Minimum required to live comfortably at a young retirement age

[KannikaP]

1 hour ago, connda said:

$1000 USD.  But - you have to meet the Thai financials to stay so the amount you need to "comfortably live" is subjective, but it has to be at least 65k THB.  The Thai government will insist you have an income stream of 65K / month which you can live on comfortably imho

If your IO is a good one, he'll accept the Combination Method. I have 420k in the bank, and transfer 35k per month, which totals over 800k.

[KannikaP]

12 hours ago, KhunLA said:

Add to that, we're not allowed to use imported ingredients for Thai meals, or Thai ingredient for western meals.

Chicken is chicken, pork is pork, onions are onions, veggies are veggies, whether from a local market or Lotus/Makro. It only becomes a Thai or Falang meal when you put it in the pan with different flavouringgs.

[Ralf001]

23 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Western food costs the same as Thai food if you cook it yourself.

 

100% true.

 

The steak and 3 veg we had for dinner last night cost me bt.600 a plate... all purchased in Thailand, cost thesame as a thai would buy.

[KannikaP]

2 hours ago, Ben Zioner said:

We obviously have different lifestyles. Mine is the one I have brought with me from Geneva, where I retired as an IT executive.

I would have brought my foodie lifestyle from Manchester, but cannot find Holland's Steak & Kidney Pudding or Boddingtons beer here. 555

[KireB]

On 1/24/2025 at 9:15 AM, BritManToo said:

If you already have a home to live in 20kbht would be more than enough for you, but a non working wife will need at least another 10kbhtb on top of that.

 

Choose a couple of inexpensive hobbies like hiking and cycling and you're good to go. Loads of clubs in CM 

Yes, and they can eat grass and leaves too to reduce spending money. C'mon, nobody can live on 20k. Drive a car? Easily 10k a month for a small model.

[PomPolo]

Nice one @BritManToo I have to improvise in Issan, just made this for the fam for lunch, no Pizza oven here in fact only a toaster and a microwave, they loved it though 🙂

(Ignore the Singha it was part of the cooking routine 555 )
 

 

5 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I cook pizza at home all the time, bread flour is around 40bht in the local bakery suppliers.

Tomatoes from the wet market, mozzarella from Makro is about the biggest expense.

But a large pizza with several toppings costs around 50bht (depending on toppings) to make.

 

Had hot dogs for lunch yesterday, Prime English breakfast sausages around 14bht each, so lunch with 2 hot dogs cost around 30bht (OK I cheat and wrap in sliced bread). 

 

[Hummin]

Comfortable 30k with wife day to day expenses. 

 

We can also quite well live on 20k if we want, and mostly make food home, and stay at farm. 

[BritManToo]

22 minutes ago, KireB said:

Yes, and they can eat grass and leaves too to reduce spending money. C'mon, nobody can live on 20k. Drive a car? Easily 10k a month for a small model.

My pickup is 27 years old, and still works perfectly, just for shopping.

Last year I spent around 3kbht on repairs including a new battery.

Tax, road test and insurance about 4k5bht.

 

Mostly I just ride my click 160 or electric mountain bike.

[KhunLA]

39 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

Chicken is chicken, pork is pork, onions are onions, veggies are veggies, whether from a local market or Lotus/Makro. It only becomes a Thai or Falang meal when you put it in the pan with different flavouringgs.

Agree ... Somehow that fact escaped one poster ... go figure.

[KhunLA]

42 minutes ago, KireB said:

Yes, and they can eat grass and leaves too to reduce spending money. C'mon, nobody can live on 20k. Drive a car? Easily 10k a month for a small model.

We do, live on 20k a month, BUT, everything is bought & paid.  No mortgage, rent, vehicle loan payment, not even petrol or noticeable electric bill.

 

Rent would add a minimum of 15-20k for same, as couldn't live in a box for 3-5k.

 

Vehicle payment would add 10-15k, for 4 or 5 ish years, then none for 15+ years after.

 

Health insurance would add 5-10k (?) a month, since 70 years old, if I could find coverage.

 

So that 20k, turns into about 65k a month, if not all bought in already, with an oops fund.

 

Hmm ... seems Imm calculated the retirement visa just about right, for a comfy lifestyle living for expat retirees.

 

Go figure 

 

Counter to that ... millions live or exist, almost happily, in Thailand on <10k a month.

