I think it’s super weird that people in Taiwan talk about monthly pay. In the US not everyone even gets paid monthly. Some get paid every week or two weeks, for example, so they may not even know how that breaks down monthly without using a calculator, since months don’t divide evenly into weeks. Others may work in fields where the pay is much better at certain times of year than others, which makes monthly pay completely meaningless. It’s all about how it adds up over the course of the year. Plus we are taxed on our yearly incomes, and receive social security benefits based on our yearly incomes, etc. Also, how often does one only do a job for only one month, anyway? I always think of jobs (and therefore their pay) in terms of years.
Monthly amounts are pretty meaningful specially if you have to budget yourself around your tight monthly salary.
Because rent and many utilities are paid monthly.
Except the crazy Taiwanese landlords that ask for 1 year upfront 
If you’re living paycheck to paycheck then yes, I see your point. Of course, if you’re in that situation your pay is more likely presented as an hourly number rather than monthly or yearly!
Yes and no. But to me monthly pay can be odd in Taiwan because of the Chinese New Year bonus structure. It works out reasonably well for me because I mostly “budget” (boy that’s a generous term for it) based on my monthly salary, semi-forgetting there’s an extra 1.5 months in Jan. / Feb. - but aren’t those bonuses a giant proportion of annual salary in some sectors and companies? In those cases, monthly pay may not mean much at all.
True on top of that many people get huge annual bonuses here that amount to several months pay…
Depending if you are on a salary or hourly wage. In the home country we give basic gross and net hourly wages. That does not include a 13th month, paid vacation, nightshifts and weekends, holidays are paid 25%, 50% or 100% more per hour. When on a salary it’s just monthly.
What are these 13th and 14th months people keep talking about? Isn’t your monthly salary 1/12th of your annual salary by definition?
no, in some sectors you get a Chinese new year bonus which is your monthly salary * certain number of months .
for example you can have a guaranteed bonus of 2 months + variable bonus depending on company performance or your own performance (e.g. sales commission).
I would argue that this just means your true monthly salary is 2/12 or more higher than you’re stating it is. All the more reason to use annual salary, unless you just prefer to understate pay for some reason. Why wouldn’t your pay refer to your entire pay?
I agree. That’s why the foreign media reports about monthly salary are almost always horseshit.
Most families in Taipei will do well to get to 100k stable monthly income with both parents working I’d say.
it’s not a question of polemics, but of pay structure. For example in my prevuous company the pay package is a fixed annual sum + variable performance bonus that can reach up to 7 monthly salaries (depending on your performance and company performance ), so in CNY you can get another 6 months worth of bonus, hence people referring to it as 13, 14th salaries.
Indeed. I think the elephant in the room may be health care, as well as other common living costs that are unavoidable by most (transportation, electricity, rent/proterty taxes/strata fees/etc). Its not about having money for retirement so mush as its about having money when your body fails and its expensive as all fuck to either fix or maintain it. Taiwans health insurance is good now, but it is naive to think it covers everything and even more naive to think its going to stay this good forever. Already w see the beginning crumbling of certain promised social programs in amny countries. Especially in regards to pensions, health services and education. Never mind their roads and other infrastructure which “only” indirectly affect us.
Given taiwans environment: air quality, noise quality, food quality, water quality, stress levels, traffic safety, global warming, worsening rains worsening droughts, fairly poor social care for the elderly on a national level etc, it seems literally unsane to assume we arent going to have huge financial worries as we age both due to increased costs (unhealthy) as well as little help after we cannot work. This is why, as much as it pains me to say, people still use their children here as their safety net and treasure boys over girls. Its retarded, but for many it is also logical to their lives. We already have a basic plan to move back to my original country mostly due to health concerns. Make more money here, and move there a our bodies are already showing severe signs of health issues due to taiwans poor environmental conditions. Mostly air quality. I put money on my death being from either respiratory or digestive diseases, likely a cancer or 2.
I agree more money is better so you can save. But saving money tends to be fairly risky long term, ideally people put into long term assets which can follow the currency trends of the times. Eg. Land. And this has gotten extremely hard due to infaltion in taiwan over the last decade with not much improvement in employment and job issues. Like prohibitively so. Thats why i save up as much as i can here and invest in land in my country of origin. As crazy as there is, its far less crazy than here! But thats just a game us immigrants can play easily.
Regardless of salary, ifeel its important to play lon term. Decades, even.generational. thinking a couple years at a time tends to end.in either luck or hardship. Sometimes the very few just work so hard and smart they make anything work.
Ironically accountants charge this az well despite no improvement to our businesses haha. I just call them bonuses, not gonna let them save face for charging more and trying to hide it. But i do like bonuses, it provides motivation as well as a safety net for the business if the employees are shyte. Of course its abused, but that can be changed with will power.
They’d probably also have adult children and/or their parents working and contributing. If it still came to 100k or less, it would be rough. I didn’t say it wouldn’t be possible, just that it would be rough. IDK about “most,” though, if you’re only talking about Taipei residents. New Taipei or Taoyuan would be another story, obviously.
For many, perhaps. I debated between the responses that are 33% and 50% LESS than I make. Either would be good for a reasonably comfortable month-to-month living, but for me the difference comes down to when (or if) you want to retire. If you don’t want to work your whole life, and you aren’t young, you’d better be saving a LOT of your pay. And even if you are young, you’d better be saving something significant.
Truer words are rarely spoken.
Hey, man, just chillax.
Best to start very young! I waited till we left Taiwan and I got a salaries job to start a retirement fund. Mistake. I probably could have shave 8 to 10 years off my retirement age of I had started putting away 15 percent or so at 26 instratd of 34. But you are right… that retirement fund does become more important to you the closest you get to needing it.
Quite relaxed. Mostly because i have prepared based on objective realities and am stable without making a high salary 
do you disagree with something specific?