simon43

[quote] ... I was rather surprised that a landlord would agree to offer you a property for rent ... [/quote] Yes I agree with your comments! A returning, retired expat certainly has some negatives against him/her when it comes to renting a property.

You forgot to mention our traitor king......

Yes, I sent an email about a little cabin in Ilfracombe, but no reply yet!

Jeez, I'm tired of answering this question so many times 🙂 . You might think that I want to hang onto my money earned, but it can do a lot more for others than myself. I have no interest at all in driving a flashy car or living in a big house 🙂 As I pointed out before, I only have 2 feet, so why do I need more than 1 pair of shoes? (Yes, I only possess 1 pair of shoes, 1 long-sleeved shirt, 2 t-shirts, 1 pair of long trousers). If you don't understand philanthropy, that's your loss..... Look at this press release from 2010 (long before I went to Myanmar): https://www.24-7pressrelease.com/press-release/143465/if-only-1-of-twitterers-used-xtrer-it-would-generate-more-than-1-million-for-charities-every-month and my Myanmar charity: teachersimon.org I believe in karma = if I help others, then help will come my way if I need it. As I mentioned before, sometimes I only have a few hundred baht to my name, but everything always turns out ok in the end 🙂

Another positive point about returning to the UK is the cost of BUPA private medical cover. My medical cover in Thailand is not a bad price per month (5,700 baht for $400k annual cover), but the BUPA equivalent policy for UK cover is only about the equivalent of 3,000 baht 🙂

Is your property near to Exmoor? That's where I previously owned a property and where I prefer to rent. In any case, it sounds like your rentals are just short-term, I want somewhere 'permanent'.

Is being a prat your full-time profession? Or is it just a part-time hobby of yours? 🙂 The landlord has agreed to rent to me, but I still have to get back to the UK. No landlord nowadays will hold a property just on a promise to rent, so it maybe that the property is rented to someone else in the meantime. Unfortunately, the letting agent (who has a contract with the landlord to manage the letting of his property) insists that I view it in person before they will accept a deposit. (They might be doing me a favour - the neighbour might be a nutter...). So I'm arranging to go back to the UK and travel down to this property, but that will take a few weeks to organise...

Yes, I have agreed to rent it, but it takes 2. The landlord will only rent it to me if I view it in person. I'm happy to rent 'unseen'. So I need to return to the UK. If the landlord doesn't rent it to me, then I have to stay in hotels until I find an alternative property. That cost is typically at least 60 quid a night, which (in my opinion) is a rip-off!

Well, if you made an enquiry, I hope you are good at riding horses and game-shooting 🙂 The property is in an isolated location in Exmoor, so probably 50 others are not queuing up for that particular property 🙂

lol! The rental situtation in the UK may prove to be an unsurmountable obstacle for my return to the UK... perhaps someone 'up there' is sending me a message to say 'stay in Thailand!"

One other (related) problem of returning to the UK is that if you do not own your own property already, the chances of finding accommodation are slim because of the high demand for rented properties, (since no-one can afford a mortage to buy ..) I inquired about a property on Rightmove yesterday - the agent told me that the number of parties wanting to rent that property was more than 100! Perhaps I should live in a van? 🙂

Why is this report tagged as 'crime'. This sounds like just another druggie self-inflicted death....

It's OK - they will use Burmese instead to climb the trees.....

I already have a UK bank account (Halifax) for the past 3 years, no overdraft allowed, I'm on the ER for the same time and my UK SIM card is registered at my ER address. The problem is that I do not have a UK credit card because I don't like to use credit - I pay cash! In fact, I think the whole scenario of encouraging people to borrow just to improve their credit score is totally flawed. Why don't they do what the Thai money-lenders do? = Lend the money and if you don't repay it, then they come and break your legs (or your grandma's legs....)

One problem that is cropping up is that financial transactions in the UK all revolve around your credit score, ie how much the credit agency considers you a good 'risk' for lending money to. The fact that I've been out of the UK for 23 years means that my credit score is non-existant, even more so because I don't do credit (I pay cash and if I don't have cash then I don't buy it!). "Computer says no!" I wanted to buy a small car in the UK, so thought of using HP, but no chance, even if I pay 50% down. The landlords who have considered me (like the property above), were sensible to realise that a returning expat after 23 years will of course have a low/zero credit rating, because they haven't needed credit! It's a small obstacle for me, but I wonder why it's assumed that everyone borrows money in the UK. That is not very good financial sense for many who are no good at managing their personal finances (I guess the vast majority of the population). So on my return I will continue to live as I have done for the past 23 years = pay cash and never borrow 1 penny 🙂

Thanks, but the primary reason for my wish to return to the UK is for health reasons - not immediate health reasons, but those that may (probably will) crop up in the future. It's not for financial reaons. To give you an idea of what someone on a reduced state pension can afford to rent in the UK, here is a photo of the property that I have agreed to rent in the West Country. Well not all of it lol! I will be renting a furnished 1-bedroom 'flat' in the building on the right. 1 bedroom, 1 living room, 1 study, 1 bathroom, 1 kitchen and parking - the cost to me is about 100 pounds per month..... Why so cheap? Because the normal rent of 675 pounds is reduced because I will receive 575 pounds in housing benefit, (because I have no savings). As a 'poor' single pensioner, all my council tax is paid as well. I am simply claiming benefits that are available to all UK state pensioners, depending on their circumstances. It is a perverse fact that if you save all your life, you are then financially-penalised in your retirement. If you don't save, but do pay into the NI system, then the state helps you financially in your retirement 🙂 And @Woke to Sounds, yes indeed, if everything goes t*ts up in the UK, then Cambodia will be my return destination, (albeit organised with morphine lol in case I want a painless way out...)

