Christopher
Working in Bangkok
Monthly Earnings 70,000 - 75,000
Q1. How much do you earn from teaching per month?
70-75,000 per month (two jobs)
Q2. How much of that can you realistically save per month?
15,000 or more.
Q3. How much do you pay for your accommodation and what do you live in exactly (house, apartment, condo)?
12,000 + 4,000 utilities & DSL. I rent a two bedroom townhouse about 1 km from a subway station.
Q4. What do you spend a month on the following things?
Transportation
2-3,000 for work, plus more on the weekends.
Utility bills
1,500 (I rarely use AC)
Food - both restaurants and supermarket shopping
10 - 15,000
Nightlife and drinking
2-3,000
Books, computers
2-3,000
Q5. How would you summarize your standard of living in one sentence?
I'm comfortable
Q6. What do you consider to be a real 'bargain' here?
Dining out.
Q7. In your opinion, how much money does anyone need to earn here in order to survive?
It really depends on your lifestyle. If you are single and eat Thai food, as little as 25,000 would be OK. If you are married, I'd say 40K would be your minimum. If you have kids, your costs will skyrocket!
Phil's analysis and comment
70-75,000 baht a month means a very comfortable standard of living in Bangkok but Chris did contact me to tell me that he was married with one stepson. I'm glad he said that because I would be surprised if a single guy earning 70,000+ was only putting 15,000 a month in the bottom drawer. Chris' other job by the way, is a proofreading and editing position that pays 25K a month on top of the 50K he gets from teaching. Sounds like there might be a lot of hours to work there but when you're married with children, those are the sacrifices you make I guess.
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