Living the (genuinely) high life in BKK ...

[MrWorldwide]

Mods - if you'd prefer to move this to Pub, be my guest - I'm posting it here as some of us seem to have some very strong opinions on what constitutes 'insane' money in Thailand. This definitely isnt a thread for Pattaya minimalists or folk growing their own lentils in Nakhon Nowhere. Some can live in BKK on 20K a month - more power to them - but this is a thread about the other end of town. Someone asked why there are no 'interesting' threads in GT any more - I'm guessing this will generate some interesting responses, but if it's locked by the time I get back from the bars I think we're denying ourselves a little escapism - hope springs eternal.

OK - we have all kinds of hypotheticals here and most of the cost of living threads quickly degenerate into a contest to see who can live in Thailand on the least amount of money. Screw that - let's live a little. even if very few of us appear to spend more than 200K a month to live our 'real' lives here. No argument that cost of living threads ultimately come down to 'how long is a piece of string ?', but for most of us those balls of string just arent that big to begin with

If we draw a line through Takky and the Red Bull heir as people who would have a ludicrous amount of money to spend in any city they chose to live in, lets keep this discussion to a simple set of parameters :

- live in a 3 bedroom penthouse on Upper Suk

- have enough to pay for the Elite card and thus no immediate visa issues

- work online, if at all (hey, its your fantasy) and can roll out of bed at 5pm if you've had a big night

- have a live-in maid and a driver on-call 24/7

- have the usual motorised toys - the Harley and a luxury sports car somewhere in the Audi R8 region

- tailored clothes, handmade shoes, expensive watch yada-yada and of course you only drink 300-baht+ vodka at clubs in Thonglor

I said simple - I didn't say cheap - but let's assume that for whatever reason you spend most of your time in BKK and have no immediate need to fly to Europe, this would still be considered a 'baller' lifestyle by most of us. Another TVer threw out a figure of 250K USD for a similar lifestyle in Bangkok in 2015, and I have to ask if he's still living in 2005. 8.1 million baht (the greenback is currently a little over 32 baht (vs 39 in 2005 - glory days), and that comes out at 675K a month - the R8 alone is up around 10 million THB to buy and I dont see too many leasing companies handing the keys to an unemployed Farang : thrilled to hear otherwise.

Here's a nice Thonglor penthouse ready for you to decorate to your own taste at 130K a month - a shade under 4K USD - complete with maid's quarters and a killer view:

http://bangkokcondos.co.th/property/junior-penthouse-for-rent-eight-thonglor-residences/

Let's assume your paying another 20K a month for utilities - you like to keep that pad airconditioned and you have to have your internet/cable etc - so that's 150K a month out of your budget. Let's allocate another 25K a month for clothes, phones and the other toys that the kids today have to have - probably a conservative figure, but now we're down to 500K and we still havent landed that damned car ....

Food - I like food, and I dont get to eat at anywhere near as many genuinely high-end restaurants as I'd like to. I'd also like to stock the larder in that Penthouse (or rather have my maid stock it) with all the tasty delights I'm likely to want on a daily basis. How about a few bottles of reasonably expensive wine to impress my dinner guests with while they admire the view from my penthouse ? Food really is 'how long is a piece of string ?', but even 5 nights out per month at 5K baht a night for a meal and a bottle of wine is 25K - lets bring this in at 50K a month.

Now the big one - nightlife. Suddenly my ball of string begins to look a whole lot smaller. Whether most of us have the stamina for a big night out every second night in high-end clubs is a tougher question than what it would cost, but given that I've done 22K in a single evening/morning right here in Pattaya I dont consider 20K an unrealistic estimate if you're keen to impress the locals with your intimate knowledge of boutique vodka or whatever the cool kids are drinking these days. 10 nights of that a month and there's 200K straight down the nearest urinal but I doubt that most genuine high rollers would flinch at that.

