I was paying £200 a month for a condo next to the beach in phuket, as long as you're not going to the bars every day and eating local food £800 a month is super easy
Longer u been in Thailand and more u learn the language, cheaper it gets . And yes living a pretty low "working class" life on 1000$ is doable even in Bangkok..i prefer to love the more convenient middleclass life over 2000$ a month here in Bangkok
It all depends on your expectations in Thailand and your lifestyle back in your home country. At the end of the month i will be travelling to Thailand. I am hoping to spend around £1000 per month once i have settled in . Will i be hitting the beer bars every night and eating at the expensive farang restaurants? Nope but it would be possible twice a week . Which is really amount of time a normal person goes out in their own country. Emergency fund is key where ever your living . Good video Cheers
I regularly travel worldwide. My hard and fast rule is a minimum of$300 in my pocket, and a $1000 per week budget. Sometimes I only spend $3-400 that week. Great, the rest goes back into my investments! Retirement is a job. We are the CEO of the rest of our lives, and we need to show a profit for continued success.
Another great video Simon another factor regarding budget is age. Like me Simon party days have long gone and my budget is incredibly cheap. Still love a beer or three and enjoy a meal out without even considering the cost. Not something I can do in UK as Glenn I am sure will agree.Talking about Philippines of course but sure very similar to Thailand. Budgets are very individual things you rightly point out. Keep up the good work Take care Jim
Philippines is a "developing country"..just one step over 3rd world Thailand is se-Asians 2 biggest economy and are rated as a "higher middle income country" with only 6 % poverty. Only likeness is that hey both are in se-asia
I live in a seaside town in the South of Thailand.On average spend around 7 to 800 Australian dollars a month.I don't have to budget.Avoid xpats like the plague. Pulled back on the HH hostesses😅.Have a great 2 story Condo on the foreshore.Wont mention the name of the town.But totally agree, need to have financial backup.
A fine practical pragmatic video Simon thanks , its horses for courses depending what type of lifestyle experience you choose to embrace . It sure makes sense if you ve got resonable health and getting on a bit to have the annual visa cash amount to one side for peace of mind for any emergencies . I got a complete comprehensive private health screening in the fine Mcormick Hospital in Chiang Mai about 10 years ago for less than £ 100 and got the results in thai and English , I was amazed when i walked in as there was a lady playing classical piano near the foyer .
I know this channel and I'm at a loss. He never says people CAN'T live on less than $1000 but that you're merely existing and not living a good life. In his mind most Thai people must be living pitiful lives too, which is a pretty nasty thing to suggest. For the rest of us we showed up in Thailand and started to do things in our local area and therefore experience a local cost of living. I literally don't know how to spend $3000/month in Chiang Mai (his suggested minimum budget) let alone the 6000 he's spending in Pattaya. I would need to start by renting the most expensive house I could find and then eat all my meals at tourists places and spend my day driving in and out of the city (oh, and buy a new car on finance). Do whatever you want but I don't consider this "living in Thailand" anymore as your lifestyle is so radically outside the norm for the rest of the country.
very good video 😁 27:05 but ehh 15k baht equals £35 ? Did you mean 1500 baht as 15k is around £340 ? Also no more visa runs at all? e.g. if i get 60 day visa free then go to another country for a few months and come back to thailand for another 60 days etc is this kindoff thing no longer possible?
Thanks mate 👍 Sorry I mispoke, I meant to say 1500 bhat not 15000. In terms of visa runs, you should be OK if you're spending a couple of months out of the country you should be fine. Be lucky 👍
Simon Yet another excellent n informative video. Especially as you quite rightly stressed the need for Contingency funds. But still there are guys with only social security income , no savings and no health plans, who survive but really struggle... Keep up the great work Cheers Glenn
That's a good point you make. I didn't include it because I'm talking about monthly living costs, in terms of spending money etc. I wasn't including medical insurance, visa costs etc. As far as I'm aware the new regs haven't taken effect yet have they, or even been finalised? Honest question, I don't know if they have yet? But once they have, if they turn out to be as harsh as people fear then you're right it will potentially have a big impact on overall living costs 👍
@@SpeakingofAsia It already impacts you if your home country has a tax agreement. That rule has been in place for years; the change is that they also want to tax the money you don't transfer. I assume your home country has to agree, and they will provide the numbers. The result, I think, will be 180 days in and 180 days out, only using ATMs and not opening a Thai bank account. If the Thai government sees that they will lose money on this, they will not do it; money speaks.
