Korean Job Discussion Forums

a friendly pioneer · Joined: 24 Aug 2009

Teaching at a Hagwon in a city like Daegu. Salary of 2.1-2.2 million won. After taxes and personal spending, how much would an individual be able to take home to the States?

Alaskaman · Joined: 22 Sep 2009 Location: Bundang-Gu, South Korea

You can take home about 12million won or about 11k dollars in one year if you control your spending. It is very easy to save at least half of your money. I save about 2.5 million won a month and I have a wife and 3 kids here in Korea.

Make a budget and stick to it. Leave the part time for Friday or Sat and don't get caught up in all the electronics that you have to send home or sale anyway.

1million won a month is a very obtainable goal.

edwardcatflap · Joined: 22 Mar 2009

so are you saying he can save 2.5 million on a salary of 2.1? Or were you just taking the oportunity to have a bit of a brag?

zipper · Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 3:15 pm Post subject:

I have been converting a portion of my pay to 1000 USD per-month from a salary of 2.5 mil. Won; and as the Won strengthens, more USD.

Bog Roll · Joined: 07 Oct 2009 Location: JongnoGuru country. RIP mate.

Johnny5 · Joined: 05 May 2009 Location: Chungju

1Milllion won a month is an easily attainable goal if you have any fiscal discipline. Add this to you pension return, and the severence payment of one month's salary and you should be at about 14M won. That does not factor in any outstanding bills that you have in your home country.

Korean LaoWei · Joined: 01 Apr 2009

I managed to save around 20 mil from my last contract. make about 2.3 per month no overtime or extra work. but I was obnoxiously cheap. Cut every corner. no or little AC in summer and same for the heat in the winter. also dont eat out. did get some touring done in seoul. and i like walking in the mountains because its free. also bought the minimum i needed for househould goods cheapest quality i could find. cook at home alot. not much western food. the only luxury i really allow myself is an internet connection and cable. anyway you can save a great deal here. it is just a matter of how much you wanna sacrifice.

Rusty Shackleford · Joined: 08 May 2008

mongolian spot · Joined: 15 Sep 2009 Location: Seoul

Im all for saving money. But no AC or heating is just plain dumb, you will make yourself sick. You sound like that jerk from the movie 'into the wild'. Your not at college anymore people

DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP · Joined: 28 May 2009 Location: Electron cloud

I'd say around 12 mil a year if you're smart.

Save 1mil a month. Can live on the rest easy peasy pudding and pie.

Then you get you pension back (bastards) and severance so actually you could save around 15 mil.

Nice.

Korean LaoWei · Joined: 01 Apr 2009

As i said it is a matter of how much you want to sacrifice. Also i found i really didn't need the boiler much. Only when I took showers (warm is good when your wet) and cooked. Korea is not really that cold for me. and the AC I used to turn on for about an hour before bed. that seemed to keep my bill below 30k per month.
I am not sure but i think this how the less well to do koreans live. Ive visited a couple of friends houses and they dont seem to use the AC in summer. not sure about winter though as i havent been in a residence in winter.

whiteshoes · Joined: 14 Apr 2009

Well remember that you'll get your last month's pay plus your pension when you leave. Your pension should be 9% of what you'd made. So that means at 2.2 you'll be getting your 2.2 last pay check and 2.3 for your pension. So that is 4.5. (provided you're boss is paying into the pension). So to take 10 M back home all you need to do is save 5.5 during the year. That's only 500,000 Won per month. If you save 1,000,000 you're looking at having 15M or close to it.

My advice, if you don't have too many bills back home save the 500,000 every month, and when you can save more.

Personally I didn't bring much with me, so the first 3 months I wasn't able to save much. But now I can save 750,000 to 1M with out trying too awful hard. I still have a beer or 4 every so often, and I'll get a pizza if I feel like it. I'm not living like a monk at all. Of course I'm not partying three times a week either.

Draz · Joined: 27 Jun 2007 Location: Land of Morning Clam

You can live on less than 400,000/month if you are really cheap. I did this during my first six months when I was saving really hard. How much you save depends on your priorities.

One thing though is that I am still saving as much as I was on the 400,000 won budget despite spending way more because I have a better job now. Hooray!

Rusty Shackleford · Joined: 08 May 2008

calicoe · Joined: 23 Dec 2008 Location: South Korea

I power saved my first 6 months, living on about 400,000 per month and saving almost my entire paycheck. But, I also arrived just as it was getting cold, and drank local brews, and stayed with friends or at jjimjilbangs when I would go anywhere.

It added up. I have been here a year this month, and have just under 16 million in the bank. I have not collected severence yet because I am on a 16 month contract. It could have saved more, but after 8 months and the advent of spring/summer, I started spending a lot more; paid off a personal debt amounting to 1,900, 000 won at home; I went shopping; I went on a great vacation trip to Italy, with the sadistic euro/won exchange at the time; I definitely ran my heat, and my AC when needed, which was not the whole summer and mostly at night. But, I've lived on a budget for a long time and know how to travel and have a good time cheaply. If I spent too much on one weekend, I would simply stay close to home the next weekend.

So all in all, without trying all too hard and with a few extravagances I saved half of my income. If you are living rent-free, you should not feel any deprivation from saving at least one million per month.