Are you a lifer?

i don't want to be a lifer but i also don't want to live back in the uk

Is Korea really better than the UK these days?  Anytime I visit relatives there
it is great.  Food is ten times better.  Scenery and architecture are incomparable.

However, living a visiting are different.  Has the UK sunk down that far?

It really depends where in the UK you can find work and afford to live. Where I grew up is mind-numbingly dull with low-employment, high knife-crime, and a love of 60s architecture. Not to mention the cost of petrol if you want to live anywhere without great transport links, which is most places.

The UK felt pretty depressing when I visited family this summer. The fishing is a lot better though.

My mother lives in Ayr.  Which is a small seaside town on the west coast of Scotland.

Are you a lifer?

Yes

Why or why not?

I am alive

What are your thoughts on lifers if you aren't one.

I am one, however, if someone is alive, they are a lifer, till they die of course. Then it all comes crashing down.

i don't want to be a lifer but i also don't want to live back in the uk

Is Korea really better than the UK these days?  Anytime I visit relatives there
it is great.  Food is ten times better.  Scenery and architecture are incomparable.

However, living a visiting are different.  Has the UK sunk down that far?

Supermarkets are better in every respect in the UK and when you get to a certain stage in life that becomes more and more important.

It really depends where in the UK you can find work and afford to live. Where I grew up is mind-numbingly dull with low-employment, high knife-crime, and a love of 60s architecture. Not to mention the cost of petrol if you want to live anywhere without great transport links, which is most places.

Well yes.

UK is lovely to visit and see the countryside (in places) old friends and relatives.

But living there feels too much of a drag somehow. It is a treadmill and if you step of it for more than a year they don't like it and won't let you back on. It is a nanny state. They don't think that far outside of the box in terms of lifeplan and resent people who actually have the courage to step outside of it.

The only way to make it in the UK is to follow the plot and never put a foot wrong. ie do something like this:

Grow up in one town so you get firm friends for life
Graduate with a useful degree or practical qualification
Start at the company and don't move.
Marry and have kids
Get promoted every few years, pay that mortgage


If you're an adventurer like me who was curious about life, then you hardly want to go back and start from scratch in a grimy grey northern town after 15 years away travelling the world. What on earth would I do there? Sign on the dole? Watch telly every night because its always drizzling? Blow my weekly excess 20 quid down the pub every weekend? No thanks. No way.

UK is only good if you have a lot of money and live somewhere nice. Otherwise Korea is better.

It might be a good idea to define a lifer.

For some people (i.e., US citizens), a lifer might be someone who has been here for more than ten years. That's because pension lump sum refunds are impossible after ten years of residence in Korea; you're locked in the system, as it were.

Or, maybe we could more simply define a lifer as someone who wants to live here for life.

Just thought for food. (Or is it food for thought? Sorry, English isn't my first language.)

Nps doesn't get locked in. Only the private teachers pension that unis usually pay into do. I called to verify this as I am in my tenth year.

Possibly me. I really have no problems living here and my wife wants to be close to her family. I've always been a traveller so being close to mine is not a problem.

However lately, I find myself missing the simple things like putting up Halloween decorations on the house and waiting for trick or treaters, Christmas, Thanksgiving with food and football, etc.

Also, although it's possible to get a real house in Korea, it's way more expensive than in the states. As comfortable and convenient as apartment complexes in Korea can be, I want a HOUSE with a yard, garage, garden etc.

I guess we will see as things change. Nothing is ever set in stone.

Also, although it's possible to get a real house in Korea, it's way more expensive than in the states. As comfortable and convenient as apartment complexes in Korea can be, I want a HOUSE with a yard, garage, garden etc.

That is easily achievable in America but not in the UK.

So yes, Americans should go home if a garden is what you want.


In Britain you have to be a millionaire to afford a house with an actual garden of any size.

Also, although it's possible to get a real house in Korea, it's way more expensive than in the states. As comfortable and convenient as apartment complexes in Korea can be, I want a HOUSE with a yard, garage, garden etc.

That is easily achievable in America but not in the UK.

So yes, Americans should go home if a garden is what you want.


In Britain you have to be a millionaire to afford a house with an actual garden of any size.

Like this one on at under 300 grand (390,000 dollars)

https://www.onthemarket.com/details/5640494/

and don't try to claim you were talking only about houses in the South East or houses in big cities or houses near places with jobs for EFL teachers etc.. You said you have to be a millionaire to afford a house with an actual garden of any size in Britain. This is a house in Britain with a massive garden at less than a third of a million quid.

and don't try to claim you were talking only about houses in the South East or houses in big cities or houses near places with jobs for EFL teachers

I was using hyperbole.

Do you know what that is?

It is a literary device that should be detectable by those with an education.


My point was you need to make a lot of money to afford a house with a garden of any useful size.

Like this one

Thats in the middle of nowhere.

Too far to commute to from anywhere that has jobs enabling a person to afford such a property.

Thats in the middle of nowhere.

Too far to commute to from anywhere that has jobs enabling a person to afford such a property.

There are loads of well paid jobs going a few miles from that house in Carmarthenshire. It's a business hub. You're talking out of your arse.

There are loads of well paid jobs going a few miles from that house in Carmarthenshire. It's a business hub.

You mean Swansea? That place with under-average employment rates and a GVA 20% below the UK average?

Maybe thats why the person is selling up.

a few miles

its 35 km from the aforementioned "business hub". Thats 1 hour driving time every day.

You're going to snap that up with your 2.1M hogwon salary are you? while you also pay off your car and support your family.

You're talking out of your arse.

Try making counter points in a discussion without resorting to personal attacks for once. You'll find people will respect and listen to what you say more.

