Newcomer Would you move a family to Argentina...?

[BenVeo]

If you were a family of 4 with a stable career and a happy family (2 young children) life in the UK but also looking for adventure, would you move to Argentina?

Having been offered a very good job in a relatively leafy part of BA with excellent conditions but almost all in pesos we've started to research the lifestyle of BA and found this excellent forum. However when I read the posts here it's a bit like researching a medical condition on the Internet. Before you know it you've got six months to live and everything is futile!!

Will my wife be able to go out on her own with the children, as she does here, without fear of being robbed or worse?

The way I see it is that there are quite a few embittered people here on the forum who seem to have large amounts of time on their hands to run everything about Argentina down, forgetting that it is a developing country and therefore not like their home country where everything is milk and honey...

There must be plenty of positives of life in Argentina.. and it would be great to hear from those who have made the leap and not regretted it

Any levelled reasoned response would be great.

Many thanks!

 

[DaveDed]

Here's my opinion, I am a native new yorker and have lived in Argentina for 6 years. When I first came here, I really loved just about everything about it. There are still things I like. However in the past 2 years the political situation has worsened, and discontent of the general population has increased significantly. People who I knew who have had families similar to yours have left. Argentina is a great place if you have money outside the country, have a large network of family and friends, and don't have to depend on a local business or the local economy to survive. When I first came here I got an okay job, where I worked for a year, I then opened a business which was difficult, but did well economically but then the corruption took over, inspectors asking for bribes, being held up at gunpoint, difficult employees, bursting pipes that nobody would fix, merchandise unavailable to sell, people wanting kickbacks to deliver goods to my store, and it goes on and on. Since I closed my business I've had 2 jobs, the first one lasted for 5 months and that company closed and went back to the USA, and the 2nd company I worked for cancelled the project I was working on for Argentina and now only focuses on markets outside of Argentina. I found a short term temp project which ends this month, and then I will be unemployed again. As far as safety it's definitely safer than some other places in South America, however if something does happen, and there are more and more crimes each month, the scary part is that there is no effective police or security force to intervene and if there is a tragedy the justice system is also next to inexistant and highly corrupt. This is a very unstable time here, I personally would keep Argentina on my list for a place to visit at some time in the future but I would not relocate here with a family at this point in time. Cheers and good luck.

 

[ZoeSio]

I'm an argie in my 50's with two young teens. I'd say now is not the time.

There are dark clouds in the horizon and it would not surprise me one bit if in the future, when things really start to go south, the Rulers play the Gringo go home! card to divert the people's anger. They divide to conquer often enough. They also follow Chavez (and Fidel's) path
Income in pesos does not make any sense for foreigners with other options. Who can assure you you'll see those pesos or will be able to use them? Been there already when my youngest was just a baby.
Do not want to play the alarmist but would certainly not bring my family into this turmoil. Being a brit is not a plus, I'm afraid.

 

[MDirtBoy]

I'd have to concur with a lot of what has been said. I have a family of 4 - (2 kids under 13). We live in Belgrano - one of the more expensive places to live in Buenos Aries and we live well on $4000US per month including rent, food, private school, eating out, etc.

I manage the Argentine subsidiary of USA company. Fortunately, most of our clients are foreigners with Dollars in their hand at the luxury end of the market. We haven't been hit (yet) with a decrease in business. I personally, haven't had the really bad experiences in my business that some people have had but I know for a fact that those things happen.

I came here in 2006 when you could be a total idiot and make money. Those days are gone. If you have a niche that is protected in some way from this economy you could do ok.

Buenos Aires (and the rest of Argentina) has a lot to offer in the way of culture, art, music, tourism, etc. It seems to now have a bit more than it's share of the bad stuff like crime, litter, idiot government policies, and a general negative sentiment.

 

[earlyretirement]

If you were a family of 4 with a stable career and a happy family (2 young children) life in the UK but also looking for adventure, would you move to Argentina?

Having been offered a very good job in a relatively leafy part of BA with excellent conditions but almost all in pesos we've started to research the lifestyle of BA and found this excellent forum. However when I read the posts here it's a bit like researching a medical condition on the Internet. Before you know it you've got six months to live and everything is futile!!

Will my wife be able to go out on her own with the children, as she does here, without fear of being robbed or worse?

The way I see it is that there are quite a few embittered people here on the forum who seem to have large amounts of time on their hands to run everything about Argentina down, forgetting that it is a developing country and therefore not like their home country where everything is milk and honey...

