Facing the high cost of living in the country, many Canadians have given up traveling abroad. Few would have thought that living abroad for a period of time could greatly help improve their finances.
Rebecca Marie Martin, a 45-year-old small business owner living in Kitchener, Ontario, runs a window cleaning company with her husband. They have been back in Canada for nearly 7 years, but memories of their life abroad still remain fresh in their minds.
Martin shared with blogTO news website how she lived in Taiwan and easily cleared her debts.
After leaving university, Martin found herself trapped in student loan debt. When a former university roommate suggested she go to Taiwan to teach English, she and her boyfriend enrolled in an English teaching program and moved to Chiayi, Taiwan in 2002.
“We were able to pay off $40,000 in debt within a year,” Martin said.
After living in Taiwan for two and a half years, the couple returned to Canada and got married. After various twists and turns, they started a family daycare service in Stratford, Ontario. However, with the arrival of the 2009 economic recession, the couple began losing clients and accumulating more debt.
At that time, they thought of Taiwan again. Martin said, “We decided to go back to Taiwan again, this time planning to stay long-term.”
“We paid off $45,000 in debt in approximately a year and a half,” she said. They initially lived in Zhongli near Taipei. After 6 months, they moved to Chiayi, where they spent 7 years.
Martin mentioned that Taiwan had many things different from what she was familiar with in Canada, including weather, smells, food, language, education, music, and culture, all of which were quite distinct.
She said, “It was overwhelming yet exciting. Every second spent outdoors felt like an adventure.”
What Martin found most memorable was the cost of living in Taiwan.
They paid only $350 a month to rent a 4-bedroom, 2-bathroom apartment overlooking lakes, mountains, and forests. Their monthly water and electricity bills were $100; refueling their scooter cost only $3 a week.
Other expenses were also inexpensive. Martin noted that eating out was affordable, costing only a few dollars a day.
However, she mentioned that the affordability of living in Taiwan was calculated based on “foreigners’ wages.”
While Canada has a universal healthcare system, Martin admitted that the differences between the two countries were “embarrassing.” She praised Taiwan’s healthcare system, stating, “With a job, medical, dental, prescription drugs, everything is included. With doctors and dentists in every corner, the wait time is only a few minutes. If you need to see a specialist, you can get an appointment within days.”
Living in Taiwan as a foreigner also posed challenges. Martin pointed out the high cost of traveling to Taiwan; the need to buy furniture; and the frequent trips to Hong Kong and Thailand for visa applications.
She mentioned that despite being able to manage life without knowing Chinese, the language barrier isolated them from the local people and culture, restricting them within the expatriate community.
Over time, the couple began to miss the independent life of not relying on others. Simultaneously, they longed for their family back in Canada.
Martin said they had been contemplating whether to move back to Canada for years, but compared to Taiwan, the cost of living in Canada was too expensive. “However, the value of being with family eventually outweighed the money.”
Now, they have been living in Canada for 7 years. Martin felt the biggest drawback of living in Taiwan, as a foreigner, was not being able to do anything other than being an English teacher.
Martin said they have no plans to move again, but their experiences in Taiwan have changed her, and the challenges forced her to grow.
She added that by taking risks and overcoming them, “you prove to yourself that you are much stronger than you ever imagined.”