Lets recap:

Rent and Utilities - 150K

Clothes and electronics - 25K

Food - 50K

Nightlife - 200K

Subtotal - 425K

Unless my arithmetic has completely failed me, you still have to find someone who will lease you a late-model supercar for less than 350K a month (assuming you want to put fuel in it). Sure, you might be able to shave ~100K by cutting down on some of the rubbery figures I've described above, but then you're not really living the 'baller' lifestyle, are you ? Not much point asking people around to your penthouse if you're going to have pad thai and heaven forbid that anyone at the club should see you in the same shirt you were wearing the previous month. I'm not going to talk about salaries for my maid or on-call driver, as someone will inevitably tell me they basically work for food and a bottle of Thai whiskey a week. Of course - silly me paying for servants : what was I thinking ?

All of the above is a reflection of my own priorities - I chew through something in the order of 120-130K THB a month living in an apartment that costs me no more than 10K baht incl electricity, internet and water. If I see something I like, I tend to buy it, but comments like 'I dont understand how anyone could possibly spend more than 2K a day in Thailand' are shortsighted IMO. If you have a Thai wife who is effectively costing you nothing each month, then of course you're ahead of the game - live alone and I guarantee you there will be distractions. I have lived on Soi 22 in BKK in a former girlfriend's 5K a month apartment on less than 2-300 baht a day and that's an existence I have no desire to revisit. I effectively did nothing this morning - ate out for breakfast, bought a packet of Ibuprofen on the way back and picked up a couple of things at 7/11 (basic necessities unless you no longer use toilet paper or toothpaste) and that was ~450 baht gone. I could go down to Soi Cheap Charlie later or buy beers from 7/11 and drink them in my room - sure - but some of us like to lash out a little and enjoy the company of people with more than 3 of their own teeth. As the night wears on, such highbrow aspirations usually disappear, but aiming high at the outset tends to minimise the number of OMG moments the following afternoon. A baller shouldn't have to deal with any of that, and hi-so women should never expect payment for the pleasure of their company, other than the 10 or so 300 baht drinks they threw down in record time within hours of meeting you

Let's get back to our 'baller' fantasy. Nothing stands still, and I expect that goes double for prices at that end of Sukhumvit Road. I have little doubt that you could, indeed, have lived 'like a baller' on Thonglor on 675K THB a month back in 2005, but how impressive would that 10-year old Porsche / Audi / BMW be today ? I don't know how the tax system works in Thailand, but in Oz the big attraction for those leasing luxury cars was that you could write some of the cost off against your tax if you did a certain number of kilometres per year - this enables those earning a certain amount to update to the lastest model every few years. Unless you are declaring your earnings to the Thai tax man (and thus have a valid work permit), this wont be the case - all that effort just doesnt line up with my personal fantasy anyway. I've read that used cars can be anywhere up to 50% lower than the new car price in Thailand - you're still talking ~5 million baht for something that will really impress the chicks and you havent even been to your Harley dealer yet......

As this is a fantasy and I dont live in a penthouse, all of the above can easily be challenged by the Cognoscenti on TV - fine - but in my estimation i would want somewhere between 10-12 times my current Pattaya budget to live anything even resembling the 'baller' lifestyle on upper Suk. Given that 60K a month seems to be considered a generous lifestyle for many who live here, I'm guessing 120K a month puts me in the 'insane' camp : if I'm going to be insane it may as well be the kind of crazy willing to make a statement like this:

If you cant count on at least 1.2 million baht a month, free of tax, you will not be a serious 'high roller' in Bangkok

Yep, around 440K USD over a 12 month period - to me, that's a lot of money to be able to tell people at clubs you live in penthouse, eat nice food and drive a nice car. Cities like Sydney, Hong Kong, NYC, Singapore and Tokyo would undoubtedly chew that kind of budget without too much trouble, but do you really want to be spending that kind of money to live in Bangkok ? I'm happy to hear from anyone who is currently living in BKK and pulling down more than 300K a month after tax, but I'm guessing your employer isnt leaving you with a whole lot of energy for clubbing at 4am on a Thursday morning. Again, thrilled to hear otherwise, particularly if your employer is cool with you rocking up at 1pm on Fridays looking like you just left the club

I'm hoping people can have fun with this instead of turning it into the usual bunfight. We've all seen the footage of Michael Jackson on Rodeo Drive blowing half a million USD in a single insane spree - in that context, a year indulging in the best Thailand has to offer doesnt seem like such a bad deal. My motosai taxi awaits and my associates grow impatient : I look forward to your informed feedback.

