Moving to Thailand and concerned about Visa laws

[seancbk]

11 hours ago, moving to thailand said:

What a great forum, thank you all for the quick responses. Much appreciated.

 

I do not have a bachelors degree however I have an Associates Degree. I presume I would need to get TEFL certified while there? Also, I will be living on 1000 USD every month, so Im not exactly sure how doable that is. I mean, on paper it seems like it should work.

 

Rent and utilities $300

Food $ 100

Transportation $100

Entertainment and incidentals $100

 

What am I missing here

 

Not sure what I should do about cellphone. I currently live in the states and pay about $100 a month, I have a Galaxy 6. I figured it would just be easier to keep my plan instead of buying a phone when I get there which would be expensive. Although I guess I could just keep my current phone and get a simcard and prepaid plan when there and save about 75$ a month and cut back on expenses that way.

 

In Bangkok my rent is 8000 THB for a 350 sq/ft studio, nice building with good pool and gym very close to a BTS (<200m)
Utilities - Electric 1500 - 2000 THB depending on the time of year.   20mbit down/ 1 mbit up Internet 1600 THB month

That is $334 for the highest cost months

My mobile phone with an unlimited data package is 1100 THB a month.

Food - I cook at home mostly and don't splurge on lots of imported items.   But even just basics I spend around 400 - 500 THB a day so budget 15,000 for food if you cook for yourself

That is $433 for food.    Figure considerably more if you eat imported food, or you plan to eat in restaurants more often.

I try to track all my spending using an app on my phone so my travel costs are pretty accurate - in July I spent 1370 THB  (870 on cabs, 500 on the BTS)   in June the figure was 1730 THB.

I only use the BTS and Taxis.  I do not use motorbike taxis or buses.  

Your budget of $100 a month should be more than adequate, depending where you choose to live and where you are working.

However, where your budget really falls over is Entertainment and Incidentals.    My average night out for alcohol and maybe snacks is about 4000 THB and I do that at least 2 nights a week.  Last week I did 5 nights out. Sometimes I might even spend more.  However, I never bar fine girls or pay for sex, if you start doing that expect to add 2500+ to your entertainment cost each time.  

I don't have any insurance, medical or otherwise (but I keep myself in good shape and I'm still young with zero history of medical issues and as noted above I don't use motorbike taxis so won't be getting injured on one of them)  However, most people would say you have to have insurance and they are probably right.   My insurance is my rich family and good genes.

So my approx monthly spend is around 80,000 THB a month.

Then there are the flights and visa costs I incur every 90 days and the extensions every 60 days

4 tourist visas per year x 1000 = 4000 THB    

4 extensions a year x 1900 THB = 7600 THB

Additional cost will depend on where you get your visas (van to Vientiane or flight to Hong Kong for example) but figure at least 6000 - 10000 per visa, so we'll err on the high side and budget 40000 for visa trips.

That is 51600 THB a year for visas (split over the 4 times is 12900 or 4300 THB a month you will need to budget for)   bringing my monthly spend to about 85,000 THB (rounded up).


Everyone will be different of course, but that hopefully gives you and idea of potential costs.   

My biggest expense is going out with mates, we tend to go to higher quality bars where a cocktail or a beer might be anywhere from 200 to 400 THB (and higher sometimes).    10 cocktails and you've already spent 4000.


 

Edited August 16, 2016 by seancbk

[aronp1]

16 hours ago, Ronuk said:

Give me your experiences not 'Who you know' where do you live in Thailand and on how much? Most are not interested in sitting in a shoebox studio apartment playing on the Internet all day because they have no funds to lead a proper life.

Your post has done no more than confirm to me what a miserable life it would be living on a $1000 a month. The only possible reason I can think to live like that, would be not being able to afford to live in your country. How do these so called people you know afford visas, health care etc and still save $200 a month? I've been in Thailand 25 + years and I tell you now, $1000 a month to pay everything is a miserable life.

Try living in the US on that amount! Not even possible. 

[JackThompson]

15 hours ago, seancbk said:

In Bangkok ...

Good write-up on your expenses.  Let me offer a slightly more conservative budget.

 

Rent - That is a great deal on a studio close to a BTS station.  If further from BTS, rent is less in BKK (I paid 5K a couple years ago - nice room, secure building) - just make sure it is only one bus-hop from the BTS. 

 

Transport - Agreed on the danger of motos - not because the moto-drivers are bad, but because some other drivers on the road are (often drunk).  The taxis actually use their meters in Bangkok, so ~$5 always got me home when BTS was closed after midnight. 

 

Electricity - use 'dry' mode on a/c, set to a higher temp + fan - and be sure your apt has a newer type a/c unit plus tight-fitting windows and doors.  A condo will often save electric, because you pay the residential rate (5.6 Baht / unit) - not a commercial-rate further marked-up by the landlord; the landlord-electric-rates vary significantly (7 to 10 Baht / unit).

 

Phone - I spend 50 to 100 Baht/mo including data, using 4G data only when wifi is unavailable.  I don't even bother with a 'plan' for data, as it is only used for text-apps and a bit of surfing (the Opera Mobile browser will cut the bandwidth, by shrinking images to mobile-size). 

 

Food - one can eat-out for less than what is described if you like Thai food (I love it).  It is about 40Baht per serving of take-out from a local market - and is 'engineered' with strong flavors to combine with a lot of rice.  Cook high-quality rice at home - better than what is for sale pre-cooked.  Also check the larger stores (Top, BigC, Tesco) for specials on fish - often 50% off in the evenings.  The fruits and veggies sold out the back of pickup trucks are often straight off the farm and up to 60% less than retail.  Make your own lemonade with mint instead of buying sodas, etc.

 

My average visa-run cost averages ~7K Baht per trip - including VIP Bus overight, air-con room, taxis / uber on the other end, and the visa itself.  This breaks down to ~5K for Laos, ~10K for Penang (flights included), ~6K for Cambodia.  This does not include entertainment, which I would pay for here or there.  I never use "in/out" visa-exempts.

 

I do not drink much, but on-tap runs about 60-baht at bars in my area - bottled usually 80 Baht (Heineken). 

 

Cutting some corners on the above allows me to spend quite a bit more on entertainment - movies, dinners-out, live-music, etc with the GF - and still come in well under $1K USD /mo.  The rest of my income I can re-invest / save.

[FritsSikkink]

"What am I missing here "

Health insurance