Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bassexpander]

The wife and I are budgeting and trying to figure out how we can:

1. Still save money for a house.
2. Have a baby
3. Her still keep working so we can afford it all.

Does anyone have a baby and the wife work outside of the home (not teaching English to kids, for example?).

My wife has a good job making good money, but feels she cannot afford to leave the job. To afford everything, she may be right. What are our options in this situation? Do couples have to ship their kids off to be raised by nannies and schools all day?

Just looking for answers as to how we can afford to have children and actually be able to handle it. My wife is overworked at her job the way it is. We don't see how we could afford raising one child on just one income with me working legally at just one job.

[shaunew]

My wife works full time as a school teacher, she gets off early. I work and I am a full time student. We save about 60k a year. We have one son that is almost 2 and another on the way. My wife will take 6 months to a year off when the new kid is born, but she still gets paid. The way we save is forced savings we invest first then get our money.

For daycare it depends on how much your wife makes, We get 100% childcare fees from the government because they only look at my wifes income and not mine because I am not Korean.

It's pretty easy to save and still work money wise. The part you will miss the most is free time, that is something money can not buy.

[blackjack]

From the koreans I know you have to have a good family network to have both parents working to maintain a good standard of living. How's your mother inlaw?

[The Grumpy Senator]

My wife does not work anymore, she stays home with the baby. It was an adjustment, but my uni offers enough OT to make up for it. We both felt that our daughter needs to be with us and not grandma or in a daycare. I am not looking down on those that go the other way, it was just our choice. You have to make yours.

We almost own our house and the car is paid for, so that helps out a lot. Make sure you got all those type things secure so you have enough for all the unexpected expenses the little one creates.

Good luck!!

[Unposter]

You need the help of an energetic and kind mother-in-law. Otherwise, unless your wife is a school teacher, I think it will be pretty hard for both you and your wife to work.

One possibility is that she continue to work full-time and you can become Mr. Mom. As an English teacher, you might find work more flexibly than your wife can - I don't kow what your wife does - but this is generally true.

Good luck! Kids are not just expensive; they are time consuming too - which is a kind of expense.

[jbpatlanta]

I have two kids and my wife does not work. In fact, she stopped working after baby number 1 three years ago.

We have everything we need and I have almost saved enough to buy a house. We manage to save close to 50K a year. I automatically save 4 million a month and then many months put more into saving on top of that.

Just make a deal with yourself to save money and then pay yourself first. And definitely have some kids. They are the best things that ever happened to me. In fact, we're planning on having baby 3 next year.

[bassexpander]

[jbpatlanta]

[bassexpander]

jbp, I added a bit to that post up there...

We're really curious about the conditions for receiving gov't money for daycare. What is the income range you need to be in to get it? Still trying to get my head around them not counting my income too... you guys working several PT jobs instead?

Thanks.

[esetters21]

No offense to any of you that choose to have a family and raise your kids in Korea, but no thanks. BE, good luck with all of that.

[bassexpander]

We're sort of on the "start 'em and run" plan. Maybe five years from now, we'll be heading home once they get into school or so.

[okokok]

[esetters21]

[3MB]

What do you mean how to afford it? There shouldnt be much of a problem for you bass. The answer is work your arse off. You are on an F series visa, I assume. If so then you have the ability to make more than enough to afford all the things you want to do.

My wife and I are now expecting our 2nd kid. In the last 2 years I borrowed from my in-laws and paid off 80 million won which went to 전세 on my apartment. I also bought a new car for 20 million. And I was also able to save a bit on top of it. My wife did work but she recently quit and will stay home to take care of my first son.

You can imagine it wasnt easy to do, and no it wasnt. But I made a decision that I was basically going to bust my arse and forgo vacations and time off and pack as much work into my day as I could. I havent had a vacation in over 2 years, and for much of that stretch I really didnt have a weekend that didnt include work.

[Scouse Mouse]

It all depends where and how you work, and you need to set priorities.

I have been married for a little over a year, and have a 10 month old baby. We scraped together enough for a deposit on a 3 bedroom 24pyeong apt for when we were married, and still have to pay rent on it. We chose Gyeonggi-do over Seoul because the apartments are much cheaper. (15m key, 300 a month rent).

The wife quit working as soon as she got pregnant. After the marriage, I took a hagwon job (and for not much more than a newbie salary) and vowed to do no extra work in the first year, so I could help out as much as possible with the baby, and study to become a better teacher. We eat too much western food, and still managed to save a fair amount in the first year, though my social life died.

We are now looking at Seoul. We have more key money this time around, and can borrow from the bank (4.5% annual interest) to make sure we get the best deal. We expect to be paying around 200 a month in interest this time around, but no rent.

The goal then is for me to work like a Korean for the next year and get ourselves in a position where I can consider a business start-up.

Easy? No. But it worked for us