My daughter lives in Cuba as does my wife. I have a bit of the opposite situation in that I had a good business in the West but decided to give it up to move abroad. (I'll be abroad as of March) I should note while I call her my wife we are not married.
I'd leave them in their country regardless. They need their friends and families. It's not easy for a woman who is passed college age and doesn't speak the native tongue to move to a new country and make sufficient connections that it will replace what she has back home. Men cope better with distance in my opinion.
I wouldn't worry too much about the finances unless you are really really tight. (I.e. you can only afford to live on like $15 or $20 a day) If you are at that point then yes you'll notice the cost of the kid. If you have a more normal income for a foreigner in the developing world. If you are making net say $1000+ a month you won't notice the cost really. If it does affect you cut out something from your lifestyle where you are bleeding money. How many guys you know go and get a pop and snickers or whatever and spend $3 a day on that or smoke a half pack a day. Drop that and you basically pay for your kid. Other simple solutions are things like renting a slightly cheaper place. In your case you also have to remember the mom works and day care / child care services are probably very economical there so your wifes income probably can cover the cost of the kid with ease.
My daughter probably will all in cost me $1200-$2400 this year. That covers everything from food, clothes, birthday parties etc. Very rough estimate but practical. Its hard for me to give an exact because I support both her and her mother and I don't know exactly what is spent on my daughter but I'd guess its around that.
Where kids get costly is in the West with the notion that you need to send them to private schools, private tutors out of country educational trips etc. The reality is most of that stuff is just waste and provides limited improvement if any on your child and your families life. I'm not trying to generalise but I would rate private school as a hugely shit investment unless by some off chance your kid happens to be the elite of the elite. If your kid is destined to be the next fortune 500 CEO then sure by all means. But for the vast majority they would've in my opinion been a hell of a lot better investing all of the money they spent on private school in an index fund and give it to their kid at 35.
I see that you are considering as well bringing her to US and both of you working there. Heres the thing. While in a pure $ number you will make significantly more how will your lifestyle compare. I asked myself that when I decided to close my business in the West. In my case I figured out how much cheaper Cuba was in terms of cost for things I like verse where I am and figured the number is easily 5-10x cheaper. The amount of after tax money I'd have to make in the West would require stupid amounts of hours compared to what I can get in Cuba. I'd also have to work verse not work or just work for fun money just to be able to provide a similar lifestyle.
You run other risks in bringing her to the West. Including future alimony / child support payments. I suspect these would be significantly higher and more burdensome in the US. Another factor you would also face is she will certainly want to go back home for vacations and people back home unless shes rich she will want to help out. This means mommy gets a new flat screen, hermano gets his first motorcycle, monthly remittances etc. This can quickly get very silly.
Given what you've said about yourself and I'm assuming you have taught ESL to fund your travels perhaps you might want to look into the requirements to become an international school teacher. That may be a worthwhile endeavor and allow you to significantly boost your lifestyle quality in Peru.
One thing that I will say is making a ton of money doesn't bring happiness. I watch friends and family who make absolutely great incomes but their life consists of work, tv, wife, overpriced shoe box, ridiculous car payments etc. They are no happier in my opinion than someone making a fraction of their income but with some freedom. I personally went and got the high paying career and quickly realized the money doesn't make me happy. What does are being with friends, family, meeting new people, enjoying new experiences and travelling. I had a hell of a lot more fun in college then I did making money.
This goes to say while you say you have no marketable skills and are almost suggesting you wasted your 20s I'd bet you were 10x as happy as your buddies pouring their souls into a cubicle so instead of the reasonable 1500 square foot house in a decent neighbourhood they could buy their wife a 4000 square foot house in a more classy neighbourhood and then take on truly stupid endeavours to make their wifes happy like putting in a new $50,000 kitchen because I guess the old one which didn't have marble countertops just isn't up to the Jones standard. My house in Cuba is worth about 1/40th-1/50th the house I live in the West. Guess which house I enjoy myself more in. It certainly isn't the one here in the West.
I think your kid will have far better value growing up in South America than in the US. How far the degradation has come is made clear to me by the fact that the This Is America song which seemed to demonstrate mass shootings managed to win the song of the year at the grammys the other night. I wouldn't have even classified it as music nevermind giving it awards.
