How Comfy Can You Be In Bangkok With 7300 USD A Month Salary (tax Free) With Spouse And 2 Kids ?

[steelepulse]

If OP didn't have the school fees for the two children, then 250K should be comfortable without having to watch the budget too much. However with the 2 kids, OP really would have to watch the budget if he wants a comfortable lifestyle.  

As a side note, I started adding up household costs/monthly living expenses and it came to quite a bit, then the wife reminded me of a lot of things I didn't even think about, and that added another 30% to the costs/budget.

[onethailand]

Are you "headhunted" to Thailand.? And that amount,with no tax?!mai koh jai And u ask if u can live here to.I dont understand why a man like u with that Salary really have to ask this question,IN Here Or at all

I applied for a job in Thailand that I'm afraid I might get. I've been short listed, got a leg up on this job cause I'm thai, speak the language. I'm comfy where I am here in the US. I've vacation in Thailand every now and then but last time I really lived there, I was 14, I'm 47 now. If I was single, I'd take this job in a NY minute. But with wife and 2 kids, 6 and 9 yr old. Its a big change. Just want to make sure I'll be trading up not down.

I'd assume you need to send your kids to international school. If the company will take care of that, you should be quite comfortable. If you have to pay for school yourself - that's going to be a bit on the tight side - I could barely make ends meet on $8K+/month with three kids in school... but then I was supporting an office and 2 staff as well...

International school - roughly 400K THB/year per child. May be a little higher or a bit lower depending, but that's what I'm paying at a good school.

Edited July 17, 2009 by onethailand

[ScubaBuddha]

$7500.-- a month is nothing really, it means scraping food of the streets at the end of the month, kids will have to go to school unwashed to safe water and the Misses will have to do the cleaning herself because the 10.000 baht maid has to go too. Yep, it is pure poverty and misery such a handout for a wages. What is that company of thieves you work for anyway, if I were you I would leave for sure.

Aswin, he's taking the piss. (joking if your American) $7500 is a lot of money by most peoples standards here. Some of these negative posts seem to be by some ultra wealthy people.

[ScubaBuddha]

Or maybe you dont understand how expensive Bangkok can be with a family.

The OP is coming from a good lifestyle in the US, therefore rent for starters will be at least 50-75k per month for a nice family home.

2 kids education in an international school is another 100k per month (for 2 average cost)

Electric/water 10k/month

Food eating out once/week in a nice restaurant for family 35-40k/month

Food shopping another 40k/month

So thats virtually all his wages, and thats without car or transport costs, or drinking costs.

Someone, I am sure will come on saying you can do it for a lot less. I am sure you can. But if you are used to living a nice lifestyle like it sounds as though the OP has, then 7500 USD is not enough.

I genuinely would find it hard and I only have 1 child.

hahaha

80k a month for food for 4 people, whilst eating in 6 days a week? What would you be eating? Diamonds and gold. I have a family of four and we eat very well - I doubt we could spend more than 15k-20k in the supermarket every month even if I tried.

10k baht restaurant meal - Not sure If there's a restaurant that expensive here in Phuket, thats 2,500 baht per person (including the kids).

10k for electric? I run 4 PCs, 3 PS3's, 3 x Large Plasma TV's - 3 air-cons, THX home cinema, lighting system, multi room audio etc... and I only just hit 5k baht.

I agree, JacknDanny's numbers seem to be about twice what they should be.

[AnaisNin]

7.5K USD a month. You should have spare to buy a big bike in LOS.

Envy you.

[mangoman007]

2 kids...good international school.......750,000Bt/year.

Indeed. Car, comfortable and convenient place and good intl school for two kids is quite expensive now in Bangkok. Not like it used to. We moved to the USA and find it is now cheaper all things considered for a better lifestyle than in Bangkok. Okay sure you can get maids and some people still get a kick out of that but that soon wears off. Food also cheaper in Bangkok but beyond that it can cost you.

[roderick17]

Hi QED

If the poster stays in BKK for more than 180 days in a year, how much tax will he pay on his monthly stipend of $7500 USD ?

