manjara

I’m going through a divorce now, but my wife doesn’t want to give me the papers until a few years from now (our youngest daughter is 17). I don’t really care about when I get the certificate, but I would like to get the agreement done now. I will pay her money until the youngest is finished school. I’m giving her everything in Thailand so long as she gives me everything outside Thailand. So we don’t need to itemize things? 
She can still have the marriage paper for now, but I don’t want her making claims on my worldwide assets. There’s plenty in Thailand, with the value being approximately equal.

Does anyone know if you can do the agreement ahead of time, and then visit the registry office say a year or 2 later?

There's a Lifestyle Index report which is quite interesting. Here's an excerpt:

"Hong Kong is the most expensive city in Asia to have a fine dining experience at a cost of USD 287, followed by Singapore (USD 283) and Shanghai (USD 280). On the other hand, the best priced degustation dinner can be found in Mumbai (USD 113). On aggregate, the price of fine dining in Asia as measured by our Index has risen by 1.2% y/y in US dollar terms with the most significant movements in Bangkok (+17.3%) and Manila (-7.0%)."

The link is here:  https://www.juliusbaer.com/fileadmin/user_upload/2017-10-17_JuliusBaer_WealthReportAsia2017_Report_EN.pdf

6 hours ago, Naam said:

a good question! nearly all our food is cooked at home, our entertainment comes over the internet and our dogs, we don't frequent bars, restaurants, coffee shops and we don't eat street food. i will ask my wife why we spend nearly 3 million Baht per annum.

Similar, but I include School fees in that. I only have about 500k unaccounted for! 

11 hours ago, David Walden said:

Most men who come to Thailand and are nice to Thai Ladies will find that you can find a nice happy lady rather quickly. You don't want to be shy.  To many examples are available to list here.  A few not so good? What's different in the West.   It could be a bar girl who is getting on a bit who would like to get out of the business, has 2/3 kids, husband a butterfly (Gone with the wind) plenty of them in Thailand.  Many are there because that's the best job they can get.  They are mostly just nice people who do not have a regular male partner.  These ladies are not just bar girls they can be working in a 7/11, big  "C", Tesco, Makro or anywhere, like the lady along the Cha-am beach road I often buy fruit from who is concerned that I go walking each morning on my own and no lady.  She assures me she can fix that for me in a day and make me happy.  Much BS and laughter on the subject, she even tells me she'll sell the side car on her fruit motor bike and she''ll make me happy "if you like"   I think she means it?  Sometimes from 50 metre away when I'm walking past a flash restaurant  she'll call out "you got girlfriend yet" speaks quite good english,  " I fix "she says.  all the people in the street front hotel flash dinning room their ears prick up...but it's all fun.

    Manjara... with an income of Bt 80/100 you can live in Thailand very comfortable and even be quite generous.  Bt 10.000 will get you a nice 2b/r town house with a Thai lady partner , especially in my town of Cha-am...I am sort of breaking the unwritten rules among us farangs/expats in Cha-am about telling people how good it is...psss "don't tell anyone" Prachurup, Ranong , Ban Pae, Chiang Mai, Nong Khai all very good also "try them".  Please keep it a secret about how good Cha-am is.  Beautiful beach, Mon to Fri quite. Sat and Sun traffic crazy.  Makro here soon, magic market every Wed night 500 stalls etc...don't tell anyone.

Thanks for the words of encouragement! My wife and I know Cha-am very well and usually go there when we go to the beach! My wife still manages to spend at least 5k on a day out in Cha-am!  Couple of kilos of roast pork, chickens, prawns, hoi of different types, many dishes, wine, beer, banana boats, deck chairs, shirts, toys, shoes, sun cream, etc for about 8 people usually! 

We also know about places like Lampang, Koh Phayam, Sam roi Yot

I realise I only have myself to blame here, but there is not one big expense, it's just the sheer volume of 'good value' transactions! 

MIL = mother in law, by the way!

1 hour ago, balo said:

Actually I hope Manjara is joking with us , but if it's true what a lucky Thai family / relatives etc. They hit the jackpot. 

 

If I take out the loan repayment, then they are spending about 100k a month, which is definitely excessive, but not completely ridiculous. I'd like to get it down to 80k or lower, so that I'll have some money for travel when I retire. 

The problem is being able to afford the good things in life when you go below that level. Wine, cheese, massage, gik, etc.

12 hours ago, dallen52 said:

I'm not normally one to comment, but...