There must be plenty of positives of life in Argentina.. and it would be great to hear from those who have made the leap and not regretted it

Any levelled reasoned response would be great.

Many thanks!

Absolutely NOT. In fact, many with families (especially young kids) are moving OUT of Argentina. Not in. Good luck.

 

[HouZzz]

After five years, i'm leaving for many different reasons but the bottom line is the pesos i earn are worthless. if you're offered a job in pesos, don't bother, because it's very unlikely you'll be able to change them on your way out. Thus, saving money is pointless.

i'll let the others detail the problems with insecurity, poor quality and expensive products, lack of variety of food, the persistent challenges of daily life, etc

 

[earlyretirement]

After five years, i'm leaving for many different reasons but the bottom line is the pesos i earn are worthless. if you're offered a job in pesos, don't bother, because it's very unlikely you'll be able to change them on your way out. Thus, saving money is pointless.

i'll let the others detail the problems with insecurity, poor quality and expensive products, lack of variety of food, the persistent challenges of daily life, etc

EXACTLY. You mentioned you have a STABLE career so why would you risk that coming to Argentina? Your family is happy now. That might not be the case once they come to Argentina, especially if they are accustomed to a lifestyle in the UK where things just work much better than they do in Argentina.

Forget all the restrictions, controls, red tape, crime, can't by dollars/Sterling on the open exchange, poor quality and selection of food in the stores, non-existent customer service in the stores, etc.

Even forgetting those things the most important thing is why in the world would you risk a stable career on a so so job where you said you will mostly make pesos? Stability is the LAST thing you will find in Argentina. The job you take might not even be there in a few months. The company could easily just shut down or decide that it's not worth doing business in Argentina. Things are far from stable here in Argentina.

If you're looking for adventure, there are far better things to do with your family or go on some exciting vacations but I wouldn't consider that kind of "adventure" and risking your career and your family's well being moving to Argentina right now.

Definitely Argentina isn't a place to uproot your kids lives and your spouse's life and friends and possibly family just for some adventure. If things actually worked there and things weren't so corrupt, and there was no red tape, and Argentina had a great leader in place, was pro-business and was going in the right direction then it would be worth considering. But that is far from what is going on today.

 

[TechNow]

After five years, i'm leaving for many different reasons but the bottom line is the pesos i earn are worthless. if you're offered a job in pesos, don't bother, because it's very unlikely you'll be able to change them on your way out. Thus, saving money is pointless.

i'll let the others detail the problems with insecurity, poor quality and expensive products, lack of variety of food, the persistent challenges of daily life, etc

If you really feel your pesos are worthless, I'm happy to take them off your hands. I'll even come over to your place and save you the trip of bringing them to me.

Can you all stop the rhetoric about how the peso is worth nothing? The peso is worth $0.15 USD. There are thousands of Argentines who will change your pesos for dollars. The problem is that a lot of people on this board think they should be getting the official exchange rate for their pesos and that is why they run into so much trouble.

If you go into this job with the awareness that your $18,000 peso salary is worth about 1750 GBP, you'll be just fine.

 

[earlyretirement]

If you really feel your pesos are worthless, I'm happy to take them off your hands. I'll even come over to your place and save you the trip of bringing them to me.

Can you all stop the rhetoric about how the peso is worth nothing? The peso is worth $0.15 USD. There are thousands of Argentines who will change your pesos for dollars. The problem is that a lot of people on this board think they should be getting the official exchange rate for their pesos and that is why they run into so much trouble.

If you go into this job with the awareness that your $18,000 peso salary is worth about 1750 GBP, you'll be just fine.

Exactly. Just as long as you know that it's only 1,750 GBP right now (and could drastically change in the short/long term) and you are comfortable with it.

There is some good advice on this thread. Just go into the move with your eye wide open.

You mentioned that your kids are younger. I agree this will be easier now before they started school and developed friendships with other kids. It's easier uprooting kids when they are that young. But once they start school (even Kindergarten) it's more difficult to make big moves like this.

None of us can factor in how much this could help your career. Just out of curiosity, how would this help your career? Is it because no one else in your company would take this move? Just ask yourself the important questions like what the odds of you getting ahead in your job if you took it?

Also, compare how much you are currently making. No offense but £1,750 with 2 kids is NOTHING to write home about. Even with rent covered, I'd consider that a very tiny amount. No way I could survive on that with my two kids.

You mentioned traveling around in South America. That isn't a big salary to travel around in South America with a family of 4. Traveling within South America is NOTHING like traveling around in Europe on super discount airlines like Ryan Air or Easyjet. It's quite expensive here.

