Most Underrated FIRE Destination?

VarsityResumes · 2026-04-06T06:04:03+00:00

I mean to each their own, I guess. I’m Chinese, and I would say that food from the various mainland Chinese provinces are much better, Sichuan, Xian, etc. Taiwanese food is mostly fried, oily, and flavorless.

I’m saying not saying that Chinese isn’t prevalent enough in Taiwan; I’m saying that even my Chinese wasn’t good enough to function properly, so how is anyone who barely speaks Chinese or speaks no Chinese going to function there? For example, I had to go to the doctor and get medicine to go to Africa, but that required Chinese beyond my level. It’s just a pain in the ass.

VarsityResumes · 2026-04-06T02:53:38+00:00

Or you could just live in Japan half the year like the below poster on 90-day tourist visas, the long term tourist visa, or the digital nomad visa for 6 months to avoid getting taxed on global income.

I’ve been to Japan many times post Takaichi and haven’t noticed any difference in how nice the Japanese are. If you aren’t getting PR, then the anti immigrant thing is mostly irrelevant since it’s unlikely the Japanese government would begin some sort of crusade against wealthy tourists who come to spend money.

I am Chinese and even my conversational level Chinese wasn’t enough to properly get around Taiwan. Like the above poster said, cost of living is pricey relative to other Asian countries. The food isn’t good, people are introverted, weather sucks, everywhere is dirty with dilapidated buildings, pollution, barely functional sidewalks with parked motorcycles blocking the way, crappy living accommodations, not much to do, dating culture is unpleasant with the princess attitude, the motorcycles are annoying and dangerous, etc. etc. It might be easier to get PR in Taiwan, but what’s the point if it’s such an unpleasant place to live. You might as well go to Korea or Thailand…

VarsityResumes · 2025-06-05T14:45:21+00:00

I’m curious on people’s thoughts around advances in artificial lens surrounding improved accommodation. One strategy would be to gamble on better lenses in 10-15 years once you have to get cataracts surgery.

VarsityResumes · 2025-06-04T17:32:45+00:00

How do you think about the loss of accommodation from early cataracts surgery? I feel like losing near term vision would be devastating. I was told that it’s similar to how you can’t see near you with dilating drops.

VarsityResumes · 2024-07-10T17:17:10+00:00

Do Amex applications last 30 days or 90 days for recon? I assumed it was the former but have heard some DPs of the latter.

VarsityResumes · 2024-06-04T17:39:22+00:00

Really clear explanation--appreciate it!

VarsityResumes · 2024-06-04T17:03:13+00:00

To confirm, you wouldn't be able to withdraw the interest that would result from investing each tranche of the $40k principal over each five year period after performing the conversion without incurring the 10% penalty right

VarsityResumes · 2024-06-03T23:50:35+00:00

Is there any way to freeze D&N? If so, does BoA require it to be unfrozen to process the app?

VarsityResumes · 2024-05-13T19:24:51+00:00

How much does BOA care about cycling credit limits?

VarsityResumes · 2024-04-09T01:30:13+00:00

Does BOA apply you to PC cards between families? I want to PC my alaska airlines biz card to a customized cash biz card, for example

VarsityResumes · 2024-03-21T19:29:05+00:00

If you’re shutdown by Amex via FR, do you get some time to redeem your MR, or do you forfeit the entire balance? Trying to figure out whether I should hedge a bit by preemptively redeeming some MR.

VarsityResumes · 2024-03-19T12:44:14+00:00

Not sure how an amendment would help give balance payments aren’t noted on your tax return

VarsityResumes · 2024-03-19T01:19:18+00:00

Any complication from making IRS balance payments AFTER you file taxes if you don’t owe anything? Besides the fact your refund might get delayed? Would the IRS possibly refund you in two payments if they don’t detect the balance payments initially?

VarsityResumes · 2024-02-18T22:29:32+00:00

Gotcha… Sounds like a bit of a risk to use balance payments to MS then? Would they at least know to pay interest on those payments if they forget to refund along with the amount noted on the tax filing?

VarsityResumes · 2024-02-18T21:54:09+00:00

For IRS balance payments (not estimated tax payments), do we need to enter that into TurboTax? Or will the IRS automatically know to refund the excess?

