Many expats live in Thailand on less than 45,000 baht a month

[rhodie]

4 hours ago, gearbox said:

There are excellent Thai high schools, but any kid applying there must sit an entrance exam. They are public schools, you can't buy your place there. And that's how it should work. In order to thrive there the kids need to be at the same level and highly competitive.  

 

This year or the last year, I don't remember, Thailand was at the 5th place in the International Mathematics Olympiad. Australia was at 19th.

 

 

Do you have a list, or a link to research these? Cheers.

[bwpage3]

On 8/25/2019 at 5:57 AM, khunpa said:

If you pay for it, there is actually very good education... even here in Thailand. 

I paid over 400,000+ thb per year, years ago for international school.

When we moved back to the USA, our son was in grade 8 and already 1 year behind.

A Thai education is pretty worthless outside of Thailand

 

 

[Stanley78]

3 minutes ago, bwpage3 said:

I paid over 400,000+ thb per year, years ago for international school.

When we moved back to the USA, our son was in grade 8 and already 1 year behind.

A Thai education is pretty worthless outside of Thailand

 

 

That's very discouraging to hear for those of us who have kids getting near school age here in Thailand and are planning to go the international school route.

[Stanley78]

If I was single I could probably live on 45k THB a month in Thailand with an acceptable life quality. But it wouldn't be ideal. I've worked hard (smart) in my life to make sure I don't need to deny myself things. That being said I of course understand that not everyone has had the same opportunities.

 

It's very easy to understand why someone who is retired and on a fixed income regardless of if it's 20k or 40k or whatever would choose to spend that income in Thailand rather than at home in their own possibly cold and/or overpriced country.

 

Our family budget is around 300k THB a month for my wife, child, and full time live in maid. That will go up once I have to pay for school as well. I think that's pretty much the budget which is needed in Thailand to never have to deny yourself anything as a family.

 

If you can live on less and never feel like you are denying yourself anything then great. Happy for you!

[Fred white]

2 hours ago, GarryP said:

Thinking about building a stitch and glue kayak when I retire. 

The problem I've found over here is materials unlike the US I can't go on eBay and buy materials like fiberglass and resin

[Fred white]

13 minutes ago, Stanley78 said:

If I was single I could probably live on 45k THB a month in Thailand with an acceptable life quality. But it wouldn't be ideal. I've worked hard (smart) in my life to make sure I don't need to deny myself things. That being said I of course understand that not everyone has had the same opportunities.

 

It's very easy to understand why someone who is retired and on a fixed income regardless of if it's 20k or 40k or whatever would choose to spend that income in Thailand rather than at home in their own possibly cold and/or overpriced country.

 

Our family budget is around 300k THB a month for my wife, child, and full time live in maid. That will go up once I have to pay for school as well. I think that's pretty much the budget which is needed in Thailand to never have to deny yourself anything as a family.

 

If you can live on less and never feel like you are denying yourself anything then great. Happy for you!

I wanted a full time maid but when my wife saw her she said no fing way lol ????

[gearbox]

1 hour ago, rhodie said:

Do you have a list, or a link to research these? Cheers.

https://news.thaivisa.com/article/23281/thai-students-take-gold-at-59th-mathematical-olympiad

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triam_Udom_Suksa_School

 

If I had kids and was living in Bangkok I would aim for Triam Udom Suksa School.  

 

It is not that hard to google the info around. Just search about the Thai students winning International Olympiads medals (Math,Physics,Chemistry,Biology) and their schools. If a name of a school pops up more than one time, it would be a good one.

 

Winners of a medal from any of these maths/science olympiads is a high Stanford/MIT calibre student on a full scholarship. 

 

[bkk6060]

1 hour ago, Stanley78 said:

That's very discouraging to hear for those of us who have kids getting near school age here in Thailand and are planning to go the international school route.

Discouraging but true.

A waste of money especially if the plan is to have them go back to your home country at some point.

[Number 6]

2 hours ago, bwpage3 said:

It's called driving.

 

Maybe you have heard of that?

It honestly never dawned on me a foreigner would want to drive in Bangkok.

