Firefan

U need to have proof of source of income on this side. I.e. when you go to the Thai bank to request the transfer to the US they will request the various documents (TT3 of original money wired in(if in foreigner name),purchase and sales documents, tax payment done on sale Etc.) - with those in hand they will execute the wire.

I know little of the US side of the rules. Cheers!

Lol! good one Farang!

The reason I hold gold (and some gold miners), about 10-15% of portfolio is, besides the "end of financial markets" scenario, is the re-balancing bonus I get from holding these.

A few asset classes fairly uncorrelated to stocks/bonds, really helps make my overall portfolio more stable. Especially if these asset classes have some volatility that can be re-balanced accordingly. So yes; I am now picking up some more gold and gold stocks to get back to my allocated % points.

I am eyeing the closed end fund CEF being in gold and silver bullions and currently at a record discount of about 15% to underlying assets. Gold/silver at 15% sale to current prices.

Cheers!

There's nothing like 're-balancing' one's portfolio with an asset turning to mush.

And continuing to flog the dead horse that gold is the 'safe' part of a portfolio.

Chanting junk in the face of reality.

Lol! yes hurts now - but felt good over the years when I sold gold and bought the assets having performed worse. Re-balancing do work - but owning gold is certainly not for everybody. I have the most fun with the couple of (Thai) gold (mini) bars that I hold in my safe- Great paper weights, or projectile weapons thrown at the CNBC talking heads! Cheers!

The reason I hold gold (and some gold miners), about 10-15% of portfolio is, besides the "end of financial markets" scenario, is the re-balancing bonus I get from holding these.

A few asset classes fairly uncorrelated to stocks/bonds, really helps make my overall portfolio more stable. Especially if these asset classes have some volatility that can be re-balanced accordingly. So yes; I am now picking up some more gold and gold stocks to get back to my allocated % points.

I am eyeing the closed end fund CEF being in gold and silver bullions and currently at a record discount of about 15% to underlying assets. Gold/silver at 15% sale to current prices.

Cheers!

Looks to me like this product is mainly a combination of probiotics and enzymes - both of which I have used myself before to ward of some of the side effects from hangovers before. I am a bit confused why there is not a full description of the content on the homepage.

Cheers!

I have just tested Thaiexpat TV the last few days - the (new) Mac software only via my Mac mini. Was with lan cable directly to router. Was impressed with the speed and ease of menu. Picture good and sound clear.

Negatives was (the Mac software still says Beta so that can be why) - the full screen button I never got to work. Also; scrolling in the TV guide as well as programs list was almost impossible as there were no (working) buttons for same - and using the mouse to "grab and scroll) most often meant that it grabbed the program instead - after which it would only allow limited scroll (hard to explain here really!).

Not being British the selections seemed mighty UK focused - but there were also good portion international stuff.

Cheers!

Stoneyboy; welcome back mate! Cheers!

Single friend in Bangkok and I helped him out w. his budget before he moved here 3 years ago:

Rent(1 bed room near BTS/down town): 15000

electricity/water/maid/tel/internet: 6000

Health Insurance, meds, vitamins: 4000

Transport(taxi,train,bus,moto) 4000

Groceries Incl. some import treats: 5000

Other Incl: gifts, visa, clothes, sport: 4000

Entertainment: 6000

Total: 44.000 Baht/month before any flights(yearly to UK+maybe a trip elsewhere - so Estm.: another 6k/month when averaged out)

He has lived (fine) within that budget for the last 3 years - it includes clubbing and trips to beach Etc.

If he needed to save more for a couple of years he would look at reducing rent to 10k(new studio centrally located by BTS), dropping maid service,drop some import treats and reduce entertainment. Total savings about 10k/mth without TOO much pain he claims. Naturally travel would be reduced and the home leave to UK cut. That would have him around 34k/mth.

Cheers!

Yup - I have no idea what to do! Think people will start roaming the streets like hungry zombies looking for anything that will satisfy our need for brain numbing! Cheers!

10 hours to switch over..............

Far too long

Agreed! Thanks to Jayman for his info and "inside rumors albeit certainly not 100% sure" info!

Think 16th July at 0900 in the morning will be an exiting time for many True users! Only 4 days to go!

Also we can expect the first panic posts here at 2300 on the 15th July when they cut all signals in order to upgrade!: "Mother of God!!! My cable TV is out!!!"

Cheers!

nmb47; true but question is what "premium channels" are? Could be simply the HD channels. Guess time will show. Cheers!

Yup; a lot of people here are using the legit cards, but in different hardware as True's boxes have been pretty bad over the years. That possibility seems to be stopped. I also notice that some of the change refer to Mpeg4 capability while other refer to the actual encryption. Can somebody elaborate on whether these 2 things are somehow connected - or whether it (on the 15th) might only be related to mpeg4 capability?

Cheers!

A few years back I wondered about the same - asked around, checked hospital homepages etc. and got to 1M Baht being the minimum to cover things like brain/heart surgery Etc. when adding all the "extras"/rooms Etc. in the top hospitals here.

That price might well have gone up quite a bit since then w. medical inflation.

Cheers!

Hi Flying,

Yes Bupa (and Thaihealth) seems to be the the ones the hospital staff mention when one ask for the ones with the "least hassle" of sorting claims.

You have obviously studied the policies/cover so you are aware of sub limits Etc. on Thai insurances that most internationally minded insurances don't have.

I think that is the main difference between the Thai vs "international" types, besides the upper limits naturally.

Whether also got international cover or not does not really affect the price of the Thai types. What affects it is simply the usual; upper limits, sub limits, deductible/self pay and in/out patient.

Cheers!