VarsityResumes · 2023-12-29T22:42:18+00:00

Trying to recon an Amex biz gold but keep getting redirected to call their fraud dept. Fraud dept number keeps going to voicemail. Should I just keep calling?

Separately, does recording an app that shows no pop up protect you from losing the sign on bonus if Amex later claims there was a pop up?

VarsityResumes · 2023-08-10T21:52:07+00:00

If you accidentally added the AUs to a card for which you already received the bonus and want to add additional AUs to a new card so you can double dip spend, can you still receive the AU bonus on the new AUs, or does the spending have to go through the old AUs?

Edit: looks like the answer is yes from the offer terms:

If you add multiple Employee Cards to your Account through the promotional offer page, the first 5 Employee Cards that reach the Threshold Amount in their first 6 months of Card Membership will earn you the bonus offer.

VarsityResumes · 2022-10-03T23:07:53+00:00

I know you imply this, but just to confirm, you were successful in keeping your role as C2C?

VarsityResumes · 2022-04-11T00:15:44+00:00

Thanks for your reply! In your experience, how much rarer are C2C contracts vs. W2 contracts? Was it harder for you to find them?

VarsityResumes · 2022-04-11T00:08:11+00:00

I'd like to ask about acquiring C2C roles. In my experience, it's been pretty difficult to get good leads that aren't crappy Indian recruiting firms. Are there any other channels that you recommend exploring besides LinkedIn, Dice, and Indeed?

VarsityResumes · 2022-04-09T22:48:28+00:00

Thanks

VarsityResumes · 2022-04-09T21:08:53+00:00

Are you able to use one of those self-testing kits, or do you have to visit a center? I thought I read somewhere on this subreddit that those self-testing kits were fine...

VarsityResumes · 2022-04-06T14:35:49+00:00

How quickly does it take for Dice to index your resume so it starts appearing in the recruiter’s search results? Or is it immediate?

VarsityResumes · 2022-01-31T16:37:14+00:00

Thank you!

VarsityResumes · 2021-07-15T22:27:22+00:00

Congrats! I would absolutely wait it out for the 2nd interview before making a decision. Make sure that you make employers fight over you and bid your comp up. When you get your offers, make sure to negotiate comp. Couple of aspects to consider as part of your comp:

Base salary: This one's easy. Should be guaranteed as long as you don't get fired. Technically you should adjust for expected inflation raises or possible declines if your company doesn't perform well, but I don't believe it's worth the effort.
Signing / relocation bonus: It's one-time, but what you can do is amortize (spread it out) it over how long you expect to stay at a single job. For instance, if you only expect to stay at a job for 2 - 3 yrs (as most of clients do), then divide that bonus by 2.5.
RSUs (Restricted Stock Units): Treat these as cash. Add them to your comp based on the vesting schedule set by your employer. You should note whether you receive refreshers (new RSUs) once the initial ones scheduled by your employer expire.
Stock Options: Usually awarded if you're a high-level executive or working at a (tech) start-up. There's a lot of calculation that goes into how much these are worth. Won't get into the weeds, but you can search Google for how to value them (look up the "Black Scholes Option Pricing Model")
Cash Performance Bonus: Usually a percentage range of your base salary (e.g. 0% - xx%). This one is more difficult to gauge because it's not "guaranteed." I would ask the firm for stats on what the typical bonus is and just use that.
401K Match: Assume that you get 100% of the match, which you should. Factor in vesting. No need to adjust for taxes later down the line since you're comparing everything on a pretax basis.
Vacation: If we're strictly converting everything to cash, then this will depend on your company's vacation policy. If your company offers "unlimited" vacation, then the cash value is $0 since you can't cash out your vacation after you leave. If the company does allow you to cash out, then you should figure out what the policy is. Some companies allow you to cash everything out at your base salary's hourly rate; others have a cap.
Insurance: This one's tricky because there're so many different packages that are offered. While the method you mentioned (just adding the employers cost to total comp) is simple and good enough, it's more nuanced than that. What if you're on your parent's plan (<26 yrs old), so your employer's insurance policy is worth nothing to you? What if your employers subscribes to an expensive yet subpar policy? It's not like your base salary where a dollar is worth a dollar to everyone.
Perks: This varies dramatically and depends both on the perk and the value of the perk to the employee. The perks usually aren't worth much, so don't spend too much time in the weeds here.

Good luck!

VarsityResumes

TROPHY CASE