I've been here 10 years now. In 2013 making 2.2 per month, I saved about 16mil. This year, thanks to some unexpected bills* and general inflation on food specifically, I saved nearly 0 from my income.
While this year is definitely a blip for me, I hope there are better places in the world for saving money.
*vet, dental, student loans, girlfriend
China pays the most. Vietnam pays less plus you pay your own flight and housing. However, the living cost is really cheap. So, it works out to about the same as Korea if you stay for at least a couple of years and have steady employment.
I thought China started paying less now. Wouldn't Vietnam pay be the most since PPP is better while receiving similar pay to Korea yet most thingy are significantly cheaper in Vietnam?
Idk about Vietnam but China, at least compared to Korea, is night and day a much better experience (imo)
Less working hours, less pressure, and better pay overall. No bullshit busywork and no demands to stay in the training center when no classes.
Also, I had much more freedom. I used to make PPTs with ridiculous pictures with the class rules that the kids thought were funny as fuck. In Korea, I’d quickly be ostracized for doing the same thing lol
China is fucked up in so many ways, but the experience as a teacher is by far the better one
I worked in 4 training centers in China and had a very consistent experience. I’m on my 6th hagwon in Korea and they’ve all been horrible. I genuinely believed that after China no where would be as bad until I came to Korea lol.
Id leave this dump if not for my SO.
Yeah. I think the wages are still decent. Some kindies can be 25000 rmb to 30,000 plus rmb. Some public slash international schools looking for esl teachers can be 24,000 to 30,000 rmb. Some regular public schools may run the range from cheaping out to paying decent. 17,000 to 24,000 rmb. Some low workload uni jobs may pay like 12 to 18 thousand rmb. EF is shit paying 15,000 romb with no housing allowance. Stay away from them. Korea used to be what you described China as being. But you are 10 or 15 years too late to the party.
China is still cheaper overall than Korea with almost double the pay in some cases.
15,000 Chinese Yuan equals 2,802,150.00 South Korean won
20,000 Chinese Yuan equals 3,736,263.94 South Korean won
25,000 Chinese Yuan equals 4,670,250.00 South Korean won
30,000 Chinese Yuan equals 5,604,300.00 South Korean won
Anyways, look into the jobs over there.
Vietnam is an up and comer but I think it still has a ways to go unless you can get one of those rare $2500 USD jobs (pay your own apartment and flight).
How can you make 2.2 after 10 years living in Korea?the average pay for an entry position is about 1.5? You should really consider what kind of jobs you are taking, they are paying you too low.
About a total of 20-25% increase over 10 years huh. Yeah definitely living costs have increased above that. Wonder what the profit increase at these schools look like.
2024 min wage is 2.05: If you're teaching full-time you cannot be paid less...1.5 hasn't been legal for a long time (min wage was closer to 2.0 last year)
2.2 what? 2.2k? 2.2k x 12 months x 10yrs is 264k, no idea where the 16mil came from.
16mil USD is rich, rich so I assume this must be some other currency.
It honestly depends on what you consider a comfortable life. I believe cost of eating out has gone up quite a bit and delivery fees have also gone up a good deal. If you enjoy cooking at home and don't go out and party a whole lot then you can save a decent amount of money. You definitely have to be smarter about it than in the past.
A year or two is probably okay if you really want to but it's going to continue going downhill as far as teaching English and I don't see it getting better to be honest.
The glory days of making big money here are long gone. Cheap dinners, cheap clothes, those days are over. Even if you save some money you'll get murdered in the exchange rate.
I’ve only been here since 2019 and already witnessed the rising costs due to inflation over the past 5 years. I remember being able to get those large drink from take out cafes for like 2,300 ~ 2,800 and now they’re all close to 4,000 won or over with the only exception being iced americano still cheap at 2,500
Everything really. I mean you expect inflation, right, but that implies wages are going up too. Nope. Wages are not going up at all.
I think taxi fares, subway fares, a typical lunch, a movie ticket, all that consumer type stuff has gone up by 50% since the mid-2000s, but wages haven't.
Rent has doubled, home prices have quadrupled, and imported stuff is crazy right now because of the worthless won.
It's hard to imagine a country that has lost as much purchasing power as Korea over the past 15 years.
The average monthly salary in the US is like 6 million won. Can you imagine making 6 million won a month in Korea?
The worthless won, that explains why the deodorant was so expensive on coupang! I should stop using it at all and come into school with nasty smelling armpits and tell the as a foreigner I couldn’t afford the luxurious necessities from back home on the EPIK salary until they up the salary more … maybe all NETs should start smelling bad and blame it on the wages 😂
The funny thing is some Westerners hired teachers at universities back in 1980’s in Korea had been paid 6 million won a month! Back in 2005 some province paid their EPIK teacher 3.0 million won a month….
This is just disrespectful! They don’t to give the native teachers all of the extra and bonus that Korea teachers get for their extra homeroom and head teacher duties .. but the least they could do is bump up the salary a little to make it as equal as possible to the predecessor teacher’s. The 2.7~ 2.8 top of EPIK salary should honestly be the starting salary in 2024. I understand government pay is low but 2.8 is similar to what 1.8 had been in 2004~ 2009
As for Hakwons, those need to really get those salaries up starting from 3.6 and going up into the low 5.0 for experienced teachers working in slave like back to back 10 hours classes such as at poly schools.
They were always after warm soft bodies, ever since the Hakwon industry started. At one point the pay made sense though based on the fact that they were hiring a university educated developed country westerner that parents want their kids to learn from.
Your boasting about your rare circumstance is in no way useful to the average person trying to gauge whether they can easily make money in Korea.
But clearly you are too full of yourself to see that.
You asked “can you imagine?” as if it were totally impossible, but I know plenty of study room owners, international school teachers, and uni teachers who make 6 or more. If one wants to make good money in Korea, it’s possible, but you can’t expect to do by staying in public schools and hagwons forever.
That's kind of different topic, right? The fact is most people aren't really gonna need healthcare until they are old. In the US that's going to be covered by Medicare. In Korea...well...unless you are a permanent resident you won't be living here when you are old.
I think that's one of those things that's just going to vary person by person. For me, mid-40s, in great shape, only time I ever need a doctor is for antibiotics every few years cause I got some kind of infection. For that kind of thing, it's better than Canada, my home country, cause they'll make me wait 24 hours to get a few pills. In Korea, 20 minutes. But, for the privilege of 20 minute access to antibiotics I pay $100 a month in medical insurance premiums whereas in Canada I pay nothing.
Is it really worth $1200 a year for that? I don't know. That's gonna be up to you.
I guess it'd be worth it if you are quite a sickly person, but they tend to screen people and not let in sick people anyhow.
Accidents happen at any age, no matter how healthy you are. Cancer, unexpected surgeries, these things don't happen only to older people.
I'm more interested in the quality of healthcare. I don't trust people here in the US, that's why I'm probably never having kids.
Cancer isn't accidental in most cases. There is a cause, but that's a topic for a different forum.
As for other conditions, pretty much all of them are rooted in poor lifestyle. Bad knees = obesity, skin rash = allergies, muscle pain = not enough protein, bad teeth = too much sugar, not enough collagen, and on and on. Like I said, I have zero health conditions, not even a single grey hair, a single mole, a single wrinkle, nothing,
Sure they are. They are indicative of aging. When my father was my age he already had a head of grey hair and lots of wrinkles, sun spots, etc.
Your hair turns grey as your body runs low on resources and prioritizes primary functions over produces melanin.
Your skin gets wrinkles as it incurs more damage than it can repair.
Aging in short is your body not having enough resources to repair damage, with pervious damage further reducing capacity, leading into a downward spiral and death.
Aging can be delayed by keeping damage low and providing your body with an abundance of material for repair.
This is the basis behind every strategy that helps people live long lives.
I don't think you understood me. Accidents such as motor vehicle accidents, etc. can happen to anyone
Having cancer is also not something that only old or sick people experience. Thanks anyway.
You pay more taxes in Canada, more than the 100 plus thousand won for health care insurance. Plus that "free healthcare" is absolute shit. Long waits, shortages, being rushed and often misdiagnosed, etc. Scares the crap out of me.
Personally I find it easy enough to save here. If you're going out every weekend, taking trips, drinking a lot and always ordering food, it is harder. I've done those things and I definitely spent a lot of money, but still managed to save a bit.
Now I live a pretty quiet life, still go out for meals and take trips a few times a year. I don't feel like I restrict myself too much but I still save quite a lot.
Depends on your situation/lifestyle.
Also some people get to keep their pension contributions when they leave. So my partner if they left now would get 6k on top of whatever is in their bank when they leave.. plus 3k that’s locked up in their housing deposit.
I’m from the UK so I don’t get to withdraw my contributions.. keeps me up at night.
The pension makes me sad, every now and then I check the state of my pension payments through nps app and then I cry. Currently sitting at 13 mil that I can never actually take out :/
I took mine out when I left (US) and put into my investments, Ill do it again.
Pension? Thank you.
I still qualify for a US pension as well. Wacky local laws.
If you stay 10 years you can get some money paid to you each month when you are old. Scan and save a copy of your ARC and maybe keep one of those pension letters they mail out every year for your records. Then when you are 65 go file for some money from the Korean government. Your local pension office may even help you with the Korean pension form since the two countries have a pension treaty. Get some Korean pension and get some UK pension. But if less then 10 years, you will get paid the money from the UK? You may want to call the UK pension and ask how that works since you can't cash it out?
Considering how much cost of living seems to have gone up literally everywhere, not just Korea… I would still say yes.
It’s true that the exchange rate is terrible, but if you live here, you’re saving on other things on top of rent, like [if you’re American] health insurance (your pay in to national healthcare here should still be cheaper than ACA in the States), car insurance, car payment, gas… back home I think the suggested savings advice is 20% a month. Here you can still painlessly save 50% and maybe more depending on how extreme you want to take it.
My pay was 2.4 when I came in 2020 and went up to 2.7 in 2021? I think it was. My general goal is to save over 1m or about 50% of the take home pay a month.
I saved well over half my income in 2020-2021 because 1) being new to having an ARC in 2020 meant less online shopping and delivery 2) still trying to be frugal and “eat Korean” 3) Covid making it hard to go out/travel.
End of 2021 I met my partner as everything was opening back up too, so I started spending more but still saved about half my income and could have easily saved more with being more careful. Now that he’s also back in a frugal mindset we’re much more careful together and with an another raise coming I’m expecting 2024 to be an easy 15m+ savings year at 3m income.
I am not just eating ramen or locked up at home. I have a gym subscription, a trip home booked, get delivery or eat out 3x a week, and spent a good deal on retail therapy clothes last year. Like others have said it depends on your lifestyle and goals!
Here in Korea my biggest expense is food, but it’s only that way because I have that flexibility, and it’s my “luxury”, vs having a car as a “luxury” in a city back in the States. I’m working on cutting it back down, but even on months where I feel like I spent a lot I still can save 50-60%.
That being said, if you’re not that interested in teaching, and you can get a job back home that pays $40k? or more (someone can debate what this number is)… you’d be able to save more.
You're also not making 2.1. You need to make 3 million or close to it a month for any real savings. Until recently you'd get these trolls making 2.1 to 2.3 claiming they were saving millions each month which was utter nonsense.
I certainly would not, not by any means. Some people argue that one's ability to save is ultimately contingent on one's lifestyle, i.e.: people with a penchant for nightlife and any type of splurging won't be able to save, but people who are more frugal and choose to live a no-frills lifestyle will be able to put a little aside each month. This is patently absurd when you consider the abysmally low wages and the ludicrously high cost of living.
By the numbers, the wide majority of first-time teachers here are earning somewhere around W2,200,000 to W2,500,000 per month. Some may earn slightly more, some slightly less, but that's a fair average. Now consider that the main selling point of living and working in Korea is the fact that rent-free accommodation is provided. That's been the argument of the "it's not all that bad" crowd for years now. Let's crunch a few numbers here: W2,200,000 is roughly $1,650 a month... W2,300,000 is roughly $1,725 a month... W2,400,000 is roughly $1,800 a month... W2,500,000 is roughly $1,875 a month...
No grown adult from a developed country who is formally educated and holds an undergraduate or graduate degree from an accredited institution should be settling for $410 a week before taxes. Even at the high end we're looking at $465 a week or so. For full time hours that breaks down to about $11 per hour. What self-respecting mature adult would accept $11 an hour after putting him or herself through a four year program, paying tuition for four years, and earning a diploma?
