Maybe for Americans, the deal isn’t as sweet anymore, I don’t know. I can only relate about things that I know. In my eyes, Taiwan is still the land of opportunity.

Elliot: thanks a bunch. However, I will be probably teaching a lot less when I get to Taipei. I was working for a purpose. I definitely enjoy the mix of private students and schools, it is a nice way of making a living and teaching a bunch of kids. Right now I have about 20 teaching hours scheduled for my first week in March. I will try and double that that but in the end, I will like having a bit more time to write and do other things.

I work at an adult language school for 5 hours a week.

I run my own classes and am a tutor for about 7 hours a week.

I work at another buxiban for 12 hours a week.

Those have been the numbers for the last few months.

By far, I make the most money of my private teaching.

Wow, an average of about $1500 per hour. Here in Taichung the starting wage is about $600 per hour which would be about 42 000 based on 70 hours per month.

Teaching in Taiwan makes a lot of sense for Canadians. Income tax is a lot less. My marginal income tax rate in Canada was 45%, same as my wife’s. That means that if we made 4000 $CAN per month, we would loose almost half of it in income tax.

Right now, I am earning about 110000NTD per month, which is about 4000 Can$. I do work close to 70 hours a month and will not be doing this every single month, however it is possible to make some good money here. Most of this money goes back to pay some debts off, but we earn good money here and there are a lot of opportunities, such as going back to school fulltime and receiving scholarships to study in Taiwan, which can be as high as 30000NTD per month.

The big thing that we do not have here are liabilities. No mortgage, no car payments. Everythings is in cash and right away.

Back in Canada, our mortgage was 1300$, our car payment was 667$ etc. It just keeps piling up. Here the cost of living is a lot cheaper than in Canada, and our dollars go a lot further.

Still, I do not speculate in currencies but in our terms, it was actually beneficial, because the NT dollars that we earn here make more Canadian dollars when we send them back home than when we arrived.

Anyways, just my opinion.

Earning £800 a month you’d be paying £103.96 in income tax and National Insurance, so roughly 13% of your income. Against short-term taxation rates in Taiwan that’s pretty favourable, but as you say after 183 days in one tax year the rate here drops.

If you earn an equivalent NT$50,000 a month here, then once you’re a “resident tax-payer” you’re looking at NT$2,251 in income tax a month once the standard deductions are figured in. Of course, there’s still NHI and Labor Insurance contributions to factor in, but there’s a comfortable NT$3,000 per month saving compared with the UK.

In the UK you’d also have to factor in Council Tax (perhaps £60 a month) and the much higher cost of living. Salaries are higher, though - around £1,500 a month for recent graduates.

When I arrived in Taiwan (in 2002) the rate was £1=NT$48 - the money I earn here is now worth 23% less than it was when I arrived. Bugger.

Look at http://www.x-rates.com to see the fluctuation in the NTD over the last 5-10 years. You’ll find it’s actually about level vs. the dollar, and the recent crapness vs. the pound is to some extent the product of an overly strong pound rather than a particularly weak NTD, as people diversify away from dollars or play the carry trade between Asia and the UK.

High interest rates in the UK are a big factor in the pound’s strength, but I think people will start waking up to the accompany high rate of inflation in the UK in the near future too.

I think the NTD will change eventually though towards it’s historic average again. Why? Rates are slowly but steadily continuing to climb and the central bank sounds VERY much like they want to raise into the foreseeable future. Central bank of TW said as recently as December that interest rates “are not at the neutral level yet.”. Personally, I believe that means more rises still to come rather than any suggestion of an overshoot!

Then again you have speculation about rate cuts:

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2007/01/04/2003343356

as well as Thailand dropping rates (though handing out cheap money is certainly a nice way to gain public support for a military coup leadership) and Japan refusing to raise theirs.

I suspect if Japan’s central bank grows some balls, and starts raising rates a bit more, and stops playing silly beggars with the currency markets to maintain high exports, then TW will have a free-er hand to raise rates too. The RMB is still gradually appreciating too, which frees the hand of all the Asian countries.

Still. I doubt TW’s government wants to topple the cards of the housing boom here, it’s already wobbly as it is. Which means crappy exchange rates for the short-medium term future.

Mu.