 

Apologies

[Number 6]

54 minutes ago, gearbox said:

https://news.thaivisa.com/article/23281/thai-students-take-gold-at-59th-mathematical-olympiad

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triam_Udom_Suksa_School

 

If I had kids and was living in Bangkok I would aim for Triam Udom Suksa School.  

 

It is not that hard to google the info around. Just search about the Thai students winning International Olympiads medals (Math,Physics,Chemistry,Biology) and their schools. If a name of a school pops up more than one time, it would be a good one.

 

Winners of a medal from any of these maths/science olympiads is a high Stanford/MIT calibre student on a full scholarship. 

 

 

Full scholarship at some very fine universities but not necessarily to the schools you'd mentioned although they would have the ability to do the work although they may struggle at Caltech and MIT. It takes more than grades and smarts. 1540+ SAT for starts, a stellar essay which most of these math sci kids can't write.

 

If anyone has an exceptionally bright son or daughter and aiming for best secondary schools in Thailand feel free to pm me.

[Number 6]

6 hours ago, gearbox said:

There are excellent Thai high schools, but any kid applying there must sit an entrance exam. They are public schools, you can't buy your place there. And that's how it should work. In order to thrive there the kids need to be at the same level and highly competitive.  

 

This year or the last year, I don't remember, Thailand was at the 5th place in the International Mathematics Olympiad. Australia was at 19th.

 

 

Best middle school in Thailand is Pathumwan Demonstration. Best secondary is Mahidol Wittayasorn (math science) and Triam Udom Suksa (all rounder) - tied. Second place is Pathumwan Demonstration. Third, Suankularb Wittayalai. Fourth Samsen Wittayalai on reputation. A number of schools could compete for runner up fifth+. The quality drops considerably after the 8th position.

 

Triam is a very unique school. It's certainly the favorite of students and graduates the bulk of:

1 Thai international scholarship winners

2 King's scholars, MFA scholars

3. Students studying abroad BA/S

4. Somewhat guaranteed seat at Chulalongkorn

5 Sixty percent of all Thai professionals come from Triam

6 Lethal debate team. Feared even among midtier intl schools

7 Ss constantly winning all sorts of amazing national awards

 

Friendly but for Thais, fiercely competitive. 12,500 M3 students sit the exam. Eight percent attend. Ten accepted. Quotas exist for those with exceptional talents.

 

Please note: there are also provincial quotas!

 

Note: does not discriminate against mixed race students.

 

Thai teachers are about as good as they get but students still use outside tutors.

 

[Number 6]

2 hours ago, rhodie said:

Do you have a list, or a link to research these? Cheers.

Good list. There is a top Thai 100 somewhere. The list is not comprehensive and I would rank differently, but it's something

 

http://www.thai-blogs.com/2013/06/26/thailands-top-50-high-schools/

[Tuvoc]

42 minutes ago, Number 6 said:

It honestly never dawned on me a foreigner would want to drive in Bangkok.

 

 

I certainly don't !  I've driven thousands of km around Thailand but never Bangkok. Traffic and driving there is totally crazy. When we are there it is always taxis.

[Fred white]

24 minutes ago, Tuvoc said:

 

I certainly don't !  I've driven thousands of km around Thailand but never Bangkok. Traffic and driving there is totally crazy. When we are there it is always taxis.

Same with me I won't drive in Bangkok

[DrTuner]

1 hour ago, Number 6 said:

It honestly never dawned on me a foreigner would want to drive in Bangkok.

It's not the driving, it's the parking. Including in the middle of the street when you're supposed to be moving. Been there, done that, never again.

[garyk]

4 hours ago, Stanley78 said:

 

 

Our family budget is around 300k THB a month for my wife, child, and full time live in maid. That will go up once I have to pay for school as well. I think that's pretty much the budget which is needed in Thailand to never have to deny yourself anything as a family.

 

If you can live on less and never feel like you are denying yourself anything then great. Happy for you!

You are kidding right.

[SpanishExpat]

8 hours ago, bwpage3 said:

I paid over 400,000+ thb per year, years ago for international school.

When we moved back to the USA, our son was in grade 8 and already 1 year behind.

