Living On $24K A Year In Seoul, South Korea | Millennial Money

Michaela Cricchio, 26 years old, lives in Seoul, South Korea and earns $24,000 a year as an English teacher. After graduating college, Michaela joined the cruise ship industry to pay for all the expenses associated with moving abroad. She is now in her second year teaching in South Korea, and has plans of becoming a digital nomad.

This is an installment of CNBC Make It's Millennial Money series, which profiles people across the globe and details how they earn, spend and save their money.

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Living On $24K A Year In Seoul, South Korea | Millennial Money

[TransplantedLotus]

Same here… I’m earning 24K a year as an English Teacher in Thailand. I’m renting a 3 bedroom townhouse and able to save 50% of my monthly salary. I travel around world for at least 2 months out of the year. Life is good.

[skylark]

Rent free. Car free. That helps massively

[peppolicchiopappo]

Yes please start doing this around the world, we had enough ny and la episoded

[PSYCHROCKS]

I love seeing different ways of life on here. Not everyone makes 260k and lives in LA/NYC, so this was so refreshing!
Let's see more amazing people like Michaela

[lynneal]

For those who didn’t get a chance to watch all the way through and are curious: you get free housing as an English teacher in Korea, so that’s a large reason why she’s able to live on 24k

[fobkingdingaling]

The worst thing about teaching abroad is the coming back home and realizing how much you miss life abroad

[formoftherapy]

Certain cost of living is incredibly low in Korea. You don’t pay taxes on most purchases, so if food is like $6 it’s JUST $6. There’s also no tipping, food trucks can give you a full meal for like $5 and convenience store food is actually good in Korea. So food alone can be pretty cheap.

As she mentioned you most likely never need a car so no car payments or insurance.

Then their health care system is nuts. I’ve had several procedures that would be five figures in the US but only a few grand or even several hundred dollars. Had one dental procedure quoted in the US to me at like several thousand when it all added up. I happened to be going to Korea in two months so I waited and the ENTIRE cost, was $70.

There’s certainly limitations and inconveniences to living in Korea but I always loved these things.

[evileyez]

Finally another country. Let’s see Poland or France or Hong Kong or Brazil or Mexico.. I watch the Finland one over and over cause it’s like a dream

[shielamariejara]

So happy they are bringing this worldwide!!

[AlanaBertozzi]

MASSIVE shout out to Michaela, I worked on a cruise ship too and taught English in south korea for three years, we need to talk

[EmeraldGamingNewz]

This story brought tears to my eyes. I lived in worked in Asia (japan) teaching English last year for 2 years. I didn’t need a lot of money to be happy i just liked experiencing the different cultures. I saved i sought out new things, etc. Though one day I was mugged and almost killed there by another foreigner. It left me hospitalized. I had to come back to America. But after seeing this video it made me smile, remembering the joyous feeling of leaving your home and going to a country with a different language and culture, and full immersing your self in it.Hats off to you Michaela, hope you’re enjoying it out there!

[TravelingSoloLogs]

It takes a lot of courage to move abroad by yourself. Much respect 😃

[katlinmicheal]

That good I invest in real estate, and forex trading I can say forex trading have been lucrative monthly I get $140, 000 as for real estate annually I get up to $1.3m is just about meeting the right people .thinking of starting a laundromat

[AN-xsdw]

i really admire this girl. A lot of people are too comfortable where they live and their salary. They spend their whole lives in one place and thats actually pretty sad to me.

[itsmet]

I love Seoul. I studied there in grad school. It's a great city and I was able to live pretty inexpensively and still have a great time.

[trex]

She's not paying rent and no car. That's a huge saving.

[CASD]

Everyone needs to travel. It will open up both your mind and heart. The fact you can walk around at night there without having to worry is an amazing feeling.

[organizedchaos]

Thank you for being back the old versions of millennial money

[dancinmama]

I taught English in Korea for six years and had a ball! Income was low but the lack of major expenses like rent, etc, gave me the ability to pay a lot on my student loans while still traveling and enjoying my life. If I was smarter at the time, I would have been more frugal (pay off loans totally and invest) since the money came so easy. I did get a nice lump sum from my pension when I left which set me up well upon my return to the States. I HIGHLY recommend, if you have the opportunity and desire to go, to JUST DO IT!

[brimmed]

i knew she was an english teacher right away