Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Aspiring]

Assuming that you get an average 1 year contract making 2-2.5 million won per month, how much could you realistically expect to save in one year? Lets just say your pay translates to $2500 US per month. Considering that you have your airfare and rent paid for, would it be possible to save $1500-2000 per month? Or is that just crazy talk.

[visitor q]

Well my friend, taking into account the cost of brothels, airfare to Thailand every six months for trannies, trips to Laos for opium, ha ha, you cannot save much, but you will live a life unknown to all except the hardcore ESLer.

Enjoy!

[ontheway]

If you are frugal, you can save US$1500 monthly on a salary of 2 million won. You should have less than 10% for deductions: National pension tax is 4.5%, health insurance about 2.3%, income tax is progressive but it only gets to 5% when your income and overtime approach 3 million. You will have some big heating bills in the winter, small electric and telephone bills unless you burn up the phone lines and overuse your A/C. I can generally live on 10,000 won per day to cover all my utilities and food, averaging over 12 months. The big wild card is your fun, entertainment and travel expenses. That will determine what you can actually save.

But it sounds like visitor q is having more fun.

[jlb]

If you are willing to do 2-3 hours of privates/ week, you can possibly save your entire salary from your legal job.

It also depends on how thrifty you are. Are you a saver or spender in your home country? It won't change much when you come to Korea.

[Ya-ta Boy]

Most of us live very comfortably on half our income and save the other half.

[ausloretta]

jlb rightly said - ur spending patterns here wont change much.

You can save easily here... you can also spend easily too

[I_Am_Wrong]

If i'm making money, I'm not going to live like a student. I work hard so that I can eat well and enjoy things. I'm not thrifty but I don't waste money and I save at least $1000 us/month.

[plattwaz]

same as above -- i'mnot thrifty, but i don't waste money....eating well is my main expense and i dont' find that to be too much (70,000won a week on groceries, 50-60,000 on meals out).

i take 1million from my pay each month and save the rest. come next pay day it's not uncommon for me to have 100-200,000 left from that million, but the difference between me and a lot of others is that it only takes me 3 or 4 drinks to call it a night.

[VanIslander]

If you like spicy food and eat at Korean restaurants when you go out, you can easily save over a million won a month.

The more Western comforts and lifestyle you want, the more expensive it'll be.

And if you live in a smaller city you can avoid the expensive options of Seoul.

[SPINOZA]

Going out to places like Itaewon and Hongdae - nightclubby areas in Seoul - is what blows the biggest hole in my wallet. Utilities - phone bill, gas bill in the winter months, management fee - are also not terribly cheap (I just think of it as very cheap rent). After utilities/bills, I generally spend a further million, leaving me with 700k in savings on average. But I eat a lot and eat exgravagantly too, so the average person saves more than me I expect.

[inspector gadget]

It all depends on your spending habits as others have said. Try not to make alot of purchases at the local mini marts, seven elevens and such, they are greatly overpriced for most items.

It also depends on where you live as Van Islander said, larger cities will tempt you to spend more because of the options that you have over small places.

At minimum you should be able to half your pay. If you work at a hogwan do some overtime, or do some privates if you want to go the illegal route.

As others have said western type food is overpriced and overrated here as they can't seem to get it wright.