Ways and Means: Jan 2015 - Jun 2015

We’ve done this before, so let’s do it again. This time with international flavor thrown in! My first six months of 2015 were spent entirely in Taiwan, the land of cheap food, cheap drinks, cheap everything basically. So, did I save any money? Well…let’s see!

To start with, my fixed expenses came out to be about $825 per month. That’s accounting for rent, cell phone bill, and a smattering of subscription services such as Netflix, Spotify, VPN, and iCloud. Also, um, bank fees, but we’ll get into that later. I lived half of those six months at my mom’s but since she was in Taipei for some of the time, I moved out to a small room near my school, at the cost of $550 per month for three months. And I mostly put my Verizon bill on suspension when I was overseas, paying only about $30 monthly for my Taiwan cell phone. So while my fixed expenses fluctuated between $750-900, the average worked out to about $825 per month.

The name of the game is variable expenses of course. I should have readjusted my budget after three months, since I was basically over every month — save one — and I was losing Budget Club bad. But I was stubborn and kept thinking I could make it. Overall, my variable expenses looked like this:

• Jan: $1,400
• Feb: $960
• Mar: $1,360
• Apr: $1,750
• May: $1,700
• Jun: $1,770

Compared to my last six months of 2014, which I spent hopping from East Coast to West Coast, it looks spectacular. However, that variable spending falls in line with what I was spending when I was holed up in San Diego during the exact same time last year. In fact, I was probably spending more in Taipei than in San Diego. But again, more on that later. Anyway, my six month variable expenses worked out to about $1,490 per month.

And let’s not forget that all important Annual tab, which accounts for one-time expenses that we don’t put into the variable part of the spreadsheet. From January till June, I spent $2,700 on “annual” expenses. This consisted of the following: $890 for a new iPhone and iPad Mini, $800 for another semester at Shida, $400 for two flights to Hong Kong to reset my visa (I have to fly out every ninety days), a real estate agent fee of $260 for the apartment (he charged a half month’s rent, which seemed pretty low), $160 for a road trip to Yilan during our semester break, and then finally another $160 for my Citibike renewal. Yeah, you know, that Citibike service in New York? The city I no longer live in? My friend uses my pass and I just kind of renew it because I’d like to have it available. So overall, during those six months, my “annual” expenses came out to $450 a month.

Total I spent about $2,760 a month while living in Taipei. By my rough calculations, living in San Diego costs me about $3,000 a month (assuming $1,000 rent). And New York, well, New York I was basically living on for $3,900 a month. So yeah, to answer the question: Am I saving money by living in Taiwan? “It depends,” is the answer. Ugh, I hate subjectivity.

Finally, here are my expenditures of five major budget categories, and now with a pie chart breaking down which specific tags I spent the most on! We getting fancy.

• Food: $3,050
• Shopping: $1,750
• Play: $1,700
• Transportation: $1,500
• Misc: $900

Let’s talk about this taxi situation. Taipei has a wonderful metro system that costs maybe 0.60 cents to a dollar a ride — compared to three for New York's. The MRT is clean, efficient, open until midnight, with stations very close to my house. So why $250 a month on cabs?! Assuming I am taking cabs to go places I want to go, I am spending almost as much getting there as I am “playing” when I arrive. Well, my justification is that anywhere I live, I would be dropping at least that much on car costs, gas, subways ($120 for NY’s unlimited ride MetroCard), or Ubers. And each taxi ride only averaged about $4.25 anyway, since I started to do less long hauls — as opposed to last November and December where my rides mysteriously averaged $7 each.

Then again, it’s a stark reality that if I never took a cab again in Taipei, I would have 16.2% of my expenditures back. My mom, when she heard about how many taxis I take had this to say, “Maybe if you weren’t always late or rushing, you wouldn’t take so many taxis.” How do you say “touché” in Chinese?

Also, since I don't have a Taiwanese bank account and I generally just pull cash from any ATM around, that's fees. Basic story is I should get a Taiwanese bank account. Or just walk to Citibank ATMs, which charge a lower fee. But Citibanks are few and far between, especially compared to the ubiquitousness of 7-Elevens. Basically I'm paying a premium for convenience, for taxis and cash. So yeah, Taiwanese bank account, put it on the to-do list! No, not that To Do List, this one!

Anyway, that was the first half of 2015 in a financial nutshell. August and September I’m back in the States, and then likely more Taiwan for the rest of year. Maybe I’ll have some shit figured out by then. Haha, or not. Oh right, I ended 2014 saying I basically lived a $52k lifestyle. So far I’m on pace to live a $41.5k lifestyle. That’s good right? I’m downsizing! Does that mean I have a sudden increase in savings? You would think...