happydreamer

My wife has warned me against moving us to homes that are not in gated or secured communities for this reason. Sucks to be this dude. I would definitely have apprehensions though about leaving my home(s) vacant for more than a night or two in this place. Even hiring security is still a roll of the dice if your possessions are worth more than their meager salaries.

Excellent points and as a visitor (tourist) you shouldn't have to worry about it. However if you do wind up staying here long enough you'll eventually deal with corruption in one way or another and to the scale and magnitude of the life / lifestyle you keep here. I've had it go both ways for me. I've willingly paid the piper and have had no choice but to pay the piper. It's part of life here and as you mentioned if you just keep your life relatively trouble free, follow the rules, stay away from dodgey situations and don't attract attention to yourself your run-ins with those set to extort you should be minimal and relatively easy to deal with. Life here is still way better than winters and crime in Chicago. In a western world we just have softer ways of masking corruption through taxes and fines. Here it's just out in the open

Nothing like a good ol fashioned "sorry i almost killed you" wai

I took early retirement as well, kinda. Tuned out of corporate life at age 40 back in 2015 to pursue personal interests abroad and had been traveling back and forth here since 2012. It's a different place for sure since the first time I came. I remember arriving the first time and having sensory overload from the heat, the smells, and the sheer number of people queued at airport customs at midnight on a weekday. I think alot of the warmth and kindness we experienced in those days was related to the administration (for lack of a better word) The people here really loved the man in charge and it came through in their interactions with outsiders and each other for that matter. I know it sure had an effect on me. I noticed a shift in 2017 after everything changed. Officials became more stern and jaded. The smiles waned. No more lollipops. The last time I arrived to Suvarnabhumi was Jan 2022 and I was threatened to be deported on the spot because my visa was no longer valid. Definitely not the Thailand of olde.

70thb to a pound? Wow man. You're talking the glory days. You've been here a bit. The recent run up to mid 38 to a dollar was the best I'd had

All I know is my quality of life is much better here than it was in LA and Chicago. My metrics for measure.. Physical and mental health improvement. Healthcare options have improved. Convenience of services / cost ratio drastically improved. Availability of conveniences much improved. Much improved financial situation. LT savings, preservation, etc. Money just stretches further here. When I first came here and started looking for a partner I found the women much closer to what I was looking for in terms of appearance, demeanor, and willingness to try / take a chance on someone new. Overall attitudes of thai people regardless of their cultural prejudices, antiquated thinking and / or upbringing are much more palettable than the self entitled, self-important, woke culture back home. There's quite a few things I find annoying but in the end...all these things I've listed make waking up everyday a hell of a lot better than grinding out week after week through cold winters

Is Ms.Ae a local? Was it an inside job? The purse and smartphone knabbed from her make her look like a victim but if she's getting it back plus some the perhaps a clever ruse.

Good one dude. ????

Ya ok dude. You argue like a teenage girl

So what did you interpret that last statement to mean Captain Positive? If you've lived here any amount of time you know tat RTP looks for loopholes to extort money out of you at every turn.

"And watch out for how the RTP interpret the law. " = Be prepared to be extorted if caught

They chain smoke em because they roll em with tobacco brainchild

Must be true if you've never seen it

K dude...you win

Disagree with it then. The evidence speaks for itself. They obviously have a problem smoking weed and staying out of hospitals, something the rest of the world doesn't experience. Thailand isn't a country with people known for being able to handle drugs. Wouldn't know much about tourist areas, not a tourist and never went into those areas because I had no interest mingling with other westerners

Never thought it would take over the world. Part of my investment strategy is to explore speculative products. Its as simple as that. I've worked in tech 25 years, when I was first exposed to BTC I had a few spare laptops lying around my house and ASIC miners were relatively simple to get a hold of. Setting up the mining pool and hardware was a fun thing for me to do. I had no idea what it was when I started doing it....I just thought it was interesting. 2017 rolls around and all of sudden those laptops and miners were money printers.. Thats when I did my first cash out.. My run with it from 2019-2021 wasn't a fun time at all until it peaked but I had no where near what I had in 2017 so my profits were marginal at best. This last year has been a <deleted>-show. Utterly disappointed with how the story ended (for now) this last time. Still interested to see what becomes of it, and am not ruling out giving it a look in the future if the landscape looks different. For now it's back to equities and long term holds on "safer" assets. The thing is that after this debacle you need to readjust your risk management pain points. Cuz if you have them set to crypto tolerance you're gonna blow your portfolio quickly. Happy trading everyone.

If you've ever ben around Thai people who are getting drunk or stoned you know they have no self-control. If smoking a joint is good then eating a brownie and making a slurpee with THC oil and smoking must be the best. Ive seen guys chain smoke joints like they're cigarettes. And I thought I came from a country of excess and abuse. These guys win hands down

50% of the time 90% are good. I think thats what he meant ????

I agree with you on this and throughout the course of this year have been forced to really think about what it is that crypto is solving at this point...and mind you I'm a supporter of crypto and do believe it has a future. However, this year has kicked the whole industry in the face and turned it into something very unstable. You're right about digital money, I can literally Wise my Thai bank currency from my US Banks and depending on the amount have the money in literally seconds.

Im not going to say never, and maybe to wont be BTC but there may be something else that developed over time....some sort of other digital representation of money. We're halfway to there already. I mean outside of living here...how many times in your home country did you actually see the money you earn. Most of what I saw were numbers on a screen and the ability to scan or swipe a card at a POS terminal. If it's at the point where someone has had to tighten their belts because of the crypto crunch, they made a wrong turn way back before any of this happened.

Ya I agree with most of what you're saying here. Definitely has a long way to go before it has a chance to actually replace fiat. As of right now its a crappy substitute with far too many technicalities for the average non-technical person over 40 to understand. I used to think the idea of decentralized currency was good but the recent events and how brazen the people running these businesses are has really turned me off to the idea. Its like a new level of distrust. if one doesn't trust their politicians thats one thing but if you can't trust the people who are custodians of the basis of your wealth...thats not really a world I wanna live in. Im continuing to accrue passively thru the rewards programs on my credit cards but I'm done with staking and exchanges. Not worth it. Best of luck...hope you make some good choices ????

Interesting perspective. Why do you think they would want people out?

Im holding it on speculation. Like I said I'm interested in seeing what future use case might evolve to be and see where the technology goes.

I'll say this much. I'm a long time Bitcoin adopter and holder. I believe in the tech, I believe in blockchain as a concept but we are in some really dark days right now and it's certainly not looking good for the current ecosystem. We dont know what happens now, the world has never seen what happens during a crypto bear market. Maybe this is the fallout. 13 years for something like this isn't a long time to have all of the <deleted> worked out especially given the cavalier approach since it's inception. It's a risk. A huge flipping risk and a lot of speculation. I asked myself last week why I was still in it after all thats transpired. The answer is the same reason it was when I first got into it. It's interesting to me. The evolution of technology and use cases are interesting. However I'm pausing my involvement at the moment until the smoke clears and we get some solid rules around this. My exchanges were Gemini, Binance and BlockFi. I didn't use FTX, never trusted them since they were based in the Bahamas. Do I think it's close to being right? Hell no. No way. What this has done right now is expose the criminals within the eco-system. And when you consider what BTC was initially used for in the early days it doesn't seem now like to far of a stretch that the biggest holders are the criminals who dealt in it from it's inception. Kinda like the other criminals we know who occupy various administrations in various lands of various people. They're all criminals. This being as new as it is has the most loop holes and therefore ways to get burned. And thats whats happening. there's no one in the crypto space right now who's NOT feeling the burn of the current state. I dont care who you are. You're pinched some way. BlockFi shut off my credit card. I found out when I went to pay for something while being out on Saturday. I mean even something like that is a huge inconvenience and impact on someones life. I have to to in and adjust approximately 15 different services that autobill to that card now costing me time, frustration, and ultimately money. Am I cashing out? No. Am I completely done with it? No. Am I going to continue to support these lawless exchanges by using their cards and paying interest and buying crypto from them. No. Gemini , I will. they've made a big effort to separate themselves from the pack. I still dont trust them though and wont leave any money on their exchange. All my stuff was migrated to cold storage. Still waiting on the final 10 % of it to complete processing. Shall see what happens.

Ideally sell it when it has more value that what you acquired it for. As of current I dont think there's many of the original HODL'ers left. Although there may be some who got in when it died sub 5K back in 2018.