James
Working in Bangkok
Monthly Earnings At least 50,000 baht
Q1. How much do you earn from teaching per month?
I work at a language school with three branches and earn 400 baht an hour plus a 50 baht an hour course completion bonus. Plus I do some corporate work. I average 100 - 150 hours per month.
Q2. How much of that can you realistically save per month?
I try to save a third of my salary. My wife and I are currently having a house built.
Q3. How much do you pay for your accommodation and what do you live in exactly (house, apartment, condo)?
We pay 15,000 baht a month for a two-bedroom condo (65 square metres)
Q4. What do you spend a month on the following things?
Transportation
I use minivans and public buses to get to work. No more than 50-60 baht a day.
Utility bills
Bills were included in the 15,000 baht condo rental. We don't use air-conditioning because we live on the 8th floor and we open doors to let the breeze in or just use fans.
Food - both restaurants and supermarket shopping
I guess about 200 baht a day plus about 3,000 a month for restaurant trips. During the working week, I grab breakfast and evening meal on the go or at work and I generally skip lunch.
Nightlife and drinking
Zero. I'm not a drinker at all.
Books, computers
I buy a couple of paperbacks a month for about 800 baht and I use the computers at work for free.
Q5. How would you summarize your standard of living in one sentence?
Easy. I can eat, buy and do what I want. With no family to visit or wife's family to take care of, my money is mine to do what I want with.
Q6. What do you consider to be a real 'bargain' here?
As I mentioned we are building a house on our farm ( bought the land very cheap 10 years ago) so I guess building a house is! ....blocks , sand , cement and labour
Q7. In your opinion, how much money does anyone need to earn here in order to survive?
I think 30k is enough to survive in Bangkok but add another 30k if you want to really party.
Phil's analysis and comment
James actually said that in a really good month, he can reach about 100,000 baht. 50k is an absolute minimum. However, unless James is someone who really, really enjoys teaching, I see a teacher heading for burnout. 150 contact hours a month - a mix of in-house and corporate and bombing around the city - is way too much. I've been there and done that and eventually it wears you down. Skipping lunches and hardly having any leisure time at home during the working week - it brought back some not so good memories. That said, James is saving to build a house so one day when he's sitting on a porch overlooking his fruit trees, he might look back and say it was all worth it. I hope so.
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