Making a living?

I’m planning on moving my family (wife and 3 kids) to Taiwan for an extended stay. I’m a certified teacher with a BA-Ed., and we plan on staying 2-3 years minimum. I also speak Mandarin and lived in Taiwan in the late 1980s. Can we expect to make a comfortable living on NT$60,000+ salary (plus any extra work) and still expect to save any apprecaible amount after our first year? I know it’ll take a bit to get set up, and to recover from those set-up costs. Keep in mind we’re not young, nightclub type of people. :help:

Why waste your time on 60.000 an hour when you could easily apply for one of the international schools and be making twice that?

I would second that - harder to get, but totally worth it. You will need 2 years teaching experience in the UK for the Taipei Euro School, but there is another one in Hsinchu which isn’t as stringent; whatever, you should get to earn more than 60k :laughing:

You could live off of that amount, but it depends on where you live that will determine how much you save.

For example, I rent a huge, new apartment in the south (4 bedrooms, 2 balconies)for a little over US $200 (nt7,000) a month. The complex I live in is about 7 years old, and has a new pool and brand new state of the art gym facilities, and is in a quiet, beautiful location (by Taiwanese standards). The same kind of place in Taipei would run me more than 10 times what I pay here.

There is more opportunity in Taipei and definitely much more to do and better restaurants, etc. but for savings, the south is where it’s at. Salaries can run higher here, too (probably because fewer foreigners want to come to the south, and competition is less fierce).

On a side note, is your wife a native speaker? I assume from your post that she plans on staying at home with the kids…but she could probably pick up a few hours too when she’s available, or do a few private classes at home.

Good luck! :rainbow:

Or charge people for letting their kids play with native speaking kids. :smiley:

Or charge people for letting their kids play with native speaking kids. :smiley:[/quote]

Ooooooooooooohhhh, very clever… :notworthy: I like that one… :smiley:

I think that the American School pays very well, but when my husband and I interviewed for the Taipei British School a few years back, they only offered something like nt75,000/month (to teach secondary school). It was really quite low. Have things changed now that they are The Taipei European School?

My husband’s stepmother used to teach English at an international school in Vietnam. She said that the international schools would pay higher salaries to the recruites hired from out of the country than the local foreigners who apply directly. If you really want to work at American school or British school, I would suggest that you apply before you come to Taiwan. Once you get here, you will be considered a “local” and the salary will be lower.

You’ll be making about twice the national average salary. Somehow I think you’ll be able to get by.

I have a wife and 3 kids and spend 90,000 per month minimum.

I would never live in Taiwan for 60,000 a month. I just couldn’t. And I’m natoriously cheap.

Hmm. I get paid in HK and an allowance for the time I am in Taiwan which equates to about US$30 a day. The company also pays for my housing in Taipei. I think I would struggle on $60K a month if I had to pay my own rent. I don’t go out drinking a lot and we do quite a bit of cooking at home.