lump sum

For what Koreans call my "retirement allowance," equivalent to a month's extra pay per year of work on a given contract, I'm getting back way more than I expected. I expected a ridiculous amount of taxes and fees to be taken out, but in fact, very little got taken out. I was sent two forms from HR: the first was for the remainder of my January salary up to the ending date I'd given on my resignation letter (this Friday, January 20). That pay amounts to about a week's worth of salary. Then there's the severance pay itself (the aforementioned retirement allowance), which I'd calculated to be a bit over W20 million. Earlier, I'd grumbled that I'd be lucky to see even W12 million after deductions, but HR confirmed that only about W350,000 was being taken out. Incredible. So the company is taking out only 1.6% of what I'm owed. I'm not going to complain about that.

And that just about doubles what's in my bank account right now. In the background is still my pension, which I can pay into until I'm 60, apparently. I can't receive it until I leave the country. It's not much money at the moment, and I'll be paying into it for only another six years (I turn 54 this year). All told, it amounts to over W30 million. Not much of an accomplishment, really; I imagine my friends back home all have nest eggs, by this point in their lives, amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

So I'm flush with cash, by my standards, but in reality, the amount I have is enough to buy one or two small cars, and that's about it. I'd like to have enough to move back to America (or out to the Korean countryside) and buy a house outright—no payment plan, no mortgage. But I don't think I'll ever achieve that financial stature. We'll see what happens with my raise.

HR emailed me to say that my new contract with the company—which will make me an outside freelancer—won't appear until February. I believe I've been paid through January (see above), but I don't know when, in February, I'll get the new contract. There might be a tiny gap of days during which I won't be paid, but I don't think I'm in a position to complain about that because I'll have received my gigantic cash windfall. And frankly, I'm not motivated to complain. I'll just think about all the hookers and blow coming my way.