I stumbled upon an American ‘tuber in Chaing Mai saying he was spending $15 a day at a B&B with a nice breakfast and spending $3 for a modest mid afternoon meal. Yet he maintained he needed $2000 a month to live there. I’m no mathematician but the numbers didn’t add up.
I priced out what it would cost me to live longer term in Hua Hin, based on my actual expenses incurred on my 5 weeks there last winter. And I think I would safely need $2500 cad per month ($1800 usd). That does not include any lavish entertaiment, ladies, etc. Just a basic budget. 50% western food, 20k baht nice condo rental, $300 /good med insurance, $600 food/ drink and restaurants, $250 local travel and ent., $150 utilities, $200 car expense (yes i want a car), $150 misc and visa. Adds up to $2450 cad. By comparison, I am currently only spending $2400 per month living in my own 2000 ft2 home in Canada, which also includes all expenses including 2 cars, plus enough to take a 6 week holiday to Thailand or other destination every year. Now if I increase my budget to $3000/mo, I could spend 12 weeks in SE asia every winter, which seems like the best scenario for me, as opposed to sellling everything and moving full time to Thailand. Fortunately, this is easily doable for me.
So you're taking your exact budget from Canada and spending that in Hua Hin? What's crazy is you're going to go from a nice big house to a tiny maybe 30sqm meter condo. You may actually have a high quality of life in Canada especially since you're eating 50% Western food anyways.
Yes, that would definitely be a smaller space to live (in a smallish condo). That's another reason why I wouldn't actually move full time to a small condo. But I can do it part-time, ie as in a 2 to 3 month vacation.
So what happens to these guys that come to Thailand? They look for a place to live where they can easily buy foreign (expensive) food, worry about getting first class medical insurance, obviously have to get an expensive new car, go back "home" twice a year, air conditioning working 24/7... etc. And they seem quite contemptuous of guys like me, that live out in a village, have to learn Thai whether we like it or not, use the locam market and grow a lot of our own food.... ฿40 000.- is quite possible as I know well enough.
There's nothing wrong with partying I don't think Dumaguete is for you maybe your too young to retire in Dumaguete i have only visited the city 1 time i got very bored and that was after only spending a week in the place. Thailand is a lot more developed than the Philippines, You don't have to go near the red-light places. There's lots of good restaurants better health care etc. I have never found the Philippines to be as cheap as a lot of people make out in fact living a western lifestyle costs me more in the Philippines than my own country.
I doub't the average person has the real-life multi culture social skills that you naturally revert to. I bet that if we had to, we both could exist off of 50$ a month and have some drinks and good times and partners etc. Its like asking Billy idol what one needs: That is a VERY open-ended question. Mean-time, ill listen to you.
I've got a trip coming up to PH in November and was wondering what's the best place for single guys? I've only got 5 nights in Manila booked but after that I've got 9 days open-ended and I don't really know where to go except Cebu.
compared to Thailand is Philippines really poor country and surprisingly more expensive on most things like food housing etc..but Iloilo city is nice..cleanest city in Philippines
Sorry mate, I can't really help you. I wouldn't recommend Dumaguete as a holiday destination and Siquijor isn't a great choice isn't a great choice for single guys IMHO 👍
At about 27min30sec into the vid, you said your right arm cost just 15,000 thb to fix. I assume you meant 1,500 thb? You also seem to forget easy words, and say pesos when you mean baht. Do you think you may need a cognitive test, for dementia/Alzheimer's? It seems it would be a cheap test to do in Thailand!
Quick google search. *Thailand had a GDP per capita of USD 7,070 in 2022, compared to USD 6,161 a decade earlier* *This compares to the average for Asia-Pacific of USD 8,369.* So literally the population of Thailand are living on less than 12k per year.
@@ScoreGuru123ummmm yes. How does that relate to the video or to my point? The point is millions of thai people are living on less than 1k per month. So my point and his point are correct
You can live on $1000, but your lifestyle is not everyone's lifestyle. I would say you are living but not fully experiencing Thailand on that budget. Eating street food and drinking 7/11 beer, staying in a cheap $1-200 room and living like a hermit.
