ForeignExchange

The following link is a recent interview Jeremy Siegel had on Wall Street Week.

http://www.pbs.org/wsw/tvprogram/20050318.html

The following is the allocation Siegal recommends for an all stocks portfolio.

1. Invest 60% of your stock portfolio in the U.S. and 40% in companies based overseas (in his earlier book he recommended a 25% foreign allocation).

2. Index half of your portfolio. For the U.S. portion, look for a fund that replicates the Wilshire 5000 Index, which includes nearly all publicly traded companies, small-cap as well as large-cap. For the international portion, invest in the benchmark international EAFE index (Europe, Australia, Asia, and the Far East).

3. With the remaining 50% of assets, stay broadly diversified, but emphasize stocks with high dividends selling for low price-earnings ratios.

4. Tilt toward industries that have performed the best over time, including brand-name consumer staples, pharmaceuticals, and energy stocks.

5. Without fail, reinvest your dividends.

http://makeashorterlink.com/?J37C43E6A

Unfortunately he makes no recommendations for an ex-pat or a non-U.S. dollar based investor.

Click on the link below, then click on "Nutrition", and you can read "All About Jared", by clicking on the link to your left.

http://makeashorterlink.com/?N37F257DA

How many of the Thai teenagers you've seen, hanging around the fried chicken outlets, and burger places at the shopping malls can say the same?

>>>But if you were so physically or mentally incapacitated that you couldn't expect to pass an exam, what would you want to do? Would you want to be repatriated to die eventually in your country of origin, or would you rather pass away in the LoS?<<<

You may not have medical coverage in your home country, or you may have to re-apply if you've given up your permanent address over there.

<<<But, it's a good question about what if we find ourselves without any funds or resources to take care of ourselves?<<<

I would of thought you'd be told to leave, since you wouldn't have the available funds (i.e. 400,000 or 800,000 baht) to cover the yearly visa requirements, if all your money is going towards your treatment.

If you got something like alzheimer's, you wouldn't even have the capacity to answer simple questions in a yearly interview in front of immigration.

If you had something serious like cancer, and you survived it before immigration to Thailand, you may not be covered by medical insurance for any further occurrence of this illness in your new homeland.

By the sounds of some of the answers, Thai immigration may be quite leniant with regards to serious medical conditions. I'm no expert at this, but just trying to find some reactions to some of my queries. A catastrophic health condition can happen suddenly at any age.

For a person living in Thailand, either with a Thai wife or on a long term retirement visa, if that person should lose physical or mental capacities (i.e. stroke or alzheimer's), requiring permanent long term care, can or will the Thai authorities deport that person back to their home country from where they came from? Just curious, for a future that unfortunately may hit some of us.

Jeremy Siegel's new book, The Future For Investors, is worth a read. Most important message, buy stocks with decent income, and re-invest those dividends.

A little history about airline meals:

http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-69-173-986-20...da_airline_food

My wife and I have flown from Toronto with Cathay Pacific for many years and are very happy with this airline. Great connections in Hong Kong with maybe a one and a half to two hour wait at most, and their flight arrives in Bangkok late in the morning. No complaints with their service whatsoever.

dr_Pat_Pong:

>>>Has Mrs Exchange got a Thai passport ?<<<

Yes, she keeps renewing it when necessary. She also has a Canadian passport.

>>>The married visa is less hassle<<<

The above statement may persuade me to got with the married visa.

Toronto Star

Jan. 3, 2005. 08:15 AM

Selfless Thais take care of visitors

Think of others amid disaster

Modestly decline recognition

STAFF REPORTER

Phuket—Exhausted after spending a long day searching for friends missing after the tsunami, Canadian vacationers Catherine and David Smith fell asleep on the front lawn of a local hospital.

In the middle of the night, local Thais brought them blankets and a large towel.

In the week after the disaster, Thais have astonished foreigners with their selfless kindness.

"I can't believe how great the Thais have been," said David Smith, 42. "They literally gave us the shirts off their backs and made sure we were fed."

"When we got around to asking if their families were okay, we'd hear `four of our daughters are dead,' or `my business is gone,'" Smith said. "They looked sad for a second and then turned their attention back to looking after us."

Among the uplifting tales:

Knot Panit Promnart, son of the Krabi provincial governor, is getting married in a couple of weeks but instead of planning his wedding he spends his days walking among grossly disfigured bodies in a makeshift morgue.

He looks for any identifying marks, like tattoos or scars, so family members don't have to do it themselves.

"It's quite hard for me but it's better than the families going to see," Promnart, 26, said.

The prime minister's wife, Khunying Potjaman Shinawatra, volunteered to help forensic teams identify bodies; his daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, volunteered as a translator and then worked packaging donations, according to the Bangkok Post.

A local businessman, whose wife and son live in Toronto, has put everything he has — his cars, drivers, boat and home — at the disposal of Canadian officials. Modest, like the rest, he asked that his name not be used.

Right after the tsunami, hundreds of Thais who can speak foreign languages left their jobs and families and showed up at hospitals, morgues, temples and government buildings to help translate for foreign tourists. Many are still there more than a week later.

If foreigners look lost, even for a moment, a Thai is at their side asking, "Can I help you?"

Tables of free food and water are everywhere and the Thais aren't satisfied with just waiting for people to come and get it. They actively hand it out, just as they once peddled their wares to tourists in happier days.

"They are people from all walks of life," said a Thai foreign ministry official about the local volunteers.

"The whole country is in mourning. The king came out and tried to console people and said we have to go on and help everybody," the official said.

