4MyEgo

Glad to hear you also sleep better at night, I would hassard a guess that you have been stung badly by a Thai wasp previously and found out the hard way, that is, you didn't have a leg to stand on after the fact. One would hope you are one of those guys who lives and learns, but I personally doubt it, more likely doesn't get back on the horse that threw him off of it.

Please do provide me with your calculations over a 10 year period, i.e. rent down the drain, capital that you would have invested and the interest you would have earned in that 10 year period, don't forget the outgoings and the area you would have purchased in, please don't cherry pick and use real interest rates at call. That is exactly what I am saying, it is dead money as is money in a bank account where inflation makes it worth less and less year in year out, unless you have assets you have invested in, your money (interest) is also dead money. Again, rent in dead money, narrow view is your opinion. I put down my example, if you wish to widen your view as you did, knock yourself out, it still doesn't reflect what I mentioned, rent is dead money, it earns nothing, does nothing for you except provide shelter for you, i.e. a place to live for a period of time earning zero $'s. You cannot argue with the fact, no matter how much you want to deflect it with interest earned, as interest earned is also dead money when inflation is taken into consideration. Yes, rent is dead money, regardless if one has kids or not, if one was humane, one would want to look out for their partners future, i.e. having their own roof over their head when the breadwinner is gone, time spent together = value in the long term, that is unless you count all your pennies and or perhaps don't have enough to support your partner, each to their own. I believe there is a name for such, Cheap Charlie comes to mind. I take it you don't know much about Thailand, well let me spell it out for you, money = power, and unless my wife's family have money, which they don't, it means they don't have power and wouldn't dare take me on, bullets & balconies are for falangs exiting this life due to being broke.

As mentioned above, each to their own. Yes rents are ridiculously low in Thailand, but they come with a price, i.e. rent, no matter where you live, goes down the drain, that I learned very early in life. Noisy neighbor's of course depends on where you choose to live, sometimes you can't help it, however in our case, we have none close enough, but not far away to bother us. Losing your partner is inevitable, however we hope to go 1st, and of course a will can will, will assist you to move on if you have kids that respect you and agree to do as you tell them when the time comes, e.g. sell and move on, and buying them something else for their future, whether it be here or back in the home country (dual citizens). As for a wife's family stepping in, not an issue, they can try, but don't have the $'s to challenge me, i.e. they wouldn't want to, let alone able to pay for a private hospital bill visit vs the local vet hospital 3 times to be sent home without any causation, whereby the private hospital sorted it straight away, compliments of the Farang son in law paying the 5,000 baht bill, with the mother in law doing wai's at me from dawn to dust, yes Meh, I am the best son in law you will ever have Krupp.

What "IF", naturally I would have to assess the situation when it arises, but it would be more than likely that I would relocate, whether here or back to my home country will depend of a few things. Your a funny guy, the family has always been at arms length, suffice to say, if they ever tried to do such a thing, one could say that accidents do happen, i.e. homes do burn down, but one would have to be so shallow to consider such an act. Just so you know, I am not one of those guys who sits on a barstool looking at young fillies day in day out, I am the type of guy who sees what he wants and executes that he came for....lol, hence the reason my wife has a will in place, for the house, all her land holdings, furnishings, gold, car etc which would be passed down to the kids and in turn, I will be the one who has the last say, e.g. house is going up for sale, car, furnishings, gold etc, and all the proceeds would end up in my account. If the kids want to go a different route, then they would have to weigh up if the want to lose out on the bigger picture, i.e. 90% of my assets overseas. The above said, we have raised the kids in a way that they know how to appreciate the kind of lives they have compared to others here, and how quickly life can change if they go against the grain, just a fact of life. Each to their own. If the wife did pass, the value of that I would deem the property is worth, would be what it cost me to build, albeit it, that it would be worth much more than that. That said, I would consider it free rent for the period of time that I lived in it and would reinvest it into a couple of properties for the kids here, i.e. if they wanted to live here, and the reason for that is so that they don't have to worry about having to pay rent all of their lives and of course, a clause would be in the agreement that they cannot sell it before 10 years, with a caveat showing they own me the value of it's actual cost, which would revert to zero after 10 years. By then I would anticipate that my time here would be up, so if they wanted to pi$$ it up against the wall with everything else here, it would be "up to them".

Too the moon..................

Bob, those of us who have money, I mean enough to survive on till we are 101, don't throw it away on 10,000 baht steaks, if they exist, or gloat about buying a 4,000 baht bottle of wine, but please, do knock yourself out, as it's kind of entertaining. Sounds like you have the mine is bigger than yours syndrome.