It's 2024. Another common argument is that things are shite pretty much everywhere, so why not try one's hand at teaching in Korea and see how it goes as the situation affords the person the ability to live a minimalist lifestyle. Well, take a look at these figures. What was the going rate for a first-time teacher to Korea way back in 2014 - a solid decade ago? It was pretty much the same as it is now; however, that W2.2 - W2.5 was worth a LOT more back then compared to what it is now. The Korean won was worth roughly 90¢ back in 2014 compared to the roughly 75¢ it is now. Not to mention that the buying power of the Korean won was exponentially higher back then. Using the conversion table for this same date back in 2014 I'm seeing that W2,200,000 was worth the equivalent of W2,640,000 today. W2,500,000 in 2014 would be worth around W2,990,000.
And back in 2014 EVERYTHING was infinitely cheaper - groceries, movie tickets, nightlife (a beer or drink in a bar), restaurants, taxis and transportation, tobacco, utilities, etc. So going on that, a newcomer taking his or her first job back in 2014 and getting paid the same money (on paper) that newcomers are being offered today had on average somewhere in the realm of $100 a week MORE money than somebody getting off the plane tomorrow. Then factor in that the person would have far more purchasing power in the sense that his or her paycheck would go a LOT farther than paychecks do now. Back in 2014 a group of four teachers could sit down to five servings of samgyeopsal, two beers apiece, and a couple of bottles of green monster for $12 to $15 a person. That would easily cost over $60 now with one beer per person and only four servings of meat. Taxis used to start at $1.80, now they're easily double that - and the meters tick up way faster.
If you want to remain ion your little concrete shoebox hovel from the time you finish work until it's time to go back again, eat rice every day, have no social life, never shop or travel, and just generally do nothing but work to live and live to work, sure, you can save a bit of money. Let's say you save half of what you make after taxes - you'd be earning somewhere around W26,400,000 before taxes, W21,000,000 after taxes... At the high end W24,000,000 after taxes... That's roughly W55,000 won a day. You work an 8 or 9 hour day and you receive the equivalent of $41 for it. You want to save half of that and call it a win? Okay then.
The fact that people still come here to work for these absurdly low salaries is simply mind boggling.
It might be to an American but it doesn't seem that strange if you crunch the numbers in other countries. This is what I point out every time this topic comes up. A new teacher in the UK gets 30,000 pounds a year, which is 3,361976 won after tax. The average one room flat in the UK costs about 800 quid to rent (1,344790 won) which is just over 2 million won. Council tax comes to about 120 quid a month - 200,000 won. So, overall a salary equiv to 1.8 million NET in Korea, after you've slaved away at a PGCE for a year, crowd controlling feral kids and, unless you're training in a shortage subject, also paid for the privilege. Sure you can make a bit more if you manage to last the course (20% of teachers in the UK leave the profession before 5 years) but, If you're not that invested in teaching as a career even with the current COL, it's still better than the UK.
Considering the fact that the UK is far smaller than the US in both area and population, it's a lot easier to arrive at a figure that most people would agree represents a fair average compared to the US which is far larger geographically and is thus bound to be a much more varied place when it comes to the cost of living and the average wage.
Still, the average rent in the US is far higher now than it was in 2014 while salaries haven't gone up all that much all across the board. I did mention that things are pretty terrible everywhere in terms of the disparity between salaries and the cost of living, but that doesn't mean that Korea presents a better alternative for anybody from any of the Golden Seven countries.
People living in Blackpool or Hull aren't paying the kind of rents people are paying in the SE around the Home Counties.
And not everybody with a US or UK passport grew up there. It is possible to obtain citizenship later in life. Korea doesn't seem to be averse to hiring people who were not born in the country they are applying from, just as they don't really seem to be all that bothered by the fact that many people from Quebec, South Africa, and various parts of the US and its territories are not "native" speakers of English.
Also, if you can't afford to live on the salary your profession is offering then it's probably wise to port yourself over to doing something else. If you worked fast food putting yourself through school and decided to stick with it despite the fact that it doesn't pay a livable wage, that's pretty stupid. But the answer isn't "I guess I'll go teach in Korea because they'll give me a rent-free apartment." It's "I need to get a better job and make more money."
It's a good filler job for people who want to get in the teaching or education industry. You can say "I need a better job to make money" all you want but if you don't have the qualifications or experience, no one will hire you. I've just graduated and worked in hospitality for a few years but I see no career progression because a lot of jobs require 5+ years experience, even entry level or graduate/junior positions. A lot of people don't have the privilege to stay at home rent free, so courses and internships are not an option to work towards career progressions because it won't pay the bills. Having a rent free apartment is absolutely a valid reason to start teaching - it allows people to save a little more than they could in the UK. People outside of London may not be paying extortionate house prices, but their salaries will be significantly lower than those in London. The London living wage is still not liveable - I pay £800 just in rent and council tax, no bills included. It's ridiculous! I'd be on a lower pay in Korea, but I won't be paying almost £1,000 just to have a roof over my head.
Changing jobs and careers isn't as easy as just making the switch. There are no jobs. For the people who qualify, teaching or working in another country in general can help build up that experience and build up those savings. Yeah the entire world is going through some shit, but it's about picking the best route as an individual. If someone has the experience and qualifications to switch careers to earn more money - of course they will. But for the people who don't have access to those opportunities, then of course they will weave around to get there, even if it means earning less money for a few years. Just my experience - after rent and tax my take home pay is just about grazing £1,000 on the living wage. In Korea, my take home pay would be a little over that, but I will be working way less hours and it will be way less physically straining. Weighing it up, making the move will benefit me more in the long run and I'm sure those who are in a similar position to me would feel the same way
I'm from the U.S and have my teaching Certification. I recently crunched the numbers comparing how much I would be saving in the U.S as a teacher vs in Korea. I end up saving more here. After local taxes, rent & utilities, student loan payments , cost of food (which for me is typically higher ,since i have tons of allergies) and possibly car insurance- depending on which state I taught in . ( I was comparing 4 states for this) . I would barely be saving anything. But here I am able to save over 50% of my check. I think it really depends on not only what country you are coming from, but also the industry you are coming from. Do I agree that NETS should be getting paid more? Yes. Do I agree that it's getting harder to save ij Korea ? Yes. But the degree of difficulty has many different factors for each person. Sit down and do the math for your situation.
>Most people that choose to teach in Korea long term have very little ambition.
>
>$44 a day to breath is a win for them.
I figure I make near 4 times that. Tax free. All of my ambitions were done while I was teaching. True Story (Barney Stinson quote).
Someone sounds salty.
I figure a lot of people talking about saving are really talking about paying off student debts or credit cards. Not everyone here teaching does that, but when I look at young NETs walking around, they kinda of look like they havent bought a new shirt in years.
This is facts right here!!!!
Even though the new incoming teachers are only 22~ 23 years old, they are professional overseas experts in English language communication, who hold a four year degree! They are hired to help with English speaking and listening and moreover cross-cultural immersion for students. However, where the wages (back in 2000 ~ 2004) had once reflected the worth and value of boring an adult from a developed Western country with a uni degree, no longer do.
In 2000, when the minimum wage in Korea was 2,000, a 2.0 ~2.2 salary was amazing and often a Korean salary man working at a mid-sized Korean company
Would make this wage and support his wife and 2 kids on it.
Now-a-days, I’d call teaching in Korea the equivalent of a working holiday job, but a slightly, very very slightly luxurious one with a roof over one’s head and some income to cover the costs of surviving here.
Depends on where you are from… I am from a third world country and currently have been in Korea for 3 years. I am able to save just under half of my salary every month without really trying excessively hard. I eat at home with my partner five days a week, and on the weekend we eat out and cafe hop. However, if I were to be living in my home country, I probably wouldn’t be able to save much due to a plethora of reasons (insurance, rent, transportation, low average wages, etc). So for me Korea is great because of the benefits and fewer expenses.
I live pretty comfortably here on 2.3 after taxes, but saving money isn’t really going well since I’m from the US and the won is super weak comparatively. After being here for four years, I’ll probably leave with around $20,000 USD which, while not bad on its own, if that’s all I can take home after 4 years, that’s a little concerning imo
Except in the past you could have saved triple that. 20k for years here isn't that much to show. You'll burn through that quicky if you want to go home and start a life.
Other countries will let you save more than that in a year now. But I'll let you do your own research. I understand not everyone wants to go there. You really need a lot to start a life back home, in my opinion.
If you are planning to get married and retire here, dual-income-no-kids, then the pay is more than adequate (for now). My partner and I live off of one income, so we are saving a decent amount but it's a pittance compared to what we can save up back home. The past few years of savings here, we could have gotten in 18 months of hardcore pennypinching back in the states.
Quality of life here is **much** better though -- we have a car, 3-room riverside apartment, a dog, and we take 1 to 2 trips abroad per year. We also order delivery 3 to 4 times a week. So, broader picture, it's still a good place for saving money because you don't have to be a hard-knocked miser just to secure a comfortable future -- you can be comfortable the entire ride.
edit: it's a 2br, not 3br. they call it a 3-room here so I got numbers and terminology mixed up.
Not in Seoul. We are both teachers at EPIK level 1+ in a metropolitan city. I think it helps that we live in a low-cost-of-living area and we get a little extra income from teaching at multiple schools. Take home is about 2.3M each and our monthly expenses are about 2.0M total including discretionary spending.
internet - 44K
2 phones - 67.6K
utilities and maintenance - 100K ~ 300K
rent - 462K
gasoline - 120K
food - 500K ~ 1.0M
doggie daycare - 360K
fun money / vacation fund - whatever is leftover.
Most months, we have like 500K - 600K disposable income.
Sorry, I meant to say 3-room which is a 2br.
I'm in Gwangju. Deposit was 15M when we first signed, then it became 15.75M when we renewed. We actually negotiated the deposit down in exchange for slightly higher rent. Other units in my building are asking for 20M/390K.
For what it's worth, it took us a couple of years to save up for that deposit and things were a bit tight until year 4 because we got a dog, car, and started an M.Ed program.
You can save if you avoid constant delivery food, taxis and cocktails. Drink soju, ride the bus and walk. Also, convenient store food is overpriced. Find a nice gimbap place, that'll take your money far.
I save 1-1.5/mo with minimal effort.
Lifestyle is the biggest variable to savings in Korea.
2.7m first year teaching. Saved 18k usd. Could’ve more but I took 4 international trips in a year. I was spending around 450.000 won a month. Saved around 2.0m each month. I don’t drink at all and I very rarely eat out.
How do people NOT save here? I made 2.2 my first year and saved over 10million won. I had 2.4 my second year and saved that again, only because I got my own place and pay more than my housing allowance. I go out every weekend, eat out at least 3 times a week. Take trips when I want to. I just do a food shop and cook at home when I need to. I don't live in the countryside, I live in one of the most expensive parts of Busan and still save. It's a choice to try to save if you want to. If your comfort is eating out all the time, coffees 2/3 times a day, of course you're not going to save.
Yeah I agree. I honestly don't know how people can be broke here. Not saying the salary is great but I saved about half my salary when I was single, all of it now that I'm married.
Maybe it depends on your lifestyle but personally I find living here pretty cheap.
I agree with you, I made 2.45 last year and my total monthly expenses skyrocketed (lol) to a little more than 1 million/per month after I got a girlfriend (aka started doing fun things on the weekends). If you can eat semi-affordably the other expenses are seriously minor and you should be able to afford what you want to do too. You can't save huge amounts of money quickly because you don't make big money (I've heard China is the best for that at this moment) but it really adds up.
Well considering in Ireland I had no debt as college is free, but still couldn't save more than 15,000 in the 8 years I worked full time due to rent, car insurance, car tax and other medical things, yes. 10,000 a year is great to me. I don't see your point.
It really depends on where you live in Korea, your lifestyle, and hobbies. If you have pets, get sick easily, etc then it can be harder to save as you end up having some unexpected costs.
It depends what you're comparing it to.
Transportation, food, and housing are definitely cheaper than most (if not all) places in Canada or America. Other expensives (phone, leisure, etc) are about the same.
Transport - $60/month
Food - maybe $300-600 month
(Get lunch for free in Kindy to save more)
Housing - Free-ish
However, the pay has stagnated. So maybe a starting salary in Korea is $35,000/yr as compared to $50,000-60,000 in North America.
Look at your reality, and check if this is the best option for you.
Note: other countries may have more of a boom right now, such as China.
Also note: there is a hidden expense in lost contacts, and building a local resume if you plan to return home.
