<prompt> Human: Im about to move overseas to teach English in the developing world. Its Wednesday as I write this; I arrive Monday. Ill be paid 1000 USD per month before taxes. This means 12,000 USDyear before taxes. The cost of living is low, so Ill still have more to live on than the locals do it doesnt take much to live better than the locals do, but 1000 still isnt a lot. My organization requires at least 5 for retirement, no matching on their end. But I want to be saving more than that since 5 of 1000 is only 50 month. How much of the 1000 should I plan to set aside for retirement, assuming Ill retire in the US?Background info maybe helpful, maybe not: Im a 27 year old woman, no partner, no kids, no debt of any kind. Ill be living in an apartment in a smallish city. I have 8000 in a savings account and 250 in an Acorns investment account. I plan to start saving for a car once I get settled.Edit 1: Im planning as if this will be a long term gig.Edit 2: TL;DR of most comments so far:either dont do this long term, OR try to make more money, OR retire somewhere else.  <response>: For your situation, I think it will be more helpful to work backwards.You say you want to retire in the US. How long do you plan to do your current job? If its for a year or two, dont overstress it. If this is a for the foreseeable future gig, then you have some serious planning to do.When you work abroad, you dont accrue Social Security credits. When you work abroad and get a low salary, then the amount of savings you can achieve is oretty small. Those two things combined make for a pretty harsh US retirement later in life if you do this more long term.That may mean several things. It may mean you dont teach abroad for as long as you intended. It may mean you go to a more developed country in a couple of years where the pay is much greater. You could also decide on retirement outside of the US. Or while you are abroad start working towards a very high paying career so you can turbocharge your savings once you leave the teaching job.All of these are options. Which one works for you depends on sitting down and figuring out what life plan you want now and in retirement and then working backwards to figure out how to get there. This may mean changing some of your desired path, but it should allow you to preserve whatever is most important to you. 