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milspecs
Joined: 19 Jun 2008
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 Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 5:18 am Post subject: |
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| Not knowing where all your money goes is probably the reason you can't save. |
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recessiontime
Joined: 21 Jun 2010
Location: Got avatar privileges nyahahaha
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| Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 5:18 am Post subject: |
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| decolyon wrote: |
| Frenetic wrote: |
| youtuber wrote: |
OP
There really is no where else for you to go if you want to make the same amount of money and be able to secure a job relatively easy. Now is probably the worst time to go back home ie no jobs.
So what do you do??? Beats me...most of us are wondering the same thing. |
You need to save enough money to get yourself in a position where you can land safely, buy a car, get a place to live, and look for a job. You need to count on a couple of months of safety net money if you don't have someone you can crash with until you find a job back home. That equates to roughly 15-20K if you want to have enough to eat and a safety net.
Good luck. |
20K might as well be a million dollars. I have about a thousand stuck back, but that took 6 months. Granted, I was paying off big debt at that time so my paycheck will be fatter starting this month. But still, even if I pinched hard, it might be two thousand by the end of this contract. With bonus pay, I might have 4K in the bank. And that's living no social life, no dates, no more travel, and eating rice everyday.
I honestly don't know how people do it here. I budget hard. I only give myself $10 a day to spend. I pay my rent, bills, student loans, go to the grocery store, buy new clothes only when it's absolutely necessary, put about $100 or $150 in mandatory savings, but still, by the end of the month I only have about and extra $50 to stick back. I have no idea where the money goes.
I don't spend like crazy. Really. I'm a bit of tightwad. I'm greedy as hell and have been wearing the same two pair of jeans for a year and a half now because I'm too cheap to buy new ones.
It frustrates me and angers me that I lower my quality of living and STILL have nothing to show for it! |
figures. this is why you failed.
If you just defaulted on your loans you would been able to open your own hagwon by now. Lesson learned? |
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RMNC
Joined: 21 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 5:22 am Post subject: |
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| Start going to the gym if you don't already. Seriously. |
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Panda
Joined: 25 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 5:59 am Post subject: |
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Start to make some extra money if you are a greedy person, I found that extremely rewarding....both psychologically and economically.
Last edited by Panda on Sat Nov 13, 2010 8:45 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 5:21 pm Post subject: |
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| decolyon wrote: |
| I pay my rent, bills, student loans, |
Paying your own rent + paying for student loans is a pretty substantial burden. You realize there are positions here that will give you free housing, right? |
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Draz
Joined: 27 Jun 2007
Location: Land of Morning Clam
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| Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 11:43 pm Post subject: |
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| recessiontime wrote: |
figures. this is why you failed.
If you just defaulted on your loans you would been able to open your own hagwon by now. Lesson learned? |
No. The mistake is here:
| decolyon wrote: |
put about $100 or $150 in mandatory savings, but still, by the end of the month I only have about and extra $50 to stick back. I have no idea where the money goes.
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Durr, if you have it in your head that you only NEED to save $100/month, of course it takes almost a full contract to save a grand. As soon as you get your paycheck, put considerably more than that into mandatory savings. Don't wait until you've spent everything and then wonder where it went.
How much do you want to save, and how long do you want it to take? Get a calculator (there is one inside your computer) and start slamming numbers in.
To get to the magic $20k in one year, you need to save $1666/month. Probably not possible for most people, unless you get a second job and who wants to do that? Not me. So, try some different numbers.
A year and a half: only $1111/month. That's only about 1.3 million won. Most people in Korea, with the free housing, can easily save that in a month, assuming a salary of 2.2 and 2.0 take home. Maybe that's too hard though, so two years...
But then if you take two years by the time you get your seed money together, 30 will be almost upon you.
You should sit down and make some choices about what you can and aren't willing to do, and what you can and can't give up to get where you want to be. For me, I barely tolerate teaching, so doing extra work is straight out. I can handle one job but more would break me, so I found a job based on the formula of the highest pay for the lowest teaching hours, and save as much as I can from it. |
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English Matt
Joined: 12 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2010 4:17 pm Post subject: |
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How big were your loan repayments? Unless they were around 800,000 Won per month, I really don't see how you can possibly be saving so little.
I think the problem is that you need to get a tighter grip of your finances, work out where the money is going, and then concentrate on reducing costs in as many areas as possible.
You shouldn't be paying rent, and if you are then you should be receiving housing allowance which would cover that. You receive a pension refund when you leave Korea (assuming you are a North American) and you get a 1 month bonus upon completion of contract.
I worked in Korea for two years and was able to save 1 million Won each and every month (granted I didn't have student loan repayments to make). As a Brit I didn't get the pension rebate, I earned 2-2.1 mil a month and did a few extra classes that maybe netted me an extra 3-4 mil over the course of the 2 year period. I didn't go out every weekend and spend a fortune, I ate out most of the time, I took 2 month long trips to Thailand and spent a month in Europe during this period. I also bought a lot of new clothes. I saved 25 million won.
I think you need to compare your situation against mine......you spent twice as long in Korea. Even if your loan repayments during that period totalled 30 million won, you should still have saved approximately 25 - 30 million won (depending on whether or not you get a pension rebate).
I think the problem is your ability to manage your money. |
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