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Seoulman69
Joined: 14 Dec 2009
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 Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 6:30 pm Post subject: 2 incomes household |
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| The days of Korea being a one income household are coming to an end. Agree or disagree? Obviously it's not a yes or no answer but we could get some interesting points of view. Please keep the posts civil and refrain from bashing the big SK. |
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northway
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 6:58 pm Post subject: |
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| Considering that it's pretty much impossible to purchase a home on one income and rent is far from cheap in any of Korea's major cities, I would say that this is most certainly true. The large scale switch from jeonsae to wolsae doesn't help matters. |
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Captain Corea
Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 7:10 pm Post subject: |
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| Yeah, over 40, you'll still find a heathy mix of the to. But under 40, even among professionals, it very much seems like double income has become the norm. |
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Lolimahro
Joined: 19 May 2009
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| Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 7:36 pm Post subject: |
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I think it depends on what you want your household to have.
I am married to a man who is a full-time student (and also can't work in Korea because of visa restrictions), have a son in kindergarten and a second baby on the way. We make it on one income, even sending almost half of our money home each month. It is very hard to save, and we couldn't do it without free housing. But, if we didn't have debt back home, then we could afford our own wolsae fairly easily in our area. We have managed to save plenty for the birth of our baby and subsequent costs. Korea a number of social programs that we can benefit from that make this possible.
The finer things (that were requirements for basic living for us back in the U.S.) of having a car, eating at nice (not even fancy) restaurants, going on family vacations every year, visiting relatives in the U.S., eating Western food frequently, etc. would require extra income. I don't even want to think about hagwons yet. 
As for Korean friends I know, even in the English teaching biz, there are a number of families on one income and they definitely struggle. |
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pkang0202
Joined: 09 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 7:55 pm Post subject: |
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There are still a lot of households with single income, but I can see how the dual income household is going to become more common.
People are getting married later and later. If they get married late 20's, early 30's the woman is probably into her career and be less inclined to throw it all away to be a house mom.
At the same time, there are a lot of women who still don't have a career oriented job and will drop everything to be the stay at home mom. |
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motiontodismiss
Joined: 18 Dec 2011
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| Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 11:08 pm Post subject: |
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A single-income household might have been possible 10 years ago but I just don't see how one can make it work. Perhaps if you're single, have no debt, and your parents are self-sufficient (some Koreans help out their parents who are retired). And work for a chaebol like Samsung that pays you a good 50+MM a year plus bonus.
If you have children or student loans? No f'ing way, unless you had a few million dollars sitting in a Swiss bank in your name.
Last edited by motiontodismiss on Mon Mar 19, 2012 11:23 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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FDNY
Joined: 27 Sep 2010
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| Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 11:18 pm Post subject: |
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| I make 6.5M, my wife makes 2.0M, we have one daughter. If we are lucky we manage to save 3M/month. I just don't understand how single income families get by here. |
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motiontodismiss
Joined: 18 Dec 2011
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| Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 11:25 pm Post subject: |
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| FDNY wrote: |
| I make 6.5M, my wife makes 2.0M, we have one daughter. If we are lucky we manage to save 3M/month. I just don't understand how single income families get by here. |
I think the answer lies in the quadrillion+ won of household debt in Korea.
Anyways if I were to get married, one of the prerequisite conditions is that there be two incomes (i.e. both spouses work). It's just good risk management practice.
Last edited by motiontodismiss on Mon Mar 19, 2012 11:31 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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edwardcatflap
Joined: 22 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 11:26 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| I make 6.5M, my wife makes 2.0M, we have one daughter. If we are lucky we manage to save 3M/month. I just don't understand how single income families get by here |
So if you were a single income family you'd save 1 million a month and get by here. What's so difficult to understand about that? |
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FDNY
Joined: 27 Sep 2010
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| Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 11:42 pm Post subject: |
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| edwardcatflap wrote: |
| Quote: |
| I make 6.5M, my wife makes 2.0M, we have one daughter. If we are lucky we manage to save 3M/month. I just don't understand how single income families get by here |
So if you were a single income family you'd save 1 million a month and get by here. What's so difficult to understand about that? |
For a start, the average salary in Korea is about 3.2M. This may also be the average household income. There is also something you may not be familiar with, it is called retirement. If you are relying on the Korean government making you all nice and comfortable when you are older, you will be in for a grave disappointment. Moreover, neither my wife nor I wish to be a burden on our daughter when we are older. Therefore saving substantial sums of money on a continual basis is necessary. What's so difficult to understand about that?  |
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edwardcatflap
Joined: 22 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 11:48 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| What's so difficult to understand about that? |
The fact that you didn't say single income families on the average wage. in your first post. Perhaps if you'd said
'I can't understand how single income families, with kids, on the average wage, manage to have a reasonable standard of living and save enough for their retirement'
it would have been easy to understand.
And you wouldn't have had to waste your time giving me that pointless, and patronising lecture on retirement. |
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Seoulman69
Joined: 14 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 1:45 am Post subject: |
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All right lads, put the handbags away.
Some of the replies have been very interesting. Lolimahro's post about the real life experience of living on a single income was very honest and succinct.
I think that the upcoming generation will see a large increase in two income households. I think the cost of living in Korea is rising to the point where it will become very difficult to survive on one income. I also think the sheer volume of university educated females means that they will be less willing to stay home. I'm sure there will still be females and males who want to be a stay at home parent while their other half works, I would if I could. 
There are a lot of other factors that I don't know enough about to talk about so if anyone would like to add information or experiences, (telling us how much you earn is unnecessary and a little crude to be honest), then feel free. |
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edwardcatflap
Joined: 22 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 4:07 pm Post subject: |
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| (telling us how much you earn is unnecessary and a little crude to be honest), |
I think we all know the purpose of the post was more about saying 'look how much more than the average wage I'm on' rather than showing any sympathy to families on 3.2 million a month. In fact, a family could 'get by' quite easily on that kind of money, buying cheap food, living in cheap accommodation, not saving much. They would rarely if ever, get a taxi, eat in a foreign restaurant or go abroad but it's easily doable. There was a guy on another forum saying he lived happily on 200,000 won a month. |
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FDNY
Joined: 27 Sep 2010
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| Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 4:57 pm Post subject: |
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| Seoulman69 wrote: |
| (telling us how much you earn is unnecessary and a little crude to be honest) |
How is this crude? This is an anonymous forum. I don't know you. I don't want to know you and hopefully I never will. I'm 47. Is that crude too? What exactly do you consider crude? I'm telling you how it is living in Korea with a family bud. Pretty hard to do without some cold, hard facts. |
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Who's Your Daddy?
Joined: 30 May 2010
Location: Victoria, Canada.
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| Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 5:21 pm Post subject: |
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I am married with one child. I make 5M, my wife is staying at home taking care of the baby. We save 3M, but we've already paid for the house (no mortgage).
I assume FDNY lives in Seoul, I live in a city of 500K. In a small city it is still possible on one income, but it probably won't be in 10 years. The house prices are rising too fast.
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And if me and FDNY didn't give some numbers, there probably wouldn't be much use to this thread.
Also like FDNY said, we push to save 3M a month for retirement. If you don't you might find yourself picking up cardboard. |
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