Salary in Taichung?

I am looking at an offer in the Taichung area but I have never been to Taiwan and don’t know much about the living. The salary is roughly 30 K USD per year. How far can I expect that to take me? Is it good for Taiwan/Taichung? Folks on this forum seem to be active and helpful so I thought I’d ask.

Taichung is not as expensive as Taipei. 30k US a year I think is around 75k NT a month, that’s enough to rent a nice room/small apartment, enjoy weekend trips and still have savings at the end of the month.
When I lived in Taichung in the beginning I was not working because I went to study Chinese in the University. With my wife’s salary of 45k a month we were doing just fine.

In most large cities in Taiwan, the only real issue may be the rent. Cost of living for food and bills is very affordable, but for a room/apartment in a popular area they’ll make you pay as if the floor was coated in gold, even if the room is like the toilet from Trainspotting.

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Would two people be able to live ok on that? I have a partner who is coming with but has yet to find a job

It depends a lot on lifestyle, but I’d be surprised if two people with no kids (I assume?) struggled to make it in Taichung with 75k NT a month.

Accomodation: 10/15k should get you a nice room with furnitures in a decent position (and this is a pretty high estimate, when I was in Taichung I’ve seen many places under 10k that would be fine for 1 or 2 people)

Fixed expenses: 5k (in Yilan we spend 1200 on phone contracts, 250 on water, 400 to 800 on electricity depending on the season, gas tank every few months, so even here 5k a month is a very high estimate)

Even if two people have all meals outside, with a salary of 75k there’s plenty of room for everything. When I need to have meals in Taipei I tend to spend around 70 for breakfast, 130 for lunch and roughly the same for dinner. The best way to have a full belly without spending too much money is to stay away from western style restaurants (both for breakfast and regular meals) because you often end up paying twice as much. Every now and then I enjoy a burger, a pizza and stuff like that, but it’s hard to beat a gigantic bowl of beef noodles for 120/130nt for value/amount/quality. Lunch boxes with white rice, a main food like meat/fish and side veggies mostly range between 60 and 100, but each store’s quality vary a lot. Some lunchboxes give me ptsd due to horrible (for my taste buds) seasoning, while others I could eat them over and over.

Some rooms and small apartments don’t have a kitchen, in that case you need to factor in the cost of having all meals outside.

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Thank you very much. I am trying to decide between a job in the states and a job in Taiwan. It is nice to hear from someone rather than read it on a webpage, especially when student loans are involved. Do you know a good site for apartment rentals?

591 seems to be the most popular. It’s where I found my place. But it’s on in Chinese. Using Chrome with Google Translate works well.

Tomgreen_84 I make 70k a month.

75k is a lot to live on don’t worry, you and your partner will do fine.

I rent a 3 befroom for 18000nt a month and I still save 20,000 a month.

I buy food in bulk, so my food bill a month is 7000-9000.

Now, believe me, you could blow through that if you like to party and eat out at expensive restaurants, but if you take it easy and maybe go out once or twice a month, you will be okay.

My electricity, gas and water is not too expensive. In winter it came to about 1100. I am still waiting for my summer bill because I get billed bi-monthly.

Taichung will not be as expensive as Taipei at all in terms of rent. I used to rent a small one bedroom with on suite bathroom for 13500 in Taipei.

Get an apartment with a kitchen and a big fridge. A lot of place have small bar fridges or medium size fridges which sucks because you cant store food in for longer than a few days in those tiny fridges. I can buy food for 2-3 weeks and keep it in my freezer.

I would even invest in one if no apartments have one, go to carrefour or costco and buy one for 15000-20000 nt.

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591 is the best option. There are a few other websites like housefun and rakuten (we bought our home from the latter), but 591 is the best one for layout, ease of use and number of entries.

Which city did you buy your house in?

“city”…I live surrounded by rice fields in Yilan’s countryside xD

Unexpected weather by Thomas "Bis" Passarini, on Flickr

Pic from my balcony for reference

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How much was that? I am intrigued

around 2 million Ntd, for 80 sq meters on two floors, two balconies, refurbished right before the previous owner decided to sell it.
In that area it’s possible to find larger houses at the same or even lower price, but we preferred to buy one in semi-new conditions that required no money to paint/fix/install stuff.

I want to move to Yilan o.o

But there isn’t a sweet sweet Costco… :frowning: :frowning: :frowning:

Here there’s only the rain.

I had a blast in Toucheng! Awesome weather and surf at the beach.

You got a car park?

Is there a Costco alternative in Yilan?

In Yilan the road is a car park. It’s basically like Mad Max.

Nothing like Costco, the only solution is to go to the Costco in Taipei near Nangang Exhibition Center, which is fairly close to Yilan

You think meat and frozen products will last on the drive back?

Lol mad max.

No problem, we do it all the time. Apart from the weather, the main issue in Yilan is that there are not as many available jobs as Taipei/Taichung etc, and salaries tend to be lower as well.

I will work for the public school system lol, no problemo

Is Yilan considered a rural area?