Korean Job Discussion Forums

[IncognitoHFX]

I've been here for a bit more than a year and a half. I'll be finishing this contract in May, hopefully renewing it and upgrading my standard of living (new apartment) and spending approximately five years in Korea getting cosy, teaching and overqualifying myself with correspondance degrees, certificates, work-experience and a second language.

Korea sure has it's ups and downs, but for me it has more ups. My apartment sucks but my co-teachers are great; I'm actually getting the hang of teaching and am beginning to see it as an easy side-interest/employment to supplement my other hobbies. I care about my friends here, foreign and Korean, significantly more than those back home (in my small university town full of scenesters and cliques) and the prospect of settling down doesn't really scare me so long as I never have children.

Anyway, my short term plan is to subsidize my own apartment. I know that so long as I rely on a public school or a hagwon to do this, I'll never have a decent apartment. I'm saving up W5,000,000 in key money now to put a deposit on a place near where I work, a place where the walls aren't falling apart (my current place). By having this money invested in real estate, I can't spend it yet reap the benefits by having a nice place. Ohhh, I love Korea's housing system.

I have $25,000 in loans in Canada, both student loans and credit cards. By putting W5,000,000 down for my first place, and more for my next, I plan on only sending the minimum home for the next couple years and then footing the entire bill with excess left over when I leave (and withdraw my deposit). The exchange rates have forced me to make this decision.

Does this sound viable? I have the financial planning ability of a gopher.

My long term plan is to get more post secondary education here at some point, enough so that I can do something which doesn't involve hamburgers when I do decide to move back to Canada. I'm interested in a lot of things, some of which are lucrative and other things are not. I'm not sure yet what I want to study. Any suggestions? I don't think teaching will be my life, but I think it is valuable for my personal growth over the following years.

Does this sound like a decent long term plan?

I'm just sick of loafing and letting my paycheques dwindle without furthering myself. I want to have a plan and stick to it, yet I'm still open to ideas / shortcuts.

Getting married and teaching privates would be nice, but I have about as much luck with women as Bush has with foreign policy (*ba-dum-dun, sccchh!*)

[Chet Wautlands]

Wow, that sounds a lot like my situation. I wonder how many of there are. The only differences would be that I don't have a lot of debt, thankfully, and I've never used Linux.

I'll be watching this post!

[Otherside]

I'm a similar sort of boat.
Perhaps the major difference is that I'm debt free, so rather than paying off debt I'm trying to create wealth while I'm here.

A few comments/tips.

First off, what interest rate are you paying for student loans and credit cards? Credit card debt is notoriously high, So I'd recommend paying that off ASAP.

By putting the money into real estate, you are effectively losing the interest that you will pay on your loans on W5mill over 5 years. At 10% interest, the loss will be about W3mill. At 15% the loss will be about 5mill. Credit card rates can be as high as 27-28% and at 28% the loss over 5 years will be about W12mill.

Obviously, if having a nice place is worth it, then go for it. Secondly, from what I've seen, an increase of 5mill in key money only reduces the rent by 50K/month. So, if your school is providing you a 400K/5mill place, an extra 5mill on your part will only give you the equivalent of a 450K-500K/5mill place, which is barely noticable.

Effectivly, the "break-even" point on this method is approximatly 12%. If you can get 12% interest or better on an investment (or if your debt interest is 12% or greater) it would be better to pay a higher rent and funnel your capital into the investment/debt.

Perhaps the biggest thing to worry about is the exchange rate. At the moment, the rate is quite bad, however it will most likely improve (over 5 years) yet these improvements may be short-lasting and by having your money tied to an apartment will mean you can take advantage of it - Wouldn't it suck for the won to go W900 to the dollar, hang around there for a couple of months and then drop to W1500, all the while you have 5-20mill sitting in a key money deposit and big loans to pay off?