[jayboy]

On 1/24/2025 at 12:23 PM, PomPolo said:

I think AN is great especially for subjects like this where someone genuinely does need advice

 

Up to a point.Excellent for advice on practical matters - visas, health, cars, computers etc

 

Not so sound on the subject here (cost of expatriate life). This is because the demographics (elderly/middle aged/retired/blue collar) of AN drive opinions in a particular direction.The higher earning expatriates tend not to pay AN much attention if indeed they are even aware of its existence For these people - assuming taxable benefits like airfares, medical costs and school fees are taken care of for them - would expect at least Baht 600,000 pm gross and up.

 

 

[KireB]

36 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

My pickup is 27 years old, and still works perfectly, just for shopping.

Last year I spent around 3kbht on repairs including a new battery.

Tax, road test and insurance about 4k5bht.

 

Mostly I just ride my click 160 or electric mountain bike.

I can't, I've got kids. Car costs me 15 to 20k a month, all cost included.

[PomPolo]

1 minute ago, jayboy said:

 

Up to a point.Excellent for advice on practical matters - visas, health, cars, computers etc

 

Not so sound on the subject here (cost of expatriate life). This is because the demographics (elderly/middle aged/retired/blue collar) of AN drive opinions in a particular direction.The higher earning expatriates tend not to pay AN much attention if indeed they are even aware of its existence For these people - assuming taxable benefits like airfares, medical costs and school fees are taken care of for them - would expect at least Baht 600,000 pm gross and up.

 

 

For sure @jayboy as I mentioned in the topic post everything will be subjective and relative to circumstances however it is definitely enlightening and giving me ideas for myself on peoples personal viewpoints on this.  600k p/a is a fairly common thread in this topic and something I have already started budgeting for geekily 🙂 making a spreadsheet for between 50k-100k p/m

[SiSePuede419]

6 hours ago, BritManToo said:

cook pizza at home all the time, bread flour is around 40bht in the local bakery suppliers.

Tomatoes from the wet market, mozzarella from Makro is about the biggest expense.

But a large pizza with several toppings costs around 50bht (depending on toppings) to make.

That's not Italian style pizza. They don't use cheap moz on pizza.  They use fresh moz and it's available in Thailand as well as a Thai version and it's not like the cheap stuff.  Also Italian pizza uses San Marzano tomatoes --try finding those here.  Italian tomato pizza sauce also uses olive oil, again not cheap.  Thai pizza does not.

When I made pizza on the grill I used yeast in the dough --thats costs money.  I guess you skipped that ingredient.  Thai basil is cheap but the flavor isn't matching with Italian pizza, so you need to find regular basil for a Margarita.  Good luck finding that in a wet market.  Imported cheese not cheap.  Imported chorizo sausage from Spain not cheap.  

All in all you can't buy all the ingredients for making pizza cheaply, so of course you have to compromise for something in the 50B price range (unbelievable, in my experience). 

[BritManToo]

Just now, KireB said:

I can't, I've got kids. Car costs me 15 to 20k a month, all cost included.

Me too, CEP ( Chinese and English program) in a government school about 15kbht/year, school bus (pickup/dropoff from home) 1k5bht/month.

[BritManToo]

2 minutes ago, SiSePuede419 said:

That's not Italian style pizza. They don't use cheap moz on pizza.  They use fresh moz and it's available in Thailand as well as a Thai version and it's not like the cheap stuff.  Also Italian pizza uses San Marzano tomatoes --try finding those here.  Italian tomato pizza sauce also uses olive oil, again not cheap.  Thai pizza does not.

When I made pizza on the grill I used yeast in the dough --thats costs money.  I guess you skipped that ingredient.  Thai basil is cheap but the flavor isn't matching with Italian pizza, so you need to find regular basil for a Margarita.  Good luck finding that in a wet market.  Imported cheese not cheap.  Imported chorizo sausage from Spain not cheap.  

All in all you can't buy all the ingredients for making pizza cheaply, so of course you have to compromise for something in the 50B price range (unbelievable, in my experience). 

Now you're just being silly!

I've not had any of that stuff on my pizza purchased anywhere in the world 

[gearbox]

On 1/24/2025 at 9:01 AM, PomPolo said:

Hello all, just wondered peoples thoughts were on this.

I currently have a retirement visa in Thailand down to my savings and age however I can't touch my personal pension until I am 57 years old.
I live in the north of Thailand and my wife and I have just built a house so rent would not be an issue.
I am not a huge drinker but will meet up with friends every now and again but don't hit the bars every day.
I am sure similar questions have been asked before I won't go into full details of the value of my personal pension but I think it is reasonable.
At a retirement age of 57 in my circumstances people with more experience of Thailand than myself what would you recommend/suggest as a minimum retirement fund and not working, I understand questions like this are subjective and relative depending on point of view and circumstance but just looking for peoples point of view?

