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Made It In Thailand offers a firsthand look at the trials and triumphs of entrepreneurs and business leaders in Thailand. Learn what it takes to succeed in the dynamic Thai market, from overcoming cultural barriers to seizing exciting opportunities in the land of smiles.
Brought to you by Fractiond, a business consultancy for SMEs in Thailand.
Visit: fractiond.io
If you're new to Thailand and you're
thinking about living and working here,
then it can really seem like the dream.
But I'm here to tell you that as much as
it's a great place to live and a great
place to work, there is a reality to it
that you need to be aware of as well.
And that is that as much as the
cost of living is lower in Thailand,
the salaries are also much, much
lower It's easy to fall into what
I call the Thailand salary trap.
And that is that you end up getting
acclimated to Thailand and then
before you know it, you can't
actually travel outside the country.
Or if you're earning a lot of your
living here in Thailand, then when you
retire, you're gonna struggle to move
back to your home country or to another
country that has a higher cost of living.
Now, I've actually worked my way through
this trap myself, and I can tell you
that it is possible to have a life where
you are living a good life in Thailand
with a lower cost of living, but you're
anchored more to international salaries.
So even when you retire or you get
later in your career, you still have
that mobility that you might want
to go somewhere else down the road.
Now I'm Scott Pressimone and I've
been in Thailand since 2012 and I
started working here in about 2013.
When I moved here, I did not
come in on an expat package.
Expat packages are very different than
local salary packages, and so when I
came in, I was maybe a little impatient.
I didn't wait for a big international
company to transfer me here.
Instead, I came on the ground and
said, I'm gonna make it work myself.
And it is a much more challenging,
way to do it, but it is possible.
I knew that I would take a
lower salary in Thailand.
I just didn't know how low it would be.
Because I was anchored to my US salary,
which at the time was coming up on six
figures and I was in my twenties and I
was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and I
thought, Hey look, if I come to Thailand,
I might be able to earn a little bit less.
I. But I'll still live
a live a good life here.
But what I wasn't expecting was to
earn a fifth of what I earned in the
US And I was naive, I was young and I
just didn't expect that big of a drop.
But that was the reality for me.
If you are able to save money here,
that's great, but you have to ask
yourself the question of how far can
your earnings go outside of the country?
I'm just gonna use a very simple example,
but let's say that you earn 50,000 Thai
Baht per month which is pretty common
for someone getting their first job here.
If you earn that and
you're able to save 20%
That means you're saving about
$300 per month or $3,600 a year.
And while that might sound okay,
you then have to fast forward a bit
and say, what if you're doing that
for the next five or 10 years and
you're saving about $3,000 a year?
Is that enough that you're
able to invest that and then at
least have a path to retirement?
Or is that not allowing you to build
up the nest egg as fast as you need to?
You can also think about
other unforeseen things.
Like let's say you end up having
to move home on short notice
to take care of aging parents.
Or let's say you have children.
that's very likely to increase
your cost by quite a bit here.
Or you maybe have a medical emergency.
Retirees will often point to the fact
that just 30,000 Baht is all they need to
live a good life in Thailand because they
have a nest egg and all they're trying
to do is live off their investments.
And sure you can allow yourself to
extend your savings for a very long
time in a low cost of living area.
But those individuals earned
their money outside of Thailand.
If you are looking to earn your money in
Thailand for any portion of your career,
then you're in a very different situation.
Let's say the cost of living is a
quarter or 25% of what the cost of
living would be in your home country.
If you're earning one fifth of what
you'd earn in your home country,
then you're actually not ahead.
Of course, you can live a good life
here and maybe you enjoy it more
and it's worth it to you, but just
know that you certainly are gonna
be affecting your finances if your
salary goes down that much and you're
saving a bit on cost of living.
There's also a couple other things to
be aware of, which is you might not
get the same type of packages you get
in your home country outside of the
salary, and that includes the perks.
