What's your cost of living here in Thailand?

[Gecko123]

31 minutes ago, smotherb said:

Your first paragraph talked about not having enough to leave loved ones and the uncertainty of pensions and social security; which led me to think you were not spending money now because of those reasons. 

 

I am pushing 80, I am 73, but I have no pension and my social security is beer money in comparison to what I spend. However, as I said, we have already taken care of our son and my wife is taken care of on her own.  If for some reason pension, social security disappear and we blow all the liquid and non-liquid assets; well, we would't be alone we probably as we start living a meager existence.

My point is that there are a lot of contingency risks when you live overseas as an expat: currency risk, involuntary repatriation due to medical problems or death of spouse, voluntary repatriation due to divorce or disenchantment with Thailand, inflation in the local currency, pension security. Lots of guys ignore these potential risks and spend at full throttle. Just look at what happened when the pound collapsed after the Brexit vote. You have to admit that the need to hold funds in abeyance for things like an un- or under-insured medical event, a dollar crisis, social security benefits being slashed, a stock market crash, hyper-inflation, involuntary repatriation is much higher when you're in your 50's than when you are in your 80's. Many people imprudently ignore these risks. Those who do may appear on the surface to be "living large", but I submit that in many cases this often proves to be illusory when unforeseen events arise.

[smotherb]

16 minutes ago, thrilled said:

I enjoy life I don’t have A budget.I spend about A million baht A year give or take.

when traveling the hotels I go to are approximately 10,000 baht.I eat at nice restaurants.I didn’t go to Thailand to skimp.

A million baht is only about $30k, or about B2740/day. Easy enough to spend; especially with B10k hotel rooms.

[smotherb]

5 minutes ago, Gecko123 said:

My point is that there are a lot of contingency risks when you live overseas as an expat: currency risk, involuntary repatriation due to medical problems or death of spouse, voluntary repatriation due to divorce or disenchantment with Thailand, inflation in the local currency, pension security. Lots of guys ignore these potential risks and spend at full throttle. Just look at what happened when the pound collapsed after the Brexit vote. You have to admit that the need to hold funds in abeyance for things like an un- or under-insured medical event, a dollar crisis, social security benefits being slashed, a stock market crash, hyper-inflation, involuntary repatriation is much higher when you're in your 50's than when you are in your 80's. Many people imprudently ignore these risks. Those who do may appear on the surface to be "living large", but I submit that in many cases this often proves to be illusory when unforeseen events arise.

Yes, but you see, I am not ignoring those risks you mention and I am still able to live well here. It appears those to whom you refer do not have enough liquidity. Which again, brings me to believe you are supporting my original premise. 

[Nyezhov]

10 minutes ago, smotherb said:

How you took a beating during the Obama years I do not know. The market bottomed out only six weeks after he took office. Under the economic growth during the Obama years, I was able to recover most of what I lost as a result of the Bush years. And the recovery continues with Trump. 

 

I too have been in every state, in most of Europe and in most of Asia. I have spent over 25 years living in SEA. I first came to Thailand in 1967, and have now spent more than eleven years here.

 

So, I have been here and done this.

 

I would not want to live on B40k/mo here; I could do it if I had to, but I could also poke out my eye with a sharp stick.

Lots of folks took a beating. But, YMMV. 

Just like the cost of living there. YMMV. Personally, I could spend more than 40k a month but wonder on what.....

[totally thaied up]

 For me, about 55,000 a month. A wife who earns around 15K on top of that as well, (so takes it up to 70K) and she buys me with her own money a lot of stuff. She saw me looking at a Corsair Gaming K63 Keyboard the other day and came home with one the other night. When I was single, about the same amount I spent; it was just on a few girls a week and eating out at Western places mostly every second night before heading out looking for a bit of scruff.

 

My biggest bill is medication (2K a week) and health insurance ($1, 700) a year but that will go up as time goes on.

 

In Australia, I spend about the same, so there is no difference at all for me in between Thailand and here. We own our own house (I did about 300,000 baht in renovations); Wife has a few businesses on the run, and I stay home most of the time.

 

You can live as poor as you want to here but like anywhere, not much of a life. Could not get me eating Thai street cheap crap street food every day. I want to live past 60. Even the wife cannot stomach Thai food every day, needs a break-up. 

