Korean Job Discussion Forums

Nuggets · Joined: 23 Nov 2009

Do you spend it all? Save it? What do you do with all your new monies?

madoka · Joined: 27 Mar 2008

I'm a spendthrift. Everything I earn, I spend. Very Happy

Radius · Joined: 20 Dec 2009

i take out 300-350 for the month then save the rest

DorkothyParker · Joined: 11 Apr 2009 Location: Jeju

I send about 600-700k home (more for Xmas) to cover bills and put a little aside for rainy days or US-related shopping. I put about 300k aside for my Korean bills which come later in the month. The highest one so far has only been about 235k with 75k being electric (less than home!) and 80k being water (I never paid water back home. I need to learn to take shorter cooler showers maybe?) The rest of the bill is comprised of various officetel housing fees which do not seem to vary and are the same for all the coworkers in my building.

I'm left with roughly 1.2k which is spent throughout the month on food, groceries, clothing and entertainment. I, unlike many other teachers, cannot afford fancy international trips and the like as this income is for two people. However, we live a comfortable day to day existence and have a nice bumper if something small goes awry. I'm just glad to put a dent in that debt from back home.

VanIslander · Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 5:44 pm Post subject:

never got a paycheck in korea: a wad of cash it used to be, nowadays transferred into bank account

payday is nothing special as the pay just adds to previous balances

one nice thing is, my last job back home paid 45 thou a year but i found it impossible to save after taxes, rent and other things - in korea it's pretty hard not to have a million a month accumulating unless i'm sending money home that month

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

We both have auto-withdrawals set up so that a certain amount from our accounts is transferred into other CD accounts every month. One of those accounts is for house savings, another for retirement, another for our child's university education. These accounts are not to be touched for years, and will just gain interest. We're going to start saving some elsewhere in order to diversify (suggestions, anyone?).

The rest pretty much gets spent on everything else, except my wife also sends a hefty sum to her mom.

djsmnc · Joined: 20 Jan 2003 Location: Dave's ESL Cafe

A few hundred goes to the red lights, a few for food, a mil goes home, and the rest is for whatever.

seonsengnimble · Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 7:25 pm Post subject:

A good chunk goes home for savings/student loans. A good chunk is wasted on crap like restaurants, taxis and booze. I then have bills and rent. Then every month or two, I'll spend a bit on something relatively expensive like a suit or a computer or mp3 player or airfare. I save a decent amount, but I could be doing much better.

orangepostit · Joined: 30 Nov 2008

$500 is my monthly student loan payment.

The rest I spend throughout the month and put aside a bit for my next trip.

My trips are VERY thrifty because that's all I can afford, but I'm happy that I can do a bit of travelling.

chonga · Joined: 15 Mar 2009

man i wish i could start saving more....

spend about 1.5m a month on booze, dating women and eating food. but i love every minute of it

frankly speaking · Joined: 23 Oct 2005

Radius "300-350 "

I got to say BS to that. Even someone as frugal as myself, I spend at least 500K a month.

If I had to be super frugal and do nothing at all then I could do it for 300 like you say but not month in and month out for a whole year.

Hightop · Joined: 11 Jun 2003

I try to save the whole cheque and live off the overtime and white envelopes.

Gibberish · Joined: 29 Aug 2009

Man, and I thought that spending $60 on Mass Effect 2 was a spendy month for entertainment. You guys must really party up when you go out to keep $500 per month on hand for "entertainment"

furtakk · Joined: 02 Jun 2009

i try to save about 1-1.2.

the remaining is spent on bills, food, going out, video games, and etc. this is on a measly first year hagwon job, but it goes pretty far.

jonpurdy · Joined: 08 Jan 2009 Location: Ulsan

I finally made a budget and calculated how much I spend (due to boredom). I average spending about 900k per month and living well without worrying about not spending money. That's drinking some imported beer and eating out every day (but rarely western food, mainly because it's not delicious here).

The rest gets stockpiled until a favourable exchange rate day when it gets sent home.