gamb00ler

The very first album to win the Grammy for Best Album of the Year  (1959)

The only TV theme music to be included in the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress.

5 hours ago, KhunHeineken said:

Late to the thread, and you probably already have your new vacuum, but Dyson are available in Thailand.  They are a leading global brand of vacuum cleaner.

 

https://www.dyson.co.th/en-TH/products/vacuum-cleaners

Dyson vacuums don't have the feature that I need most... and that is a motorized brush for cleaning carpets.

Update for other suggestions:

As another poster had suggested, I actually placed an order with Amazon.uk... that went sideways pretty quick.  They initially said they would ship to Thailand but then claimed the item was damaged on the initial leg of that long journey and then stated it couldn't be shipped.   I eventually spoke to an Amazon UK representative from the Indian subcontinent who promised it would be re-ordered and would arrive in 4 days.  A couple of days later, my credit card was credited with a full refund.   NEXT!

I ended up buying from Amazon US.... now I've got to remember to only plug it into my step down voltage converter.  

2 hours ago, Chris Daley said:

In 8 years of living in Thailand I have never been in a restaurant with singer or live music in it.  Cockroaches, rats, open sewers, filthy tables - yes.  But not live music.

You neglected to mention the busy road 2m from your sidewalk table.

2 minutes ago, Danderman123 said:

You sound very confused.

 

First you say that Obama and Clinton personally covered up campaign finance violations, now you say you don't know and have no evidence.

@thaibeachlovers has the "many people are saying" evidence.

On 4/26/2024 at 1:32 PM, Hanaguma said:

Rich guys pay money to hide their disgraceful behavior all the time. It is unseemly, but not illegal.  I mean, Mushroom Man banged the porn woman what, 18 years ago? The only person who should be p!ssed off is his wife.  Nobody else's business. 

I'm surprised that the reason for this trial went right over your head despite you standing on a soap box.

I use the Wise website to monitor the US$ --> ฿ exchange rate.

Today I noticed that the usual fee for using an ACH "pull" to fund a transfer of $1000 to ฿ had increased to $2.79 vs $1.30 as it had been previously.

I didn't notice if the fee for the actual exchange had changed.

Each monthly transfer of 65K ฿ is going to cost about 3$ more if using the ACH to fund the transfer.

@watgate do you have anyone in the US with a mobile that can assist you?

If you do will they help you to set up Google Voice (GV) by using their phone number for the initial verification?

GV will work for many financial institutions 2FA but not all.  It seems the number of banks that accept GV is dropping over the last few years.

A good long term solution is to use an UltraMobile PayGo prepaid plan that is $3/month.  It is a legitimate US based mobile company and as yet I have not heard of any bank that doesn't accept them for 2FA texts.  You would need a helper in the US to install the PayGo sim into a phone and connect to the mobile network to initialize the service and then send the sim card to you in Thailand.  To use PayGo in Thailand you would need to swap sims back and forth or have a phone that allows more than 1 sim/esim.

I have a PayGo sim and a phone that has my local Thai mobile service via an esim.  Calls/texts to the PayGo number are sent/received via WiFi.

The link that @GiveMeAColdOne provided is excellent and contains more details of what I just described.

https://www.expatfinance.us/united-states/phone-verification

I have an irrigation pump that has blown the "motor run capacitor" twice now.

Both capacitors were rated as 30µF  450VAC 50/60Hz.  The last one only lasted 2 months.

The pump usually only starts once a day, but sometimes up to 4 times.

Are there different grades of capacitors that I can use?  What is a good brand available easily?

Would a 45µF 440 VAC 50/60Hz be advisable and would it last longer?

I'm obviously don't know much about these matters... LOL.

3 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

It does appear as if people are finally starting to ignore your nonsense posts. Hooray. 

Some are perhaps nonsense, but to me most are not... perhaps it's the whimsical tone GG uses that makes his posts seem nonsensical.

3 hours ago, gamb00ler said:

 Income earned in a US Roth account is never taxed by the IRS if taken as a qualified distribution.  It is probably assessable in the eyes of the TRD.  I don't think you can state that such income is "taxed" in the USA and thus shouldn't be taxed in Thailand.

3 hours ago, connda said:

Ahhh, but it is.  The money that goes into a Roth is "earned income" and subject to taxation - BEFORE - you put it in the Roth.  Any income that Roth generates after that point is "tax exempt."

I made no claim that Roth contributions are assessable in the eyes of TRD.  I limited my statement to strictly the income generated on the contributions inside the Roth account.  Your claim that such income is "tax exempt" is true for US taxes.  I'm very convinced that the TRD will pay no heed to the fact that such income is exempt from US taxation.  The TRD won't care if the income is generated on pre-tax or post-tax assets.  I should add that only the income generated inside the Roth after Jan. 1, '24 would be assessable.

