CaliforniaGuy wrote:

StroppyChops wrote:

PSD-Kiwi wrote:How long is a piece of string?

The question is not about the length of the string, but rather ask yourself if the string exists.

It is just a theory!

LOL! Touché.

Another reason that locals can live on less is that they have a close network of family and friends. Locals can live with family and support each other. Sharing in the cost of meals, housing and transportation is worth a lot. Having a family support each other is very valuable, even though it may be hard to assign a monetary value, it does have one. Expats don't have this and normally have to pay for everything on their own.

It is right, however it is not always easy to live with your relatives especially when you come here (Phnom Penh) to study at the univ. i had a lot of hard time and bad experiences living with my relative. So if you can afford to rent a room and live by your own. you should do it (my suggestion for other Cambodians univ students who are from the province). It is like using the money to buy your freedom.

Thanks for the welcome "California guy" - I've been living in Phnom Penh for 10 years so not quite a newbie My wife isn't Khmer although she is Asian. Yes, my $4k per month expenditure includes my $2k rental.

Evidently you bought your townhouse just before the crazy "boom" that we had - a $25k profit over 5 years is probably average eh?

I've considered the idea of gaining citizenship several times but it would have eat in to mostly all of my savings and I ultimately decided against it. Who knows what the future will bring, perhaps some nominee sort of arrangement would be the best way for me to go. Rental prices for something 'decent' here are ridiculous and it pains me to be paying over $20k per year.

Cheers,
Joe

CaliforniaGuy wrote:

joelightcloud wrote:I have a bike, car, wife and live in a villa and can live comfortably on $4,000 per month. $50,000 per year salary minimum if you don't want to "watch the pennies"

Hello Joe! I see you are even more of a newbie on this forum than I am. Welcome!
Can I ask you a few questions? You have a Khmer wife or western? I ask because if she is Khmer you can own property, maybe a good idea if you are planning to stay long term. How long have you been living here or plan to? Does your 4K include rent?

Some info about me, my wife is Khmer and we do own a one of those townhouses outside of PP. About as much room as a villa, but long and narrow and upright, with one of those garage door fronts. We bought about 5 years ago for 50K, now they go for around 75 or so I think. Not as nice as a villa but is fine for us, more room than we need and I get lots of exercise walking up and down the stairs! When I priced the villas at the time they were going for about 5 or 6 time what we paid for ours, we could not afford that. Thanks again for your comment.

joelightcloud wrote:Thanks for the welcome "California guy" - I've been living in Phnom Penh for 10 years so not quite a newbie My wife isn't Khmer although she is Asian. Yes, my $4k per month expenditure includes my $2k rental.

Evidently you bought your townhouse just before the crazy "boom" that we had - a $25k profit over 5 years is probably average eh?

I've considered the idea of gaining citizenship several times but it would have eat in to mostly all of my savings and I ultimately decided against it. Who knows what the future will bring, perhaps some nominee sort of arrangement would be the best way for me to go. Rental prices for something 'decent' here are ridiculous and it pains me to be paying over $20k per year.

Cheers,
Joe

CaliforniaGuy wrote:

joelightcloud wrote:I have a bike, car, wife and live in a villa and can live comfortably on $4,000 per month. $50,000 per year salary minimum if you don't want to "watch the pennies"

Hello Joe! I see you are even more of a newbie on this forum than I am. Welcome!
Can I ask you a few questions? You have a Khmer wife or western? I ask because if she is Khmer you can own property, maybe a good idea if you are planning to stay long term. How long have you been living here or plan to? Does your 4K include rent?

Some info about me, my wife is Khmer and we do own a one of those townhouses outside of PP. About as much room as a villa, but long and narrow and upright, with one of those garage door fronts. We bought about 5 years ago for 50K, now they go for around 75 or so I think. Not as nice as a villa but is fine for us, more room than we need and I get lots of exercise walking up and down the stairs! When I priced the villas at the time they were going for about 5 or 6 time what we paid for ours, we could not afford that. Thanks again for your comment.

Hello again Joe! Thanks for your reply. Actually I meant newbie on the forum as I saw it was your first post. You undoubtedly know more about this than I, but you can buy a condo here, and there seem to be a lot of nice new ones being built. A house too via a company, but I would be a little nervous about this seeing how laws can change. Found this link about foreigners owning here: http://www.cambodiarealestateinvestment ... s-faq.html

What is your nationality if you don't mind me asking? I am U.S. and my Khmer wife will soon get her U.S. citizenship too, so she will be dual. One big advantage a foreign citizen has living in Cambodia is the ability to easily leave should things get really troubling here. A transition of power is coming sometime in Cambodia, the next elections are in 2018 their current glorious leader won't live forever. Likely things will be peaceful, but you know Cambodia.

Paying 24K rent a year, wow! If I were you I would definitely look into a condo purchase or something. As for our "paper" gain on our home purchase, yes I am glad we bought when we did. But things seem to be so overbuilt here, there were fish ponds as far as you could see around our house when we bought it, now there are townhouse as far as you can see. All in about 5 years! And banks seem to be paying outrageously high interest rates on deposits. My guess is there must be a lot of questionably loans supporting this market boom. If the world economy goes south there could be quite a fall in real estate prices, as happened in Viet Nam during the last recession. Might be a good time to buy then.

On the other hand, you are in the time you are in, so if you plan on staying here long term, and it costs you about what you are paying in rent, I would look into the condo. Just curious what kind of business are you in here, that kept you here a decade. If you don't feel comfortable posting everything on the public forum you can PM me if you want.

Regards,
Cal Guy

I spent $1800 in November. That includes $325 rent(all in). Feeding myself and 1 other person( we eat out for every meal, as we both work. We took a holiday to Koh Rong for water festival.

I could easily spend $3,000 + per month. Sure, dinner every night at top end restaurants would be nice. However, It's not me. If you don't drink/drug n have no kids, I don't really think more than $1200 is needed, with $2,000 being very comfortable.

Sir_Quality_U_Feel wrote:I spent $1800 in November. That includes $325 rent(all in). Feeding myself and 1 other person( we eat out for every meal, as we both work. We took a holiday to Koh Rong for water festival.

I could easily spend $3,000 + per month. Sure, dinner every night at top end restaurants would be nice. However, It's not me. If you don't drink/drug n have no kids, I don't really think more than $1200 is needed, with $2,000 being very comfortable.

Thanks SirQ, good information and insight. Looks like under $2000 a month is more than enough for a very good life here including some travel. You said you eat out every meal. Curious about where you like to eat and what kind of food. While I do like Khmer food, I don't think I could exist exclusively on it, sometimes I just got to have some western food and the prices are higher. As an aside, just discovered Cafe Pop on the riverside. Real Italian food, very good in my opinion, below U.S. prices, but above the Khmer restaurants. Think we might become regulars there. We seldom drink, but do like to go out and listen to music occasionally, Motor Cafe is one place we found and like, again prices a bit higher. Maybe you have other suggestions of restaurants or entertainment suitable for a couple. Would love to hear any suggestions. We went to listen to some music on the riverside, but don't much like the atmosphere at the bars we have gone to there. Seems to be mostly western guys with their short term local girlfriends or pickups. Neither me nor my wife feel comfortable in that atmosphere, besides the music was crap. When my wife tried to pay for us by credit card, they looked at her funny, and asked if it was her card. Hate that kind of stuff.