 

I'm trying to get by on the average expat farang pension funding the monthly for myself and my partner. 60,000 is the current costs.

Plus the odd excursion into savings of recent. 

 

This as posted above is obviously going to attract the questions..

 

Where is the location?

 

And, why ?

If you dont live there.

 

That's a lot of dosh in any currency. 

Especially if you dont know where its actually going..

 

Good for your wife, kids, maid, the local food industry, bank, and private schools whose fees are extra you say...

 

1.68 million baht. 

Plus school fees on top..

Plus what she earns.

 

And she says it's not enough..

 

Thank you for the contributions to the economy...

I travel back about 9 or 10 times a year, and to be honest, I can easily see how she could spend 10k a week on food so it's not completely unreasonable. A pizza meal from Pizza company will cost close to 1000 baht, and if you go out for dinner (with 6 people) then you will spend more. 

Perhaps I'm being naive (braces for the flood of agreement!), but I wonder how some of the people can survive on 20k a month, which I know many people do.

Obviously, when I retire, I will not be able to sustain this level of expenditure, but I don't see my wife spending money on gambling or plastic surgery or a bunch of Thai gik, so I'm wondering where my savings are going to come from! 

I'm damn sure I can live in the UK on a lot less than we spend in Thailand, so perhaps that's the answer (see thread on leaving thailand after 13 years). 

I expect to have about 80-100k a month in retirement, so that's my target, but it may require a change of wife to reach it! ? 

1 hour ago, Polaky said:

If your not there then who drinks all the Alcohol?.....the maid?

The wife! She has people round quite a bit, but she gets through a fair bit! The maid has some too!

On 7/29/2018 at 5:09 AM, jimmyyy said:

I do Drink, and dip snuss I have 3 kids and a wife, house paid for, we go through 160000 a month including insurances and school fees.  I don't think we live high on the hog, however, i don't feel like we are suffering at all. 

I'm not actually in Thailand, but I send money back each month. As far as I know, the costs are as follows (same as above, wife, 3 kids etc)

 - Maid :  9000

 - Electric : 8000 (Aircon in 4-5 bedrooms all night!)

 - Loan repayment : 35000  (Wife built an extension)

 - Petrol  : 8000  

 - kids  :  6000  (pocket money)

 - Alcohol  : 10000

 - MIL : 10000

As I send back about 140,000 a month, I presume the rest, about 55,000, is spent on food and house maintenance!  (wow, those kids are hungry!)

I also pay school fees directly, on top of that.

My wife claims she has income as well, that she spends all of!  ( as she is always saying I don't send enough)

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

... but I might hire 20-year-old hookers more often.

The soi next to where I live has some decent apartments (bedroom/living room/kitchen/balcony) for 4k/month and is surrounded by Thai uni girls accommodation, sitting outside that room with a beer in an evening wouldn't be a bad life.

I would move the 'more' to just after 'hire'! 

Not sure that sitting around looking at Thai Uni girls would be an adequate retirement for me, I would need some kind of project that would keep my mind occupied. Perhaps 'trying to work out what the hell kind of business @LivinLOS is doing, that needs 600 employees in Europe!' ? 

Not as an individual, but my Thai company got on the Tax dept radar and I had to spend some serious tea-money to make it go away. I couldn't even put that on the company books so it came out of my pocket. It's not easy to have expenses on a Thai company, even legitimate ones! (and forget overseas expenses!)

Just now, Poottrong said:

And what happens when you do that in your home country?

Just as bad, if not worse! (If you were a Thai doing it!)

I've not really met any thais I would call friends though, all are at the acquaintance level. I can't, and don't, complain about that, as my thai skills are not really up to a meaningful conversation! 

If a Thai went to the UK and only spoke basic English, it would be hard for people to bond with them too! 

Perhaps it's the circles that I'm involved in, but I haven't met many Thais that are actually interested in things non-Thai, though I guess they would have to speak some English to be able to express it to me.

Yes, 9 projects related to wind power. I always say to the wife when we're in Thailand, 'Why is there so much wind in this country!? And there's not enough sun, just always wind, wind, wind!'

Thank god it wasn't solar power they are investing in!

Some hotels are offering cheaper rates, but not drastic.

I just booked a flight for tomorrow and the airfare was actually a bit more than normal. I'll tell you how full it was tomorrow.

Historically, there seems to be a tendency to increase prices in hard times, but perhaps they're smarter now?

