Michael
Working in Bangkok
Monthly Earnings About 93,000 baht
Q1. How much do you earn from teaching per month?
My regular salary is fixed at B85,000 per month. I also get a small meal allowance each day I teach (B100). I also do some extra work through the university. Examples would be substitution for an absent instructor, teaching special one-day classes or working in the language lab. This extra work averages out to around B5,000 a month. I never work weekends, nor past 18:00hrs.
Q2. How much of that can you realistically save per month?
On average I save about B30,000 or so.. I have had a few months where I deposited closer to B40,000 and a few months below B20,000. However, B35,000 would be a fair average.
Q3. How much do you pay for your accommodation and what do you live in exactly (house, apartment, condo)?
I live (alone) in a high-rise, two-bedroom, two-bath fully western style furnished condo in the business district of Bangkok. My neighbors are the Embassy of Germany and Singapore. I pay B24,500 per month.
Q4. What do you spend a month on the following things?
Transportation
Because I cherish ease and convenience, I arrange for a taxi to pick me up each morning I teach and deliver me to my office building. That averages about B2,000 per month. I average about B700 a month in BTS/MRT fares and about another B500 for other incidental transport. Total of about B3,200/month
Utility bills
Averages about 2,500 a month for all required utilities. I run the A/C for about 4 hours a day when I am at home, but not all the time. Because I am on the upper floors of a highrise, I tend to have good natural breeze with the windows open which means I can often go with little or no AC and yet maintain a very pleasant temperature.
Food - both restaurants and supermarket shopping
This a hard to measure area because of my unique circumstances. However, I will say that I like to eat and I don't scrimp - at all - in this area. I eat out about twice on the weekdays and usually on both Saturday and Sunday. I would estimate that I spend about B15,000 monthly on both purchased food for home consumption, as well as eating out.
Nightlife and drinking
I am a non-drinker by choice, however I do go out with friends. However, when I do it's usually a mineral water or Coke Zero for me. I am a movie fan, so a good percentage of my "nightlife" may be spent on movie tickets. Estimate here, about B5,000 at best.
Books, computers
I don't buy a lot of books, and upgrade my laptop/tablet every few years. So, this expense I think is going to be nominal. About B500/month.
Q5. How would you summarize your standard of living in one sentence?
I live EXACTLY the way I want and with some basic fiscal discipline and planning, I manage to save a fair amount each month.
Q6. What do you consider to be a real 'bargain' here?
I would have to say; a) fresh food (locally sourced) like fruit, b) intra-city transport (taxi. BTS/MRT, etc) and c) labour intensive services (manicure, household cleaning, etc)
Q7. In your opinion, how much money does anyone need to earn here in order to survive?
If the measurement is just 'survive', I think that could be very, very low. Maybe B20,000 or less, but again, that is just a simple "survival" existence nothing more. I think if you want what I might call a reasonably comfortable living, then I think it's going to be around B40,000 and if you want a truly "as I like it" lifestyle, then I think you're looking at north of B80,000
Phil's analysis and comment
Thank you Michael for some very detailed figures there. Here is some more info that Michael sent to me.
Before I give my information, a little background as I (I think at least) am an 'odd ball' case - but I think it is worth it for others who many not be in or looking to be in, the traditional teaching/school system.
I teach at a leading (or what they call "Pillar of the Kingdom") university. I teach in a specialized English program within the larger Faculty of Education. It is an aviation English program and it's designed for those who want to pursue operational jobs in the aviation industry. Commonly that's cabin crew, front-line customer service, air traffic control and similar positions.
I myself am in my early 40's, an American male, and retired from my airline after working a full 20 years - yes, I started working for the airline when I was still a university student. As a retiree I have a few benefits which *may* impact this salary study.
As a part of my retirement package, I enjoy unlimited free (pay taxes only) air travel. So I travel a lot, and do so for very close to zero. This drives down my twice-annual "going home" vacation trip cost to near zero and also means that I make a few short runs back to the US to stock up on frozen groceries (think frozen steaks for grilling and such) and other household essentials that are either not available here in Bangkok, or are prohibitively expensive if purchase locally.
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