But when asked more about the good work of volunteers, he said, "we have hundreds of foreign doctors here."

That's the typical refrain around here. Modest by nature, Thais point to the work of others.

"It's so frustrating; the Thai people aren't getting enough recognition," said Jesse Maulder, 20, an Australian volunteering at the Chinese temple in Krabi, now being used as a morgue.

The Prachasuntisuk Foundation offered its temple to store hundreds of bodies being brought from Phi Phi island, where officials believe most of the missing Canadian tourists were when the tsunami hit.

At 5 a.m., women are already at the temple cooking food for the doctors, forensic experts, government officials, volunteers and family that fill the grounds and street in front all day.

"The whole temple is chock-a-block full of donations from Thai people," Maulder said, referring to piles of bolts of white burial cloth, bags of rice and mountains of bottled water.

Thai corporations have also been generous, offering free overseas telephone calls and cellphone time, and setting up computers everywhere with free Internet access.

Toronto native Greg Jones, who lives in Bangkok but was vacationing in Phuket when the tsunami hit, got a call from Thai American Express.

"Are you okay? Is your family okay? Is there anything you need?" Jones said the firm asked him.

He had rented a car in Phuket with his credit card and the company was calling all the customers it knew to be in tsunami-affected areas, Jones said.

When Navy Capt. Athachai Brame was asked about the hundreds of local volunteers, he said:

"Come see; these are my angels. They help the people," Brame said, pointing to a table full of foreign women.

"Modest — it's just the way Thais are," said one, Jayne Byer, an American who was holidaying in Thailand when the tsunami hit.

Roy Maguire, who came to Phuket last week in the hopes of finding his Vancouver in-laws John and Jackie Knill, was also struck by the generosity of Thais.

"John and Jackie came here (five times) because they loved the people. "Being here, I begin to understand why," Maguire said.

http://makeashorterlink.com/?G18C2562A

A joint account is fine for a support Thai wife extension of stay

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Who would be supporting who? If the immigration officer found out the real story, he/she would probably fall out of his/her chair laughing. My wife is a university grad, I'm not. She is also an IT professional with a much better paying job than my own. If anything, we have provided support to her retired parents for many years, and I'm quite happy to do it.

Seems it would be less embarrassing for me to go the retirement application route. Many thanks for the replies. You guys are terrific.

Age 55. My Thai wife and I have had a joint account here in Canada for over 18 years. When transferring the 800k over to a Thai bank can it be sent to a "joint account" in Thailand for long stay retirement purposes, or would immigration refuse the application because of this? Also, would I be able to apply to immigration as soon as I arrive in Thailand? Thank you in advance.

Prime Minister Paul Martin announced Canada was doubling its aid to tsunami-ravaged countries to $80 million after a meeting with cabinet Sunday.

Donations: Canadians may claim donations made up until Jan. 11, on their 2004 tax return

http://makeashorterlink.com/?T6042552A

Eventually, in a few years, my Thai wife and I will retire to Thailand. Since 1986 I've been going over with her on holiday every couple of years for three or four weeks stay, but aside from a few words, I haven't been able to pick up the language. I would like to take classes in Thai when we live over there, but since I was never a great student in my younger days, I figure I'll probably fall behind the rest of the class as usual. Anyone trying to teach me one on one, would probably have to have a lot of patience. Is there any solution, or am I doomed never to be able to string sentences together in the Thai language?

For Canadians: How to multiply your donation by near seven times

From a post at redflagdeals.com

http://67.19.207.84/~redflagd/forum/showth...490#post1222490

Here's a site for those wishing to donate from the U.S.

The American Institute of Philanthropy (AIP) announces its top-rated list of charities currently offering relief services to the victims of the earthquake and tsunami

http://www.charitywatch.org/hottopics/tsunami_asia.html#top

Wish we had a site as good as this available here in Canada.

For those in Canada who wish to donate, received this by e-mail from the Thai Society of Ontario:

Dear Thai Society of Ontario members, friends and families,

You have heard the news about the tsunami in S.E Asia. Thousands were killed and thousands had left homeless and facing infectious disease in the South of Thailand. We have worked with various Thai organizations to set up to accept the donations to help buy drinking water for the survivors and body bags for the deceased.

If you wish to donate, you may send a personal cheque /money order or bank draft payable to “Royal Thai Embassy Relief Fund” and send to Royal Thai Embassy, 180 Island Park Drive, Ottawa, Ont. K1Y OA2. Please make sure to have your return address, the Embassy will send you an acknowledge letter.

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an acknowledge letter? wouldnt that money be better spent on relief aid?

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I haven't been able to verify it on the web, or even a contact address, but spokesman for the South Asia Earthquake Relief Fund, Dr. Budhendra Doobay, said on radio news here in Canada yesterday, "You may contribute to organizations like the Red Cross, or UNICEF if you wish, but 30% of that money will go to administrative costs, whereas with our organization every dollar goes directly to aid"

For those in Canada who wish to donate, received this by e-mail from the Thai Society of Ontario:

Dear Thai Society of Ontario members, friends and families,

You have heard the news about the tsunami in S.E Asia. Thousands were killed and thousands had left homeless and facing infectious disease in the South of Thailand. We have worked with various Thai organizations to set up to accept the donations to help buy drinking water for the survivors and body bags for the deceased.

If you wish to donate, you may send a personal cheque /money order or bank draft payable to “Royal Thai Embassy Relief Fund” and send to Royal Thai Embassy, 180 Island Park Drive, Ottawa, Ont. K1Y OA2. Please make sure to have your return address, the Embassy will send you an acknowledge letter.