DrPhibes

It's the amount I receive from SS each month direct deposited to my Bangkok bank account.

Sorry but jumping in a bit late on this topic. So, if I gift my non-working thai wife 3,000,000 baht of US work earnings to her separate US bank account yearly in the United States, create a doc that specifies that it is a gift, then wire that money from that separate account to my wife's separate Thai bank account, then she moves a bit of that money into my separate Thai bank account to add to my US Social Security (non-taxable to Thailand by virtue of tax treaty) coming to my separate account, we have no tax obligation to Thailand. Sound about right? Hope all well with everyone.

Perfect, Thank you very much for taking the time on this!

Thank you very much for the referral!

Thanks, but we are buying the house we have been renting for the last 7 years. Good luck!

Any referrals would be appreciated. Thanks!

Wife is looking to buy a house in CM and we were wondering if there is such a thing as home inspection services in CM to look for problems with the house prior to purchase. Thanks in advance!

When I was in high school in the middle of the San Joaquin Valley in the latter part of the 70's, half the vehicles in the parking lot were pickup trucks and about 1/2 of them had gun racks inside the truck with guns in them so that immediately after school you could go hunting. Nobody thought about shooting up the school no matter how much "bullying" you got. At 17, I had a Remington 7mm magnum rifle, Mossburg pump 12 gauge, a Remington 1100 semiautomatic 12 gauge shotgun, a heavier than normal accurate as hell Mossburg 22 target rifle with big game scope on it, and a Ruger Mark I 22 long rifle target barrel pistol. My friends and I were into reloading our 12 gauge shells. All paid for working jobs while in school. My hunting friends and I were in the top 20 kids heading off to college. Kids these days....

Battery tech is on a meteoric pace with a lot of proprietary tech behind the scenes. It's like the early tech days of computers. Very exciting!

Sorry, did not mean for my reply to sound challenging. Just given the current political tension between the US and PRC, I would find it a bit risky. Would not like to have them pull me over in the layover and be held for some cockamamie reason just because they needed a political prisoner. Went through the PRC about 7 years ago and because the back of my passport had the tiniest dog eared lamination separation, was taken aside from my family, grilled, and almost missed missed the flight. Never fly through there again after that. I just looked up Xiamen for the flight back for this tax season and find they are not offering the CNX to LAX at this time. Thanks for your input. Have a GREAT New Year!

No way as an American would want to land in the PRC.

I assume you mean use of Medicare since you are in close proximity to the United States. There are 3 instances when Medicare will possibly cover you outside of the United States. I have attached a .pdf from Medicare that describes these situations and what is covered. Something I did not know until a couple of years ago (from a guy in a bar who I thought was full of it) was this thing about dependents for Social Security. Like another gentleman on this forum, I am going to reap the extra benefits of my wife and 6yr old child (both US citizens) come October this year (when my full SS benefits begin) when all 3 of us will start receiving SS up to the family max so about an extra $2,721/mo (after this last COLA) divided equally between my wife and child until the child turns 16 when the wife's part stops, then the child gets another couple of years of a boost up to $2,721/mo for his part (all of his is college money savings). I figure about 8 years of this extra boost added to my SS and I will have recouped what I have paid in all my life taking into account the tax hit on my wife's and mine and the fact that I will still be self-employed until I hit 70 at least so still paying in as part of Self-Employment taxes but not accounting for inflation or earnings I could have made on the money. Could not take it early as SS would have pulled back all they sent me due to working until I hit full SS age anyway. The self-employment is part year client based so I can reduce the size of the clientele as my energy wanes with age (it also keeps my mind very active). Hope this helps. 11037-medicare-coverage-outside-united-states.pdf

I've been flying each year for the last 8 years CNX to LAX mid-Jan returning end of April/begin May and have never seen economy under $1,000 USD. Sure your not thinking of BKK to LAX?

Yes.

Not to mention that for some reason the Thai Baht strengthens about this time of year also ;-)