US$300 in 1993. More would certainly have been useful, but even with the wedding invite I got the first month, I made it through to my first paycheck from the disreputable study-abroad translation center. But making it through meant eating a whole lot of lu rou fan and 7-11 baozi in the meantime.
I guess I wasn’t organized enough to bring wads of cash - I arrived with maybe 100 USD and my ATM cards and just took out money from my US accounts as needed. Ended up getting dinged by ATM fees, but at least I didn’t have to worry about whether I’d brought enough with me. It took about a month and a half to get my first paycheck, and I probably spent between 2000 and 3000 USD during that time, almost all on the 3 months worth of rent I had to fork out to move into my apartment (since I insisted on getting a real, non-studio, apartment that I don’t have to share with anyone, it’s probably on the expensive end of the scale)
I came with 57 dollars, I kid you not. But my parents helped a bit…
I arrived with US$40. Nothing from my parents. But that was in 1984. I left twenty years later with a similar amount.
But you got plenty of pie tho right? 
Just the one
How much did you pay for passage on the Galleon that brought you over?
About $2000 3 years ago. Got a shitty cash in hand PT job from an ad placed in a hostel which really helped out in the early days (lots of fliers around for this sort of stuff). First proper job came nearly a month later plus I had to do a visa run to Thailand. The 2K + the PT cash just about covered these expenses plus some going out funds. It did take me a while to save up enough for the deposit (2 months rent) and the extra months rent mind; I stayed a further 5 months in the hostel partying with Canadians. It was a kinda cool time 
My partner and I are coming over with £2,000 each. We’ll be stopping at a friends place until we’re sorted. No job sorted but currently having phone interviews.
We definitely have to do a visa run each so need to take that into account. Other than that, we should be OK.
I came here with $1500 almost 3 years ago with no friends and no contacts. I stayed in a shitty hostel in Taipei for 2 days and moved myself out to Taoyuan thereafter. I took over the apartment, scooter, and private students of a guy I just met who was moving off to Thailand. I saw his ad in Tealit called “Life for sale.” I made friends with his friends and lived where he lived. I lived in Taoyuan for a year and a half and then moved back to Taipei. Overall, it was a good decision in the beginning, but I had to shell most of the money I saved. Although not having to worry about buying a scooter, finding a place to live/job was a big relief.
“life for sale” Thats a good title. I guess coming with less definitely gets the pressure on. But you gotta do what you gotta do and if coming with less is the only option, dont let it stop you.
I came with 6000 usd, I am leaving with 1500, but there is money going into my Taiwanese bank accounts.
I am actually financially worse off but mentally and life experience wise, I am 100 times better.
wow 2000 USD for some of you? less than $100?? crazy. i had a little over $10k USD, along w/a big tax return (since i quit 3/4ths of the way into the year) and the stimulus tax refund from 2 years ago. i still ended up like $4k in debt before i got my first paycheck, about 10 months after i quit my previous job!
Not an english teacher, but i came here with about 17k USD. I still have 17k USD but I am becoming debt free pretty fast.
I arrived, in dire circumstances, with 100US$ in my pocket (2002). Luckily I had a job and a place organized prior to arrival. Didn’t eat breakfast, had school lunchboxes, and instant noodles for dinner. Had to cut down severely on smoking; drank kaoliang with cordials. Went out about three times in the first month with friends who would graciously buy me a few beers. At least didn’t need to take buses and MRT as my school was within walking distance of my home. Sure, was a bit of a struggle, but better than my life had been before. All relative to what you’re used to, I guess.
My first paycheck was NT$25000. I felt like a millionaire.
Inspirational jimi ! LIfe on the edge ! Glad you made it .
I had NT$5000, but I had a job lined up and and I lived in an empty breakfast shop for the first six months. It was a lot of fun. I ate a lot of bread from the bread stores, and was very happy to get my first pay check after 1 and a half months! That was 10 years ago.
Did you write about it before or someone else had the same experience. LIving in a shop with those steel doors that you can pull down and once down is dark as heck without interior lights? Cockroaches coming thru on the bottom etc? Man some of you guys do “edge” onto the island thats for sure.
But hey i came to live in the usa this time bout ten years ago with tens of thousands in debt and now… im in MORE debt. Ahh life in Merica.
[quote=“housecat”]It’s been a long time, but I think I had about a thousand US when I first arrived, but I also had a place to stay when I arrived that was free for a month, and then I paid 4000 NT per month for it.
I also had a job when I arrived, but as I recall, it was six weeks before I began to get paid. A bit unusual, but I began in the middle of the month and got a month and a half worth of pay the first pay day.
For me, that thousand was fine, but I didn’t have rent, didn’t have to pay a deposit, and really only paid for food. Well, also personal items and such that I hadn’t brought with me, or not enough of.
But I spent way too much on food, eating almost exclusively western food. I’m a very adventurous person in a lot of ways, but I’m a picky eater, so took me some time to venture into the local fare. Anyway, at the end of the month and a half I was broke and very happy to see that pay day![/quote]
I came with even less than US$1000. I arrived at CKS International with NT$25 000. But I had a similar situation to you. I started at the beginning of the month (my school was in Cishan in Kaohsiung county), so I was paid the next month as normal (I started with about 120 hours a month at NT$550/month), and my boss paid my tax (so in a way my salary was tax free, although when the refund came each year he used that to pay me with), my rent, electricity, water, cable, bought me a computer, paid for ADSL and I got dinner on work days. It was a sweet deal and I even had some of the initial NT$25 000 left on my first pay day. In the first four months I managed to save NT$160 000, and then I discovered Tainan and other foreigners…
It all went downhill from there. 
I was very fortunate with my first school. Now it’s almost impossible to imagine such a scenario, so the thinking of coming with US$1500-3000 probably isn’t far off.
Thinking back I can’t imagine why I would ever have wanted to leave that school. Grass is always greener…
It depends on what you’re willing to get along with. (What happened to the tottering old geezer smiley, anyway?) If you’re willing to NOT live in a nice apartment right off the bat, to walk or take buses, or buy a second-hand bicycle if you’re really feeling flush with cash, you can live day-to-day in Taiwan very cheaply, even in Taipei. Student rooms are still available in the NT$5000 a month range now and people live in them. Buffets in university areas are cheap and eating in student cafeterias on campuses is even cheaper.
It’s like twonavels says – that first paycheck was like you’d won the lottery, since it would usually be two months after arrival, allowing for some time to find a job and then to get a month ahead on pay to receive actual money. I have a theory, too, that people who came up “the hard way” in Taiwan (starting from nothing) have more tolerance for the cross-cultural thing, because at some point you just have to convince yourself it’s all a game. If you’re trying to hang on living beyond your means, how is that different from most people’s lives in their home countries?