studying and living in another country??

[resy]

What do you guys think about such a thing?
My husband wants me to consider moving for a couple of years from the USA to Ecuador so he can complete his MBA and me my 4 year degree.
Its obviously something we are just beginnig to toss around so am in very early stages of reseach of the such.
The basic idea is that we would keep a very low key life there to live off of school loans so we could both focus on school and of course an experience of a lifetime.
This sounds too good to be true. I am unfamiliar with the school loan process and dont plan on applying for one until I have a plan.
Does this sound ludacris or is it a good idea?
I am a spanish speaker so we have that on our side and I would love for him and our kid to learn the language.
Any input? Thanks guys!

[mxt0133]

How reputable/recognized are the universities that plan on attending?  What are the job placement statistics for graduates of those universities?

What type of loans are you going to get to pay for your schooling and expenses?  If they are federal loans then you can only attend schools in their list:  https://fafsa.ed.gov/FAFSA/app/schoolSearch

[resy]

How reputable/recognized are the universities that plan on attending?  What are the job placement statistics for graduates of those universities?

What type of loans are you going to get to pay for your schooling and expenses?  If they are federal loans then you can only attend schools in their list:  https://fafsa.ed.gov/FAFSA/app/schoolSearch

Plan so far is to attend (a US) school online...

[resy]

In most developing countries you should be able to find a way to earn enough money on the side (even if just teaching English) to support yourselves, even if you are going to school full time.  If you can't do that with both of you in school at the same time, then you could consider doing your degrees sequentially.  You could get your BA first while DH taught in an international school or worked in a field where he has experience, and then once you have the BA and are more marketable you could get a job while he does the MBA.

Expat life can be very interesting and rewarding, and if you have a decent income you can accumulate a big stash quickly if you have decent skills.  DH and I have 15 years of mid-level NGO management experience at this point, and have accumulated a very nice stash (largely due to timely property investments, but also a fair amount of it from living below our means, not succumbing to all of the expat perks, and DCA-ing into our retirement accounts most of that time).

The opportunity to have your kids become fully bilingual/bicultural is also amazing, and one of the main reasons I'm still in China.

I know it makes sense to do it sequencially as you say but ee feel tight on time because of our ages, not too old but want to remain competitive.
The whole point of going the expat route *is* not to work AND go to school. We are both doing that right now and raising a kid.. kinda looking for an alternative...

[mxt0133]

Plan so far is to attend (a US) school online...

WOW, that never even crossed my mind, if you can swing it I would totally go for it!

I can't wait until my kids go to college, imagine being able to live in another country and take courses online, I wish I had that.  I might just go back to school just to be able to do it from another country.

[Overseas Stache]

I used to work at an Online school and sadly about 90% of students would take out more student loans than needed to us for living expenses. Your idea is basically just use debt to live just like all these other students are doing, the only difference is you will use your money to live in another country. It is a really bad idea for you financially no matter how rewarding this will be culturally. You would be much better off finding a volunteer position that pays for you housing and food and living in a country that way.  You could still do your online schooling in the evening.

It seems like you are looking for a short cut in life. You wan't the wonderful experience of living in another country but aren't willing to put school on hold or sacrifice to make it work without loans for living expenses. So you plan on accumulating more debt which will just exponentially increase your working years before retirement.

One last thing if you plan on getting your degree from an online college, I would recommend you look into Western Governor's university. http://www.wgu.edu/. I didn't work for them but there program seemed to be a lot better than other online programs. You pay a small set amount per year around $4000 depeding on degree, and you can complete as many courses as you can in that time. So if you are taking a year off and devoting it to school then you should be able to complete at least 2 years of courses in that time frame.

[Tai]

Have you ever taken any online courses before? Have you had success with them? I learned the hard (expensive)way that they aren't good for everyone.

I tried what you are thinking about. I had one year to finish my degree, took distance education courses through my university and went to Central America to spend the winter and complete my courses. I was paying my own way, so no loans. It did not work, I had to drop my courses.

I'm still not sure exactly what happened, but I was homesick, I had culture shock, and there was no one to talk to about my courses, no support or even environment of learning. You being with your husband might help with some of that.

To sum up: If you haven't both successfully used online courses before AND lived in/visited extensively Ecuador before I think your chances are slim. You might have a great vacation though, and a whole lot of debt too.

[resy]

Thanks for all of the responses. Some of them were very helpul and some I found unecessarily defensive. I didnt give much extra info though to your credit.

