Hi all,
I have recently been offered a position in Taipei. I currently live in Taichung. This new position provides greater income BUT people have warned me that the cost of living is significantly higher than that in Taichung. I need to make a decision pretty soon so any advice from others who have made this transition or people currently living in Taipei would be most appreciated.
Thanks guys
I personally think everything is expensive in Taipei, especially the rent. You should really check out the real estate prices for the size apartment that you want in Taipei City. It also depends if you have a scooter or car. I pay about 1154NT per ping for my apartment near an MRT station. I don’t own a scooter or car and don’t plan to because I can get by with the MRT, bike (youbike), and bus. Depending on how you want to go to work, you should scope out places within a 5-minute walk of an MRT station if one is near your work.
I burn around 40K a month. I could slash that to 25K if I lived in a crap apartment and ate at night markets all the time.
I live with 20K a month living in a nice apt in an old building (no rats, garbage in the stairwell or anything like that, though) in Xinyi Dist. I go to CostCo or Carrefour once per week for groceries, eat delicious meals cooked by my gf and can even afford a keep a cat. The idea that one has to eat only night market crap-food and live in a shack to save money is a myth.
I don’t admittedly go out much, maybe a beer with friends once in a while, but I have to spare for weekend getaways, usually hiking or enjoying the east coast.
Edit: I own a scooter and usually get to work with that. I find it less expensive than the MRT/buses. Then again, it hasn’t experienced any major breakdown yet, nor am I factoring in the initial cost (around 13.000 ntd).
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Thanks guys, well I have a car but from what people say it will be better just to use the car on weekends and use the MRT during the week. My salary will be about NT$55 000, do you think that has decent potential for saving? Ideally I would like to be spending no more than 20-25K on rent, food and travelling costs. Is that idea realistic? I do not want to living in a run down apartment and I also have no need of staying somewhere luxurious.
It will be a different ride for sure and you can do it on that, but you won’t save much (if any).
See my post above. Depending on what you like to do with your free time, you can save anywhere from 35.000 to 0. When I said I live a nice life with 20K, I mean it. 
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Hmmm,it seems like the last 2 posts contradict each other. My goal is to save money but also enjoy my life.
@Tommy- you can probably guess why I want to leave Taichung based on my last thread. That is why I chose Taipei, there are some people there that take good care of me and a change of scenery may be good for me and take my mind off these issues.
how big of a place are you looking for? don’t forget to factor in possible parking fees for your car.
Nothing to big I guess. Just big enough for one person.
I am certain you won’t regret moving to Taipei. Taipei still offers the most !
Only other competitor could be Kaohsiung.
Yeah man, I just want to prove my worth. I want to know that I can be a success. I figure that the first step is to do some serious saving.
Believe in yourself and you will eventually succeed, even if you fail and fail again ! If you don’t try you will have gained nothing.
That’s true, but I want to avoid failure AT ALL COSTS!!! I just do not want to make any mistakes anymore. I will be successful and I want to start doing it soon.
If your GOAL is achievable , and your PLAN is workable, then you can proceed with more then a 50/50 chance of success.
Best of luck to you. May you find what you are looking for in Taipei.
Iv always a soft spot for the place as that is where I grew up 
Really? That is pretty cool. I am just going there as an escape. So I hope it will be kind to me as the rest of Taiwan has
Parking is expensive for the car, as are all the costs and fees involved. On the salary quoted it will cost too much if it is also the case that you want to save. Seriously think about ditching the car. Rent can be reduced by moving in with people. Good luck.
I’d say budget around 11 > 15k for a nice apartment of your own.
My friends live in a 3 bedroom place near Linguan and that is only 16k a month - I live by 101 and pay 22k a month for 2 bedrooms - even though on a scooter, we only live about 7 mins apart!
Car space - absolute worst case will cost you 5000k a month if you pay monthly in one of those japanese style parking lots. But you might be lucky and hit somewhere with on street parking (which is what I have). I remember when I lived in a tower block, the monthly car space in the basement was 2k.
I don’t think there is any contradiction. It all depends on what you mean with “enjoying my life”. I used to spend more than double of what I spend now. I was single, I lived on my own and went out for drinking and clubbing very often. I now live with my gf (we share the rent), don’t go clubbing anymore, spend my weekends hiking or at my beach house (we have a room in this waterfront house in the east coast, the rent of which is super low and included in my monthly expenses), eat at home almost always and avoid unnecessary expenses.
Of course if I were a single lad in Taipei I would have big problems in surviving with 20K/month.
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I checked a few places for rent on 591.com in the Nangang district, it seems that it’s possible to find a place for about 10K a month. My current apartment in Taichung, I pay about 12K, but it is a pretty nice place. I also currently pay 2K for my parking space. Based on the information I found myself, it seems possible to save money. It is obviously much more valuable if I get first hand help. So thanks guys, I will consider everything.