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JLR wrote:I don't hate Japan but I don't love it either. Probably does not help that I am not attracted to Asian women. (not opposed to fucking them though).
I don't know how much it would hurt your career since I'm don't know anything about the international school scene but just because you sign a two year contract doesn't mean you have to stay two years. You aren't a slave. You could do one more year and leave if you wanted.
I'm kind of with you on Japanese women. I wouldn't say I'm not attracted to them but I don't know what the big deal is. Being an ass man doesn't help either.
International school teachers salaries are great* and the schools are usually private, well organised with good kids who are willing to learn. Beats teaching in a failing government system back home with poor wages, poor conditions and kids who don't give a shit.
So, back to your question. If you haven't decided where next you would like to go, just hang out here shag yourself silly while you can earn the big bucks, pay off your loans, invest in some property or shares and get your life in order while you travel the world. That is if you are enjoying the teaching side of it still.
As I said I feel weird as I see that most gaijin either LOVE it here or hate it with a passion. I don't like the food or women here but I like the cleanness and convenience. Everything else I don't have a strong opinion either way.
JLR wrote:Yup! That's why I left the USA after 2 years teaching in a poor, inner city district where the parents and students did not give a shit and my job was tied to the state test scores (thanks No Child Left Behind and President Bush! ). My school here the students are polite and the parents don't make excuses for their kids.
GomiGirl wrote:Don't invest in land here unless you know what you are doing or plan to be here for the long run. Real estate here is odd.
her favorite but actually not toughest jobs were in inner-city schools.
Make sure you have a fun life, get out and about, eat drink and be merry, but also do something smart for your future so that when you are ready to *ahem* settle down (for want of a better term) you have already made a start by paying off loans and starting a savings plan etc. Your future self will thank your present self for being so clever.
This cannot be said enough: unless you plan to live here long term, do not invest in real estate. It will mostly decrease in value over the years.
Samurai_Jerk wrote:I'm kind of with you on Japanese women. I wouldn't say I'm not attracted to them but I don't know what the big deal is. Being an ass man doesn't help either.
Russell wrote:This cannot be said enough: unless you plan to live here long term, do not invest in real estate. It will mostly decrease in value over the years.
chokonen888 wrote:Better to just say don't invest in real estate here until shit hits the fan
chokonen888 wrote:Better to just say don't invest in real estate here until shit hits the fan. I'll either be here long term or be bouncing back and forth between here in LA...but as GG said, better to invest up an investment property in the US while the getting is good cause the inflated to high hell land costs in the city and suburbia here will eventually fall apart. It's inevitable with the declining population and currency situation.
Coligny wrote:Don't know... you have to consider the bank collapse too... a piece of land... it stay yours...
GomiGirl wrote:Talk to a good financial person about the tax benefits available to you while you are living abroad. Be careful about who you work with though as there are lots of cowboys out there who are not licenced and are not looking out for your best interest.
Coligny wrote:Don't know... you have to consider the bank collapse too... a piece of land... it stay yours...
Russell wrote:Yes, that is true, especially if you are young, but at a certain age people want to settle down and have more space for their families. There are already good deals out there, but you have to find them. In any case, do not buy or build new, because prices are too high compared to the quality you get.
Rather, buy a good quality house (like steel-framed or concrete) second-hand. These are more expensive than the cheap trash that abound, but not too much, since the Japanese real-estate market has this peculiar characteristic that age discounts more than quality counts. There are relatively few buyers in the somewhat higher price segment of small/middle-sized-company-shachou-class houses, which tend to be better quality and come with more land. The higher property taxes also make this type of house unattractive to the average buyer, so expect bigger discounts in prices than in the lower regions. These houses tend to be cheaper than newly built smaller houses of lower quality with less land, and they are much less affected by age (I am talking 10 to 15 years old here).
Anyway, I am not American and do not plan to live long-term in the USA, so even the current cheap prices there are useless to me. Prices in the Netherlands (my home country) have deflated a bit, but they are still outrageously high, so that is not an option for me either (and I don't have a job there anyway). Keep in mind that real-estate prices in Japan have decreased a couple of percentages per year for two decades.
It also helps if you have two right hands, because with a second-hand house you will skip the basically maintenance-free first 10 years.
IparryU wrote:Mind you that a lot of the good and bad finance guys are licensed (general IFA BS licence... forgot acronym...) but break the agreement cause they get paid offshore...
very true about the tax benefits especially with property overseas. re japanese property... really make sure you know your stuff...
Catoneinutica wrote:Buying an existing house and fixing it up is certainly the cheapest way to go, but J-homes are so shoddily built that it'd be like buying a double-wide trailer (single-wide if in Tokyo) and fixing it up.
IparryU wrote:further this... you can get an apartment complex with 107% financing (including closing costs), monthly cash flow, tax benefits, and life converge. but then you would need an offshore property to depreciate your gains... this turns in a cycle of buying multiple properties over the years... many cycles of building equity and having to provide some sort of loss to knock down your taxable income.
Coligny wrote:Whut the fook is this guy saying...
Need to go back to my "kapitalism for dummies" bouks...
the question to ask is why do you stay on at all? For ass? like the above poster? Compared to what you could be accomplishing in your own country in terms of making a stab at a career and a place as a respectable person in your community, both of which are impossible on any significant level here, your motives for staying are without a doubt less meaningful.
Coligny wrote:Whut the fook is this guy saying...
Need to go back to my "kapitalism for dummies" bouks...
and most of the people I know, seem to have hit the "will I stay or will I go" stage at four years........... and I have had experiences here both in my career and in my private life that I would not have had the opportunity for back home.
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