I could not afford this lifestyle if I was living in the
U.S. because I go to cafes every weekend. But if I was living in
the U.S., I would be paying for a car, I'd be paying for
insurance for that car, you're paying a huge amount for health
insurance. And most likely, most of my paycheck would be going
towards rent. So no, I probably couldn't afford a lifestyle like
this in the United States.
My name is Michaela Cricchio. I'm 26-years-old. I make $24,000
a year and I live in Seoul, South Korea.
I'm an English teacher in South Korea, I work at an English
Academy called a Hagwan. I teach kindergarten to elementary
school students and this is my second year teaching in the
country.
It's not an easy job, but it also depends on what country you
decide to go to. I love Korea, but the work culture may be
intense for somebody who comes from, you know, Western culture.
It is not easy to teach English even if you are a native
speaker. Because as native speakers, we grew up learning
the language differently. And for me, I have actually taught
my fair share of grammar classes and some of the things, the
concepts and stuff, I didn't realize, you know, that I've
maybe have been using them wrong, like whether it's
speaking or writing.
When I graduated from college, I decided to go work for the
hospitality industry. I worked for two different cruise ship
companies and I was able to save a lot of money because it's rent
free. And yes, you do work a lot of hours, but it's rent free.
It's actually really easy to become a certified English
teacher abroad. So the steps that you have to take is, first
of all, you need to have a bachelor's degree to work in
Asia. And the next step would be to get your TEFL certification.
It's kind of like taking a basic college course.
Living abroad is great because you get to experience a whole
new culture, customs, food, meet incredible people, like you get
to meet many expats.
I've created such strong friendships here, seeing so many
amazing things that I would have never been exposed to if I
decided to stay home.
Living abroad obviously still has its fair share of problems.
If you don't speak the language, it's going to be harder here. I
still have a difficult time doing the most basic things like
going to the doctor. And so you have to mentally prepare
yourself to deal with even going to the grocery store can be
hard.
If you come to Korea, don't buy Doritos because they taste
sweet. At least to me they do.
I'm good with money now that I'm older, before I wasn't, but I've
learned a lot living on my own and living abroad and realizing
I'm on my own out here, you know, 7,000 miles away from
where I grew up.
Getting paid once a month has helped me budget very well. I
used to be bad at budgeting, but now because only getting paid
once a month, it definitely helps you know where your
expenses are going.
Where to, you know, use your money wisely, and when to be
frugal, especially at the end of the month when you know paydays
coming up and you don't have to worry as much, but it definitely
helps me become more conscious of how I spend my money.
My rent is actually covered by my school, which is very nice.
So that takes a huge chunk out of my expenses. But as an
English teacher in South Korea, you're responsible for covering
your utilities, so that's electric, hot water, gas and
your internet.
But all those things are really, really cheap compared to what
you would pay in, say, the United States. My internet's
very low, it's maybe around $15 a month. And then for the
utilities that's under $100.
So I try to go to the grocery store every week because I try
to cook at home as much as I can because I go out so much during
the weekend so I know where I have to cut back. This is also
like where my budgeting comes in because I usually only tried to
eat out two times a week.
In Korea, the produce like the fruits and vegetables., they are
so expensive here. So I only get like a select few of, like,
buying fruits and vegetables.
I mainly try to rice, the cheaper frozen vegetables and
some of the meats. But overall grocery shopping can be a little
bit more pricey here I would say.
On a typical weekend, I usually spend around $35 at the most,
going to one cafe and one restaurant.
Do you...because I have plenty of photos here, I've done two
photoshoots here.
If we're talking birthday celebration, you know, going
away parties for friends that are leaving, that's going to
cost a little bit more. So I would add about $10, $15 to that
amount.
I wasn't paying it before because of the COVID relief,
which is still actually going on now. But because of the
interest, I decided to pay on the principles that I can get
more knocked off. And right now I started paying about $100 a
month, which was about $10 more than I was paying.
But when I have extra money lying around, I will up that
cost to maybe $130 a month.
My overall goal is to have it paid within the next three or
,you know, maybe adding on an extra year, four years. Because
my mindset has changed a lot. At first I said I'm going to be
paying this off forever, so I might as well just get used to
it, right. But then I wanted to start changing my financial
mindset and saying like, you can do this, you can pay it off in a
shorter amount of time.
I try to put half of my paycheck into my savings account. And
then I have to divvy up those other amounts for student loans
and for investing so I do it all myself.
I feel content about the money I make here in South Korea. I'm
the type of person I don't need a lot of money to be happy. I
need enough to travel. And that's really just about it for
me, traveling and experience new things.
Of course, people from the outside looking in would say,
"$24,000 a year, that's nothing. How do you live?"
I know it's a very small amount, but for me, it really doesn't
matter. As I said, as long as I have enough money to travel, I'm
completely okay with, you know, making enough to cover my basic
needs and do the traveling.
Sometimes I get lonely living here when it comes to my family
and some friends that I have back home because, you know,
I've been relying on FaceTime the past year or so. But with my
friends here, I've been lucky enough to find fellow expats,
you know, English-speaking friends here. So it's really
nice to have people that have the same mindset as you, have
the same job as you, have the same reasons for coming to South
Korea as you do.
It feels absolutely surreal now to actually be able to travel,
because I never thought that I was going to be able to do this,
I'll be really honest. Never thought that I was going to
leave the United States.
Living a nomadic lifestyle to me means working from my computer,
and maybe working for an English school part-time because I do
like to teach English, I just don't know if I want to continue
it full-time. I also do a little bit of freelancing on the side.
So I'm hoping that I can change into a full time career which
will allow me to live anywhere in the world, you know, work for
any company.
The biggest misconception about living abroad is that it's not
all sunshine and rainbows, the perfectly edited photos that you
see on Instagram. It's still real life, just in a different
place that just happens to speak a different language and have a
different flag.
If I had waited until I was ready to come to South Korea, I
would have waited a long time. I feel like when it comes to
making huge decisions, new lifestyle changes and things
like that, especially moving abroad. You just have to do it.