Michael
Working in Bangkok
Monthly Earnings 40,000 - 48,000 baht
Q1. How much do you earn from teaching per month?
I get 30,000 per month salary at a Thai university. I make roughly 28,500 after taxes. I also get overtime pay ranging from 12,000-20,000 per month. It's always paid late though.
Q2. How much of that can you realistically save per month?
I used to save around 6,000 per month. I've moved into a more expensive place now and I will be saving less from my base salary, maybe only 3,000-4,000. My overtime pay goes entirely into my savings account, however. if you include that, I save 15,000-25,000 per month.
Q3. How much do you pay for your accommodation and what do you live in exactly (house, apartment, condo)?
I live in a one-bedroom condo located near to my job. It has a pool and a fitness center and rent is 12,000 per month
Q4. What do you spend a month on the following things?
Transportation
Transportation is somewhere between 1,000 - 2,000 baht as I use the BTS quite often
Utility bills
I'm not sure about water/electric yet as I haven't paid them but I'm guessing on 100 baht for water and maybe 800 baht for electric. Internet is 1,100 and phone is another 700.
Food - both restaurants and supermarket shopping
I spend most of my monthly salary on food. If I only eat Thai food, then I spend about 2,000 per week, if I eat Western food then I can spend a lot more - about 500 per meal. I try to only eat Western food a handful of times per month
Nightlife and drinking
I spend very little on nightlife, almost nothing
Books, computers
I don't spend money on books or computers, but I do spend it on camera gear. This is where my savings tend to go, toward lenses and camera equipment. Approximately 5,000 per month, if I averaged it out.
Q5. How would you summarize your standard of living in one sentence?
Comfortable, but not without sacrifices.
Q6. What do you consider to be a real 'bargain' here?
Thai food. You can get delicious meals for $1-2 dollars each. If you eat strictly Thai food you can get by with only spending about 5,000 per month on food.
Q7. In your opinion, how much money does anyone need to earn here in order to survive?
I am used to living on a small budget and I could live off 22,000 before I moved into my new place. For most people though, I would say 30,000 is the bare minimum. But you won't be having much fun, if any, on that salary. 40,000+ if you want to save money while still having some semblance of a life.
Phil's analysis and comment
One of the scurges of the teaching profession - salary or a sizeable chunk of your salary that's always or often paid late. I wonder if Michael sometimes relies on that second income in order to pay rent and has to go cap in hand to the landlord to explain things. Perhaps he doesn't but the only reason I mention it is because I saw many teachers I worked with in the past get in that same pickle from time to time. There are few things worse than an employer who can't pay its teachers on time.
A word about fitness centers in condo buildings. I was talking to a pal at the gym a few weeks ago and asked him why he paid the 16,000 baht a year membership fee when he had a fitness center at his condo. After he had stopped laughing, he offered to take me there one day. "When I work out on those cheap quality machines, the whole building shakes"
True enough, I've never been that impressed with the fitness centers I've seen. A token treadmill or two and a rack of decent weights if you're lucky. I think fitness centers are often installed just as something to add to the amenities section of the brochure. I'm not saying the one at Michael's condo building is like that but from experience, the vast majority are.
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