As it seems you are already here, it is not that difficult to answer it yourself. Track roughly your expenditure for 6-12 months, then use a tool like the Dinkytown investment distribution calculator, it would roughly show you how long your assets are going to last.

 

I spend now around 60k baht per month without paying rent, but this includes all my "worldwide" expenses like private health insurance in Australia, 4-5 months travelling outside Thailand and heaps of gadgets and tools purchased. If I just stay in Samui it won't be more than 25-30k per month.

 

I don't have health insurance here, staying always on Australian travel insurance with unlimited health and evacuation coverage, obviously that requires spending some time in Australia during the year.

 

Due to the new tax policies I'm not going to spend more than 180 days per year in Thailand in the foreseeable future, as my upcoming private pension doesn't seem to be covered by the DTA.

[PomPolo]

2 minutes ago, gearbox said:

As it seems you are already here, it is not that difficult to answer it yourself. Track roughly your expenditure for 6-12 months, then use a tool like the Dinkytown investment distribution calculator, it would roughly show you how long your assets are going to last.

 

I spend now around 60k baht per month without paying rent, but this includes all my "worldwide" expenses like private health insurance in Australia, 4-5 months travelling outside Thailand and heaps of gadgets and tools purchased. If I just stay in Samui it won't be more than 25-30k per month.

 

I don't have health insurance here, staying always on Australian travel insurance with unlimited health and evacuation coverage, obviously that requires spending some time in Australia during the year.

 

Due to the new tax policies I'm not going to spend more than 180 days per year in Thailand in the foreseeable future, as my upcoming private pension doesn't seem to be covered by the DTA.

@gearbox that is also a very fair point that I was aware of but didn't include about the DTA on my personal pension as many other threads talking about that.  I have a son in a different country also and am fairly mobile so me and the misses flipping between countries to avoid the 180 day rule is also a possibility (she wants more stamps in her passport 🙂 ) assuming that the reality of the 'not new' been around for a while taxation rules are actually enforced, enforcement is a huge can of worms!
Your estimates on monthly budgets track with what a lot of the guys are saying in the topic and sort of what I am aiming at so again very good points.

[jayboy]

11 minutes ago, PomPolo said:

  600k p/a is a fairly common thread in this topic

 

My reference was to Baht 600,000 per month!!

 

My point is that opinions on this matter reflect the AN demographic which is not representative of the expatriate community as a whole.

 

If pressed and with all the usual caveats I would say that for a single person in his/her 50's coming to Thailand for the first time a monthly income gross of Baht 200,000 would be satisfactory.

[KhunLA]

19 minutes ago, SiSePuede419 said:

That's not Italian style pizza. They don't use cheap moz on pizza.  They use fresh moz and it's available in Thailand as well as a Thai version and it's not like the cheap stuff.  Also Italian pizza uses San Marzano tomatoes --try finding those here.  Italian tomato pizza sauce also uses olive oil, again not cheap.  Thai pizza does not.

When I made pizza on the grill I used yeast in the dough --thats costs money.  I guess you skipped that ingredient.  Thai basil is cheap but the flavor isn't matching with Italian pizza, so you need to find regular basil for a Margarita.  Good luck finding that in a wet market.  Imported cheese not cheap.  Imported chorizo sausage from Spain not cheap.  

All in all you can't buy all the ingredients for making pizza cheaply, so of course you have to compromise for something in the 50B price range (unbelievable, in my experience). 

You can buy all that here, and marginally helps the flavor, if you know how to make pizza.

 

I make NY Style pizza, so want low fat Mozz.

Good Chorizo cost 1000 baht for 1 kilo, far from expensive.

 

Who doesn't put yeast in the pizza dough, and it's inexpensive here.  I do a lot of baking, and bought 2 'bricks' of yeast a while back, and haven't even opened one of them.  Only 115 baht each, and good for a few 100 pizzas.

 

Expensive ... 

[Will B Good]

4 minutes ago, jayboy said:

 

My reference was to Baht 600,000 per month!!

 

My point is that opinions on this matter reflect the AN demographic which is not representative of the expatriate community as a whole.

 

If pressed and with all the usual caveats I would say that for a single person in his/her 50's coming to Thailand for the first time a monthly income gross of Baht 200,000 would be satisfactory.

 

 

£15,000 a month......????

[Sheryl]

Whatever is the minimum now, it will go up over time (inflation etc) so factor that in. And your needs will change as yo uage, as well so consider household help when older etc.

 

Make sure to include health insurance in your calculations and not just current premiums but premiums as you age.

