How much does it cost for you and your family to live in Chiang Mai?
As noted by many expats, your cost of living will greatly vary on your standard of living. What I tried to do is to have a similar standard of living our family had in Dallas, Texas.
We are paying about $6,000 a month, including international school tuition, which is the largest expense. Excluding tuition, we are paying about $3,800 a month. This is about a quarter of our cost of living in Texas.
“Why the hell did you quit your job?”
I get this a question a lot. I know it’s a blessing to have a job that pays so well. And I worked so damn hard to get to where I was.
The simple answer: I wasn’t happy. I was an executive at a Fortune 200 company for eight years. Sure, I had a positive impact on others’ lives, especially in helping to improve the bottom line for the company and shareholders, as well as employing others (including personally hiring some people I am proud to say are my friends). The money was great – and I was very blessed to have been earning that much. But at some point the costs outweighed the benefits. The equation tipped the scale towards the option of walking away in three ways: freedom, time, and purpose.
I am an Asian American, born in Texas to Chinese immigrant parents from Vietnam. As the middle child of three, I learned that achievement could help me get attention/love. My parents taught that happiness is having a lot of success and money, and I was an eager student. I studied hard, did a lot of extracurriculars, got into a top college, and was on my way on the fast track. Marrying my wife at the age of 25 – right before starting my MBA – I made a promise to her that we will be millionaires by 40 with healthy kids, a large house in the suburbs, and a life of love and happiness.
Fast forward almost a decade, and I am a Vice President of a Fortune 200 company at the age of 35. I was making nearly $800k a year, beating the goal of becoming a millionaire by several years. We had the healthy kids. We had the large house. And we had this Instagram-worthy life seemingly filled with love and happiness.
But I wasn’t happy.