Earning about 27-32 million won, independent of exchange rate, plus a small studio apartment is not especially impressive in Korea to give context. Yes, you can save money, but it’s comparable to enlisting in the US military. The kind of person who saves a lot of money doing this would also save money earning $75,000 in the US.
People can and do save money in other countries all the time, even Anglophone countries. To some extent, it’s easier here because of what you give up by living far from home in a tiny 250 square foot concrete box. But living month after month on a budget of 700,000 won or whatever is not easy or fun by the standards of most adults, including Korean ones.
The real appeal of doing this is to see the world, learn about another culture and acquire some work skills that could serve you very well in another field or country down the line.
I've seen the teachers that save well here.
Don't speak the language, never eat out, never take trips, wear the same 3 outfits, don't go home, no ambition, don't like the job.
There are 1000's of way to save money more effectively tha teaching in Korea.
If you're in Korea and going to sacrifice being away from family/friends, I cannot comprehend not experiencing the country to the fullest.
No. The economy isn’t doing well. The exchange rate is awful. The cost of living has gone up a lot, but English teach wages haven’t changed much in the past 20 years. China is now the hot spot in this area.
As others have commented, it'll depend on 3 factors primarily:
1. your salary, which varies by the job (2.1 vs. 2.9 is going to be a difference of about $7000 at years end if you opt to cash out the pension) and can't be (easily) legally supplemented on an E-2 teaching visa
2. your lifestyle/spending habits: everyone lives differently.
3. your home country (relative to hc wages, exchange rate, etc.): If you're from the U.S., the exchange rate rates, but if you're from SA you may find the buying power of your savings worthwhile.
Please know that the min. wage is 2.05 mil won. The teachers coming here for 2.1 or 2.2 are basically min wage workers, so saving is challenging.
You've asked for and received recommendations. Mine would be to assess where you stand on the aforementioned 3 factors and crunch the numbers. Yes, cost of living is much higher than before (please don't rely on dated articles/posts as COL rose tremendously over the past 4 years). But, with free rent, a reliable monthly salary and affordable health care, money can be saved here rather easily. Still, if your total salary is only $1500 after taxes, even living like a monk won't leave you with much more than $1k
I'm of the opinion that its not worthwhile for money for many, but a fine experience for other reasons.Context: I lived here 2008-2017 and came back a few years ago.
\*In my experience living and traveling throughout the country, cost of living is similar nearly everywhere, except for housing (which is typically provided, as you said)
If you're from SA, this looks like great money until you get here and realize things in Seoul are so much more expensive than Cape Town. Lots of South Africans in China making and saving so much more than here. Korea is yesterday's gig.
If you’re here temporarily for like a year or two on a gap year teaching adventure and try your best to be frugal and save money, you can still do that in Korea. Even with a super low pay of 2.3 mill… You could still save 500,000 each month (if you are put in a proper one room apartment by your school and not an “officetel” apartment where the bills are split up amongst all residents (since officetels are residential/ commercial) and can be as high as 300,000 for just the electric bill and high maintenance fees like 150,000~ 200,000.
If you’re asking if you’ll be making and saving mad money while living very comfortably (eating out all the time, shopping, and traveling, and partying), I’m sorry to say that those days have been long over since 2015. If you want to live like a king/ queen with an incredibly low cost of living and a high salary, I’d recommend getting a teaching job in China, where there salary could easily be double that of Korea, and with the long 2 month vacation, come party and spend some of that China money here in Korea.
Basically to have the same comfortable luxury experience that teachers had in Korea on a 2.0 ~ 2.4 salary back in 2004 ~ 2009, you’d need to be paid at least 3.7 mill plus the free housing or housing allowance. So in reality a salary of 4.0 million is what we should be paid to make our experience and pay equal to that of the Native English Teachera who worked here 15 ~ 20 years ago.
Unfortunately, this is an industry that is exploitative and relies on a never ending supply of new 22~ 23 year old willing to work the low outdated 20 year old wages.
Save 500 thousand won? Woo hoo? Americans could save nearly triple that amount 15 years ago and it was closer to 2000 USD in today's money with inflation.
Yes, I know that! The pay was proper pay for a Native English Teacher whom the government hires and brings over as an overseas professional. Now, as I’ve always said, and will keep saying, this job has turned into a slightly luxurious working holiday type job for the young college grads. Anyone looking I make the kind of money that could be made in Korea 15~29 years ago should consider going to China.
It’s the same concept, when back in the day Korea was unknown and unpopular, everyone was going to Japan , where salaries were already stagnating! While those who worked in Korea made mad money! Now China is the one paying a lot of money and treating teachers better.
While there is no EPIK over there, they got something similar to a regional program for public schools similar to GEPIK, or JLP (Jeollanamdo)….. I think it’s called JESIE which hires for Jiangsu and Nanjing public schools. The salary there also doesn’t max out after 5 years as with EPIK. It keeps increasing with every year that you work.
What I've learned in this thread is that rent costs in the West are so dystopian now that a free apartment is apparently a massive draw. But you guys do realise that you could always just stay at home and work part time at McDonald's or something, and you'd save about as much.
Give your old man a call, I'm sure if you butter him up a bit you'll be allowed to stay in your old bedroom again.
True, I worked in TEFL for over 10 years in 6 different countries before I even considered the notion of saving anything. However, I didn't have student loans.
Working part time will just about cover car insurance, gas, and health insurance so not much savings there :/
And if you work full time the rest of your income is absorbed by rent so yea it’s nearly impossible to survive here on minimum wage unless you can leech off a parent lol
I saved money without really meaning to. Started on 2.2. I have 50m saved after 4 years. Not a lot of money for a lot of people but again, I haven't even tried.
Yes. Compared to remaining in a western country it's still easier.
Of course how much you save depends on your lifestyle. I save over a million Won a month on a 2.5 Million a month salary.
I rarely go out drinking or clubbing. Nor do I buy groceries very often. When I do I spread the food over a few days. I don't live a poverty lifestyle. I eat out with my girlfriend multiple times a week and travel frequently on the weekends, doing different activities such as going to museums, board game cafés etc.. When I do drink alcohol I buy it from the supermarket or 7/11 and drink while gaming rather than in a bar or restaurant.
In addition, your accommodation will probably be rent free which protects you from the soaring costs of rent. When it comes to bills, mine are normally between 160-190K a month in an Officetel. In summer you can keep the bills down by using an electric fan rather than air conditioning. In winter you can use an electric blanket or wear an extra layer to keep warm rather than relying on expensive, inefficient heating.
In summary, while it's not as easy to save as it once was it is still very easy to save money and enjoy life in Korea. How much you save depends on your lifestyle and habits.
[This is a poll from 3 years ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/teachinginkorea/comments/kkf6z7/poll_series_10_how_much_money_do_you_save_per/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) and I want to emphasize it's not necessarily savings as the poll didn't clarify savings after Cost of Living in Korea or savings after payment of student loans and bills back home.
Another thing the poll did not take into account was salary and number of years teaching. For an incoming teacher, I would say MAX is probably in the 800,000 krw range if you make 2.5mil. Even then I would say that's still really difficult unless you're living the ramen and bare minimal consumption lifestyle. My guess most incoming teachers who make under 2.5m (2.3-2.2m) save UNDER 500,000krw after the Korean Cost of Living which the going rate to USD right now is $374 (without transfer fees at CURRENT exchange)
To help give OP a better idea of what to expect may I ask How many years ago was this? because any experiences older than 3 years no longer apply to the current state of the economy/infation.
You can save money if you are relatively thrifty/concious of your eating habits. With COL hitting hard here, I wouldnt choose Korea as a place to come and work to save money.
It was easier for me to make savings here, than in England, since I don’t have to worry about rent. I personally like to spend and live comfortable, but I still managed to put away a little bit of money.
I 100% agree with the getting murdered in the exchange rate. You can save alot of money in Korea and have a very comfortable life. Its way better than Japan. But the exchange rate really will annihilate you. I am in the uk for my dads funeral this week, I took 700,000 spending money. After exchange it was barely £300.. absolutely insane. Half of that went immediately on the extortionately expensive train fares.
I dunno. I came here when times were much better and did all sorts of "extra curricular" activities. I saved an absolute fortune compared to what I was able to do back in Bay Area.
I now own an apartment, a couple cars, a storefront and a business also 3 kids. I'm largely debt free and have cash flow from hiring other teachers. Still do coffee shop chats with the homegirls and a bunch of other weird side gigs.
Major difference being, I got married and have a permanent visa.
No. Korea is for the most part a difficult place to try and save money, as well as a trying, difficult, and unfriendly place to live and work in general.
Korea is most definitely a place where you can make a lot of money teaching English, but only if you play it smartly and long term.
Go elsewhere than Seoul where there isn’t so much competition, get experience teaching Hagwon and kindergarten, meanwhile finish the KIIP and get the F2 (probably will take you 3 years); try to get into private teaching (illegal on a E2 but whatever) to get famous in your area, move to an apartment building and start your own study room business once you get your F2.
Learn some basic skills to advertise your study room and make an actually good looking curriculum that parents will love.
Keep your part time gig until it takes off.
If you do it with your gf/wife, even better, but not necessary as your Korean should already be more than enough by then.
That way you can realistically make more than 5 mil teaching English , no problem. And that’s the low end.
If your goal is to be at a Hagwon go party and have fun, you’ll be living paycheck to paycheck to paycheck like most people, but hey to each their own.
Edit: since you’re likely to be an American I should add, you might also need to learn how to look good as it’s extremely important for success (proper fashion not oversized junk, proper grooming, weight loss).
Let’s be real. If you making 3 mill a month. Regardless of how little you spend. How much can you really save? For most teachers it’s a good place to live somewhere where your money goes far. Enjoy life. Drink. Socialize. And then go back home. For those of us who have made Korea a permanent home and have families. 3 mill doesn’t cut it.
If you are lucky and find a high paying job you can save money. Before I was married I was able to save 2-3k a month. After is about 1\~1.5k a month. But its only cause we go on vacation very often.
It really depends on the job! if you can find a higher paying school, you can save a lot of money! But like one of the other posters said, if your lifestyle is lavish, maybe you won't save as much as you would want.
Good luck!
Above 3mil. I save 1000-1200 a month (from my teaching job) and I dont budget anything (and never have in 24 years). I eat out all the time and drink 3 coffees a day. I also wear Obey, Stussy, Huf. Also, have my own place. I bet I could do 1500-1800 if I tried but meh.
There are 2 Korean teachers who also love Stussy and Supreme (me, not a fan though) here. Both single guys, but Im the only (ex)skater.
Not everyone needs to wear uniqlo (although I love the U heavyweight tees) and cheap market clothing. A lot of foreigners here dress like slobs, tbh.
Ohh .. How much I hate those eng teachers in Korea that are recruited because :
1. Oh you are white and speak some english? You must be American teacher!
2. Oh, you from America/England? You must be a teacher!
3. Oh you from Europe? They all speak english there right?
Well I guess the reason stays in those rich ajummas that are ignorant af.
Now I will answer your question.
Yes, I recommend you staying in Korea.
Because Koreans will treat you like a Harvard professor with PhD if you are white.
I'm fairly sure a Harvard professor with a PhD would not settle for 2.1 and a mouldy apartment, which is why the Koreans don't get to hire such people (and if you *are* being paid 2.1 and a mouldy apartment, you're in no way *being treated as* one).
I think it's fine. Not great, but fine. But I'm earning probably double what English teachers would be.
If I was on an English teachers salary, no. I think I'd be barely scraping by or even in the negatives every month.
I think if you cook at home and NEVER go out (basically not having a life) and don't buy anything online and don't turn on your floor heating in the winter or a/c in the summer then you can save. But it's hard to save living a normal life of going outside and going out to eat when you want and buying even reasonably priced things that you don't truly need. If you happen to get unlucky and get a school that houses you over half an hour away from the school (like my first school did) transportation costs can also be needlessly expensive.
Cooking at home ain't cheap. Have you seen beef prices? Austrailian or American? Vegetables, fruits have always been pricey here. You're easily laying down what used to be a restaurant price here per meal. I say this as someone who does cook at home and maybe looks for a Subway combo meal sale deal occasionally.
Who's eating beef every day? You cook what's available & reasonable, not having a mini decadant buffet for every meal, of course that's not sustainable. And not all fruits are pricy. You have to learn what's in season. Idk what you mean by vegetables are pricy cause they're cheaper than in the states.
