<prompt> Human: I am a US citizen making about 39,000year teaching abroad. Im not required to pay any taxes on this income, but this disqualifies me from contributing to an IRA. My school doesnt offer any type of retirement package.Would it be a good idea to NOT utilize the foreign earned income exclusion tax breaks so that I could then choose to pay taxes on my income which would allow me to contribute to an IRA?Thanks for any suggestions or advice.  <response>: A simpler, and I believe far better, strategy would be to simply buy tax efficient ETFs in a brokerage account and let them grow. As long as you do not touch them the taxes will be minimal, and when you sell them in retirement the taxes will be at the long term capital gains rate.Examples would be SCHB in a Schwab account or VTI in a Vangaurd account.The keys are to buy broad market ETFs that should be around for decades, and then leave them alone until retirement. EDIT: I vote for uTA7174s plan. Then put the money into a Roth IRA. But that does require that you be paying more taxes where you are than you would otherwise owe the IRS. 