That's a LOT of Money

I have been at camp all week with children and youth from our church.  I have met a lot of people who I have gotten to share with about our journey to Spain.  When it has come to partnership, I have gotten the same reaction quite often... "That's a LOT of money!"  Yep, you are right.  We do have to raise quite a bit of money for our support, but when you begin to see where it goes it doesn't quite seem so much.

Our support is $9781 per month.  Here is where it goes...

• Housing - we are given a housing allowance - a 1200 square foot unfurnished apartment will be between $1200 and $1500 per month.  Nothing fancy - 3 bedrooms, a bath, a living area, and a kitchen.  If we choose living arrangements that cost most than the allowance it comes out of our salary.
• Insurance - we will pay for our entire health insurance - no employer helping with those costs, although we are part of a group plan that will help lower the costs.  This is approximately $1000 per month.
• Salary - we will receiving a modest salary - this will cover all of our personal expenses except housing - these include utilities, food, entertainment, clothing, personal transportation, tithes, field trips, cell phones, Internet, .... - this salary will allow us to live a modest life style - we will not be poor, but we will have to be very wise with our spending to make it stretch each month
• Education - there is an education allowance included in our support.  This does not pay for our kids to go to college - we will be doing that the old fashioned way - financial aid (if we qualify), scholarships, loans, savings, and work studies.  This allowance covers educational needs through 12th grade.  For Hannah, this allowance will allow her to do her senior year in an English speaking missionary school.  (By the way, because SEND has missionary teachers at the school her tuition is reduced)  For Alex this will allow him to go to Spanish public schools and have a tutor to help him stay caught up with academics until he masters enough Spanish to succeed in school.   There is no education allowance for Zach (and there is actually no support allowance for him in any category)
• Taxes - the US Government will consider us self employed so we will have to pay self employment tax as well as Social Security (I don't understand this whole category - just know about how much we will have to pay).  The Spanish government will also take it's share of taxes.
• Retirement - because of our age (makes us sound real old) SEND requires us to put a certain amount of money into retirement each month.  They want to be sure we have something saved when we retire from the field.  However, if we are depending on this amount to live off when we retire we are in trouble.  We will have to continue to save personally for retirement as well.
• Ministry- all of our ministry expenses will be funded through our support - this includes materials, transportation, crafts, etc. 
• Administration - and yes, a small portion of our monthly support is used for administrative support from SEND.  This support includes the handling of our funds making them tax deductible, security support when needed, communication, training, and even checking in on Zach as needed (he will be here in the states).

Spain is expensive and the exchange rate is not very good right now.  Every US Dollar is only worth 70 cents today.  Gas was $8/gallon (they buy it in liters, but this is the conversion to gallons) when we were there in January.   One web site said that the average grocery bill for a family of four was between 400 and 500 Euros/month (that is $550 to $700/month).  A combo meal at McDonald's is nearly $9.  Needless to say we will not be eating out very often.  A gallon of milk is nearly $5.

We know we are asking for a lot of people to partner at a very high cost.  We had our own "you got to be kidding" reaction when SEND gave us the amount, but after it was broken down for us we realize it is a very reasonable number.  This number takes into account our term is 5 years and what the expected inflation rate and exchange rates will be.  This allows us to not have to raise new support each year. 

If you still have questions, please do not hesitate to ask.  We would love to clarify anything or give more detail if needed.