So maybe the health
coverage is gonna be lower.
Maybe you're not gonna get some
investment fund match or contribution.
Those are gonna be a little bit
less common in Thailand as well.
And the other thing to keep in
mind is that there are plenty of
people that want to take your job.
Because so many foreigners travel here
and then they decide they wanna work here.
And so if you're not satisfied with
the lower salary of an employer,
chances are they have a huge number
of people behind you in line that
are willing to take your job.
And so that's where you're not gonna
have a whole huge amount of upward
mobility because there are so many
foreigners willing to work for less.
But as I said, I got out of this and
I'm gonna show you what I actually did.
So the first thing I did was I
applied to a ton of professional
jobs when I first got here.
And truthfully, I didn't
get a lot of responses.
I didn't get a lot of interviews.
It was actually really frustrating
'cause I was used to doing so well
in the US and when I came here
and didn't get a lot of replies,
even when I was highly customizing
my resume and my cover letters.
I still just didn't get
invited to a lot of interviews.
And that was again, the
reality check for me.
But I eventually did land a job
and that's where I had to swallow
my pride, take the lower salary.
And my first job I took
for 40 to 50,000 Thai Baht.
And over the next two to three
years, I switched jobs a few times,
usually staying for about a year.
And the reason I would always
switch jobs was because several
jobs are entry level jobs here where
they're gonna remain entry level.
You're gonna have a glass ceiling there.
There's just no other positions in the
company and they only have a certain
number of positions for foreigners.
If you don't have that upward mobility,
then what are you doing right?
Do you really wanna have that same
job the next year and the next year?
I eventually did find a job where
there was some upward mobility.
Now, at the time, I actually took a
salary cut to move to that job though.
So I saw that the company was growing.
I knew what they were offering and I knew
I could contribute to it, but I had to
accept the job that they had available.
And so I took a salary cut.
And I ended up working
from 8:00 PM to 5:00 AM.
So working night shift, working
with US clients in the US time zone.
And I did that for several months
until other opportunities arose where
I was sort of noticed for that job.
And then I took other
positions within the company.
And I actually hopped into
several different positions within
the company until I eventually
was on the executive team.
But during that time, I always was
negotiating for compensation packages that
were heavily focused on commission based.
And by doing that, I was lowering the
risk to the employer, but also increasing
the potential of what I could earn.
And I did very well on commissions
and I was able to increase
my salary pretty drastically.
And over about the eight years I was there
in multiple positions, all of which had
a big portion in commissions, I was able
to 7x my salary over those several years.
And then the big unlock was of
course, starting my own company
because you have the most upward
mobility when it's your own company.
And so now I have a consultancy here
where I help a lot of local businesses as
well as businesses outside of Thailand.
And the reason I'm able to get
compensated well for the work
that I do in my consultancy is
because I solve very big problems.
And since I'm able to solve very
difficult, very expensive problems, i'm
able to get compensated in a way that's
very affordable to the end company,
but also is allowing me to earn, a
pretty decent salary while I'm here.
I knew what I wanted to earn, and I
anchored myself to that, to be able
to pull myself up so that I didn't
fall into the Thailand salary trap.
So the steps are this.
The first thing is to set your own clear
goals and know what you need to either
retire or to live the life that you want.
Step two is to accept a job, even
if it isn't perfect, because you
have to become stable and someone
people can rely on in Thailand.
So many people come and go and
you need to show that you're
actually here for the long term.
Step three is to continue and
grow your network and meet
with people while you're here.
So upskilling and then
always meeting new people.
Step four is to accept opportunities
that offer upward mobility.
And step five is to, this is not
for everyone, but it's to own
your own business because that
has the most upward mobility.
Now, if you enjoyed this and you
got some value out of it, I'd
appreciate if you like and subscribe.
If you have some ideas of your own, go
ahead and leave them in the comments.
You can feel free to disagree
with me there as well, and I
will catch you on the next one.
Bye for now.