Korean Job Discussion Forums

[willneverteachagain]

http://money.cnn.com/2007/06/15/pf/most_expensive_cities/index.htm?cnn=yes

[Freaka]

Interesting. Yet, so many of the expats in Seoul are actually making less money than they were making at their jobs back home and are now saving more, no?

I know I'll be making less in Korea than what I'm accustomed to making here in Los Angeles, but I expect to save a lot more over the course of a year living in Seoul. Am I being unrealistic? The difference in taxes alone will make a huge difference. Here in the States, I'm taxed up the wazoo!

[Treefarmer]

you don't pay rent in seoul which is where all your money goes in england

[tomwaits]

and these studies are geared to corporate ex-pats. Meaning "Western" lifestyle i.e. house with 2 car garage (and driver) babysitting western food only etc.

doesn't mean much for us...

[willneverteachagain]

some of us pay rent in korea

[willneverteachagain]

i dont know how people in russia are living if the rent is $4000

[cosmicgirlie]

They've got that wrong about Toronto being the 'most expensive Canadian city'. It's not---Vancouver is way more expensive to live in than Toronto. I've lived comfortably in Toronto, in a great neighbourhood, and paid cheaply for a great apartment. Sure some houses in some neighbourhoods can be expensive--The Beaches, The Annex or Mount Forrest--however there are some great neighbourhoods that are a rare find--Hillcrest Village, Trinty Spadina and Riverdale--all great and old neighbourhoods with cheap houses. Even some downtown areas are cheap to live in--Queen West use to be but unfortunately with the Drake and Gladstone there seems to be all this condo building--the next area of that city to boom--St. Clair West...Bathurst to Christie....

[crazy_arcade]

This is a CNN article and it refers to a "luxury" lifestyle. *beep* this noise

[princess]

[VanIslander]

Seoul is definitely one of the cheapest cities in the modern world to visit.

Public transit, motels, restaurants... It's so much cheaper to visit than Osaka and Tokyo, I can tell you that, by a factor of about 2 or 3.

Even Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto back in Canada cost more to visit for a few days. Easily.

[RACETRAITOR]

The only reason Seoul always makes this list is key money. Korea really needs to fix that.

[nicholas_chiasson]

About Russia
-They don't pay rent. They ALL either live 4 or 5 people per room, at about $200 a month or less;or they have a flat purchased during the early 90's for a few 1000 bucks. Renting in Saint Petersburg (half the price of moscow) I was paying $400 for a one room flat(one room, kitchen and bath) not including utilites. Oh there was no washer, or dryer, and all the maintance work was done by me.(including buying tools.)
-Seriously the costs of things in Russia are insane for the quality. Coca Cola was 50 cents a can. Now remember full time work in McDonals in Russia was paying $300 a month, and that was considered good. Vodka was $2 a half liter(for bad stuff) and beer was less than Coke. So that was one redeeming factor
-However a flat in Petersburg(remember about 50% of Moscow Prices) out of center costs over $60,000 and that would be a very terrible location etc.

[seoulsucker]

[pest2]

Seoul is just as expensive to visit as many places in Europe. Try coming to just visit Seoul for a few days from somewhere else in Korea... Cheapest hotels are 90,000 per night. You could do the love motel, but those dont allow multi-night stays without checking out in between. Yeogwans are cheap, but thier conditions are even worse than those of similarly priced Euro hostels. Food, too, is about the same as Europe... and actually Japan, too.

Compared to China, Thailand, and Vietnahm, Korea is very expensive. Compared to Japan, its slightly cheaper.

The reason we can save money here, as someone pointed out, is that we dont pay rent. I have a friend who lives in a pretty nice, 2 bedroom apt in Seoul and he is paying 2.5 million per month! Places our employers put us up in are basically cr#pp, if you think about it. Most are single room, studio places without even a bath tub. Geez, I mean, in most other countries, you could count what we have here in Korea as a closet. I rented a Korean-quality/size place in the US one semester during college and it was 200$ per month. In Seoul, the same place is 900$

People in Seoul dont earn that much money. The average income level for a person in Korea is 17,000$ or so... surely people in Seoul make more, but not that much more. How can you afford to pay 12,000$ a year toward an apartment when you only make 17,000$? Well, the answer is that its possible, but not as easy as living in some other place where incomes are higher and/or rent is lower.... in other words, its not as easy as living in some CHEAPER PLACE....

Rent in Seoul IS very very expensive when considering it per square meter. And it is very very expensive when considering it relative to people's incomes in Seoul.

[VanIslander]