As for the salary, I'm definitely not making much out of the deal. I need to educate myself more on retirement options in France, because as I don't work in a permanent position (it's a yearly renewing contract) I honestly have no idea if I'm putting anything towards retirement or not. There is no such thing as an IRA here, so it makes private saving options a bit trickier. This is where my lack of personal finance knowledge comes in–I need to know more.

Job: 1) Are you making money after expenses (i.e., not just taxes, but clothes, travel) or spending more than you make? Evaluate options. 2) Are you and your husband taking full advantage of any benefits offered (harder to find these days) by your employer's.

Retirement: Open up a Roth IRA acct at Vanguard and have an automatic payroll deduction. Or, visit your local S&L. Our local S&L lets you buy CD's in very small amounts every month, and those could be placed in an IRA. Pay yourself first. Checkout the book "The Intelligent Asset Allocator". Watch out for fees, fees, and more fees, upfront, back-end, administrative. They'll sneak them in, and call them something else, but in the end they are taking your money. Be careful, there are so many people and companies that will gladly separate you from your money, and the marketing hype is working against you. Will Rogers said, "I am more concerned with the return of my money than the return on my money." This is truer today. I like the movie "Trading Places" and "Boiler Room". They teach you in entertaining ways, that they make money whether you do or not, and buyer beware.