@lemonfarmthailand Sorry mate, but if you think that you didn't understand the video. I wasn't eating street food and drinking 7/11 beer. When I Iived in Jomtien, I was spending upwards of £1500 /$2000 a month, I wasn't living on a budget, that just what my living costs were. When I moved to Phetchabun, my living costs dropped to a $1000 a month. I wasn't economising, I didn't have a budget, I was doing eveything that I wanted to do and that's what my costs came to. I was going out 4 to 5 nights a week to restaurants, Karaoke, bars and night clubs with my Thai friends. If you don't think living in a Thai village, socialising almost exlcusively with Thais, learning the language etc isn't experiencing Thailand I'm at a bit of a loss to be honest.
@SpeakingofAsia Mate, I live in a small town, employ local people and can speak the language very well. I think after 15 years experience of doing so tells me that $1000 a month is doable but not enjoyable. Horses for courses. I have a family to support and that would not cut it.
Lve been retired 12 years in thailand and married to the same thai for 35 years and yes it's easy to live on 1k with a normal life
I was paying £200 a month for a condo next to the beach in phuket, as long as you're not going to the bars every day and eating local food £800 a month is super easy
Longer u been in Thailand and more u learn the language, cheaper it gets .
And yes living a pretty low "working class" life on 1000$ is doable even in Bangkok..i prefer to love the more convenient middleclass life over 2000$ a month here in Bangkok
It all depends on your expectations in Thailand and your lifestyle back in your home country.
At the end of the month i will be travelling to Thailand. I am hoping to spend around £1000 per month once i have settled in .
Will i be hitting the beer bars every night and eating at the expensive farang restaurants? Nope but it would be possible twice a week . Which is really amount of time a normal person goes out in their own country.
Emergency fund is key where ever your living .
Good video
Cheers
Thanks mate, have a great time 👍
Interesting topic sir thumbs up +1 😊
I regularly travel worldwide. My hard and fast rule is a minimum of$300 in my pocket, and a $1000 per week budget. Sometimes I only spend $3-400 that week. Great, the rest goes back into my investments! Retirement is a job. We are the CEO of the rest of our lives, and we need to show a profit for continued success.
Totally agree. 💯 Great information. Thailand can be as cheap or cheaper than any place ive ever been if i could stay away from the massage parlors. 😂.
😂😂😂
Another great video Simon another factor regarding budget is age.
Like me Simon party days have long gone and my budget is incredibly cheap. Still love a beer or three and enjoy a meal out without even considering the cost.
Not something I can do in UK as Glenn I am sure will agree.Talking about Philippines of course but sure very similar to Thailand. Budgets are very individual things
you rightly point out. Keep up the good work
Take care Jim
Thanks Jim, always appreciate your comments and support mate, be lucky 👍
Indeed, agree Jim 100%...
Philippines is a "developing country"..just one step over 3rd world
Thailand is se-Asians 2 biggest economy and are rated as a "higher middle income country" with only 6 % poverty.
Only likeness is that hey both are in se-asia
I live in a seaside town in the South of Thailand.On average spend around 7 to 800 Australian dollars a month.I don't have to budget.Avoid xpats like the plague. Pulled back on the HH hostesses😅.Have a great 2 story Condo on the foreshore.Wont mention the name of the town.But totally agree, need to have financial backup.
17000 baht a month?
A fine practical pragmatic video Simon thanks , its horses for courses depending what type of lifestyle experience you choose to embrace . It sure makes sense if you ve got resonable health and getting on a bit to have the annual visa cash amount to one side for peace of mind for any emergencies . I got a complete comprehensive private health screening in the fine Mcormick Hospital in Chiang Mai about 10 years ago for less than £ 100 and got the results in thai and English , I was amazed when i walked in as there was a lady playing classical piano near the foyer .
Thanks mate, very good value 👍
I know this channel and I'm at a loss. He never says people CAN'T live on less than $1000 but that you're merely existing and not living a good life. In his mind most Thai people must be living pitiful lives too, which is a pretty nasty thing to suggest. For the rest of us we showed up in Thailand and started to do things in our local area and therefore experience a local cost of living. I literally don't know how to spend $3000/month in Chiang Mai (his suggested minimum budget) let alone the 6000 he's spending in Pattaya. I would need to start by renting the most expensive house I could find and then eat all my meals at tourists places and spend my day driving in and out of the city (oh, and buy a new car on finance). Do whatever you want but I don't consider this "living in Thailand" anymore as your lifestyle is so radically outside the norm for the rest of the country.
very good video 😁 27:05 but ehh 15k baht equals £35 ? Did you mean 1500 baht as 15k is around £340 ?
