mikekim1219

I just saw one of the America Got Talent contestant making it to the live show doing basically same thing. I don't know how he did it but it's just a clever trick. Keep your bank book secured just in case.~

I have basically same question. Since I have been living China last 10 years, my USA license has been expired. Can I still use this to change to Thai license? Can I change Chinese license to Thai license?

When they can tell me winning lottery number, I will become a believer~

Junglejimbo, I have a billion dollars (US) but it's tied up at the moment. If you send me let's say, $30,000, once it's freed up I'll bung you a round $100,000 (sg)

Wow! Can I get a piece of the action?

Me too

As mentioned, Brits are far more likely to travel internationally by % of the population than the Americans.

I know a lot of Americans who are delighted to see as much of that cast country as possible and don't see the need to travel overseas and I understand that. I think it's a badge of honour to be able to say you have visited all 50 states.

One of the primary drivers for Brits is the weather, our winters can be atrocious, and we along with a lot of other Northern Europeans need to know that we are getting good weather when we are on holiday. Hence the reason why so many of us arrive in the Winter........anything to avoid the -15 temps.

That explains why you are guys were always exploring and colonizing other countries~

Jurgan ,

Have you considered business ventures of your own in Thailand

My biggest concern with getting old or indeed passing away ,is how my family will continue in the lifestyle we currently have

I'm trying to make as much money today as possible ,and spending it wisley on smaller but many investments in Thailand ,rental properties and small business ideas ,

Not everybody would agree but it's the only plan I have right now

Every time I get 1 million baht of savings I try to invest it in something small ,many fail but some are bringing return

I would think generating an income of 150 k a month for every month your retired would be the goal .plus a nest egg to bolster up your life

As I have previously said in other posts I find Thailand not as cheap as I first tought ,and my dollars don't go as far as I would like them to,that said I wouldn't change my lifestyle ,to have a healthier balance in my bank account

What ever you decide good luck to you

I think we are all on the same boat on this. We want to leave more than what we came here with to our love one. The trick is not to go negative on your savings/pension. The trick becomes really tricky if you don't have sufficient fund, but with 50M, you can continue accumulating more than you are spending without a sweat.

The reason of my thread is the thread from Murgatroyd. I'm very sorry for him especially since he seems to be such a nice and responsible guy.

Today both my wife and I have good salaries and are quite lucky with our investments. If something happen to us, we have good insurances provided by our companies and if we lose on our investments, as it is real estate, we won't lose everything and we can afford to wait for better days.

Once we retire, it's over. Whatever we have that day, we will have to make with it until our last days. And as my wife noted, in my family we live quite old. So I don't want to make mistake. I may have some experience about making money now but I've no experience about retirement or getting old.

50M Baht is not the money we have but the target we should meet before thinking about retirement. It's not that much, in the village where we plan to retire, I know at least of two foreigners who retired with this kind of money. They have a nice life style but nothing extravagant. This amount of 50M, 60K monthly, is based on my discussion with these two expats. Now I just want to ask for more opinion to either confirm or infirm my plans

I lived in Beijing during the property bubble. The price of apartment triple, quadrupled in 4 to 5 years. If you were at the right place at right time, anyone could have made some serious dough.

As for your retirement plan, with 50 mil, you can collect 120k per month with only minimum interest. You have so many options such as annuity that would pay you about 200k a month for rest of your life. You can budget 60k for cost of living and put back the rest in other investment to keep you adjusted for the inflation as you get older.

Really I wouldn't worry about anything with 50M.

By "Thai rooms" u mean condos or those cheap rooms for uni students?

Cheap Thai rooms rent from 2k upwards....to make sure you benefit fom a better return, source the land and build your selfe. I have 18 rooms 9 down and 9 upstairs..downstairs rents for 4k with air and hot shower upstairs 3k for fan..depends where you are, a uni town up north wont get as much as close to BKK.where are you based?...just to give you an idea, my initial investment was recoupoed in just under 4 years although I was lucky in finding a cheap plot and had my own builders.

Mind telling us amount of your your investment?

He already has, it's all in his post.

I don't see any numbers. If he has 18 rooms, average each room at 3.5k. If he recoup investment in 4 years, that's just over 3 million bath investment with 25% annual return. I would say that's pretty good investment.

Around Chiang Rai University (Rajabhat) where I stay, this is out of the question. The land price is too high.

By "Thai rooms" u mean condos or those cheap rooms for uni students?