Be VERY careful about believing that your "repatriation" actually means to your home country. Read the small print - cause typically it is not based on your finances (free medical at home so PLEASE send me there now!) but simply a MEDICAL evaluation as to being taken where medical standard up to snuff for the given medical problem. I.e. an evacuation from say Laos to Thailand will probably often make medical sense - even from say Thailand to Singapore if need to go 1 step up the ladder - but there is NO guarantee that you will be send to home country just for (medical) financial reasons. Cheers!

i was told that u couldnt join bupa after the age of 65, so what would the options be for the 66 yr olds?

Any info will be swelly bros

plenty of options, the best ones are the most expensive. I have quite a list of offers from different companies but I have decided to go visit an insurance broker in Pattaya to discuss face to face. I will be 65 in January). As I stated above, Nordic and Cynaglobal seem to give what they say they are going to give, that is lifetime coverage without raising premiums. I found most of the addresses using Google.

I agree that a repatriation insurance is a very good investment if you can get treated at home. I plan to die at my home in Thailand, but you never know..

until your first episode of any significance.

Agreed. That's when you spend hours on internet looking for complaints about the different companies. Doing this put me off April International for instance, Nordic has a good reputation.

Thank you for the advise on Club-protein.com. Fair price and no fillers/artificial sweeteners Etc. Saves me the hassle of ordering the HUGE 20 kg bags, and coordinate sharing like I had to do before.

Will order myself 4 kg now.

Cheers!

A quick tip: many condo buildings will have a switch/cable to traditional antenna on the roof with the free Thai channels (not coding the football). I.e. if you live in a condo and currently using True Visions you can ask management to switch to the free view antenna. I did that yesterday and the signal was clear (much better than rabbit ear antenna or hanger would ever be! ). They simply unplugged from the cable at main, and plugged into the local antenna.

For commentating I used the bet365 stream via my laptop - but easy to find many choices there online - the problem is decent quality PICTURE.

Cheers!

Tropo; I do not disagree. Like you mention when I say "to failure" I should probably say "to failure - light version" I.e. going to failure point but NOT beyond. And not hammering the same muscles with MORE sets and exercises after that point is reached.

For newbies (and even experienced lifters) that can be quite a difficult target to find.

For the typical weight trainer a couple of times a week over training is hardly a problem, but for more serious trainers with 4-6 sessions a wk (some even do twice a day!) it is certainly an issue. I have been there myself and have found that scaling back gave me better gains, less injuries AND more time for other stuff!

Cheers!

I use Iherb.com. They ship to Thailand and have the lowest airfreight costs I have seen. If you use this code YOQ460 (or one of the other codes found on the internet) you get USD 5 of your first order which pays for the shipping. Keep the order total under about Baht 1200 Baht (from my experience) and customs will not hold it for taxes/duties. Cheers!

The BoA routing number you have found will do the trick. And yes; TDameritrade says they require it so for people here to say they don't is not really relevant.

Cheers!

Imovercs have a good point indeed. Check and understand your actual car credit first.

And as Swiss said; Not having emergency cash should probably be the first thing you sort out before anything else anyway. Having at least 6 months of living costs with reasonably easy access is a rule of thumb by many financial advisers, but use whatever works for you (say 3-12 months worth). This could still go in a time deposit as long as you can take some of it out (against maybe losing a bit of interest) with short warning.

Cheers!

Some great info here. In my experience even heavy training for girls (when not on "da juice") does not lead them to becoming blocky/bulky. Girls often state that they want to "just tone and tighten" - and then spends hours with the little pink weights and way too many reps out of fear of turning into Arnold!

Their level of testosterone (with a few exceptions) will simply not lead to that kind of growth in my experience. It WILL grow the "good looking" muscles and thereby do the toning and tightening that was the target.

All the different programs complicate things sometimes. IMHO the main reasons that guys have a hard time to gain muscle is; 1. not training to failure (after proper warm up sets Etc.) and 2. not getting enough protein (right after the workout especially).

I agree that some of the most growth hormones/testosterone boosting exercise like squads/dead lifts can be tricky for beginners and a good instruction is certainly needed in the beginning for those.

Cheers!

So next step for me is to meet with the technicians and figure out how to upgrade to grounded plugs (Incl. change to 3 pin). I presume an entire rewiring would be needed (from my central box to the plugs) as probably not already there.

If the grounding makes it to your distribution board you simply need to add a green wire from there to each of your 3-pin outlets, probably easier said than done mind

Yes - I think that the grounding makes it to my distribution board - so will simply need to connect that there if not already done - BUT, the rest seems like quite a challenge (rewiring the entire condos electricity and change plugs to 3 pin). Will discuss with technicians what makes most sense (maybe just arrange for grounding to PC/tv/hifi and water heaters). Will see what they say. Thanks again!

Cheers!

Hi guys,

thanks for the replies - I now had a basis to ask the building management and the confirmed that there IS grounding installed and that they connect to each condo unit - but unclear "where it goes from there" - I.e. I am almost certain it is not connected to my electric "box" and from there to my (currently 2 pin) plugs.

Here is a photo of the grounding they send me. The black wires lead to a metal bolted beam:

So next step for me is to meet with the technicians and figure out how to upgrade to grounded plugs (Incl. change to 3 pin). I presume an entire rewiring would be needed (from my central box to the plugs) as probably not already there.

Cheers!

Dean; why would they also not want tourists or short term visitors to use their deals? Or simply people who are not as smart as you and have learned reading in Thai? they basically cut out even most long term expats - as I am guessing max 10% of those can READ Thai. Weird biz/marketing plan.... Must be related to Living Social buying them and their rules.

Cheers!

Or learn Thai, you never know, it could come in usefull for other things as well.