Asian Economics 101: Coining it Like a Taiwanese

One of my biggest regrets at 30 is that no one ever taught me, and in my experience, a lot of South African youths money 101. How to invest, how to save; hedge funds, leveraging, benefits of credit cards and how to make money work for you. It’s only after years of starting to figure it out, that all the things click and you’re left wondering how your parents could have been so clueless in the 90’s. Was it that everyone was just buzzed? Or that information wasn’t able to spread so far to the 3rd world? Either way, here we are, looking for some way to get ourselves out of our economic hell-zone we now find ourselves in. After living in Asia for many years now, one gets to observe the locals and how they manage to maintain crazy wealth over many generations, and are able to maintain a very low rate of poverty; considering that their minimum wage for most basic jobs (7-11 clerk or petrol station attendant) is around R92 an hour, or a monthly R12k. How do they do it? Let’s break it down so that you too can start to save like a Taiwanese and maybe one day get that car you want and all the lekker different spliffs that Mr.Pot always raves about.

First the basic differences. In Asia, you can live in your parents house for as long as you like. In fact, they don’t mind at all until you’re married. Hell, in traditional Asian cultures, after the man gets married, the wife moves in with all of them! So they can save money by living together and eating together all the time; comfort and space be damned, they sacrifice for that dollar. Number two, crazy online shopping. Special, discounts, 2 for 1! Taiwanese and Chinese are experts at finding online stores that ship for a fraction of a price. Women spend all their time on their phones, finding the best bargains and whole sales. Some women even do drop shipping for extra dosh if they are good enough at knowing the online retail experience. Stores as well have to keep up, so one store that I always return to, is Show Bei; an everything store that is small and compact, able to supply you with bedding, towels, bowls, alcohol, fancy tea’s, shampoo, brooms, chargers, socks and sporting equipment. Open 24 hours a day, at super cheap prices. Moving to Asia has never been easier thanks to the everything stores.

As for keeping the wealth, our Asian friends love investing in property. Once they cross the million mark, most Taiwanese easily buy 3 properties, wait a year or two and then flip the price; and until they do, they rent it out for AirBnB’s, and students. One thing one should note about them is food. Taiwanese usually limit themselves to like R50 lunch boxes, which are all over the country, all with similar menu’s. It consists of rice, 3 veggies of choice, and either fish/chicken/pork. Usually it’s not that tasty, but they don’t mind, they are saving up, eventually for spending on food, which they do on the weekend, to get some Thai; Indian; Steak or Din Tai Fung super dumplings. Another money saving tip they have is: after you have the 4 or 2 story home, to simply have the store in your home, on the ground floor, while everyone else lives upstairs. A family is like a tree, they say, and the more branches you have in one place, they more fruit you will harvest (or something like that).

Transport wise, most of them drive scooters…even while looking like morons, and killing themselves on the daily; they persist. Added that Taiwan is getting more MRT’s that run through the cities, transport is getting cheaper and cheaper. Even if guys are rich, they lease their sports cars. They invest in stocks and bonds, and get this, because of their Universal medicare, which amounts to R100 to see any doctor for a consultation, anyone can get affordable health care. Not only that, but they have a medical insurance plan, where you can pay it every month for your child’s life, and by the time they hit 21, then they are covered for the rest of their lives. That involves having private rooms, top care, surgery…really investing for the future.

Asian’s are willing to work long hours, and gladly sacrifice their free time for the good of the office. They will work overtime, for no overtime pay, and visit clients for their sales at whatever time. In Taiwan, as soon as you get a cellphone contract, the company will give your number to whatever company pays them, so that you get called by salesmen every three days, or a get invited into a telegram group. But hey, in Taiwan, it is all about the money. Imagine, 5 to 6 people living in a 4 story (narrow) house, all saving money for the family…or their practice of starting a company and then having as much as the family working together in the company; the benefit being that, if it goes well, you don’t have to pay a salary, and if it all goes well, everyone gets to share in the spoils. It’s other things as well, always trying to find the most cost effective way to do things, such as travel tours, something old Taiwanese love. Going to a holiday in a group of 10-20 people, to have the group drive you around and show you were to go. It’s cheaper, its safer, you don’t have to think, and you can choose the food. Sure there’s no sense of adventure of going away from the group and doing your own thing, but that’s not what they’re like! They are all about saving that money and being as safe as they can be, and that is actually not that much of an overstatement!

