ExCommando

Hey everyone

Thanks for all the replies. Even though there seems to be alot of angst and drama, I still appreciate all of you taking the time.

A few of you have posted me private messages, and I'll definitely catch up with you when I arrive in country - it'd be great for you guys to then post on this topic to let people know I'm "real" and not a troll. Not that it matters to me, but I'm sure there are other people in my situation, who will stumble upon this topic.

I'd like them to be able to contact me so I can build up a base of likeminded people.

The cost of living will be substantially lower for us - we'll be renting a 2 bed townhouse, which equates to around $1,200 AUS per month - this is what we pay per WEEK on our mortgage here in Australia.

Just on housing we will be saving over $3,500 per month - which will cover the majority of our other expenses. I don't drink or smoke; I spend most of my time training, kayaking or studying.

I find it funny the stereotyping that's going on in here - I'm pretty confident in my moral fibre, and think I can abstain from cheating on my partner.

I do appreciate all the advice - I think it's about us finding out whether Thailand is for us or not. If not, we will try somewhere else. I think Thailand will be amazing, but it might turn out to be a terrible place to live.

Great thing is we're not held down to anywhere or thing - my daughter will be just on 1 year old.

Thanks again everyone, and please feel free to PM me - I really am looking to chat and then catch up with people when I arrive in country.

Cheers!

32 - Play the long game.

It's pretty young isn't it. When I was 32 I was also thinking about retirement but for when I was 35-36, ended up going on until I was 39 because there was just so much money about.

As Bill Gates said, once you make your first million, the rest is the same hamburger.

We only need a certain amount of passive income to be comfortable, which we've got. I've made the mistake of working my ass off to buy shiny things, and it doesn't make me happy.

Lesson learnt.

just be yourself and enjoy it.

stay busy, many get bored after a time, get grumpy and turn to alcahol.

plenty to do if you look around.

Oh for sure - I posted a few months ago and got absolutely ripped apart. Seems to be a lot of haters on here, but that's the nature of the beast with forums.

First 6 - 12 months will be devoted to training and getting healthy again, spent way too much time in an office over the last few years!

After that, running a few other businesses I'm involved in remotely from Thailand, and also looking at starting a few smaller businesses in country. More than enough to keep me occupied

What do you do?

Further to my last - I've just read through everyone elses posts, so sorry that i covered some things that have already been mentioned.

What I would like to highlight is the folly in investing in residential real estate.

I currently own 9 investment properties - and now have to sell off the majority, as the yield is so poor. Property is a good tool for tax purposes, and also for very long term capital growth.

But if you want cash flow, then property is generally not a good idea - the holding costs are too prohibitive.

If you are going to have $300,000 to invest, then you are best off paying $1,000 - $2,000 to a financial advisor.

I can only assume you will be looking for a supplementary income from the investment - which means you want a decent yield / return.

You should be aiming for around 7 - 8% in this market (if you invested in Oz), and I would probably suggest some form of managed fund (low risk) - which would be split between cash / the big 4 banks / bonds.

Real estate is awful here in Aus, you'll be lucky to get 3% yield after all your costs (mortgage / stamp duty / land tax / rates / management fees / maintenance), but if done properly you will get decent capital appreciation. You'll be sacrificing cash flow for growth tho.

Or, you can be super safe and stick it in the bank - problem is, you will get some cash flow, but inflation will start to eat away at the capital.

Have you thought of playing super safe and sticking it in a self managed super fund (or just a normal super fund)? Compounding the interest will do wonders over the next 10+ years?

Let me know and I can put you in touch with my financial planner here in Aus, worth his weight in gold.

well done, 32 years old thats fantastic.

hope you love it.

Spent loads of time in Thailand - one of my best mates lives and works there.

Bringing my wife, young daughter, and my mother with me - going to be a great new life for us all

Any advice or input appreciated.

Hey everyone

Quite a few months ago I caused a bit of a stir with my statement regarding the sale of my business, and our possible move to Thailand.

The sale of the business is finalized in 2 weeks time, and we're making the move in February!

We've decided on Nai Harn as our first area to live in - really excited that it's only a few months away!!

I'll be spending more time on here to hopefully get to know some of you, and look forward to possibly meeting some new friends once we arrive.

Cheers everyone

I note that the other two recently started threads about retirement in Thailand we closed overnight.

At least this gentleman was honest and only requested advice for his (relatively) lowly US 2 Million.

Well worth a read as there is some good advice from some quality posters here.

I am frustrated that my post was closed - at no point did I ask for financial advice, yet everyone who jumped on at the END of the conversation immediately assumed that I was asking for financial advice.

I think the main point to make note of is the amount of obviously disgruntled, disenchanted old men on here who have nothing better to do with their time than to slate those who HAVE achieved a degree of success with their life.