Yes, we actually are both taking online courses now through our schools; it is actually our prefered method but the comment about bo additional supprt def got me thinking.

We wouldnt go to an "online school", i know those are crap for the most part. We are both enrolled in regular schools that offer online classes. Lots of them.

Its tood to consider the bad but its bot fair to tell me im looking for a short cut in life as it Im a lazy person. Actually anything but. The extra money would be put away and at our current situation we dont have much money leftover to save so it seems like thered be not much loas there as ylwe are going to need to take out student loans soon enough regardless. Its not cool to suggest everyone can work and go to school at the same time. We work, at lot and still not makr enough to cover our living expenses and a of our tuition. And what about our kid? Yeah we could pick up even more work or study endlessly but then what about his time? Debt for education is worth it to us...we have lived a life without it and know how difficult it can be to get ahead.

I think Im on the correct forum. (For the most part) this ia a great online community with very wise, rational and caring people. This is a financial question as well as personal value question and isnt that what the blog is about?

[Overseas Stache]

Resy,

I wasn't intending to be "unecesarily defensive" or offensive in any way.

My point was not that you are taking a short cut in life because you are a lazy person. You sound like a hard working person, but my point was that you would be using student loan money to live/ have an adventure, that will in the end cost you more years spent working to pay off that debt. Instead of waiting, or finding a way to do it without using student debt for living expenses. 

"Debt for education is worth it to us" - Yes I agree it can be worth it, it was for me. However, Debt to spend a year living in Ecuador is different then debt for education. This is why I recommend finding a way to live overseas for free, or make money overseas so you don't need to take extra student loans that will hurt your financial independence in the long run.

I just thought I would give this advice because I have had experience working full time while in school (still needed to take some loans, stupid expensive private school), getting an MBA online, and currently live overseas with 2 small children.

I think you did post it on the correct forum, but there may be several wise, rational, and caring people who will try and show you that this is not a very good idea for your financial health.

[2ndTimer]

We seriously considered living in Ecuador and went down there to take a look a few years ago.  What changed our minds weirdly enough was the Hub being offered a job at a medical school in Quito (Oops, first said Cuenca, not correct).  When we went to see place it was pretty hard to miss the VERY tall iron fence around the place and the armed security guards checking everybody in and out.  A bit of enquiry and we learned that kidnapping for ransom is very big there.  Because of the extreme poverty of the place it didn't take much wealth to be a target.  Any middle class person would do.  We figured that between our obvious foreignness and our total ignorance of cultural clues we would be sitting ducks.  We wound up living in Mexico instead and had a great time.

[Gimesalot]

One thing to consider, in addition to the low cost of living, is the additional travel expenses from living abroad.  You probably will want to come back to the US every once in a while.  Also, I don't know the situation in Ecuador, but in most countries, your family will be given tourist visas for about 90 days.  You would then have to leave and come back.  It might add a lot of expense and stress to your plan.

[resy]

Resy,

I wasn't intending to be "unecesarily defensive" or offensive in any way.

My point was not that you are taking a short cut in life because you are a lazy person. You sound like a hard working person, but my point was that you would be using student loan money to live/ have an adventure, that will in the end cost you more years spent working to pay off that debt. Instead of waiting, or finding a way to do it without using student debt for living expenses. 

"Debt for education is worth it to us" - Yes I agree it can be worth it, it was for me. However, Debt to spend a year living in Ecuador is different then debt for education. This is why I recommend finding a way to live overseas for free, or make money overseas so you don't need to take extra student loans that will hurt your financial independence in the long run.

I just thought I would give this advice because I have had experience working full time while in school (still needed to take some loans, stupid expensive private school), getting an MBA online, and currently live overseas with 2 small children.

I think you did post it on the correct forum, but there may be several wise, rational, and caring people who will try and show you that this is not a very good idea for your financial health.

Sorry for my own defensiveness, seems I woke up edgy today!
Your post was helpful actually and I didnt really takr much offense (other than the shortcut in life part. I think the person that suggested I was in the wrong forum is what got me all defensive. Sorry about that.
Thanks for your input, all you guys atr giving me things to think about and present to my husband. I have lots of time to do research too thankfully as this is a plan thay wouldnt be implemented(if it is at all) for another year.
So I guess what is alluring me the most right now is what I didny explain in my post: we would take out loans (yes, bad) but we are going to need yo regardless sinoly because we cannot study and work full time and raise a kid without doing so. SO i figured, well if we take out the same loans we would, go live in a lower cost living area and SAVE the difference. Sounds funny, I know. But the savings would offer some help while we statt our careers amd if not needed then we could use it to pay back. Hope that makes sense.
I do not know how the loan system works though (DH does) so I might be missing stuff.