[baneko]

If you have the cash go for it mate.

[pigeonjake]

just because some earn over 650,000 a month baht dosnt mean they have to spent it,

its not all about a pissing contest to live here,

yes im one of them who grows lentils in Nakhon Nowhere,well infact it was ploughing and planting corn today, but thats what i chose to do, not because i have to do

[Soutpeel]

just because some earn over 650,000 a month baht dosnt mean they have to spent it,

its not all about a pissing contest to live here,

yes im one of them who grows lentils in Nakhon Nowhere,well infact it was ploughing and planting corn today, but thats what i chose to do, not because i have to do

[CharlieH]

A non-Thai, with that kind of money and life-style, in my opinion would find a better playground/environment than Bangkok.

[robertthebruce]

Bored this evening were we....

[MJP]

This definitely isnt a thread for Pattaya minimalists or folk growing their own lentils in Nakhon Nowhere.

Quality!

Edited March 27, 2015 by MJP

[topt]

Thanks OP for a new word - baller - I had to look it up

[Lukecan]

You shouldnt look at it in terms of income but rather in terms of wealth.

USD 5 million is enough for a semi-highlife, 10 million is more than enough for highlife.

By highlife, I mean that penthouse with river view, Ferrari, 24/7 maid etc.

and 250k a year is enough to maintain that highlife if you have wealth of 10 million. After buying the ferrari,r8 or whatever., you're set to go.

The more wealth you have, the less you will spend I'm not kidding.

You will hangout with hi-so's and get access to private jets, boats etc free of charge.

You'll be going to nightclubs without spending a dime on some days, as the costs will be covered by your hi-so buddy.

I know cause my cousin is a football player, I was the one who came up with the term "baller" in this forum.

He makes over 1.5 million euros a year, doesnt spend more than 300k, yet he goes on trips with his friends private jet etc etc.

Edited March 27, 2015 by Lukecan

[wow64]

Living like a Baller.. the only person i know who is living anything close to a baller here is a friend of mine who is a trust fund baby. Bastard does not have to work. He is 35 and so he says gets USD25K per month and spends it all on cars, booze, partying and girls. Going off his Condo/Penthouse and cars he is balling as you say.

I can only dream.. work too hard to spend anything. The only balling I do is bawling when I look at my back account at the end of the month to see even though I have done nothing I have still managed to spend everything.

[ryanhull]

are your balls any bigger from this post? have a word with yourself

Edited March 27, 2015 by ryanhull

[Anthony5]

This definitely isnt a thread for Pattaya minimalists or folk growing their own lentils in Nakhon Nowhere.

Quality!

I wonder why the OP lives in Pattaya, I mean to recall he moved there from Bangkok, if it are ALL minimalists here?

Maybe just another dreamer, living in a 2500 Baht/month room?

[JohnnyJazz]

A non-Thai, with that kind of money and life-style, in my opinion would find a better playground/environment than Bangkok.

Actually I would be curious to know if there is any seriously rich non-Thai who chose to have his (her) main residence in Thailand ?

Edited March 27, 2015 by JohnnyJazz

[smokie36]

just because some earn over 650,000 a month baht dosnt mean they have to spent it,

its not all about a pissing contest to live here,

yes im one of them who grows lentils in Nakhon Nowhere,well infact it was ploughing and planting corn today, but thats what i chose to do, not because i have to do

Do you make your own soup?

I know a pub in Scotland that needs soup....to complement the pies and excellent beer.

[fey]

play ball, baller.

if you have baller cash its not worth it to live in bkk long term. plenty of better places to go.

some loser uk guy was trying to be a baller near nana in a pizza place buy buying free beers. and grabbing some birds arse while we were trying to eat. he thought he was a rich baller.

boy was he a loser. could not play ball.

Edited March 27, 2015 by fey

[mogandave]

Indeed

[smokie36]

if you have baller cash its not worth it to live in bkk long term. plenty of better places to go.

All depends what you want in life and your circumstances.

For me all that is missing in Bangkok is a truly wonderful park....and a great beach.

