Quality Of Life On Phuket With Expat Teaching Package

[cajunpete]

Teacher with trailing spouse and child. $36.000 USD/yr Tax Free

Free housing and worldwide health care

Free tuition for child at private school

Free airfair each year for family

I know on the surface from what I have read it sounds really good, but I also know that Phuket is very expensive.

Is this a good package for the area?

Potential lifestyle/savings ?

Salary tax free, of US taxes...what would the tax burden be in Thailand?

Any information would be greatly appreciated !

Thanks,

CP

Edited January 5, 2012 by cajunpete

[cajunpete]

Can't anyone please help?

Approx 92,000 BHT/mo

Local taxes only (Tax free US Citizen)

Free housing (I must pay first $1,000 USD utilities)

Savings potential/quality of life on Phuket ?

Next to Koh Samui, most expensive place to live in LOS?

Would like to travel SEA.

Possible?

Monthly cost of living?

ANY help would be greatly appreciated!!!!!

Thanks,

CP

Edited January 6, 2012 by cajunpete

[Scott]

There are people who live in those areas who are best at answering your questions.

The salary is quite liveable, IMO, Especially if your child's tuition is paid. If your wife is working and bringing in some money you should have few problems and if you don't have big bills in your home country such as a mortgage, credit card payments, student loans.

If you plan on getting a car, then things start getting a little more expensive.

So much depends on your life-style. If you have to eat out each night at good restaurants with Western food and wine, you might have a little trouble. If you fly all over and stay in expensive hotels, it gets expensive.

If you eat the local cuisine at the local establishments or cook at home and limit your socializing and nights out, you will have plenty of money to live on. You can travel reasonably inexpensively in SE Asia.

There are a lot of variables.

[chiang mai]

It all depends on your lifestyle, I've lived on Phuket for the past four years and yes, Phuket can be expensive. But if you avoid eating,drinking and entertainment at tourist orientated places it is possible to live a a decent life fairly inexpensively. If you are prepared to eat at small local Thai food outlets and to prepare food at home that will make for big savings. Two other areas of expense that can potentially eat up your salary are transportation and medical costs so you'll need to cater to those things. Used cars are not cheap in Thailand so figure an up front cost of buying a half way decent used one starts at THB 250,000. Medical insurance may take care of most of the other expense but you will of course have premiums to pay. Personally I would advise taking out Thai medical insurance rather than buying it overseas since the premiums may well be a lot less.

It's difficult to put an exact number on what it might cost since we all live different lifestyles but for example, when we lived in Patong (two adults) we spent around THB 140k a month which included THB 30k rent and near THB 5k utilities, we owned our own car so no expense there - I might add that we were not big on eating/drinking at the tourists places although we did travel a fair amount. By comparison we now live in the North of Thailand where we spend around THB 90K a month with the same lifestyle albeit our rent is now only 22k a month, that will give you some idea of the price premium associated with Phuket. Hope that helps somewhat.

Edited January 6, 2012 by chiang mai

[cajunpete]

Thanks to all that have replied.

I also posted on the Phuket forum and received answers there as well.

The job would be with QSI.

The utilities would involve me paying the first $1,000/usd for the year, then QSI would pick-up the remainder for the rest of the year.

CP

[Kilgore Trout]

Sounds like a decent package; if you are going to live in Phuket though, I might suggest getting your own mode of transport and avoid renting jet skis.

Who is offering you this exemption from US taxes? I believe there is a provision in the US tax code that will let you work for a period of time tax free abroad; but it does certainly not exempt you from filing taxes and you must file in a very specifice way with specific documentation.

Is the school going to do the paperwork for your US taxes? Something to think about.

Good luck.