[resy]

We seriously considered living in Ecuador and went down there to take a look a few years ago.  What changed our minds weirdly enough was the Hub being offered a job at a medical school in Cuenca.  When we went to see place it was pretty hard to miss the VERY tally iron fence around the place and the armed security guards checking everybody in and out.  A bit of enquiry and we learned that kidnapping for ransom is very big there.  Because of the extreme poverty of the place it didn't take much wealth to be a target.  Any middle class person would do.  We figured that between our obvious foreignness and our total ignorance of cultural clues we would be sitting ducks.  We wound up living in Mexico instead and had a great time.

Thiabis interesting to me as I am from Mexico. Ransom there is what makes me not want to take my very gringo DH to live there! Haha
What part of Mexico are you in and what has been your experience?
I have my parents down there thus it would save us in rent but my father is extremely difficult to live with so kinda ruled that out.
What part of ecuador did you visit? We are considering cuenca.

[2ndTimer]

We are back now and living in the Pacific Northwest.  FIRED and lived in Jalapa, Veracruz for about 18 months.  Then my U.S. doc made a fairly serious error that cost him his license and me a few years of my life.  The Hub panicked and hauled me back to the U.S. and went back to work.  Not something I want to discuss, just explanation.

I need to make a correction.  The medical school I talked about above was in Quito, not Cuenca.  We did go and look at Cuenca which is why I made the mistake.  I am going back to fix the error

[resy]

We are back now and living in the Pacific Northwest.  FIRED and lived in Jalapa, Veracruz for about 18 months.  Then my U.S. doc made a fairly serious error that cost him his license and me a few years of my life.  The Hub panicked and hauled me back to the U.S. and went back to work.  Not something I want to discuss, just explanation.

I need to make a correction.  The medical school I talked about above was in Quito, not Cuenca.  We did go and look at Cuenca which is why I made the mistake.  I am going back to fix the error

Interesting. Sorry for your hardship.
That is thw problem with developing countries, all the things we sometimes take for granted in the US like accountability, safety, freedom...
Also has me thinking that we could just move within the states to a very low cost of living area.
We are ok with working part time through school if we move, we just cant do it as easily where we are. Our rent is almost $1000 and we dont even live in a nice area of town; lowest rent we have found in town was lesa than $300 difference but we would live in bad areas which I dont think is worth it with the kid.
Wish I had gone to school before thats for sure, its so complicated now as I aproach 30.

[2ndTimer]

We are back now and living in the Pacific Northwest.  FIRED and lived in Jalapa, Veracruz for about 18 months.  Then my U.S. doc made a fairly serious error that cost him his license and me a few years of my life.  The Hub panicked and hauled me back to the U.S. and went back to work.  Not something I want to discuss, just explanation.

I need to make a correction.  The medical school I talked about above was in Quito, not Cuenca.  We did go and look at Cuenca which is why I made the mistake.  I am going back to fix the error

Interesting. Sorry for your hardship.
That is thw problem with developing countries, all the things we sometimes take for granted in the US like accountability, safety, freedom...
Also has me thinking that we could just move within the states to a very low cost of living area.
We are ok with working part time through school if we move, we just cant do it as easily where we are. Our rent is almost $1000 and we dont even live in a nice area of town; lowest rent we have found in town was lesa than $300 difference but we would live in bad areas which I dont think is worth it with the kid.
Wish I had gone to school before thats for sure, its so complicated now as I aproach 30.

Just to clarify, it was a U.S. doc right here in the U.S.  that screwed up not a Mexican doc.   

[resy]

Sorry, resy.  I was feeling grumpity last night and shouldn't have been so negative.  But to be honest, the way I read your initial response had me thinking that you weren't willing to work AT ALL while going to school full time.  It sounded a bit like "we're tired and burned out and don't feel like working anymore so we're going to pack up the kid and take out student loans and go do the rest of our coursework on a beach in S. America." 

