I moved from New York to Taiwan for work. I had to take a pay cut to my $40,000 salary — but I have no regrets.

• Alex Teachey is a New Yorker who moved to Taiwan in 2020.
• He took a pay cut to make the move and now makes less than $40,000 a year.
• Even so, he said, he knows he made the right choice.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Alex Teachey, a 38-year-old astronomer and New Yorker who moved to Taiwan in 2020. This essay has been edited for length and clarity. Insider verified his salary and expenses.

I'd been living in New York since I was eighteen. I moved there to study a degree in theater at New York University, before later pivoting towards a career in astronomy by starting a PhD in 2015.