Pros and cons of getting married/having kids in Argentina vs USA?

[earlyretirement]

I'm going to be getting my licence to practice as a therapist in the states very soon and will be working remotely with the hopes of building up a private practice. So I will have to be paying those self-employment taxes at some point unfortunately.

That's awesome! Actually that's a good field. I have a lot of therapist friends in the USA and they are all very very busy. After COVID, most of them don't even go into an office anymore. As you mentioned, they are all making multiple 6 figures a year.

However, be careful In this digital age. I just posted this - https://baexpats.org/threads/amazing-therapist-for-ex-pats-or-locals-super-affordable.46228/

There are amazing therapists that are only charging $25 US per hour. And you're going to be competing against this new world of technology where people will refuse to pay $250+ hour. Most of my friends in California were paying as much as $300 US per hour with their USA therapists but I have referred them to mine and now they pay $25 for 45 minutes and they all have told me she is 10X better than the one they had in the USA. There is no correlation with how good someone is vs. how much they are paying. I actually hope there comes a day when healthcare and therapy is a commodity where people utilize technology and no one can charge those obscene prices like they are charging in the USA. All my local Porteño friends are paying around $25/hour too.

It's my belief that people will gear more towards people like this above. These people just don't know how to market but there are already industries that are sprouting up disrupting industries.

 

[charlesfradley]

I've been paying in for quite a few years, it's just that the amounts have been low. I think SSA depends on the 10 highest earning/paying in years correct? So as long as I get in those high paying in years it won't eventually matter that I payed in little the other years(as long as I payed in) correct?

For USA, 10 years is the minimum numbers of years to get the minimum social security benefit. Less than 10 years and you get nothing. To get the maximum benefit you must work at least 35 years, and if you work more than 35 years then they look at the highest 35 years earnings (inflation adjusted). This is all explained on ssa.gov

 

[River222]

For USA, 10 years is the minimum numbers of years to get the minimum social security benefit. Less than 10 years and you get nothing. To get the maximum benefit you must work at least 35 years, and if you work more than 35 years then they look at the highest 35 years earnings (inflation adjusted). This is all explained on ssa.gov

Thanks!

 

[River222]

That's awesome! Actually that's a good field. I have a lot of therapist friends in the USA and they are all very very busy. After COVID, most of them don't even go into an office anymore. As you mentioned, they are all making multiple 6 figures a year.

However, be careful In this digital age. I just posted this - https://baexpats.org/threads/amazing-therapist-for-ex-pats-or-locals-super-affordable.46228/

There are amazing therapists that are only charging $25 US per hour. And you're going to be competing against this new world of technology where people will refuse to pay $250+ hour. Most of my friends in California were paying as much as $300 US per hour with their USA therapists but I have referred them to mine and now they pay $25 for 45 minutes and they all have told me she is 10X better than the one they had in the USA. There is no correlation with how good someone is vs. how much they are paying. I actually hope there comes a day when healthcare and therapy is a commodity where people utilize technology and no one can charge those obscene prices like they are charging in the USA. All my local Porteño friends are paying around $25/hour too.

It's my belief that people will gear more towards people like this above. These people just don't know how to market but there are already industries that are sprouting up disrupting industries.

That's a fantastic testimonial! I'm so glad you've found someone who works so well for you! And you're absolutely right that there seems to be no correlation between how good someone is and how much they're charging. The best therapist I've ever met wasn't even a therapist. For good or ill, I think that for the foreseeable future my chosen occupation will be in high demand and that people will be willing to pay high dollar for it. To be perfectly honest, I feel sort of guilty about that and it's one of the reasons I'm only seeking my license to practice now that I have the motivation to start a family. I'd be sort of foolish to pass on people willing to pay so much while I'm trying to recover from wasting so much time...but I'm also planning on doing plenty of pro bono work and even getting licensed to practice down here in Argentina as well(charging a sane rate for Argentines of course) to try to make sure those who most need help get it as well.

