Is S$90,000 salary good for a NUS senior fellow

[$Pripps]

Just for reference I am a primary teacher at an international school here in Singapore.  I make 80 K a year, 2.5 K monthly housing allowance, flight every other year, if I had kids their school fees would be covered (up to two).  I am single and save over half my salary every month and take medium expensive vacations every few months.  

If you are getting additional benefits on top of the 90 K salary you'll be fine.  If only the 90 K you'd struggle hugely.  

I think the equation would have looked different if you had to pay for school.

[vistula]

Still have not made a decision. Thanks for all your input.

BTW: We're moving from the US to Singapore, and excited about living in a new culture (not my 15 year old son though!)

Is this crazy...to move for $S 90,000....

I think you need to think really hard if you can afford it; the international school fees will take anywhere from $20-25K per year per child.

[Depends...]

Neal,

There are many NUS faculty members who spent time in the US like yourself who are happy with sending their children to local schools. The schools are often considered superior to the ones in their home countries. However, this generally works well if the children were young enough to begin in the local school system.

Unfortunately, as a research fellow, you really can't benchmark your comp against tenure-track faculty, who are paid much better. Depending on your field, your package is considered quite good for even US standards (the sad truth about academia). As other posts mentioned, only come if you are OK with your children going to local schools because international school fees for older children can exceed S$30K/yr (you might very well be happy with them if you are originally from China or India).

If you are thinking of using this as a stepping stone, you'd better do your research. Ask about the types of positions their research fellows moved on to. In the last few years, most NUS departments hired their faculty from top universities overseas so it might not be a good strategy if NUS tenure-track is your goal. The research quality at NUS has improved by leaps and bounds but there's generally a long lag before the international reputation catches up. As a research fellow, your job prospects are not just linked to your research impact but also to the reputation of your institution.