I’d give it all to Housecat. But that’s just me.
Gee. That’s a surprise.
It’s my birthday next week. What a perfect present. 500,000NT
Because a million would be pretentious.
You have an opportunity to get a master’s degree without getting into debt. This is a no-brainer. Get the degree, get a better job, save up, then take some time off to travel without feeling like you’re wasting a huge opportunity.
Fixed it for ya.
Ha! That article assumes a constant 12% rate of return, which in this economic climate is ridiculous.
As to getting a master’s degree, I didn’t realize that it would be so cheap. 500,000NT might be able to pay for a semester in the States. I bet you could get a master’s for that much or even less in Taiwan, but I wonder how useful it would be outside of Taiwan (I actually don’t know and would love to hear differently.)
I second that…and with a better job, you may have more holiday time and more money to do some nice traveling on a frequent basis! 
It depends on where you go to school. My entire MBA cost just slightly more than 500,000NTD (paid for by the company I work for). But I went to a state university, not Harvard.
Fixed it for ya.[/quote]
How is traveling for a year going to land him an “interesting” job? He already lives and works abroad, I presume. I guess it depends on one’s personality. If I were in his shoes, I would feel a tremendous weight on my shoulders traveling about, knowing I was giving up a free master’s degree in my field. I just finished my master’s degree last month, and it was a major relief, for me.
For most people in most fields a master’s degree is a waste of time and money. I know a lot of people who have gone into higher education with the vague goal of getting a better job but they failed to scrutinize their investment in the same way as putting US$20,000 into a mutual fund or small business.
Also I’m amazed that the word ‘free’ has sprung up in this discussion. If the OP has 500,000 to invest or spend and decides to use the money on education then that education is absolutely not free.
Ha! That article assumes a constant 12% rate of return, which in this economic climate is ridiculous. [/quote]
That’s missing the point, which is that relatively small amounts of money we manage today can make the difference between wealth or poverty later in our lives.
In the higher end of the ESL world, teachers holding advanced degrees in TESOL or very closely related fields like applied linguistics are in high demand. Indiana and her husband took that route and seem to be doing pretty well for themselves.
True, there is always opportunity cost. But the OP seems to have narrowed down his choices to traveling or investing in his education. I would also argue that there is a quality of life issue to consider beyond just the financials. Even if it were a wash, economically, to invest in an index fund or get an advanced degree, the latter may lead to a more fulfilling lifestyle. Several posters have gotten advanced degrees and gone to greener shores, or stayed in Taiwan and landed university or MOE jobs.
Fixed it for ya.[/quote]
How is traveling for a year going to land him an “interesting” job? He already lives and works abroad, I presume. I guess it depends on one’s personality. If I were in his shoes, I would feel a tremendous weight on my shoulders traveling about, knowing I was giving up a free master’s degree in my field. I just finished my master’s degree last month, and it was a major relief, for me.[/quote]
Or get a Master’s degree and keep the money in the bank. Continue working in Taiwan and do a degree online. Move in with your parents and work part time. This does not have to be an either one or the other situation.
What would I do with $500k NT? Buy drinks, BBQ and lap dances for a Forumosa happy hour…
Fixed it for ya.[/quote]
How is traveling for a year going to land him an “interesting” job? He already lives and works abroad, I presume. I guess it depends on one’s personality. If I were in his shoes, I would feel a tremendous weight on my shoulders traveling about, knowing I was giving up a free master’s degree in my field. I just finished my master’s degree last month, and it was a major relief, for me.[/quote]
I didn’t specifically mean the travel would lead to an interesting job. Apologies if it read that way.
Travel generally requires more in the way of time than money. Other than airfare, travel can be fairly cheap - you can easily do it on US$200 per week in most parts of the world. Having NT$500 000 gives you the luxury of time. Hoping to fit your travel into 2 weeks annual vacation time defeats the purpose of travel and is usually more expensive to boot.
The experiences travel brings will be with you for life and are the kind of thing people look back on and feel grateful for when they are approaching the end of their lives. In most cases, a Master’s just leads to a better paying job, and if you measure your life based on what you earn, then opening your own business is the only way to go.