So you probably need to ask yourself how much of this is you wanting an adventure and exploring South America and how much of this is actually the possibility of you getting ahead with your job. The key is just be honest with yourself.

Also, what does your spouse think about your plans and this move? Typically in a huge move like this it's always tougher on the spouse. Is she on board with this move and does she know the realistic situation of Argentina right now? You have to honestly answer those kinds of questions before you even think about a big move like this.

And someone else brings up a good point about how many times do you plan to go back to the UK for holidays? I'd assume at least once a year to visit family/grandparents, etc.

Because I have two young kids and just a simple flight back to Europe with 4 can be over $6,000 US dollars in coach class. So I'd also see how much of savings you have built up.

Just go into the possible move with as much information as possible and stay realistic. I'd also recommend making a pro/con list for staying and moving.

From the outside looking in, it sounds more like you are looking for an adventure vs. doing it for a possible career advancement. And that is still ok as long as you're being honest with yourself about it.

 

[Mart]

I too want to know how a family of 4 lives on 4K USD a month - clearly I'm budgeting wrong!

To the poster above - no Arlean, most places outside of Argentina simply won't take pesos at all. Or if they do, they might offer you an exchange rate of 7-1, 8-1, etc.

So if you want to travel outside of Argentina - what are your options? Very few people can get AFIP approval to buy dollars/euros/whatever here. So they can't buy currency before they leave. They can't exchange pesos outside of Argentina. They can't withdraw money at the ATMs in another country if they have a peso account here in Argentina. If they use their credit card/debit card, the gov't assesses a 15% tax on every purchase they make. Plus a 50% tax if you spend more than 300 USD on buying things overseas.

Pesos are in fact fairly worthless outside of Argentina, period.

 

[MDirtBoy]

I too want to know how a family of 4 lives on 4K USD a month - clearly I'm budgeting wrong!

To the poster above - no Arlean, most places outside of Argentina simply won't take pesos at all. Or if they do, they might offer you an exchange rate of 7-1, 8-1, etc.

So if you want to travel outside of Argentina - what are your options? Very few people can get AFIP approval to buy dollars/euros/whatever here. So they can't buy currency before they leave. They can't exchange pesos outside of Argentina. They can't withdraw money at the ATMs in another country if they have a peso account here in Argentina. If they use their credit card/debit card, the gov't assesses a 15% tax on every purchase they make. Plus a 50% tax if you spend more than 300 USD on buying things overseas.

Pesos are in fact fairly worthless outside of Argentina, period.

Really? $4,000US is $18,800AR at the official rate and $24,400AR at the blue rate. You cant live comfortably on that?

What am I missing?

 

[earlyretirement]

Really? $4,000US is $18,800AR at the official rate and $24,400AR at the blue rate. You cant live comfortably on that?

What am I missing?

No way I could do it either with 2 kids.

-Even taking out the rental payment (we owned our flat in BA) we had monthly condo dues that were quite high.

- ABL taxes
- Home phone line
- My wife and I had cellphone plans with Blackberry service
- Electricity, gas, water, cable, 2 internet plans
- Housekeeper salary
- Groceries each month
- Car Insurance, fuel, license plate fees each year
- Life insurance
- Health insurance with OSDE for the family
- Home insurance for our apartment
- Dining out at restaurants
- School stuff and classes (swimming classes, ballet classes, horse riding lessons, etc)
- Kids clothes (they grow like weeds!)
- Haircuts, etc. for the family
- Salon stuff for my wife (hair, nails, etc)
- Clothes for my wife and I (mostly work clothes)
- Drycleaning
- Gym dues
- Entertaining and sporting events (movies, concerts,etc)
- Subscriptions to newspaper and magazines including on ipad


This isn't even accounting for saving up for our kids college, charity donations we made, retirement savings contributions or any work related stuff.

We EASILY spent more than that. It's not difficult. $4,000 US a month with 2 kids isn't too much money in any country that you're in. Argentina included.

 

[earlyretirement]

Edit: I forgot annual asset taxes on our place we owned. Just that each month was a small fortune when you took what was due each year. I forgot about our biggest expense which was traveling. It's VERY expensive to travel around within South America. Not fun getting airline tickets for 4 people and very expensive. That was one of our biggest expenses.

Trips back to the USA for holidays/Christmas each year were typically $6,200 or more as it was always expensive during that time of year to go back to the USA. I'd imagine most expats would also be taking at least a trip or two back to their home country to visit grandparents, etc.