The beach is close enough for me.

[kannot]

I posted what my Wife earnt in another thread, it was mocked by the head tosser on tv, its not in this league but the whole thread will get ripped to shreds soon.

As Jake says some people earn a lot and really dont spend it, some like the thrill of making money but zero interest in spending it

the richest people I have met have been very very low key and Im talking 10's of millions of $ but I do know a kid from school who is in the billion dollar bracket He wasnt a nice person when I knew him and I dont think hes changed

[kannot]

This definitely isnt a thread for Pattaya minimalists or folk growing their own lentils in Nakhon Nowhere.

Quality!

I wonder why the OP lives in Pattaya, I mean to recall he moved there from Bangkok, if it are ALL minimalists here?

Maybe just another dreamer, living in a 2500 Baht/month room?

You can get rooms for 1500 baht in the govt built Nong Chareon condo close to Seacon square Srinakarin road.

Cockroaches as big as mice.............my Wife used to live there.

[MrWorldwide]

This definitely isnt a thread for Pattaya minimalists or folk growing their own lentils in Nakhon Nowhere.

Quality!

I wonder why the OP lives in Pattaya, I mean to recall he moved there from Bangkok, if it are ALL minimalists here?

Maybe just another dreamer, living in a 2500 Baht/month room?

Lets get this straight, once and for all:

- I stated very clearly what I spend in Pattaya, and what I pay in rent, in the OP.

- I lived in BKK for 3 months in 2010, went back to Oz and retired in Pattaya in 2014

- there are TVers in Pattaya who spend more in a night than you spend in a month - deal with it

- Dreamer ? Sure. Did you happen to read the part about 'this is a fantasy thread' ?

- if you've read this as any kind of bitterness you are completely off track - my only comment is that for ~440K USD a year some might prefer a different city

My friend, I'm forbidden from launching a personal attack on you here, but your post looks an awful lot like one to me in a thread that should have been nothing more than a harmless bit of fun. I honestly dont know what is wrong with you, but you seem to have a problem in pretty much every thread you've posted in - feel free to keep the personal attacks coming, but this thread was simply asking the question 'What does it really cost to live the high life in BKK ?'. There are enough threads about how to live in Thailand on 10K a month - this was an attempt to explore what it might be like for those who dont have the same constraints but clearly it was a miserable failure if this is the best you can offer.

[MrWorldwide]

are your balls any bigger from this post? have a word with yourself

Again, its a fantasy thread - I dont need to have a word with myself. I know what I can spend and it has absolutely nothing to do with the usual cost of living threads here, which are inevitably a race to the bottom. Did you spend your entire working life dreaming of the day when you could retire in Thailand ? I did from somewhere around the age of 40 and it took me 15 years to achieve that - I'm dreadfully sorry if that makes my balls somehow smaller in your opinion but I guess that's a cross I'll have to bear.

[MrWorldwide]

A non-Thai, with that kind of money and life-style, in my opinion would find a better playground/environment than Bangkok.

Agree 100%, but its not a conundrum I've ever been faced with - simply responding to the somewhat dated idea that 675K a month would buy you that kind of life. A large part of my fantasy scenario rested on the cost of luxury sports cars in Thailand, and I think most of us would agree that the duty levied on those vehicles is even more insane than in most parts of the world. Still, if you're hellbent on making an impression on impressionable women .....

[MrWorldwide]

just because some earn over 650,000 a month baht dosnt mean they have to spent it,

its not all about a pissing contest to live here,

yes im one of them who grows lentils in Nakhon Nowhere,well infact it was ploughing and planting corn today, but thats what i chose to do, not because i have to do

Not sure you're onboard with the whole 'baller' concept. Technically, it means 'extremely good, impressive or excellent', but its the same old alpha male you and I grew up with. I regard Warren Buffet as 'extremely good', but is he a baller ? He reportedly lives a very modest lifestyle and has done for most of his life - without an outward display of his wealth he probably isnt considered a 'baller'. In a post-Apocalyptic world, he probably wouldn't be and farmers like yourself may well be 'extremely impressive', but right now it seems to be all about bling and the illusion of having all that you desire : that's a powerful aphrodisiac for some. In another culture, we might have been talking the number of camels you own and the size of your tent - in BKK in 2015 I think its a little more mundane than that. I'm not passing judgement on any of it - people spend their money as they see fit and there is no shortage of playboys from Auckland to Anchorage : this thread just happens to be about a single city in Thailand.