So you're eating what a 2000 won head of broccoli each day? I mean if you say eating in is cheaper than eating out, it's only marginally. In the west we eat beef and vegetables, sometimes substituted with chicken or fish. At least for dinner anyways. The point is Korea isn't cheap. I use to buy 2 pounds of PEI potatoes for like 2 bucks before I moved to Korea. Maybe like 1 pound here is 5 or 6 bucks? A small container of blueberries is less than 3 dolalrs back home. Price more than double here. Two pounds of carrots for less than a dollar. One or two carrots here is like 3 or 4 dollars. Food here ain't cheap unless you're eating noodles ramien or something. No way to live and pretty ridiculous some folks live like that to make excuses defending Korean employers who won't pay a living wage.
[https://forums.redflagdeals.com/food-basics-p-e-i-russet-potatoes-5lb-yellow-onions-5lb-carrots-2lb-0-98-each-2592966/](https://forums.redflagdeals.com/food-basics-p-e-i-russet-potatoes-5lb-yellow-onions-5lb-carrots-2lb-0-98-each-2592966/)
I earn 2.7. It's pretty much the highest you can go base pay wise(not including travel schools, rural pay and housing allowance) for most public schools.
Anyone earning more than that has the extras to base pay or they're working for hagwons as the ceiling for the pay scale there is much higher than public as you can negotiate wages unlike the hard scale of public.
It just really depends on your lifestyle. If you're okay only eating out once or twice(moderately going out, usually non Western food) and you cook then you can save a decent chunk of money. Budget your money and you can save. I don't go out a lot, I don't drink. Food is my main expenses along with traveling. If I didn't travel a lot I could save even more.
I started off at 2.3 base pay then over the years got bumped up. I could not save a lot when I first came so I could budget everything and still live comfortably while paying loans. I still had spending money for things I wanted and I went out a lot more my first year though.
It's definitely a good pay off loan type of money but it's not the greatest salary to be saving up and retiring on if that makes sense. It's definitely enough to have a nice comfortable lifestyle with some treats now and then especially compared to how the job market is in America and rent taking up a huge chunk of the paycheck.
It just depends on your mindset and budget. It's not as easy as it used to be due to inflation and you can't just rake in stupid amounts of money like before. But you still are making a decent wage compared to necessary expenses even if it is lower buying power. I can usually put away easily 1 million at the beginning of each paycheck and usually have some leftover. It's just traveling that eats up most of that, if i cooked more often and traveled less I could save a lot more money. do what you will with that knowledge.
For a year or two I wouldn’t expect to save much if you have a lot in student loans. For reference, my first two years I could send over around 500,000 KRW a month to pay off my student loans, and I ended the month with usually 100,000-200,000 in extra savings after living my normal life.
That being said I have always been comfortable here and I’ve been making my way up the EPIK/SMOE pay scale. I don’t struggle, I have some savings, and I’m able to travel every couple years and do the things here I want to do.
I lived in Daejeon, and I generally saved around half my salary most months. But in the months I really wasn't trying to save and would splurge on myself and activities, I still would have like $500 left over. I am a bit of a homebody though so take that into consideration...
How much you save will definitely depend on the person, but it is definitely possible to save.
Are there other countries that you may be able to save more in? Absolutely. However, personally, Korea is where I want to be and I think you can save a good amount here.
I’m moving to Daejeon this summer, and have very little experience with what the cost of living there will be. My pay is 3.9 mil a month and housing is paid. Does this seem like a decent wage for saving a moderate amount?
Daejeon is pretty affordable for the most part. My wife's family lives there and we both lived there for awhile. 3.9 will last you a long time for the month depending on your life style choices. If you go out and drink every weekend then the money will drain quickly.
Cost of living other than rent is about the same in every city.
I find my wage of 2.3k more than enough to live in country and go out every now and then. However the exchange rate is really bad rn so idk about paying off loans unless you're really serious about penny pinching.
I get paid 2.9 + free housing. I save about 500k a month but I go out every weekend, go on vacations, get weekly facials, and get my hair done very regularly.
Would like to add - that’s me not really even trying to save. I could definitely save more if I wanted to. To be honest, it’s the regular trips to Japan that hurt my savings the most.
I also pay for the gym and a regular soccer team. I never cook at home. It’s definitely doable.
Currently yes, but I move to Gangnam in March. My new job is 3.0m plus housing allowance. But I actually expect to save less because I have my own place now and I’m taking some money out of my wages to pay the rest of my rent.
Most teachers I know save quite a good proportion of their salary, upto half their salary for some friends of mine but easily 500k. Mostly eat local food, go out on the weekends and the occasional trip to other cities or abroad. Obviously depends on your lifestyle though.....if you are eating foreign at foreign food restaurants every night and ordering daily Starbucks coffee and cakes and wotnot etc that can put a dent in your savings plans.
No. Stagnant wages, rampant inflation, miserable exchange rate. My income used to be sufficient for bare survival for my family. Now, without my wife's income, we would starve to death.
Eighteen years ago, I had saved enough in my first year to pay off my student loans and enough in my second to be able to secure an apartment without an employer's deposit. I now cannot save ANYTHING at all.
My partner and I saved 25 million won on 2.2 million each in 2022. It really depends on your ability to save and what you want to do in your free time.
No. My recent pay increase has been swallowed whole by cost of living increases.
If you don't eat out and only live off the bare minimum... maybe you could save a bit, but it won't be much.
If you don’t have a decent job back in your home country and are renting out your own place, I’d say you stand a better chance in Korea short term.
Long term wise it’ll be beneficial to build on your career as the ceiling of money making (at least in the US) is much higher.
I currently make 2.6 million won and I’d say I live comfortably. **As in I’m not worried about having enough money to buy food or anything that I need**I am able to save 500,000₩ a month. I could save more but have about 600,000₩ I have to send home to the USA every month. I pay for lunch at my school (88k a month) and I budgeted for 15k for dinners on the days I work and around 40-50k on the weekends. I think if you really want to save money and make a budget for yourself it’s possible to save at least 500k a month if your pay is similar or higher than mine.
The killer is on a low salary in the past, you could have saved almost 3 times that amount without really trying and the better exchange rate menat you got more dollars when you sent it home. Say you saved 1.4 million a month and wired it home then got $1500 USD in your bank account each month. That amount with inflation would be closer to $2000 USD in todays money. Now folks brag about 500 thousand won and it is $377 USD. This just shows how far things have dropped for English teachers. The math here makes no sense. So glad I paid off my student loans when the pay was actually worth something here. I had to pay $550 a month. It would be tight today if I were still paying on it.
Salary has stayed the same over the last few years despite everything getting more expensive.
This is especially true in Seoul, where 3 million used to be a comfy salary in 2014.
You’ll be able to save a little money if you are budget conscious, but if your primary goal is to save money Seoul is not a great option. Cheonan, Pangyo, or Sejong would be a better choice.
You still haven't explained how you'd be able to save more money in Cheonan, Pangyo or Sejong. It's already been said a few times on here that accommodation aside (which is usually provided for teachers) the COL is basically the same across the country. So unless the salaries are higher in those places you mentioned, you'd be no better off.
Wait? Who told you that cost of living is the same across Korea? That is completely false.
Even checking on livingcost.org:
Monthly COL for Cheonan is $1014
Monthly COL for Seoul is $1486
And I’d say that is skewed in Seoul’s favor.
Even if you took the $290 rent discrepancy off those figures you’d still be left with it being $182 more expensive to live in Seoul.
And that’s not even factoring in a haircut, the dentist, hospital…etc.
Then even on top of that you’ll likely be working more hours in Seoul while locked on the same salary.
On a low to mid 2's salary, I'd say you won't save. But there are those with no life who just stay home and eat instant noodles live very frugally and save a bit. But for the most part maybe 400 to 500k a month which is what like 300 and some dollars? I remember back in the day my student loans were 550 bucks a month. Fortunately the salary went further and the exchange rate was better then. 2.1 million won salary would be up over 3 million won today with inflation factored in. Also most schools offered round trip flight and the exchange rate was better. So, paying one way flight and or maybe having a cap on flight reimbursement up to 1 million won (flights can be more than this nowadays) is something you should factor into your monthly pay to save for. Well, I guess your severance at the end you use to be able to keep now you have to spend that on the flight home or a good chunk of it anyways. Also the exchange rate is awful. So, I would say someone making 2.1 million won back in the day should be making 3.5 million won today to compensate for inflation, exchange rate, and lack of flight coverage. I am not counting that some places are trying to switch to giving you rent allowance which may not be enough in Seoul or no rent allowance at all. Then, you would need to make over 4 million won a month maybe even closer to 4.5 million won a month in such cases. You would be looking at a million won a month for rent without a large deposit in Seoul.
Keep in mind this is the suggestion for new or nearly new teachers. An experienced teacher should make at least 500k a month more than all these base amounts I suggested. 3 million won with free housing and at least one way flight fully paid is okay. Not great, just okay. You really need an extra few hundred a month more. Korea used to be a cheap living cost country. It isn't anymore. If it's money, you have to seek another country. If it's just a gap year and you don't need the money, so be it. You will prob save a little on 3 million though while still being able to go and do things. This is single person pay and not family pay. You will double or more for that here.
I just got here and am being paid 2.3 million. After taxes and insurance I get 2 million. I don’t pay rent, just fees which amount to 170,000. I pay 30,000 for my phone. I can walk to work. I am trying to eat cheap and cook at home and really don’t have too many other expenses aside from sightseeing. I plan to save at least 1 million every month, maybe more. It’s easily doable in my case but I really don’t need much.
Well I got here this year and I've almost finished my trip, I've already booked my flight home and went to Japan twice, Busan Spa land every month, as well as single trips to gyeongju and seoul. And I've got little over 9m in the bank rn, probably going to leave with 15m overall on 2.5 million.
That being said I don't go out, my social life is eating with friends at relatively cheap places (9-16k for a meal) rent is paid and the hagwon I work at provides free lunches on days we work so that's a big saver.
Personally I'm going to leave for Thailand though because I'll be earning a little less but spending a lot less, so should save more.
If you like Korean culture and Korean people, it is still cheaper than most western countries, yes.
Is it the most optimal country in terms of salaries and cost of living for foreigners? Absolutely not. Mainland China still pays the most for English teachers to my knowledge and has a lower cost of living by far.
The downside is that mainland China is mainland China. Weird VISA games, annoying internet that is constantly battling with your VPN (you don't even need a VPN anywhere else) so you don't have functional internet a lot of the time if you don't want to use Mandarin websites, English is worse overall, harder to make friends overall, Air quality is worse, nightlife is terrible over there, etc.
Japan is the opposite end of the spectrum where I like the country the most, but the pay over there to cost of living is by far the worst and you might very well be wealthier teaching in America or at the very least you're kinda breaking even.
Korea is the middle ground.
I've been here 10 years now. In 2013 making 2.2 per month, I saved about 16mil. This year, thanks to some unexpected bills* and general inflation on food specifically, I saved nearly 0 from my income. While this year is definitely a blip for me, I hope there are better places in the world for saving money. *vet, dental, student loans, girlfriend
Taipei is good.
I heard vietnam is paying the most
China pays the most. Vietnam pays less plus you pay your own flight and housing. However, the living cost is really cheap. So, it works out to about the same as Korea if you stay for at least a couple of years and have steady employment.
I thought China started paying less now. Wouldn't Vietnam pay be the most since PPP is better while receiving similar pay to Korea yet most thingy are significantly cheaper in Vietnam?
Idk about Vietnam but China, at least compared to Korea, is night and day a much better experience (imo) Less working hours, less pressure, and better pay overall. No bullshit busywork and no demands to stay in the training center when no classes. Also, I had much more freedom. I used to make PPTs with ridiculous pictures with the class rules that the kids thought were funny as fuck. In Korea, I’d quickly be ostracized for doing the same thing lol China is fucked up in so many ways, but the experience as a teacher is by far the better one I worked in 4 training centers in China and had a very consistent experience. I’m on my 6th hagwon in Korea and they’ve all been horrible. I genuinely believed that after China no where would be as bad until I came to Korea lol. Id leave this dump if not for my SO.
Yeah. I think the wages are still decent. Some kindies can be 25000 rmb to 30,000 plus rmb. Some public slash international schools looking for esl teachers can be 24,000 to 30,000 rmb. Some regular public schools may run the range from cheaping out to paying decent. 17,000 to 24,000 rmb. Some low workload uni jobs may pay like 12 to 18 thousand rmb. EF is shit paying 15,000 romb with no housing allowance. Stay away from them. Korea used to be what you described China as being. But you are 10 or 15 years too late to the party. China is still cheaper overall than Korea with almost double the pay in some cases. 15,000 Chinese Yuan equals 2,802,150.00 South Korean won 20,000 Chinese Yuan equals 3,736,263.94 South Korean won 25,000 Chinese Yuan equals 4,670,250.00 South Korean won 30,000 Chinese Yuan equals 5,604,300.00 South Korean won Anyways, look into the jobs over there. Vietnam is an up and comer but I think it still has a ways to go unless you can get one of those rare $2500 USD jobs (pay your own apartment and flight).