[PomPolo]

7 minutes ago, jayboy said:

 

My reference was to Baht 600,000 per month!!

 

My point is that opinions on this matter reflect the AN demographic which is not representative of the expatriate community as a whole.

 

If pressed and with all the usual caveats I would say that for a single person in his/her 50's coming to Thailand for the first time a monthly income gross of Baht 200,000 would be satisfactory.

 

3 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

 

 

£15,000 a month......????

Yeah guys - I'm not on the breadline but certainly don't have access to 600k baht or 15k pounds a month 🤣

[jayboy]

3 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

 

 

£15,000 a month......????

 

Easily for an expatriate corporate executive/successful entrepreneur.

 

For the more typical expatriate arriving, I suggested Baht 200,000 per month.

[KhunLA]

11 minutes ago, jayboy said:

 

My reference was to Baht 600,000 per month!!

 

My point is that opinions on this matter reflect the AN demographic which is not representative of the expatriate community as a whole.

 

If pressed and with all the usual caveats I would say that for a single person in his/her 50's coming to Thailand for the first time a monthly income gross of Baht 200,000 would be satisfactory.

฿200k ... That's just silly.

 

฿20-50k a month, gets very nice housing.

 

Why would anyone need ฿5k a day to live on.  Is that 3k for companioship, an 2k for food & alcohol.

 

Don't think that's fits the expat demographics for 'every day' living.

[PomPolo]

1 minute ago, Sheryl said:

Whatever is the minimum now, it will go up over time (inflation etc) so factor that in. And your needs will change as yo uage, as well so consider household help when older etc.

 

Make sure to include health insurance in your calculations and not just current premiums but premiums as you age.

@Sheryl yes one I have mentioned in the topic previously won't go into too many details but the last couple of years I have had a medical condition that would probably preclude me from getting reasonable health insurance so keep a small pot back for that just in-case there are any recurrences, checked my private pension yesterday and is definitely going up at a better rate than inflation, originally I could have taken it at 55 but have changed the retirement age to 57 given the gains the pension is making

[Sheryl]

Just now, PomPolo said:

@Sheryl yes one I have mentioned in the topic previously won't go into too many details but the last couple of years I have had a medical condition that would probably preclude me from getting reasonable health insurance so keep a small pot back for that just in-case there are any recurrences, checked my private pension yesterday and is definitely going up at a better rate than inflation, originally I could have taken it at 55 but have changed the retirement age to 57 given the gains the pension is making

You need much more than a small pot put aside and don't think only about your known condition. There will be other things, often unforseen and especially as you age.

 

A single hosptalization can reach 3-4 million in a private hospital and 1 - 1.5 million in a government hospital if specialized treatment and ICU care involved.  These are the amounts you need put aside and readily available to  be truly self-insured...as well as a plan of what to do when it is depleted.

[PomPolo]

5 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

You need much more than a small pot put aside and don't think only about your known condition. There will be other things, often unforseen and especially as you age.

 

A single hosptalization can reach 3-4 million in a private hospital and 1 - 1.5 million in a government hospital if specialized treatment and ICU care involved.  These are the amounts you need put aside and readily available to  be truly self-insured...as well as a plan of what to do when it is depleted.

As much as it would gripe me to do so I suspect the condition would allow me time to get back to the UK and utilise the NHS services that I have paid tax for most of my life. 
Totally agree though on the self-insured thing, and could even possibly cover the amounts you have mentioned along with savings and lump sum 25% I would receive on my private pension at 57.
Extremely good advice and much appreciated.

[BritManToo]

7 minutes ago, PomPolo said:

As much as it would gripe me to do so I suspect the condition would allow me time to get back to the UK and utilise the NHS services that I have paid tax for most of my life. 
Totally agree though on the self-insured thing, and could even possibly cover the amounts you have mentioned along with savings and lump sum 25% I would receive on my private pension at 57.
Extremely good advice and much appreciated.

I've not had any insurance not compelled by government dictate.

3x life threatening illness in the past 15 years all fixed in government hospital for very small amounts of money. And my son born in government hospital at no expense to me. No need to use private hospitals at all.

[PomPolo]

1 minute ago, BritManToo said:

I've not had any insurance not compelled by government dictate.

3x life threatening illness in the past 15 years all fixed in government hospital for very small amounts of money. And my son born in government hospital at no expense at all. No need to use private hospitals at all.

This is an interesting one @BritManToo there was talk of it being compulsory for foreigners in Thailand to have health insurance?  However it is a catch 22 when you call a Thai health insurance company and they say unfortunately we can't cover you, another one that is going to be as difficult to enforce as their tax rules.