My goals in coming to Korea was to learn more about who I am, to travel to at least one other country, and to save as close to that "high end" as possible. With two days left in my contract, I have not only met those goals, I have exceeded them on all accounts.
The first goal, learning more about myself, was an easy one. As I have mentioned in other blogs, it is actually impossible not to know yourself better when you take yourself out of every comfort zone you have been wadding around in your whole life. There are a thousand other blogs and buzzfeed posts about the benefits of traveling and living abroad on your own, Go read those, they're pretty great and that's not what this blog is about.
The second goal, traveling to at least one other country, was met and surpassed within six months. I had an amazing experience traveling Vietnam and Thailand mid-contract. Now, because of the success of goal three, I will be venturing off on a twelve country journey when my time here in Korea is up and I could not be more excited. I'm sure I'll be posting several blogs during my trip so wait for those, that's not was this blog is about either.
This blog is about goal number three: money. With a LOT of hard work, cost cutting, and stubborn devotion to my goal, I was able to come close to double my original goal. I read what the websites told me I could save and I worked my ass off to prove them wrong (for the better). In the process, I've also had the glory of proving a few other naysayers wrong who told me I wouldn't save a dime. In their defense, they knew a much different, pre-divorce Shira who literally could not save a dime due to various reasons that are not worth mentioning in this forum. (Note the choice of wording in that last sentence if you're really curious as to why.)
...In hindsight, maybe it wasn't the websites and the naysayers I was proving a point to, maybe it was myself.
Either way, I made out well. I paid off a $5,000 credit card debt, traveled to two countries, saved enough to travel to 12 more, and I'm coming home with money. So, I wanted to pass on a few tips to those who want to do the same and for my friends in the program here in SoKo, who when I told them how much I've accumulated said "how???" with jaws dropped.
*As always, I'd like to state that I am by no means an expert, this is just what worked for me. I know a lot of people come here with very different goals, or much higher debts to tackle. To each his own.*
(Stupidly Simple) Rule #1 - Make a Monthly Expenses Budget
I was shocked when I learned how many people don't know how to budget. To me, if you know how to subtract, you know how to budget. But the real trick to it, is being realistic (yes mother, I can hear you all the way from here, you were right). You need to know how much it costs you to live in one month including utilities, food, transportation, hair cuts, doctor visits and what I call "out money" (i.e. the eating out, drinking, shopping, basically anything that isn't a necessity). Be realistic but don't go overboard with what you plan on spending out and about in Korea if your goal is to save. If your goal is go to out often (while saving what you can), then do as you wish, but either way have a number in mind and include it in your monthly budget. If you go over it the first month, increase it on the next month. You need to get to a number that you know won't change month to month.
(The Most Important) Rule #2 - Pay Yourself First
I think I heard this first on Oprah, then several more times in my life, but it was drilled into my head by Itai before leaving for Korea and I think it finally stuck. Subtract your monthly expenses from your income and the rest is your savings. IF YOU DO NOT treat this money like untouchable gold, you will lose it. Once I figured out my expenses here, I realized I could save over half of my paycheck each month. So the very first thing I did, the moment that paycheck hit my account, was transfer my monthly savings to my American account. It was out of sight, out of mind, and out of my Korean Bank account. Now of course, I could access it if there was an emergency, but I knew every time I touched that money I'd spend an additional 3% using my American Citibank account which was not only money lost from savings but it was an additional 3% money lost. Not a big deal if it really is an emergency, but if you're using your American account for every purchase for the last 10 days of the month because you ran out of money in your Korean account, it adds up.
Rule #3 - Pay Your Bills Second
As soon as I paid myself, I paid all the other people who wanted my money. I paid my utility bills immediately and I took money out of my account for my school lunch fee and for my monthly bus fare (that I pre-calculated - not a hard thing to do). I even took out what I expected to spend on groceries per month so I had it in cash. Basically, I left nothing in that account but my free spending ("out") money.
Rule #3a - A Side Note on Bills From Home
Obviously I had expenses from my home country, who doesn't? But I made sure to make all of those bills automatic to be taken from my Citi America account at the very end of the month, after I knew I would have been paid here in Korea. Then, when I sent my savings money to my home account, I also included the money needed for my home bills. Making everything you can automatic makes it harder to spend your storage unit money on a night out.
