Long Term Financial Planning to Meet Long Term Language Goals (10/3)

I’ve been meaning to make a budget for sometime now so I can know how much money I will have for Winter Break traveling and language classes. On my grant, I receive 1,400,000 won every month. (That’s right! With my first paycheck, I was a millionaire! Booyah! I have a feeling a show like “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” might not work out here…) of that:

+ 1,400,000 won
-TKD 70,000 won
-Cell Phone 30,000 won
-Travel 100,000 won
-Misc. 100,000 won

+ 1,100,000 won

If I can actually manage to pocket that much per month, by winter break I’ll have about 4,400,000 won. By the end of the grant term, if I’m frugal, I could have as much as 9,000,000 won, which, at about $9,837, would be a nice cushion for when I return to the states and allow me to pay down some loans (and buy an iPhone! … Hey! Who said that?). Still, I want to be able to explore Korea a bit (and also have some fun), and I realize that will take some money. I think a more realistic goal for the end of the grant term would be around $5,000, but I do want to try and make that 4,400,000 won goal for Winter Break. Living on my own in a city with only language classes to occupy my time is going to be expensive.

[NOTE: This post is slightly ironic given what I said below about Americans coming to this country for the money...]