Job Discussion Forums

[buffalobill12323]

[ecubyrd]

The thing about China it seems to me is one's earnings is only as low as he/she is comfortable with it being. There's nothing wrong with taking the job with the fewest hours possible making not so much, but I personally am not a fan of a low salary, and am therefore comfortable working a 40 hour work week that has 14 teaching hours. If I wanted to bump my earnings, I could easily do so. I prefer my free time as just that however, and don't.

On that note, I'm looking at saving 15k rmb per month this year.

[Leungyujo]

There are parents in China who want to compete with others on the amount the spend on a private foreign teacher for their child or children. If you are lucky enough to fall into one of those jobs, then saving money can be quite easy. Teach at least five, 1.5 hour private lessons at 300 yuan each for 1500 a week or 6000 a month. Get a full time job for 10,000 or more + housing (2000) for 12000 and you're at 18. Teach a few more privates or get a super high paying private and you're at or over 20 even 30. Granted, making 30 as a teacher won't last long, but if you can do it for a year or two you could save good money.

[choudoufu]

[buffalobill12323]

[teachingld2004]

hi BizLiz

I also am pleased to meet you.

My university job is 8 hours a week. I also teach 2 hours in a middle school, and 9 hours of privates. The total of this is 19 hours.

Yes, the extra work gives me no pay on holidays, but I still am able to save just under $ 1.000.00 per month,

I go on two vacations a year, each for one month.

I have been
Asked to do another two hours of privates, but I refused. 19 hours per week suits me just fine.

My university never asks me to do extra work, but last semester the English Corner asked me to help judge a contest. I did. No one told me, I was asked.

So you see Liz, some of us love what we do, are happy, and can save money.

My question to you is this: How much money do YOU save a month?

[El Macho]

There is some good information in this thread. Here's mine, for what it's worth:

2011-2012 school year:
Employer: Chinese university
Salary: RMB 5,000/month + airfare (buy an expensive ticket or get a fake fapiao).
Housing included, 9 hours/week.
Extra work:
Ten mandatory extra classes at 1,000 RMB each added another 10,000 RMB (total) to the salary.
9-15 hours/week (all through the university's training center), billed at 1,000 RMB per three hours block.
In total, I earned between 5,000 RMB (summer months) and 23,000 RMB/month. Earn as much as you work. It wasn't bad, but I didn't like the variable schedule and earnings, and wanted to get a job with a higher salary.

Saved: ~US$10,000.

2012-2013 school year:
Employer: Joint-venture high school program.
Salary: 260,000 RMB/year. After tax this was 18k and change each month.
Housing included, long work day (Mon-Friday 8-5), ten weeks of vacation per year.
Extra work: IELTS.

Saved: ~US$25,000. This meant saving ~13,000/month, so that left 5,000/month from my salary and whatever I earned from IELTS to play with. Having a decent life in Beijing isn't cheap, but 5,000 was OK. My wife and I usually spent between 5 and 6k.

The contract my school offered me for 2013-2014 was for 280,000 for the year, but I didn't take it; working seven days/week isn't worth the money to me.

Saving isn't hard. Log in to online banking on payday (or the day you're paid…TIFC after all) and put a predetermined amount of money into a CD. CDs in Chinese banks pay more interest than CDs in the west, so it's not a total waste.

We are moving back to the US in the next month or so with an OK amount in savings. Not $100,000 as mentioned in the first post, but since we have no debt we're in a good position.

Now that that's been said said:

Check out the website, Foreign Teacher Pay that collects and publishes foreign teacher salaries in China. The website is still pretty basic (there's just a searchable, sortable data table), but it has some interesting information.

[Denim-Maniac]

This thread deserves to be kept near the top of the page I think. Some useful data for all of us.

[weigookin74]

But, I heard there were restrictions on sending money out of China to pay your debts. What good is it to make money and not be able to send it out? Kind of defeats the purpose doesn't it?

[Non Sequitur]

[Banner41]

You can Western Union all the money you want out of China. I send all kinds of money home. Can also use China Construction bank card to just pull it from Chase ATMs in the US. Things are not that difficult here.

[The_Big_White_Elephant]

This is a great thread! I would be interested in hearing from more people about how much they earn/save.

[Minnehaha1512]

[LPKSA]

I loved my time in China, when other foreigners would rub it in my face how amazing their lives were because they were making so and so amount, and how much better they had it than me because they were from so and so and their part time employers preferred them over me because they were from so and so country and I was not.

These kinds of people are SHALLOW, especially in places such as Shanghai. No matter how much money they make (or wish they made), the Chinese will look down on them, fact. I remember it like this: my first week on the job, in in China, and the other teachers in my department are planning on going out to lunch.

Waiguoren A: Ahh, mates, where we going for lunch?
Waiguoren B: How about that Dongbei restaurant up the street.
Waiguoren A: Solid. Hey Waiguoren C, you want to join us?
Me: Okay sure, how much will it cost? I only have 15 yuan.
Waiguorens A and B: (looking at each other), THAT's not enough, maybe next time. Why don't you get a private or two? We work for XYZ corporation. We make a lot of money, 500 yuan per hour.
Waiguoren B: Oh they won't hire you because they don't like to hire Americans.
Me: As if I give a ****.

Another situation:

Waiguoren A: Let's go down to Xijahui to that uber trendy restaurant for dinner and drinks.
Waiguoren B: XYZ Corporation just paid me today, let's go.
Waiguoren A: It's on me.
Waiguoren A: Hey waiguoren C, you want to join us?
Me: I don't know, I'm not into trendy boutiqey places in Xijahui, maybe, but I don't know.
Waiguoren B: You probably couldn't afford it anyway. Let's go Waiguoren A.

Seriously.

Nobody cares about how much money you make. When you go back to your home country, you're not going to make that much anyway, so enjoy your life at the bottom of the corporate ladder forever in China..

[fat_chris]