Job opportunity in Bangkok, Thailand

[Funmum1234]

Hello, my husband and I have been looking for jobs abroad on and off for a few months. We have recently been interviewed and have both been successful for jobs.

Our package is as follows:
Combined salary 230,000 baht (after tax)
40,000 baht accomodation allowance
Free tuition fees for both our children
Health insurance for us and the children
Yearly flights home

I was wondering if anyone knows if this is enough to save as well as live comfortably in Bangkok?

Btw 230,000 baht is about £5200 and 40,000 baht living allowance is about £920

My parents used to live / work in Bangkok. There is a huge expat community. The living allowance was the trickiest thing from their experience and can be restrictive. I would appoint a realtor to see what’s available in budget in your preferred area. I assume you want a 3 bed (plus maid accommodation?) near the school? Also negotiate car and driver if you can, driving in Bangkok is challenging. By the way I’m talking from a little bit rather than a lot of knowledge.

It really depends on your lifestyle too. If you are the type to fly back to the UK at every school holiday that will eat into a lot of your money.

I am assuming that's your monthly salary?

Personally, I don't think it's great as a combined salary.

What industry/roles though are you looking at?

@PurBal yes, we would want a three bed. There are some nice condos near where we would work within our budget, they are only a 5 minute taxi drive (when there is no traffic 😅) so that could be good!
@BusterGonad we are not the type of family that would always want to go to expat restaurants etc, but we do want to be able to go on holiday within Thailand without worrying to much about money.
It is so difficult to know if we should do it!!

This package sounds fine to me. School places are key as school fees are high! With school covered and all/most of your rent covered by housing allowance, the rest is plenty for utilities, food, transport, a helper, holidays etc. Of course there are families on double this but there are many families on much less who live well.

Make sure medical is included!

If you want to PM me I've been here a few years and have a similar (a bit lower) overall family package to you, and more kids.

Also - if you're on Facebook join the Expat Mummy Club Bangkok and Farang Girls Bangkok. The Mummy Club is incredibly useful. I advise caution with most general Bangkok groups as while they can be useful, they are full of a certain type of white male expat, often spouting offensive nonsense, that you might prefer to avoid...

By the way we love it here and BKK is a great place to raise kids (downsides are pollution and traffic, that's about it! All the sex tourist stuff is obviously awful but you never come across it if you don't seek it out.)

I hope the package turns out to be enough, as this opportunity sounds great to me. I'd go in a heartbeat. Why not? What an adventure!

Is that salary for 1 working adult or 2? It doesn't seem great if it's for 2 adults.

It's good that school and housing are covered. As mentioned above you'd probably also want to hire a housekeeper and a driver. You'd be comfortable on the salary but not wealthy, holidays within the region should be no problem. Bangkok is great base for exploring Asia!

That’s a pretty good package, our spending and outgoings are quite a bit less than that each month - and that’s with 3 kids and having to pay for the third child’s education (at a reduced rate) so that would be an immediate saving for your family.

Our lifestyle is lovely - lots of incredible meals out, holidays locally, brilliant part-time helper and lots of activities for the children as well as treats like massages and the occasional date night for us. We don’t splash the cash like some do out here but we are super super glad we made the move and our lifestyle is at least 5x better than it was in the UK. We couldn’t save money and had one very overpriced holiday a year back home; here we are so grateful of lots of little trips away in the year and the chance to have incredible holidays in the longer breaks too.

And as for the city, Bangkok is wonderful. It’s polluted with nuts traffic but there is so much beauty, fun and opportunity. A friend described it as a playground for kids to grow up in and I agree. Thai people have been incredibly kind to us since we arrived and I would recommend anyone move here if they are tempted and they get the chance!

Agree with the comment about making lots of return trips back to the UK - that will eat into savings something chronic as flight allowance is only part of the huge cost of a holiday back home (car rental, accommodation, everything being so pricey in the UK).

There was a brilliant “Ask Me Anything” thread about Bangkok about a year ago on here - highly recommend it if you can track it down!