huh? No. I’ve never heard of anyone paying more than 3.
And “conservatively”? 
Why would you want to do this? I only rent for road trips
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I haven’t met many GC holders, but the ones I have are like myself – barely working, certainly not working for a TW company, and just enjoying things. Not sure how long they’ll end up staying. Not sure how long I’ll end up staying either – probably a while – but in any case I’ve contributed greatly to the economy so the GC program is a win either way
oh and inviting more foreigners here might one day even make people realize the difference between Taiwan and Thailand.
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It is 3 months rent + 2 months deposit. So you have to come up with cash upfront of 5 months.
BTW all the figures I mentioned above, of up to say NT$500k for your first month here - should be brought as cash. Because you won’t have a Taiwanese bank account to remit money to from abroad, and while you could use your foreign credit card to withdraw cash from an ATM, it will probably cost you.
“Conservatively” because the last thing you want to have happen is run out of cash. So I budget with a 20+% margin of error.
I haven’t been here that long, but I brought less than 20% of that.
We really should start another thread on the accumulated knowledge of expats trying to save money here.
My first thread, memories
Looks like I brought 20K, wished I had 30K
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I’m always happy to share the knowledge. But my point is, Taiwan is Taiwan, and lots of things listed, the cars especially, are an unnecessary expense that either is not needed now or even at all.
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I brought and lived on about $120000 for about six months. I paid tuition with that money too.
I didn’t have a job.
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they should also subsidize their kids 1,000,000 a year to go to TAS, after all TW needs a young generation to fight off the declining population.
lets stay realistic here, having an adress in order to open a bank account is pretty standard worldwide. And if you are worried about car costs, just dont gwt a car.
all these complaints about first world problems are the reason for the cringe many felt reading the articles.
Ill be honest, im jealous of GC holders, i came here long before the program was rolled out, so it wasnt relevant for me, many here in the forum had to jump through hoops that the GC community has never even heard of, and the complaints abt how its not what they expcted dont evoke any empathy on my side.
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cant save money, salaries are low, housing expensive, education even more so. add in home country visits and you need to be making millions a year to have a “western” life style here.
You could say that about any country really if you’re going to insist on living downtown.
North American lifestyles involve commuting to the big city for most middle class people.
I save money on housing because I commute. I have home country visits.
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i agree, and although i share aone of the frustration mentioned in the orignal article (banking, housing etc.) id assume all these talented GC people are also talented enough to check before hand what kind of job they can do here, the pay scale, and if their kids can go to school and what school.
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Life sucks donkey for the lumpenproletariat commuter.
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As I wrote above, I think this assumption might be unfounded for a decent number of gold card holders…
You obviously need some money to pay rent, yes. Gold card holders would also presumably have needed to pay a deposit and rent wherever they would have been living outside Taiwan as well (unless they were still living with their parents, which I wouldn’t immediately rule out on the basis of some of the problems encountered). Some landlords might ask for 3 months upfront as you say, but I’ve never encountered or paid that. I’ve always just paid month to month, plus a couple of months for the deposit of course. Anyway, this is all part of the normal setup costs of moving to a new place.
Although it obviously depends on the person’s standard of living, this value is quite clearly BS. Even with the dubious 5 months of rent for a total of NT$150k and the ridiculous daily car rental rate, you’re still missing between NT$260k and NT$290k. If someone is accustomed to the standard of living where they’d need this much, it shouldn’t be an issue, right? Anyway, when they find a landlord, they can wire the 5 months rent to them directly.
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and then the landlord will have to go to the bank, and wait in line to sign a paper saying why he is getting money from overseas…ahhh… sweet revenge…
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Is there a point to this?
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Absolutely–social critique on transportation and communities is so important. I prefer lewd bohemian and libertarian environments and my carbon imprint is low. Living and commuting in Calgary or Mississauga or socializing with the Joneses would scare the shit out of me. Too much conformity, boredom and commercialism. That is Toronto too.
Life does suck donkey for the commuters of conformism
Is there a point to this? What an existential question!
Literally no one I know has paid that. Never heard of such a thing. Sounds like this is a you thing.
Totally. Taiwan can be done on a dime. But it is really up to the person how they want to live. Cheap is easy here… we dont have real winters 
Some people think a car is necessary, others AC. to each their own, sometimes things are a luxury item even if they are common. Taiwan is a great place to save money for those that can “struggle” for a while. I think if someone has the golden visa they are probably qualified here to have it pretty good from day one if they so choose to.
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