Asssuming this tax obligation is significant, what tax strategies are available to minimze the amount of tax actually paid by expats working in LOS ?

Do you have the name of a tax expert, who'd be prepared to offer some advice in this area ???

Thanks again

Roderick

Aha, slightly different to 7300 bt lol.

As long as you don't go renting some ridiculous penthouse appartment then you should be somewhere between reasonably and very comfy.

I am not sure about your tax free assumption however, if you live here for over 180 days a year then you are liable to pay local tax on any income you bring in to the country from overseas. Might be worth just bringing some of it?

[QED]

Well it's a bit of a grey area. If you are employed by a multinational and paid into an overseas account then you really should pay nothing.

If you are employed by a Thai company paid into a Thai account, then on a salary of 250k pm (rounding the OP's salary) you would be liable for about 65k tax pm.

I fall into the latter category, but I have half of my salary paid into an account in HK, which is then listed as 'consultancy fees' on the company's tax return. I am not liable for tax in HK and therefore in the above example the Thai tax liabilty drops to about 22k pm.

I used to do this kind of thing for a living so am used to finding the angles. I don't use a tax advisor but would be happy to help for a few beers

[JacknDanny]

Or maybe you dont understand how expensive Bangkok can be with a family.

The OP is coming from a good lifestyle in the US, therefore rent for starters will be at least 50-75k per month for a nice family home.

2 kids education in an international school is another 100k per month (for 2 average cost)

Electric/water 10k/month

Food eating out once/week in a nice restaurant for family 35-40k/month

Food shopping another 40k/month

So thats virtually all his wages, and thats without car or transport costs, or drinking costs.

Someone, I am sure will come on saying you can do it for a lot less. I am sure you can. But if you are used to living a nice lifestyle like it sounds as though the OP has, then 7500 USD is not enough.

I genuinely would find it hard and I only have 1 child.

hahaha

80k a month for food for 4 people, whilst eating in 6 days a week? What would you be eating? Diamonds and gold. I have a family of four and we eat very well - I doubt we could spend more than 15k-20k in the supermarket every month even if I tried.

10k baht restaurant meal - Not sure If there's a restaurant that expensive here in Phuket, thats 2,500 baht per person (including the kids).

10k for electric? I run 4 PCs, 3 PS3's, 3 x Large Plasma TV's - 3 air-cons, THX home cinema, lighting system, multi room audio etc... and I only just hit 5k baht.

I agree, JacknDanny's numbers seem to be about twice what they should be.

You are right.

I must be a real tool spending all this unnecessary money.

I should move to Phuket and save myself a fortune.

[steelepulse]

The costs here in Phuket for a comfy lifestyle isn't any cheaper than in BKK.

[JacknDanny]

The costs here in Phuket for a comfy lifestyle isn't any cheaper than in BKK.

I was being pedantic

[Benjie]

You are right.

I must be a real tool spending all this unnecessary money.

I should move to Phuket and save myself a fortune.

Doesn't sound like you could afford it down here

[nakachalet]

jackndanny_pedantic_090718s.doc

[nakachalet]

The costs here in Phuket for a comfy lifestyle isn't any cheaper than in BKK.

I was being pedantic

jackndanny_pedantic_090718s.doc

[samran]

You guys are having way too much fun pulling his crank. Give me a break $7,500 a month! Maybe your all rich and this seems trivial to you, but if that's the case I need to find folks in my social strata to converse with.

Or maybe you dont understand how expensive Bangkok can be with a family.

The OP is coming from a good lifestyle in the US, therefore rent for starters will be at least 50-75k per month for a nice family home.

2 kids education in an international school is another 100k per month (for 2 average cost)

Electric/water 10k/month

Food eating out once/week in a nice restaurant for family 35-40k/month

Food shopping another 40k/month

So thats virtually all his wages, and thats without car or transport costs, or drinking costs.

Someone, I am sure will come on saying you can do it for a lot less. I am sure you can. But if you are used to living a nice lifestyle like it sounds as though the OP has, then 7500 USD is not enough.

I genuinely would find it hard and I only have 1 child.

pretty accurate, though for us, with two little ones, we don't eat out cause it is a hassel and our food shopping would be more in the 20 to 25K range, shopping at central or carefore (though red meat does push the grocery shopping bill higher than this).