 

In reality, as long as I am insured, I don't give a flying flap about too much here anymore. Easy life in reality and I hope it does not change. Mind you we live only 12-15km from the center of CM, so it really is not way out the back of the black stump living (I cannot do that; live in a 'real village') and we have a Seven only about two minutes from our door.

Edited July 29, 2018 by totally thaied up
spelling and tidying up

[jenny2017]

2 hours ago, Naam said:

little do you know. Luxembourg is about to abolish the flat 10% on interest income (which was limited to certain investments) and Belgium has a sky high income tax (50%!!!), even higher than my home country Germany where i would pay "only" ~46%.

I'm afraid that we're from the same country, perhaps only from a different part? I think it's important to mention that your numbers seem to be for unmarried people. While most (real) Germans these days think thrice if they want to have kids, many Immigrants live off their kids.

 

   So more kids you can put on the table, so more money they'll pay you every month. That includes cash for school utensils, clothes, etc.

 

 While most genuine people think twice to have a child or another one, certain groups of people just produce more and more kids to live off the money the government pays them. Aeeh, sorry, the taxpayers do. 

How else can you explain that most immigrants who've been there for a short time can all in a sudden afford it to drive a Benz or a BMW without working? 

 

My ex-neighbour in Germany, a Turkish man who received very good money in form of Arbeitslosengeld, then Hilfe, ( Money the government pays you when you've lost your job), borrowed a friend's kids and made them to his kids for a week, just to receive even more money. in form of Kindergeld ( money for having kids). The guy was good in German, but when anybody was asking him a serious question, he only said: "Nix verstehn." * i don't understand.)

 

 He was the owner of a huge house with 16 apartments, where a friend of mine grew up in. He overcharged his own Turkish folks and took around 20 % more rent what others paid in the area. The same jobless guy who received around 2,000 Euros per month for kids that weren't his kids, drove around in a 560 Benz with all extras. And that's only one who knows how to live a pleasant life without stress. 

 

   

[jenny2017]

5 minutes ago, totally thaied up said:

 For me, about 55,000 a month. A wife who earns around 15K on top of that as well, (so takes it up to 70K) and she buys me with her own money a lot of stuff. She saw me looking at a Corsair Gaming K63 Keyboard the other day and came home with one the other night. When I was single, about the same amount I spent; it was just on a few girls a week and eating out at Western places mostly every second night before heading out looking for a bit of scruff.

 

My biggest bill is medication (2K a week) and health insurance ($1, 700) a year but that will go up as time goes on.

 

In Australia, I spend about the same, so there is no difference at all for me in between Thailand and here. We own our own house (I did about 300,000 baht in renovations); Wife has a few businesses on the run, and I stay home most of the time.

 

You can live as poor as you want to here but like anywhere, not much of a life. Could not get me eating Thai street cheap crap street food every day. I want to live past 60. Even the wife cannot stomach Thai food every day, needs a break-up. 

 

In reality, as long as I am insured, I don't give a flying flap about too much here anymore. Easy life in reality and I hope it does not change. Mind you we live on 12-15km from the center of CM, so it really is not way out the back of the black stump living (I cannot do that; live in a 'real village') and we have a Seven only about two minutes from our door.

You can live as poor as you want to here but like anywhere, not much of a life. Could not get me eating Thai street cheap crap street food every day. I want to live past 60. Even the wife cannot stomach Thai food every day, needs a break-up. 

 

   Did you hamburgerize your wife? It's hard to believe that a Thai woman prefers any other food over Thai food. 

[totally thaied up]

Just now, jenny2017 said:

   Did you hamburgerize your wife? It's hard to believe that a Thai woman prefers any other food over Thai food. 

Lol... she eats Atlantic Salmon almost every second day, Pork Chops and loves lamb chops once a week.  Bacon and eggs in the morning. Lamb Roasts she cooks once a month on a Sunday.

 

They are all not stereotyped like out of a mint ...

[totally thaied up]

There is the Hamburger. Oh, we do eat them as well ....

[melvinmelvin]

 

just a wee bit, 7 km or so, NW of Bangkok;

 

house               5000/month

electric             1000/month

water                250/month

wifi                    450/month

telephone          very little, maybe 200

taxi/transport  3000?/month

food/fluid          15000?

hobbies              5000

 

I dropped health/medicine since it varies greatly from person to person

 

[Ahab]

40-50K per month covers it all. Eat what we want, drink mostly what we want.

