4MyEgo

3 hours ago, GregBow said:

I have bought a nice comfortable unit that will appreciate and after all costs will roll 100k into interest account.

I can live well enough for me on the OAP which I earned by the taxes i paid for years of remote work and OT till I left Aus.

Well done, rent is dead money, and makes it not feasible to return for the 2 years to have the Age Pension portable, it is the only country in the world that does this, and gets away with it, suffice to say, all options have to be considered, sadly for most, who have no other source of funds, if they return, it will be a $hitty existence for those 2 years.

For those that don't have the funds like GregBow to purchase a unit to save on the loss of rent, which means they will hardly have anything left from the Age Pension to live on, forget renting in (Sydney/Melbourne) as the Age Pension won't make it for a one bedroom apartment. 

@GregBow you seem to have it sorted, as your Age Pension will be reduced minimally as having investments attracts a reduced Age Pension, e.g. if you have $450k in investments, they reduce your pension by $10,150 a year, about 40%, but with your $100k after applying for SAPTO you should have nothing reduced.

Good luck with your new life and if you do decide to return here after 2 year, if you rent, remember, there goes your pension basically, and you won't be able to claim any outgoings on your property as you will be a resident of Thailand after 180 days, then you have the Capital Gains Tax to pay down the track.

Ah the lucky country. 

19 minutes ago, georgegeorgia said:

Probably the same height as an old Thai boiler....ah keep trying to insult me old man  ..your a man with a jealous chip on his shoulder ..

No insult GG, just stating the facts, you mentioned that you go to the gym, and you also box, and you have mentioned you saw some guys in a 7/11 store harassing someone in Pattaya if memory serves me, but a gun, now now GG, man up, duck and weave. 

Me jealous, oh come on m8, you can do better that that.

Why am I here.

1) Not having to work 14-16 hour days, if you can call that work (slave to the workforce). Whereas now I chose to wake up what time I want, usually 6.00am inbuild alarm, go for a walk for as long as I like before it gets to hot. 

2) I don't have to pay the government taxes for the income that I earn from my own nest egg that I built up my entire life.

3) Living in a house that I can only dream of living in back home, just to think that it would cost me at least 70,000,000 baht for the same house, on the same land size, with the same frontage in an average area, but with neighbours at every boundary and across the road, makes me appreciate living here even more, on top of the fact that it only cost me about 3% of the above figure, or 2.2 million baht with the land.

4) Cost of living is much cheaper.

5) Women are more prettier, leaner and more friendlier.

I could go on, but don't wish to drag this on, that said, there are some negatives as well, but when you weigh it all up, here I am, with no regrets.

On 3/2/2024 at 11:59 AM, georgegeorgia said:

I will need to retire when I can carry 

Do you mean all of that gym work and boxing won't help you, hmmm, you must be a midget then.

On 3/2/2024 at 9:27 AM, webfact said:

The driver said officers arrived and tried to pay the toll fee but she would not accept it, saying it was wrong. She argued that police assistance would spoil foreign tourists and encourage them to repeat such behaviour. She wanted the foreign women to understand the Thai transport system.

Perhaps they should promote her to Tourism Minister.

2 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

Thus: there is more to it than flicking open a page and just stamping a book which is implied by your attempted bash.

I have worked in various government departments over the years and brought amalgamated staff in other departmental staff in similar roles to be intergrade into fast track systems with a little tweaking, not hard at all if you have a good look at what is waste.

Flicking open one page and just stamping a book is not what I implied, what I implied is a doable upgrade of existing staff with slight training to bring them up to speed while eliminating a lot of unnecessary repetitive paperwork at immigration officers throughout the country.

Once the repetitive paperwork is eliminated, and staff brought up to speed (retrained), you would have less immigration officers sitting on their rear ends paper shuffling which is a waste, by doing that, you would sent them on their very way to Swampy and other airports to reduce waiting times for those entering the country, while at the same time saving the government 800 new positions, therefore reducing wastage, time and more money to be allocated through bigger budgets.

You believe what you want to believe.  

7 hours ago, jacko45k said:

Thai women sometimes sit side-saddle! 

But she wasn't Thai.

12 hours ago, jacko45k said:

Yes I am. I believe they are different outfits run by different gov departments.

Lol, how hard can it be to stamp a passport, that's basically what they do all day, apart from shuffle paper IMO.

5 hours ago, bob smith said:

We shall see tonight.

 

if not then I will go for another stroll at exactly the same time, dressed in the same clothes, ad nauseam until they really get the message.

bob.

 

Good luck Bob

14 hours ago, still kicking said:

Can't I have friends? This forum is not Thai Visa anymore.

Sorry to be bearing bad news, but besides HK & GG there aren't many real friends here for you to choose from  

4 hours ago, jacko45k said:

The topic here is queues at the airport. What you mention is only done in domestic immigration offices. 

Are you suggesting that these immigrations officers at domestic locations around the country cannot support queues at airports, if placed there permanently, thus reducing their paper shuffling/boring duties when reduced to a mere few pages ?

A transfer of many would be a solution to the problem, as opposed to creating 800 new positions, e.g. training new staff etc etc.

The whole system requires an overhaul and I feel that this would be a permanent solution to a waste of resources and time for many expats living here and tourists arriving here having to wait in long que's, not to mention saving countless trees in the process.

2 hours ago, Chivas said:

The app had defaulted to higher fee of £10.55 instead of £6.40.....in the past it always displayed the lowest option....easy to change but one to watch

Interesting, as I don't see this on my App or my laptop. That said, both show PayID fee which is zero, e.g. I transfer from my bank to Wise, however the drop down box allows me to choose a different payment method, and that is when there are charges, i.e. Debt Card and Credit Card, the latter is 2.5 X more expensive than the Debit Card.