Cheap Thai rooms rent from 2k upwards....to make sure you benefit fom a better return, source the land and build your selfe. I have 18 rooms 9 down and 9 upstairs..downstairs rents for 4k with air and hot shower upstairs 3k for fan..depends where you are, a uni town up north wont get as much as close to BKK.where are you based?...just to give you an idea, my initial investment was recoupoed in just under 4 years although I was lucky in finding a cheap plot and had my own builders.

Mind telling us amount of your your investment?

This post gave me 2nd thought on my moving to Thailand. But I already shipped all my things .

I am in the same boat as the OP. Still too young to collect SS and IRA (without penalty). I was looking through Bangkok Bank (my bank) mutual fund performances. They looked very impressive. Anybody have experience with them? I have modest fund (250k usd) that I want to stretch till my IRA and , later, SS kicks in.

Would appreciate constructive advice

I will explain what I do, BUT (and I always say this to anyone I give advice to) don't take my advice I'm alway wrong.

I'm now about to receive my second SS check, just turned 62. I need dividend income. You want to try and not draw down principal. There is risk involved in what I'm going to tell you do but it's the best trade off of income to risk I've found.

I use Charles Schwab. Get an American address for your account. You can use a family member's address. Indicate you only want electronic communication. Whenever I need to talk to Schwab I use Skype. The reason to do this is you need to reside in the US to trade mutual funds (at least with them). The ability to use their bank to pull money from your account with no ATM fees is a key feature. If you have your IRA someplace else, transfer it to them. I would try not to pull income from the IRA because it's taxed. You may not have a choice but I leave my IRA money alone as much as possible.

What I suggest is high yield equities. These are ETFs and Mutual funds that produce dividends monthly or quarterly. I have about 15 different ones. They generate about 8% a year of dividends. Hopefully they also increase in value. 250k X .08 is 20k a year or 1600 a month. That's fully invested which would make me nervous.

I invest in 4 types of equities.

Junk bonds: JAHYX, TIYRX, STHTX, JNK, HYG, LQD

REITS: AGNC, HTS, NLY, MTGE, ARR, ANH

Senior Loans: EFT, TLI, VTR, VVR

Business Development Companies (BDCs): MMT get recommendations

REITs are particularly attractive now and some of them pay 15% and up. Remember the higher the dividend the more the risk. You can also buy Verizon and AT&T paying 5%+ or Exxon and Chevron paying under 4% but with a good growth potential. There is also high yield muni bond funds that kick out tax free income around 4% see SNTIX.

Every trade of ETFs cost $10 at Schwab. All the mutual funds mentioned are no load no fee funds. Mutual fund high yield tend to be more stable than the HY ETFs. Mutual funds are the way to go for amateurs. Easier to grasp. Schwab has recommendations in all these catagories.

Spread out your investments. Don't do anything until you know all you can about these kinds of investments. If you don't know about any of this stuff, get to work. You've got a lot of studing to do. Don't do anything till you're knowledgeable. It takes time to manage a portfolio. If you're just drawing down your IRA you're bleeding to death. Have a plan. Stick to it. Put stops in place.

Buy low sell high is the idea but dollar cost averaging buying a little at a time or monthly, slowly adding to your position may help. I would buy these equities in $10,000 lots (The market is high at the moment but these tend to be not as volitile as other investments. Put stops in place. These are orders to sell if the stock should suddenly drop, I would recommend somewhere around 7%.

2010 about 14%

2011 10%

2012 about even so far

I have slightly more money now than when I came to Thailand and I spend about 65K baht a month. Now I have SS so I expect to start to grow the nest egg.

Got that? What have I left out? Oh yea, don't take my advice.

Since I have all my asset in China and will be moving it to Thailand, this plan is not feasible to me. Also it's little too risky for my taste. Putting all my eggs in mutual fund seemed insane for my situation.

Since I am planning a cost of living budget of 40k baht per month, I suppose I can have them all in fix deposit at 3% and stay safe. With 5% inflation adjustment, I should be okay until SS kicks in.

I might dabble with Thai mutual with small fund and get feel of how it turns out. Thanks for your (non) advice anyhow..

I am in the same boat as the OP. Still too young to collect SS and IRA (without penalty). I was looking through Bangkok Bank (my bank) mutual fund performances. They looked very impressive. Anybody have experience with them? I have modest fund (250k usd) that I want to stretch till my IRA and , later, SS kicks in.

Would appreciate constructive advice

Does BB allow easy, cheap, and fast switching? Also, is the fee structure transparent?