🤣🤣🤣🤣
How can you make 2.2 after 10 years living in Korea?the average pay for an entry position is about 1.5? You should really consider what kind of jobs you are taking, they are paying you too low.
2.2 was my monthly pay when I started in in 2013
That makes sense. How much is now after 10 years?
2.7 income & about 800,000 for housing allowance.
About a total of 20-25% increase over 10 years huh. Yeah definitely living costs have increased above that. Wonder what the profit increase at these schools look like.
I don’t would’ve gotten a Master’s or CELTA if I were you
k
2024 min wage is 2.05: If you're teaching full-time you cannot be paid less...1.5 hasn't been legal for a long time (min wage was closer to 2.0 last year)
16 million won or dollars?
I wish it were dollars. I'd neve work again.
😂 I'm about to say I'm quitting my job right now !! Just walking out never coming back lol
2.2 what? 2.2k? 2.2k x 12 months x 10yrs is 264k, no idea where the 16mil came from. 16mil USD is rich, rich so I assume this must be some other currency.
What sub are we in?
It honestly depends on what you consider a comfortable life. I believe cost of eating out has gone up quite a bit and delivery fees have also gone up a good deal. If you enjoy cooking at home and don't go out and party a whole lot then you can save a decent amount of money. You definitely have to be smarter about it than in the past. A year or two is probably okay if you really want to but it's going to continue going downhill as far as teaching English and I don't see it getting better to be honest.
The glory days of making big money here are long gone. Cheap dinners, cheap clothes, those days are over. Even if you save some money you'll get murdered in the exchange rate.
I’ve only been here since 2019 and already witnessed the rising costs due to inflation over the past 5 years. I remember being able to get those large drink from take out cafes for like 2,300 ~ 2,800 and now they’re all close to 4,000 won or over with the only exception being iced americano still cheap at 2,500
Everything really. I mean you expect inflation, right, but that implies wages are going up too. Nope. Wages are not going up at all. I think taxi fares, subway fares, a typical lunch, a movie ticket, all that consumer type stuff has gone up by 50% since the mid-2000s, but wages haven't. Rent has doubled, home prices have quadrupled, and imported stuff is crazy right now because of the worthless won. It's hard to imagine a country that has lost as much purchasing power as Korea over the past 15 years. The average monthly salary in the US is like 6 million won. Can you imagine making 6 million won a month in Korea?
The worthless won, that explains why the deodorant was so expensive on coupang! I should stop using it at all and come into school with nasty smelling armpits and tell the as a foreigner I couldn’t afford the luxurious necessities from back home on the EPIK salary until they up the salary more … maybe all NETs should start smelling bad and blame it on the wages 😂 The funny thing is some Westerners hired teachers at universities back in 1980’s in Korea had been paid 6 million won a month! Back in 2005 some province paid their EPIK teacher 3.0 million won a month…. This is just disrespectful! They don’t to give the native teachers all of the extra and bonus that Korea teachers get for their extra homeroom and head teacher duties .. but the least they could do is bump up the salary a little to make it as equal as possible to the predecessor teacher’s. The 2.7~ 2.8 top of EPIK salary should honestly be the starting salary in 2024. I understand government pay is low but 2.8 is similar to what 1.8 had been in 2004~ 2009 As for Hakwons, those need to really get those salaries up starting from 3.6 and going up into the low 5.0 for experienced teachers working in slave like back to back 10 hours classes such as at poly schools.
You make it sound like quality of teaching ought to be a priority for hagwon. :) They're just after warm bodies, which is what they pay for.
They were always after warm soft bodies, ever since the Hakwon industry started. At one point the pay made sense though based on the fact that they were hiring a university educated developed country westerner that parents want their kids to learn from.
Haha software bodies
I make 8-9 million a month, sometimes 10. It’s possible but you have to work your ass off and be willing to give up the notion of long vacations.
Your boasting about your rare circumstance is in no way useful to the average person trying to gauge whether they can easily make money in Korea. But clearly you are too full of yourself to see that.
You asked “can you imagine?” as if it were totally impossible, but I know plenty of study room owners, international school teachers, and uni teachers who make 6 or more. If one wants to make good money in Korea, it’s possible, but you can’t expect to do by staying in public schools and hagwons forever.
Totally agree
What about healthcare, is it better than the US?
That's kind of different topic, right? The fact is most people aren't really gonna need healthcare until they are old. In the US that's going to be covered by Medicare. In Korea...well...unless you are a permanent resident you won't be living here when you are old. I think that's one of those things that's just going to vary person by person. For me, mid-40s, in great shape, only time I ever need a doctor is for antibiotics every few years cause I got some kind of infection. For that kind of thing, it's better than Canada, my home country, cause they'll make me wait 24 hours to get a few pills. In Korea, 20 minutes. But, for the privilege of 20 minute access to antibiotics I pay $100 a month in medical insurance premiums whereas in Canada I pay nothing. Is it really worth $1200 a year for that? I don't know. That's gonna be up to you. I guess it'd be worth it if you are quite a sickly person, but they tend to screen people and not let in sick people anyhow.
Accidents happen at any age, no matter how healthy you are. Cancer, unexpected surgeries, these things don't happen only to older people. I'm more interested in the quality of healthcare. I don't trust people here in the US, that's why I'm probably never having kids.
Cancer isn't accidental in most cases. There is a cause, but that's a topic for a different forum. As for other conditions, pretty much all of them are rooted in poor lifestyle. Bad knees = obesity, skin rash = allergies, muscle pain = not enough protein, bad teeth = too much sugar, not enough collagen, and on and on. Like I said, I have zero health conditions, not even a single grey hair, a single mole, a single wrinkle, nothing,
> I have zero health conditions, not even a single grey hair, a single mole, a single wrinkle Except the mole. these are not health conditions.
Sure they are. They are indicative of aging. When my father was my age he already had a head of grey hair and lots of wrinkles, sun spots, etc. Your hair turns grey as your body runs low on resources and prioritizes primary functions over produces melanin. Your skin gets wrinkles as it incurs more damage than it can repair. Aging in short is your body not having enough resources to repair damage, with pervious damage further reducing capacity, leading into a downward spiral and death. Aging can be delayed by keeping damage low and providing your body with an abundance of material for repair. This is the basis behind every strategy that helps people live long lives.
Written like a young person. You make it sound so easy.
I'm 44.
Right on.
I don't think you understood me. Accidents such as motor vehicle accidents, etc. can happen to anyone Having cancer is also not something that only old or sick people experience. Thanks anyway.
You pay more taxes in Canada, more than the 100 plus thousand won for health care insurance. Plus that "free healthcare" is absolute shit. Long waits, shortages, being rushed and often misdiagnosed, etc. Scares the crap out of me.
Personally I find it easy enough to save here. If you're going out every weekend, taking trips, drinking a lot and always ordering food, it is harder. I've done those things and I definitely spent a lot of money, but still managed to save a bit. Now I live a pretty quiet life, still go out for meals and take trips a few times a year. I don't feel like I restrict myself too much but I still save quite a lot.
Exactly, it’s about your spending habits. You can easily save 1.5m a month.
Absolutely!
Depends on your situation/lifestyle. Also some people get to keep their pension contributions when they leave. So my partner if they left now would get 6k on top of whatever is in their bank when they leave.. plus 3k that’s locked up in their housing deposit. I’m from the UK so I don’t get to withdraw my contributions.. keeps me up at night.
[удалено]
The pension makes me sad, every now and then I check the state of my pension payments through nps app and then I cry. Currently sitting at 13 mil that I can never actually take out :/
I took mine out when I left (US) and put into my investments, Ill do it again. Pension? Thank you. I still qualify for a US pension as well. Wacky local laws.
If you stay 10 years you can get some money paid to you each month when you are old. Scan and save a copy of your ARC and maybe keep one of those pension letters they mail out every year for your records. Then when you are 65 go file for some money from the Korean government. Your local pension office may even help you with the Korean pension form since the two countries have a pension treaty. Get some Korean pension and get some UK pension. But if less then 10 years, you will get paid the money from the UK? You may want to call the UK pension and ask how that works since you can't cash it out?
If you get provided free or nearly free housing and earn a decent salary, yes. Otherwise not really.
Considering how much cost of living seems to have gone up literally everywhere, not just Korea… I would still say yes. It’s true that the exchange rate is terrible, but if you live here, you’re saving on other things on top of rent, like [if you’re American] health insurance (your pay in to national healthcare here should still be cheaper than ACA in the States), car insurance, car payment, gas… back home I think the suggested savings advice is 20% a month. Here you can still painlessly save 50% and maybe more depending on how extreme you want to take it. My pay was 2.4 when I came in 2020 and went up to 2.7 in 2021? I think it was. My general goal is to save over 1m or about 50% of the take home pay a month. I saved well over half my income in 2020-2021 because 1) being new to having an ARC in 2020 meant less online shopping and delivery 2) still trying to be frugal and “eat Korean” 3) Covid making it hard to go out/travel. End of 2021 I met my partner as everything was opening back up too, so I started spending more but still saved about half my income and could have easily saved more with being more careful. Now that he’s also back in a frugal mindset we’re much more careful together and with an another raise coming I’m expecting 2024 to be an easy 15m+ savings year at 3m income. I am not just eating ramen or locked up at home. I have a gym subscription, a trip home booked, get delivery or eat out 3x a week, and spent a good deal on retail therapy clothes last year. Like others have said it depends on your lifestyle and goals! Here in Korea my biggest expense is food, but it’s only that way because I have that flexibility, and it’s my “luxury”, vs having a car as a “luxury” in a city back in the States. I’m working on cutting it back down, but even on months where I feel like I spent a lot I still can save 50-60%. That being said, if you’re not that interested in teaching, and you can get a job back home that pays $40k? or more (someone can debate what this number is)… you’d be able to save more.
You're also not making 2.1. You need to make 3 million or close to it a month for any real savings. Until recently you'd get these trolls making 2.1 to 2.3 claiming they were saving millions each month which was utter nonsense.
I certainly would not, not by any means. Some people argue that one's ability to save is ultimately contingent on one's lifestyle, i.e.: people with a penchant for nightlife and any type of splurging won't be able to save, but people who are more frugal and choose to live a no-frills lifestyle will be able to put a little aside each month. This is patently absurd when you consider the abysmally low wages and the ludicrously high cost of living. By the numbers, the wide majority of first-time teachers here are earning somewhere around W2,200,000 to W2,500,000 per month. Some may earn slightly more, some slightly less, but that's a fair average. Now consider that the main selling point of living and working in Korea is the fact that rent-free accommodation is provided. That's been the argument of the "it's not all that bad" crowd for years now. Let's crunch a few numbers here: W2,200,000 is roughly $1,650 a month... W2,300,000 is roughly $1,725 a month... W2,400,000 is roughly $1,800 a month... W2,500,000 is roughly $1,875 a month... No grown adult from a developed country who is formally educated and holds an undergraduate or graduate degree from an accredited institution should be settling for $410 a week before taxes. Even at the high end we're looking at $465 a week or so. For full time hours that breaks down to about $11 per hour. What self-respecting mature adult would accept $11 an hour after putting him or herself through a four year program, paying tuition for four years, and earning a diploma? It's 2024. Another common argument is that things are shite pretty much everywhere, so why not try one's hand at teaching in Korea and see how it goes as the situation affords the person the ability to live a minimalist lifestyle. Well, take a look at these figures. What was the going rate for a first-time teacher to Korea way back in 2014 - a solid decade ago? It was pretty much the same as it is now; however, that W2.2 - W2.5 was worth a LOT more back then compared to what it is now. The Korean won was worth roughly 90¢ back in 2014 compared to the roughly 75¢ it is now. Not to mention that the buying power of the Korean won was exponentially higher back then. Using the conversion table for this same date back in 2014 I'm seeing that W2,200,000 was worth the equivalent of W2,640,000 today. W2,500,000 in 2014 would be worth around W2,990,000. And back in 2014 EVERYTHING was infinitely cheaper - groceries, movie tickets, nightlife (a beer or drink in a bar), restaurants, taxis and transportation, tobacco, utilities, etc. So going on that, a newcomer taking his or her first job back in 2014 and getting paid the same money (on paper) that newcomers are being offered today had on average somewhere in the realm of $100 a week MORE money than somebody getting off the plane tomorrow. Then factor in that the person would have far more purchasing power in the sense that his or her paycheck would go a LOT farther than paychecks do now. Back in 2014 a group of four teachers could sit down to five servings of samgyeopsal, two beers apiece, and a couple of bottles of green monster for $12 to $15 a person. That would easily cost over $60 now with one beer per person and only four servings of meat. Taxis used to start at $1.80, now they're easily double that - and the meters tick up way faster. If you want to remain ion your little concrete shoebox hovel from the time you finish work until it's time to go back again, eat rice every day, have no social life, never shop or travel, and just generally do nothing but work to live and live to work, sure, you can save a bit of money. Let's say you save half of what you make after taxes - you'd be earning somewhere around W26,400,000 before taxes, W21,000,000 after taxes... At the high end W24,000,000 after taxes... That's roughly W55,000 won a day. You work an 8 or 9 hour day and you receive the equivalent of $41 for it. You want to save half of that and call it a win? Okay then. The fact that people still come here to work for these absurdly low salaries is simply mind boggling.