The great thing about living in a developing country is that living costs are lower for everything including lots of help!  You have a lot more flexibility when you can get full-time childcare/housekeeping/cooking services for a few hundred dollars a month.  And in most places, English teaching jobs are pretty easy to come by, and do not typically involve a full time class schedule.  Here in China, you can get a basic teaching job with 15-20 hours class time a week, typically with housing provided and often with subsidized food, and earn $1000-2000/month.  Which is plenty to live on if you go local and don't have to pay for housing.  And those are just the basic, local style jobs.  If you can snag a job in a decent international school, you can make closer to US-style wages while still having that local cost of living.

You are also lucky to be in the position of being a native Spanish speaker who has good English.  You would probably be able to earn a decent living offering Spanish tutoring to expats.  There is HUGE demand here in Beijing for those kind of services.  Good tutors get their schedules filled up quickly by referrals alone, and typically have a long waiting list. 

You didn't say how old your kid is, or if you are planning to have more.  Or what field you are interested in going into.    Some additional information about those parts of the puzzle would help us give you better advice.

I still think that the plan to move to another country and finance it with loans is dicey -- I would be doing more research about what part-time employment options might be open to you in different locations while developing your plan.  Some places might be a better choice/fit than others. 

Again, apologies for the harshness of my earlier reply.  I just really would not want to see you guys heading down a path to major debt without considering other options.  Yes, I know that trying to do everything at once is hard.  But it can be slightly easier if you are in a place where general living costs and especially getting help is less expensive.  And I really don't think that it is necessary for two people to forego any kind of gainful employment while going to school and raising a kid.  There should be enough time for at least one of you to work and go to school.

Thanks for the apology, your initial post was a little rough! But in hindsight, you are right, my wording did make it sound like we were ready yo embark on a financed long term vacation! Haha
Ok, so yeah the adventure and experience would be amazing but its a major, major bonus. The reason is the cost of living.
And no we are not adverse to working, its just very different whrn you are doing it to supplement instead of just to survive. We will be taking out those loans as out school loads increase so we ate just trying to get creative with it.
I am very skeptical about the idea myself but it is very inviting and the same tim... def need tons more research, luckily I have a good year to research!
You have a lot of good points.
My BA I am undecided on but am leaning towards accounting, will start some accounting classes next term to get my feet in the water. My DH is deciding between an MBA or a second BA, this time in programming. Thats something else to factor in as well...

[Overseas Stache]

Just an FYI on the student loans here are the current rates:

Perkins Loan - 5% the interest does not accrue while you are in school.

Direct Subsidized Loans -Undergraduate - 4.66% plus origination fee. The interest does not accrue while you are in school. However there is a limited amount of this a loan available and is not available for people pursuing a masters degree ie your DH.

Direct Unsubsidized Loans -Undergraduate - 4.66% plus origination fee. The interest will accrue right away even though you are not required to make payments.

Direct Unsubsidized Loans - Graduate or Professional - 6.21% plus origination fee. The interest will accrue right away even though payments are not required while in school.

Direct PLUS Loans - Parents and Graduate or Professional Students - 7.21% Plus origination fee. The interest will accrue right away and payments are due while you are in school.

You would really need to see how much will be subsidized and how much will be unsubsidized, so you can really see how much this idea will cost you in the long run. Yes living expenses may be less expensive but you should do some real calculations and find out how many future dollars this will cost you. Even if you took out loans that ended up costing you 100/ month for 10 years. That would be $75200 of lost investment potential!

Check out this site to see what your payments would be- https://studentloans.gov/myDirectLoan/mobile/repayment/repaymentEstimator

[JoJo]

10 years ago I lived in Ecuador for about 6 months and taught English. 
As someone pointed out, you're really limited on a tourist visa.  I think they shorted them to 90 days so unless you have a reason you can stay for longer this plan might be difficult.  The other idea is spend max time in one country & move onto the next so one could hang out in Colombia, then Ecuador, then Peru but you're on the move and spending time trying to find a good place to stay for awhile.

[resy]

10 years ago I lived in Ecuador for about 6 months and taught English. 
As someone pointed out, you're really limited on a tourist visa.  I think they shorted them to 90 days so unless you have a reason you can stay for longer this plan might be difficult.  The other idea is spend max time in one country & move onto the next so one could hang out in Colombia, then Ecuador, then Peru but you're on the move and spending time trying to find a good place to stay for awhile.

That would be awesome but with the flying it might defeat the saving part and provide too much instability for our kid. Mexico sounds good, I still have my citizenship there so might be able to get one for the hubs and kid...