A number of funds have done quite well, but the Thai market is relatively volatile. Switching out to a MM fund when a serious downturn seems likely (according to the indicators) may or may not reduce returns but let you sleep better at night.

Some of the Aberdeen funds let you invest more broadly than just Thailand. Switching isn't free (as last I remember) but the fees are quite bearable.

I am not sure if BB allows fast switching or transparent. I suppose those are the questions I need to ask when I visit their branch.

After reading your post on this forum, I am leaning towards Aberdeen. I have sent them an email inquiring about available branch office in Chiang Rai. I haven't heard anything from them yet. I may have to take a visit to BKK for sit down interview.

I am in the same boat as the OP. Still too young to collect SS and IRA (without penalty). I was looking through Bangkok Bank (my bank) mutual fund performances. They looked very impressive. Anybody have experience with them? I have modest fund (250k usd) that I want to stretch till my IRA and , later, SS kicks in.

Would appreciate constructive advice

I won't get any Social Security from the IRA either (scnr). And I am certainly no financial adviser.

What I do is I send certain amounts of money to different mutual funds per month, one of them being BBL's LTF. Others are in the UK and in Germany, spreading the currency risk. I would not invest a lumpsum anywhere, but that's just me. My (probably unprofessional) philosophy is that mutual funds go up and down, and by sending fixed monthly contributions, I'll even that out.

I plan to retire in 10 years, and I am not a member of any pension fund, and I don't have children who will send me money when I get old. As an investor, I am therefore very cautious.

I thought about monthly contribution. But I think this is for younger man with a job. Since I am not young and I don't have steady income, my thought was generating some steady, relatively safe, return on my modest savings. I don't have rich children who will send me monthly check either. And short of finding a rich widow, I also need to be very cautious.

I am moving all my asset from China to Thailand. I would be happy as a clam if I can 5% return without worrying about bottom falling out. Anybody have any good advice how I can do that?

wow...thanx for all the help guys...really appreciate it..

i have 3m Baht and there is no girl involve and those 2 friends that i have in thailand they are experts cos they are living there for 5 years now

could you give me more info about 7-11 plz thanx

info about me :

im iranian , 22 years old..my friends are 30-32 and i have lots of skills in computers and internet and pretty much every thing related to it,im a civil engineer and im constructing 8 buildings in iran now...

my friends are professional tour leaders

what about building houses is that a good idea?

I can sympathize with you wanting to set up an income stream in Thailand. I also looked into it sometime ago. I dont' remember the details but there are two plans for setting up 7-11. One is you can be their employee and expect to earn about 15,000 to 20,000 baht a month. Another plan is invest about 2.5 mil and earn 30,000 a month. This was not my idea of investment in franchise.

I also looked into building dormitory for students. After calculating that I would need about 6 to 7 million bath to earn 30,000 to 40,000 (in Chiang Rai), I passed on that also.

I have been living in BKK, Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing, Seoul, Manila last 12 year or so, I learned that it is very difficult to set up a income stream in Asia. From my experience, the ones that are successful are people who have lived in the area for long time. My advice is learn the language, understand the culture, study the local law and get local people connection before you attempt to open a business. And of course know your business inside out with solid business plan. Then you might have some chance. Otherwise, forget it.

I am in the same boat as the OP. Still too young to collect SS and IRA (without penalty). I was looking through Bangkok Bank (my bank) mutual fund performances. They looked very impressive. Anybody have experience with them? I have modest fund (250k usd) that I want to stretch till my IRA and , later, SS kicks in.

Would appreciate constructive advice

Somebody is offering me 45 sqm at Condotel (next to Mae Koh) for 700,000 plus commission. Since I am still new here I would like to know if anybody have any idea on the true value

I have no idea of the specific price information you need but I would say this.....

The power structure in the building is all-important.

Ideally a good working residents' committee with helpful staff and finances posted every month on an offical noticeboard with committee minutes, proposals, etc. Check the past minutes to judge the committee competence, they should be easily available in the right block.

A benevolent dictatorship is just occasionally OK but needs some history.

There should be strictly enforced rules about noise, renovation hours, and so on. Ask about that, and smell the rubbish chute areas.

Be sure the building has been fully sold and is well looked after.

Without any of these I wouldn't buy.

Thanks for the pointers. If I decide to buy it, I will do some research and hire a real estate lawyer. This is only type of its kind in downtown. I think many guys are familiar with this building. The building is 20 years old but well maintained. There was another one available earlier, 35 sqm, but sold to a farang.

