Wages And Cost Of Living

[tom yum goong]

Hi

I've heard that the cost of living in Thailand is about a quarter of the UK.

I was wondering if this is true and how does this relate to wages?

I dont mean local Thai wages but more along the lines of wages that expats recieve working on local contracts.

If you were earning 70,000 THB per month (roughly 1,000 GBP), does that mean that for an equivalent job in the UK you could expect to be earning 4,000 GBP.

I'm sure its not as simple as that but would appreciate and comments on the subject.

Cheers.

[bendix]

This subject has been done to death here and you would be well advised to read through the forum to find the various threads on it.

At any rate, your question is too vague to get any meaningful responses.

70,000 baht of income in Bangkok, for example, would - in my view - give you roughly the same kind of lifestyle that you might expect on, say, 2500-3000 UK pounds in London. You'll be able to live in a small but decent apartment in an area within a commute to your work place. You would be hard-pressed to run a car, but as in London, you probably wouldn't need one. You could likely eat out 2-3 times a week, and could probably go on an almightly bender once or twice a week. You could not expect to go out, by Gucci shoes, Armani suits and Mont Blanc watches whenever you decided you felt like it.

70,000 baht of income in an Isaan town would probably feel like a lot more . 4-5000 pounds, for example. I will leave it to an Isaan dweller to comment but the simple fact is that accommodation is much cheaper there and frankly there would be fewer high cost temptations chewing into your hard-earned.

I have a friend in Chiang Mai (live in GF, low cost rent, non-drinker) who swears he saves 15,000 of his 40,000 income every month because - he says - there's nothing he particular wants to spend his money on.

[bendix]

Actually, just to add to this. My view is that this 1-4 ratio probably only applies at the lower end of the scale. You might be able to buy a GBP4000 London lifestyle in BKK for only 70000 baht, but it doesnt necessarily follow that people earning - say - 400,000 a month in Bangkok have the same lifestyle as someone earning GBP23,000 a month in London.

That's covering the basic needs (accomodation, food, water etc) is much cheaper in Thailand than it is in England. But, over that base level, the cost of maintaining a luxury lifestyle (wines, overseas travel, gadgets, etc etc) would be pretty much the same.

[tom yum goong]

Apologies for not using the search and asking a vague question.

Thanks for a very considered response though Bendix.

[Nam Kao]

70,000 is HUGE upcountry!

I pull out a 1000 baht bill and its like i pulled a gold bar out of my pocket

[seeker108]

70,000 is HUGE upcountry!

I pull out a 1000 baht bill and its like i pulled a gold bar out of my pocket

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree with NK, and as Bendix may now know from another topic where I posted, if you want to or are forced to live on a budget you definitely can - outside of metro areas.

The basics of food, housing and a maid were, for me, baht 3,500 per month. Three or four times a month I would buy an internet access card for 90 baht that gave me unlimited dial-up access for 7 days. This gave me about baht 1,500/month to spend wildly on eating out or movies with my friend. Eating our fill out at nice places (not western hotels, however) might cost between 120 baht and 250 baht total for the two of us. Like Bendix's friend we did not drink, so no expense there. Some health related expenses and gas for the car brought my monthy total to about B7,000 (As you see, this makes Bendix's friend's B25,000 expenditure look much more plausable)

Admittedly this took serious searching and luck and a willingness to be outside of the city and the knowledge that I had the absolute need to fit within such a budget. I doubt many farang have found it possible to live this frugally and yet live well, but this shows you one extreme possiblility.

Re BKK, I would put the housing cost right up there almost on par with other cities. Ok, you can get a cheap studio (nowhere near a BTS station or where you want to be) for B4,000 monthly, but a real apt, decently located I would guess at an absolute minimum of B25,000 these days and most guys reading this are probably paying over B35,000 monthly (how many over B100,000?). Restaurants can be very inexpensive however (or expensive, depending on your tastes).