Teaching salary (AGAIN)

[Tibbsy]

hello all, im a bit of a noob here so let me explain.

My wife and I are from the UK and currently live in Thailand. My wife works at a good international school here and has a BA degree in Early Childhood. We want to relocate to SG next August and so have started researching our options; however, it all seems very confusing with regard to pay scales for teachers.

She had an offer today for a job that would pay $4k a month, but looking at the cost of living this seems a little on the low side.

Another question, can I personally work in SG as a dependent of my wife? I work in marketing and mostly freelance, but would love to get back into the social realms of going to work everyday, even part time.

Last question. How cat friendly is SG with landlords etc. We have traveled with our 3 cats from the UK and they would need to come with us.

thanks in advance

2 words for you.... FORGET IT.

This is not Thailand, you won't be able to survive.

And landlords here dont take too kindly to cats. With ur budget, u might have to rent a room in hdb, and the ruling here is that you cant keep cats in hdb, but this is often not enforced.

What's wrong with staying in Thailand, I would gladly exchange living in Thailand for a slower pace of life compared to the stressful environment here in Singapore

[Tibbsy]

Thailand is a **** hole. the peepz are backwards. been here 10 years and hate it.

thx for your reply. we will have to keep looking. she should be able to get a job at an international school but we will have to wait and see. we have another 11 months to go before she finishes her contract so hopefully something good will come up.

[Darkzi0n]

it would help if u can share wat kind of lifestyle u are expecting or currently having... while 4k per month is enough for a family with no children to survive... u cant expect it to support an extravagant lifestyle... perhaps not even an above average one... car is most probably out of the equation.. housing loan/rent alone may take up 25% or more of the 4k.

Basically, singapore might not be the place u wan to live n work in unless u r extremely rich (singapore is a tax haven for the rich) or u r from an extremely poor country, here to work n remit money back to support ur family back home.

just my 2 cents.

[Tibbsy]

yeah im reading that, tbh she should be able to secure 6 to 8k a month going on a recent international school salary we saw. I also have about 3k a month coming in so it would be more like 7k a month. we dont have any kids, just ourselves

the only reason we have to come to SG is that we are heading to Australia, but due to quarantine regulations we cannot import our cats from Thailand to oz, we have to spend at least 6 months in SG for them to be able to go to OZ. so we decided to spend 2 years in SG if she can find the right school. its all a bit daunting!

i work from home, but would like to do some part time work if its there, so again this would be on top of what we earn.

thx for your replies guys

Due to draconian laws unfortunately cats are not allowed in government HDB flats. If you wanna bring your cats it will be recommended to rent a small condo unit preferably somewhere far from the city centre to keep costs down.

Which part of Thailand are you staying currently? The expats in my company LOVE thailand and hope to be posted there next. Bangkok specifically.

You guys do love your cats alot!

I think one of the main expenses is your housing. Get a sense of the housing rental market by going to propertyguru.com.sg. You can either rent private condos or public housing (HDB in short)

In SG, food (hawker centres) and public transport is generally cheap. But pls dont compare with Thailand!

From there, you should have a gauge of how much is needed to stay comfortably and work it bottoms up.

The median household income is about SGD 60k p.a. so that gives you a rough idea of what is required for an average standard of living.

Hope this helps.

[Tibbsy]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Due to draconian laws unfortunately cats are not allowed in government HDB flats. If you wanna bring your cats it will be recommended to rent a small condo unit preferably somewhere far from the city center to keep costs down.

Which part of Thailand are you staying currently? The expats in my company LOVE thailand and hope to be posted there next. Bangkok specifically.

in Bangkok, Thailand is not what it used to be, you think the laws there are draconian, here they are plain xenophobic . More people getting murdered here every week, you upset a thai these days and they could well shoot you. Its changed so much the last 10 years, i once loved it here, now i hate the place with a passion. teaching here is ridiculous too, payed peanuts. While we have a good standard of life, im prepared to give up some luxuries just to get away.

Originally Posted by Tibbsy

yeah im reading that, tbh she should be able to secure 6 to 8k a month going on a recent international school salary we saw. I also have about 3k a month coming in so it would be more like 7k a month. we dont have any kids, just ourselves

the only reason we have to come to SG is that we are heading to Australia, but due to quarantine regulations we cannot import our cats from Thailand to oz, we have to spend at least 6 months in SG for them to be able to go to OZ. so we decided to spend 2 years in SG if she can find the right school. its all a bit daunting!

i work from home, but would like to do some part time work if its there, so again this would be on top of what we earn.

thx for your replies guys

I was the previous poster which commended "forget it" base on ur 4k salary combined assumption.

Now you have made further clarifications on ur income and no kids, 7k+ is a pretty good figure to settle down here comfortably if u ask me. Again, you need to state ur lifestyle for better advices and some adjustments might need to be made considering the cost of living.

There's a popular expat forum that you can google to seek further advice. From a local perspective on social living in singapore, as much as there is no denial towards anti-foreigner sentiments towards mainly pinoy/indian/china expats, as a caucasian, you should be fairly ok.

Since this is a forum for sharing information, maybe you can share with us the first-hand view on living conditions in Thailand and what other jobs can an expat do besides the usual
teaching or business owner roles.

Ps. I guess ur sick of hearing kup here and there after 10 years. hahah

[Tibbsy]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You guys do love your cats alot!

I think one of the main expenses is your housing. Get a sense of the housing rental market by going to propertyguru.com.sg. You can either rent private condos or public housing (HDB in short)

In SG, food (hawker centres) and public transport is generally cheap. But pls dont compare with Thailand!

From there, you should have a gauge of how much is needed to stay comfortably and work it bottoms up.

The median household income is about SGD 60k p.a. so that gives you a rough idea of what is required for an average standard of living.

Hope this helps.

yeah we are suckers for our 3 cats, they are a Bengal SE Asian leopard breed and already we have spend thousands moving them from one place to another. the quarantine in SG is gonna be extortionate alone, but they are our lifes and keep us sane.

Ive looked at renting in the burbs, I think we will be ok, 4k is the absolute lowest im working too. It would be more but i just want to make sure that if it comes down to that, we can survive. Im not comparing Thailand what so ever, i know the difference in price will be mammoth, but i grew up in london and its just the same there. No money no life.