Do you want to be a Wealthy English Teacher?

Most people find their way to Korea to pay off some debts, save a bit of money and have some adventures while doing it. And it is indeed a fabulous place to do all those things. But, can you become rich teaching ESL as a career, in Korea or in other countries? Yes!  I think it really is possible for just about anyone with a bit of frugal living, wise investing and by avoiding a few common financial mistakes.

So, the happy news for you, my readers is that I have another book coming out, "The Wealthy English Teacher: A Beginner's Guide to Becoming Rich." It is in the final editing stages now so you should be able to find it on Amazon in a couple of weeks and I promise that the price will indeed be right...around $4 or so.

Here's the website, The Wealthy English Teacher where you can get an overview of the book contents. Check out the links on the top menu bar too: plenty of goodness to whet your appetite for becoming fabulously rich.

English Teaching and Building Passive Income Streams

Over on my other blog, Freedom Through Passive Income, I talk about how English teaching can be a good job for building passive income streams and give some tips about how to do this.  English teaching in Korea is actually quite a decent job for anyone looking to get a bit more financially secure since the salaries are often quite high and there is also a lot of lucrative OT work available.  Check out the post here:

English Teaching and Passive Income Stream Building

Salary, Savings, Taxes in Korea

And a few more from Julie:

"Do you know if salary is tax free? I've heard you can earn up to $38,000 USD equivalent pay - is this true? Do you save as much as they say?"

The salary is not tax-free.  You pay 3-5% tax, depending on various factors.  And, in some cases, you may be liable for paying taxes back home as well.  And, you'll also have to pay about 4.5% of your salary into the National Pension, and you may or may not get that back, depending on what country you're from.

$38 000 US= 42.5 million won or around 3.5 million/month.  And yes, it is possible to make that much money in Korea.  I usually do.  But, I've been in Korea for 7 years and know how the system works, and how to make this much.  And, I work at a uni with base hours of only 12/week.  This leaves PLENTY of extra hours in the day for me to work overtime.  Standard starting salaries are around 2.2 million/month, teaching 30 hours/week.  You can assume that this is what you'd be starting out at.  And overtime opportunities are not really plentiful in the entry-level jobs.  Most people save around 1 million/month, for a total of around $10 000 US/year in savings. 

A little mid-day hear-say

So my readers, I like to think of myself as a disperser of information.  I dash about here and there on the internet gleaning only the best little tidbits to give to you.  But now, check this out.  I have some original information.  Kind of.  I was talking to my coworkers at our little beginning of semester meeting and people were telling me that needing Criminal Record Checks and Health Checks if you're renewing your contract was not necessary until 2012.  Which I kind of knew already, but didn't believe.  But now, I have faith.  I'm officially a believer.

And you can put it on record that I will officially be leaving Korea before whatever time I would need all that crap.  Kind of like a protest of something.  Whatever.

How much can you earn from teaching abroad?

Another excellent post from Ted.  He lists all the factors to consider like cost of living, medical insurance and taxes.  I've only recently discovered this blog, but have been impressed by the quality of his posts.  Consider adding him to your Google Reader.

In case you're thinking of coming to Korea...

...now is perhaps not the best time.  While the Koreas often have little skirmishes, this one seems a bit more serious than the others.  And the Won is taking a free-fall, which is terrible for anyone who has to transfer their money overseas.

Lost in Translation

So a lot of things in Korea are lost in translation. It's mostly my fault in most situations for not speaking enough Korean to grasp the intricacies of what being said. But there are some programs that I teach in, at my uni where a lot of stuff is mis-communicated, and it's not really my fault. In theory, those in charge of recruiting and directing foreigners to teach English in their programs would themselves have pretty passable English. Anyway, my tips to help in these situations:

1. Never give a verbal yes to anything over the phone. My Korean is horrible on the phone and so is most Korean's English. I always ask them to send me an email or ask if we can meet in person sometime to discuss it.

2. Don't worry about all the details. At my uni, it seems that the directors don't really care about what you're actually teaching, they just want a program of some sort and they want a foreigner to teach it. So the key is to ascertain if this is the situation or not. If it is, just agree on date/times/money and worry about the rest later.

3. Everyone says their students are "high level," whatever that means. Just prepare for the first class with some general introductory activities and then see what the actual level is and go from there.

4. And check to make sure you actually get paid. This often happens at my uni, with someone just simply forgetting about you, or they don't know your bank account #, etc.