So now, you’re thinking to yourself…if I’m going to potentially teach overseas; what are the numbers? Make this appealing for me Mr. Columnist! Well lets break it down then; calculated into rands for your ease.

Housing will be between R4500- R8000 per month for a nice decent apartment if you live by yourself. Sure you can find nicer places, but this is the price bracket most people go by. You will need 2 months rent up front and perhaps have to pay some building fees; but with that can come a garbage area so that you don’t have to run after the garbage truck as some people have to do (accompanied by an annoying jingle that you can hear from miles away) and you can have a door-guard who will receive and sign for all the lovely packages you are going to buy with online shopping! Great success!

A basic school salary starting can earn you about R32 000 a month; that is to say starting. Every year you can get a raise, year end bonuses, private students, online teaching…all depending on your drive to accumulate and invest. Sure the salary isn’t as high as ones in Japan, or Singapore or China…but the rent is cheaper, so is the food…the people are nicer, and foreigner friendly; so you pick your battles. But let’s say, you’ve been teaching for a while, and now it’s time to branch out, and do something more fulfilling than teaching basic English to pampered, over schooled brats…there are plenty of foreign success stories. One’s that opened restaurant chains, one’s who’ve married rich, one’s who learned Chinese and started working at companies as consultants and programmers. People who’ve partnered with great start ups, and ones who even though they would have been out on their asses the way they drink everyday; still don’t fail and somehow manage to live a decent life, because it can be so easy for you to live comfortably here, without doing a lot of effort at all. The only downside is, that it can become hard to leave, due to you getting lazy and too soft to try and branch out and try new things, because it seems like too much hard work at this stage, and all you want to do is drink a 9% 7 11 beer and smoke some over priced herb that you managed to get from a friend of a friend.

I digress; on my hand, I’ve been investing a lot of money into crypto currency; seeing as the laws here are very chill and my Crypto Wallet is tied directly to my bank, so whenever I want to sell some, the cash comes in straight away. Not bad if you see how this bull run is going at the moment. But as I said in the beginning, I didn’t know these things…I didn’t know how to set up a stock account; open a BTC wallet; know about different insurance options. Sure our parents failed us due to their lucky economic boom, and ignorance, but at least now we have the information online to hear investors talk, in plain and easy English, about how they got their break, accumulated, invested and reaped the benefits. At this point, if you’re not making money, then frankly, I might have to start doubting your ambition. Living here it is easy to see how people can become complacent and able to just make a lot of excuses while unconsciously repeating their cycles of bad behavior and continuing down the path of damaging self medication for their traumas of the past. My advice, as my dealer told me the other day, “your life is a reflection of your state of mind. If you want to be positive and happy, you just have to push yourself to be like that. You gotta push yourself to want to be positive, exercise, and recognize your bad habits, and work hard on stopping them, before you end up like me, at 40, who’s just feeling bitter and hating everybody.” (he said this after coming off a big weekend chemical bender tbh).

So if you feel like you need a break/ a change of scenery, or maybe just a place to make some cash to invest for the future or to send back home, then you can consider teaching here, or studying at a university here for a free scholarship (or cheap at least). Seems that after a long period of almost no new cases of Covid, and us going back to level 1 soon…means that maybe soonish, the borders will open again, and hopefully COVID hotels will be over sooner than later. In closing, don’t party away your 20’s and not save and invest. Let go of shit friends and toxic people spending their money on booze and white drugs; rather hang out with young entrepreneurs and learn how to let your money start working for you before you’re too old. Don’t waste your life in a 9-5. Use the 9-5 to step up, see the vision and sacrifice until you get what you desire…because until you get that, the depression will not go away.

Stay high and stay lifted

Jin Li Hai