Q & A with a Digital Nomad living in Bangkok
With the amount of digital nomads coming to Thailand, I thought it was about time I interviewed one of them.This Q&A is with a long time expat who has been living in Thailand for around about 5 years or so.
If you’re thinking about moving to Thailand and need help, check out my Thai friend’s website here, she may be able to help you out.
Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
28, UK male, moved to Thailand at 23 in 2009 after graduating BSc Physics from Imperial College, London. I hear after a few more years non-resident in the UK my student loan gets wiped, so looking forward to that.
60% of graduates from my course went into finance jobs for top banks, I knew that I’d be miserable doing that and one day wake up finding that I’m 40 and never lived. Friends that I keep in touch with back home went down that route and while their salaries are higher than mine, they never seem to have any money after taxes, high London rent costs, commuting and so on.
My reason for moving to Thailand was to have a higher spending power and better quality of life even on lower wages, and I’m glad I did. I got the idea from reading online gaming forums, there was a travel section with an ‘Ask us about Thailand’ thread.
I saw guys my age posting pics of their apartments, really nice rooms for $300 a month, and their hot Thai girlfriends that weren’t 200lbs or stuck up bitches. So I booked a flight.
So what do you do currently in Thailand?
On the same gaming forums I noticed a job ad asking for freelance poker writers. When I was at uni circa 2005 online poker was in its boom, so I spent most of my uni years playing that, and knew a lot about it. There is always demand online for content writers if you actually know your stuff, as unique content ranks well.
I started out freelance (paid per word or per article) and after a while asked them if I could take on more hours for a full time salary, they said yes, and then I got that increased later on. Currently I earn $1,800 / month for 30 hours a week, although I work at home with no set hours so if I get projects done quickly, I have a lot of free time.
That’s four times the average salary in Thailand, and I live in a 26th floor condo with a gym, sauna, tennis courts, squash, pool, and ten quid sushi buffet downstairs so in terms of life quality that $1,800 is worth more than it sounds like.
The company I work for is basically an affiliate marketing company, they run six affiliate site – for online poker (www.rakeback.com and www.pokerbonus.com), Forex trading (www.fxbrokersearch.com), fantasy sports betting (www.realfantasyfootball.com), casino gaming (www.findcasinobonus.com) and binary options trading (http://binarybrokersearch.com/). I ended up writing for all of them in my current position as the senior content manager.
Getting Started As A Digital Nomad In Thailand
This Is How You Start An Export Business in Thailand
English 
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French 
German 
Hindi 
Japanese 
Russian 
Spanish
The thai authorities aren’t concerned with expats tinkering away on websites, they’re not hurting anybody. There’ve been zero arrests of digital nomads, even when immigration rounded up foreigners at Punspace in Chiang Mai (they thought the foreigners were working FOR the coworking space, when they realised they weren’t, they let everyone go). It would be madness for a country to prohibit remote telecommuting that results in a net inflow of cash to their economy.
Do you have any insurance in Thailand as it’s hard to find if you live overseas for a long time? I find it all too hard to make money online and have fell for a few MLM schemes. Reading stuff like this really motivates me to leave my boring job and try something new, maybe even teach.
I don’t have any. Not that I recommend this to others, but I don’t believe in insurance, the companies often find a way not to pay on a technicality. For example they often don’t cover the #1 risk, riding on a motorbike (but I avoid that as in Bangkok taxis are so cheap and widely available). Also policies are void if the country is under martial law which Thailand has been under for months now and apparently may be for many months to come. Also they factor in costs for stuff like helicopter extraction from remote jungles into the premiums. I barely even leave my room, I’m not a hiking type, I don’t swim in the sea either, my condo pool is massive. Even has a whale in it – http://imgur.com/a/cAzS4
I’ve heard worldnomads insurance is quite cheap though and Harvie looked into that so maybe he can comment more.
the only two I found were digital nomads and WideWideInsure who will insure you as a digital nomad. They are not too expensive either but as ‘Digital Nomad’ said, they most likely will not offer insurance for a country that is under martial law.
There is no such thing as tax avoidance by being non resident, you have to pay tax somewhere, HMRC would be down on you like a tonne of bricks, and I have forwarded on your details to them.
uw0tm8?
See the wikipedia for ‘tax avoidance’ or ‘perpetual traveller’
any 24/7 co working spaces in lad prao?
I find it hard to get anything done in my room, usually just end up taking a nap instead of working
lol co-working space. Next you’ll be asking us how to live as a vegan in Bangkok and information about crossfit gyms.
lol figured your blog was going downhill anyway since you started interviewing “digital nomads” 😛
Not aware of any in Ladprao, think they’re only in central, expat orientated areas like sukhumvit / thonglor. e.g. hubbathailand, 63bangkok and thehive. There is 3g (4g now too) everywhere so if you can find a quiet cafe or coffee shop tethering your phone to your laptop and working there is an option. Or a library. Internet cafes are 15b/hour, some 24/7, hard to find one without mosquitoes and schoolkids playing world of warcraft tho’.
also how do you get your money?
my clients pay to a bank account in my homecountry and that might be trouble later down the road. any advice?
Skrill / Neteller / poker sites. Transfer from those to my Thai bank account.
Is that apartment above 300$/month?
It looks really good for that price. Can you tell me the name of that building
Actually $260 before bills, I can read and write Thai and found a good deal on Prakard. But there are many nice places for $300 on year leases 30-40 mins from the centre of town (call that Asok BTS). Here’s a couple examples http://www.ipremium-srp.com/ , http://www.nonsiresidence.com/
I have some internet haters trying to report me for breaking laws they think exist, so I won’t put too much info out there. Keep following Harvie’s blog maybe he’ll put up a full review of the place after I move out 🙂
wow youre getting that place for about 8k a month?
that seems like a pretty good deal… Im trolling prakard right now with google translate!
I think I know the building and will probably be moving there at the end of the year, maybe we can meetup for a beer when Im there 😉
Yeah, 8.5k. Agent was surprised, said it should be at least 10k but the last tenant ran out on the contract and left it dirty so the landlord lowered the price. Also it doesn’t have a balcony which Thais really value, but I don’t care about, clothes dry fine by an open window. Don’t want to be another farang statistic ‘falling’ from a balcony either. Couple months ago my year was up and the landlord offered to let me extend for another year at the same price, couldn’t turn that down so I’m still here. The max I’ve seen studios go for is 12k on noticeboards downstairs in English.
i dont get it
you write review on poker stuff and get paid?
Yeah he does, he uses the same method I used in my new Work in Thailand eBook.
Great interview guys. I’ve been in BKK for over a year and I’m finding it hard to network with like minded individuals. Meaning, young expats and entrepreneurs. Most people I run into are low life tourists. Here today, gone tomorrow. Maybe I should check out one of these “third places.”
Great blog, just subbed. Keep it up!
Good stuff!
Right now I’m staying 3-4 months in Thailand every year. Then I go home again to work for next trip. I have one website up and running that I’m making some money of, and doing a second one now that I started 2-3 months ago. I have told myself that when I make about 500-600 dollar consistently over Internet, I will move to Thailand permanent.
I did make some money on Fiverr too. But that work was just to repetitive and boring. (Did translation from English to Norwegian).
Would love to come in contact with someone who can make a living with their websites.
Great interesting stuff,
Not to keen on Bangkok myself it seems very noisy and polluted and so busy, its interesting that digital nomads stay for such a long time in Bangkok. Keep up the good work.
Dean
Hi, it’s 2020 and there is a virus called COVID. All the borders are closed. No way to make any visa run now.
How do you do in these days?