I did some back of the hand calculation the other day and it has cost me about US$ 50k, that’s mostly the difference between what I was making back in the US vs. my salarey here in Taiwan. I don’t have any regrets about the money, I have had some great experiences in Taiwan and met some very cool people. I wouldn’t trade my past year here for the money.
As I am coming up on a year of living in Taipei I have to make some decisions on wheter or not I will continue to live here. On one hand I love living in Taipei, the night life is great, there are endless hikes to go on, you can easily travel to a lot of other countries nearby on the other hand living here is really killing my career, I think I could explain being away for a year but anymore than that and I will have to take a pay cut and accept a more junior position.
I was all set on going back and then I went on a hike to tonyhuang39.com/tony0335.html and thought to myself there is no way I am going to find anything close to this if I move back to LA.
I am curious to hear what the people who don’t teach English do in Taipei. Is it always a trade off between quality of life and career ? Is there a happy middle ground somewhere else ? My friends back in the states claim I just have a case of the “grass is greener on the other side” and as soon as I move back to the US I will want to move back.
Did any of you guys move back to your home country and decide it was mistake and moved back to Taiwan ? My other choice is to move back to the US go back to school and get an MBA with the goal of working in the financial industry. Although I have no idea if finding a job in Taipei will be easier with an MBA. I don’t think I am the only one who struggles with this question so how do you justify staying in Taipei to yourself/family ?