What is a "good" salary in Taipei City? POLL

Yes and then the meaning of “good” becomes part of the conversation.

Though frankly “more” money would be “good” to have. :nerd_face:

Guy

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That’s $28k per year. It’s worse than mediocre for a full time job.

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You are converting to USD right?

Not everyone here is from the US; nor are we saving in that currency. :slight_smile:

Guy

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I’m rather impressed so many people know what they spend on food each month. I bury my head in the sand and eat what I want. I HATE budgeting, so I don’t do it; and I’m an accountant.

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If you’re young, willing to flat share, and not too concerned about long-term savings, NT$65K is definitely “good”. If, like most young Taiwanese adults, you live rent free in your parents’ home, it’s even better. When I used to ask Taiwanese people my age what a good salary is in Taiwan, this was in the general ballpark I received.

If you’re an expat in your 30s who’s done with living like a student, it’s not good enough IMO. I agree with many of the other responses that you need far more than that to save a reasonable amount for a rainy day and retirement (especially if you’re saving to take the money back home).

However, I still think that many people replying here have massively inflated senses of what constitutes a merely “good” salary…

I make 50k even with masters and as an engineer. Ofcourse its peanuts compared to what most are making here but considering I came to Taiwan with basically nothing, its okay for now. I still save ~15K per month living in a decent one room apartment. I dont drink, go out to fancy restaurants, go to parties .
In the end its the habits we have that define our spendings and our spendings then define what is “good” for us. Ofcourse as we grow older we want more and more and that more never ends till the day we die.
In the end the salary we are making is both good and not enough at the same time depending on which angle we are looking at it.

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I think you just inadvertently gave the perfect example of why rich and frugal are very personal and relative terms.

2 adults can live on 15k (nt) a month if being frugal, 10k if living with somooe else. But no one wants that. I wouldbt say it was amazing when i did it. But it wasnt hard either. the one thing that was hard was the quality of food if i decided to buy food vs grow my own. Food qualit is pretty dire nowadays, and that doesnt seem to change much bet ween 15k or 200k a month. Just the aesthetics, freshness and show changes.

As a caandian i feel 100k a month is also very good as the purchasing power is far better than canada and so it means more. But there are millionaires that feel they have it tough as well…so its all just fluff and a fun back and forth :slight_smile:

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What do you consider good in London? You can start from there and adjust to living cost accordingly. I would say probably £5,000 after tax/month is good in London.

Yes, $=dollars= USD. If I was referring to Monopoly money I would say NT, not $.

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Do better. Be better.

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How to spot an American :rofl:

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I don’t know about after tax. The number you give seems very high to me as an after-tax salary when you consider how high the tax rate is after you hit £50K. But I get that salaries vary so wildly in London that you can’t say somebody has a “very good” salary unless they’re on six figures.

That said, in my world £50K (pre-tax) is “good”. When I didn’t care about living in a crappy little room with a shared bathroom, I thought £40K was good. But I’m done with living that kind of life now.

In London, accommodation is really make or break. I think even £30K would be great if you didn’t have to worry about accommodation. Maybe it’s just because I’m a Londoner and saving money here comes second nature to me, but I feel like, accommodation aside, London isn’t the cripplingly expensive city people not from here make it out to be.

Wow, I thought I had a “good” salary because I am able to support my family of four as we live frugally here in Taipei. However, on this poll, my salary is on the lower tier of salaries with only a few votes. Looks like everyone’s standard of ‘good’ varies way too much for this poll to be meaningful in any way.

‘Good’ for me is putting food on the table and having enough extra for the kids so they don’t feel too left out with their peers.

Edit: Okay, ‘food on the table’ can mean different things for different people too. I definitely consider a decently working smartphone with a 3gb/month plan a necessity, hah!

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Engineer? Manager? Entrepreneur?

Average salaries are quite pathetic on the boards, IMHO. Very few places willing to pay top dollar for talent.

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that is steep! im only 20K rent, but 60K school fees this month. Other months its 30K school fees. It hurts Ill tell you that much. Salary arrives, Kabooms! crimp and scrape to the end of the month. Salary arrives ,Kaboom! etc etc repeat ad infinitum or until you are dead. Or if you survive it don’t worry you will be dead soon.

may main joy in life is that my kids are not in the trap, yet :sweat:

I have to say the joy of watching them watch cartoons is worth all the pain. maybe not but lets say it is :laughing:

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Many people who come to Taiwan expect a similar quality of life they experienced in their home country. NT$1.4 million is about US$50K. Real estate here is far more expensive than in many places in the US, so a good salary could be higher, especially if you are the head of a family.

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Also, GDP per capita in Taiwan is estimated to be between 50-60k US$. Compare that to the around 65k US$ in the US or around 55k US$ in Germany and there is not much reason why a „good salary“ in Taiwan should be so much less than one in the US or Germany.

Thats what im talking about!

In respect with us working fools’ salaries, those averages are essentially meaningless unfortunately. Inflation tends to use common things like xxg of steak, xxg of carrots, coke, big mac etc. We we used wage comparisons for like ji s worldwide, i think we might start seeing things differently. Example: fullt time bus driver, mcdonals cashier, rookie police officer, 20 year fire fighter etc. Mix it up but with things most countries have. If countries dont have police, firemen etc its safe to assume they may need a hand.

Lol wtf. 50-60k is GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power. Nominal GDP per capita is 30-35k US$. :roll:

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