How many people, upon moving to Thailand, really understand how much it will cost over the course of their lifetime?
Let’s use a worst case scenario. If you can manage the worst case anything else will just be a bonus.
Living from Age 60 to 90
30 Years
@30,000thb per month income
360 months(30 years) x 30,000thb=10,800,000thb
(10,800,000thb/34 baht to US $1) = US $317,647
@50,000thb per month income
360 months(30 years) x 50,000thb=18,000,000thb
(18,000,000thb/34 baht to US $1) = US $529,411
@75,000thb per month income
360 months(30years) X 75,000thb = 27,000,000thb
(27,000,000thb/34 baht to US $1) = US $794,117
@100,00thb per month income
360 months(30 years) X 100,000thb = 36,000,000 baht
(36,000,000thb/34 baht to US $1) = US $1,058,823
One of the negative things that can happen is the baht drops below 34thb/US $1 which makes these numbers even worse.
Costs across the board over the 30 year period increase dramatically (High inflation)
On the flip side, you wouldn’t need as much income if you only lived to 70 – 80, versus living to 90.
Either way, you can see it is a huge amount of money over the course of a lifetime living in Thailand.
I strongly believe young people would have no idea that the amount was this high.
If you are part of the living in Thailand on $1,000 a month crowd, you will never make it when you get to retirement because you will not have saved anything.
The same can be said for anyone working in Thailand as an English teacher for many years. How in the world will you be able to save when you can no longer work?
As a reference, a very high income worker from the US, who works until age 70, will currently only make US $4,500 (153,000thb) per month in social security. Now that amount (153,000) is plenty to make it to the end of your life. However, a person would have had to stay working till age 70 before moving to Thailand.
If you add in the fact that person may have a house all paid for in their own country they could sell for $100,000’s of dollars, they would be living very well in Thailand.
Once again you would had to work for 30 years to pay that house off.
The big trade off is not recognizing or accepting old age and having to stop working. When you are in the 20’s and 30’s having the time of your life in Thailand, it is very easy to never think about this.
But all those years of not saving enough or contributing will come back to haunt you in the end.
Today’s generation wants to live for today, the same as everyone. But sooner or later, father time will catch up and that once glorious life will be financially unstainable.
It would be hell to have to leave Thailand at age 60, 70, or 80 because you didn’t plan and could not longer afford to stay.