Bjorn
Working in Bangkok
Monthly Earnings 45,000
Q1. How is that income broken down? (full-time salary, private students, on-line teaching, extra work, etc)
I work at a large and very typical government Thai school and my take home salary after tax is just under 45,000 baht. You wouldn't believe how hard I had to fight the school management to get that much. They offered me 30K initially but I wanted 60,000. We settled somewhere in the middle.
Q2. How much money can you save each month?
If I manage to save 10,000 baht then that's a good month. There always seems to be an unexpected bill lurking around the corner and even an expense as small as 5,000 can wipe out your savings for that particular month.
Q3. How much do you pay for your accommodation and what do you live in exactly (house, apartment, condo)?
I got lucky with a cheap studio apartment for just 6,000 baht a month because when I started at my school, a teacher who had lived there for five years was just moving out and he had a good relationship with the building owner. The owner was happy to rent it out to another foreign teacher from the local school and not increase the rent. It's nothing fancy but I have made the apartment into my own home sweet home. The building doesn't have any facilities like a gym or swimming pool, etc but the neighborhood is pretty safe, albeit a little far from the main public transport systems.
Q4. What do you spend a month on the following things?
Transportation
I use motorbike taxis at least twice a day to take me from my apartment to the bus stop (or sometimes all the way to school) Throw in the odd taxi and skytrain journey and I guess this is around 1,500 baht a month.
Utility bills
I pay around 2,000 baht a month for electricity and water and phone contracts and Netflix and a few other monthly subscriptions, etc add another couple of thousand to the bill.
Food - both restaurants and supermarket shopping
I try to eat healthy so go for a lot of salads and chicken. I'll prepare meat a couple of times a week and have that with salad or brown rice almost every day. I get a hot meal for lunch at the school canteen and usually skip breakfast. I don't eat out much at all.
Nightlife and drinking
I have quite a large circle of friends and teaching colleagues that I go out drinking with but try to keep things down to a couple or three nights a week. We will often gather at a regular Thai restaurant where large bottles of beer are cheap, so a night out is never too expensive. Maybe 6,000 baht a month for this category. You certainly won't find me out at rooftop bars or around the bright lights of town. The drinks are way too expensive for me in those places.
Books, computers
I watch quite a lot of movies and box sets but that's covered by various monthly subscriptions.
Q5. How would you summarize your standard of living in one sentence?
It's OK but I'm very aware that there is a lot of things I cannot afford on a 45K salary in a city that seems to become more and more expensive by the week. I need to make a decision next year on whether to stick around in Bangkok or maybe try my luck in another province where I can live an even quieter life. I'm not sure that would be too much fun though.
Q6. What do you consider to be a real 'bargain' here?
Compared to life at home in Sweden, it's most things, but probably rent would come out on top as the biggest bargain.
Q7. In your opinion, how much money does anyone need to earn here in order to survive?
In Bangkok? If you are looking to save money, have a decent lifestyle and have good health insurance, etc, I honestly think you need 80-100K a month. I earn barely half that so you can maybe understand why I don't lead such an exciting lifestyle. I just came back from four days in Pattaya with a few friends and we had a wild time. I think I'll be paying that back for several months at least.
Phil's analysis and comment
Thanks Bjorn for an honest survey. You told me offline that you are not a native English speaker so you find it difficult to command the higher salaries, plus you lack experience - but I think things are changing and many employers are recognising that European teachers can make very capable hires with their extensive knowledge and almost flawless use of the English language. Hang in there and gain more teaching experience. Trying your hand at teaching in a quieter town in another province (with fewer temptations) might not be a bad plan B though.
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