newnative

I'm shocked this is even a story worth printing. Everybody want their 15 minutes.

A man wearing a suit will always cause a 'stir in Pattaya'.

After slogging through 66 pages of this thread, I'm reminded of the famous quote by William Goldman, the successful, Oscar-winning screenwriter, on Hollywood: "Nobody knows anything." Pretty much the case here, too, I'm thinking.

'New era'? No. Just the same old shuffle.

You can have endless 'But what if...'s. What if this. What if that. What if he does this, what if he does that. Of course, the choices he makes with the 23MB will determine whether it will last his lifetime in Thailand or be gone after a few years. My post simply showed that it is possible for someone 62 years old to live reasonably well on that amount in Thailand, and the money could be enough for the likely number of years he has left. I imagine there are a number of retirees here living on a pension of around 50,000 baht a month, more or less. After 38 years, with no COLAs, the pension would have paid out to them around 23MB. It's really no different for the subject of this thread. His 23MB is his pension. The only difference is he is the pension manager--and he can raise or lower the monthly amount he receives.

I think we all understand inflation. I stick by my answer that 23 million baht can be enough for your friend to live in Thailand for the rest of his life. Note, 'can be'. If he blows it all the first few years making bad choices or spending beyond his means, that's another story. Usually the biggest expense is keeping a roof over your head. If he spends 3 MB to buy a condo, no matter what inflation does, he'll have that roof over his head for the rest of his life with only maintenance charges and utilities to pay for, which are very reasonable in Thailand. That leaves him 20MB. Spending 60,000 baht a month, the money would last for 27.7 years. Obviously, spending less, which could easily be done, would stretch the money for more years. He gets 33.3 years if he spends 50,000 baht a month. 50,000 a month is around 1,600 baht a day. Some days he might spend more than the 1,600, other days he might spend much less. In any case, it should be enough. 50,000 baht a month would fund him until the age of 95. If he is still alive when the money is starting to run out, he has the option to sell his condo and use the proceeds to live on while he rents or goes into a nursing home for his final years. All this is assuming the 20MB is just lounging around eating bon-bons and watching soap operas all day. Some of it can be put to work and invested safely to earn some interest or dividends, which would stretch the money for a longer period.

She was from the old school of politicians, who were more inclined to work across party lines to get things done. Whatever happened to politics being the 'art of compromise'? That used to be the case, but not much any more. Compromise seems like a scarce commodity in Congress these days. Sadly, there are not very many like her left, and Congress reflects this with almost every issue that comes up. Case in point, the current chaos trying to simply keep the government open.

My Thai sister-in-law is required to retire in November from her bank job--she turns 60. Ditto for her husband when he reaches 60 next year. She looks like she's about 40 and, obviously, could work until at least 65 or longer if she wanted to and was allowed to. It would be good if Thai workers in jobs like hers had the option to work longer, if they chose to. She will get a lump sum payment from the bank for her retirement--which she will have to make last for likely the next 20 years or more. I doubt I could budget that carefully, and I wouldn't want to be in the position of having to try to do it. I thank my lucky stars for my traditional pension and social security, both with COLAs.

Absolutely, and despite what the PM says, the proposed tax on imported money will do nothing to 'curb' the inequality.

23 million baht? He'll be just fine.

One of my Dad's favorites was 'bend with the bamboo'. He was also fond of 'always have a Plan B' and 'don't sweat the small stuff', which I also like. I try to keep the life outlook of 'glass half-full, rather than half-empty'.

What a load of _______.

It's been my experience that if you have to explain why something is funny, the person will likely still not get it. Good example here.

Hope he tells the PM the drawbacks of his new tax proposal and the poorly thought out 10,000 baht giveaway.

Which he still won't get. Very funny, by the way.

What a total boondoggle. And, what has been built looks like it could have been done in a few months, not years and years. Did get a chuckle with the '820 days'. Do they think that sounds shorter???!!!

All completely true--and completely normal. One of the most successful projects in Pattaya was The Base. Sansiri probably could have just skipped opening the sales office that they built with model condo samples--by the time it opened a lot of the project had already been booked by Bangkok and other buyers--I know because my partner and I visited when it first opened and there wasn't a lot left that hadn't been booked that we would have been interested in--mostly less desirable units were still available. Note, as you say, booked. Not sold. Some of the booked units were taken by people with no intention of actually buying--they planned to sell the booking and make a small profit on the sale. We actually obtained our unit that way--and got a great top floor unit in the front on one of the few single-corridor floors with condos on just one side. When the project was finished, as you say, a number of the units that were booked came back on the market, due to buyers who, for whatever reason, could not close the deal. I think the Sansiri sales office had around 200 or 300 units that came back up for sale. Normal--even in successful projects.

