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I was inspired to make this post/thread from a different thread I just posted on related to someone having turmoil in his personal life at home and being burdened by student loan debt.
In this blueprint I'm going to discuss two things.
1. Discuss case studies of paying off 20K or less of student loan debt in two years or less as a teacher in Korea/Asia
2. Discuss using oil sands as a hack to pay off debt quickly
---
TEACHING ENGLISH ABROAD
There are many Catch 22 situations involved in working abroad and teaching English abroad. In this context, the problem is usually that teaching English abroad does not result in gaining the types of real job skills and private sector experience you'd want to grow your career. That is, the only thing you are going to learn from English teaching is how to teach English.
Thus, ESL should be viewed ONLY as a means of securing a work visa and salary in a foreign country.
Currently if you graduated from Mediocre State University with a GPA of 2.9 in Philosophy/English/Lit/Polisci/Useless then you are undoubtedly facing a lot of grief in the job market. Especially if you are in your twenties and have not had the ability to gain some job experience before the market crash.
*CAVEAT* I have not done this myself. But I have consulted and helped friends and clients out to follow this precise path and they have found success in doing so.
1. Choose Destination
The first step is to choose what country you want to go to. If your priority is mostly paying off debt as fast as possible then you should go for Korea. There is really no other spot where it is as easy to find a position and where you can make a salary of 3K monthly while keeping your living costs very low. While it's not as cheap as Bangkok, China, or Vietnam, the ultimate amount of cash you're saving at the end of the month is probably greater than it would be in any of those other spots.
Countries to consider:
-Korea
-Taiwan
-Vietnam
-China
-Thailand
By the end of this stage you want to have made a decision on where you will go based on your current financial situation and the countries that are most attractive to you. You also should have done a lot of research about that spot.
2. Get certified and secure teaching job
As a rule of thumb with starting a career or venture abroad, showing up is 90% of the battle. This is also true with getting a teaching job. However, in more developed countries like Korea you can secure a teaching job before you hit the ground. If you are comfortable with the idea of coming to one of these Asian destinations before you are certified then that is probably a better route. You'll be able to feel out the different places and know what you are getting yourself into. You can also get certified for TESOL/TEFL (or equivalent) locally and get brokered into your first position. Being on the ground will also obviously give you better leverage in negotiating your salary.
I'm not going to go into too much detail about getting certified here as the process of getting hired varies widely by country.
By the end of this stage you should have researched and determined your plan of attack for entering this country and securing your teaching job.
3. Set up a budgeting system based on your salary and living expenses
Your goal is to pay off your student loan debt partially or fully, depending on the lifestyle you want to live and how much debt you have. If you are 20K or under in debt you can realistically pay them off in their entirety in 2 years. If it's higher it might not be very realistic.
Anyway, figure out how to baseline your expenses down to the lowest possible number so that you can take home more of your pay and use that to pay off your student loan debt. You are going to have to get creative in terms of how to hack your budget and really save money. Live with roommates, only eat local food at cheap places, don't party at expensive clubs, minimize international travel, etc etc
In general you can achieve the highest amount of savings in second tier Korean cities like Daejeon/Daegu/Pusan/Gwangju.
4. Side Hustles and Work Experience
Depending on who you are and your goals, you should either look for business opportunities to run on the side or secure a part time internship in your local city.
If you are interested in launching a full time career in that country (or in that region) then you should look around in the private sector, chamber of commerce, consulate, startups etc - to see if you can get a part time internship somewhere. This way you dont have to spend that period of time only gaining teaching skills. You can build a network and gain work experience in a new country.
If your timeline is one year then you can put in two different 6-month internships and explore different opportunities in the private sector.
In terms of entrepreneurship there is really no limit on what you can do. I would suggest entrepreneurship over internships, particularly if you are living in a second tier Korean city (or Thai/Viet city etc) because the work experience you will gain in these cities might not be that great.
Fiverr hustles and arbitrage are really easy to start out with. Target either people back home and the virtual market or target locals who might be interested in the services that the foreigner has to offer. You might not make tons of cash from it but it'll get you moving in the right direction and give you a low-pressure and low-risk way to get some startup experience.
You can move onto bigger things once you are more familiar with outsourcing, automation, customer service, meeting deadlines/deliverables, marketing, sales, etc - all on a smaller scale. People rarely find great success with the first thing they try so go into it with the expectation that you will fail but learn a lot and then eventually succeed with something.
Import/export is obviously a proven route. Case studies:
http://www.theelevatorlife.com
http://www.originalgrain.com
5. Transitions
Ideally by the 1-2 year mark you have accomplished some or all of the following:
-Paid off student loan debts
-Launched a successful hustle that will eventually replace your English teaching income
-Secured a full time job offer that meets or exceeds your current teaching salary
Your goal is thus not ONLY to become a teacher and pay off debt but to be able to replace your teaching occupation in a 6-12-24 month timeline with entrepreneurship or with an international career.
------
I was going to discuss Oil Sands but I don't know enough about it to give any advice - besides the fact that it definitely seems to work in terms of paying off MASSIVE amounts of student loan debt.
It would be very useful if the Oil Sands guys such as Scotian and guys working there could give us an idea of how much monthly savings are possible (a range), especially given that one's living costs are often paid for.
