Tie Land to Thailand!
Today while thinking about my future and suddenly I thought maybe someday I can move to Thailand, then I found this very interesting blog,
it is about a young American couple who gave up almost everything and
moved to Thailand, wow, I must say they are really brave, I know it is
not an easy decision because there are many things to take into
consideration, seriously, I don't think I have the guts to do something
like that, furthermore I just committed myself to a HDB flat, maybe in 5
years time I might consider again.
Anyway, as a number person, first thing I did was go to their budget section, I found a budget that they did last June and seems like they were spending $1180 USD ($1503 SGD) each month, note that the amount is for Chiang Mai and for two adults, now that lead me wondering what my budget will be if I am to stay in Udon Thani, let's compare!
By the way I got the Udon Thani numbers from my wife, very rough estimates though, also for two adults, and also note that I assume 1 USD = 30.61 THB and 1 USD = 1.27 SGD.
Hmm, seems like the rent and cooking at home made the most difference, looks kind of crazy but we can get by each month with only $510 Singapore dollars in Udon Thani?!? Maybe it does seem quite viable for me, maybe I can save some money, buy some land there and grow some potatoes and spend my time tending to the fields!
Anyway, as a number person, first thing I did was go to their budget section, I found a budget that they did last June and seems like they were spending $1180 USD ($1503 SGD) each month, note that the amount is for Chiang Mai and for two adults, now that lead me wondering what my budget will be if I am to stay in Udon Thani, let's compare!
By the way I got the Udon Thani numbers from my wife, very rough estimates though, also for two adults, and also note that I assume 1 USD = 30.61 THB and 1 USD = 1.27 SGD.
| Chiang Mai Budget for Two | Udon Thani Budget for Two |
Remarks
| ||||
| 15,000 | 490 | 622 | 0 | 0 | 0 | No rent because wife's mom owns the land and house. |
| 1,534 | 50 | 64 | 300 | 10 | 12 | Range between 200 to 300 without aircon. |
| 1,227 | 40 | 51 | 800 | 26 | 33 | Internet is 700, mobile is 100. |
| 307 | 10 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Wife can wash laundry by hand or washing machine. |
| 307 | 10 | 13 | 150 | 5 | 6 | Range between 100 to 150 (10 baht for 20 litres). |
| 5,523 | 180 | 229 | 6,000 | 196 | 249 | One day 200 baht, buy and cook at home. |
| 3,375 | 110 | 140 | 1,100 | 36 | 46 | 1100 baht for 10 bottles of Thai whiskey (620ml), wife don't drink, probably for me and visitor. |
| 614 | 30 | 38 | 1,950 | 64 | 81 | 1500 for petrol (bike, 2 days 100 baht), 450 for gas (last 4-5 months), no taxi in her hometown. |
| 3,069 | 100 | 127 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Already counted under Food, people there RARELY eat out, anyway the town is about 20KM+ away! |
| 3,069 | 100 | 127 | 1,000 | 33 | 41 | Shampoo, shower foam, facial cream, toothpaste etc. |
| 614 | 20 | 25 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Wife cut her hair by herself, wife can cut for me. |
| 1,227 | 40 | 51 | 1,000 | 33 | 41 | Not much entertainment in her hometown, people there mostly drink after a hard day's work. |
| 35,866 | 1,180 | 1,499 | 12,300 | 402 | 510 | |
Hmm, seems like the rent and cooking at home made the most difference, looks kind of crazy but we can get by each month with only $510 Singapore dollars in Udon Thani?!? Maybe it does seem quite viable for me, maybe I can save some money, buy some land there and grow some potatoes and spend my time tending to the fields!
Comments
i am currently searching for houses in the Bangkok area around 3M to 6M baht.... roughly around 200K sgd ...
i have already started depositing money every month from SG to my wife's thai account as proof of income to the bank for future home loan use =)
all in all i think singapore is not the retirement place for me , its way too expensive and squeezy.. you can think about thailand as an option too
Wow you are fast! I also think that Singapore is too expensive, everyday life is too stressful...
I read your blog with interest and glad to find someone here who shares similiar situation as me (after reading your 'About Us' section).
To share with you, my wife is also from Udon but not sure if its the same town as your wife. She is from Nong Han.
I have been there a few times and just renovated an existing house (simple one) for my MIL last year.
If you are leaving in the rural area like my MIL, you can actually find and dig a Well, invest in a storage tank and pump and you can have free water as long as the Well don't dry up.
And I think that the calculation above is very conservative, but that will depend on individual. You will probably need a car instead of 2 bikes as bikes will only let you travel from home to market to get daily stuffs but not to the city area (from where I am staying).
And if you are used to the Singapore life, you will like me, keep wanting to go to the city area as there is really nothing to do at home. Unless you have some plantation to look after.
Thanks for visiting.
I think my MIL's house has a well behind, not sure if it's still working though, also heard from my wife that sometimes they use/drink rain water, they have a huge jar, almost as tall as me, 3 times as wide as me, to collect rain water.
My wife is from Wang Sam Mo district, about 1 hour drive to Nong Han.
Yeah, I also think if we were to stay there long-term, car is needed for longer distance traveling, bikes are just too unsafe on the big roads, in fact I have witnessed a bike collision... two bikers died on the spot...
Haha, for me as long as I have internet and aircon, anywhere works!
Want to dispose but don't know how. But I guess if you willing to pay, help will come automatically.
Air-con is a must there. But the electricity bill does not come cheap. My wife and 2 kids stayed there for a month with air-con and my bill came up to about 2,000 baht. No internet, just TV. Internet connectivity is a big problem there.
Heard from my wife that they have the unlimited internet package, monthly is about 700 baht, they also have the prepaid sim card internet, you can top up when you need to use, not sure how much that will cost though.
And seems like the youngsters at Wang Sam Mo are more connected nowadays, my wife's neighbours, old class mates can all be found on Facebook, they chat almost daily, but I think most likely they are using the prepaid sim card.
Another 2 fans also used in the day and night.
Have standard items like fridge and washing machine. I also have a water pump to draw water from the Well. There is some problem in the pump and the power cut off is not working properly so this might consume extra electricity.
But for the period that we are not there, the bill is about 600 Baht. So you can imagine how much the air-con consume.
And it seems that the bill in Bkk is smaller as compared to Udon. My wife told me that the charges at Ban Nok (village) are more expensive so maybe that's true.
While my family is there, I bought for them the SIM card type at 699 baht/month for unlimited internet. Very slow and connection there is not really good.
I don't think you can install those house type unless there are hot spots there installed by the internet providers near your place. I think it is not available for my area. But I was there only for a short while so did not find out about it anyway.
I will settle there 1 day. But have decided against building a house. I will buy 1 near the city area. The price to build 1 and buy 1 is not much different. That is if you already have the land. If you don't have land, it will be more expensive.
Too much hassle to build a house. I only renovated and it already brought me so much problems. Maybe I did not pay enough. Haha
For internet can try ADSL type i.e. connect via land lines (we call it fixed line in sg), nowadays most areas in Udon have land lines, brands like 3BB, Trueonline or TOT, sim card types at the mercy of location, like my wife's bio-father house in the mountains totally no signal, but not going to live there haha, just saying.
Lucky for me I don't have to build, worst scenario is renovate a bit more, anyway MIL is renovating with the sinsod I send to her, wife say in the end the land and house will give wife, by the way MIL own the land and house.
But wife unwilling to sell even if not staying. So will probably treat it as a plantation house for short stay if not staying permanently. Now trying plant something but not successful yet.
Thanks for the link, really helpful information in that site.