How much do I need to retire in Thailand with a fairly high standard of living

[mogandave]

I'm off to get another Chang and see if Nok has that 150K baht she's been promising to repay for the last year or so.

Or at least something to cover the interest?

[Naam]

Decent accommodation in BKK Downtown - 2 beds, 2 baths about 35-40k baht per month. HS Internet 1k, electric 2k, eating out 20k, activity - good gym 2k, golf 2x per week 20k, female company ( not the bar scene) 25k , good medical cover 1.5k, mobile phone 0.75k, day today living (shopping etc) 10k

150k baht per month will give you a really good lifestyle in BKK - can't speak for other places

eating out 20k but sweating at home (electricity 2k)?

i prefer the other way round!

I live in a 2 bedroom house.Air-con is on all evening in the living room and most of the night in the bedroom. Use fans too. Never had a bill more than 2000 baht

2-bedroom houses exist which have additional 8 rooms which use up, when the whole area is airconditioned, 2,000 Baht electricity in three days during one of the hot months. that includes of course all other gadgets using electricity.

edited for addendum: actually it is nine rooms besides the two bedrooms.

Edited March 18, 2015 by Naam

[MJP]

^^Crikey! When I put the other fan on I feel I'm really pushing the boat out.

[rgs2001uk]

^^Crikey! When I put the other fan on I feel I'm really pushing the boat out.

Employ a Punkawallah, much cheaper than a leccy bill.

For some reason M, this is the picture I have of you when I think of you living the colonial life on your upcountry estate.

I do trust thats the Times you are reading and not the Gradient.

[MJP]

^^Believe me, I'm the one flapping the banana leaf.

[theslime]

Can I live on 75k a year in THAILAND , yes if you spend 74,999. Got it all figured out and I,m not a lawyer. Move on, nothing for the brain here.

[nycjoe]

Rent $400 for 120 sq meters

Electric $100 ac on in three rooms hot season. Other times $30.

Cable phone fiber optic Internet $110

Gym $400 year

Water $3 tap $20 drinking

Thai meal $2

Western meal $3-10

The women take all the rest if you let them.

[sir charles IV]

A forty something year old lawyer working across the Atlantic on $75/pa? Our senior paralegal get that sort of of money. A qualified lawyer (average one ) is around 180-200k p/a. Since when $75k is classified as "high income"? For a lawyer is the bare bottom. Me thinks he's a daydreamer. After a holiday here he maybe thinking I can do this for good. On that note not worth giving advice. ps at 26 I was earning that kind of money. By the time u factor house payment etc I hardly had anything left and never considered myself as a big shot high earner. I still don't.

[beachproperty]

A forty something year old lawyer working across the Atlantic on $75/pa? Our senior paralegal get that sort of of money. A qualified lawyer (average one ) is around 180-200k p/a. Since when $75k is classified as "high income"? For a lawyer is the bare bottom. Me thinks he's a daydreamer. After a holiday here he maybe thinking I can do this for good. On that note not worth giving advice. ps at 26 I was earning that kind of money. By the time u factor house payment etc I hardly had anything left and never considered myself as a big shot high earner. I still don't.

Well "sir charles" obviously reading comprehension is not your bag.

OP's question was could he retire on the 75k/yr in style in Thailand...soooo must be making a lot more than that now as an attorney/solicitor to have saved up enough to give him 75/k a year in retirement....but that's an assumption ....he could have easily just inherited a large sum of money to generate that income.

He never said.

Might be wise to read what he posted first

[JB300]

A forty something year old lawyer working across the Atlantic on $75/pa? Our senior paralegal get that sort of of money. A qualified lawyer (average one ) is around 180-200k p/a. Since when $75k is classified as "high income"? For a lawyer is the bare bottom. Me thinks he's a daydreamer. After a holiday here he maybe thinking I can do this for good. On that note not worth giving advice. ps at 26 I was earning that kind of money. By the time u factor house payment etc I hardly had anything left and never considered myself as a big shot high earner. I still don't.

If you took the time to read his post you'll see that $75k pa is what he has available for his early retirement, nowhere does it say that it's his salary

Oh & at 26 (23 years ago) I was earning £50,000 (approx $80,000) & just retired (at 49 in case the maths hurt) from a salary 2 1/2 times that & can "only" manage a monthly budget of 1/2 that amount so I'm guessing his salary must have been a damn sight more impressive than mine.

Edited March 20, 2015 by JB300

[Soutpeel]

A forty something year old lawyer working across the Atlantic on $75/pa? Our senior paralegal get that sort of of money. A qualified lawyer (average one ) is around 180-200k p/a. Since when $75k is classified as "high income"? For a lawyer is the bare bottom. Me thinks he's a daydreamer. After a holiday here he maybe thinking I can do this for good. On that note not worth giving advice. ps at 26 I was earning that kind of money. By the time u factor house payment etc I hardly had anything left and never considered myself as a big shot high earner. I still don't.