----
I was inspired to make this post/thread from a different thread I just posted on related to someone having turmoil in his personal life at home and being burdened by student loan debt.
In this blueprint I'm going to discuss two things.
1. Discuss case studies of paying off 20K or less of student loan debt in two years or less as a teacher in Korea/Asia
2. Discuss using oil sands as a hack to pay off debt quickly
---
TEACHING ENGLISH ABROAD
There are many Catch 22 situations involved in working abroad and teaching English abroad. In this context, the problem is usually that teaching English abroad does not result in gaining the types of real job skills and private sector experience you'd want to grow your career. That is, the only thing you are going to learn from English teaching is how to teach English.
Thus, ESL should be viewed ONLY as a means of securing a work visa and salary in a foreign country.
Currently if you graduated from Mediocre State University with a GPA of 2.9 in Philosophy/English/Lit/Polisci/Useless then you are undoubtedly facing a lot of grief in the job market. Especially if you are in your twenties and have not had the ability to gain some job experience before the market crash.
*CAVEAT* I have not done this myself. But I have consulted and helped friends and clients out to follow this precise path and they have found success in doing so.
1. Choose Destination
The first step is to choose what country you want to go to. If your priority is mostly paying off debt as fast as possible then you should go for Korea. There is really no other spot where it is as easy to find a position and where you can make a salary of 3K monthly while keeping your living costs very low. While it's not as cheap as Bangkok, China, or Vietnam, the ultimate amount of cash you're saving at the end of the month is probably greater than it would be in any of those other spots.
Countries to consider:
-Korea
-Taiwan
-Vietnam
-China
-Thailand
By the end of this stage you want to have made a decision on where you will go based on your current financial situation and the countries that are most attractive to you. You also should have done a lot of research about that spot.
2. Get certified and secure teaching job
As a rule of thumb with starting a career or venture abroad, showing up is 90% of the battle. This is also true with getting a teaching job. However, in more developed countries like Korea you can secure a teaching job before you hit the ground. If you are comfortable with the idea of coming to one of these Asian destinations before you are certified then that is probably a better route. You'll be able to feel out the different places and know what you are getting yourself into. You can also get certified for TESOL/TEFL (or equivalent) locally and get brokered into your first position. Being on the ground will also obviously give you better leverage in negotiating your salary.
I'm not going to go into too much detail about getting certified here as the process of getting hired varies widely by country.
By the end of this stage you should have researched and determined your plan of attack for entering this country and securing your teaching job.
3. Set up a budgeting system based on your salary and living expenses
Your goal is to pay off your student loan debt partially or fully, depending on the lifestyle you want to live and how much debt you have. If you are 20K or under in debt you can realistically pay them off in their entirety in 2 years. If it's higher it might not be very realistic.
Anyway, figure out how to baseline your expenses down to the lowest possible number so that you can take home more of your pay and use that to pay off your student loan debt. You are going to have to get creative in terms of how to hack your budget and really save money. Live with roommates, only eat local food at cheap places, don't party at expensive clubs, minimize international travel, etc etc
In general you can achieve the highest amount of savings in second tier Korean cities like Daejeon/Daegu/Pusan/Gwangju.
4. Side Hustles and Work Experience
Depending on who you are and your goals, you should either look for business opportunities to run on the side or secure a part time internship in your local city.
If you are interested in launching a full time career in that country (or in that region) then you should look around in the private sector, chamber of commerce, consulate, startups etc - to see if you can get a part time internship somewhere. This way you dont have to spend that period of time only gaining teaching skills. You can build a network and gain work experience in a new country.
If your timeline is one year then you can put in two different 6-month internships and explore different opportunities in the private sector.
In terms of entrepreneurship there is really no limit on what you can do. I would suggest entrepreneurship over internships, particularly if you are living in a second tier Korean city (or Thai/Viet city etc) because the work experience you will gain in these cities might not be that great.
Fiverr hustles and arbitrage are really easy to start out with. Target either people back home and the virtual market or target locals who might be interested in the services that the foreigner has to offer. You might not make tons of cash from it but it'll get you moving in the right direction and give you a low-pressure and low-risk way to get some startup experience.
You can move onto bigger things once you are more familiar with outsourcing, automation, customer service, meeting deadlines/deliverables, marketing, sales, etc - all on a smaller scale. People rarely find great success with the first thing they try so go into it with the expectation that you will fail but learn a lot and then eventually succeed with something.
Import/export is obviously a proven route. Case studies:
http://www.theelevatorlife.com
http://www.originalgrain.com
5. Transitions
Ideally by the 1-2 year mark you have accomplished some or all of the following:
-Paid off student loan debts
-Launched a successful hustle that will eventually replace your English teaching income
-Secured a full time job offer that meets or exceeds your current teaching salary
Your goal is thus not ONLY to become a teacher and pay off debt but to be able to replace your teaching occupation in a 6-12-24 month timeline with entrepreneurship or with an international career.
------
I was going to discuss Oil Sands but I don't know enough about it to give any advice - besides the fact that it definitely seems to work in terms of paying off MASSIVE amounts of student loan debt.
It would be very useful if the Oil Sands guys such as Scotian and guys working there could give us an idea of how much monthly savings are possible (a range), especially given that one's living costs are often paid for.
----