So it has been quite a while since any updates have been made to this site. Despite this, we still get people coming to our page every day. So I think it best that we give you a bit of an update on our lives and what we are doing. I wish that I can tell you that I have an excuse for not writing anything, but our lives right now are full of half-finished projects.

Life is just sometimes difficult

Even though we don’t really broadcast it, we have made it no secret that we are the parents of two special needs children.  Although not officially diagnosed yet, our youngest is also on the spectrum like our eldest. This is not a cause for pity, and we adore our little guys, but it does make life hard time-to-time.

We are ON all day and get little time for ourselves except for the hour or so after they go to bed. Children with Autism have difficulty sleeping — we wake up at 5:30 every day.  We might get to sleep past 7 once a year. An extended family support system also doesn’t really exist for us because we have chosen to live overseas.  Date nights do not exist.  About one night a year, usually near our anniversary we get an overnight staycation for ourselves. Some of this is of our own making. We are still not comfortable leaving both kids alone with a babysitter.  We need to learn to let go, but things can change at the drop of a hat and the littlest thing can turn into a meltdown.

It has also created a bit of a seize mentality and helped us grow stronger together.  Us against the world! We believe that we can get through anything as long as we fight harder.  It also allows us to laugh at others who think their lives are hard. (Full Disclosure: We know that everyone has it difficult from time to time. We just imagine that life without autism is easier than life with autism)

As a result, we haven’t been the best parents as of late and have allowed too much iPad time. We know it hurts development (especially for Alfie) but at the same time, we need to keep our sanity!  Recently, we have redoubled our efforts (at least with Alfie) to minimize his screen time on the iPad. We have invested in a speech-language video program called Gemiini to help him in his efforts to speak, and we both think that it is really helping.

Simon is doing wonderfully at school. He is a quirky kid with the best imagination around.  With minimal learning support, his reading and math are coming along, and his writing is getting better too. He has a good friend group and seems really happy.

Finances and redefining our ‘Why’

A long time ago, I penned a poorly written piece on Knowing your Why. When I think about all of the hardships and day-to-day bullshit that comes up, it is important to go make to this thought process to find your direction.

So the question that we get asked quite often is, “Do you think your life overseas has been worth it?” While it is always difficult to deal in “What ifs?”, I can honestly say that looking at the alternative probably has made it worth it.

Flashback 6 years, and we were both public school teachers in Florida. We had a pretty nice starter home and liked our jobs but were basically living paycheck to paycheck. Without getting political, Florida teachers are paid pretty badly.  Because Lindsey had spent her 20s in grad school, and I spent my 20s living overseas and traveling instead of saving, we felt that we were behind in our savings. Most teachers seem to rely on pensions for retirement, and we had moved around too often to be guaranteed anything like that.

We left to go international mostly because I had the experience of having done it before, and we both loved traveling. Lindsey and I went to Costa Rica shortly after we started dating. Later, she came to visit me in Egypt and then to Uganda on our honeymoon. This was the best way to combine this passion with a chance to save some money.

Saudi Arabia was good to us, both financially and for our family.  Compound life suited us.

Our life in India

We are now in our second year in India. So far, so good. After your first year, we moved to a small 3-bedroom apartment instead of the 4-bedroom villa that we started with.  We probably save an extra $650 per month and we like it better. Granted we moved to India at the height of COVID and enjoy that extra space and bedroom. There are definitely more kids for Simon to play with here as well.

India also fits into our why with regard to our two boys. While services for special education are more available in the United States (by law) than in international schools, it more than makes up in several ways. In international schools, all the teachers in our school have teaching assistants and the class size is around 15-16. There is push-in learning support when needed. Additionally, we are able to afford a full-time nanny for Alfie who works with him while we are at school.  We also have a specialist coming for an hour a day for speech therapy. These luxuries we couldn’t afford as teachers in the states.

We have focused our travels within India for the time being. Most of our trips have been to Goa. A beach vacation is definitely easy with young ones, but we were also able to get to Jaipur and Agra and see the Taj Mahal. That is another site to tick off the bucket list!

Stock market – yikes!

Our move from Saudi Arabia to India included quite a massive pay decrease; however, the cost of living in India is far cheaper. Despite this decrease, we are still able to live on one salary and save the other one.

That being said, it has been a rough year for the stock market. Our net worth is down about $60K YTD. We use Personal Capital to track all of our investments.  The worst thing to do at these times is to panic.  Technically, you don’t lose any money until you sell.

Another strategy that we use to help is diversification. In our equities, we have 95% of our savings in low-cost index funds from Vanguard.

We also recently invested in I-bonds from the US treasury as an inflation hedge.

We own two rental properties in Indianapolis (see the pictures below). Our tenants pay the mortgages and we are still cashflow positive and make a bit of money.  Why Indianapolis? It is in a landlord-friendly state with a good amount of businesses and a low cost of entry.

We even threw a little bit of spare cash into owning some fine wine! (Unsurprisingly, it is the investment that has performed the best this year)

The Road Ahead

Thoughts about the future are always on the mind at this time of year. November/December is the time to declare intentions for next year at our school.  We had a quick look around but nothing was that exciting for us. We are not in the position to resign from one job before finding another at this stage. Plus moving again after 2 years is hard.

We are planning to spend Christmas in Thailand this year, our first trip outside of India that wasn’t back home to Michigan. Bangkok and Hua Hin are on our itinerary.

When I look at what I am passionate about on the job front, I love working with other teachers as workshop leader in helping their professional development. I also like visiting schools as a site visitor and helping them develop their programs and curricula, and think that my next position will involve much more of that for its job role.

Moreover, I am also dabbling with the idea of working to become a financial coach, taking a few courses, and I will be working with a few beta clients in the new year. This is something that I am also passionate about.

Finally, I will continue to try (a bit better) of updating this blog with things that are on my mind regarding travel and finances and anything else generally on my mind.