About Korea Money Guide — who writes it and why

Who makes this

Korea Money Guide is planned, written and run by one person with more than three years in a Korean commercial bank — first serving customers at the branch counter, then building financial software as a developer. Both halves shape the site. The questions people brought to the counter, week after week, decide which topics get a page; the developer’s habit of showing the working decides how every calculator is built, with its assumptions and its limits in plain view.

That experience explains the problems well. It does not make this site an authority. Korea Money Guide organizes and explains; whether an account opens, a deposit is safe or a tax bill is right is decided by the bank, the property register and the tax office — not here. Use it to understand what you are looking at, and treat the final decision as your own.

From the counter

Documents, account limits, app wording, identity checks, transfers — the places people actually got stuck, seen up close. The site’s topics come from those moments.

From building software

Every calculator is built the way a developer checks code: assumptions first, edge cases next, and a result that says what it does and does not include.

How it is written

Not like a bank leaflet. The aim is to make clear what you need to understand, what to check next, and where only an official answer will do.

What this site does not do →

Why it exists

Money in Korea is hard mostly because the context is missing.

You know the exchange rate but have no feel for whether a deposit in won is a lot. You see a warning in a bank app and do not know what to ask. A message arrives in Korean and you cannot tell whether this is the moment to stop. This site takes each of those moments and gives you three things: a plain explanation, a calculator that puts a rough number on it, and a clear next step.

How we work

Start where people actually get stuck

Unfamiliar bank-app wording, account limits, rent deposits, payslips, exchange rates and transfer quotes, suspicious messages — the moments a foreigner in Korea stops and wonders.

Independent, answering to no one

The site speaks for no bank, card issuer or transfer provider, ranks nothing and recommends no product. A sentence reads the same whether or not an ad or a disclosed partner link sits next to it.

Calculators and plain explanations, together

The calculators show you the scale of a number; the explanations tell you what the wording means and what to check next. Neither replaces an official source, a contract, a bank’s decision or professional advice.

Editorial standards

Useful before complete

A page earns its place by moving you one practical step forward — what a Korean term means, what number to estimate, which document or quote to check.

No product steering

No recommendations of specific banks, cards, loans, insurers, tax elections, housing contracts, remittance providers or investments.

Every fact has a source and a date

Anything that can change — support programs, eligibility, fees, rates, official rules — carries an “as of” date and a link to where it came from.

Careful wording, always

No guarantees, no certainty where the rules vary by case, and nothing that reads like personal financial, legal or tax advice.

How the calculators work

Public information first

Guides and updates are checked against public sources: official agencies, bank and provider pages, public notices, and rules you can look up yourself.

Experience for context, never inside information

The banking and software background explains where people get stuck. It never brings internal procedures, private systems or customer data onto this site.

Assumptions on the table

Every calculator states what it includes, what it leaves out, and why the result is a planning estimate rather than an answer.

A next step on every page

Each page ends by pointing at who to ask or what to verify next — a bank, an employer, a landlord, a provider, an official channel or a professional.

How the calculators work — six examples

Net salary

Estimates take-home from the gross pay you enter, using simplified payroll logic. It cannot verify your employer’s payroll, your tax result or your insurance contributions.

Remittance cost

Compares the quotes, fees and rates you enter to show what a transfer really costs. It recommends no provider and promises no live rate.

Jeonse vs wolse

Turns the deposit, rent and interest rate you enter into a monthly cost for each. It does not judge whether a contract is safe or a home is affordable.

Open-account check

Turns your answers about your visa and residence status into general set-up guidance. Whether a bank opens the account is the bank’s decision.

Health insurance (NHIS) premium

Estimates a monthly premium from the income and enrollment type you enter. The National Health Insurance Service’s own assessment is the one that counts.

Scam checker

Counts common warning signs and gives safety reminders. It cannot confirm a message is safe or make an official finding.

What this cannot solve

Even a careful explanation goes out of date or misses a detail. How a bank handles your case, whether you qualify for a program, what a contract really says, your tax, your payroll, an exchange rate, a transfer fee, a scam case — each depends on exact dates, documents, provider systems, local rules and your own circumstances.

What this site does not do

Educational information only

Korea Money Guide explains general money topics in Korea in plain language. It is not a substitute for professional financial, legal, tax, immigration, accounting, real-estate, banking or security advice.

Estimates are not decisions

Calculators and checklists are planning aids. Results vary with the date, the bank, the employer, the contract, the provider, official rules, documents, residency status and personal circumstances.

No official representation

This site represents no bank, employer, government office, landlord, payroll provider, card company, remittance provider or financial institution.

No recommendations, no guarantees

It recommends no specific financial product and guarantees no account opening, limit change, loan approval, benefit eligibility, tax result, contract safety, exchange rate or scam-case outcome.

Before you act

Check the official website, app, branch, notice, contract or provider quote first.
For large transfers, rent deposits, loans, tax questions, public support, suspicious messages or legal matters, ask an official channel or a qualified professional.
If a message or call asks for money, ID, passwords, certificates, OTPs, an app install or remote control, stop and verify through a separate route.

Terms of use

By using Korea Money Guide you accept that its content and tools are for general education and planning only, and are not a substitute for professional advice.

Do not treat any tool result as a final tax, rent, banking or loan decision.
Make your actual decisions with official sources, contracts, employer documents and qualified professionals.
The site links to external official and bank websites; those third parties have their own terms and privacy practices, which we do not control.

Privacy

Korea Money Guide is a static educational site. The calculators run in your browser — there is no login, no account and nothing that asks you to upload personal financial documents.

Do not enter account numbers, resident registration numbers, passwords or private documents anywhere on the site.
The calculators use no login, database or external API. Nothing you type is stored or sent; it stays in your browser.
The site uses Google Analytics to count page views in aggregate — which pages are visited and roughly from where. The privacy policy has the details.

Read the full privacy policy →

Contact & corrections

Corrections and questions are welcome here. For anything urgent — banking, tax, legal, a scam, housing — go straight to the relevant official source or a qualified professional.

Email contact@koreamoneyguide.com

For a correction, please include:

The page URL.
The sentence or section that may be outdated or unclear.
The public source you are comparing it with, if you have one.

Please do not send sensitive personal information

Leave out account numbers, ID numbers, passwords, OTPs, bank-app screenshots and private contracts. We provide general educational information only and cannot review private account, contract, tax, legal or immigration matters.