Would you rather stay in Taiwan with 100-120,000 NTD per month salary or move to the US with a 100-120,000 USD per year salary?
edit: obviously after all the COVID-19 mess is over!
100k is nothing in LA, SF, or NYC, I would love that salary in the Dallas area. So it depends where in the US. My sister makes close to 100k in LA, and still has roommates.
Where in Taiwan?
Taipei
Money alone isn’t everything. What’s your career trajectory in Taiwan vs the US? What are the working conditions? What’s the quality of the employer? How easy is it for you to find a new job with a similar or better salary? Where do you enjoy living more?
Taiwan would be Product Manager → head of product development and probably stop there.
US would be PM/Sales Engineer → head of sales → Country manager → VP.
Personally I enjoy Taiwan more, I am not from the US.
We made the choice with similar numbers about 2 decades ago. Decided on the US because of family and school, mostly. As Andrew mentioned, $100k doesn’t go to far in LA. On the other hand, we don’t have to pay for private school (and I know many foreigners in Taiwan don’t anyway) and we are putting away much more in savings (10 to 20% of $100k USD adds up a lot faster than the same percentage of 1.2 million TWD). But 20 years later we are still looking to head back to Taipei.
Dallas, Houston, Austin… which one would you prefer?
Austin. Don’t know a lot about any of them, but I hear great things about Austin.
So it seems like you have to decide between the money and your overall quality of life. If you enjoy Taiwan substantially more than the US, you might regret trading Taiwan for USD. If your preference for Taiwan is only slight on the other hand, your career trajectory in the US looks a lot more substantial.
This is the main motivator. I love the island, but I love myself more. I’m thinking long term, 5-7 years, what I could be doing here? we all know they won’t give a VP position to a foreigner here unless it is a huge transnational company.
With the US job, woukd there be potential for an overseas posting as you advance? It seems like the US job would be better for career growth.
I’m from the Dallas area so I’m biased towards it.
But Austin and Houston are both really fun and exciting. Money is flowing there and the cities are more vibrant than Dallas imo. I believe cost of living is lower in Houston. You can get a new built in Houston for pretty cheap, might be a good time to get a mortgage on a new build home with interest so low and housing there already cheaper.
The opportunity is within the same organization where I work now, so I could potentially always come back.
I know that, our main US offices are in San Jose, CA. both me and the company agree that they won’t be paying me enough to be living in the bay area…
San Jose would be pretty costly to live in.
Texas has no state income tax. Also you can buy a car and not pay property tax on it as Texas doesnt tax cars as property like houses. Gas is also cheap.
If I was older, I’d look into Dallas area. The suburbs there are nice. Look at Frisco.
If I was younger I would look at Houston and Austin. Austin is probably more vibrant. But Houston is cheaper while coming up. If you go to Houston, get a new build home on that salary. You can custom it as there’s so much land in Texas. Property will probably hold steady and go up as it’s a growing area. Much better than a small concrete box in Taipei.
With just the variables I have heard so far, and making loose assumptions about your age, I would vite for Austin or Houston as Andrew noted. I would choose Austin just because I have some friends there. If nothing else, a few years in the US could let you sock away some additional savings and position you for a move back to Taiwan at a higher level, with your current or new employer. Keep in mind that I am glad I came back to the US but would now take a job in Taipei for half of what I am making now.
I’m not going back to Austin again. People act friendly but inwardly they hate you. Plus Austin is just as hot as Taipei, if not more, and the hot season seems to last longer than in Taipei (no more cool days after March in Austin, while in Taipei cool days could occur even in May).
Another thing you have to consider is medical care. But if a job pays 100,000 they’ll probably include a great medical coverage. However for those who don’t make 100,000 (not that many people do, lots of people get anywhere from 10-20 dollars an hour which can’t cover anything medical related) I would pray very hard that you never get sick, and pray you never ever get diabetes, because if you do you’re looking at paying 1000 a month for insulin or treatments without which you will die. I used to get annoyed paying for NHI until I realized how much medical coverage costs in the US. NHI is like gold level healthcare in the US but at bronze level price. Private insurance provides even better coverage. So if I were living in the US I’d want a minimum of 100,000 a year just to make ends meet. Unless I am living in podunk, nowhere.
100,000NTD a month in Taiwan allows you to live like a god. With NHI and the fact that you don’t need a car, you could save a large percentage of that if you wanted to. Most Taiwanese lives on less than 30k a month.
US by factor of ten.
If you got insurance form work; for sure.