[tropo]

36 minutes ago, smotherb said:

A million baht is only about $30k, or about B2740/day. Easy enough to spend; especially with B10k hotel rooms.

That's easy enough to spend without hotel rooms LOL. It's not much more than the retirement requirement of 800k in the bank, or 65k per month. 611 baht per day more to be exact.

[Kwasaki]

3 minutes ago, melvinmelvin said:

I dropped health/medicine since it varies greatly from person to person

Yeah I did too until I got older, getting Dengue fever and surviving made me get health Ins because it seemed the best thing for me to do after that Hospital bill.

[Naam]

3 hours ago, watcharacters said:

 

You are free to put it that way if you so choose.  Not important to me.

 

You can't however get away from the fact that the USA has one of the lowest tax rates of the Western world countries.

 

it's a huge big difference between living in Thailand tax free or paying a "low" U.S. income tax rate of 39.6%.

 

next irrelevant comment please

[Naam]

2 hours ago, melvinmelvin said:

 (might have changed recently, but ..)

 

a number of very large European corporations some years ago shifted their cash handling to Belgium

these are corporations that do business in a way that require very very large sums of money, cash, available on very short notice

 

they keep the cash in Belgium and do some very short term international banking with them,

you know; very huge loans for 5 hours for 20 hours and then medium long term loans 2-3 days and some very long term loans 1-2 weeks

 

why?

minimum tax levied on that kind of activity in Belgium

 

 

i apologise, i was not aware that we are discussing corporations which handle huge sums of cash.

 

yawnnnnnnn.....

[Naam]

3 hours ago, Spidey said:

3 hours ago, Naam said:

Thai weather is one of the few things i hate.

Essential for me. Suffered from chronic back pain in the UK, saw several consultantstried several forms of treatment, all to no avail. Within 3 months of moving to Thailand had zero pain.

 

Also, I go from my air conditioned house, get  my air conditioned car, park in the car park of an air conditioned shopping mall, into an air conditioned restaurant then off to an air conditioned bar. I spend lot of time on my patio (sat on it now), has a good quality awning and a mega turbo fan. No need to ever break into a sweat in Thailand.

i do the same (from aircon to aircon) but i lack the cash to have one rai of garden airconditioned that i can enjoy it more often.

[Naam]

1 hour ago, jenny2017 said:

I'm afraid that we're from the same country, perhaps only from a different part? I think it's important to mention that your numbers seem to be for unmarried people.

i've realised quite some time ago that we are from the same country but i admit that my "numbers" are slightly off. if the Mrs. and me lived in Germany our income tax liability would be "only" 39,52%; add to that the difference of VAT (Thailand 7% / Germany 19%) plus a bunch of hidden taxes (electricity, water, heating oil, fuel for the cars) the total burden is closer to 66%.

[Kwasaki]

36 minutes ago, Naam said:

but i lack the cash to have one rai of garden airconditioned that i can enjoy it more often

I reckon you could if you really wanted to. 

[55Jay]

3 hours ago, watcharacters said:

And if ever a medical or other emergency requiring  extra baht?

 

What then?

 

I didn't want to point out the obvious.

[smotherb]

1 hour ago, Nyezhov said:

Lots of folks took a beating. But, YMMV. 

Just like the cost of living there. YMMV. Personally, I could spend more than 40k a month but wonder on what.....

Yeah, I took a beating, but it wasn't on Obama's watch; it was on Bush's. If you can't imagine what you'd spend more than B40k on, you probably haven't spent it

[newnative]

On 7/28/2018 at 9:31 PM, watcharacters said:

 

I've never  budgeted in   my life but I tip my hat to those who do.

 

I really don't find Thailand especially  inexpensive at all.

Really?  The OP is keeping a roof over his head, including electric and water, for less than 10,000 baht a month.  Try that in the USA.

[baansgr]

3 hours ago, KiChakayan said:

Gotta be kidding mate. Good food needs to be two to share. Ok, Thai  (tenderloin) beef for two is 300 Bahts minimum, proper Aussie beef is double that, add to this an ok mandatory bottle of wine and you get to 1500 -2000 with a bit of cold cut and apple pie with ice cream for dessert. That's at home; WC's overhead would only be 400 to 500, that's why I love them. 

BTW WC isn't Top, just a pleasant middle class western eatery, with a somewhat innovative business model.