I have been extremely conservative in the 9k net, as the property rental income generates over $17,000 per month, so I have allocated over $8,000 for maintenance, tax and contingency.

What if your property is not rented (whatever reason) for one or several months?

Hasn't happened over the last few years - but that's where the conteingency is factored into it. I'm allocating approximately 10% of gross rental return to contingency - which covers maintenance and loss rent.

If you are a big spender in Thailand, you can get significantly more than what you would get for the same amount of money in farangland.

Thus, if you're living on a passive income from property income etc, and thus don't need to be in your home country in order to earn.

Then you can either:

a/ Maintain your lifestyle, while increasing your level of monthly savings.

b/ Increase your lifestyle, while maintaining the same level of monthly savings.

c/ Increase your lifestyle substantially, while decreasing your savings.

So maybe the big spenders, are quite well off people, who want to live a little better (, or maybe they are normal people, who want to live the dream soto speak (. In Thailand, people have the choice on what they want to do, compared to farangland, where their cost of living is soo much higher.

Also of course, if people are working in farangland, and working here, then it balances out, since their salary is relative to their cost of living. Although a lot of expats working for foreign companies in Thailand, do keep a western wage, which would allow them to substantially increase their lifestyle, while also increasing their savings. Which would be the other reason for a lot of high spenders.

Although, I think that the reason the real highso people send their children to other countries, and indeed want to live in other countries themselves. Is because regardless of how much money you have, you can't buy low crime, low corruption and freedom of expression. When you are really rich, money isn't a problem. You don't need to really worry about the cost of things, because you have enough money for them, and more. Instead you want those things which money can't buy.

I couldn't have said it better myself - as someone who is planning to sell up and make the move to Thailand, the reason for my move is to have the things that money can't buy, which are;

1. Less stress

2. Time with my young family

Being in business, no matter how much you delegate to your management staff, is still time absorbing, extremely stressful, and unhealthy.

And once you have made enough money to live comfortably without the need to work, it's only selfishness (in my opinion), which keeps you involved in business. You are literally just amassing more coins in your bank account to count, or spend on non fulfilling things.

I've got nearly every possession I thought I'd ever want - and at the start, I thought these possessions, status and respect in the business community would count for something ... it doesn't. It fades away, and it doesn't change the way that life revolves around you; the only thing it changes, for me, is by absorbing time I'd rather spend with those I love.

To push the cliche button - money doesn't buy you happiness.

This is why people with high net wealth sell up and retire early.

Thats nonsence ..... the rates of return likely to be gererated will not allow our 31 year old commando friend to both live reasonably well and also beome the filanthropist he would like to be as opposed to keeping the bisness and doing the same thing ...... Someone said he could not make any rate of return and spend 1mill thai bhat per year , while thats correct in 60 years that would mean about 8000 bht spending power per month at todays value.

Expecting 2 people and a child to live for 60 years on the rate of return of 3mill protected for inflation at todays returns is foolish as opposed to the rate of return the bis seems to be generating.

I can Promise you in 25 years or less the desicion will be regretted for to many reasons to list.

60 years ago you could buy a new car for 500 dollars a high end sports car for 3000 ....... You sir are obviously not a qualified financiall planner or a bisnessman.

As I stated the risk vs the reward renders this plan foolish by any meashure except wanting to loose money in the long run.

You don't think $3Million AU ($90 Million Baht), invested in property would be enough to live comfortably????

He's given a conservative estimate, of $9,000AU a month net (3.6% net return per annum on his 3 Million, which is reasonably conservative).

$9,000 per month in THB is around 270k per month.

They could re-invest 100,000THB and then live off 170k THB easily. Thus growing their investment by 1,200,000 Baht a year, which would ensure that they would remain future proofed (Particularly considering, that since they are investing in property, their income/property value should go up at roughly the same rate as inflation anyway, thus they can essentially exclude inflation from the equation).

Or do you think that 170k THB, after tax, isn't enough for a couple + 1 baby to live off in Thailand?

I'm reasonably sure that'd be a pretty comfortable lifestyle, even in a western country.

And western countries do usually have a higher cost of living than Thailand right??

You can speculate all you want about how profitable their business might be by comparison, however unless you're their accountant and have been over their books, I don't think you have even the slightest clue about how profitable their business may or may not be, or how much of their time is required to run it.

You sir are obviously not a qualified financiall planner or a bisnessman.

Do you perhaps claim to be a financial advisor??

