망가지는 안경 Broken Glasses

어제 안경이 망가저서 새안경 160,000원 셨습니다.  한국에서 이안경은 아주 비싸지만 미국에서 똑같이 안경이 싸습니다.  나의 저번이 안경은 370,000원 들었습니다.  새 안경이 너무 좋아지만 랜스도 사고 해야 합니다.  저 저축하기때문에 많이 대학신용대부 있습니다.  많이도 출금하고 싶습니다. 나의 돈 조심한 되야 합니다.

*This isn't a direct translation and some extra information is provided*

Yesterday, I broke my glasses and bought a new pair for 160,000won from the 형님 that my friends and I hang out with.  Thank god he's an optometrist.  He even gave me the lenses for free!  Anyway, he showed me all the different kinds of frame styles but the most expensive pair really caught my eye.  The specks bent and seem indestructible and for less than half the price of my last glasses, 370,000 won, I was sold.  In the states I'm sure these glasses would go for 2-3x more than the price here.   Some frames were only selling for 20,000won.  I opted on investing in a pair that will last and look good.  I also have to buy contact lenses which are still cheaper here so buying glasses is sort of a set back.  I have to save money to pay off my ridiculously large student loans and I want to keep investing in stocks and bonds for my future home, business and retirement.   I have to keep an eye on my finances and be careful.

Should I exchange now or later?

That is the question.  Today you would have found me scanning thousands of documents into the computer database and also researching on currency exchange.  Though it seems like I wasn't doing a lot of work I was.  To scan it only takes me about 1 minute to get 15 reports put them in the scanner and hit the button which is followed by 10 minutes of down time while the scanner reads them all.  Some might find it boring to do this all day but I have found it gives me time to study, meditate or research about my trip and today it was researching currency exchange.

The Korean currency is called the won (pictured to the left).  The dollar is quite strong against the won at 1 usd to 1,227 won.  That bill to the left is called man won (pronounced mahn wahn) and is as you might have guessed $8.14.  The funny thing is that man won was the highest bill in circulation up until a few years ago when a 50,000 won note was introduced, but I've heard that it is still pretty rare to see.  That means if you need to pay 1,000,000 won for something you need a stack of 100 man won!  I can just imagine a younger guy out to buy a top of the line rice cooker for his new bachelor pad and his friend stops and asks "you packing a lot of man won or are you happy to see me?"  ahahaha

Anyway,  I found myself trying to decide on exchanging my usd to won in the states through these forex companies that buy currencies at decent prices or wait to exchange in Korea.  Too bad none of the exchange companies in Korea ADVERTISE how much their fee and exchange rate is.  I know they can give you sub par exchange rates and add tons of fees on top of that, but these forex companies exchange for 9% less than the current rate with shipping included.  Also, too bad the TaLK program has not really helped in this regard.  I might exchange a couple hundred here (with those forex companies) and then do the rest when I'm in Korea.  I guess that would spread out my exchange rate risk a little.

Sorry Uncle Kim and Uncle Sam

So I found the IRS document 8802 and filled it out today.  For those of you who do not know it is the form that is needed to get a Certificate of Residency from the IRS.  One of the wonderful perks of teaching at a public school in Korea is you can defer up to 2 years of Korean income tax which is currently 8%.  Though the Korean tax is much lower than the 15% that would be paid in the states, with the same amount of income, it is always nice to have a break. You only need to get this IRS 8802 document filled out, send it with $35, receive the certificate, show it to your principal and you are all set.  No taxes.  From my calculations I will save myself around $450 at the current exchange rate after paying the certificate fee.  But wait it gets better.  In the snazzy financial planning course that I took on tax planning, I learned that US citizens are exempt from paying foreign income up to $91,500.  Score.  

That means that I DO NOT have to pay Uncle Sam for a good 5 months!  The only thing that will be taken from my paycheck in Korea will be for the national pension system which is 4.5%, rougly $55 a month, but I can receive that money back right before I leave.

I wondered how much I make an hour doing this teaching gig and it roughly equals $28/hour after taxes.  That is including housing at about $400/month, however, this is not including the free meals, universal health insurance (I'll blog on that later) and cultural excursions that are paid for by the program as well.   I would have to be making $35 to $40 an hour before taxes here in the states to match what I'll be getting.  Plus, I'll be in a different country!

I'd have to say this beats the pants off most of the jobs I've had so far in terms of finances.  Though I have to forgo some precious things in the States.