The whole thing about getting a Master’s in EFL is slightly overrated, I think. Some sort of teaching credential certainly helps in Taiwan, though it’s still hardly an amazingly well rewarded job. You’d possibly do better staying at home and teaching there if you set your sights on promotion (especially trying to get to be a principal). If you were going to stay as a normal teacher in Australia, I don’t think it would be worth it, to be honest. Anyway, I’m not in Taiwan for the money, that’s for sure. That, incidentally, is probably a large part of why the MOE struggles to find teachers (although with the way things are going in America right now, there’s a greater supply of teachers applying).
Yeah, obviously, it’s better than working in a buxiban, but that goes without saying. What white people here simply don’t get is that they’re no different from Southeast Asians working as maids or in factories, and they’re no different from those who pick fruit in Australia or America. They’re paid better (though that’s declining), they’re given crap to no benefits, and they’re treated like shit. It goes without saying that getting up and out of that field is a smart move. I just don’t know that getting further up in the field is necessarily the way to go.
In the EFL field, there are only handful of parts of the world where, in general, the differential between pay and cost of living works out well. The big one is the Persian Gulf region (and Brunei), but then, you have to live and work in the Persian Gulf. 
There’s a reason they pay people so much money to go there. Living in a gated community with guards in Saudi Arabia hardly conjures up the same kind of romanticism as being on a beach in Thailand or surrounded by old chateaux and vineyards in the French countryside. Funny that.
Then there are a handful of places in East Asia, but university lecturers here don’t really make that much and from all the descriptions, it’s like teaching kindy for big kids only not nearly as enjoyable and there’s not really any job security. As far as I know, all of us in the MOE programme and all of the university lecturers are on one year contracts. We’re still all glorified fruit pickers and maids. Sure, you might nab a good EFL job somewhere else, but to be honest, I think if you’re going to go and get yourself a Master’s, EFL is not the way to go if you’re looking for money.
You could forget Europe as those jobs would be as rare as rocking horse shit and the locals speak English well enough there that they really don’t need foreigners to help them out. The rest of the world is too undeveloped to be able to pay enough money.
cfimages: I’m ambivalent about travel now. There are some places that I loved and still look back on fondly. Then there are other places I couldn’t get out of fast enough and wish to never return to. Of course, with travel, there are things you might not be able to do when you’re older. However, I believe llary’s point is that the time value of money is important. If you start saving/investing early enough, then there’s a very good chance of being able to retire before fifty when you’re still fairly spritely. I think a lot of people don’t really understand that even earning a lot in later life might still not be able to catch up to the compounded returns from investing earlier in life on a much more modest income.
Yeah, but by the time you’re 50, you’ve potentially missed out on up to 30 years of travel. I’ve met plenty of people slaving away in order to retire who are envious of those that travel, but I’ve never met any travelers who are envious of those slaving away working.
NB - I’m working on the assumption that most people are not earning a living doing something they love. If your work is the kind of thing you’d be doing anyway (like mine) then the above doesn’t really apply.
It’s a trade off, like anything.
I know several people, including close family members, who regret not saving properly, and are forced to work in their old age when they’d rather be retired like many of their friends. I have other family members who did save, and are now enjoying their retirement. Two of these people did not start traveling until they were in their 60s, they’re now in their 80s, and they still travel on a fairly regular basis. And of course there are other ways to enjoy one’s retirement besides traveling.
In other threads, various posters have said they have no savings and no idea how they will ever retire. But hey, they get to go surfing or river tracing every day, so it’s all good, right? Again, it’s a trade off. They’re having fun now, and more power to them, but it may not be so much fun to literally work until they die, or until they are too old and weak to make it to the office/classroom.
And why can’t you travel and get a degree??? Travel is not for everyone. A lot of people can’t stand it. And honest to God, you’d think Travel would do a man good eh? The number of well traveled jerks that I’ve met is astounding. The more they see the world, the angrier, bigoted, arrogant jackasses they turn out to be. Ditto with degrees. It boils down to personal choice.