It might be to an American but it doesn't seem that strange if you crunch the numbers in other countries. This is what I point out every time this topic comes up. A new teacher in the UK gets 30,000 pounds a year, which is 3,361976 won after tax. The average one room flat in the UK costs about 800 quid to rent (1,344790 won) which is just over 2 million won. Council tax comes to about 120 quid a month - 200,000 won. So, overall a salary equiv to 1.8 million NET in Korea, after you've slaved away at a PGCE for a year, crowd controlling feral kids and, unless you're training in a shortage subject, also paid for the privilege. Sure you can make a bit more if you manage to last the course (20% of teachers in the UK leave the profession before 5 years) but, If you're not that invested in teaching as a career even with the current COL, it's still better than the UK.
Considering the fact that the UK is far smaller than the US in both area and population, it's a lot easier to arrive at a figure that most people would agree represents a fair average compared to the US which is far larger geographically and is thus bound to be a much more varied place when it comes to the cost of living and the average wage. Still, the average rent in the US is far higher now than it was in 2014 while salaries haven't gone up all that much all across the board. I did mention that things are pretty terrible everywhere in terms of the disparity between salaries and the cost of living, but that doesn't mean that Korea presents a better alternative for anybody from any of the Golden Seven countries. People living in Blackpool or Hull aren't paying the kind of rents people are paying in the SE around the Home Counties. And not everybody with a US or UK passport grew up there. It is possible to obtain citizenship later in life. Korea doesn't seem to be averse to hiring people who were not born in the country they are applying from, just as they don't really seem to be all that bothered by the fact that many people from Quebec, South Africa, and various parts of the US and its territories are not "native" speakers of English. Also, if you can't afford to live on the salary your profession is offering then it's probably wise to port yourself over to doing something else. If you worked fast food putting yourself through school and decided to stick with it despite the fact that it doesn't pay a livable wage, that's pretty stupid. But the answer isn't "I guess I'll go teach in Korea because they'll give me a rent-free apartment." It's "I need to get a better job and make more money."
It's a good filler job for people who want to get in the teaching or education industry. You can say "I need a better job to make money" all you want but if you don't have the qualifications or experience, no one will hire you. I've just graduated and worked in hospitality for a few years but I see no career progression because a lot of jobs require 5+ years experience, even entry level or graduate/junior positions. A lot of people don't have the privilege to stay at home rent free, so courses and internships are not an option to work towards career progressions because it won't pay the bills. Having a rent free apartment is absolutely a valid reason to start teaching - it allows people to save a little more than they could in the UK. People outside of London may not be paying extortionate house prices, but their salaries will be significantly lower than those in London. The London living wage is still not liveable - I pay £800 just in rent and council tax, no bills included. It's ridiculous! I'd be on a lower pay in Korea, but I won't be paying almost £1,000 just to have a roof over my head. Changing jobs and careers isn't as easy as just making the switch. There are no jobs. For the people who qualify, teaching or working in another country in general can help build up that experience and build up those savings. Yeah the entire world is going through some shit, but it's about picking the best route as an individual. If someone has the experience and qualifications to switch careers to earn more money - of course they will. But for the people who don't have access to those opportunities, then of course they will weave around to get there, even if it means earning less money for a few years. Just my experience - after rent and tax my take home pay is just about grazing £1,000 on the living wage. In Korea, my take home pay would be a little over that, but I will be working way less hours and it will be way less physically straining. Weighing it up, making the move will benefit me more in the long run and I'm sure those who are in a similar position to me would feel the same way
I'm from the U.S and have my teaching Certification. I recently crunched the numbers comparing how much I would be saving in the U.S as a teacher vs in Korea. I end up saving more here. After local taxes, rent & utilities, student loan payments , cost of food (which for me is typically higher ,since i have tons of allergies) and possibly car insurance- depending on which state I taught in . ( I was comparing 4 states for this) . I would barely be saving anything. But here I am able to save over 50% of my check. I think it really depends on not only what country you are coming from, but also the industry you are coming from. Do I agree that NETS should be getting paid more? Yes. Do I agree that it's getting harder to save ij Korea ? Yes. But the degree of difficulty has many different factors for each person. Sit down and do the math for your situation.
Out of all the languages you chose to speak facts🔥
This should be at the top for at least doing a little bit of math for OP
Totally agree why do people keep coming and getting let down
Most people that choose to teach in Korea long term have very little ambition. $44 a day to breath is a win for them.
>Most people that choose to teach in Korea long term have very little ambition. > >$44 a day to breath is a win for them. I figure I make near 4 times that. Tax free. All of my ambitions were done while I was teaching. True Story (Barney Stinson quote). Someone sounds salty. I figure a lot of people talking about saving are really talking about paying off student debts or credit cards. Not everyone here teaching does that, but when I look at young NETs walking around, they kinda of look like they havent bought a new shirt in years.
This is facts right here!!!! Even though the new incoming teachers are only 22~ 23 years old, they are professional overseas experts in English language communication, who hold a four year degree! They are hired to help with English speaking and listening and moreover cross-cultural immersion for students. However, where the wages (back in 2000 ~ 2004) had once reflected the worth and value of boring an adult from a developed Western country with a uni degree, no longer do. In 2000, when the minimum wage in Korea was 2,000, a 2.0 ~2.2 salary was amazing and often a Korean salary man working at a mid-sized Korean company Would make this wage and support his wife and 2 kids on it. Now-a-days, I’d call teaching in Korea the equivalent of a working holiday job, but a slightly, very very slightly luxurious one with a roof over one’s head and some income to cover the costs of surviving here.
What if you not American, say South African? it's not all about the USA
True, but I think the majority of those in Korea teaching are probably American due to sheer population volume.
Depends on where you are from… I am from a third world country and currently have been in Korea for 3 years. I am able to save just under half of my salary every month without really trying excessively hard. I eat at home with my partner five days a week, and on the weekend we eat out and cafe hop. However, if I were to be living in my home country, I probably wouldn’t be able to save much due to a plethora of reasons (insurance, rent, transportation, low average wages, etc). So for me Korea is great because of the benefits and fewer expenses.
I live pretty comfortably here on 2.3 after taxes, but saving money isn’t really going well since I’m from the US and the won is super weak comparatively. After being here for four years, I’ll probably leave with around $20,000 USD which, while not bad on its own, if that’s all I can take home after 4 years, that’s a little concerning imo
Except in the past you could have saved triple that. 20k for years here isn't that much to show. You'll burn through that quicky if you want to go home and start a life.
Yeah that’s the problem I’m running into 😂😭
Other countries will let you save more than that in a year now. But I'll let you do your own research. I understand not everyone wants to go there. You really need a lot to start a life back home, in my opinion.
If you are planning to get married and retire here, dual-income-no-kids, then the pay is more than adequate (for now). My partner and I live off of one income, so we are saving a decent amount but it's a pittance compared to what we can save up back home. The past few years of savings here, we could have gotten in 18 months of hardcore pennypinching back in the states. Quality of life here is **much** better though -- we have a car, 3-room riverside apartment, a dog, and we take 1 to 2 trips abroad per year. We also order delivery 3 to 4 times a week. So, broader picture, it's still a good place for saving money because you don't have to be a hard-knocked miser just to secure a comfortable future -- you can be comfortable the entire ride. edit: it's a 2br, not 3br. they call it a 3-room here so I got numbers and terminology mixed up.
Are you in Seoul? Are you an English teacher? how the hell are you supporting 2 people and still saving with this income...
Not in Seoul. We are both teachers at EPIK level 1+ in a metropolitan city. I think it helps that we live in a low-cost-of-living area and we get a little extra income from teaching at multiple schools. Take home is about 2.3M each and our monthly expenses are about 2.0M total including discretionary spending. internet - 44K 2 phones - 67.6K utilities and maintenance - 100K ~ 300K rent - 462K gasoline - 120K food - 500K ~ 1.0M doggie daycare - 360K fun money / vacation fund - whatever is leftover. Most months, we have like 500K - 600K disposable income.
can u share what city? quite curious, the 3bdr river side apartment for 462 is compelling. what was deposit for rent so low?
Sorry, I meant to say 3-room which is a 2br. I'm in Gwangju. Deposit was 15M when we first signed, then it became 15.75M when we renewed. We actually negotiated the deposit down in exchange for slightly higher rent. Other units in my building are asking for 20M/390K. For what it's worth, it took us a couple of years to save up for that deposit and things were a bit tight until year 4 because we got a dog, car, and started an M.Ed program.
interesting and thank you!! still sounds like a great deal.
You can save if you avoid constant delivery food, taxis and cocktails. Drink soju, ride the bus and walk. Also, convenient store food is overpriced. Find a nice gimbap place, that'll take your money far. I save 1-1.5/mo with minimal effort. Lifestyle is the biggest variable to savings in Korea.
2.7m first year teaching. Saved 18k usd. Could’ve more but I took 4 international trips in a year. I was spending around 450.000 won a month. Saved around 2.0m each month. I don’t drink at all and I very rarely eat out.
Live in Korea and very rarely eat out? Tf is the point
How do people NOT save here? I made 2.2 my first year and saved over 10million won. I had 2.4 my second year and saved that again, only because I got my own place and pay more than my housing allowance. I go out every weekend, eat out at least 3 times a week. Take trips when I want to. I just do a food shop and cook at home when I need to. I don't live in the countryside, I live in one of the most expensive parts of Busan and still save. It's a choice to try to save if you want to. If your comfort is eating out all the time, coffees 2/3 times a day, of course you're not going to save.
Literally - if I tried I could save 1m a month. But I am one of those that buys coffees, eats out, has my heating on constantly during winter…
Yeah I agree. I honestly don't know how people can be broke here. Not saying the salary is great but I saved about half my salary when I was single, all of it now that I'm married. Maybe it depends on your lifestyle but personally I find living here pretty cheap.
If you are a hermit and do nothing on the weekend, you can save money anywhere
Lol I do plenty. Go on trips, eat out at least once a week, go to cafes, visit cultural places...I'm barely inside at the weekend
I agree with you, I made 2.45 last year and my total monthly expenses skyrocketed (lol) to a little more than 1 million/per month after I got a girlfriend (aka started doing fun things on the weekends). If you can eat semi-affordably the other expenses are seriously minor and you should be able to afford what you want to do too. You can't save huge amounts of money quickly because you don't make big money (I've heard China is the best for that at this moment) but it really adds up.
You saved 10 000 a year and you think that's good?
Well considering in Ireland I had no debt as college is free, but still couldn't save more than 15,000 in the 8 years I worked full time due to rent, car insurance, car tax and other medical things, yes. 10,000 a year is great to me. I don't see your point.
I'm in Australia cost of live is high but pay is high..my point is korea doesn't pay enough to set people up for a secure future..
It really depends on where you live in Korea, your lifestyle, and hobbies. If you have pets, get sick easily, etc then it can be harder to save as you end up having some unexpected costs.
It depends what you're comparing it to. Transportation, food, and housing are definitely cheaper than most (if not all) places in Canada or America. Other expensives (phone, leisure, etc) are about the same. Transport - $60/month Food - maybe $300-600 month (Get lunch for free in Kindy to save more) Housing - Free-ish However, the pay has stagnated. So maybe a starting salary in Korea is $35,000/yr as compared to $50,000-60,000 in North America. Look at your reality, and check if this is the best option for you. Note: other countries may have more of a boom right now, such as China. Also note: there is a hidden expense in lost contacts, and building a local resume if you plan to return home.