Thats special occasions, really people eat steak, apple pies and drink wine everyday. Regarding steak, marinating for 36 hours works wonders

[tropo]

37 minutes ago, baansgr said:

3 hours ago, KiChakayan said:

Gotta be kidding mate. Good food needs to be two to share. Ok, Thai  (tenderloin) beef for two is 300 Bahts minimum, proper Aussie beef is double that, add to this an ok mandatory bottle of wine and you get to 1500 -2000 with a bit of cold cut and apple pie with ice cream for dessert. That's at home; WC's overhead would only be 400 to 500, that's why I love them. 

BTW WC isn't Top, just a pleasant middle class western eatery, with a somewhat innovative business model.

Thats special occasions, really people eat steak, apple pies and drink wine everyday. Regarding steak, marinating for 36 hours works wonders

Isn't every day a special occasion when you're retired? Stuff like steak and apple pie isn't special, it's just regular food.

[Nyezhov]

1 hour ago, smotherb said:

Yeah, I took a beating, but it wasn't on Obama's watch; it was on Bush's. If you can't imagine what you'd spend more than B40k on, you probably haven't spent it

Lol, somehow the thought of driving  an SClass in Bangkok isn't my thing any more. Nor strip clubs every night, all night casino bashes, moose hunts in Alaska and Rolexes. 

 

Glad ya did well under Obama, some folks do well in the Chicago Way.

[observer90210]

I would be curious to see the expense figures of the happy bachelors and the happy married with a Thai lady ?

[The manic]

15 hours ago, starky said:

Most of the rest of Asia is now cheaper than Thailand excluding Japan, Singapore and some of the major capitals. Great chunks of South America same as well as Eastern Europe plenty of places cheaper in the world to live than thailand. Most of the world is living in poverty plenty of cheap joints around. If I didn't hate long flights it would be South America for me hands down but I still need to commute to work.

The Balkans has potential. Vietnam too but it all depends on your priorities.  

[The manic]

1 hour ago, tropo said:

Isn't every day a special occasion when you're retired? Stuff like steak and apple pie isn't special, it's just regular food.

Not in Asia. It's expensive and imported.  I have such food as luxuries in posh restaurants, 20% cook my own western good simple and often vegetarian food 50% and Thai street food 30%.

[jenny2017]

2 hours ago, Naam said:

i've realised quite some time ago that we are from the same country but i admit that my "numbers" are slightly off. if the Mrs. and me lived in Germany our income tax liability would be "only" 39,52%; add to that the difference of VAT (Thailand 7% / Germany 19%) plus a bunch of hidden taxes (electricity, water, heating oil, fuel for the cars) the total burden is closer to 66%.

. My main problem is the weather and not just the country is cold. Once you've stayed here longer and you're going back, your friends might not get the one or the other joke. And vice versa. WE've changed a lot, but it doesn't look like they've changed. Cheers- 

[tropo]

6 minutes ago, The manic said:

1 hour ago, tropo said:

Isn't every day a special occasion when you're retired? Stuff like steak and apple pie isn't special, it's just regular food.

 

Not in Asia. It's expensive and imported.  I have such food as luxuries in posh restaurants, 20% cook my own western good simple and often vegetarian food 50% and Thai street food 30%.

It is for me... I eat expensive imported treats nearly every day. For example, right now I'm eating imported Australian strawberries every day on a 2 for one deal at Big C that has been ongoing for several weeks (one of my favourite fruits that's now out of season in Thailand). I don't like paying full price, but if you shop around you can find deals to make imported foods affordable. Unfortunately, you'll always be paying full price for imported meats, so the trick is to find the best deal for the best quality by shopping around.

Edited July 29, 2018 by tropo

[jenny2017]

3 hours ago, Naam said:

i've realised quite some time ago that we are from the same country but i admit that my "numbers" are slightly off. if the Mrs. and me lived in Germany our income tax liability would be "only" 39,52%; add to that the difference of VAT (Thailand 7% / Germany 19%) plus a bunch of hidden taxes (electricity, water, heating oil, fuel for the cars) the total burden is closer to 66%.

Before I came to this nice country, I never paid rent, my house was connected to the gas company and I was always wondering when I saw my friends carrying their heating oil canisters around, the stuff you could also drive your old Benz Diesel with. Now I pay rent, the Benz got smaller and turned into a Mitsu pick up. But it could be worse.......?