he is talking USD, you are thinking NTD.
800 usd is roughly 24,000 nt$, which is the entry level salary TL is talking about.
but I think it’s too low, I think starting salaries are closer to 28K,29K these days.
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I am aware that he is talking about USD. 24,000NT is pretty much the minimum wage in Taiwan (currently 23,800 NT, and will be NT$24,000 NT in 4 days.) Most Taiwanese certainly make more than the minimum wage.
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i agree. in my company for example, an entry level candidate (fresh graduate, zero experience, team assistant) makes ~29,000
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Average disposal income for a family is about 1mil NTD / year, and average disposal income for a person is about 300k NTD / year.
Median for a family is 900k NTD.
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Let’s get back on topic…Retirement savings goals.
Taiwan is a nation of savers squirreling away for retirement, the rest depend on parents money and land or else government pensions and farmers pensions. Taiwan’s pension funds and saved wealth are absolutely massive.
So I’d also like to know if 16 million ntd includes property or not ?
Also some folks are quoting annual compound interest of 5% per year, well that’s nice to aspire to , maybe possible if invest wisely and fortunate with timing and location , but AFAIK no funds or saving accounts GUARANTEE that kind of return .
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I don’t know anything that is guaranteeing 1% a year much less 5%.
My retirement savings goal is 3 million USD excluding primary residence by the age of 55, and that is for one person. (No inheritance, BTW.)
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I’m guessing 16 million NT here is in addition to a primary residence? Most 1 apartment homes in Taipei cost around 15 million NT and up…
$500k USD retirement seems like a very low amount for Taipei. My friends who are retiring in India, which has a much lower cost of living, say they need $2 million USD to retire there, though they have a wife and few kids. Maybe $500k USD in Taiwan might work if you are single with no kids or dependents and live frugally like a local, eating 80 NT lunch box meals every day.
Safe withdrawal rate at 3% means $15k usd a year in spending or $1.5k a month which is around 42k NT a month. You’d be living on a new grad’s salary in taiwan while not being able to save by living with parents.
$2 million USD gives you about $100,000/year for 22 years assuming ~3% inflation and a ~4% rate of return. That’s way, way above the median household income in India. Your friends are either grossly miscalculating their needs or they’re living a lifestyle with US-style expenses.
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It’s mostly kids that are expensive. Even in Taiwan, if you send two kids to that american school in Tianmu it can really use up all your expat paycheck. Here is a link to their tution, it’s about 30-40k USD per kid per year: https://www.tas.edu.tw/admissions/tuition-fees
Add in a wife who doesn’t work / can’t get a local job and likes to buy expensive things, a car, 3 bedroom apartment, etc
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Ostensibly, by the time your friends enter retirement, a house, cars, etc. would be paid off, and the kids would be out of school.
So like I said, your friends are apparently living a lifestyle where they’re spending like Americans but get few of the benefits of living in a first world country. Seems like foolish, overextended living to me.
There’s a reason so many wealthier, well-educated Indians move abroad.
how does one open (foreigner) a pension plan here?
i only know of the government one (6%) which is for APRC holders only. What is the option for other foreigners? or any other options with APRC? with insurance companies perhaps?
The only thing 100% guaranteed is a US FDIC insured bank account with up to US$250,000. You’ll make about 0.0002% in interest. Or something similarly definitely not outpacing inflation.
As I’ve said in other places on this site, index funds are the way to go. I’ve gotten 15-18% returns the past few years. No, that’s not common, and I don’t plan my retirement on it but even factoring in recessions and the Great Depression, the US stock market has seen average annual returns of 8% over the past century. Gotta plan on the average and take some risk.
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"Citing Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics data, which indicates that regular earnings in Taiwan reached NT$39,953 per person per month in 2017, Lee said it is all the more difficult for employees to accumulate enough savings before retirement.
The survey found that more than 83 percent of the respondents are worried their pensions will not be enough for their retirement, while nearly 90 percent plan to explore other income sources after retirement.
https://taiwanonlinenews.com/nt16-million-in-savings-seen-as-safe-baseline-for-retirement-survey/"
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So really, if you have 1M USD, then 8% would be 80k a year. Sounds like that would be plenty to retire on assuming you don’t live a lavish lifestyle and should be more than enough to retire in Taiwan.
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Right.
This has nothing to do with the OP’s question. And real estate may be expensive for some folks, for others, its just a thing you do.
I think the average long term return on the share market is 10%. Obviously past performance is no guarantee but you can be reasonably confident, nuclear war notwithstanding.
I’d say it’s got a fair bit to do with @Brianjones’s question. If I’m planning my expenses over the remaining decades of my life, whether or not I’ve got to pay rent is going to be a factor in how much money I need.
(EDIT: @jdsmith has revised what he wrote above for clarity, which makes my quote look unfair, which it wasn’t at the time - all cool!)
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My bad. I quoted Brianjones, however my response was to TL. Edited to make clearer hopefully.
I blame the smoke detector which is beeping and has been beeping since 3AM and continues to beep regardless of the fresh batteries…that and George W. Bush.
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Have you checked if there is smoke?
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