I bow to your superior qualification if you are, I'm sorry my degree is in Business Management, not Finance and Investment. But then, I never claimed to be a financial advisor, just offered my thoughts in response to a question posed by the OP. I'll admit however, that it is a matter I've had some quite serious thought around, as I'm in a similar position to the OP myself, being that I'm also around 30 and want to find a way for myself and my family, to live a comfortable and relaxing life over the next 60 years. Although I have significantly less to invest, thus I need to keep to a much lower budget. Which is perhaps, why I am stunned that you, MrRealDeal, find the concept of sustaining a lifestyle and maintaining an investment, based on 270,000 THB a month, to be impossible.

I really wouldn't bother replying to MrRealDeal - I took me the better part of 3 attempts to read through his illegible post reply last night.

People fail to realise the following;

I currently hold property to the value (current) of $4.2million dollars.

Against this, I have loans to the value of $3.1million

I will sell the business, and invest the majority of the proceeds into the properyt, obvioulsy leaving a small mortgage on each for tax purposes, and to free up some of the proceeds of the sale.

I have been extremely conservative in the 9k net, as the property rental income generates over $17,000 per month, so I have allocated over $8,000 for maintenance, tax and contingency.

Property, in Australia, is set to increase in value by an adjusted 7% per year over the medium term - I take a more conservative view and expect a 5% growth on my property portfolio per year.

Therefore, my investment will generate a MINIMUM of 3.25m BHAT per year, while my investments increase in value by 5%, which is $210,000 AUS, or 6.8M BHAT.

I always take an extremely conservative view, so drop the 5% increase in portfolio value to 2.5%, and I am still looking at a 3.4M Bhat increase in capital growth, plus 3.25M bhat income per year (AFTER TAX)

You don't need a degree in business, or be a financial advisor to appreciate the simple math involved with the above.

If the above still doesn't make sense to the trolls in this forum, or they are unhappy that I chose to move to Thailand and enjoy life, please, kindly go away, and let the rest of us have a decent conversation!

The disruptive troll has been silenced, please return to using the forum as it was intended, asking questions, and getting answers.

If anyone else has issues, keep in mind nobody is forcing you to read any topic, but we will enforce a standard of politeness when people are making inquiries.

Thank you!

if you have a 3.2m business you have probably not been taking long vacations. do you really know thailand? i would recommend against hasty decisions. you might miss life in australia and your business there more than you think. perhaps a temporary hiatus would be wiser. the real thailand may not be as glamorous.

Exactly right.

Your real problem may be that after 5 years (or less) you are bored sh-tless in Thailand...and you can think of nothing else but getting out of Thailnd.

Living on a long-term basis in Thailand will turn out to be far different than taking a few vacations in Thailand before.

That's NOT to say you can't handle it....that's up to YOUR nature....but be absolutely sure it's what you really want before you jump into the deep end of the pool.

And then, what about you fiancee....what will SHE feel like in 5 or 10 years about living in Thailand.

She may hate Thailand....and if you want to stay in Thailand and she wants out of Thailand at any cost....what will happen then to your marriage?

Also...although it may not happen,,,I would suggest that you consider the possibility that your "retirement income" MAY be 20% to 25% LESS in...let's just say....10 years from now than it is today. (inflation. economic crash, etc.)

IF such a thing did happen...if your purchasing power was 20% less in 10 years from now....could you still handle that?

Now, add one or two children in school...and expecting to go to university in their future....and add that into the cost mix.

Could you do it?

Consider those questions very carefully.

From my personal experience....the money I thought would be adequate (in U.S. dollars in my case) for my "retirement" when I first considered that 30 years ago is barely adequate today....and won't/can't buy the lifestyle today I assumed it would 30 years ago.

And I don't think 30 years from today that will be any different....maybe even worse.

For sure - they are good points.

My fiance is almost more keen on Thailand than I am! It's really a spring board to the rest of our life - we have a good 20 years to move around and see things - I just see Thailand as familiar ground, and somewhere that I think will be great to spend a few years. If a business opportunity comes around, great - but for the first year we are definitely just going to relax, chill out, spend time with our daughter (maybe have another one;) and figure out what we are going to do.

Would be interesting to read in what area/business the OP made his money? Would you be able to do you new business in Thailand? Is it a continuation of your old one (same old same old?)

Firstly, are you going to just take time out? Chill? Read a book? Sunbathe?

What about studying...for the sake of educating yourself? Learn languages? Thai/Japanese/Chinese? Maybe even teaching kids if you want to "give something back"?

Fitness...martial arts, tennis, golf? Thousands fo things to learn and new adventures to have.

If I had half of your amount I'd be gone tomorrow

RAZZ

I own a real estate agency here in Australia - and have invested the majority of the profit into buy and hold residential investments; have always bought run down properties and renovated, which has seen quite a good rise in the equity as well as the return.

