How do you save for aliyah while paying tuition?

amother

OP ↓

Thu, Jul 18 2024, 4:48 pm

We are seriously considering Aliyah in the next few years for various reasons (ideological/security/tuition). I’m trying to figure out how people save for this when they’re already paying tuition. I’ve heard ranges like 10k-50k needed (assuming we can’t transfer our jobs) and can’t fathom how to save that money when we’re barely making ends meet already (like, 50k is 2-3 years of tuition for 3 kids…if I had the ability to save that I wouldn’t be stressing about paying tuition here, and also we would have to disclose savings on the subsidy application so could end up having to pay more). How on earth do people do this?

↑ Reality ↓

Thu, Jul 18 2024, 4:57 pm

amother Orange wrote:

Not everyone owns a home.

I know that. Most people have a car though. Used car prices are still through the roof. That's a good $10,000 or $20,000 right there, depending what type of car you own.

There's no one size fits all answer. I'm just saying what a lot of people do.

amother

Diamond ↓

Thu, Jul 18 2024, 5:20 pm

Do not make aliyah because of tuition or security. This is a challenging time for Jews everywhere. It's a false notion to think you can move to Israel and suddenly be super safe. As someone living in Israel, October 7th nearly broke me. Make aliyah because the most important thing to you is living in Israel. You have to value that above all else to be successful! (And family and friends are HUGE assests too!!)

amother

Yolk

Thu, Jul 18 2024, 5:30 pm

Moving in general comes with a lot of added expenses . The same way people save for anything in life - put a small amount aside from money that you saved by cutting back on from elsewhere. I know someone who sold their house and then moved into family for six months to save on rent until their Aliyah date. Also people sell all their possessions since a lot of stuff don’t work for Israeli apartments/ lifestyles

shabbatiscoming ↓

Thu, Jul 18 2024, 5:33 pm

amother Diamond wrote:

I know a few families that actually made aliyah because of tuition.
People make aliyah for so many different reasons.
And some people feel safer among Jews than being a (possible) target not among our own.
Also, look at the massive russian aliyah in the 90s. They were not all coming her efor their great love of Israel. But boy were they a success over all.

amother

↑ Diamond

Thu, Jul 18 2024, 5:40 pm

shabbatiscoming wrote:

1. Depending on where you live you might still need to pay some amount of monthly tuition
2. Salaries are lower and taxes are higher so it ends up many times evening out
3. Comparing anglos making aliyah to Russians is silly. You're comparing apples to oranges.
4. Re safety- how many of our boys have to die in Gaza before people keep spreading this safety idea??? Completely absurd. Israel is still in galus. It's not safe from anything. Right now is a dangerous times for jews all over the world! We are so foolish to think otherwise.

↑ shabbatiscoming ↓

Thu, Jul 18 2024, 6:07 pm

amother Diamond wrote:

You missed the entire point of my reply.
1. I never said school was free here. But you cant compare tuition in dome parts of america and Israel.
2. Evening out? Again, tuition in the states csnt even anything out here.
3. My point in comparing russian aliyah and anglo aliyah was that not everyone makes aliyah for the same reasons.
4. I didnt say we ARE safer. But some might have a feeling of bring among our brethren instead of our non jewish neighbors. I know some like that. Not unheard of at all.

amother

Aconite ↓

Thu, Jul 18 2024, 7:26 pm

amother Lavender wrote:

How can you move to Israel without financial security?

On every Aliyah thread people yell at all of us for not making Aliyah. Saying we would come if we really wanted to and make it work.

So what is it do we need financial security (if so many of us are not coming until kids are married), or do we just go and make it work?

amother

↑ OP ↓

Thu, Jul 18 2024, 7:54 pm

Reality wrote:

Do you own your home? Do you own a car or two?

When you sell them before making aliyah, you put x amount of money aside as your cushion.

(OP)
We own our house BH (well, with a mortgage). But the minute we would sell it we wouldn’t have anywhere to live (no family to stay by etc) so we wouldn’t be able to sell it early enough to cover moving expenses. We would probably rent it out to cover the mortgage for the first couple of years until we knew where we wanted to settle and buy there.

