Thailand is a wonderful place to live, but in reality it is no different than 10,000’s of other wonderful places to live around the world.
After I got married, I moved to the USA for a few years and still own a house there. Quite a wonderful life there as well. Things are quite expensive and it all comes down to one thing, money!
Your experience in Thailand comes down to one thing? Money!
Your quality of life will be directly proportional to the amount of money you have.
First, you have to have a VISA.
If you are young and have to work, finding a job outside of teaching English is very hard. Once you find a job, you have to have a work permit.
English teachers are on the lower rung of society and with the exception of the very best International Schools, the English teaching salary is barely enough to survive on.
Can you survive? Well if you like living in a rented room or a box size condo, yes you can survive. How long can you survive is strictly up to you.
But I will add, while you are surviving on your meager teaching salary in Thailand, others your age are graduating college and working for companies with all the benefits including 401K matching.
If you are forced to work due to your age or financial situation, Thailand can become a huge bore quite quickly. Working long hours, then going home and being too tired to do anything.
Having the same holidays off as the rest of Thailand, where all attractions and transportation will be crowded to the tenth degree.
So, in that regard Thailand is no different.
I have always wondered how long can the infatuation with Thailand last when you are working a mundane job for low pay?
Most do not realize that most work experience in Thailand is worthless. You are not going to get a job in the UK or USA with just a TEFL certificate.
So looking ahead 10 years, what to do now when the shine of Thailand has warn off? You have no savings and you have no experience to land a high paying job anywhere else? But you want and deserve more?
Is moving back to Mom and Dad’s the only answer, why you seek refuge to regroup after 10 years in Thailand?
For some folks, it may take even more than 10 years to learn that you just haven’t gotten anywhere and you have seen everything there is to see and do in Thailand 100 times?
A young Irish Youtuber just headed home after 12 years in Thailand with a wife and son in tow. Right back to Mom and Dad’s to live. Although he would never admit it, he could not financially survive, had no skill or education, and his dream of Youtube did not pan out.
Pretty sure no wife in their right mind wants to live in a one room condo with a kid the rest of her life?
His comment was the 12 years just flew by, when all that time he should have been aware is bank account balance was always very low.
These are the kinds of things that can happen. Now at age 32, back to Mom and Dad’s to live with his Thai wife and son, while he looks for a menial job.
The new to Thailand phase where everything is so exciting, to the realization of what happens when there is no money? it make take >10+ years, but sooner or later it will happen. Now many are thinking about a backup plan.
None of these people even remotely have a clue of how they could pay for life once their worked stopped in old age and they lived another 20 or 30 years till age 90.
Ask any expat, that has been retired in Thailand a long time, how much it costs to live with no income except what you saved your whole life working. Food cost up, electricity up, gas, you name.
The exchange rate has hammered Australians that retired here and the Brits.
So, in reality, Thailand is no different. You need money, you need money to last your entire life because if you work in Thailand with no savings or retirement pension, you will get sent back and at the worst possible time.
The story of the ant and grasshopper comes to mind. The ant works it’s entire life and never has to worry about food. The grasshopper moves to Thailand and barely hangs on until one day it can’t.