is it possible to live in Bangkok on a 30,000 baht salary?

[Jasper]

https://www.ajarn.com/blogs/ajarn-street/how-far-does-a-30k-salary-go-in-bangkok

I often get asked the same question - is it possible to live in Bangkok on a 30,000 baht salary?

I'm going to go into as much detail as possible to hopefully answer this important question. And I'm certainly not going to sugar-coat things, because after all, you wouldn't want it that way.

OK, let's really drill down those numbers.

Why 30,000?

This is the amount that most of the people asking me the question will be earning - give or take a thousand or two. These days, it's very much an ‘average' teacher's salary in Thailand.

Many teacher placement agencies pay in the ball-park of 30K a month, as do most of the companies who specialize in hiring teachers from abroad for short-term teaching contracts (the latter are usually jobs for the ‘gap year' crowd)

There are of course plenty of teachers here earning far more than 30,000 baht (and plenty of teachers making less) but 30K is the amount we're going to play with.

Admin: See link for the full article

 

[spoon]

I love reading this kind of article and i am one of those who will search this topic to a country that ill visit lol. 30k baht is definitely not luxury, unless like the article said, u live like a thai lol.

[CurtisD]

Great piece, thank you. Eye opening. 

[traveller123]

A good article.

It is worth remembering that while younger guys teaching may just about be able to live on 30,000 baht a month it is nowhere near enough for a comfortable life for us older guys.

I am early 70,s and live with my long term partner in Isaan.

We own our house and car, so no rent or car hire.

My, non too fancy health insurance has just increased to 85,000 baht/year (no out patient cover, I pay the first 40,000 baht of any claim and 25% of the bill after this)

I find that I need 80,000 on average a month to fund a comfortable but not extravagent life style with one major holiday and several shorter holidays a year for me and hubby.

I prefer hubby not to work as I like him around too much

[NIrishGuy]

On 6/1/2019 at 6:46 AM, traveller123 said:

I find that I need 80,000 on average a month to fund a comfortable but not extravagent life style.

That's interesting and thanks for posting that as always good to get a REAL handle on what it ACTUALLY costs to live somewhere compared to the guys who seem to get off telling you how cheaply they can live somewhere, even though they're living BELOW the level of a local half times and have little in the way of luxuries in their life ( by their choice or maybe more necessity it seems).. Can I be a little nosey ( without intruding too much into your personal business of course) but just for clarity re your above, I'm assuming your medical is on top of that 80, 000 and there's a few other bits and pieces so I quickly rounded up your figures to around the 1.1 mill mark if that's about right ?

So ( and again without being too mosey) I'm assuming that that you generally are the main bread winner in the relationship and so are budgeting / "paying for two" generally in everything you do together - again that's just to more help get a handle on that is that 1.1 mill fig "about right' for TWO people living together there or is that only to cover YOUR portion of any living expenses.   As you pointed out too thankfully you've no longer any home or car payments going out of that amount either so if one was to add those back in all of a sudden that rosey picture some of us might have of us all moving and "living cheap" in Thailand isn't perhaps quite as cheap and rosy as we all might think - and again as you mentioned god forbid you get seriously sick in terms of that 25% of the bill end of things too i 

Thanks for posting that - an eye opener for sure - I wonder do others share the same rough monthly / yearly outgoings as there seems to be SUCH a large divergence between figures when you talk to people ......but that is just life I guess and depends how we all chose to live.

[spoon]

Thailand is getting more expensive to live in, with the exchange rates and general inflation and booming real estate especially in bangkok. I can only imagine based on living in KL that if u want to live comfortably in the city, 30k wont cut it. 80k would definitely put you in the upper midddle class comfort level, especially if u no longer serving any loans. I myself are paying a little less than half my income for loans. Of course spending on entertainment would add considerably to that amount as well. Food is thankfully still very cheap in this part of the world, but imported branded goods isnt as cheap as you can get in the western countries. 

[lotus123]

The question to ask is not whether it's possible to live in Bangkok on 30K, but whether it's desirable. I lived on an average salary of about 27K way back in 1999-2000, when the baht went further than it does now. I wouldn't care to try it in 2019. 

[Guest]

On 6/8/2019 at 10:17 PM, lotus123 said:

The question to ask is not whether it's possible to live in Bangkok on 30K, but whether it's desirable.

Of course, it is possible to live in Bangkok on 30k a month.   The minimum wage in Thailand is equivalent to perhaps less than a third of this, allowing for days off.     More realistically, Thai GDP per capita amounts to about THB 17,000 per month.    Whilst incomes in Bangkok are likely to be above average, I imagine a large number of Thais live on this, so it must be possible.

So the question raised by Lotus123 is relevant  ie  Is it desirable ?      

Well, if of working age, I would suggest it makes more sense to earn your money in a high labour cost country and holiday in a low cost one, rather than vice versa.

If you were not working and could somehow dodge the Thai visa rules with just 30,000 a month income, then I would suggest it might make sense to live somewhere else in Thailand, where costs are lower.  A lot of the attractions in Bangkok require money and with 30,000 per month, there is not much left over for luxuries.     Living somewhere with cheap accommodation and low cost leisure activities like walking in the countryside would make more sense.

Spending a few decades making sure you have enough to live on in more style seems like a better way forward. 

 

[PeterRS]

Somehow I cant see westerners and retired expats being able to live on anything like 30K baht per month in Bangkok. Perhaps up country. The minimum wage may be one third of 30K but these workers will generally be living either with family or with a group of others in very cheap rented accommodation. Meals will be either self-cooked or bought from street stalls. Most Thais are eligible for the governments universal health coverage of 30 baht per visit or night in hospital irrespective of the nature of the illness. Visitors are not, I understand. How young teachers get by on 30K baht I have no idea unless they share a cheap apartment, have some form of subsidised meals at their schools and subsidised medical care.