I would be shocked if I could get 10k for my van, but yes we would sell that. But again, we wouldn’t be able to have that money long beforehand. This is what I keep getting stuck on

amother

↑ OP ↓

Thu, Jul 18 2024, 8:19 pm

amother Diamond wrote:

(OP here)
I know there are options for private/semi-private that cost, but I really feel like there are plenty of options to find a decent public school and even in a private school it’s not comparable. We currently pay ~2000/month for 3 kids (really 2.5 because preschool is subsidized by the government so it’s much cheaper), after very generous subsidies (full tuition would be around 50k and always going up) and have 5 kids BH so I figure eventually we’ll be paying closer to 4000/mth. My friend in Israel said she pays around 2000/year (may be per kid) for private.

We’re not in the US so we already pay >30% in taxes so 🤷🏻‍♀️ but I know salaries are lower. I still think financially it would make sense since I’m assuming we would (eventually) be working in jobs that paid not horribly. But the issue is literally having the funds for getting there and getting settled.

amother

↑ OP ↓

Thu, Jul 18 2024, 8:21 pm

amother Steelblue wrote:

Thats exactly OP's problem/complaint.
How do you save while paying tuition.
All savings need to be disclosed to tuition committees.

Exactly. And I really do appreciate the generous subsidy system, but I would be annoyed if I was paying full tuition (ie my tuition was subsidizing others) and people were receiving subsidies with large amounts of savings. (But also, don’t see how we would save when every dollar is spoken for with tuition anyway)

amother

↑ Lavender ↓

Thu, Jul 18 2024, 8:26 pm

amother Aconite wrote:

No, it's irresponsible to just go. Every person must weigh their options very carefully and discuss this move with a Talmid Chochom, Daas Torah or whatever you call it.
As it is, Eretz Yisroel is nikneh with yissurim, and that's with coming financially secure....

amother

↑ Aconite ↓

Thu, Jul 18 2024, 10:03 pm

amother Lavender wrote:

So why then on the other threads are we called lazy, and told that people are sick of our excuses?

amother

Cappuccino

Thu, Jul 18 2024, 11:30 pm

Everyone figures it out however they can. I brought only what I needed and sold space on my lift to reduce costs. I didn’t use vacation so I could get a payout from my job when I left.

I disagree with most of the advice here.

We’re paying less in tuition and financial my secure here. Hashem just made things work. When my dh was fired, he found a new job within the month. It’s yad Hashem.

There is no solid financial plan anywhere in the universe. We kid ourselves. We attempt with hishtadlut by getting a degree. But companies go bankrupt, people get sick, things go wrong. If you can learn Hebrew and find out about the job market and how fast it takes to find would in your field, you should be ok. Plan within reason. For example, the olim I know all had jobs within six months. Many had within a shorter period. You will also get sal kilta.

If you’re going to be exiled in this world, it should be to a place of spirituality and a place where our maasim are complete. (Quoting an idea from a sefer.)

↑ Reality ↓

Fri, Jul 19 2024, 1:02 am

amother OP wrote:

That's a different question. I answered what people do to have a cushion in Israel til everybody is working again.

You are asking about cost of a lift. Your getting to Israel is practically free, your tickets are paid by the Jewish agency.

You're asking how people pay for a lift. Lift prices vary depending where you live. You said you don't live in the US.

You are a young family. Do you have a house full of good quality furniture? A 20 ft lift from the US costs $10,000 these days. Many people are not sure it's worth the money and it's better to buy in Israel.

I think you can save the amount of money to pay for moving expenses guilt free of the tuition committee. We are talking about a few thousand dollars, not a huge sum of money.

In the US there are Christian organizations that give money to help jews pay for the expense of moving to Israel. Many rabbanim allow it, ask a shaila. There are a few and they give a few thousand dollars, not chump change.

The people who truly can't afford, either took a small partial lift that was much cheaper or didn't take one. They were young families and made do until they were able to buy stuff in Israel.