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I agree, you can save an absurdly high % of earnings Taiwan even with a not great salary, but I think people should be careful with that logic - 50-70% of a very small number can still add up. But at a certain point when salaries are low enough, even if you save 100%, you might still save less money than the amount you could save in the US or other foreign countries. $ amount is more important than %.

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I couldn’t save any decent amount for years and years because my nominal amount was too low. Saving 20% of 60k /mth was not only very difficult if not impossible for me it also didn’t add up to a whole lot either. It was quite depressing frankly and I yes I should have left Taiwan probably.
if I had gotten bonuses more often that would have helped but usually I was stiffed on the bonuses. Or the company bankrupted. Or some shit happened.

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I’d say equally important in my case. I don’t have a huge salary, but I’m doing fine in the savings department.

You have a partner plugging in the cash, own your home possibly :sunglasses:.
For me the struggle was real and I’ve been saving like a demon to make up for those lost years. Single earner parent and renter. Income matters a lot to me!

I would also point out that, depending on where you’re from, being a longer-term foreigner in Taiwan has its costs (in addition to certain crazily priced electronics and high real estate prices). Namely, flying back and forth from whatever foreign country you might have family in - this can wipe away a large portion of your annual savings even if you just do it once a year. Many of the foreigners I know do visit home pretty often at first, but perhaps people do it less and less over time.

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Check and check. :sunglasses:

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That’s really interesting. Thanks for putting that together.

Both partners working makes a world of difference. Quality of life is considerably lower, of course. My wife doesn’t have to work, but her income and bonus are pretty much all savings (hers, not mine lol).

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“Isn’t too bad”? Man, you guys are hard to please! In Taiwan, 100K a month is excellent.

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Depends. Its barely enough for a family of 4 in Taipei.

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Yup, it depends what you’re burning.

If you’re sending your two kids to American School in Tienmu, this will not be enough.

Costs in Taipei continue to rise, too.

Guy

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A family of four in this day and age, even in Taiwan, isn’t very likely to be dependent on a sole breadwinner anymore though. A husband earning 100K and a wife on a more “normal” salary of around 50K would be fairly comfortable. Obviously, that doesn’t include sending the children to private American schools.

50k for the wife would be more than average actually as would 100k obviously. :sunglasses:
I know because the wife is looking at getting back into the workforce , pay ain’t too high out there. I think 40k per month is seen as pretty good for regular office workers in Taipei .

Ain’t that the truth.

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This all day. I have worked in both Taiwan and Hong Kong, theoretically Hong Kong is much higher cost of living, which is sort of true, BUT: I can tell you from experience that almost all the money I’ve ever saved has been in Hong Kong. Salaries are just much higher over there. Cost of living is one thing (and it is sooo debatable how ‘low’ the COL in Taiwan actually is), and at the end of the day, to save some real money, you need a high absolute income coming in.

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for young single guy, if you pay 30K rent and 25K for kindergarten it looks different, if you have 2 kids suddenly half your salary goes on child care.

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100K in Taiwan is good enough that the partner could work part-time on 20K a month and they’d still be able to raise a small family better than a family on an equivalent combined income in somewhere like London could. Of course, if you start factoring in private schools and saving for mortgages and things like that, it isn’t enough, but that would be the same in London or any other big city.

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even local schools are expensive. public schools arent expensive, but early childhood education is very very expensive and there are few public options. most kindergartens are private and the good ones cost 20K a month and up.
if you decide to have a nanny instead of kindie, its 30K a month too (worth it for 2 kids, but not cheap either)

100k+20k is not enough if you want options. You need to save at least 50k per month if you wish to have the option of retiring somewhere in Europe or North America.

I wouldn’t recommend to anyone non Taiwanese to work for less than 150 for above reason, you need to be fairly committed to stay in east Asia to take the risk

People change, you might love it here now, but what when you are 65, wouldn’t you want to have the option ?

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You are asking too much though. People with minimal credentials are not supposed to raise a family and save for retirement in Europe anyways.

I would rather make 30k in Kaohsiung than min wage in NYC or SF.

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Right, agree.

I’m referring to overseas people who are relocating to Taiwan, these guys don’t come here to do minimum wage …

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