Thanks!

Condo maintenance fees are usually referred to as baht per square meter. If the annual fee you mentioned is 45,000 baht, the monthly fee would be 3,750 baht. If the unit size is your mentioned 70 sqm, then the condo fee would be 53.57 baht per square meter--3,750 divided by 70. Condo fees for newer projects tend to be in the 50 baht a sqm range so your condo fee at Riviera Wongamat was about average for a newer project. In two earlier posts, we had one person mention that maintenance fees can be too high and another poster complain that after 5 years, condos start to look bad due to lack of maintenance. My partner and I have lived in about a dozen different projects around Pattaya, plus two in Bangkok, and we have not seen deterioration to be the case--and we have lived in several projects over 10 years old and one that was around 30 years old. It's hard to say how a new project will be maintained but you can look with your eyes and see if an older project is being maintained before buying or renting. I think there is less of a problem with newer projects because, in many cases, they are starting out with a more realistic condo fee. I think when there is deterioration and lack of maintenance--and some projects do have it--in many cases it can be traced to a condo fee that is simply too small and the majority of the owners vote year after year to not increase the fee. With a too-small fee, often the same fee from years ago--only the very basic things can be maintained and the project suffers. At the last condo we owned at, the maintenance fee was ether 40 or 45 baht a sqm, I can't remember which. Nice older project, well maintained. But, the set condo fee, 40 or 45 baht, from years ago, did not cover keeping the project well-maintained. Rather than try to raise the fee, every year we were there, there was a special assessment to make up that year's difference. When the special assessment was figured in, the condo fee came to around 60 baht a sqm, which was about right for a smaller project with less than 200 units. (Larger projects do get economies of scale--1,000 owners paying for the guard at the front gate, for example, rather than 200 owners.) We were happy to pay the special assessment because the condo was a big investment for us and we wanted to see the project maintained nicely and the condo maintain or increase its value--which it did.

+2

Wrong--but don't I wish.

Yes, my reason, too, for having it currently deposited in my USA bank.

Biggest lying, swindling, sleezy, multiple law-breaking grifter in the world. You wonder how much more it will take before his followers will see the light. Incomprehensible to me that he remains the front runner for the Republican nomination for President.

If push comes to shove, as an American I will probably switch the direct deposit of my social security to my Thai bank, rather than my American bank, where it goes now. It seems pretty clear that with the government tax agreement in place between the US and Thailand, social security should be safe from being taxed twice. (I know, 'should' is the iffy word in that sentence.) At a rate of 36 baht to the dollar, that would get me about 61,000 baht each month. Maybe not quite enough for my partner and I to live on but fairly close and we would not have to take too much out of the Thai savings we already have here to make up the difference. Some months it might be enough since I pay some of our bills with an American debit card. In an earlier post on one of these threads, I mentioned that all my foreign income goes into my American bank account and I wondered how Thailand would know that this dollar I send to Thailand is from already taxed social security and not from capital gains or dividend income (which is also already taxed but, apparently, fair game). If the onus is on me to prove the money source, at least I can show a deposit coming in directly from the social security administration.

If push comes to shove, as an American I will probably switch the direct deposit of my social security to my Thai bank, rather than my American bank, where it goes now. It seems pretty clear that with the government tax agreement in place between the US and Thailand, social security should be safe from being taxed twice. (I know, 'should' is the iffy word in that sentence.) At a rate of 36 baht to the dollar, that would get me about 61,000 baht each month. Maybe not quite enough for my partner and I to live on but fairly close and we would not have to take too much out of the Thai savings we already have here to make up the difference. Some months it might be enough since I pay some of our bills with an American debit card. In an earlier post on one of these threads, I mentioned that all my foreign income goes into my American bank account and I wondered how Thailand would know that this dollar I send to Thailand is from already taxed social security and not from capital gains or dividend income (which is also already taxed but, apparently, fair game). If the onus is on me to prove the money source, at least I can show a deposit coming in directly from the social security administration.