Agree, however money gets chewed up with inflation, e.g. cost of everyday items going up, making your baht less and less. Assets are your best way to grow your money, suffice to say, I know there are a lot of naysayers here, but Cryptocurrencies, naming Bitcoin as a great store of assets, which also grows exponentially, that said, it is a high risk, high worth asset, and 99% of baby boomers will miss the boat when it takes off to the moon after 20 April this year after it's halving cycle, and into the year 2025. We all know the other types of assets there are to invest in, but there is no other that the above which has outperformed ALL major asset classes in the past 10 years. Forget the negative press that you have all heard, it is now approved as an ETF and is here to stay, doubling in value since mid January. Don't believe me, just look at it's 15 year record. Being brave isn't the absence of fearing the unknown. Being brave is having that fear but finding a way through the unknown. To answer the original posts question, never short of a dime, why, because being retired doesn't mean you sit down on your rear end getting fat and drinking beer. It is the time of opportunities, being out of the slave trade hours and 30 year mortgage belt that we all worked to make a crust to survive, now to reeducate ourselves and look for opportunities to further excel and add to our retirement nest egg, after all, it can be a tax free exercise and really is effortless now that we have the time, all you have to be able to do is you read, invest some money and make some long term decisions, 2-4 years. But as I said above, the baby boomers will miss out because it's all too difficult to retrain the brain to the new electricity or internet, i.e. Cryptocurrencies. See you on the other side, I hope.

Life is full of risks, and of course you have to do your due diligence. I have been here for almost a decade, and I never considered renting, why, because in the time frame the rent paid, would have exceeded what it cost me to build this house. e.g. lets assume a rental of 20,000 baht a month for a 2 bedroom condo in Hua Hin x 12 x 10 years = 2.4 million baht. In those years, I might have had to move if the landlord wanted to move in or sell up, and of course, then you have rental increases, so the 20,000 baht per month would go up. 1. I don't like rental increases 2. Disputes with landlords over electricity bills, bonds when moving out. 3. Given notice to leave for whatever reason, whether it be a year, 2, or 3 when I want to be in the same place as moving is stressful. I built a place on my wife's land, so technically speaking you could say she is the landlord and I am as exposed as much as a tenant would be when it comes to any rights, and yes I am aware foreigners can't own land, and yes I am aware of the Usufruct agreement which offers protection to the farang who built the place, but I have never been interested in such an agreement, as I only invest what I am prepared to lose in this case say 2 mil plus furnishings. As my "landlord", has been with me for almost 2 decades, she deserves the house in return for looking after me all of these years, albeit I have been the bread winner, so it's a mutual benefit where both parties win and if the relationship went south, she ends up with the house, and I 90% of my assets overseas. It's easy to judge another persons downfall, if you want to call it that, as opposed to not understanding their individual situations, so you could well be mistaken in this situation. Renting has always been at a loss, suffice to say, I have enjoyed the almost decade living in this big comfortable house, which cost me less than it would have renting a 2 bedroom condo in Hua Hin for example. Regardless if it belongs to the landlord, and at least it's not dead money, it's something for her to have in the future vs dead rent.

Regardless of what you believe or what your opinion is, because you, and you alone believe what you believe, doesn't make you right, it's actually detrimental in the way you perceive things in life. You have to agree, that you cannot get a better clarification (independent) of you or me or HK, on Article 18, i.e. from the Ministerial Correspondence Team for the ATO, who in case you didn't read it, stated that if you are a RESIDENT of Thailand, your age pension, is TAXABLE in Thailand. There is an old quote that says, "You can't convince anyone of anything. You can only give them the right information, so that they can convince themselves. Also some people know they're wrong, but just like to argue. The above said, I have beaten this dead horse enough, believe what you want, just don't try to convince me with what you believe, because there is nothing more right than Article 18 of the DTA, which is backed up by the Ministerial Correspondence Team for the ATO who are independent to anyone on this forum. Hoo-roo..............

You really should go to the Topic, start from page 193 onwards. Hopefully this will quash your opinion. It's never to late to say, I misunderstood what I was reading and that I now understand that the age pension is taxable in Thailand under the DTA, but is your ego bigger than you ?

Go to the Topic Old Age Pension, you could probably start from page 193. My reasons and rational are posted there, I don't like to repeat myself, as for the "other" they already know my posts and reasonings. You should really catch up.