Rule #4 - Be Painfully Aware of Your Money
I'm sure I annoyed just about every friend I have here at least once with my constant analysis of my budget before going out. I was always, always on top of it. Like I said before, if I spent too much money going out one month, I fixed it for the next month (either by watching my spending, or being more realistic with my budget). All those expenses I took out of my account in cash were "filed" in my wallet with little sticky tabs dividing them. One tab said groceries, one said bus money, and so on. I took cash from the appropriate area depending on what I was spending it on. If I accidentally took from the "bus money" side and spend it on some eggs and milk, I was fast to replace it using the money from the grocery side. I used cash because A. Citibank Korea would only give me an ATM card, not a debit card because I'm a foreigner, but more importantly B. with cash I could easily and literally see my money disappearing and it kept me on high alert with my spending.
Rule #4a - Be Also Painfully Aware of Your End Goals
I used the magic of excel to tell me how much I could have at the end of my year by adding up what I projected to save every month. SO every time I didn't save what I had planned because I decided a trip to H&M for more winter clothes took precedence (which, in fact, it did), I reduced the number on my excel spreadsheet from that month and I watched my total go down. I made myself do this every single time my savings didn't go the way I planned, even if it was for good reasons like the winter clothes. It pushed me to rearrange so I could save more the next month to make up for it. I hated seeing that number go down and I was going to do what I could to keep it still.
Rule #5 - Watch the Extras
Coffee, bottled water, and ATM fees were my enemies. Sure sometimes they were unavoidable. I left my refillable water bottle at Natalie's apartment one evening and I sure as hell wasn't going to go the whole next day at my water-less school, so I bought a bottle in the morning. And when it was like 612 degrees outside I occasionally treated myself to an iced coffee to get me through my errands. But there is no reason to buy these things on a weekly basis especially when I have a Brita filter and a coffee machine at home. And ATM fees...I loath them. When you keep your budget as tight as I did, using your money on an ATM fee a few times a month really adds up and can take away like a weeks worth of bus fare. There are too many ATMs in this country that don't charge a fee that I can't wait a little or walk a little to avoid one that does charge.
Rule #5a - Watch the Frivolous Shopping Too
Yep I bought a cheapo bath mat and bathroom hand towels that don't even come close to matching at the local Daiso (Korea's version of the dollar store). They work and they weren't repulsive, done. I'm not setting up camp here in Korea, I'm here for one year. There's no reason to go all out decorating an apartment and then figuring out how to ship home, or throw out all the crap I bought that I didn't need. A very creative friend of mine decorated her and her husband's apartment using cut out shapes in different colors, some twine and hooks to string them along the walls. It was super cute, really jazzed up the place and probably cost them pennies. It is important to make the place feel like home, but do it on a dime, not a twenty.
Rule #5b - Use Public Transportation
Taxi fares are so cheap here that I know some people would think I'm crazy to blacklist them. But really, if I can spend $1.20 on a bus ride why would I spend $4.50 on a cab? That's $3.30 that I could get almost an entire meal with. Well not really, but I could get enough kimbap to fill me up. I know someone who took a cab to school every day because she was always late and missed the bus, how much do you think she saved by the end of her contract? I know it's only a few bucks, but a few bucks adds up.
*Math time! - Just to show you the importance of #5
~~Let's say I splurge once a week on a bottle of water, a coffee and a cab ride:
1 bottle of water (1,000 won) + 1 coffee (5,000 won average) + 1 cab ride (5,000 won average) = 11,000 won per week x 52 weeks = 572,000 won in one year which is approx $500
~~If you're treating yourself to just a coffee every few days (or take a cab every few days to work) that's about 610,000 won in a year.
That's more money then I spent on ANY of my flights in my twelve country journey. In fact, it's $200 more than my flights from Seoul to Taipei, Taipei to Bali, and Bali to Singapore combined. You want that coffee or would you rather sip on some of the rarest coffee in the world while overlooking the UNESCO Bali Rice Terraces?
This type of spending actually has a name, several websites and a couple books devoted to it. It's called the "Latte Factor". Look it up, here's the google link to make it easy for you.