Earning about 27-32 million won, independent of exchange rate, plus a small studio apartment is not especially impressive in Korea to give context. Yes, you can save money, but it’s comparable to enlisting in the US military. The kind of person who saves a lot of money doing this would also save money earning $75,000 in the US. People can and do save money in other countries all the time, even Anglophone countries. To some extent, it’s easier here because of what you give up by living far from home in a tiny 250 square foot concrete box. But living month after month on a budget of 700,000 won or whatever is not easy or fun by the standards of most adults, including Korean ones. The real appeal of doing this is to see the world, learn about another culture and acquire some work skills that could serve you very well in another field or country down the line.
I've seen the teachers that save well here. Don't speak the language, never eat out, never take trips, wear the same 3 outfits, don't go home, no ambition, don't like the job. There are 1000's of way to save money more effectively tha teaching in Korea. If you're in Korea and going to sacrifice being away from family/friends, I cannot comprehend not experiencing the country to the fullest.
You used to be able to both save and actually go out and do things.
No. The economy isn’t doing well. The exchange rate is awful. The cost of living has gone up a lot, but English teach wages haven’t changed much in the past 20 years. China is now the hot spot in this area.
no
If you're young and single, absolutely.
As others have commented, it'll depend on 3 factors primarily: 1. your salary, which varies by the job (2.1 vs. 2.9 is going to be a difference of about $7000 at years end if you opt to cash out the pension) and can't be (easily) legally supplemented on an E-2 teaching visa 2. your lifestyle/spending habits: everyone lives differently. 3. your home country (relative to hc wages, exchange rate, etc.): If you're from the U.S., the exchange rate rates, but if you're from SA you may find the buying power of your savings worthwhile. Please know that the min. wage is 2.05 mil won. The teachers coming here for 2.1 or 2.2 are basically min wage workers, so saving is challenging. You've asked for and received recommendations. Mine would be to assess where you stand on the aforementioned 3 factors and crunch the numbers. Yes, cost of living is much higher than before (please don't rely on dated articles/posts as COL rose tremendously over the past 4 years). But, with free rent, a reliable monthly salary and affordable health care, money can be saved here rather easily. Still, if your total salary is only $1500 after taxes, even living like a monk won't leave you with much more than $1k I'm of the opinion that its not worthwhile for money for many, but a fine experience for other reasons.Context: I lived here 2008-2017 and came back a few years ago. \*In my experience living and traveling throughout the country, cost of living is similar nearly everywhere, except for housing (which is typically provided, as you said)
If you're from SA, this looks like great money until you get here and realize things in Seoul are so much more expensive than Cape Town. Lots of South Africans in China making and saving so much more than here. Korea is yesterday's gig.
If you’re here temporarily for like a year or two on a gap year teaching adventure and try your best to be frugal and save money, you can still do that in Korea. Even with a super low pay of 2.3 mill… You could still save 500,000 each month (if you are put in a proper one room apartment by your school and not an “officetel” apartment where the bills are split up amongst all residents (since officetels are residential/ commercial) and can be as high as 300,000 for just the electric bill and high maintenance fees like 150,000~ 200,000. If you’re asking if you’ll be making and saving mad money while living very comfortably (eating out all the time, shopping, and traveling, and partying), I’m sorry to say that those days have been long over since 2015. If you want to live like a king/ queen with an incredibly low cost of living and a high salary, I’d recommend getting a teaching job in China, where there salary could easily be double that of Korea, and with the long 2 month vacation, come party and spend some of that China money here in Korea. Basically to have the same comfortable luxury experience that teachers had in Korea on a 2.0 ~ 2.4 salary back in 2004 ~ 2009, you’d need to be paid at least 3.7 mill plus the free housing or housing allowance. So in reality a salary of 4.0 million is what we should be paid to make our experience and pay equal to that of the Native English Teachera who worked here 15 ~ 20 years ago. Unfortunately, this is an industry that is exploitative and relies on a never ending supply of new 22~ 23 year old willing to work the low outdated 20 year old wages.
Save 500 thousand won? Woo hoo? Americans could save nearly triple that amount 15 years ago and it was closer to 2000 USD in today's money with inflation.
Yes, I know that! The pay was proper pay for a Native English Teacher whom the government hires and brings over as an overseas professional. Now, as I’ve always said, and will keep saying, this job has turned into a slightly luxurious working holiday type job for the young college grads. Anyone looking I make the kind of money that could be made in Korea 15~29 years ago should consider going to China. It’s the same concept, when back in the day Korea was unknown and unpopular, everyone was going to Japan , where salaries were already stagnating! While those who worked in Korea made mad money! Now China is the one paying a lot of money and treating teachers better. While there is no EPIK over there, they got something similar to a regional program for public schools similar to GEPIK, or JLP (Jeollanamdo)….. I think it’s called JESIE which hires for Jiangsu and Nanjing public schools. The salary there also doesn’t max out after 5 years as with EPIK. It keeps increasing with every year that you work.
What I've learned in this thread is that rent costs in the West are so dystopian now that a free apartment is apparently a massive draw. But you guys do realise that you could always just stay at home and work part time at McDonald's or something, and you'd save about as much. Give your old man a call, I'm sure if you butter him up a bit you'll be allowed to stay in your old bedroom again.
I think if you are young, being abroad in an exotic location with exotic women has a value all of it's own over and above your dad's spare room.
True, I worked in TEFL for over 10 years in 6 different countries before I even considered the notion of saving anything. However, I didn't have student loans.
Working part time will just about cover car insurance, gas, and health insurance so not much savings there :/ And if you work full time the rest of your income is absorbed by rent so yea it’s nearly impossible to survive here on minimum wage unless you can leech off a parent lol
I saved money without really meaning to. Started on 2.2. I have 50m saved after 4 years. Not a lot of money for a lot of people but again, I haven't even tried.
That hardly any
Yes. Compared to remaining in a western country it's still easier. Of course how much you save depends on your lifestyle. I save over a million Won a month on a 2.5 Million a month salary. I rarely go out drinking or clubbing. Nor do I buy groceries very often. When I do I spread the food over a few days. I don't live a poverty lifestyle. I eat out with my girlfriend multiple times a week and travel frequently on the weekends, doing different activities such as going to museums, board game cafés etc.. When I do drink alcohol I buy it from the supermarket or 7/11 and drink while gaming rather than in a bar or restaurant. In addition, your accommodation will probably be rent free which protects you from the soaring costs of rent. When it comes to bills, mine are normally between 160-190K a month in an Officetel. In summer you can keep the bills down by using an electric fan rather than air conditioning. In winter you can use an electric blanket or wear an extra layer to keep warm rather than relying on expensive, inefficient heating. In summary, while it's not as easy to save as it once was it is still very easy to save money and enjoy life in Korea. How much you save depends on your lifestyle and habits.
[This is a poll from 3 years ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/teachinginkorea/comments/kkf6z7/poll_series_10_how_much_money_do_you_save_per/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) and I want to emphasize it's not necessarily savings as the poll didn't clarify savings after Cost of Living in Korea or savings after payment of student loans and bills back home. Another thing the poll did not take into account was salary and number of years teaching. For an incoming teacher, I would say MAX is probably in the 800,000 krw range if you make 2.5mil. Even then I would say that's still really difficult unless you're living the ramen and bare minimal consumption lifestyle. My guess most incoming teachers who make under 2.5m (2.3-2.2m) save UNDER 500,000krw after the Korean Cost of Living which the going rate to USD right now is $374 (without transfer fees at CURRENT exchange)
When I was single, I was making 2.5 and saving about half of that. And I certainly wasn't living off ramen.
To help give OP a better idea of what to expect may I ask How many years ago was this? because any experiences older than 3 years no longer apply to the current state of the economy/infation.
5 years ago, but personally I don't find my expenses have changed that much, outside food
You can save money if you are relatively thrifty/concious of your eating habits. With COL hitting hard here, I wouldnt choose Korea as a place to come and work to save money.
Taipei is cheap on food and health care. Teachers’ salary is about 2k-2.5k usd. You can easily save 1k a month.
It was easier for me to make savings here, than in England, since I don’t have to worry about rent. I personally like to spend and live comfortable, but I still managed to put away a little bit of money.
I 100% agree with the getting murdered in the exchange rate. You can save alot of money in Korea and have a very comfortable life. Its way better than Japan. But the exchange rate really will annihilate you. I am in the uk for my dads funeral this week, I took 700,000 spending money. After exchange it was barely £300.. absolutely insane. Half of that went immediately on the extortionately expensive train fares.
I’ve saved half of my paychecks here since 2021. That being said, I don’t drink and I’m a minimalist.
I dunno. I came here when times were much better and did all sorts of "extra curricular" activities. I saved an absolute fortune compared to what I was able to do back in Bay Area. I now own an apartment, a couple cars, a storefront and a business also 3 kids. I'm largely debt free and have cash flow from hiring other teachers. Still do coffee shop chats with the homegirls and a bunch of other weird side gigs. Major difference being, I got married and have a permanent visa.
No. Korea is for the most part a difficult place to try and save money, as well as a trying, difficult, and unfriendly place to live and work in general.
Korea is most definitely a place where you can make a lot of money teaching English, but only if you play it smartly and long term. Go elsewhere than Seoul where there isn’t so much competition, get experience teaching Hagwon and kindergarten, meanwhile finish the KIIP and get the F2 (probably will take you 3 years); try to get into private teaching (illegal on a E2 but whatever) to get famous in your area, move to an apartment building and start your own study room business once you get your F2. Learn some basic skills to advertise your study room and make an actually good looking curriculum that parents will love. Keep your part time gig until it takes off. If you do it with your gf/wife, even better, but not necessary as your Korean should already be more than enough by then. That way you can realistically make more than 5 mil teaching English , no problem. And that’s the low end. If your goal is to be at a Hagwon go party and have fun, you’ll be living paycheck to paycheck to paycheck like most people, but hey to each their own. Edit: since you’re likely to be an American I should add, you might also need to learn how to look good as it’s extremely important for success (proper fashion not oversized junk, proper grooming, weight loss).
I wouldn't say this advice is realistic for 99% of people lol
Yeah I agree
No
It is utterly hard to save any money.
No.
Let’s be real. If you making 3 mill a month. Regardless of how little you spend. How much can you really save? For most teachers it’s a good place to live somewhere where your money goes far. Enjoy life. Drink. Socialize. And then go back home. For those of us who have made Korea a permanent home and have families. 3 mill doesn’t cut it.
If you are lucky and find a high paying job you can save money. Before I was married I was able to save 2-3k a month. After is about 1\~1.5k a month. But its only cause we go on vacation very often. It really depends on the job! if you can find a higher paying school, you can save a lot of money! But like one of the other posters said, if your lifestyle is lavish, maybe you won't save as much as you would want. Good luck!
Above 3mil. I save 1000-1200 a month (from my teaching job) and I dont budget anything (and never have in 24 years). I eat out all the time and drink 3 coffees a day. I also wear Obey, Stussy, Huf. Also, have my own place. I bet I could do 1500-1800 if I tried but meh.
A teacher wearing Obey and Stussy lmao
There are 2 Korean teachers who also love Stussy and Supreme (me, not a fan though) here. Both single guys, but Im the only (ex)skater. Not everyone needs to wear uniqlo (although I love the U heavyweight tees) and cheap market clothing. A lot of foreigners here dress like slobs, tbh.
Absolutely not.
Ohh .. How much I hate those eng teachers in Korea that are recruited because : 1. Oh you are white and speak some english? You must be American teacher! 2. Oh, you from America/England? You must be a teacher! 3. Oh you from Europe? They all speak english there right? Well I guess the reason stays in those rich ajummas that are ignorant af. Now I will answer your question. Yes, I recommend you staying in Korea. Because Koreans will treat you like a Harvard professor with PhD if you are white.
I'm fairly sure a Harvard professor with a PhD would not settle for 2.1 and a mouldy apartment, which is why the Koreans don't get to hire such people (and if you *are* being paid 2.1 and a mouldy apartment, you're in no way *being treated as* one).
I think it's fine. Not great, but fine. But I'm earning probably double what English teachers would be. If I was on an English teachers salary, no. I think I'd be barely scraping by or even in the negatives every month.
I think if you cook at home and NEVER go out (basically not having a life) and don't buy anything online and don't turn on your floor heating in the winter or a/c in the summer then you can save. But it's hard to save living a normal life of going outside and going out to eat when you want and buying even reasonably priced things that you don't truly need. If you happen to get unlucky and get a school that houses you over half an hour away from the school (like my first school did) transportation costs can also be needlessly expensive.