I see you found a soul mate......LoL

If you think I abused you, you misunderstood....LOL I disagree with the below from your post above, and provide you with a copy & paste of Article 18 & 19 from the DTA, as I couldn't copy the link for some unknown reason and went back to the OAP topic to extract it from one of my previous posts in that topic. Article 3 - General Definitions Article 4 - Residence Article 6 - Real Property Article 11 - Interest Australian Treaty Series 1989 No 36 DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND TRADE CANBERRA Article 18 Pensions and annuities 1. Subject to the provisions of Article 19, pensions and annuities paid to a resident of one of the Contracting States shall be taxable only in that State. 2. The term "annuity" means a stated sum payable periodically at stated times during life or during a specified or ascertainable period of time under an obligation to make the payments in return for adequate and full consideration in money or money's worth. Article 19 Government service 1. Remuneration (other than a pension) paid by one of the Contracting States or a political subdivision of that State or a local authority of that State to any individual in respect of services rendered in the discharge of governmental functions shall be taxable only in that State. However, such remuneration shall be taxable only in the other Contracting State if the services are rendered in that other State and the recipient is a resident of that other State who: (a) is a citizen or national of that other State; or (b) did not become a resident of that other State solely for the purpose of performing the services. 2. Any pension paid to an individual in respect of services rendered in the discharge of governmental functions to one of the Contracting States or a political subdivision of that State or a local authority of that State shall be taxable only in that State. Such pension shall, however, be taxable only in the other Contracting State if the recipient is a resident of, and a citizen or national of, that other State.

You know, every now and again another dipstick comes along, albeit it the last one put his tail under his legs and hasn't surfaced since I shamed him, that said, I don't have the time to argue with thick headed people who believe what they believe, I know from the research that I have provided also in another topic Australian Age Pensions which was started 10 + years ago, that all of the links and confirmations from others as well, points to Australian Age Pensions being taxable in Thailand. You have come out of nowhere and are trying to stir up the hornets nest as did someone else, and to be honest, I am not buying into it as I have more important things to do earning a buck then to try and convince some Troubled Grumpy guy who thinks he knows everything, no thanks. I'm out of here, maybe the others can entertain you, but if you did read the 3rd post in this topic, it should have gotten through, maybe your name is something other than what it says who has come back to start up again.

In my opinion, from what I have read, it states that the AP is taxable in Thailand, now whether they enforce that or not is up to them. I take it, that since it has been in place since the DTA came into effect in the 80,s, if I'm not mistaken, that they won't enforce it, like many things in Thailand, i.e. unless they want to open the flood gates for many expats on age pensions from all countries to leave as the cost of living in Thailand would have become that more expensive to live due to any taxes enforced on their age pensions.

Do please enlighten me/us with your findings, you can copy and paste them here, or the link, outlining which section of the DTA states that Aussies are not liable to pay income tax to Thailand on their Aust Pension payments. Nothing posted with a link is like posting words, words to no effect IMO.

Really, believe what you will, but I am not in denial, and jealousy is such a curse, but hey, you own it, it's all yours.

Careful though, you might get those good looking LadyBoys calling you from across the road, hello hanhom man, where you go, I go with you, 500 baht

Model wannabe...

Actually there are a lot of men in their 60's who I know that dye there hair and it looks good, however they have to have the right mix, straight up jet black out of the packet is just so wrong. A good woman's hairdresser can make you look 10 years younger, for me, I'm a natural, George Clooney style, and all the Thai women here want to love me long time, but I can only do short time.

For the record, I have never PM'd you George, just in case you go down that path, you PM'd me, asking me why I kept singling you out in the Australian Age Pension forum, and some others, and I told you that I was tacking the pi$$ and that you shouldn't be so sensitive, and of course, I said that I would back off so as not to offend you since you were so delicate, and I did just that. But really Georgie, your leaving yourself wide open posting stuff like this on AN, I think you should either stop sniffing the fumes from the cleaning products you use at work in your cleaning job, it's starting to take effect on your mental state of mind, that or find a nice Thai girl to make a change to your life, I hear there are some really happy blokes out there, and some that just don't know what happiness is. Mental health is an area for qualified people, don't try and comfort anyone in your current condition, perhaps seek the assistance of a qualified professional, I don't think there are any here on AN ?

Yeh nah, jet black stands out like dogs B...s, should add a little colour I say.

We can't have that now can we LoL, after all, this is a democracy......LMAO

The 21st Division were detectives that busted gangs up, and those unfortunate enough to be in custody would get the brutal bashings that followed, compliments of the telephone books that they used to make them confess, as opposed to using their bare knuckles, their comrades held the person arrested to a chair while the other detective would take to him with the telephone book until he confessed. If the person in custody lodged a complaint against the detectives for assault, it would never stick as the detectives would say, he fell down the stairs, or he tried to escape and was tackled to the ground, or this or that, that was before interviews were conducted on video's. I'd say that they were a little more sinister than any sister back in the early 70's. They were dismantled in the mid-late 70's as they were a little out of control, not to mention corrupt as, and feared by a fair few back in the day.

Sounds like a misfit Kiwi (no disrespect) intended to my Kiwi m8's, jewelry and all. Road rage comes to Thailand, farang style, how disrespectful, can't beep your horn, now throwing a book and kicking the car, well....LoL.