I'd leave them in their country regardless. They need their friends and families. It's not easy for a woman who is passed college age and doesn't speak the native tongue to move to a new country and make sufficient connections that it will replace what she has back home. Men cope better with distance in my opinion.
I wouldn't worry too much about the finances unless you are really really tight. (I.e. you can only afford to live on like $15 or $20 a day) If you are at that point then yes you'll notice the cost of the kid. If you have a more normal income for a foreigner in the developing world. If you are making net say $1000+ a month you won't notice the cost really. If it does affect you cut out something from your lifestyle where you are bleeding money. How many guys you know go and get a pop and snickers or whatever and spend $3 a day on that or smoke a half pack a day. Drop that and you basically pay for your kid. Other simple solutions are things like renting a slightly cheaper place. In your case you also have to remember the mom works and day care / child care services are probably very economical there so your wifes income probably can cover the cost of the kid with ease.
My daughter probably will all in cost me $1200-$2400 this year. That covers everything from food, clothes, birthday parties etc. Very rough estimate but practical. Its hard for me to give an exact because I support both her and her mother and I don't know exactly what is spent on my daughter but I'd guess its around that.
Where kids get costly is in the West with the notion that you need to send them to private schools, private tutors out of country educational trips etc. The reality is most of that stuff is just waste and provides limited improvement if any on your child and your families life. I'm not trying to generalise but I would rate private school as a hugely shit investment unless by some off chance your kid happens to be the elite of the elite. If your kid is destined to be the next fortune 500 CEO then sure by all means. But for the vast majority they would've in my opinion been a hell of a lot better investing all of the money they spent on private school in an index fund and give it to their kid at 35.
I see that you are considering as well bringing her to US and both of you working there. Heres the thing. While in a pure $ number you will make significantly more how will your lifestyle compare. I asked myself that when I decided to close my business in the West. In my case I figured out how much cheaper Cuba was in terms of cost for things I like verse where I am and figured the number is easily 5-10x cheaper. The amount of after tax money I'd have to make in the West would require stupid amounts of hours compared to what I can get in Cuba. I'd also have to work verse not work or just work for fun money just to be able to provide a similar lifestyle.
You run other risks in bringing her to the West. Including future alimony / child support payments. I suspect these would be significantly higher and more burdensome in the US. Another factor you would also face is she will certainly want to go back home for vacations and people back home unless shes rich she will want to help out. This means mommy gets a new flat screen, hermano gets his first motorcycle, monthly remittances etc. This can quickly get very silly.
Given what you've said about yourself and I'm assuming you have taught ESL to fund your travels perhaps you might want to look into the requirements to become an international school teacher. That may be a worthwhile endeavor and allow you to significantly boost your lifestyle quality in Peru.
One thing that I will say is making a ton of money doesn't bring happiness. I watch friends and family who make absolutely great incomes but their life consists of work, tv, wife, overpriced shoe box, ridiculous car payments etc. They are no happier in my opinion than someone making a fraction of their income but with some freedom. I personally went and got the high paying career and quickly realized the money doesn't make me happy. What does are being with friends, family, meeting new people, enjoying new experiences and travelling. I had a hell of a lot more fun in college then I did making money.
This goes to say while you say you have no marketable skills and are almost suggesting you wasted your 20s I'd bet you were 10x as happy as your buddies pouring their souls into a cubicle so instead of the reasonable 1500 square foot house in a decent neighbourhood they could buy their wife a 4000 square foot house in a more classy neighbourhood and then take on truly stupid endeavours to make their wifes happy like putting in a new $50,000 kitchen because I guess the old one which didn't have marble countertops just isn't up to the Jones standard. My house in Cuba is worth about 1/40th-1/50th the house I live in the West. Guess which house I enjoy myself more in. It certainly isn't the one here in the West.
I think your kid will have far better value growing up in South America than in the US. How far the degradation has come is made clear to me by the fact that the This Is America song which seemed to demonstrate mass shootings managed to win the song of the year at the grammys the other night. I wouldn't have even classified it as music nevermind giving it awards.