What are the current monthly association fees at condotel?

I haven't got detail info yet. I am traveling in China. I will be back in couple of weeks. I will check at that time

This is what you could expect back, if you're eligible.

Do you have chart for pickups?

I will do some research and hire a real estate lawyer.

There's little a lawyer can do to help apart from lighten your pocket and perhaps make you feel better.

The Land Dept people will check everything and will more or less tell you when it's OK to pay.....which is when they are in the process of irreversibly changing it to your name. Pay by cashier's cheque crossed to the name on the chanot so everything's pukka. Don't forget when you import the money have them write in the additional information section of the TT "For the purpose of buying a condominium". Copy it all for future use in exporting the money if you want to.

Cheeryble

Don't you need real estate lawyer or expert to check to make sure the building is at least 51% owned by Thai and the seller doesn't owe any unpaid taxes. etc?

No you don't.

An essential requirement from the Land Dept is a letter from the condominium management stating it is under 50% farang and also that all back fees and debts have been paid up to date. The manager will likely have written several of these before. Without this the Land Dept will not allow the transaction to take place.

What I might do is go to the condo in the evening before I bought to listen for any noise from neighbours.

Also important! Check the water pressure both in kitchen area and bathroom.....the pipes may have furred up badly and even rusted to leaking point it's not uncommon and a first job in a proper renovation is replacement of piping from galvanised to plastic.

After the meter these pipes belong to you and if the pressure's bad it may be a bargaining point for the price as replacement will need tiles stripping out of the bathroom......maybe all as the old ones won't match new.....and if you're changing the tiles well it might as well be new sanitaryware and suddenly you've got a real expense (occasionally a pump will do the job but it's not optimal because of rusting).

That's a good advice.

I met a gentlemen who bought 35 sqm room. He is the one recommending me the 45sqm. He is not making any commission. The security guard is as he is watching the place for the owner. One concern I have is the age of the building. As I mentioned the building is 20 years old. How long does average condo last in Thailand?

Eventually I planned to build a house in .a year or two if all things work out in my personal matter. Before that I thought about buying the condo for short term living and rent or sell once me and my wife to be move into new house.

I will do some research and hire a real estate lawyer.

There's little a lawyer can do to help apart from lighten your pocket and perhaps make you feel better.

The Land Dept people will check everything and will more or less tell you when it's OK to pay.....which is when they are in the process of irreversibly changing it to your name. Pay by cashier's cheque crossed to the name on the chanot so everything's pukka. Don't forget when you import the money have them write in the additional information section of the TT "For the purpose of buying a condominium". Copy it all for future use in exporting the money if you want to.

Cheeryble

Don't you need real estate lawyer or expert to check to make sure the building is at least 51% owned by Thai and the seller doesn't owe any unpaid taxes. etc?

Somebody is offering me 45 sqm at Condotel (next to Mae Koh) for 700,000 plus commission. Since I am still new here I would like to know if anybody have any idea on the true value

I have no idea of the specific price information you need but I would say this.....

The power structure in the building is all-important.

Ideally a good working residents' committee with helpful staff and finances posted every month on an offical noticeboard with committee minutes, proposals, etc. Check the past minutes to judge the committee competence, they should be easily available in the right block.

A benevolent dictatorship is just occasionally OK but needs some history.

There should be strictly enforced rules about noise, renovation hours, and so on. Ask about that, and smell the rubbish chute areas.

Be sure the building has been fully sold and is well looked after.

Without any of these I wouldn't buy.

Thanks for the pointers. If I decide to buy it, I will do some research and hire a real estate lawyer. This is only type of its kind in downtown. I think many guys are familiar with this building. The building is 20 years old but well maintained. There was another one available earlier, 35 sqm, but sold to a farang.

Somebody is offering me 45 sqm at Condotel (next to Mae Koh) for 700,000 plus commission. Since I am still new here I would like to know if anybody have any idea on the true value

That's a good point. None of them spoke any English.

I visited Absolute condo office. 80% of their condos were sold according to their chart. The price seemed quite high for the size and location. They are calling my g/f everybody about purchasing even after she told them I am not interested.

Here is the situation. II am having my friend transfer fund from China to my bank account in Chiang Rai for purpose of purchasing a condo. First I will have the fund sitting in the bank 60 days so I can apply for retirement visa. After I get my visa, I plan to purchase a condo using this fund.

Is this legal? Can I still use the fund to buy the condo even thought it was sent by somebody other than myself?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance