CartagenaWarlock

The best thing in Thailand is to just get an agent to get your things done, including your retirement visa and never step into the immigration office. I avoided the immigration office for 7 years and always got things done by agents. Last March, I wanted to get a taste of the IO office to get my residence certificate for my MC license. They looked at my stapled TM30 and said it was out of date. I ran from there and went to my agent, who got everything done for me, including a brand new TM30 without any documents.

I'm in the same boat. I spent one full year in 2021 and 9 months in 2022 due to COVID. I got bored and ran to the US and Portugal. I usually spend 6 months in Thailand and was thinking of spending 9 months as I cross 60, but that plan is now on hold. I will wait till I get my SS. For now, I will continue with my 6-month stay.

Get a real office chair costing at least 10K USD. https://arielle.com.au/most-expensive-office-chairs/

In my opinion, a border bounce in a cattle cart should be the last option for a person. Sitting all day in a crammed minivan is no joy for a holiday.

Sure they hate you but you don't have any options for a decent life in your home country, let alone finding a woman in your home land. That's the exact reason you live here and vent your frustration in the only forum you're allowed to do so.

Nobody is saying they are going to tax you even after paying taxes in the US. Are you out of your mind? But you have to prove it by filing a tax return, that you are exempt and get a tax credit for the taxes you have already paid.

If you passport allow visa exempt entry, enter visa exempt for 30-days and then extend it for another 30 days. If your passport does not allow visa exempt entry, you have to do what they are telling you to do.

Yes. I don't want to mess with Thai bureaucracy. In two more years, I will start getting my SS, which at the current rate will be around $3,300. If I bring 2K, I can declare everything from my SS, which will be tax free. Now I bring the same amount from my 401(K), and I also have other income from my part-time consulting job. It will be simpler when I get my SS.

I have a few options. I have already spent 2.5 months in Thailand this year. Now I'm in the US. I will spend another two months in Thailand; I am not sure when. My plan was to spend more time in Thailand than my usual six months, but that is not going to happen unless I start drawing my SS in 2026. I am thinking about spending two/three months in India. Now it is boiling everywhere in South and Southeast Asia. After that, the monsoon will come. So, looks like I'm stuck in the US for now.

Assuming you are from the US, create a US dollar account in the Wise. You can see their routing and your account number. It is a checking account. Go to your US bank and set up a transfer using the routing and account number. Your US bank will make two micro-deposits in your Wise US dollar account. Verify the two microdeposits in your bank account, and then transfer the money to your wise US dollar account. The money will be in your Wise account the following day. After that, you can transfer money to any account (Thai bank) from your Wise US dollar account.

Yes, I have four passports. 100K is less than 3% when I wanted to hide 3 million from patent trolls.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolt_(company)

TM 30 is stapled to your passport and tells you the date when it was registered.

I wanted a residence certificate, and the IO office informed me that my TM30 is not up-to-date. I need a new TM30. I came back and contacted an agent to register a new TM30. Moreover, TM30 is attached to your passport and anybody can check when it was registered. Mine was 5 or 6 years old.

I registered my TM30 five years ago and never bothered to register again because I always come to the same address, at least officially. Last March, I wanted to get a MC license and was informed my TM30 was not up-to-date. I paid 500 baht to an agent and got it up-to-date.

I believe the investor visa still exists. Of course, won't get the passport immediately but can remain in the UK. Maybe her children already have UK citizenship. It is cheaper and quicker to get an Antigua and Barbuda passport for 100K USD. I got mine and applied a Thailand's elite based on that five years ago. Now I have four passports. Like in the movies 🙂

@NoDisplayName suggested pushing money from your US account to their deposit account instead of pulling it. I tried it with the Wealthfront account, and it landed in their deposit account the next day.

Hmm. It blew first Q results in 2024 with $23.7 billion in profit on $80.5 billion in revenue. Now it's a two trillion dollar company.

Nobody goes to North Pattaya from Jomtien to buy a fan. In fact, you can buy everything in Jomtien. There is no need to go to Pattaya for anything.

Why? You are an insignificant person who ran away from his home land to take refuge in a foreign land, and possibly to find a woman in a foreign land outside your culture. You don't have any standing in this society. A judge will hear their side of the story.

The finer things in life are expensive in any country. I spend 15K for food and 10K for weed. Except the breakfast, I order most of my food. Also, when you get older, I assume people tend to eat less. Sometimes I drink cocktails, and there may be another 2K/month. I don't sit in the bar from morning until midnight, drinking beer. That's how most people spend their money, I assume.

I went to the full-money party in February. Nobody ever approached me to buy drugs. It was surreal. Overall, I enjoyed it. They don't have adequate public toilets compared to the crowd they get. I had to go to the weed shop every time I had to pee and buy a diet coke.

I think Chinese mafia is involved. What happened to those Chinese mafia cases. We don't hear anything about them any more.

Cash is still king in the sense that it was used first, I believe. During a stock market crash, if you have cash, you can buy up beaten-down stocks. So it's still a king. However, for day-to-day purchases, a credit card provides more advantages than cash.

That's also a problem for me in the US because my handman guy does not accept credit cards. He only accepts cash or checks (yes, some people in the US are still using checks). I called him to fix my heater and had to cough up $1300 in cash. But he is cheaper. If I had called an HVAC maintenance guy, he would have charged me $3,000.