Relocating and Living off a Teacher's Salary (Miami, Fort Lauderdale: student loans, public schools)

[Carioca Da Gema]

Hey guys, hopefully you guys and your expertise can help me out here. I've graduated college as a social studies teacher and have my master's and educational specialist degrees in School Counseling. I have some experience working in different schools, but have been teaching in Brasil for the last 3 years. I'm thinking about relocating back to the states, and perhaps my native Washington, D.C., however, I don't think my Brasilian wife will do well with the cold. So, I was looking in the south florida/Miami area as a possible relocation site due to its warm weather and high Brasilian population. But, I saw that educators with a Master's/Ed.S. in the Miami and Ft. Lauderdale areas only start off around 43k, as opposed to the 54k in the DC metro area. My question is;

1) Is it possible to sustain a decent quality of life in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale with that type of salary?

2) How are the public schools? Will being fluent in Portuguese be a plus when applying?

3) What are some affordable areas to live which aren't too dangerous?

Thanks guys for your advice!

[Nolefan34]

I would say no. Avoid this area like the plague. A $43,000 salary will not get you very far here. You may be able to barely survive but not much more. The public schools here are not very good either.

[Carioca Da Gema]

that bad? I thought it may be cheaper than the DC Metro area, cheap enough that a low reduced salary would suffice. So what do most of the educators, and well, people in the services field do?

[Nolefan34]

They get married and combine incomes and live in a western suburb of Fort Lauderdale that is affordable. I'm not saying you cannot do it. Just isn't a great move. The cost of living here is too high and teachers salaries are too low. Teachers are also being fired left and right. There is tremendous downward pressure on teachers salaries and they are getting rid of unions. This might be the worst state in the country to be a teacher right now.

As far as cost of living, there are some things here that are cheaper than DC but other things that are more expensive. And whatever you save by a cheaper cost of living is offset by a lower salary.

[Carioca Da Gema]

Originally Posted by Nolefan34

They get married and combine incomes and live in a western suburb of Fort Lauderdale that is affordable. I'm not saying you cannot do it. Just isn't a great move. The cost of living here is too high and teachers salaries are too low. Teachers are also being fired left and right. There is tremendous downward pressure on teachers salaries and they are getting rid of unions. This might be the worst state in the country to be a teacher right now.

As far as cost of living, there are some things here that are cheaper than DC but other things that are more expensive. And whatever you save by a cheaper cost of living is offset by a lower salary.

Thanks Nolefan, it sounds like there's not much payoff, like you said, the (significantly) lower salary seems to negate any savings when looking at the cost of living. And if they're laying teacher's off, I'm sure school counselors (I'm licensed as both, but prefer counseling) are getting laid off even faster. Unfortunately, that's what's happening in DC

[Nolefan34]

They are putting teachers on furloughs left and right. Teaching is one of the worst professions to be in down here. Underpaid, underemployed, and underfunded schools. And as bad as things are now, they will keep getting worse. There is constant downward pressure on teachers salaries. We live in a backwards state where they believe that if you pay teachers less, they will perform better. Or if you pay teachers lower, it will weed out the bad teachers.

[templeowl0307]

Nolefan is greatly exaggerating things. (Sadly, it's painfully common to hearSouth Florida residents endlessly complain about how horrible it is to live here). I was a prosecutor in Miami for 3.5 years, my starting salary was $40,000, I had massive student loans, and got by just fine.

"Western suburbs of Ft. Lauderdale" is a horrible place to live. You can find places on the beach or in Brickell (near downtown Miami) and areas of Miami Beach, as well as nice areas near downtown or beach areas of Ft. Lauderdale that are very affordable, particularly if you have/find a roommate or a significant other that you live with. Cost of living IS much lower than DC, and remember you pay no state income tax, either.

[JimboUSMC17]

And being fluent in Portuguese isn't really sought after but won't hurt of course.