Yes, there are several threads either directly or indirectly on this topic, but I thought it would be interesting to see everyone’s thoughts as a poll.
I was going to define what I mean by “good”, but I realised it’s best to keep this open ended. When I was in my 20s living in Taiwan, I thought NT$50K a month was “good”, but now that I’m a bit older and concerned about things like pensions, rainy-day funds, and not living in squaller, NT$50K a month doesn’t cut it.
You have to get pretty lucky to find a nice place in the center of the city for 25k, and even then it’s going to be small. If it has elevators and management and such, it’s probably going to be a studio at best.
25k is going to be something gross in the middle of Taipei. 30k is the new baseline, but realistically 35-40k is something acceptable. If you want to live out in the sticks, the sure, 25k would be fine.
If you’re curious, here’s my breakdown for a budget:
Was going to say something but remembered the question focuses on good. I said 70 as anyone can live a great life on that. Good as in can have excessive play money probably over 100k.
Of course, more is normally better
If i were a hard/long hour working self employed person, i would be a bit pissed if i were still making 70k average after 5 decades of work. Shows a failure in my ability to grow. As an employee somewhere, i would be happy with that as i knew exactly what i was in for.
Curious about how you run things. Not judging, but seriously curious how you can treat yourself so well on many things but only pay 1500 on electricity. thats an interesting one most of the people i know that spend that much on rent and also luxuries like booze etc use the ac. Are you by chance one of the lucky dna types that dont feel hot? Or? Genuinely curious.
Not to likely derail this thread into a discussion about A/C, but when I lived in a new build, with higher-end A/C units, I did an experiment and I ran all the A/Cs, all the time, at 29 degrees if I wasn’t in the room and lowered it if I was in the room and felt too hot (never lower than 26, because that’s my base limit). Energy bill was WAY lower (as in, saved over NT1000 in the summer) when I wasn’t turning it on and off all the time. It also prevented my things from getting moldy. Makes me wonder if this Taiwanese obsession of only running the AC when there are people in the room and already half-dead, and turning it off as soon as people leave, is actually a massive waste of energy (which only matters to them from a cost-saving standpoint)
If you live in Taipei you need to save at least 100,000TWD/month if you are planning on staying long term and buying your own place (assuming you don’t have savings since previously).
The downpayment on something half decent in Taipei is around 6mil, with a 100,000/month savings rate you can save that in 5 years - at say 50k/month in savings it would take unreasonably long.
A couple percent of employees…I checked the stats before .
The question is what is a ‘good wage’. It’s subjective. I chose 100k which is actually a great wage in Taiwan and still a very good wage in Taipei on average.
IMHO a good wage could be 60k-70k for many in Taipei.
For a foreigner…You should be aiming higher because your costs will be higher .