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In 2019, immediately after its 30th anniversary, Lightyear’s alley left his career in reality television production behind to teach English as the second language in China.
At the time, Lightyear earned about $ 100,000 a year, working eight months a year.
“I lived a check to check what the sucking out. The last few years of life and work in New Yar were some of the most tense years of my life,” says Licteyear, says CNBC. “I got tired of working 70 hours a week for ten years. In my 20s I felt like a 50-year-old woman.”
It was a quick search on Google, which helped Lightyear decide to leave life as she knew in New York, for something completely different.
She was looking for “How to make money and travel the world?” And the result at the top of the list was all about teaching English abroad. She then talked to her colleague who taught in South Korea, and began to study as much as possible about what it would take to teach abroad without experience.
Over the rest of this year, she took on various strange jobs to supplement her profits. Like a freelancer, Lightyear had no retirement savings, payments and health insurance.
“The paper (this) sounds great, but New York is one of the most expensive cities in the world, so $ 100,000 went very quickly,” says Lightyear. “I had to keep these things. I lived a check to check what I had sucked out. The last few years of life and work in New York have been some of the most tense years of my life.”
Lightyear complements its teacher’s salary when creating content.
Mark Aziz Resan for CNBC do this
Upon completion of the 13-week program to get an English language teaching as a Foreign Language Certification (Tefl), Lightyear moved to Beijing.
She lived in the Chinese capital for four years, working as a teacher before moving to Chengdu in 2023, where she is currently writing an English essay at the university. Lightyear works 18 hours a week, four days a week and has an annual salary of about $ 30,000.
″ 30,000 dollars a year is poverty in America, but in China I live great, ”she says.
Some benefits and benefits of Lightyear work include free health insurance, travel scholarships, flight assistance, two months of paid summer and winter holidays and rental scholarships.
Lightyear reduced his salary when she left her pedagogical work in Beijing, but does not regret it because life in the Chinese capital began to feel too similar in New York.
“I didn’t move the whole world to work as much as in New York,” she says. “My current working life balance is a dream. I can have time to make so many different hobbies to find the time to actually learn the language and do whatever I want, and it feels amazing. I just feel so lucky and glad to have so much time.”
Lightyear moved to Chengdu in 2023.
Mark Aziz Resan for CNBC do this
In Chengdu Lightyear lives in a pre -laid out three -room apartment with one bathroom with a balcony and laundry. From the Scholarship rent, Lightyear pays only $ 278 per home.
She also spends about $ 15 a month on her internet, cell phone and Wi-Fi, $ 75 a month for products, $ 50 a month for electricity and $ 150 a month for food-$ 568 per month. This does not include her account for water and gas, which Lightyear says she has not yet had to pay because her landlord provided these utilities before moving to the apartment.
Lightyear also works as a content creator and has an active YouTube channel. This extra income allows it to save up to $ 1,000 a month.
“I haven’t saved enough money to buy a home in the US, but I have saved enough money to pay off a lot of my student loans, and I think I have saved enough money to buy little casita on the beach in Mexico,” she says. “Fingers crossed, it’s a plan.”
Lightyear says he spends about $ 75 on products every month.
Mark Aziz Resan for CNBC do this
Recently, Lightyear has renovated and plans to stay in Chengdu for at least another year. After that, a 35-year-old American plans to return home to Michigan, where she decides where to settle next.
While Lightyear knows what is ready to leave China, she does not know if there is another country to which she can move, will give her the same sharp sensations.
“I just think China is the most difficult country to live and travel as a non-Chinese man, so I know that something but that will be much easier, but I’m afraid it can be sad,” she says. “In China, I can challenge myself every day and I know that in another country these problems go away after a while.”
Conversions from Chinese Yuan to USD have been made using the Oand Convert 0.14 July 3, 2025. All sums are rounded to the nearest dollar.
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