Edited July 18, 2009 by samran

[onethailand]

I agree - it's not far off. My shopping is less than that though - perhaps 12-15K a month - and we eat out once a week for less than 2K - that's for me, my wife, 2 teenagers and a 9-yr old.

[Benjie]

At the end of the day if he's being offered the job as an expat he's likely to be pulling similar or more money in for the move, if he's comfortable on that after tax wage back home then he'll likely be at least as comfortable here.

[eastbaybob]

This isn't for an Overseas AO position is it? Not the same one that I put in for, I hope!

[ThaiBasil]

There are Thai people living here comfortable with 7,300 Thai Baht with a spouse and 2 kids. So I guess you would do fine.

[tutone]

I think that would be about 248210 Baht a month. If exchange rate of 34.

How about it ? Very comfy ? somewhat comfy, so so, not at all comfy ?

Thx.

Is this a joke? You can live "comfy" in the states for that. Get out of Bangkok or the tourist areas (not good for kids anyway) and you can live better than 90% of the Thai folks and most of the falangs. Sounds to me like you haven't spent much or any time in LOS.

[remil]

2 kids...good international school.......750,000Bt/year.

Are you kidding?? with that much money you can save a lot as well. If you live in the suburbs and have a car your very comfy.

[norwayeagle]

Freedom,,,Is More important than all the money in the world."Been There Done that".NOW AM Free and my Life has never been better ( with less money)..wakey wakey (but i guess some people never do b4 its to late).That is also why the world is like it is,(more money want more money all 4 them selfs while others are happy and freed) Any1 remember the bastille days?Some1 remember the guillotine! Think the majority of the humans want 2 repeat that history again,Or. Period

[moonhunt]

First question, are you,OP, US Citizen or not ?

If OP is US Citizen, he needs to pay taxes on any income for US IRS no matter where it generate.

IF Thai has tax treaty, you can deduct the tax paid to Thai from US federal tax return.

But unlike other countries, if you are US citizen, or US lawful permanent resident, you have tax report duty for all income around the world.

Since you are considering moving back to Thai, LPR status will be loosing if you are LPR.

Otherwise, it really depends on what kind of society you or your family wants to belong.

Most farang may be free from high/low society things.

But if you are Thai national, you may not be free from those.

So you have to pay social tax to become a part of high society member.

I think it is more of life style you or your family wants to have.

If you or your family miss Thai style, you may consider moving back to Thai no matter what.

But if you and/or your family like American style, probably you have to stay where you are now.

[Gary A]

He's a troll or a braggart. You can live comfortably ANYWHERE for that kind of money.

[Colonel_Mustard]

A lot depends on the kind of housing and schooling you will be looking for as I would guess that these would be your major costs and are likely to account for the majority of your budget.

Most of the international schools list the fees on their websites and there are also plenty of condo/house rental portals out there that should be able to give you some idea of what you'll get at different price points.

Personally I think a reasonably comfortable lifestyle on that salary in BKK is doable but I doubt you're going to be saving a great deal.

[beechguy]

First question, are you,OP, US Citizen or not ?

If OP is US Citizen, he needs to pay taxes on any income for US IRS no matter where it generate.

IF Thai has tax treaty, you can deduct the tax paid to Thai from US federal tax return.

But unlike other countries, if you are US citizen, or US lawful permanent resident, you have tax report duty for all income around the world.

Since you are considering moving back to Thai, LPR status will be loosing if you are LPR.

Otherwise, it really depends on what kind of society you or your family wants to belong.

Most farang may be free from high/low society things.

But if you are Thai national, you may not be free from those.

So you have to pay social tax to become a part of high society member.

I think it is more of life style you or your family wants to have.

If you or your family miss Thai style, you may consider moving back to Thai no matter what.

But if you and/or your family like American style, probably you have to stay where you are now.

U.S. Federal Income Tax shouldn't be much of a problem with that salary, because of the foreign earned income exclusion. In 2008 that was $87,600. Other taxes could/would still apply though.