Nat Ho, Who Spends $3K A Month Living In Korea, Is Not Worried About “Running Out Of Money” While Pursuing Music-Making Dream

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It’s been a year since local singer-songwriter-actor-entrepreneur (it’s a mouthful, we know) Nat Ho first moved to Seoul, the shining capital of South Korea to pursue his songwriting dreams.

And when 8days.sg first connected with the 38-year-old through a phone call earlier this week, the first thing we hear is an upbeat “여보세요 [yeo-bo-se-yo, or well, how Koreans say ‘Hello’ on the phone]” from Nat. Yep, he’s settling in real well.

Life in Korea is mad busy for Nat, who’s studying Korean full-time at Yonsei University’s language school, and juggling his music production endeavours in his free time. Oh, and we can’t forget managing his online keto diet business, which he started in Singapore, and is pretty much generating enough passive income for him to focus on music-making and life in Seoul.

Nat’s no stranger to living overseas, having lived in both Taiwan and Los Angeles, America, for about two years each. And when we ask about his experience in Seoul thus far, he tells us that he feels that Korea is “the best fit” for him at this point in his life.

“Among the three countries that I moved to, I think Korea, at the start, was the hardest, simply because of the language,” he said.

After all, he is fluent in English, and though his Mandarin “wasn’t that good” when he first moved to Taiwan, he could still communicate.

But he did not know a single word of Korean. Thankfully, he was able to seek help from his Korean friends, who stepped up to help him translate and go through paperwork.

“I’m somebody who prides myself on being pretty independent. I don’t like to ask for help, ‘cos I just don’t like to trouble people. So I think [this move] was a really good learning point for me, to learn how to ask for help,” he said.

Now, a year on, Nat’s pretty much schooled in the basics of the Korean language. He has no qualms admitting that he repeated the first two levels of Yonsei’s Korean Language Program, which is divided into six levels.

“It was a very steep learning curve,” he said, adding: “I had to repeat level one, and I also repeated level two, but I’m not in a rush [to complete the programme]. I know that I am a hard worker, and if I wanted to, I could spend all my time studying, and I’m pretty sure I’d clear all levels, but at the same time, I’m at a stage in my life where I want to be present and experience things. And there’s so many others things in Korea, besides the Korean language, that I want to experience.”

NAT HO: I do have this existing online business — my keto business — that’s basically a passive income source at this point. It allows me to focus on school, and pay the bills. I don’t need to worry too much [about money] ‘cos of the hard work that I’ve put in prior [to this]. I don’t come from a rich family, so I’ve had to work really hard.

There were also losses before this, like from my food business. [Ed: Nat used to own three F&B businesses: a bubble tea shop, a Thai cheese toast shop and a bento stall.] That was really painful. But at the same time, all of that hardship has made me who I am today, and it’s allowed me to find a system that works for me. And that gives me the foundation and the freedom I need to do the things that I really want to do without worrying too much about finances.

Would you encourage other Singaporeans to do the same?

It is not easy, I will tell you that. And while I always encourage people to chase their dreams, we also need to talk about the practical aspects of that. I might make it look easy, but there’s also been many years of preparation. If someone were to just come here on their savings and try to make something out of [their move], please do not do it. I think it’s so risky. The music industry is like a big machine, and there’s so many parts involved. You’re only paid for your work on a song when it’s released, and it could be a really long time from when your song is first selected, to its eventual release.

I think it is important to have multiple sources of income, especially if you want to chase your dreams. And you never know when something like Covid is going to happen as well. So don’t put all your eggs into one basket.

You mentioned only getting paid when a song is released. How does that work, and how much do you typically get paid for per song?

It really depends. I cannot give you a number ‘cos it’s all different. I think it depends on how your publisher negotiates for you as well. And it depends on how many people are working on the song as well. The pie gets smaller and smaller, the more people are on board. There’s so many different models and ways to split the money.

At the same time, it could be like striking the lottery. Some of my songwriting friends mentioned that [BTS’s] ‘Dynamite’ was written by a two-man team, and off the royalties from that song, one of the writers apparently bought four houses. But there are some other songwriting friends of mine who have a nice number of placements in songs. But after everything is cut up and divided, by the time their money comes in, it’s just about $3,000 to $10,000. And the money only comes in after a full year.

Earlier, you shared that apart from your apartment, you’re also renting a studio here in Seoul, right? Would you be comfortable sharing roughly how much you spend per month?

My apartment here, in Hongdae, costs just over $1,000 in rent per month. It’s a little more pricey than the average place, but I’ve got my whole life pretty much set up here. And then my studio is about $500 per month. Including utilities and bills, both places add up to about $1,700 to $1,800 a month. And of course, I have to pay my school fees every semester.

With all that, and my daily expenses, it’s maybe just under S$3,000, but this is just in Korea alone, and if you live very austerely. I think if you’re Singaporean, earning SGD and living in Korea, then this is okay. But by Korean standards, it’s just enough to get by. Basically what I’m spending in Korea is a little on the expensive side by Korean standards. So again, it still boils down to what is your financial backing and financial infrastructure. Make sure you have an infrastructure before attempting something like this.

Are you planning to move to another country, or perhaps back to Singapore in a few years?

Aiyah, I very tired already (laughs). Each time I move countries, it’s very troublesome and it’s very expensive. If I haven’t moved so much, I think I’d have a much larger nest egg. But of course, a lot of the time, when I move to a new country, I actually intend to stay there long-term. It’s just that for reasons that sometimes are beyond my control, I’ve had to pivot.

I think that’s also part of the entrepreneurial side of me. As an entrepreneur, you are literally fighting fires everyday, you’re always solving problems, and part of that is learning how to pivot. I dare not say how long I’ll be here, or for how many years. Now, my philosophy is just to be present in the moment.

With my past setbacks, I’ve lost a lot of money, but I also know how to make money. And I have a lot of different skills that have been developed as a result of necessity. So in that sense, I’m not afraid of running out of money ‘cos there are just a lot of ways to make money.

Let’s talk music. A Korean song that you worked on, ‘With You’ was released recently.

Yeah, this song was actually cut before I moved to Korea. I had started working with my Korean publisher back in 2021. When it comes to publishing a song, there’s just so many things that need to be done in between. There’s usually a ‘lag period’ between when a song is cut, and when the song is released. I’m glad it’s finally released. It’s for this K-drama called Sing My Crush in English, and a few days after the drama was released on August 2, my publisher sent me a screenshot, saying that the drama was number one in its category. I’m pretty happy about that.

Are there any other songs you worked on that are in the process of being published right now?

There was one more song for a girl group that was cut. I can’t say which group, but they’re going through issues with their management right now, so I’m not sure if it’s ever going to be released.

As a songwriter, I feel like I’m just working all the time. I think my focus is really on being consistent, and just growing my music ‘real estate’, if you want to put it that way. Right now, at this stage in life, my goal is to learn, or create something new with each project that I do, and just embrace the process.

Photos: Nat Ho/Instagram