I also agree that it isnt a pissing contest to live here, but if someone is prepared to throw out a figure for what it costs to live the high life in Bangkok in 2015 I'm prepared to challenge that - even based on my miniscule understanding of those costs - but it was all meant to be in the spirit of escapism and apparently that's a concept that doesnt appeal to the hard-as-nails brigade here, so I'll leave it there.

[neverdie]

Thanks for the entertaining read Mr Ww.

If I werein the position to throw 6xx k away each month at life I wouldn't do

It in the fashion you so describe, mainly because I have no

Desire to go drinking nor chase local tail in Bangkok, so I guess my waY if doing things would be different and I wouldn't fall into the 'baller' category. For example, whilst I find the Audi R8 (2015) an extremely attractive vehicle, I have no desire to own one & if I did, I'd get one, in fact, I own 2 vehicles presently and one of the cost me significantly more than what the V10 5.2 litre variant of the Audi would cost me ($AU) price....... I actually shudder at the Thai price. So if I had the desire, I could of but just wouldn't and I imagine there's enty of wealthy people around in the same thought pattern as myself.

Anyway, I digress. My point is, whilst I loved your thoughtful thread, if I were to be BALLING IT, I would be back living on another yacht, maybe 10 foot longer than my last one, and I might be sitting on the deck eating seafood (purchased rather than caught....can't be raising a sweat de-shelling my lobster) & I'd either be floating around the Whitsunday Islands, Maldives, Greece Coastline or Fiji etc. THAT WOULD BE really balling it in my world. There wouldn't be a bottle of wine, a nightclub or ho anywhere in sight! 555555

I guess that puts me out of the baller category on more than one level. ?

Anyway, ROCK ON and enjoy you life, kudos to you for living your own balked lifestyle, even if it's not the 600k per month one you describe in this very entertaining thread.

In a side note, imagine parking ur R8 in bangers, only to come back to it and find som chai's Honda wave rest up agains the rear bumper and his helmet sitting on your roof turret while he fumbles through his pockets looking for his keys ???

[neverdie]

This definitely isnt a thread for Pattaya minimalists or folk growing their own lentils in Nakhon Nowhere.

Quality!

???

[MrWorldwide]

Thanks neverdie, and I have absolutely no argument that there are infinitely more creative ways to spend the kind of money I've idly thrown around in this thread than living a completely hedonistic lifestyle in central Bangkok. As many have already pointed out, how many foreigners would chose Bangkok as their playground if they had the kind of money we're talking about ? Still, no shortage of people willing to fantasise about how they would spend 60/120/400K a month if their current circumstances were different - why not take that a step further and put yourself in that penthouse with the world (supposedly) at your feet ?

I do have one thing that Takky and the Red Bull heir cant seem to buy, and that's the freedom to parade my ugly mug all over Thailand - as the ad says, 'Priceless'

[smokie36]

I could do it....but my lass would never let me...alas!

[MJP]

I've no idea about the high life in Bangers, but growing my own lentils as I do in Issan always seems to cost me an absolute fortune.

[fey]

this guys got huge balls, and hes always getting off. hes a baller!

even bond could not ball that boy

[MrWorldwide]

do you get to shoot the abbot somewhere?

run over the police lieutenant in your super-car?

declare a military coup?

appropriate public land or national parks?

initiate grenade attacks against the highest courts?

murder shagging british holidaymakers on the beach?

abscond with a major universities slush fund?

execute some pesky vocal environmentalists?

decide who gets called in for attitude adjustment?

run a major clandestine oil importing operation?

successfully run a major human trafficking/prostitution enterprise?

thanks but i'll stick to the lentils in nakhorn nowhere

Technically, it was supposed to be your fantasy, but that sounds more like an amalgalm of every horror story in Thailand. I'd invest in decaf if those are the first things that spring to mind when you see the word 'fantasy'.