A British hiring manager/CEO once said the exact same thing.
During interview. Saying, he is willing to pay millions to get good engineer with English capability in Taiwan.
In the end offer me a contract of slightly above 50K a month, and want to put me as a subordinate of their current French engineer with minute experience.
Official reason, “we are merely a start-up company, please understand”
What I am saying is… even with above average English and skills, you need the correct skin color for some jobs.
Could you have reached a rent-free life if you’d only ever made 30K? If my mortgage were paid off I suppose I could manage on 30K. It’d be easier if I kicked out the cats. And maybe kicked out my wife too. But with the mortgage, no, 30K would be impossible.
And note that “do just fine” isn’t the same as having “more than enough for a good life.” If you’re here on a student budget to really study Chinese for a year or two, yup, 30K a month is fine. But if you’re living a middle-aged and hopefully middle-class life? Ugh, no thanks.
(Yes, I recognize I’m privileged and lots of people in Taiwan live on that salary, and indeed raise families on that.)
In a word, no. I was only referring to what I spent, not what I made. I’ve always saved more than I spend each month (except when I was still living in the U.S., of course).
Without rent, I could do 30k a month. 1k each day seems completely doable. Probably won’t be going out and eating lavish dinners. But it’s a decent living.
Yeah, fine dining in Taipei can get really expensive really fast. But home cooking supplemented with eating out at middle-priced places doesn’t have to be expensive.
I actually save a lot on not drinking alcohol when I eat. Or at all anymore. I do find myself eating more than a family of four at restaurants often. I look over and I literally have more food than entire families and I finish it before they do.