 

[CarliNeces]

I travel all over South America for work ( i dont pay for the tickets) 2-3 times a month. But the prices are high!!!

 

[StiveCosae]

There has been a lot of chatter here about money, but it isn't clear if the $18,000 pesos per month is before or after taxes. If it's before taxes, your disposable income will be reduced significantly. I also suggest that you learn as much as possible about life in Palomar and the accommodations before you accept the position.

I have never been to Palomar but I have been to Ramos Mijea which is next to it. It is a "working class" area with lots of small industry. I think there is a Peugeot factory in the Palomar area as well. If possible, I suggest you get as much detail about the housing which will be provided for you. Palomar may be "leafy" in the park(s), but not necessarily where your housing is located. Have there been other employees of your company who have lived there? Can you get any information from them? If it's a house it will probably have other house next to it with the walls in contact with each other. Unless you can get some advance information you have no way of knowing if the neighbors are nice or noisy. There could be a business next door that generates a lot of noise (iron or metal workers, auto body or mechanic shop, etc.). If it's a house it will have bars on the windows and anti-robo curtains as well. When the curtains are closed you may feel like you are living a a cave. There won't be much of a selection of restaurants there, either. There will, however, be lots of buses.

You indicated you wife might work. If she can work for the same company that would be great, but if she has to try to find a job in the area it will be difficult, especially of she doesn't speak the language. Others have posted about the wonderful kindergartens in BA, but I think they all lived in "nicer" areas of Capital Federal. You may not find one with anyone who speaks English. That would really mean total immersion for your older child, but how much will they remember after you return to England and the child has no reason to continue speaking a foreign language? It is also doubtful that you could find an English speaking nanny willing to commute from areas like Palermo or Belgrano (which are areas you cold easily find one).

Images of Palomar:

https://www.google.com.ar/search?q=...H49gTr4YG4BQ&ved=0CDkQsAQ4Cg&biw=1303&bih=677

History of Palomar:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Palomar,_Buenos_Aires

From the wikipedia page: "El Palomar is served by Ferrocarril General San Martín commuter rail service at El Palomar station with easy access to Retiro Station in downtown Buenos Aires, as well as by National Route 7."

The San Martin line is described as overused and underfunded. there were plans for new tracks and new coaches, but I don't think it ever happened. I was advised to stay away from the line when I first arrived in Argentina. The train runs from Retiro to Pilar. If you do use it you may have difficulty being able to sit, even though you have small children. Some might offer their seats, but I wouldn't count on it. I would never ride on this line at night.

 

[Chesse]

@StiveCosae : almost always when people talk about wages here (I've never enountered different), the figure presented to the employee is the after-tax amount. People here as a whole have the attitude that the employer pays the taxes (and whatever fees, including sindicato dues, etc), even though we know that the employee really pays and if the taxes and such weren't so high the actually take-home would be higher as well.

You make some good points about the area around Palomar and Ramos Mejia, from what I understand as I've never actually been out that way, but I have an expat friend that actually lives in the outskirts of Ramos Mejia. He legally took over a bunch of land out there by occupying land that hadn't been used for decades and had back taxes owed. He improved the land, did whatever legal things needed to get the title over in his name (which included paying the back taxes) and ended up with what he describes as good land at a very cheap cost.

He also tells me about how very rural is his life out there. It suits him.

Stive, you're right about the train - my buddy says it's rickety and dirty and feels unsafe. He took the train for about a year, to our expat dinners on Fridays, when his truck was out of commission. Yuck, is the sense I got from him.

I can't remember now where the $4000 USD a month number came from, the official rate on $18000 pesos a month (doesn't quite reach 4K)? Of course, we all know that the real value of that is more like $2900 USD a month at the blue exchange rate (for the moment! slipping every month), which is extremely important because it gives one a sense of how much the salary is actually worth in more real terms here.

Living out there may provide the ability to live on 18,000 pesos a month, though. Depends on what kind of life, and possibly what kind of commute.

You other guys who are saying you can't live on $4000 USD a month here for a family of 4 - I'm with you as well, at least from my point of view. I think there are varying degrees of this - someone with 4 and 2 year olds can live cheaper than I do, and particularly out in the sticks of Gran Buenos Aires.

