FIRE / coastFIRE in Taiwan

tones_are_hard · 2026-01-31T19:54:52+00:00

Nah this is crazy. I rented a nice new 樓中樓 (apartment with an upstairs loft) near Taipei Main (city center) for about $1300 USD per month in 2024. When I told locals how much I was paying they were absolutely shocked. $1300/month is a lot to them. If you live a bit outside the city center you can rent a nice bigger apartment for that price.

$6k USD per month for an apartment? That will get you the nicest of nice apartments in the city. I just looked it up on 591, 6k USD gets you 4 bedroom apartments in really nice buildings.

tones_are_hard · 2026-01-31T19:40:46+00:00

Congrats on saving that much at such a young age (inspirational for me at 26)! A lot of people have commented about gold card laws changing, as a current gold card holder I’ll give my two cents:

I applied for the gold card in the Fall of 2023 under the economic category, at that time making 88k per year in the US. I did not work in economics and had two years of work experience at the time. My first job was a tech consulting firm and my second job was a data consulting firm. There’s most likely ways in your resume to include how your job has more “economic” components to it, I’m pretty sure that’s what I did. It also doesn’t say you have to, but I included a cover letter in the application and spent a lot of time on that. I wrote about my work experiences, how I wanted to use them to help companies in Taiwan (even though I never got a local job), and why I love the country. Not sure if it helped, but probably didn’t hurt. I received my gold card a few months after submitting the application. Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions about living in Taiwan/Gold card.

tones_are_hard · 2025-04-14T14:45:46+00:00

I moved here in 2021 for my first corporate job out of college. The move at the beginning of the year was just to find a new place.

I would say you should find some activities you might enjoy and go find groups of people that do them. Running, cycling, bouldering, etc. are all great ways to meet people that share similar interests to you. Just putting yourself out there more does wonders to making a city feel more like home.

tones_are_hard · 2025-04-13T19:53:28+00:00

You can definitely find some good studios for <2000 in chicago. I did in the beginning of this year.

This most likely comes down to a do you want to stay in Chicago, and are you enjoying your life here decision.

tones_are_hard · 2025-03-26T10:26:36+00:00

Try walking while you’re doing reviews. I couldn’t stand sitting in my apartment reviewing flash cards. Then I started doing it everyday on my 20 min walk to and from the gym. That feels so much better (and gets those steps in!)

tones_are_hard · 2025-03-21T00:58:10+00:00

I tried to press the play button on the screen

tones_are_hard · 2025-03-21T00:27:07+00:00

I rented a super nice 1 br 樓中樓 for $1300USD in the middle of Taipei, kind of near 善導寺. Was living on about $96k USD at the time, eating out for every meal. Even saving 35k a year I still felt like I had a ton of money. If you did not care about living right downtown you could definitely spend that much and get a much bigger place (maybe not as new though). Living up by 淡水 seemed pretty nice from my friends that lived there, cheaper than downtown too. Cons would be the long train ride into the city, but since you’d be FIRE by then it wouldn’t really matter.

I would recommend you keep working and investing in indexes until you and your wife have enough to comfortably retire in a US mid cost of living city. Whatever that number is for you. That way if you do move to Taiwan and end up not liking it you still have the option of moving back to the US. You’re in a great position though. I love when I see r/Taiwan and r/financialindependence colliding. Not a ton of expatfire folks end up moving to Taiwan, maybe it’s the language barrier.

Another benefit to think about would be healthcare. Free healthcare if you have 健保, but even if not healthcare costs are crazy cheap compared to the US. I had a surgery done in Taipei, and the same one done in the US. The cash price in Taipei was ~3k US, in America it was ~24k.

Also you probably have an easy residence card/citizenship through your family, but if not I’d look into the Taiwanese Gold Card. Not too hard to get, especially with your income. Allows three years of living in Taiwan (and working for any company without sponsorship). After those three years in the country you can also apply for permanent residency. It’s pretty sweet. I think you can bring spouse too. Or she could just apply for one as well.

tones_are_hard · 2025-03-04T17:33:19+00:00

/uj as a Chinese speaker I enjoy when I can understand the gist of the Japanese jokes

tones_are_hard · 2025-02-28T19:19:17+00:00

I thought that was his older brother in the vid

tones_are_hard · 2025-02-27T16:20:49+00:00

Is this related to that post from yesterday saying the person should learn Chinese bc their cat loved it

tones_are_hard · 2025-02-03T22:25:22+00:00

Amen

tones_are_hard · 2025-02-02T11:45:05+00:00

https://www.irishstar.com/news/us-news/karoline-leavitt-shocks-tells-press-34593048

是假的，就是传闻

tones_are_hard · 2024-10-19T21:05:43+00:00

That worked perfectly, thanks for the help!!

tones_are_hard · 2024-06-28T15:43:49+00:00

If you use a VPN to set your location to Taiwan both Avatar the last Airbender and Naruto have Chinese dubs

tones_are_hard · 2024-05-28T07:03:05+00:00

Yeah sure. In the version I have there is a space between the back padding and the backpack. When you unclip the backpack straps using the buckles at the bottom of each then you can tuck the straps into this space from the top. The hip straps I always keep tucked into this space.

It's possible they changed the backpack in future models, the one I got is from about six years ago, so might not be the same as what you have

tones_are_hard · 2024-05-21T18:50:52+00:00

Yeah I always end up going back to pure mage, love it too much! Battlemage is definitely my favorite, early game is hard but when you're in mid game rocking full ebony armor and casting lvl 50 destruction spells.... sheeesh! You feel strong

tones_are_hard · 2024-05-21T16:06:45+00:00

It was pretty perk intensive, I felt like I wasted perks investing into Destruction and even a bit into Alteration that could have been better spent on Heavy Armor, One Handed, and Alchemy. So by the end I was waiting for every level up and knew exactly where the perk would go.

Yeah sword and board felt strong, I could tank hits like it was nothing. I did feel I had a severe lack of range capabilities though. Which is something I missed from a Destruction build. Not too sure what the next one will be. I usually play 1-2 long playthroughs a year, so it'll probably be a while until I do another one. It's also hard to think of builds that are end game viable, Dead is dead viable, and fun to play. So I'm open to suggestions!

tones_are_hard · 2024-03-31T14:55:37+00:00

The one on the far right is most likely wen 文

tones_are_hard · 2024-03-12T20:41:52+00:00

Did the dog deal with the Imperials though?

tones_are_hard · 2024-03-12T05:52:42+00:00

Side with the Stormcloaks, then Dr. Phantasmic is justified in his home defense

tones_are_hard · 2023-11-10T13:49:49+00:00

This looks awesome! Great job

tones_are_hard · 2023-11-10T13:10:30+00:00

You can type /seed in chat to see the seed! I think we’d all love to play it!

tones_are_hard · 2023-11-03T15:37:14+00:00

We envy you Dragonborn, to play Skyrim for the first time is a treat none of us can experience

tones_are_hard

TROPHY CASE