Walker
Working in Taiwan
Monthly Earnings Approximately 130,000 baht
Q1. How much do you earn from teaching per month?
I work at a university. My salary is 75,000 baht and I make another 50-60,000 from doing translation work.
Q2. How much of that can you realistically save per month?
80,000 baht
Q3. How much do you pay for your accommodation and what do you live in exactly (house, apartment, condo)?
I own a house in Taiwan but during the week I live on campus at the university in Tainan,
Q4. What do you spend a month on the following things?
Transportation
I ride my bicycle in Taipei but take the high speed rail from Taipei to Tainan during the school year. If I book well in advance, I can get a discount on the train, which is my biggest travel expense. Total transportation is about 3,000 baht per month
Utility bills
Utilities are cheap in Taiwan. We pay about 1,500 baht per two months for gas, water and electric.
Food - both restaurants and supermarket shopping
Eating out most of the time costs about 12,000 baht per month including a good bottle of wine once a week.
Nightlife and drinking
Question was not answered.
Books, computers
The internet is tied in with the cable package plus an all access I-Pad and phone package at 2,000 baht per month
Q5. How would you summarize your standard of living in one sentence?
Very comfortable. No debt whatsoever. I teach philosophy in a university and do translations on the side, but I know many English teachers here who do well enough for a comfortable lifestyle. In the early days, many teachers would come here for six months work and then spend the money they made in Thailand.
Q6. What do you consider to be a real 'bargain' here?
Utilities in Taiwan are too cheap so many people tend to waste electricity and water, Transportation isn't all that expensive either, Taipei has a well-run mass transit and bus system that is very cheap.
Q7. In your opinion, how much money does anyone need to earn here in order to survive?
Depends where you live in Taiwan, but most English teachers here earn approx 60,000 baht as a minimum.
Phil's analysis and comment
I think this is our first cost of living survey from Taiwan. It sounds as though 60,000 baht a month would go quite a long way there. Any readers ever thought of going to teach there? It was the number one TEFL destination on my list for a long time until I decided to give Thailand a go and never moved on.
I finally got to see Taipei last December / January and thought it was very similar to Bangkok in many ways. Probably too many!
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