Thread: Cost of living a decent life in 'the sticks'

Originally Posted by Yasojack

A month ?

Originally Posted by OckerRocker

. . . hmmm . . . our school fees alone are between 280.000 and 400.000 for each of our kids . . .

Haha . . . no, per annum. Add to that the books, uniforms (at 1000baht a piece just for the dress), excursions and annual overseas trip to whichever country they choose to take the second or third language from . . . ours do Mandarin, French and one does Arabic as her third language. (but none choose trips to China nor some ME sandpit, of course)

It all adds up

wouldn't it be better to live in OZ go to a good state school.?

Originally Posted by flashbang

Mate, I must warn you: If you want to go toe-to-toe with me in an internet discussion then you will lose. I am the undisputed world champion and I WILL retire unbeaten.

When you're big enough, you'll be too old. Guffaw.

Originally Posted by Yasojack

wouldn't it be better to live in OZ go to a good state school.?

Well, business is good here and I like the 365/year heat . . . and the food and the proximity to so many astoundingly good places . . . my wife has finished her PhD and is doing well in her practice and I find it important for the kids to be surrounded by all the ethnicities here.

We wouldn't go back to Oz anyway - my wife isn't too fond of the place, it would be NZ . . . not sure if private or public there

Originally Posted by chassamui

Originally Posted by flashbang

Mate, I must warn you: If you want to go toe-to-toe with me in an internet discussion then you will lose. I am the undisputed world champion and I WILL retire unbeaten.

When you're big enough, you'll be too old. Guffaw.

Guffaw indeed.

When you boil it all down; everywhere on earth is a crap place to live, everyone is a kunt and everything is shit.

Wicked innit.

I have two pensions, one at 50,000+ per month and number two at 20,000+ every 13 weeks which gets blown or saved.
I live a very comfortable lifestyle and can save at least 5% of my 50.000baht every month after paying medical insurance.

Originally Posted by Headworx

Haven't got a clue, but something like 175-250k Baht a month seems to cover costs.

Jesus, you must have some serious dept if you're looking at 250 K a month.

That's madness mate especially here in Thailand. That's 8620 AUD .

Good story though.

If i had the chance to go back Oz i'd jump at it, beats coming back this shit hole country (UK) my time on mine sites made me a good wage.

Originally Posted by OckerRocker

Originally Posted by Yasojack

wouldn't it be better to live in OZ go to a good state school.?

Well, business is good here and I like the 365/year heat . . . and the food and the proximity to so many astoundingly good places . . . my wife has finished her PhD and is doing well in her practice and I find it important for the kids to be surrounded by all the ethnicities here.

We wouldn't go back to Oz anyway - my wife isn't too fond of the place, it would be NZ . . . not sure if private or public there

Originally Posted by Yasojack

wouldn't it be better to live in OZ go to a good state school.?

Do they have good state schools in Aus? Not much evidence of that on TD.

same as the English state school i believe.

Originally Posted by terry57

Jesus, you must have some serious dept if you're looking at 250 K a month.

That's madness mate especially here in Thailand. That's 8620 AUD .

Good story though.

No debt whatsoever. 30 years of working oilfields around the world and some good investments means not one fuck is given when it comes to living a decent (decadent?) lifestyle. True story.

Here's my breakdown, living in Jakarta.

- Rent: 85,000,000 IDR per/year (payable a year in advance)

- Electricity: 2,200,000 IDR p/m (not shy on air con)

- Internet: 350,000 pm

- water : 500,000 pm

- Car payments: 4,000,000 pm

- Fuel (about a tank per week): 2,000,000 pm

- Food and beer allowance (me, Mrs, kids) 4,000,000-5,000,000 pm

- Medical insurance (dunno what we pay)

- Misc. (clothes, repairs, etc):

- Staff (Maids, Nannies, Drivers & Gardeners) : ~1,500,000-3,000,000 per staff

- School fees : 5,000,000 per month

Total for basic living expenses = 20,000,000-30,000,000 per month (~$2,000-$3,000 or 80,000-120,000 baht)

Spending 20,000 a month on food seems expensive for the boonies.

Are you fat, MTD?

Originally Posted by thegent

Spending 20,000 a month on food seems expensive for the boonies.

Are you fat, MTD?

Food costs the same in Udon as it does in Bangkok. Just because I live amongst 3rd world peasants doesn't mean I have to eat the same shit as they do.

Our actual food allowance is 4,000 b a week, but there are always a few little extras that I end up paying for.

Originally Posted by Headworx

No debt whatsoever. 30 years of working oilfields around the world and some good investments means not one fuck is given when it comes to living a decent (decadent?) lifestyle. True story.

I have no dept either and an unlimited budget but just cant manage to spend the money. My money goes on my traveling but here in Bangkok it lasts forever.

Jesus mate,

Any chance of telling us how you manage to spend that sort of coin considering its not going on houses and cars ?

I mean 250000 a month on a life style is living large EH.

^ ^ ^

Running a family cost money. Wait till you get home to Australia mate with your family.


Fuking hell, That's when life will get serious.

Originally Posted by terry57

Originally Posted by Headworx

No debt whatsoever. 30 years of working oilfields around the world and some good investments means not one fuck is given when it comes to living a decent (decadent?) lifestyle. True story.

I have no dept either and an unlimited budget but just cant manage to spend the money

You have an unlimited budget? COOL! So you can go out and buy 75 Gulfstream jets just for shits & giggles?

^

Erm fair enough that innit.

Rather I should say that compared to what I spent in Australia each month just on living it equates to an unlimited budget in Thailand.

Something like that anyway.

Anyway budgets are for Teflers and I ain't no Tefler.

After working all my life one can bash budgets firmly up ones arse.

Its simply not a consideration thank fuk.

^
Sounds like fun. Enjoy.

Originally Posted by terry57

Running a family cost money. Wait till you get home to Australia mate with your family.


Fuking hell, That's when life will get serious.

Yeah it's gonna be a bit of a kick down in life style if we wanna save anything.

I don't really wanna do it, Mrs is neither here nor there but unless there's a huge change in the level of education in Thailand it's pretty much a must. If I have a choice between putting the kids through the Thai or Aussie education system, and choose the Thai, they'd be getting robbed I reckon.

Was chatting with another couple, good friends with the Mrs, solid Thai engineer with a kid around the same age as us. We were talking about education and they couldn't believe we get it free just for being a citizen. He asked me if I'd mind saying I was the daddy of his kid, and we had a laugh, but it kinda looked like he was half serious. He went on to say if he could afford it, he live on the bones of his arse to put his kids through the Aussie system.

Dual Thai, Aussie citizen, with full Aussie education through tertiary level, and full rights as a Thai citizen, they'd be in a position to clean up if they chose a life in Thailand after education.

^

It would be interesting to see a survey on actually how many Western educated Thai children return to live in Thailand ?

Next to fuk all I would say but I reckon you and the wife will always be thinking off Thailand.

As far as saving money back home you will need a very good job as money just fly's out the door every millisecond.

Good luck with it mate, it ain't going to be easy, I can guarantee that.

If I have a choice between putting the kids through the Thai or Aussie education system, and choose the Thai, they'd be getting robbed I reckon.

There are perfectly decent state (ish) schools here - such as Triam Udom Suksa - but getting into them is not particularly easy.

we plan to keep close ties to Thailand, I think our kids (we got another on the way) would make a tidy lot for themselves back in Thailand after Uni in Aus but at the end of the day it would be their choice.

I wouldn't want to see them be wage slaves in Australia, even in decent professional jobs, if they could do very well for themselves in Thailand as bi-lingual western educated Thais, but like I said, up to them.