The sort of PVC sticker with a magnetic backing that can be stuck onto the metal of a car door and easily removed in a few seconds. Any shop in town that will print this kind of sticker from a supplied jpg file? Thanks

[quote] ... Stop the funding now, earn your $60k a year for two years. Then you'll have money and won't need to worry. Simple. ... [/quote] Who is worrying? I'm not! I do not need the extra income to live a modest retirement 🙂

Chatting to one of my young (10 years) online Chinese students today, and he explained that he had just returned from a holiday to the UK. He said that he visited London and that was nice, but he also went to 'Eedinberg'. "Where?" I asked, and finally had to get him to spell it out "Edinburgh!" "That was very scary" he said. "I was scared, my brother was scared and my parents were scared!" "Why?" "There were many men in the street shouting and hitting the walls of the shops, or lying on the pavement. They shouted at us and other people for no reason. They were like mad people!!" And so there you have it. Give Scotland a miss 'cos it seems to be full of shouty, scary people....

I'm not a townie person. I like places like Exmoor and Dartmoor. I can't imagine that Exmoor is packed full of Syrian immigrants, (or maybe I'm wrong!!)

Interesting eye colour...

Teaching jobs in Burma typically pay about $2,500 USD/month (after any local tax). Teaching science online pays me $29 USD/hour and I have more young students that I want! The demand is very high 🙂 (I used to have a waiting list of prebooked lessons on iTalki of more than 2,000 lessons, stretching out more than 1 year in the future. Now I wound that down a lot because - well - I'm getting old)

As I have mentioned on more than 1 occasion in my posts, I run my own educational charity in Burma that supports young students in orphanages and monastery schools (about 10 locations with a total of several thousand students). I fund the purchase of school books, design and print English language posters, record audio learning files, pay Adroid developers to create and manage an app etc etc. I've been doing this for years because I much prefer to use my money in this manner, rather than spend it on a greedy wife or waste it on beer and bar-girls 🙂 I receive no donations for my charity (except occasionally from radio amateurs). This is why I'm not sitting on a pile of $$$ in the bank, and I think it has been money well-spent 🙂 Garry, I have no savings to speak of, I have about $400 in my bank account and when I receive $2,000 from my online teaching in a few days from now, I will use a lot of that for my charity. I have lived in this financial manner for many years, often with only a few hundred baht in the bank. But everything has always worked out OK for me - perhaps someone 'up there' is looking out for me 🙂 Now that I start to receive my UK pension, I will return to the UK and stop teaching online, because it's getting a little difficult now (I sometimes have to abandon lessons mid-stream because of my uncontrolleable coughing). I guess that the authorities can't easily check if you have savings in a foreign bank account. I have no savings, so I don't have any concerns - they are welcome to see my bank details.

6th July: I grabbed this image from the Russian Meteor M2-3 weather satellite on their VHF frequency. This is an LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellite that orbits the Earth about 450 km. Since the Earth's gravitational pull is still rather strong at this altitude, LEO birds have to orbit fast around the Earth to generate an equal and opposite Centrifugal force that cancels out the gravity. In fact, it only takes about 90 minutes for LEO birds to orbit one time around the Earth. There are not many VHF LEO weather satellites still operating. The USA NOAA-18 bird 'broke' about a month ago (after many years of good service), and their NOAA-15 bird is now experiencing technical problems. That leaves only NOAA-19, which is still working correctly, at least with its VHF payload. There are also the 2 Russian LEO birds Meteor M2-3 and 2-4.

[quote] ... You will probably find a place you like and can afford - then you can get a cheap place to rent (public housing?) ... [/quote] When you are a state pensioner in the UK (as I am), and have savings less than $16,000, (which is me again), the benefit systems pays about $750/month towards your costs to rent a private accommodation. So even though private rent is (IMHO) expensive, I will be able to rent a nice 1-bed apartment and can use my van to visit some nice places, national parks, coastal walks etc, without having to concern myself with paying for overnight hotel accommodation. Also, converting the small van will be a nice way to spend my spend time. And.... if everything is terrible in the UK, I can sell the van to get some cash so that I can fly back to spend my days in no-visa-hassle Cambodia, where my frozen UK pension money will be sufficient for my needs. There's no 100% perfect plan, but I'm trying to cover all eventualities.