Also no more visa runs at all? e.g. if i get 60 day visa free then go to another country for a few months and come back to thailand for another 60 days etc is this kindoff thing no longer possible?
Thanks mate 👍 Sorry I mispoke, I meant to say 1500 bhat not 15000. In terms of visa runs, you should be OK if you're spending a couple of months out of the country you should be fine. Be lucky 👍
Simon
Yet another excellent n informative video.
Especially as you quite rightly stressed the need for Contingency funds.
But still there are guys with only social security income , no savings and no health plans, who survive but really struggle...
Keep up the great work
Cheers
Glenn
Thanks Glenn 👍
What about taxes on money transferred to a Thai bank if you use the 65K Baht visa route? They will ask about it; they know you have an income.
He lives in the Fils, so he may not know about it, but it will make a big difference.
That's a good point you make. I didn't include it because I'm talking about monthly living costs, in terms of spending money etc. I wasn't including medical insurance, visa costs etc. As far as I'm aware the new regs haven't taken effect yet have they, or even been finalised? Honest question, I don't know if they have yet? But once they have, if they turn out to be as harsh as people fear then you're right it will potentially have a big impact on overall living costs 👍
@@SpeakingofAsia It already impacts you if your home country has a tax agreement. That rule has been in place for years; the change is that they also want to tax the money you don't transfer. I assume your home country has to agree, and they will provide the numbers. The result, I think, will be 180 days in and 180 days out, only using ATMs and not opening a Thai bank account. If the Thai government sees that they will lose money on this, they will not do it; money speaks.
I stumbled upon an American ‘tuber in Chaing Mai saying he was spending $15 a day at a B&B with a nice breakfast and spending $3 for a modest mid afternoon meal. Yet he maintained he needed $2000 a month to live there. I’m no mathematician but the numbers didn’t add up.
living in a $15 a night B&B on a long term basis doesn't seem like a very attractive or cost effective option 🤔
Answer: women
I priced out what it would cost me to live longer term in Hua Hin, based on my actual expenses incurred on my 5 weeks there last winter. And I think I would safely need $2500 cad per month ($1800 usd). That does not include any lavish entertaiment, ladies, etc. Just a basic budget. 50% western food, 20k baht nice condo rental, $300 /good med insurance, $600 food/ drink and restaurants, $250 local travel and ent., $150 utilities, $200 car expense (yes i want a car), $150 misc and visa. Adds up to $2450 cad.
By comparison, I am currently only spending $2400 per month living in my own 2000 ft2 home in Canada, which also includes all expenses including 2 cars, plus enough to take a 6 week holiday to Thailand or other destination every year. Now if I increase my budget to $3000/mo, I could spend 12 weeks in SE asia every winter, which seems like the best scenario for me, as opposed to sellling everything and moving full time to Thailand. Fortunately, this is easily doable for me.
So you're taking your exact budget from Canada and spending that in Hua Hin? What's crazy is you're going to go from a nice big house to a tiny maybe 30sqm meter condo. You may actually have a high quality of life in Canada especially since you're eating 50% Western food anyways.
Yes, that would definitely be a smaller space to live (in a smallish condo). That's another reason why I wouldn't actually move full time to a small condo. But I can do it part-time, ie as in a 2 to 3 month vacation.
The actual total budget number of $2500 came out the same only as a coincidence
I know people who have been doing for a decade or more. Especially in Issan ,Chiang Mai or small town Thailand.
So do I mate and they're having a great life. Yet so many channels will tell you it's not possible 😂
Depends on how you want to live.. you can live on $100 a month.. live on the streets... you need at least 2k a month
So what happens to these guys that come to Thailand? They look for a place to live where they can easily buy foreign (expensive) food, worry about getting first class medical insurance, obviously have to get an expensive new car, go back "home" twice a year, air conditioning working 24/7... etc. And they seem quite contemptuous of guys like me, that live out in a village, have to learn Thai whether we like it or not, use the locam market and grow a lot of our own food.... ฿40 000.- is quite possible as I know well enough.
Could someone live on £600 month there if he is super carefull and is happy with living a basic life???
Some could and probably do but that would be too low for me.
Yes, pai n. Thailand, I do it, no booze.