I've also funded the entire business through cashflow - have been sensible enough to reinvest the profit back into the business, minus the nice house and car and a few toys along the way.

I would not be interested in a new career in real estate - the purpose of selling the business here is to look at other options in life. I do not see the point in continuing to "work" in the traditional sense to simply accumulate more money.

For those that think I'm a troll - you have obviously not achieved monetary success, because if you had, you would know that achieving substantial wealth breaks the illusion that it's worth pursuing.

Don't get me wrong; you need a certain amount to bring freedom, but anything after that magical number turns into a pointless and fruitless endeavor. Money to a certain point is great, it really does give you the opportunity to explore what else life has to offer ... but working your life to generate more and more millions is a complete waste of time, and in itself is supremely selfish.

If you think I am a troll, or lying, why bother reading this post - and why, above everything else, bother writing? Simply press the BACK button, and spend your time writing to someone else, or contributing to another post.

Thanks to those that have contributed, I really appreciate it

I like Thailand, but with that kind of money I probably wouldn't live here. It's the same with guys spending over 200k a month here, why? Horses for courses I know, but the lack of education, healthcare, things to do when you have money and general corruption would have me living in another part of the world.

Thailand can be very cheap and that is part of the appeal, but can you have a better lifestyle in another country with these figures, dam_n right.

Where would you suggest?

why would anyone with $3m and a young child want to move to Thailand?

here is a clue, rich Thais leave Thailand and take their children overseas.

i don't know if op is a troll but he seems a bit unusual.

what is it you like so much about Thailand?

I guess it all depends on your goals, aspiration and perspectives in life - I've achieved everything that is deemed as important in Western society; the money, the house, the power and the success ... but I'm not even remotely fulfilled or satisfied with my lot.

What do I like about Thailand? Firstly, the lifestyle; for me, it's the perfect mix of serenity and hustle and bustle.

Secondly, the cost of living - my money will stretch an awful long way.

I'm only replying in detail because I don't think it's warranted, or fair, in claiming that I am trolling - if you think I am, and you think it's to raise revenue for the site owner, WHY would you reply and increase the exposure? Do you really not have anything better to do than reply to a troll?

Hey everyone - thanks for the replies!

There were a few posts from people questioning why a "millionaire" is asking financial or budgeting advice - let's be clear, I wasn't asking financial advice or budgeting advice. I was seeking thoughts and views from people who have been in the same position.

Secondly, I'm not moving to Thailand to retire and sit on the beach, I'm leaving Australia beause all I have achieved is centered around the pursuit of money, which has done the opposite to what I thought it would; I expected to be full of energy and happiness, and it's the opposite.

Setting up a new business is fun and engaging, managing a successful business is stressful and disenchanting - so why spend the next 10 years making even more money, when it really doesn't bring any form of achievement or happiness.

As Bill Gates recently said, and I paraphrase "Having a million dollars brings freedom. Once you get beyond the first million dollars, it's still the same hamburger".

In my experience, once you have enough money to be comfortable in your lifestyle, you are chasing money for the sake on money - you can buy your Ferrari (which I have), your lovely hous (which I have), the toys (which I have), with the expectation that it will bring fulfillment and happiness.

For anyone who has been in this position, you know that it doesn't, and things then start to become a bit more grey and empty.

Yes, I am fully expecting the comments along the lines of, "Oh, poor you, you've got money, boo hoo". But the life not examined is not worth living, so I am looking at something else to achieve apart from amassing more and more money.

I was hoping to come on here and build some relationships prior to arriving, that could hopefully give me some insight into worthwhile things to spend my time and business experience on in the LOS - I'm very keen to give something back.

Hello everyone,

I've seen quite a few topics on this (and other) forums, where people question whether they can retire on $X amount etc etc.

I wanted to introduce myself, because this is something I will be doing within the next 12 - 18 months, and will chronicle the journey on this forum - it would be great to get to know some of you who are currently living in Thailand, and get your views, thoughts and suggestions.

By short way of background, my fiance and I are 31, we have a young child, and we own a very successful business here in Australia, which we have built up over the past 5 years.

The pursuit and achievement of monetary goals has been fun, but it's lost its' lustre, so we've decided to sell up, and move to our most favourite part of the world (we've travelled to Thailand quite a few times over the last few years).

The sale of the business will generate around 3m Aus (which is the same in USD), which will be reinvested into our current property portfolio, which in itself will generate around $9,000 AUS net, inflation is not an issue as the rental prices will grow, as will the capital as it will be sunk into property (failing a collosal market crash, in which point everyone is in trouble!).

We plan on chilling out for the first 6 - 12 months, and then getting involved in new business ventures as well as charity work.

Would be great to hear from anyone who has done something similar - how are you finding it?

Cheers