Despite all the visa hassles of trying to live in Thailand full-time, it’s one of the most popular destinations in Asia for expatriates and digital nomads. Thailand has a lot going for it: good food, cheap prices, lots of beaches, an interesting culture, and all the hedonism you can get your hands on. The air connections to Bangkok and within the country are terrific, plus you’ve got trains and buses to go overland.
It’s also a darn good place to get some work done. If you wanted to find other people running an online business who you could collaborate with or learn from, Chiang Mai has to be on any short list of the best places for digital nomads to put down roots for a while. You’ll have 50 new friends before your first month is up probably, so it’s also not hard to find employees or contractors—or just someone to grab a drink with. The internet is reasonably fast, there’s no censorship on what you surf, and there are coffee shops with WiFi all over the place.
Whether it’s a cheap place to live or not depends a lot on how you live. You will find plenty of articles online about living in Thailand for $500 a month, but that’s hard to sustain over a long period. Most people I’ve talked with who live there spend between $1,000 and $2,500 a month. If you’re spending more than that though, you’re probably living it up in Bangkok or acting like a tourist in Phuket.
For the first interview, here’s my Kyrgyzstan hiking buddy and business owner Matt Gibson of XpatMatt.com. He lives in Thailand in a town by the sea a few hours south of the capital.
If you’d rather not watch two scruffy dudes talking, here’s Alexandra Baackes of Alex in Wanderland. Like Matt, she didn’t live anywhere near the two big cities when we filmed this interview. She was based in the chilled little island of Ko Tao, a great place for diving and hanging out on the beach. (Please excuse the guy making fruity rum drinks in the background…)
Have we talked enough about visas yet? Well sorry, but it’s what everyone who lives in Thailand talks a lot about too. Well everyone except the retirees. If you’re age 50 or older and have saved some cold hard cash over the years, you can put that in a Thai bank and be set with a Thai retirement visa. Here’s what Spencer Montague—who lives on Ko Samui—said when I interviewed him for A Better Life for Half the Price.
I’m on a type OA retirement visa so I report every three months to immigration (only to provide an address). I renew my visa yearly, and at the end of the first year I had to meet and maintain the financial requirements. I keep 800,000 baht untouched in a Thai bank account.
You can get around putting that much in the bank if you show earnings close to $3,000 per month, but most I’ve talked to don’t really look at the bank deposit as a burden. When you get to retirement age you’re not making big investment bets with that money anyway and sometimes exchange rate fluctuations can boost returns.
You can read more about the retiree options in this post I did a while back: Live in Thailand More Easily Thanks to New Visa Options. As Robert Halloway pointed out in that article, you can get a longer visa if you apply from home, without being retired. You just have to plan well ahead.
Since my Committed and All In Package groups have had access to this audio for a while, I’m going to post it here now for anyone who is pondering a move to Thailand.
I could pull in another 20 videos and articles that would take you down a long rabbit hole, but if you have A Better Life for Half the Price, just read Chapter 15.
I will post one article link though since this one is on the Perceptive Travel Blog: How Not to Go Broke Living in Thailand.
Want to see what costs are like to travel in Thailand instead? See this post on what a trip to Thailand costs.
parco
Friday 3rd of January 2020
The content of this article is very good, it contains all what you need, this country is also very beautiful. Good luck in the following articles.
Jenny
Friday 17th of August 2018
Ann, many Thai people don't drink and beer is priced like a luxury item, so regular locals can't afford it. Just live somewhere that is not a tourist zone
Ann
Thursday 8th of February 2018
It would be good to know what kind of people live there, as I loved the Alex' description of the island until I saw that they love raves and drinking all the time :-) Not for me! being a tea-total! Any juice-drinking societies that do not touch alcohol out there in Thailand?
Carol
Wednesday 17th of January 2018
Phuket is also a good place to live, which is largest island and has lots of attractions. From natural to prenatural,land-based to water activities, there's always something to do, such as night market.
Clemens
Tuesday 21st of November 2017
Nice insights into something everyone says to know it all. Thailand is still a cheap country to travel to and I find it very interesting to here the opinion of expats.