I think your missing Thailand 🇹🇭 man haha I don't blame you
you might be right! 😉
There's nothing wrong with partying
I don't think Dumaguete is for you maybe your too young to retire in Dumaguete i have only visited the city 1 time i got very bored and that was after only spending a week in the place.
Thailand is a lot more developed than the Philippines,
You don't have to go near the red-light places.
There's lots of good restaurants better health care etc.
I have never found the Philippines to be as cheap as a lot of people make out in fact living a western lifestyle costs me more in the Philippines than my own country.
Depends on what you want there, I'm renting a 2 bed apartment in boracay for £420 a month including utilities
That's true!!!
Your right mate theres a brit I can't watch because he lumps all americans in 1 pile and thats not fair to be that way you know
Is he by chance an elderly grey haired gentlemen? If yes, I'm not a fan either 👍
@@SpeakingofAsia Edward Sweeney?
I doub't the average person has the real-life multi culture social skills that you naturally revert to. I bet that if we had to, we both could exist off of 50$ a month and have some drinks and good times and partners etc. Its like asking Billy idol what one needs: That is a VERY open-ended question. Mean-time, ill listen to you.
I've got a trip coming up to PH in November and was wondering what's the best place for single guys? I've only got 5 nights in Manila booked but after that I've got 9 days open-ended and I don't really know where to go except Cebu.
compared to Thailand is Philippines really poor country and surprisingly more expensive on most things like food housing etc..but Iloilo city is nice..cleanest city in Philippines
@@nattm6553 Yeah Iloilo looks really nice, looks like alot of good food there too.
Sorry mate, I can't really help you. I wouldn't recommend Dumaguete as a holiday destination and Siquijor isn't a great choice isn't a great choice for single guys IMHO
👍
@@SpeakingofAsia Cheers for the reply geezer. Have a good one.
Its Sangsom..cheap as...i preferred that to jim beam bourbon..
Is the correct answer, thanks 👍
Keep these, "live on $1000 videos" and your subscribers will stay in the 3k viewer bracket.
Impossible!!!!!
At about 27min30sec into the vid, you said your right arm cost just 15,000 thb to fix. I assume you meant 1,500 thb? You also seem to forget easy words, and say pesos when you mean baht. Do you think you may need a cognitive test, for dementia/Alzheimer's? It seems it would be a cheap test to do in Thailand!
I’d watch more of your videos but the sound is bad and I don’t speak cockney 😂
Quick google search.
*Thailand had a GDP per capita of USD 7,070 in 2022, compared to USD 6,161 a decade earlier* *This compares to the average for Asia-Pacific of USD 8,369.*
So literally the population of Thailand are living on less than 12k per year.
You do realise that per Capita is an average across the entire population right? You will have a few very rich people, and lots of poor people
@@ScoreGuru123ummmm yes. How does that relate to the video or to my point?
The point is millions of thai people are living on less than 1k per month.
So my point and his point are correct
You can live on $1000, but your lifestyle is not everyone's lifestyle. I would say you are living but not fully experiencing Thailand on that budget. Eating street food and drinking 7/11 beer, staying in a cheap $1-200 room and living like a hermit.
Hogwash
@lemonfarmthailand Sorry mate, but if you think that you didn't understand the video. I wasn't eating street food and drinking 7/11 beer. When I Iived in Jomtien, I was spending upwards of £1500 /$2000 a month, I wasn't living on a budget, that just what my living costs were. When I moved to Phetchabun, my living costs dropped to a $1000 a month. I wasn't economising, I didn't have a budget, I was doing eveything that I wanted to do and that's what my costs came to. I was going out 4 to 5 nights a week to restaurants, Karaoke, bars and night clubs with my Thai friends. If you don't think living in a Thai village, socialising almost exlcusively with Thais, learning the language etc isn't experiencing Thailand I'm at a bit of a loss to be honest.
Don't need a lot of money to enjoy thailand, I did it even on less than a grand
there is a BIG difference going as a tourist and LIVING in Thailand.
@SpeakingofAsia Mate, I live in a small town, employ local people and can speak the language very well. I think after 15 years experience of doing so tells me that $1000 a month is doable but not enjoyable. Horses for courses. I have a family to support and that would not cut it.
I lived in thailand for less than a grand. Can be done.. Good video....where there is a will there is a way
Thanks mate 👍