Rule #6 - Grocery Shop Like a Pro
The produce at my local store was much cheaper than the chain store, but the coffee I liked and the big bags of frozen chicken were cheaper at the chain store, so I shopped accordingly. I went with zero plan but looked for sales. If broccoli, tofu and zucchini were on sale, guess who was eating stir fry that week? I planned my weekly meals according to the sales and I always cooked in bulk. Korea's groceries stores are set up for people who live in a household of 12 (I'm exaggerating, but not by much). It's cheaper to buy in bulk here so I cooked in bulk and froze half of what I made. Not only was it less expensive but it meant I only had to cook two or three meals once a week and then I lived off of them until the next week's cooking day. The underlining theme of Rule #6 is cook at home, don't eat out every day. I shouldn't even have to say that but some people are still under the impression that it's somehow cheaper... it's not. And it's not healthy either...so stop it. :)
Rule #7 - Don't Avoid the Experiences But Be Smart
I'm living in South Korea, so hell yeah I'm gonna spend $90 to go on a trip to hike an insane mountain that I'll later hate/love myself for. And yes, I'm going to take a trip to Seoul every couple months to live it up and eat all the foreign food I can't get in my smaller city. But I come early on a Saturday and leave late on a Sunday to make the most of my weekend and still only spend one night on the cost of a hostel. Sure, I'll go on an Asian pear picking / wine festival adventure, it's only $30, but I'm going to skip on the ski trip that costs over $100. I'm not against skiing, but I made myself a strict, "if I can do it at home, I'm not spending the money to do it here" rule. My goal is to save money while experiencing all things Korean. Skiing didn't fit that category for me, if it does for you then by all means. But yes I went on plenty of adventures while I was here, I was just smart about what I chose and how I spent my money on it. In fact, for several months, mid-contract, I saved myself a couple hundred bucks as part of my monthly expenses for a monthly adventure. So even though I lived, I planned for it. Which leads me to...
Rule #8 - When You Go, Go With a Plan
Every trip I took from a week in Thailand to a day in Seoul had a plan for what I was going to do and how much money I intended on spending. The money didn't dictate the experience, the experience dictated the money, but at least I went in with a plan of how much this experience was going to cost me. When Natalie and I went to Jeju we had a daily budget we planned on sticking to and we were very successful, even with the occasional hand brewed coffee. We knew we wanted to see Jeju but we didn't want to break the bank doing it, and our plan helped us accomplish that. We even went so far as to stop at the grocery store and pack lunches each day so we could enjoy our time at a nice restaurant that evening without feeling guilty about the cost (or the calories). It was all part of the plan. Even if you end up not sticking to your plans completely, you'll spend far less than if you have no plan at all.
***
Yep you can call me obsessive about it, but like I said I had a goal in mind. Candidly, because I was soooo tight on my budget, there were times when I came down to the penny at the end of the month. And there were definitely a few times I went into clothing stores with friends and watched them shop for a solid hour while I walked out with nothing. But I was actually pretty proud of myself in those moments. In the end, I lived, I saw, I did, I tried, I ate and I still accumulated a ton of money. I even had a gym membership that I determined was a good investment and worth the extra 60,000 won per month.
And please note my constant use of the word "accumulated". At no point in this blog am I saying I'm coming home with $20,000 in savings. I'm coming home with a fraction of that because I made the conscious decision to go on this two month journey, country skipping my way home to the states. And I gave up a large portion of what I accumulated doing so, something I am one million percent certain I will never regret. But because I worked so hard I was able to pay off debt and still come home with money in addition to this giant mega trip. And when I'm finally home safe and sound, I can pat myself on the back and boast about how I saw 15 countries in 14 months.
Some random adventure photos from the past six months or so to prove that I still
managed to have fun...
And a couple goodbye dinners/brunches that were worth every penny...
When I watched a 22-year-old kick my ass in saving money over the course of one year while he set up an apartment and established himself in a new country and I took up residence for free at my Aunt and Uncle's house, I knew that he was the person I should be listening to when it came to money. A lot of what I am saying above is regurgitated information from what he taught me. I took everything I learned and observed from him and applied it to this year in Korea.
And. I. Made. Bank.
So thank you, Itai.