I know there are people (expats I mean) who live with families for that or less here in the city as well. It is possible - obviously, the Argentines do it all the time. With MUCH less. (Side note: I took my sister-in-law and a friend of hers out to dinner and a movie on Saturday. We went to TGI Friday to eat - not because I like the place, but because it was in Recoleta shopping by the cine, and because her friend had never eaten there before. She lives on Libertador at Libertad, not a bad place at all, but they are doing everything they can to survive and don't go spend $420 pesos for a meal for 3 people...ever).

One thing that many people who say "you can live so much cheaper than X salary in Buenos Aires" (I'm going to include Gran Buenos Aires in that) don't seem to bother with is the standard of living, unless I'm missing something.

I didn't move to Argentina with the expressed purpose of lowering my standard of living. I didn't immigrate to Argentina at all - I moved here to live, not to become Argentine. That doesn't meant that I don't want to learn the culture and that I want to isolate myself in an expat bubble (I live in both worlds).

What it means is - if I can't live what I consider to be a relatively high standard of living, I don't want to live here. I'm not committed to Argentina or Buenos Aires in particular to the point where I will continue to watch my standard of living shrink month by month and do nothing about it. I don't want to find myself moving into smaller and smaller apartments or houses, or moving into areas I don't care for in order to find something affordable, because I don't have to.

In point of fact, at the beginning of this year I had decided to do exactly that - leave Argentina. I'd had enough of the inflation and the other things that come with life here weren't enough to make me want to tolerate lowering my standard of living.

Hell, two years ago when I enrolled my sister-in-law into a private school in the city, we payed 680 pesos a month for school. We are now paying 1500. Professors to help her study when I couldn't help with a particular subject or was busy - from roughly 35 pesos an hour to 75+. Clothes prices rising, food prices rising, rent rising, etc, etc, etc, ad infinitum.

Then the split between the blue and official dollar rate finally began to seriously move and made things much more realistic price-wise. As an example, two and a half years ago, the dollar rate was probably something like 4 pesos back then if I remember well, less earlier in the year (working from memory). I was paying, then, for school at 680 pesos, between $180 - $170 USD roughly. Now, at the blue rate, I'm paying $241 USD. At the official rate, I'd be paying around $322 USD. While I'd rather pay $170 than $241, that's at least manageable but $322 is getting ridiculous, particularly for what we're getting.

This applies to everything here. Still more expensive than it was, but it set us back to prices comparable to a couple of years ago.

Now the political situation has me worried. It's not just prices that concern me, but stability and the ability to get things that one needs. But that's a whole other set of issues now...

Going back to someone moving here and earning $18000 pesos a month. Even if you could afford that now, don't think that it will retain its same value by the end of the year, for sure. And I'm not talking about converting to foreign currency like the dollar - $18000 pesos WILL buy much less here by the end of the year unless some sort of miracle occurs.

I cannot currently live on $4000 USD a month without lowering my lifestyle significantly. My apartment, parking space, building expenses, etc, cost half of that now (I like my apartment and I can get a king-sized bed in both of our two big bedrooms, my office could be a third bedroom and I could fit a king in here as well. I have a dependencia with a single bed too - when I was looking for apartments, cheaper ones had such small bedrooms a queen occupied most of the space - forget about a king it wouldn't have fit within the walls at all!). Add school, health and car insurance, electricity (!!!!!), land line telephone (!!!!) and all the other things listed previously by Early - without the blue rate I would have been gone around the time school opened this year.

The OP hasn't posted in a bit - maybe he's decided we're a bunch of complainers and we've got things all wrong, I don't know. I know I'm being as honest as possible from a viewpoint of maintaining a reasonably high standard of living.

 

[EmirJasd]

I love reading the many posts of interesting posters like earlyretirement.honestly it's a hoot and all of this thread is full of useful info for long term expats but standing aside and asking myself objectively does any of it really matter for a 2 yr posting? It seems like OPs work will take care of his major expenses like rent and schooling and hes hardly going to be on the breadline with 18k pesos for 2 years...It's hard to argue it's not a good move for the sheer expereince of it and the chance to go back to the UK and appreciate some of the things locals take for granted. Remember 2yrs tends to be the honeymoon period for many expats here..I know that it was only after that period the frustrations mounted and that was because I felt we had to stay..2 years will pass at warp speed for most so why not take the risk?

 

[earlyretirement]

@Chesse
I think your posts are great and always helpful.

Another thing I forgot to mention is that many people in Argentina have this "live for today" type attitude. And I've seen many ex-pats get caught up in it as well. Where they might make enough to live paycheck to paycheck but there is no game plan for the future.

Many aren't figuring into their budget any retirement savings so when they are older they are basically screwed. So you have to add into your monthly budgets enough to cover savings for retirement.