A Thai education is pretty worthless outside of Thailand

 

 

well and that`s the full truth. Useless money imo. My gf comes from a normal family, never attended an expensive private school, but went to a well-run Catholic primary school in her home town, where she learned perfect British English in young years and was always among the top students. She studied hard, graduated from Chulalongkorn University with a top degree and nowadays earns around 90-95k Baht/month after taxes in her early 30`s with less than 40h work/week. Many of her friends at work come from wealthy Thai families, who paid crazy amounts for elite schools, studied in the UK/USA/Australia. So it`s not always about the the primary education. I`ve met so many stupid spoiled Thais in their 30`s,  where the investment in their education was a total loss of money.

[gk10002000]

15 hours ago, Fred white said:

A couple of jobs I had were fun . I was on a project crew so the work changed day to day or week to week

I am an engineer and had a decent stint in the USAF being involved in space launches, shooting down missiles and what not.  After that, I had  few direct "permanent" salary jobs and they were brutally un fun.  My calling was still as an engineer and luckily I fell into contract engineering, and for the next 20 years or so had a variety of jobs in over 15 states.  The variety and seeing and learning new things and places kept me sane.  Can't imagine what I would have done otherwise.

[gk10002000]

On 8/4/2018 at 8:23 PM, 55Jay said:

My Mom lives in San Diego, California.  She "gets by" on social security, I think it's about 12 to $1,400/mo and about $500 paid quarterly from a small investment.  She has a small mortgage, about $300 something a month, $220/mo HOA fee, I think a couple hundred in health insurance (Kaiser) and whatever Medicare involves, then all the usual bills - internet/tv, electric, etc.  She babies her 1995 Toyota Avalon, trying to make it last until she's unable to drive solo anymore.

 

There's not a whole lot of discretionary money left over.  I figured there were a fair few here in roughly the same financial situation. 

A good example.  Those HOAs are such a pain they should be avoided at all costs.  They can raise prices at any time.  They often become run by nazis.  They rarely spend your money in ways you want.  My mom was in a similar place she kept living in after Dad died.  HOAs kept going up and up.  They would dictate the type of umbrella, or awning you could put up and you had to buy from their own supplier.  So corrupt it was disgusting.

[55Jay]

4 minutes ago, gk10002000 said:

A good example.  Those HOAs are such a pain they should be avoided at all costs.  They can raise prices at any time.  They often become run by nazis.  They rarely spend your money in ways you want.  My mom was in a similar place she kept living in after Dad died.  HOAs kept going up and up.  They would dictate the type of umbrella, or awning you could put up and you had to buy from their own supplier.  So corrupt it was disgusting.

My Mom's place is fairly reasonable, in the past and present, but who knows what kooks will get on the board.  A lot of weirdos in So Cal, and they might treat the community as their full-time ant farm hobby, and "manage" residents accordingly. 

 

A weird one was when you want to sell your place, not authorized to put a real estate "for sale" sign in the front yard.  I didn't get that.  Sure, might look "bad" if too many were for sale, like.... why are so many people bailing out?  I get needing rules, I do, humans are basically s**t, but I didn't get the "no for sale" sign thing.  A few others too, but I digress....

[gk10002000]

3 minutes ago, 55Jay said:

My Mom's place is fairly reasonable, in the past and present, but who knows what kooks will get on the board.  A lot of weirdos in So Cal, and they might treat the community as their full-time ant farm hobby, and "manage" residents accordingly. 

 

A weird one was when you want to sell your place, not authorized to put a real estate "for sale" sign in the front yard.  I didn't get that.  Sure, might look "bad" if too many were for sale, like.... why are so many people bailing out?  I get needing rules, I do, humans are basically s**t, but I didn't get the "no for sale" sign thing.  A few others too, but I digress....

And our place in Florida started demanding personal information and "security" or personnel reviews of all residents.  And the investigation forms they demanded required social security numbers and other stuff.  And you now had to report any and all tenants, even family staying there, and they mandated parking stickers and your driver license had to match the address you lived at.  I don't miss the place at all and luckily all the years I lived there I was often contracting in different places. And they now required investigation forms of all tenants, sub leasers, or prospective buyers.  These are all new rules.  So what if the people you want to rent to or sell to don't get past their investigation process or they make mistakes or are clerical nits?  All just red warning flags to me.

