Evan
Working in Outer Bangkok
Monthly Earnings 70k per month.
Q1. How much do you earn from teaching per month?
70K per month includes 35k as a kindergarten homeroom teacher (8-10 periods per week) 12-month contract with 12 weeks paid holiday per year. And 35K a month teaching students privately after school and weekend mornings (10 hrs per week)
Q2. How much of that can you realistically save per month?
I’ve usually got 20-25k left at the end of the month. Sometimes I’ll save that but sometimes it needs to be spent on visa runs, trips, car insurance, things for the baby, 100k recently went on a pregnancy and birth package, 150k on a new motorcycle, 250k on a car. So as soon as you save a bit, you spend it. We only buy in cash and never go into any debt – a rule of life that has served me well.
Q3. How much do you pay for your accommodation and what do you live in exactly (house, apartment, condo)?
We live in a modern private house in outer Bangkok, which has a private garden with fish pond and fruit trees. This costs us 9,000 baht per month.
Q4. What do you spend a month on the following things?
Transportation
Bought a motorbike and car cash (earned from teaching). 150k and 250k respectively. Gas costs about 2k per month between them but the motorbike is the everyday commuter. First-Class insurance for both is 12k per year.
Utility bills
Electric 2,500 Internet 600 Water 200
Food - both restaurants and supermarket shopping
No restaurants. We aalways cook at home and eat dinner in our garden every night. About 2-3k per week in Tesco for all our shopping but not just food. figure on 100b per day for lunch.
Nightlife and drinking
I buy a liter of Black Label for about one month. Friday and Saturday nights in front of the computer or TV. Few beers during the week with dinner. Let's say 3-4k per month.
Books, computers
Computer cost me 15k, tablet 10k. Book shelf is full of books I bought in used book shops around Khao San.
Q5. How would you summarize your standard of living in one sentence?
Very, very comfortable for someone that doesn’t need to go out to be happy and is fine with going to a student’s house for 2 hours every Saturday and Sunday morning.
Q6. What do you consider to be a real 'bargain' here?
Rent
Q7. In your opinion, how much money does anyone need to earn here in order to survive?
35k in the city to be moderately comfortable and 30K in the rural areas. Nobody wants to live like a peasant. 50-60k might cut it long term if you’re looking to get ahead a little bit in life. If you’re good at your job, then this won’t be a problem with extra private lessons. We have a very comfortable, but quiet life with no problem putting money away every month on 70k.
Phil's analysis and comment
Evan sounds like a good, honest family man who likes a night in just as much as a night out. Nothing wrong with that. I'm a homeboy myself. One thing I've always preached is "work out how much money you need in order to live comfortably, then go out and find the easiest way to earn it" Don't bust your balls doing all the hours godsend for 30K a month if there's an alternative. And this is what caught my eye about Evan's survey. He's pulling in 70K a month and by my maths, doing just 18-20 'periods' or hours a week. That's not going to kill someone who truly enjoys teaching.
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