions about ESL teaching requirements and pay are incorrect.
The linked jobs and pay scales are accurate and it is very possible to earn $52 an hour with a TEFL certificate in China.
ESL jobs in China are paying 400 RMB per hour.
400 RMB = ~$57 USD
$57 x 40 hours = 2280
$2280 x 4 weeks = 9120
$9120 x 12 months = $109440
Not commenting on the data, just the math-
The number is actually higher if you do a direct conversion to weeks (52) instead of the 4 weeks x 12 months like you’re doing now. 😜
Foooo sho, thanks. As time has gone on, I tend to underestimate benefits and overestimate hurdles when introducing travel concepts; I’m always playing defense against general travel skepticism.
I wager that If I used 52 weeks there would be a lot of weekends/holiday talk and since I didn’t account for those, travel itself must be impossible!
Like $56 is good pay, but I and many teachers were paid significantly more than that. Very few index funds return as low as 5%, those job listings are from posh schools with high requirements, but I think erring on the side of realistic humility serves the positive message as much as possible while staying accurate.
I promise that much of the time I have like sixteen other things rattling around my skull that I am struggling to reign in, haha
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This is accurate, sourced, publicly available information that has helped people already and I hope can help more people.
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The numbers are the numbers.
There are over 1.5 billion English language students and 250,000 available ESL teachers, so there are at least 6,000 students per available teacher.
ESL jobs pay a premium, and if you check those posts, offer many additional benefits like free flights, provided curriculum, salaries paid weekly, holiday breaks.
At least 6000 students for every willing ESL teacher means a huge demand and consequently, high pay and benefits.
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