Korean Job Discussion Forums

[BluEnglnd]

I am a 28 American English teacher in Seoul, Korea. I've been here for almost 3 years. I plan on in a year marrying my young Filipino gf and bringing her with me to Seoul Korea to settle down more permenantly as I teach in the Seoul public school system hopefully and have our family here. The US, is not where I want to settle down. By the way, she speaks English and has a bachelor's too, so hope she can find a job too. To make a long story short, our plan is for both of us to work here and save money to someday retire and buy a house in the Phillippines to return back to after we both are finished working...maybe it is too soon to be thinking about this, but I want to set up my family's future. I know that US and Canadians get their pension tax refund back when credited.I want to know.if I stayed in Korea for long enough time to retire (by Western standards) and collected pension, 1. would this be enough to help me towards retirement?, 2.what else could I do in my situation to help me towards retirement?, and 3.is there anyone(you or someone you know) that has stayed in Korea long enough to attempt this?..because I don't even know if this is possible since many foreigners just come and go. Answers to my 3 questions as well as any advice about longterm family living in Korea for foreigner will be appreciated.

[schwa]

I got a statement in the mail from Korea Pension the other day itemizing my contributions & projecting my eventual payout if I reach retirement age here. 7 years in, 7 years to go, I'll be entitled to the grand sum of ... wait for it ... 325000 won a month. That'll be some high living. I suppose I've also accrued a bit of credit with the Canada Pension Plan.

Something you need to be aware of is theres a limit to how long you contribute to the KPS before youre locked-in (ie lump-sum payout ceases to be an option). I'm from Canada & its set at 10 years. I imagine its similar for Americans.

Under current rules, E-type visa holders wouldnt be allowed to retire here -- they would still require a work sponsor. I have no idea if monthly pension payments are internationally transferrable. I need to look into that.

If you change jobs prior to the cut-off you can claim youre leaving the country forever & cash out your pension fund. That would seem a sensible option to allow you to manage your retirement funds yourself. Some people here claim to have done so repeatedly, but the pension people might eventually take a dim view of that. I'm in a bit of a personal quandary because I dont anticipate changing jobs.

I fully expect to get run over by a bus one day but on the off-chance that doesnt happen I'm reluctantly starting to cast a thought or two towards supporting my codgerhood. Mostly I'm banking on happy-go-lucky.

Best luck with your scenario.