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How our finances changed when we moved to Korea
Our family lived in Korea in 2021. We moved out here to be close to my husband’s family. During our time here, we paid off the equivalent of about $11,000 of debt, contributed over $10,000 to retirement, and have started saving aggressively so that we can move to our next apartment.
We’ve accomplished all of this even with a relatively modest income by US standards. (I work online as a private tutor, helping students in the US get into law school or college. I earned in US dollars, and then sent money over to Korea for living expenses as needed.)
Our life is therefore a great example of the power of geoarbitrage.
Geoarbitrage involves traveling or moving to an area with a lower cost of living while maintaining an income reflective of a higher cost of living area. Examples would include working from home for a California-based company while living in Tulsa. Or traveling to Thailand for a medical procedure, and paying for it out of your US salary.
In our case, geoarbitrage is a natural byproduct of our regular living situation. We live in Korea not to game the system, but because my husband is Korean and he wants to live close to his family. I work in the US doing test prep because I am an entrepreneur at heart, and I have worked for myself in test prep for years.