 

[ArgentinaVet]

Just saw this. Yep, I just commented about paying into SSA for 35 years. People sometimes don't know this and automatically think they will quality for Medicare and SSA benefits without barely paying in. And lots of ex-pats aren't paying the self-employment taxes.

I'm honestly surprised you would recommend someone pay into social security if they haven't already been and/ or aren't obligated to pay into SS; social security is the WORST possible place to put your money if you can otherwise avoid it !. If the poster making 100k per year invests 12k per year instead of dumping it into social security and get an 8% annual ROI over 30 years he/she will have $1,538,365 USD (obviously these are static figures as his salary and thus investable percentage that would otherwise go to social security will go up with inflation over time). At that point he could retire on the dividends/interest derived from that capital and never burn through the principle if he doesn't want to.

Medicare on the hand is a great deal in its current form. All you need to do to qualify is get 40 quarters of minimum wage part time work and you get the same coverage as the guy/gal who paid the 2.9% uncapped medicare tax their entire life.

 

[River222]

I'm honestly surprised you would recommend someone pay into social security if they haven't already been and/ or aren't obligated to pay into SS; social security is the WORST possible place to put your money if you can otherwise avoid it !. If the poster making 100k per year invests 12k per year instead of dumping it into social security and get an 8% annual ROI over 30 years he/she will have $1,538,365 USD (obviously these are static figures as his salary and thus investable percentage that would otherwise go to social security will go up with inflation over time). At that point he could retire on the dividends/interest derived from that capital and never burn through the principle if he doesn't want to.

Medicare on the hand is a great deal in its current form. All you need to do to qualify is get 40 quarters of minimum wage part time work and you get the same coverage as the guy/gal who paid the 2.9% uncapped medicare tax their entire life.

PS. Since we're talking about my financial future. I'm also heavily considering retiring back to Argentina after raising kids in the USA. In no small part because I'm hoping that investing even whatever amount I can manage to build up in these last years will pay enough in dividend/interest to retire on while spending pesos.

 

[Quilombo]

Having the kids in a third country might be best. Apparently if you're a legal resident of Portugal for a year prior to their birth you can get them citizenship, then they're set via EU, US, and Mercosur.

Dark Blue are all the countries that have birthright citizenship, while light blue generally require one parent to have some form of citizenship or permanent residency or long term residency

 

[elhombresinnombre]

PS. Since we're talking about my financial future. I'm also heavily considering retiring back to Argentina after raising kids in the USA. In no small part because I'm hoping that investing even whatever amount I can manage to build up in these last years will pay enough in dividend/interest to retire on while spending pesos.

Do you think you'll be done raising your kids by the end of this year? What ever crazy mixed up situation has given cheap pesos for those holding dollars for the last few years it won't be the same in 15, 18, 24 years time.

Crazy? Mixed up? Almost certainly. Good value for those who hold dollars? Who knows?

 

[sts7049]

What about getting her a US green card later following all the rules?

visa and green card mean the same thing. if you are already married, the forms you file get processed faster (still can take awhile though). online search told me anywhere from a year to 3 years.

if you are unmarried, processing time starts at 2 years and can go much longer.

 

[River222]

Do you think you'll be done raising your kids by the end of this year? What ever crazy mixed up situation has given cheap pesos for those holding dollars for the last few years it won't be the same in 15, 18, 24 years time.

Crazy? Mixed up? Almost certainly. Good value for those who hold dollars? Who knows?

To the same degree as the situation is mixed up at present? No, it likely won't be the same. The same but to a lesser degree? Probably yes in my view. I first came to Argentina 18 years ago and while things weren't terrible, basic living was still about a third of the price of living in the US. I really, really, hope that Argentina recovers from it's present circumstances. But I also think that it recovering in the next 20-30 years to the point of cost of living parity with the USA is highly unlikely. I could totally be completely wrong of course. In which case we'd just work out something different when the time came.