Things just add up when you have kids. Those with no kids can't even begin to understand the difference not only in responsibility but also costs having kids. I didn't even add in all the costs of toys, books, educational stuff we buy our kids on a monthly basis. Stuff just adds up with kids.

 

[StiveCosae]

Earlyretirement's list probably includes expenses that bugsbunny hasn't considered, but (based on the information he has already posted) he may not have to pay for many of the items on the list...and most of the others are within his control and/or optional. If the kids arethe same gender, "hand me downs" are also an option. I used bold type to indicate the costs that will be paid by his employer as well as those which are optional or discretionary.

-Even taking out the rental payment (we owned our flat in BA) we had monthly condo dues that were quite high.

- ABL taxes
- Home phone line
- My wife and I had cellphone plans with Blackberry service (optional and cheaper plans are available with free calls between several numbers (Claro or Moviestar).
- Electricity, gas, water cable, 2 internet plans (not sure if cable and internet are included in the "bills paid" by the employer).
- Housekeeper salary (optional)
- Groceries each month
- Car Insurance, fuel, license plate fees each year (optional)
- Life insurance (optional)
- Health insurance with OSDE for the family
- Home insurance for our apartment
- Dining out at restaurants (optional)
- School stuff and classes (swimming classes, ballet classes, horse riding lessons, etc)
- Kids clothes (they grow like weeds!)
- Haircuts, etc. for the family
- Salon stuff for my wife (hair, nails, etc)
- Clothes for my wife and I (mostly work clothes)
- Drycleaning (optional)
- Gym dues (optional)
- Entertaining and sporting events (movies, concerts,etc) (optional)
- Subscriptions to newspaper and magazines including on ipad (optional)

- Travel (optional) A week in Palermo or Recoleta might be an attractive "vacation" option after living in Palomar for a number of months. I can't endorse the idea of buying a "caravan" to travel about Argentina or any of it's neighbors (not many well supervised campgrounds like KOA that I know of). Also, selling it when the two years are up could present a new set of problems (even if it can be sold before you leave are you willing to take a significant loss converting the pesos into foreign currency at the blue rate?). Meanwhile, its not likely to fit in a normal garage and it's not the kind of vehicle that would survive for long if parked in the street.

 

[earlyretirement]

I love reading the many posts of interesting posters like earlyretirement, Elqueso,Iznogud, citygirl, GS_dirtboy..honestly it's a hoot and all of this thread is full of useful info for long term expats but standing aside and asking myself objectively does any of it really matter for a 2 yr posting? It seems like Bugbunnys work will take care of his major expenses like rent and schooling and hes hardly going to be on the breadline with 18k pesos for 2 years...It's hard to argue it's not a good move for the sheer expereince of it and the chance to go back to the UK and appreciate some of the things locals take for granted. Remember 2yrs tends to be the honeymoon period for many expats here..I know that it was only after that period the frustrations mounted and that was because I felt we had to stay..2 years will pass at warp speed for most so why not take the risk?

I totally agree with you. There are a lot of interesting posters on this board. Lots of good information as well from our melting pot of knowledge on Argentina.

I do think it still matters even though it's a 2 year posting. 2 years isn't a long time in the grand scheme of things in Argentina. However, 2 years is a LONG time if you have an unhappy spouse that is uprooting her life with 2 young kids if it's not something they understand what they are getting themselves into.

So I think the advice is all sound and valid that people are giving him. My advice would be a LOT different if the OP was a single guy with no wife and kids. Then I'd say take all the "adventure" you want and go for it.

But life drastically changes once you have kids. Granted they are at a young age where they won't be as affected but still it can be a culture shock for a spouse to be in a first world environment to an almost third world environment with the way some things work in Argentina.

Under that situation, 2 years can be an eternity. 2 years isn't going to make or break anyone. But it's still wise to listen to all the information posted. Especially when the OP posted really really false information like "the post office will buy back my pesos at the official rate".

I know some ex-pats that got sent to Argentina from the USA or Australia and they moved down with their spouse and kids. And let me tell you, some of them felt like the 2 or 3 year assignment was like a prison sentence counting down the days. LOL.

It's a drastic culture shock dealing with all of the restrictions and controls but even everyday stuff that we're used to like waiting in line at the bank, or trying to pick up a simple package at the post office without getting extorted, going to the grocery store and not having a huge line, etc.

The OP is wise to just take in all the information and it would be nice if he stopped by to post an update what he decided.