penbat Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 (edited) I am a single male thinking of living maybe in Pattaya or Bangkok on a retirement visa. Very roughly how much money would I need to spend per year to live comfortably - the Thai equivalent of £5,000 English pounds maybe ? Edited June 4, 2005 by penbat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daleyboy Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 I am a single male thinking of living maybe in Pattaya or Bangkok on a retirement visa. Very roughly how much money would I need per year to live comfortably - the Thai equivalent of £5,000 English pounds maybe ? You would want imho at least 12k a year sterling to live comfortably, depending what your idea of comfortable is.Nice apartment, air con, beers, doing what you want everyday, Farang food occasionally. That is what i have been told by other retired people living in Thailand 5k a year isnt going to get you very much Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meom Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 60Kbht - 100Kbaht a month, less if you go native. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heng Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 Housing: HH Apartments (3k a month) or Nichada Thani (8-30 million, one time only expense)? Food: Tesco Lotus (3k a week) or Emporium (4.5k a week)? Transport: Bus (5 Baht a trip) or car/driver (1-8 million + 6k a month)? Entertainment: Dave's Bar (2k a night) or Pegasus (2k per hour)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phazey Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 With all due respect. if you're knobbin' everything in sight, i'd give that 5 grand about 3 - 6 months depending on your.....'needs'. Alough if you live right and get a decend yet cheap pad, more like....9 months+ When i was single living in BKK (ie: before i was married and had rent) i was pusing about 40k + 25k rent a month.... My 'native' is about 12-15k bht per month less "toys" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDN Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 I am a single male thinking of living maybe in Pattaya or Bangkok on a retirement visa. Very roughly how much money would I need to spend per year to live comfortably - the Thai equivalent of £5,000 English pounds maybe ? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> £11,000 (= 800,000 baht) is more like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
penbat Posted June 4, 2005 Author Share Posted June 4, 2005 I am a single male thinking of living maybe in Pattaya or Bangkok on a retirement visa. Very roughly how much money would I need to spend per year to live comfortably - the Thai equivalent of £5,000 English pounds maybe ? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> £11,000 (= 800,000 baht) is more like it. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> £11,000 per year is similar to the sort of money I would spend per year if I stayed in the UK ! There is some sort of contradiction here. I was under the impression that the Thai cost of living is about a third of the UK. So is the contradiction explained by the fact i could get much more entertainment and travel for the same money than the UK ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meom Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 Maybe that's true for a Thai but as a foreigner you tend to increase your spending, specially in Pattaya with all the entertainment. If you're not interested in entertainment, hanging out with other expats, eating expat food etc. then life suddenly becomes a lot cheaper. A lot more boring also, at least in my opinion but different strokes for different folks I suppose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meom Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 Probably tomorrow sometime when all the "teachers" wake-up after their weekly bottle of sangsom you will hear different stories how is very well possible to life good on 20k baht/month etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boatabike Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 Yawn... having just woke up after my weekly bottle of sangsom and a special treat of a 40 Baht meal at a restaurant with real seats, i am here to tell you 20k a month is luxury life style, but if you find it really hard to get by on that 5k a year a handy money saving tip known by many a poor teacher is to get your self a set of nice orange bath towels and about 5:30 am just wander about a bit, before you know it people will be passing you enough free food to stock your fridge and invite a young lady round for a meal. Survial guide tip *121-777 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meom Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 Which is preceded by 121-767: get a haircut. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meom Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 Which is preceded by 121-766: sell the backpack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boatabike Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 Which is preceded by 121-767: get a haircut. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> 8hit thats why it never worked for me, forgot the haircut. Hey thanks for the tip, i will be eating well tomorrow....! any young ladies fancy a nice home cooked meal my place tomorrow? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDN Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 I am a single male thinking of living maybe in Pattaya or Bangkok on a retirement visa. Very roughly how much money would I need to spend per year to live comfortably - the Thai equivalent of £5,000 English pounds maybe ? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> £11,000 (= 800,000 baht) is more like it. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> £11,000 per year is similar to the sort of money I would spend per year if I stayed in the UK ! There is some sort of contradiction here. I was under the impression that the Thai cost of living is about a third of the UK. So is the contradiction explained by the fact i could get much more entertainment and travel for the same money than the UK ? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> There have been quite a few threads on this subject, as you would probably imagine, but I think the general consensus is that the amount required for a retirement visa by immigration (800,000 baht) is about right for a comfortable life. But if you don't go out drinking every night and don't eat at farang restaurants and don't partake of the other "luxuries" on offer (or you are happily married) then you can certainly live cheaper. Here are links to some old threads: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=28907 http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=27552 http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=11692 http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=6722 http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=3218 http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=1274 http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=585 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooL_guY_corY Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 2500 pound can last a year in pattaya easily. That also includes getting drunk every 2nd day ( calculated "getting drunk"= drinking a 26 of sang som ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
citizen821 Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 Sorry if I answer your question in a round about way. Today I found someone to rent my house for $800 US (32,000 baht) per month, all of which is disposable income. On top of that I have saved around 40,000 US (1.6 million baht)out of which I plan to supplement my income with $400 US a month for a grand total of $1200 a month (48,000 baht). I'm renting a house on Koh Phangan for 12,000 baht, yes it's very nice. Electric will be 2000 baht. Mobile phone (I think) 1500 baht. Food, I mostly eat out, 8000 baht. That leaves a little more than 24,000 baht for beer and such. Guess what, I'm never coming back to the States. hahahahaHa Just booked my flight out for Sept 6. Life is incredible! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulfr Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 As has been said, alot depends on what you are willing to do. A house in Chiang Mai can be rented for 5000B/m I am told. But you would need a car (300KB will get a decent used car) If you have a TGF and not going out every night, she might only cost you the 10KB each months she needs for her parents back upcountry. The rest like food, gas, cable tv, adsl internet, etc is small change so you could live fine for 40KB/m Now if you wanna monger in Bkk or Pattaya, the numbers start to climb fast and 2x40KB becomes more realistic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimsKnight Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 I am a single male thinking of living maybe in Pattaya or Bangkok on a retirement visa. Very roughly how much money would I need to spend per year to live comfortably - the Thai equivalent of £5,000 English pounds maybe ? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> If you live away from the big cities and live frugally i.e not going wild for the women much, a beer here or there, eating thai food and staying in cheap (or even free if you have connections) you can live on about 13 -15 K Baht a month. So call it about £2500 a year. Slightly more if you smoke, and more still if you live in the big cities. The biggest money eater to watch for is high maintanence girlfriends (not necessarily bar girls) and boozing plus other excesses. If you're into diving or teaching then Pattaya and BKK are possiblities, moneys not that great; Little more than change really! Good luck and good fortune on your venture! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naka Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 I am a single male thinking of living maybe in Pattaya or Bangkok on a retirement visa. Very roughly how much money would I need to spend per year to live comfortably - the Thai equivalent of £5,000 English pounds maybe ? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> £11,000 (= 800,000 baht) is more like it. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> £11,000 per year is similar to the sort of money I would spend per year if I stayed in the UK ! There is some sort of contradiction here. I was under the impression that the Thai cost of living is about a third of the UK. So is the contradiction explained by the fact i could get much more entertainment and travel for the same money than the UK ? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> You could try living on £ 5,000 per year, but I think that in BKK or Pattaya you will be miserable trying to live on that small amount. Hey, It's going to cost you £ 500 per year just to do the monthly visa runs, that's 10% of your total !!!! £ 2,000 per year for accomodation gets you a very mediocre appartment including power and water. You are now left with less than Bt 500 a day for food, entertainment, clothes and anything else. Naaa. Naka. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerryd Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 I could live a lot cheaper than I do, but I'm still working, so I tend to spend a little more. 3,000 - Small, cheap apartment (in Pattaya, power and cable TV included) 6,000 - Food (mostly eating local, rarely cooking in apartment) 3,000 - Miscellaneous (taxis, clothes, laundry, ect) 12,000 baht/month (about 163 British pounds) That would be living pretty cheap, with no entertainment. You can get beer for about 25 baht a bottle (1/3rd of a pound ?). Other "entertainment" will cost more of course. Budget extra for those things, and a little extra for a "rainy day" fund. 5,000 pound is approx 370,000 Baht, divide by 12 = 30,000 baht a month, or 1,000 a day roughly. Put (maybe ?) 10% of your monthly away for your emergency fund (3,000/month), that would leave you with about 500 baht a day for other things (snooker, or the g/f you'll probably end up with !) I think you'll need 800,000 baht in the bank (almost 11,000 pounds) to get the retirement visa though (check the Visa forums elsewhere on this board). Consider possible other costs as well like buying a condo, car or motorcycle, and things like medical insurance/prescriptions or travel back to Blighty when you get homesick for fat girls and bad weather ! It can be cheaper to live here, but it also can be more expensive, depending on your lifestyle and what it takes to achieve your desired "comfort level". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thetyim Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 Naka, did you read the OP ? It says RETIREMANT visa. Thats 1900 baht per year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thetyim Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 Penbat, If you want a meaningful answer to your question then you need to answer about 50 questions so the we know want you mean by comfortable. Judging from your other postings you have never been to Thailand. You are considering an important move in your life. You really should come here and have a look first, on a long holiday. Thailand is not for everyone. This forum will naturally be biased in favour of thailand . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barryofthailand Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 if you have a retirement income of 65,000 baht a month you do not have to put 800,000 baht in the bank. No visa runs, just 1900 baht per year to renue the extention, and repot to immigration every 90 days. you can live very good on 40,000 baht per month in Pattaya. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daleyboy Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 2500 pound can last a year in pattaya easily. That also includes getting drunk every 2nd day ( calculated "getting drunk"= drinking a 26 of sang som ) What planet are you living on 2500 pounds wouldnt last you 3 monthe let alone 1 year. I think you must have made a miscalculation somewhere, either that or you live in a carboard box and eat out of dustbins Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerryd Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 2500 pound can last a year in pattaya easily. That also includes getting drunk every 2nd day ( calculated "getting drunk"= drinking a 26 of sang som ) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> What planet are you living on 2500 pounds wouldnt last you 3 monthe let alone 1 year. I think you must have made a miscalculation somewhere, either that or you live in a carboard box and eat out of dustbins <{POST_SNAPBACK}> 2,500 British pounds is apprx 185,000 baht (at todays exchange rate). Divide by 12 = 15,000 baht a month roughly. You can squeak by on that, assuming you live Thai style (small, 1 room apartment, eating locally (i.e. from the vendors and food carts), drinking very little, rarely going out). Basically living like a hermit most of the year. I barely get by on twice that amount (30,000), but alot is spent on booze. If I cut down the drinking and womanizing, I could get by a lot cheaper ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opothai Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 i do not understand why people want to retire to pattaya or bangkok, but that is up to them. going by personal expierience only. me and the wife are going to retire in korat, we have been building our 'dream home' for 3 years with ready money so no expence when we make the move. my friends that are in a similar situation live exeptionally well on 65.000bht per month and when they want a holiday then they go to pattaya or hua hin. the reason i could not retire to pattaya or the like, i would not live long enough to spend my hard earned money Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corkscrew Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 I am a single male thinking of living maybe in Pattaya or Bangkok on a retirement visa. Very roughly how much money would I need to spend per year to live comfortably - the Thai equivalent of £5,000 English pounds maybe ? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> If you can budget 2,000,000 baht per year here you can live about 2.5 times 'better' than your counterpart back home. The math suggests 3 times on property...just 40% on a car...but several hundred percent on amenities. Go for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opothai Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 (edited) I am a single male thinking of living maybe in Pattaya or Bangkok on a retirement visa. Very roughly how much money would I need to spend per year to live comfortably - the Thai equivalent of £5,000 English pounds maybe ? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> If you can budget 2,000,000 baht per year here you can live about 2.5 times 'better' than your counterpart back home. The math suggests 3 times on property...just 40% on a car...but several hundred percent on amenities. Go for it. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> 2 million baht, unless you are on 150.000 sterling per year where do you get 2.5 times better. by my calculations the cost of living pro rata wages are 5 to 1 therefor 50.000k sterling = 3.650,000bht is equvalent to 750,000bht per year. i think you enjoy the amenities to much :whistling:but hey enjoy yourself Edited June 5, 2005 by opothai Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neeranam Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 Christ, how long is a piece of string? I had a great time in Bangkok on between 400 and 700,000 Baht. You could live there cheaper. To many factors unknown about you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooL_guY_corY Posted June 6, 2005 Share Posted June 6, 2005 What planet are you living on unsure.gif 2500 pounds wouldnt last you 3 monthe let alone 1 year. I think you must have made a miscalculation somewhere, either that or you live in a carboard box and eat out of dustbins !!!!!!!!!!! I lived on that easily, maybe add about 500 more pounds give or take.. and i got DRUNK a lot. sangsom 145 bahts 3 or 4 cans of coke, 50 bahTz and ice, 10 bahts.. Get drunk every 2nd day and its only like 35000 bahts for liqour a year.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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