Job Discussion Forums

cb400 · Joined: 27 Sep 2010 Posts: 274 Location: Vientiane, Laos

$500 a month is not enough to live in Vietnam, Laos or Thailand.

You might be able to scrap by living in a flea infested dorm, eating dirty street food and scrimping by, but it would be a miserable existence.

Prices in Vietnam and Laos have increased a lot over the years and you need to make at least $1000 a month to have a basic lifestyle. Of course everyone's lifestyle is different and some save and spend more but a basic room is $200-250, bike rental $50-70 plus all the other 'life' costs... visa's (150-250) every 3 months, food, entertainment, healthcare, gas, bla bla bla.

$500 is not going to go far and this factors in no savings at all, which is extremely dumb when living abroad. You should always ahve an emergency fund or an empty credit card just incase.

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

"An empty credit card" Interesting terminology displaying a strange perspective on finances !

VietCanada · Joined: 30 Nov 2010 Posts: 590

In Asia you need a university degree.

An additional TEFL Cert. is required to work in Vietnam and occasionally , if rarely for some EFL jobs in other countries in Asia.

plumpy nut · Joined: 12 Mar 2011 Posts: 1652

Go into another field. Even With a degree you have to deal with crap schools that lowballyou and screw you in any other way you can think of. I can't imagine you ever getting a decent job with just a TEFL. You are too old to go back and get a degree and build up experience credentials (not that it would be worth it anyway). Plenty of Associate degree positions available, computer science, radiology, nursing etc. and they pay enough that I'm going back to school even though I have a Masters.