Bangkok - how much?

[zikreetdreaming]

DH and I are quietly (or not so quietly maybe) dreaming about a relocation to Bangkok. Is anyone there?

Im wondering how much would we (I) need to be earning to realistically have a decent standard of living. I appreciate that highly depends on lifestyle - wouldn't want to be watching every penny but at the same time we're more street food than 5* hotel. This would be a long term move not a year-long jolly.

Two kids (school fees look scary). Would need a house (dog) and a non-crazy commute to the central business zone. Access to a pool would be great. Assume flights and medical covered by employer but nothing else.

Everything I look at online seems to assume teacher salaries and living off 35k a month (which would barely cover school fees by my estimation!).

Any help appreciated. Need to work out how much I'd need to be paid and then work out if there's any chance of someone paying me that!

I'm not in Bangkok but in KL, but prices are similar.

A few things, if an employer is covering medical and flights, are you certain there is no housing allowance or school fees?
There are many international schools in Bangkok, if you are looking at patana, that is top priced, there will be other options but you'd need to see them and get recent reviews.
The cost of having a dog shipped to Asia is very high and employers probably won't cover that.

Another minor point about your dog ..... Many airlines have stopped shipping dog breeds with short muzzles therefore likely to have respiratory issues (Bulldogs etc) to Asia due to the heat, stress and humidity. I know of people who have had to re home dogs in Europe and Australia before relocating to Asia....

Thanks both . Should probably have said I'm already an expat so this isn't a complete crazy whim!

Assuming no housing/ education simply because I don't currently get it and I don't think it's the norm for my industry (although if SE Asia is different, yippee!). I'm a career changer hence the salary concern - people at my level don't normally come with two kids and a trailing spouse.

The dog's the opposite of a short nosed breed and we're currently in the gulf so I'm not too worried about him . There's a cat too :)

Hey,

I'm in Thailand but not Bangkok. Are you a teacher? If not, what industry do you expect to work in? Do you mean 35k in Thai baht? If so, you will struggle to live on that! My school provides that for rent allowance alone... Bangkok is a great city!

Not a teacher, I'm a lawyer. I think the stuff I was looking at was for English teachers and probably not really qualified ones at that. Not convinced 35k would even cover rent in Bangkok!

We're in Thailand, 3 dc's in international school, nice house but not really into 5* etc. Aggregating school fees out over the year and having an incredibly comfortable way of life for us is in the range of 200,000 to 250,000 THB PCM.

I think if we ever needed to 'throttle back', we could live on half that. The majority would be school fees!

We used to be BKK expats. My mother worked at Bangkok Patana School. My stepdad's work paid for school fees for us all but if they hadn't she would have got a good discount due to working there. It's a brilliant school.

Bangkok is brilliant, I love it. If you live somewhere on the BTS then you can avoid driving to work in the city. We didn't live in a house but a serviced apartment with a huge pool etc. I would be frightened of snakes living in a house as I saw some huge ones walking along the road.

Good luck!

Thanks. Munster in particular as that's great news as I was coming up with more like 350k and I don't think BKK salaries would go that high! I'm used to gulf prices and half the reason for thinking of relocating is I'm sick of the 5* lifestyle.

Turquoise - from what I read pretty much zero chance of being allowed a dog in an apartment. Plus I will be working v long hours so if we don't have any outdoor space we'll need a live in maid simply so DH can walk the dog in the evening.

Minor issue is finding a job given work permit restrictions but prob wouldnt be moving this school year and maybe not even next.

How bad is it getting school places? I can't see rants online so tentatively hoping it's not too bad (but may be living in dreamland) :)

Thanks again all