[sunnyboy2018]

1 hour ago, SpanishExpat said:

well and that`s the full truth. Useless money imo. My gf comes from a normal family, never attended an expensive private school, but went to a well-run Catholic primary school in her home town, where she learned perfect British English in young years and was always among the top students. She studied hard, graduated from Chulalongkorn University with a top degree and nowadays earns around 90-95k Baht/month after taxes in her early 30`s with less than 40h work/week. Many of her friends at work come from wealthy Thai families, who paid crazy amounts for elite schools, studied in the UK/USA/Australia. So it`s not always about the the primary education. I`ve met so many stupid spoiled Thais in their 30`s,  where the investment in their education was a total loss of money.

Many foreigners wont admit their kids are thick...

in any country they study in.

[jastheace]

5 minutes ago, sunnyboy2018 said:

Many foreigners wont admit their kids are thick...

in any country they study in.

was gonna comment, post would be too long, decided to just give your comment a like. too late/early to get into things....another time... 

[Damrongsak]

2 hours ago, SpanishExpat said:

... So it`s not always about the the primary education. I`ve met so many stupid spoiled Thais in their 30`s,  where the investment in their education was a total loss of money.

If they're not too smart, or serious, it probably doesn't matter.  On the other hand, those with promise can benefit greatly from a good primary education.  They can be encouraged to think and reason and explore the possibilities. They can learn proper attention and discipline.

 

We sent our two boys to private primary school.  I think it made a difference, along with parental guidance a great grandparents who worked their way up from humble beginnings. Older boy went to private grade school (church-affiliated) for 7 years, then public high school.  It was a walk in the park for him at that point, even taking mostly advanced placement classes. He was given a 4 year engineering scholarship at college and we didn't even have to ask.  Younger one got kicked out at the tail end of third grade.  He was a handful.

 

My Thai niece attended a Catholic school somewhere in/around BKK.  Smart, disciplined and speaks English pretty well.  She got some college degree in logistics, but is now in USA - Her Mom started a Thai restaurant and they run it.

[drgoon]

On 8/5/2018 at 3:11 PM, Tradewind777 said:

You can rent a room in BKK for 3000baht and if you cannot live on 1000baht a day you need lessons in money management or pull your head in and live more modestly.

Barfines...  ????

[BritManToo]

1 hour ago, Damrongsak said:

If they're not too smart, or serious, it probably doesn't matter.  On the other hand, those with promise can benefit greatly from a good primary education.  They can be encouraged to think and reason and explore the possibilities. They can learn proper attention and discipline.

 

We sent our two boys to private primary school.  I think it made a difference, along with parental guidance a great grandparents who worked their way up from humble beginnings. Older boy went to private grade school (church-affiliated) for 7 years, then public high school.  It was a walk in the park for him at that point, even taking mostly advanced placement classes. He was given a 4 year engineering scholarship at college and we didn't even have to ask.  Younger one got kicked out at the tail end of third grade.  He was a handful.

 

My Thai niece attended a Catholic school somewhere in/around BKK.  Smart, disciplined and speaks English pretty well.  She got some college degree in logistics, but is now in USA - Her Mom started a Thai restaurant and they run it.

So two out of three of their educations were completely worthless.

One was kicked out and the other's a waitress.

Even engineering is a low paid occupation these days.

[Fex Bluse]

What is just as dangerous for a child as being schooled in Thailand is the socialization that happens here. 

 

I've met many half farang half Thai kids. The ones schooled and raised predominantly in Thailand often showed distinct developmental issues and irrational personality traits. I suspect some of it has to do with how Thais often idolize them. 

 

Thailand is a horrid place to raise children and especially non-thai children. 

 

Once again some of us expats just don't get it. The Chinese Thais with money do. Don't marry hookers, send kids to school outside of Thailand as soon as practicable. Easy. 

[Stanley78]

8 hours ago, garyk said:

You are kidding right.

Yes I am kidding. Feel better?

[FarFlungFalang]

30 minutes ago, Fex Bluse said:

The ones schooled and raised predominantly in Thailand often showed distinct developmental issues and irrational personality traits.

You mean like posting endlessly negative posts on social media forums?

[ThaiBunny]

Just now, FarFlungFalang said:

You mean like posting endlessly negative posts on socials media forums?

Occupational therapy