There are loads of well paid jobs going a few miles from that house in Carmarthenshire. It's a business hub.

You mean Swansea? That place with under-average employment rates and a GVA 20% below the UK average?

Maybe thats why the person is selling up.

a few miles

its 35 km from the aforementioned "business hub". Thats 1 hour driving time every day

I was using hyperbole.

Do you know what that is?

It is a literary device that should be detectable by those with an education.

You're going to snap that up with your 2.1M hogwon salary are you? while you also pay off your car and support your family.

No, I already own two properties in the UK and one in Korea (all bought and paid for) so not looking to add to the portfolio at the moment

I already own two properties in the UK and one in Korea (all bought and paid for) so not looking to add to the portfolio at the moment

Oh sure, you property mogul you     

Putting your monopoly board aside for a moment, seems a bit strange for a tycoon like yourself to be on a chatboard for efl teachers in Korea.

I already own two properties in the UK and one in Korea (all bought and paid for) so not looking to add to the portfolio at the moment

Oh sure, you property mogul you     

Putting your monopoly board aside for a moment, seems a bit strange for a tycoon like yourself to be on a chatboard for efl teachers in Korea.

There's a lot of money to be made in Korea in teaching, with or without the F viss, but not in public schools. Also as I was trying to point out, house prices are not that high in the UK outside the south East.

I already own two properties in the UK and one in Korea (all bought and paid for) so not looking to add to the portfolio at the moment

Oh sure, you property mogul you     

Putting your monopoly board aside for a moment, seems a bit strange for a tycoon like yourself to be on a chatboard for efl teachers in Korea.

There's a lot of money to be made in Korea in teaching, with or without the F viss, but not in public schools. Also as I was trying to point out, house prices are not that high in the UK outside the south East.

He's right, my sister recently bought a three bed house with a nice garden in a reasonable area of Manchester for 140,000.  At the budget level, we bought a little two-bed terrace to rent out for 87,000 there too.  People who live in the Southern bubble often can't believe you can buy a nice house for less than half a million quid.  I'll stick my neck out and say I expect you can find a house with a nice garden in an ok area of most Northern cities for less than 200,000.  That's hardly monopoly money.

I already own two properties in the UK and one in Korea (all bought and paid for) so not looking to add to the portfolio at the moment

Oh sure, you property mogul you     

Putting your monopoly board aside for a moment, seems a bit strange for a tycoon like yourself to be on a chatboard for efl teachers in Korea.

There's a lot of money to be made in Korea in teaching, with or without the F viss, but not in public schools. Also as I was trying to point out, house prices are not that high in the UK outside the south East.

He's right, my sister recently bought a three bed house with a nice garden in a reasonable area of Manchester for 140,000.  At the budget level, we bought a little two-bed terrace to rent out for 87,000 there too.  People who live in the Southern bubble often can't believe you can buy a nice house for less than half a million quid.  I'll stick my neck out and say I expect you can find a house with a nice garden in an ok area of most Northern cities for less than 200,000.  That's hardly monopoly money.

Here's a guide to anyone interested in investing 50 grand, for example.

https://toughnickel.com/real-estate/15-of-the-cheapest-places-in-the-UK-to-buy-a-3-bedroom-house

Yes I am...!

 23 years and counting!

Living/working in Korea only makes sense in the short term. I guarantee you that the vast majority of EFL teachers in Korea make more than they would doing random jobs back home, because most EFL teachers are teaching EFL because they have random BA degrees that don't let them get good jobs. Add to that the fact that you pay zero rent while you'd be paying hundreds/thousands of dollars/pounds/euros each month to rent back home because property prices have gotten stupid. And the fact that the cost of living in Korea is pretty decent if you aren't frequently buying electronics or other overpriced items. And the pension refund is nice. As a result after like 5-10 years you can save a massive amount of money compared to living back home.

BUT at some point, even if you are married to a Korean, YOU NEED TO GET OUT.

a) EFL starting salaries are pretty high but even if you stay in Korea a long time, your pay will stagnate after a while. Korean bosses would rather replace you than give you a raise. If you can a boss who actually values your teaching skills you might get a higher salary, but we are talking 2.5m instead of 2.2m. The "it's so easy to walk into a 3.0m job in Korea" people are full of BS.

b) Korea is just not set up for old people AT ALL and they refuse to do anything about it. Most Korean employees get fired at around age 45 because their bosses don't want to keep giving them raises, and they end up having to drive a taxi or run a fried chicken franchise until they die, unless they want to hobble around the neighborhood picking up cardboard boxes. An EFL teacher will probably be able to skirt by until their 50's but at some point an EFL teacher in their 50's is just going to stick out like a sore thumb unless they start their own teaching business. And then at some point they will hit 65 and have to survive on $100 a month in paltry Korean pension payments.


A lot of people on the internet like to talk complete BS about how either a) you can make so much more money back home in the West or b) it's so easy to make a massive salary teaching in Korea. Both are completely false. Most people are making 2.1m to 2.5m in Korea. Most people would make less money in the West or would be paying so much more in rent that they would be effectively earning less. Salaries in the West have sucked ass for years, while rental/housing prices have gone through the roof. All of us can do basic math and all of us looked at what we'd be making in Korea vs. at home, and most people saw more money in Korea. Korea is a difficult and annoying place to live at the best of times and nobody would stay there longer than 6 months if they didn't know for a fact that they were making and saving more than back home.

That said it baffles me how many EFL teachers know they're making good money yet spend it all every month on beer or other crap instead of even bothering to try and save anything. That's fine when you're 24 and have your first interesting job after college, but it's pretty sad when you're in your 30's or 40's.