Originally Posted by
noboloco
15k for long weekend holidays to SE Asia every month?
Pretty sure your friends back in your home country aren’t living with that sort of exuberance nor have the rostering to be able to do so. 40k a month on groceries and eating out? Maybe you should sort out your budgeting if that is how you are living. You are living better than 99% of people
in first world countries.
The difference is, in HK, you have absolutely zero desire to stay cooped-up in your crap apartment. This costs money. Also, kids cost an exorbitant amount in HK. Schooling is huge when you factor books, transport, extra-curriculars etc..
I’m not sure (nor am I concerned) what you class as a normal upbringing for a child, or standard of home life you would accept. I want my family to enjoy the things they would back home.
If I was home, I’d be living in a nice house with space, a garden, a garage etc. Complete apples to oranges. Schooling is free. Healthcare is trustworthy. Kids have space to play outside. They don’t need to live permanently on a phone screen (don’t get me started). My wife’s yoga/pilates monthly subscription would be the price of one session in HK. My groceries would be a third of the price, and far better. I don’t need to escape the country for some peace & quiet. I don’t need to maximise my time out of the house.
Even ‘nice’ properties in HK are atrocious. Look at the standard of the fixtures, tiling, plumbing, flooring… The standard of everything in my very ‘normal’ house back home is higher in every single regard. All for the price of a HK nano-flat.
HKers seem to have become accustomed to poor quality as a theme. Be that groceries, accommodation, children’s upbringings, air…
It isn’t worth it for me anymore. It will do for now because my options are limited. However, I’ll have a far better life on a 50% pay cut back home, so that is what I’ll be doing at the first opportunity. Nothing personal and no hard feelings. I enjoyed my time in HK pre-Covid. The pros outweighed the cons. Now it isn’t close. The company seem fairly content with this too, so win-win.