Why don't you try reading the OP and his posts, before dazzling us with your brilliance ?

Nowhere is any of the posts has he stated 75k p.a. is his current salary, he has asked the question could one survive on 75k p.a. being on retirement, that's all,

now if on retirement his net is 75k/year he is/was on a good screw to give him a net pension or income from investments of over USD 6k/m for the rest of his life

now even you as this high flying lawyer "earning this at age 26" can surely see the difference ?

BTW a quick little thing on google indicates the average salary for a lawyer in the US is USD 131k p.a. and a paralegal USD 51k/year

so guess your overstating things a tad...are you even a lawyer ?, as typically when someone is actually in a profession one is usually pretty clued up on what average salaries are in ones chosen profession and your not even close at 180-200k p.a.

[Wasa]

A forty something year old lawyer working across the Atlantic on $75/pa? Our senior paralegal get that sort of of money. A qualified lawyer (average one ) is around 180-200k p/a. Since when $75k is classified as "high income"? For a lawyer is the bare bottom. Me thinks he's a daydreamer. After a holiday here he maybe thinking I can do this for good. On that note not worth giving advice. ps at 26 I was earning that kind of money. By the time u factor house payment etc I hardly had anything left and never considered myself as a big shot high earner. I still don't.

Like a lot of people here you failed to read the OP correctly. You just see what you want to see.

The OP asks if $75k would be sufficient to live on here. He did not state that was his current income in London.

He went on to clarify in a later post that he meant $75K per annum.

So he intends to retire as a self funded retiree using income from sources he did not disclose (and why should he)

You need to read his post again.

[sir charles IV]

A forty something year old lawyer working across the Atlantic on $75/pa? Our senior paralegal get that sort of of money. A qualified lawyer (average one ) is around 180-200k p/a. Since when $75k is classified as "high income"? For a lawyer is the bare bottom. Me thinks he's a daydreamer. After a holiday here he maybe thinking I can do this for good. On that note not worth giving advice. ps at 26 I was earning that kind of money. By the time u factor house payment etc I hardly had anything left and never considered myself as a big shot high earner. I still don't.

Well "sir charles" obviously reading comprehension is not your bag.

OP's question was could he retire on the 75k/yr in style in Thailand...soooo must be making a lot more than that now as an attorney/solicitor to have saved up enough to give him 75/k a year in retirement....but that's an assumption ....he could have easily just inherited a large sum of money to generate that income.

He never said.

Might be wise to read what he posted first

valid point

[sir charles IV]

A forty something year old lawyer working across the Atlantic on $75/pa? Our senior paralegal get that sort of of money. A qualified lawyer (average one ) is around 180-200k p/a. Since when $75k is classified as "high income"? For a lawyer is the bare bottom. Me thinks he's a daydreamer. After a holiday here he maybe thinking I can do this for good. On that note not worth giving advice. ps at 26 I was earning that kind of money. By the time u factor house payment etc I hardly had anything left and never considered myself as a big shot high earner. I still don't.

Why don't you try reading the OP and his posts, before dazzling us with your brilliance ?

Nowhere is any of the posts has he stated 75k p.a. is his current salary, he has asked the question could one survive on 75k p.a. being on retirement, that's all,

now if on retirement his net is 75k/year he is/was on a good screw to give him a net pension or income from investments of over USD 6k/m for the rest of his life

now even you as this high flying lawyer "earning this at age 26" can surely see the difference ?

BTW a quick little thing on google indicates the average salary for a lawyer in the US is USD 131k p.a. and a paralegal USD 51k/year

so guess your overstating things a tad...are you even a lawyer ?, as typically when someone is actually in a profession one is usually pretty clued up on what average salaries are in ones chosen profession and your not even close at 180-200k p.a.

cant let this one slip. Ok here we go. 1) can't speculate on assumption regarding current vs retirement income. Good point raised by u

2) where did I say I was a lawyer?

3) I said senior paralegal. I said we pay our senior paralegal hence reference to our firm. So u quoting average figures from Google is irrelevant.

4) average lawyer salary is irrelevant too as does not factor in experience and type of law work. I assumed as 40+ year old he'd have some experience unless a late bloomer

5) the paragraph containing too many "ones" is confusing and does not make sense.

[sir charles IV]

A forty something year old lawyer working across the Atlantic on $75/pa? Our senior paralegal get that sort of of money. A qualified lawyer (average one ) is around 180-200k p/a. Since when $75k is classified as "high income"? For a lawyer is the bare bottom. Me thinks he's a daydreamer. After a holiday here he maybe thinking I can do this for good. On that note not worth giving advice. ps at 26 I was earning that kind of money. By the time u factor house payment etc I hardly had anything left and never considered myself as a big shot high earner. I still don't.

If you took the time to read his post you'll see that $75k pa is what he has available for his early retirement, nowhere does it say that it's his salary

Oh & at 26 (23 years ago) I was earning £50,000 (approx $80,000) & just retired (at 49 in case the maths hurt) from a salary 2 1/2 times that & can "only" manage a monthly budget of 1/2 that amount so I'm guessing his salary must have been a damn sight more impressive than mine.

righto...... Sorry what was your point?

[fey]

Costs in Thailand vs. the West has been done to death

Personally I agree that Thailand overall is cheaper...Have a 6 unit beachfront place (just finishing now) ...all in when done 10,000,000 Baht ($330,000 USD). AND no property tax ....yet.

Actually, I think you can still you can get beach front property in Southern California for less than that if you shop around, although probably not in LA, Orange or SD counties.

WOW!!! ....if you really believe that California has beach front property with 6 rental units (6 bedrooms, 11 bathrooms and 6 kitchens) for less than $1,000,000 USD (let only $330,000 USD) ...PM me NOW with the details!...Otherwise I've got a bridge to sell you

Mogandave....classic case of either not reading my post correctly as to prices or you are totally misinformed. .....

There are very few homes (let along 6 units ON the beach) in the whole of the state of Calif for less than $330,000 USD

Oh ...and by the way, I'm referring to Land with buildings on them....NOT condos where you're only buying the air space.

I await you informing me of specific examples of beachfront property available.....Thanks (won't hold my breath though)

we all know that investing in thailand is risky and comes with a price though. i hope the property has a good buffer of empty space/land around it for one thing.

[beachproperty]

we all know that investing in thailand is risky and comes with a price though. i hope the property has a good buffer of empty space/land around it for one thing.

Why????

[JB300]

A forty something year old lawyer working across the Atlantic on $75/pa? Our senior paralegal get that sort of of money. A qualified lawyer (average one ) is around 180-200k p/a. Since when $75k is classified as "high income"? For a lawyer is the bare bottom. Me thinks he's a daydreamer. After a holiday here he maybe thinking I can do this for good. On that note not worth giving advice. ps at 26 I was earning that kind of money. By the time u factor house payment etc I hardly had anything left and never considered myself as a big shot high earner. I still don't.

If you took the time to read his post you'll see that $75k pa is what he has available for his early retirement, nowhere does it say that it's his salary

Oh & at 26 (23 years ago) I was earning £50,000 (approx $80,000) & just retired (at 49 in case the maths hurt) from a salary 2 1/2 times that & can "only" manage a monthly budget of 1/2 that amount so I'm guessing his salary must have been a damn sight more impressive than mine.

righto...... Sorry what was your point?

No "Point" fella, you acknowledged you'd misinterpreted the OPs position & I for one admire that (probably because I've done it dozens of times myself).

All posts & viewpoints are welcome (that's how we learn) unless they're just spiteful (which, for the avoidance of doubt, yours was not).

Cheers

JB

[MrWorldwide]

In the spirit of JB300s last post, I'm going to avoid singling anyone out, but clearly my earlier post was either misunderstood or completely ignored - if you're in the latter camp, feel free to ignore this one, too - its just more of me banging my head against my Mac keyboard.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/808975-how-much-do-i-need-to-retire-in-thailand-with-a-fairly-high-standard-of-living/?p=9202342

Even if the OP was not genuine, cost of living threads are a perennial here but this was slightly different : instead of asking whether he could live on 30K a month, he wanted to know if ~200K THB a month would give him a 'comfortable' standard of living in a Thai city. That's it - whether he is a lawyer in London or an electrician in Timbuktu is completely irrelevant - all that was required as a simple conversion from his 75K USD 'pension' into the metric most of us can relate to and we were off to the races. If you thought he was trolling, why waste keystrokes encouraging further discussion ?

What may have been of value would have been listing a few rentals on Upper Suk or Thonglor and telling him what a night out in Bangkok's clubs could potentially cost, but instead he was greeted with crap like 'If you have to ask, you cant afford it'. A couple of posters pointed out that 200K may be enough for a single guy but that a family with school age could quickly chew through that amount - constructive - but others seem to have assumed that this would be his first trip to Thailand : the image of a newbie at Suk with a suitcase full of cash seems to resonate with many here and they cant help themselves. One or two told him to go and live in the US - <deleted> - and so it went : what should have been 3 pages at most is now 10, and that's after the mods pruned the worst of it.

OP, in the unlikely event that you're still following this thread, I stand by what I said earlier : spend 3 months in Bangkok, see as much of the other towns as you can and ignore the majority of what you read in internet forums. Good luck.