So as z909 points out, it IS possible. But very, very hard in my view.

Its a government regulation that those on retirement visas (available to anyone after age 50) must have 65K baht coming in from overseas each month. Im like traveller123 in that I own my own apartment. I dont bother with a car and my healthcare costs a bit more (as I expect I have higher limits). I find 800K baht annually covers all that for me and allows enough within that sum for a bit of travelling and the occasional luxury. I really doubt if I could do it for even that amount if I had to rent an apartment. Aside from apartment rental, medical insurance will be the highest single expense, and that increases dramatically as you get older.

As for getting round the regulation about remitting 65K from overseas to your bank account per month, a recent tightening of the regulations now make avoiding that all but impossible. 

[traveller123]

On 6/6/2019 at 5:05 PM, NIrishGuy said:

That's interesting and thanks for posting that as always good to get a REAL handle on what it ACTUALLY costs to live somewhere compared to the guys who seem to get off telling you how cheaply they can live somewhere, even though they're living BELOW the level of a local half times and have little in the way of luxuries in their life ( by their choice or maybe more necessity it seems).. Can I be a little nosey ( without intruding too much into your personal business of course) but just for clarity re your above, I'm assuming your medical is on top of that 80, 000 and there's a few other bits and pieces so I quickly rounded up your figures to around the 1.1 mill mark if that's about right ?

So ( and again without being too mosey) I'm assuming that that you generally are the main bread winner in the relationship and so are budgeting / "paying for two" generally in everything you do together - again that's just to more help get a handle on that is that 1.1 mill fig "about right' for TWO people living together there or is that only to cover YOUR portion of any living expenses.   As you pointed out too thankfully you've no longer any home or car payments going out of that amount either so if one was to add those back in all of a sudden that rosey picture some of us might have of us all moving and "living cheap" in Thailand isn't perhaps quite as cheap and rosy as we all might think - and again as you mentioned god forbid you get seriously sick in terms of that 25% of the bill end of things too i 

Thanks for posting that - an eye opener for sure - I wonder do others share the same rough monthly / yearly outgoings as there seems to be SUCH a large divergence between figures when you talk to people ......but that is just life I guess and depends how we all chose to live.

Apologies for the late reply, I have been on holiday in England for a month during which I didn't access the website.

My medical is included in the 80,000 and I have tried to ensure it includes all the bits and pieces.

The figure is for two people. I am the main and only bread winner (my choice), he grows enough rice for our and his sisters annual needs, keeps our home and garden spotless, acts as my translator and most importantly keeps me very happy.

If the GBP/THB rate keeps sinking (38.33 today) we could make savings to our life style and the 800,000 on deposit for my visa renewal acts as a safety net with the possibility of moving to the combination method if I need any of it as a medical contribution

[NIrishGuy]

Thanks for that update and it reinforces what I thought i.e that when you hear "ohhh you can live "cheap/ cheaper" in thailand" that that may not actually be just so true  - depending on your lifestyle of course.  But our lifestyles sounds similar enough to me to tell me that I can say whilst I might blow another 4 / 6 mill a year or so that I choose to piss up against a wall just now moving to the likes of Thailand wouldn't necessarily provide me with any particularly large drop in overhead from living say here in the UK just now for example and so the reason if any for moving shouldn't be one of finance but more of just one of "preference" as to the location of my residence - and that's a good fact to know.  

[DivineMadman]

31 minutes ago, NIrishGuy said:

 so the reason if any for moving shouldn't be one of finance but more of just one of "preference" as to the location of my residence - 

best. advice. ever.

 

[reader]

We're not getting any younger so preference should indeed be the primary driver of decisions like this.

A friend from home recently asked me why I traveled far and so frequently to Bangkok. "Doesn't that cost you a lot of money in your retirement?"

"It does," I replied. "I can do it now or I suppose that I could wait until I'm 80 to do what I want."

[traveller123]

1 hour ago, NIrishGuy said:

Thanks for that update and it reinforces what I thought i.e that when you hear "ohhh you can live "cheap/ cheaper" in thailand" that that may not actually be just so true  - depending on your lifestyle of course.  But our lifestyles sounds similar enough to me to tell me that I can say whilst I might blow another 4 / 6 mill a year or so that I choose to piss up against a wall just now moving to the likes of Thailand wouldn't necessarily provide me with any particularly large drop in overhead from living say here in the UK just now for example and so the reason if any for moving shouldn't be one of finance but more of just one of "preference" as to the location of my residence - and that's a good fact to know.  

Let me know if you want more detail of my living expenses and I will send you a pm with a breakdown I don't feel the need to share on an open forum

[Guest]

A large chunk of living expenses must be variable according to the preferences of the individual.

For example, in Bangkok you could choose to eat every meal in an ordinary  restaurant where your bill is over 500 baht each time.    Not too far below UK prices.      Or you could eat some very tasty stuff from a food stall for about 40 baht.

 

[ggobkk]

On 7/24/2019 at 4:46 AM, reader said:

We're not getting any younger so preference should indeed be the primary driver of decisions like this.

A friend from home recently asked me why I traveled far and so frequently to Bangkok. "Doesn't that cost you a lot of money in your retirement?"

"It does," I replied. "I can do it now or I suppose that I could wait until I'm 80 to do what I want."

I look at what I'm spending on 2 or 3 yearly trips to Thailand as a retirement supplement.  When I can no longer travel, those funds will be available for aging in place in the US.  But while I'm able to travel I plan/hope to travel.