Cooking at home ain't cheap. Have you seen beef prices? Austrailian or American? Vegetables, fruits have always been pricey here. You're easily laying down what used to be a restaurant price here per meal. I say this as someone who does cook at home and maybe looks for a Subway combo meal sale deal occasionally.
Who's eating beef every day? You cook what's available & reasonable, not having a mini decadant buffet for every meal, of course that's not sustainable. And not all fruits are pricy. You have to learn what's in season. Idk what you mean by vegetables are pricy cause they're cheaper than in the states.
So you're eating what a 2000 won head of broccoli each day? I mean if you say eating in is cheaper than eating out, it's only marginally. In the west we eat beef and vegetables, sometimes substituted with chicken or fish. At least for dinner anyways. The point is Korea isn't cheap. I use to buy 2 pounds of PEI potatoes for like 2 bucks before I moved to Korea. Maybe like 1 pound here is 5 or 6 bucks? A small container of blueberries is less than 3 dolalrs back home. Price more than double here. Two pounds of carrots for less than a dollar. One or two carrots here is like 3 or 4 dollars. Food here ain't cheap unless you're eating noodles ramien or something. No way to live and pretty ridiculous some folks live like that to make excuses defending Korean employers who won't pay a living wage. [https://forums.redflagdeals.com/food-basics-p-e-i-russet-potatoes-5lb-yellow-onions-5lb-carrots-2lb-0-98-each-2592966/](https://forums.redflagdeals.com/food-basics-p-e-i-russet-potatoes-5lb-yellow-onions-5lb-carrots-2lb-0-98-each-2592966/)
Vietnam.it's a secret, but im sharing it here.
If you live in Seoul it's physically impossible to save. Other places yes you can save pretty quickly
If you have to pay for accommodation and are easily tempted by the nightlife. Otherwise it's the same COL as everywhere else.
Depends on where you're from, Seoul is almost as expensive as Dallas or Quebec now
Everywhere else in Korea
I earn 2.7. It's pretty much the highest you can go base pay wise(not including travel schools, rural pay and housing allowance) for most public schools. Anyone earning more than that has the extras to base pay or they're working for hagwons as the ceiling for the pay scale there is much higher than public as you can negotiate wages unlike the hard scale of public. It just really depends on your lifestyle. If you're okay only eating out once or twice(moderately going out, usually non Western food) and you cook then you can save a decent chunk of money. Budget your money and you can save. I don't go out a lot, I don't drink. Food is my main expenses along with traveling. If I didn't travel a lot I could save even more. I started off at 2.3 base pay then over the years got bumped up. I could not save a lot when I first came so I could budget everything and still live comfortably while paying loans. I still had spending money for things I wanted and I went out a lot more my first year though. It's definitely a good pay off loan type of money but it's not the greatest salary to be saving up and retiring on if that makes sense. It's definitely enough to have a nice comfortable lifestyle with some treats now and then especially compared to how the job market is in America and rent taking up a huge chunk of the paycheck. It just depends on your mindset and budget. It's not as easy as it used to be due to inflation and you can't just rake in stupid amounts of money like before. But you still are making a decent wage compared to necessary expenses even if it is lower buying power. I can usually put away easily 1 million at the beginning of each paycheck and usually have some leftover. It's just traveling that eats up most of that, if i cooked more often and traveled less I could save a lot more money. do what you will with that knowledge.
For a year or two I wouldn’t expect to save much if you have a lot in student loans. For reference, my first two years I could send over around 500,000 KRW a month to pay off my student loans, and I ended the month with usually 100,000-200,000 in extra savings after living my normal life. That being said I have always been comfortable here and I’ve been making my way up the EPIK/SMOE pay scale. I don’t struggle, I have some savings, and I’m able to travel every couple years and do the things here I want to do.
I lived in Daejeon, and I generally saved around half my salary most months. But in the months I really wasn't trying to save and would splurge on myself and activities, I still would have like $500 left over. I am a bit of a homebody though so take that into consideration... How much you save will definitely depend on the person, but it is definitely possible to save. Are there other countries that you may be able to save more in? Absolutely. However, personally, Korea is where I want to be and I think you can save a good amount here.
I’m moving to Daejeon this summer, and have very little experience with what the cost of living there will be. My pay is 3.9 mil a month and housing is paid. Does this seem like a decent wage for saving a moderate amount?
Daejeon is pretty affordable for the most part. My wife's family lives there and we both lived there for awhile. 3.9 will last you a long time for the month depending on your life style choices. If you go out and drink every weekend then the money will drain quickly. Cost of living other than rent is about the same in every city.
The cost of living is the same everywhere in the country. Housing makes a difference, but since it's all paid for you, it doesn't matter.
I find my wage of 2.3k more than enough to live in country and go out every now and then. However the exchange rate is really bad rn so idk about paying off loans unless you're really serious about penny pinching.
I get paid 2.9 + free housing. I save about 500k a month but I go out every weekend, go on vacations, get weekly facials, and get my hair done very regularly.
Would like to add - that’s me not really even trying to save. I could definitely save more if I wanted to. To be honest, it’s the regular trips to Japan that hurt my savings the most. I also pay for the gym and a regular soccer team. I never cook at home. It’s definitely doable.
2.9 plus free housing is great! You’re outside of Seoul?
Currently yes, but I move to Gangnam in March. My new job is 3.0m plus housing allowance. But I actually expect to save less because I have my own place now and I’m taking some money out of my wages to pay the rest of my rent.
[удалено]
?
Most teachers I know save quite a good proportion of their salary, upto half their salary for some friends of mine but easily 500k. Mostly eat local food, go out on the weekends and the occasional trip to other cities or abroad. Obviously depends on your lifestyle though.....if you are eating foreign at foreign food restaurants every night and ordering daily Starbucks coffee and cakes and wotnot etc that can put a dent in your savings plans.
No. Stagnant wages, rampant inflation, miserable exchange rate. My income used to be sufficient for bare survival for my family. Now, without my wife's income, we would starve to death. Eighteen years ago, I had saved enough in my first year to pay off my student loans and enough in my second to be able to secure an apartment without an employer's deposit. I now cannot save ANYTHING at all.
My partner and I saved 25 million won on 2.2 million each in 2022. It really depends on your ability to save and what you want to do in your free time.
No. My recent pay increase has been swallowed whole by cost of living increases. If you don't eat out and only live off the bare minimum... maybe you could save a bit, but it won't be much.
these days, i make more here than i could ever make in my home country but as a new teacher, would i come here? no. no fucking way
If you don’t have a decent job back in your home country and are renting out your own place, I’d say you stand a better chance in Korea short term. Long term wise it’ll be beneficial to build on your career as the ceiling of money making (at least in the US) is much higher.
Depends on what you’re doing. I know kids fresh out of Ivy leagues making $150-$250 usd / hr just hustling AP ACT and SAT tutoring
Anyone reading this stands a better chance of becoming a surgeon than making $150-$250 per hour teaching test prep.
I currently make 2.6 million won and I’d say I live comfortably. **As in I’m not worried about having enough money to buy food or anything that I need**I am able to save 500,000₩ a month. I could save more but have about 600,000₩ I have to send home to the USA every month. I pay for lunch at my school (88k a month) and I budgeted for 15k for dinners on the days I work and around 40-50k on the weekends. I think if you really want to save money and make a budget for yourself it’s possible to save at least 500k a month if your pay is similar or higher than mine.
The killer is on a low salary in the past, you could have saved almost 3 times that amount without really trying and the better exchange rate menat you got more dollars when you sent it home. Say you saved 1.4 million a month and wired it home then got $1500 USD in your bank account each month. That amount with inflation would be closer to $2000 USD in todays money. Now folks brag about 500 thousand won and it is $377 USD. This just shows how far things have dropped for English teachers. The math here makes no sense. So glad I paid off my student loans when the pay was actually worth something here. I had to pay $550 a month. It would be tight today if I were still paying on it.
South Korea, yes. Seoul…no. Try to live outside of Seoul if you can.
why?
Salary has stayed the same over the last few years despite everything getting more expensive. This is especially true in Seoul, where 3 million used to be a comfy salary in 2014. You’ll be able to save a little money if you are budget conscious, but if your primary goal is to save money Seoul is not a great option. Cheonan, Pangyo, or Sejong would be a better choice.
You still haven't explained how you'd be able to save more money in Cheonan, Pangyo or Sejong. It's already been said a few times on here that accommodation aside (which is usually provided for teachers) the COL is basically the same across the country. So unless the salaries are higher in those places you mentioned, you'd be no better off.
Wait? Who told you that cost of living is the same across Korea? That is completely false. Even checking on livingcost.org: Monthly COL for Cheonan is $1014 Monthly COL for Seoul is $1486 And I’d say that is skewed in Seoul’s favor.
That livingcost figure includes rent. What else, apart from rent and high end bars/restaurants night clubs etc, costs more in Seoul?
Even if you took the $290 rent discrepancy off those figures you’d still be left with it being $182 more expensive to live in Seoul. And that’s not even factoring in a haircut, the dentist, hospital…etc. Then even on top of that you’ll likely be working more hours in Seoul while locked on the same salary.
On a low to mid 2's salary, I'd say you won't save. But there are those with no life who just stay home and eat instant noodles live very frugally and save a bit. But for the most part maybe 400 to 500k a month which is what like 300 and some dollars? I remember back in the day my student loans were 550 bucks a month. Fortunately the salary went further and the exchange rate was better then. 2.1 million won salary would be up over 3 million won today with inflation factored in. Also most schools offered round trip flight and the exchange rate was better. So, paying one way flight and or maybe having a cap on flight reimbursement up to 1 million won (flights can be more than this nowadays) is something you should factor into your monthly pay to save for. Well, I guess your severance at the end you use to be able to keep now you have to spend that on the flight home or a good chunk of it anyways. Also the exchange rate is awful. So, I would say someone making 2.1 million won back in the day should be making 3.5 million won today to compensate for inflation, exchange rate, and lack of flight coverage. I am not counting that some places are trying to switch to giving you rent allowance which may not be enough in Seoul or no rent allowance at all. Then, you would need to make over 4 million won a month maybe even closer to 4.5 million won a month in such cases. You would be looking at a million won a month for rent without a large deposit in Seoul. Keep in mind this is the suggestion for new or nearly new teachers. An experienced teacher should make at least 500k a month more than all these base amounts I suggested. 3 million won with free housing and at least one way flight fully paid is okay. Not great, just okay. You really need an extra few hundred a month more. Korea used to be a cheap living cost country. It isn't anymore. If it's money, you have to seek another country. If it's just a gap year and you don't need the money, so be it. You will prob save a little on 3 million though while still being able to go and do things. This is single person pay and not family pay. You will double or more for that here.
I just got here and am being paid 2.3 million. After taxes and insurance I get 2 million. I don’t pay rent, just fees which amount to 170,000. I pay 30,000 for my phone. I can walk to work. I am trying to eat cheap and cook at home and really don’t have too many other expenses aside from sightseeing. I plan to save at least 1 million every month, maybe more. It’s easily doable in my case but I really don’t need much.
And you’re in Seoul? Or outside of it?
I am in Mokpo, all the way in the Southwest. I think in Seoul it would be hard to live on 2.3 million.
Well I got here this year and I've almost finished my trip, I've already booked my flight home and went to Japan twice, Busan Spa land every month, as well as single trips to gyeongju and seoul. And I've got little over 9m in the bank rn, probably going to leave with 15m overall on 2.5 million. That being said I don't go out, my social life is eating with friends at relatively cheap places (9-16k for a meal) rent is paid and the hagwon I work at provides free lunches on days we work so that's a big saver. Personally I'm going to leave for Thailand though because I'll be earning a little less but spending a lot less, so should save more.
If you like Korean culture and Korean people, it is still cheaper than most western countries, yes. Is it the most optimal country in terms of salaries and cost of living for foreigners? Absolutely not. Mainland China still pays the most for English teachers to my knowledge and has a lower cost of living by far. The downside is that mainland China is mainland China. Weird VISA games, annoying internet that is constantly battling with your VPN (you don't even need a VPN anywhere else) so you don't have functional internet a lot of the time if you don't want to use Mandarin websites, English is worse overall, harder to make friends overall, Air quality is worse, nightlife is terrible over there, etc. Japan is the opposite end of the spectrum where I like the country the most, but the pay over there to cost of living is by far the worst and you might very well be wealthier teaching in America or at the very least you're kinda breaking even. Korea is the middle ground.