[JB300]

^^^ Mr WW... Fwiw, I thought your 1st post was spot on & this one even more so [emoji106][emoji106][emoji106]

Edited March 20, 2015 by JB300

[beachproperty]

Mr Worldwide ....since you have so graciously pointed out that my earlier post "if you've gotta ask, you can't afford it" was "crap"....I must point out (also graciously) that you missed the double entendre. Obviously taken literally it adds little and as you put it crap.

Since I initially interpreted the post as a troll post I respond accordingly with a twist on an old saying...... as anyone making the kind of money OP suggested and having accumulated enough wealth to sustain 75k/annually should be bright enough to figure out on his own his retirement needs.

My post #137 responded accordingly. In fact I even PM'd him with a luxury 1 bedroom beachfront rental (and photos....not a condo) within two hours of Bangkok that cost only 30,000 baht a month.

Other than that.....I agree with you.

Edited March 20, 2015 by beachproperty

[FritsSikkink]

I am a 19 yr. resident of Thailand. I use a factor of 0.285 when comparing prices here with my home country,Canada. Or, expressed the other way, prices there are 3.5x Thai prices. I think for someone from London, you could probably use a factor of 0.2 to 0.25. Think about health insurance costs, if you will need to buy that here.

what you on , I can live for a 1000baht a week easy, but i can live Thai, it depends on what you want out of life try moving after you have your Visas sorted out, Then try living in-Thailand first, Thats what most people do then they get an idea on what they want out of Thailand.

dO YOU MEAN 1,000 BAHT A DAY??????

NOBODY, can live in 4000 baht a month

I CAN LIVE ON 1000 baht a week easy, that does not include Living in my house. I/Wife owns the house. food is cheap, i do not drink , only on special occasions,

No you can't, you are living on other peoples money and can never pay for hospitals, a visa, visa runs, clothes and many more things for 1000 tbh a week..

[MrWorldwide]

@beachproperty, understoood - no problems.

[mogandave]

$75k a year does not seem like much for a lawyer.

(Just kidding)

[Soutpeel]

$75k a year does not seem like much for a lawyer.

(Just kidding)

How much does your Personal executive legal dolly bird get paid "Dave" ?

[mogandave]

$75k a year does not seem like much for a lawyer.

(Just kidding)

How much does your Personal executive legal dolly bird get paid "Dave" ?

For an oral brief or a brief oral?

[Oxpilot]

Thanks. I used USD rather than GBP for two reasons, firstly, I work for a US law firm in London and get paid in USD and secondly most of the articles I have read on cost of living quote USD. I'm dual-qualified as a solicitor in England & Wales and also an attorney in New York, which is why I used the term lawyer. I hope that answers your questions back to me!

I'm retired from a US airline age 77, with Thai wife and 2 children and own my condo and automobile. We don't go out drinking, but drink a little at home, go out for dinner about twice a week. I have medical insurance on my family for about 50,000 baht a year, car insurance for 25000 a year and my utilities cost around 120,000 per year becasue we run the airconditioner 24/7. Annual condo fees are another 30,000/yr Gas for car and motorbike about 10,000/yr. My son's school costs 250,000/yr.

My income from social security and pension is only $37,000 a year. I earn another $20,000 from other things. I live well, but not lavishly and my income just about covers my expenses. Hope this helps.

[Soutpeel]

$75k a year does not seem like much for a lawyer.

(Just kidding)

How much does your Personal executive legal dolly bird get paid "Dave" ?

For an oral brief or a brief oral?

oral brief of course Dave

[phutoie2]

Thanks. I used USD rather than GBP for two reasons, firstly, I work for a US law firm in London and get paid in USD and secondly most of the articles I have read on cost of living quote USD. I'm dual-qualified as a solicitor in England & Wales and also an attorney in New York, which is why I used the term lawyer. I hope that answers your questions back to me!

I'm retired from a US airline age 77, with Thai wife and 2 children and own my condo and automobile. We don't go out drinking, but drink a little at home, go out for dinner about twice a week. I have medical insurance on my family for about 50,000 baht a year, car insurance for 25000 a year and my utilities cost around 120,000 per year becasue we run the airconditioner 24/7. Annual condo fees are another 30,000/yr Gas for car and motorbike about 10,000/yr. My son's school costs 250,000/yr.

My income from social security and pension is only $37,000 a year. I earn another $20,000 from other things. I live well, but not lavishly and my income just about covers my expenses. Hope this helps.

wow aircon on 24/7. You not acclimatised yet?.

[thaibeachlovers]

we all know that investing in thailand is risky and comes with a price though. i hope the property has a good buffer of empty space/land around it for one thing.

Why????

Surely that is self evident, unless never lived in Thailand or a newbie. Hint- all night karaokes.