8 years ago the coup was very low impact, as far as coups go, and this one looks similar.

However, the last one did nothing to resolve the problem. This one I think is different and I believe there is a definite agenda and 'milestones' for orderly handover to the normal democratic process again. Thailand faces some huge changes over the next few years, and perhaps this is the only way to navigate them successfully, though everyone's definition of success is different.

I'm constantly astonished at the lack of decent journalism, particularly in Thailand, by the big news agencies. The BBC has had people based in BKK for many years yet seem to understand virtually nothing about what is going on - perhaps now there's a curfew they may venture out from the bar! Unfortunately, governments around the world have blind devotion to democracy and are informed by news agencies and others with equally warped views of the world. My hope is that Thailand will be given sufficient 'space' to resolve it's issues without being harrassed into reinstatement of democracy too early (and I hope that the military have plan for how they will go about it!)

Hi,

I just stumbled on this topic now, so apologies I am 4 months late! I too have had the idea for a while, but not really a 'serious' care house for clinically ill patients, more a managed-retirement complex where there is 24 hour nursing care available (an Ana-mai onsite) and an attending doctor(s) during the day. Other facilities would include minibus transport, easy access for wheelchairs, special medical insurance (given the onsite care), guest villas for visiting relatives, discount for bond holders (e.g. put $100k in a bond and get 20% off care price). If the place was big enough, you could provide care very cheaply in Thailand, and many operations here are much cheaper than in Europe/US. As some have said, it would be advantageous for many european governments to offload their state-funded operations and care to Thailand/ASEAN, therefore it could be packaged for things like Hip replacements, knee arthroplasty, etc.

I wonder how many retirees use Kickstarter or Indiegogo??

When I came to Thailand 12 years ago, I had no real interest in Asian women (too small and not really much to say in conversation). So, when I was working in Bangkok I was looking for Farang women to share enjoyment of the things I really liked about Thailand (and Asia in general) - the great food and sitting on the street to eat it, the markets, the sheer volume of humanity everywhere, the beautiful nature (once you get out of BKK), the arts and crafts (even the music has grown on me!)

The farang women that I did come in contact with in the first few months just were not interested or at least gave that impression. To be honest, the western woman expectation, that a guy is going to pursue her and get over a whole bunch of 'tests' that she puts in the way just doesn't work. Not in thailand, not in the west. The only guys who will go through that trauma and demeaning are those who want to win at the game, or are just desperate after being alone so long. In thailand, those who play the game have a much more interesting table to play at, those who are desperate don't have to be desperate, there is abundance on offer all the time. So, the game plan in the west never got the 'good guys', they would always be the ones who backed off when the going got tough, the 'tests' became harder. After all, it's an equal society, if she is not interested then you should not try to force it!

After some time I ended up in bars with thai women, and even if the conversation was lacking, I found myself having fun; Thai girls are fun! Once I opened the door, I was not allowed to close it again, and I eventually ended up marrying a Thai (she now speaks good english, better than my thai) and we have 3 daughters.

I would recommend any western women looking to date western guys getting a job giving those SIM cards to people as they get off the plane! Any guys you like the look of, give them a call a couple of hours after leaving the airport! You would need to be quick!

Been married about 11 years now. Have 3 wonderful daughters, one was part of the package, lived in several countries, helped the family improve their lives, bought thai property that I signed away, fought, loved, lived and watched my kids (and my wife) grow.

My wife doesn't cook, rarely cleans, rarely takes care of me, but I could not imagine life without her! there are parts I'd change, but she would also want to change me and that's not going to happen - so we have learned to live with each others faults.

Here's to another 11 years ( then maybe I'll trade her in!

Sent from Thaivisa app on Galaxy S3

I'm insured through work at the moment, but when that ends, my plan was always to get some 'catastrophic illness insurance', i.e. with a big excess, and then keep about, ohhh, I don't know, 800k ( ) in the bank, perhaps adding a few thousand every month that I save by not having a more comprehensive insurance.

It's not time to make a changeJust relax, take it easyYou're still young that's your faultThere's so much you have to know
Find a girl, settle downIf you want, you can marryLook at me, I am old but I'm happy
I was once like you are nowAnd I know that it's not easyTo be calm when you've foundSomething going on
And take your time, think a lotThink of everthing you've gotFor you will still be here tomorrowBut your dreams may not

Read more: RONAN KEATING - FATHER AND SON LYRICS