Just wondering why this is not on my App, but then again, I don't transfer from GBP, maybe that has something to do with it ?

On 2/26/2024 at 8:17 PM, zhounan said:

What do you think is the reason why many Thai girls choose tomboy? Tired of men, afraid of getting pregnant or something else?

Maybe the men don't go south ?

Looks like Velcro gloves will be back in fashion real soon as the humble Kiwi goes back to.......

9 hours ago, Old Croc said:

Selling the house for much more than double what I paid 8 years earlier and organizing a second pension stream with the cash certainly put that out of reach.  

With my intention to move permanently, and having previously endured the pitfalls of renting property, considering the age of the property and likely ongoing R&M, the sky-high property market at the time, selling my house was the only sensible option.

Not to mention you wouldn't have been able to claim any ongoing costs related to the property until you sold it, to offset against your very large Capital Gains Tax bill, if you went down that path.

You did your homework and it worked for you, most don't understand, holding on property in Australia when living overseas as a Non-Resident works against you, for starters, you pay 32.5 cents in the $ tax with no threshold, some say they can prove they are still residents and pay less tax, well ok, if that's the case, they will still have a heavy Capital Gains Tax bill to pay when they sell up.

2 hours ago, steven100 said:

Has anyone else ever had this problem with an overseas bank sms and security codes ....   ??

Nope, always get one on my Oz number which is continuously on roaming. 

17 hours ago, Lacessit said:

All I can say is we have more than one village idiot.

On par with that comment.

On 2/21/2024 at 12:46 PM, Lacessit said:

There is another Advanced Member. I can only describe him/her/it as the village idiot. They have made 673 posts, mostly trolling garbage.

I know one who has made a little over that on a topic that has nothing to do with what his future predictions are all about, (scaremongering), any ideas who I am talking about, hint: he still hasn't said he was WRONG 🤣

On 2/23/2024 at 5:25 PM, Prubangboy said:

I was stuck at the sushi bar last night with a dead wood couple that my wife met at her hair salon.

I feel for your wife, because she actually needs friends to entertain here, you must be a lot of fun.

Yawn, any real news about someone, somewhere doing something good in Thailand, like a honest taxi driver returning 3 million baht cash left in his taxi by a Falange, give me a break please, Big Joke is as clean as a cars motor internally, oils ain't oils.

1 hour ago, TroubleandGrumpy said:

IMO the Aust/Thai DTA states that only the state paying the pension etc. to the person can tax that pension. States do not want to pay their money straight to another Government.

Pensions in Aust are taxable income

I will agree that Age Pensions are taxable income in Australia, if you are Resident of Australia and earn additional income which would be above the $32,000 threshold which would include SAPTO.

Just because you may have to lodge a tax return, it doesn't necessarily mean that you will pay tax on your Age Pension from what I have read over time. 

1 hour ago, TroubleandGrumpy said:

Pensions are already taxed - But the tax is not applied

How can that be ?

1 hour ago, TroubleandGrumpy said:

There is a clause that states a person with two tax states can choose whatever state tax rates they want to be applied - meaning the tax rate that is least for them.

Different area for me, i.e. two tax states. I only discuss one state that I know (Thailand) and under Article 18 of the DTA states that tax is payable on the Age Pension, in the state of Residency, so if you reside here for more than 180 days, Thailand is the state, as you are Resident to Thailand for tax purposes.

3 hours ago, still kicking said:

You are wrong again I do have a carport, my rent also includes water charges, and it is only a short walk to the train station or bus. I don't need spa or pool I will turn 77 in July so for me the place is ideal. But people don't believe me when I say my rent is only 240 AUD per week. There are 4 carparks at the front and many more behind the building. Why should I pay 5-600 Dollars just to live in the city centre? And yes, there are shops nearby Aldi just down the road and Coles a bit further away. Aldi sells alcohol so no need to go to the pub to buy anything. I buy red wine for 10 dollars for 4 litres. So, all in all I am happy where I live.

Ok, so you have parking on the premises, that's another plus for the $240 per week your paying, good for you.

As you say at 77 it suites you to not have a spa or a pool and I agree, if you can get away with paying less than $500-$600 a week, why not, if the train station and shops are within walking distance good, I couldn't see that on Google maps, albeit I am not familiar with the state of WA, let alone the area.

If your happy, that's all that counts, each to their own, but $10 for 4 litres of red has got to leave a bad taste in my mouth, may I suggest a bottle of Penfolds Bin 28 Shiraz 2021 at the very least, which will set me back about $40.00 or a Penfolds Bin 128 Shiraz 2021 which will set me back about $55.00.

Red wine is like a woman, you can get them cheap, but take a look at what your getting, red wines all look the same, but the taste is different, so it's top shelf for my budget, and they have to look as good as it tastes.

2 minutes ago, Will27 said:

Don't forget, still kicking isn't single, he's married.

 

Also, why would you live there if you didn't have to?

His wife owns 2 properties.

 

Something doesn't add up.

Only he can answer those questions.

His rent quoted sounded very cheap to most of us, myself being from the eastern states where a similar unit in a similar location would be between $350-$450 per week, and since he provided the receipt, I could see the address, and having the tools to check, i.e. units in the block, can confirm the $'s he is paying is pretty much on par to what an investor would receive on their outlay.

Last sale in the block for a 2 bedder in 2023 was $290,000, so if they are renting it for say $300 a week, their return is 5.38% gross which isn't bad, that said, the higher the return on residential, the lower the sale price, meaning it's probably old, higher strata levies, away from infrastructure and it would take longer to sell, rent, that said, $240 a week in anyone's language is cheap, it just depends on where you prefer to live and with who and with what facilities you would like, meaning you will pay more, and the sale price would be higher based on the location, age, etc etc.