56 minutes ago, sidneybear said:

Please explain 

It's easy to explain to you.... impossible to make you understand.

36 minutes ago, connda said:

Either way - you have declared your "taxable income" on a 1099 filed with the IRS in the United States making all of that income "taxed."  It's not about whether your income is greater or less than your deductions - it's the fact that you filed your taxable income in the United States.

Of course I haven't examined every type of income in the USA, but there is at least one income source that is not taxed in the US but may be assessable income for Thai tax residents.  Income earned in a US Roth account is never taxed by the IRS if taken as a qualified distribution.  It is probably assessable in the eyes of the TRD.  I don't think you can state that such income is "taxed" in the USA and thus shouldn't be taxed in Thailand.

On 4/22/2023 at 9:27 AM, gamb00ler said:

Our PEA bill is for a new house with 3 phase supply and a 10KW solar system.  We are not yet moved in so load is minimal.

 

The inverter software reported that our grid usage was 9.21 units (KWh) for the billing interval.

 

I don't understand why our bill has what looks like readings from two different meters.  Can anyone explain it?

 

I finally investigated the reason for our bill showing two consumption amounts.  The smaller amount is indeed the units exported to PEA.  It is just there to show the amount exported.... we are not charged nor given credit for those units.

46 minutes ago, Mike Lister said:

For many, the records keeping approach will be the only solution because the funds will have been commingled for a long time and there is little opportunity to separate them and/or, open additional accounts.

I have been assuming that commingling of funds before Jan. 1, '24 is irrelevant.  If I'm right, then it's not possible as of yet to have funds that "have been commingled for a long time".  Is my original thinking correct?

While writing this post I may have thought of one advantage of commingled funds.  If you have diverse assets in an account, you may have some assets that appreciate and some that fall in value.  It seems likely that you can easily offset the gains of the former with losses from the latter.  If the assets are in separate accounts it may not be easy to offset the gains with losses from a different account.   I'm referring to the total funds that would be assessable upon remittance.

5 hours ago, Mike Lister said:

If you say Living Expenses, that money will be deemed to have been spent and in the future it may be difficult to refer back to it in case you decide to try and expatriate the funds overseas.

Recently, a friend that I've known since before either of us moved to Thailand asked for my help in trying to transfer funds back to the USA.  He and his Thai wife had sold properties that had appreciated substantially.  The Thai bank did not ever ask him to show that he had brought any of those funds into Thailand.  Perhaps that requirement applied in the past but it seems it no longer does.  His bank was more preoccupied about the reason he was sending the funds.

23 minutes ago, itsari said:

12000 btu airconditioner will on average use 1kw per hour . 720 hours in the month will equate to 3600 baht . 

Your figures don't take into account the actual amount of heat that the air conditioner must transfer from the room to maintain the selected temperature.  Obviously a well insulated room allows less heat from outside to raise the inside temperature.  Less power is needed to remove less heat.  The "average" consumption needs to be adjusted for different circumstances.

I posted a notice in the Bank Savings Interest Rate topic a couple of weeks ago.

LH Bank info page:

https://www.lhbank.co.th/en/personal/deposits/foreign-currency-deposit-account/

I wasn't trying to get an FCD account... I was seeking the EZ Savings account @1.5% rather than using fixed deposit accounts.  It's a lot more flexible and no need to bother with renewal at end of FD term.

On 3/21/2023 at 9:56 PM, MikeN said:

Should have found myself a southern girl....

Both panang and Mussamun dishes are pretty popular in central Thailand as well.

I got lucky... I married a central lass with an excellent family and excellent English... not to mention an awesome cook!

During my research for my financial planning I came across a Canadian government web page that will calculate the tax a Canadian expat will be charged on his Canadian based income.

This link will take you to a page where you have to read a disclaimer and agree before getting to the actual calculator:

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/e-services/non-resident-tax-calculator-disclaimer.html

"Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."   Benjamin  Franklin,  1789

On 4/20/2024 at 6:17 PM, lopburi3 said:

Sorry but you are very wrong in the case of USD.  Due to fees being based on amount exchanged the exchange rate advantage is lost when sending large amounts from USA due to SWIFT being a fixed rate regardless of amount being sent (or even no fee in some cases).

So far... this is the best answer to OP's question.

A couple of years ago I used a spreadsheet to calculate the best method to send varying amounts to Thailand from my US based bank.  For amounts greater than 21K US$, SWIFT transfers resulted in more ฿ in my Thai account.  WISE was better for smaller amounts.  I think since I did that comparison WISE has increased their fees somewhat.

The OP can do all the calculations for his specific situation.  It's not higher maths.