AlienBoy

I originally posted a topic called , Spending Money - Should I follow my Friends Advice ? , in the General Topics section. https://aseannow.com/topic/1309737-spending-money-should-i-follow-my-friends-advice/ Part of my out line in that topic said ……. Financially I have approximately 3 Million Baht in a Thai savings bank account . I receive a State pension of around 35,000 Baht a month . My monthly expenditure is around 25,000 Baht a month. - including my Private health Insurance My wife does not work . My state pension will be terminated on my death I have no personal life insurance . In my mind I have always thought that after I have died the money in my Thai savings bank account would be there for my wife and daughter. After receiving many great suggestions and recommendations about my situation , the word '' Investment '' was mentioned , including Gold / Annuity / ETF bonds Etc . Currently I have no investments other than 3 Million Baht in a Krungsri bank savings account ( with a variable interest rate ) . I hoping to find an investment option which yields interest better than my current Krungsri bank savings account and without the risk of the capital and will yield a regular lifelong income (not a lump sum ) if possible. So I have my fingers crossed that some one here can offer me advice or recommendation on possible investment options that may meet my needs . Thank You

Thank you all for some great comments , its going to take me some time to now put some of your advice into action . In the meantime I’m going to seek more advice on investment options in the ..... Jobs, Economy, Banking, Business, Investments section. Again thanks every one .🙏

I'm sorry about that , I should have made it more clearer , it was not my intention to mislead any one . Thanks.

Hi every one , its been enlightening and heart warming to read all your comments and advice which have given me a lot to think about . Just to answer a few points that were raised in your comments . ( in no particular order ) My Thai wife and I can honestly say that in all the past 19 years we have been together not once have we argued or been unhappy with our marriage . Since we married she has never worked mainly due to my mind set that she would be the home maker and I would be the provider . Over the years my wife has gone from being a un educated village girl to a far better educated woman who has a bright mind can converse very well in English . My daughter , is actually my step daughter who was aged around 6 when I first met her . Over the years due to me wanting her to receive a good education , she attended private schools and finally she received a university degree . She is un married now lives away from home and is employed in an accounting office. My daughter is fully aware that at home her parents live a frugal life , but I’m not sure if she understands my mind set relating to me trying to sustain a healthy bank balance that would provide money to her and her mother after I die. Over the years of following our frugal way of life I can honestly say that I feel I have become less fun to be around and seem to have become more serious in my attitude . Its a strange feeling I get if in fact we do on the very odd occasion splash out to may be have some thing from the local kentucky fried chicken place, as we sit at home eating the take away I start to feel a bit guilty. Cutting the slack a little is some thing I wish I could do , but so far I've found it very difficult as I seem to have become obsessed with not spending money . Some times we lay in bed on a sweltering hot night with a floor fan blowing across our double bed the thought of switching on the bedroom air conditioning is out of our mind because of the electric bill cost . After we married I paid to have a 3 bedroom bungalow type house built , over the following years the house has slowly dilapidated and due to the costs involved in maintaining the house and because of my don’t spend to much money mindset , the house is currently in need of a lot of repairs. I’m going to talk to my wife about her setting up a small business that may provide some income to help our situation . Just thinking about that subject , as I spend the majority of my time at home ( going out can cost money ) I’m wondering if I to could in some way find some thing that would generate a little bit of cash . One of the luxuries we do allow our selves is a fiber optic internet connection ( 650 Baht a month ) So I’m wondering if its possible to some way make a little extra cash using the internet . One point I forgot to mention relating to my bank balance is the fact that in my 3 Million Baht amount I need to constantly keep 800,000 Baht to do my retirement visa yearly extension . I've often thought about changing to the married to a Thai option which only requires 400,000 Baht in a bank. I have never thought about making a will , its some thing I’m now going to look into . My wife only eats Thai food , but I tend to stick to European type food . One option that keeps crossing my mind is that I do have private health insurance that Ive had with the same company ( Cigna ) for many years . The monthly amount for that private health insurance is 13,000.00 Baht . Its crossed my mind about stopping that private health insurance which would then provide an extra 13,000.00 Baht a month to spend. I think Sheryl made a good point about Thais not being very good at managing money and after my death relatives will come calling with their hands stretched out . Those points have crossed my mind and I've always hoped that my wife would appreciate our past frugal life style and act act accordingly after my death , but who really knows what will happen after my coffin has been placed in the cremation room and the fire has been lit . Some good points have been made about my age and the fact that I should be enjoying my self more at my time of life . Yes I’m getting more and more concerned that at my age the clock it ticking away , so I now feel that its time to sit down with my wife and talk to her about our frugal life style and what doing that actually means to us both. One part of me wants to try and make sure that my wife and daughter will be provided for after my death , but now on the other hand I’m just starting to realise that at my advanced age , may be its time to start to think about making my remaining years more enjoyable , even if that means spending more money . I’m not at this stage sure how to or what to say to my wife about my feelings that may be I should use some money from my bank account to allow me and of course her to enjoy ourselves more . I wonder what her reaction may be knowing that if I do use more money from my bank account to allow us both to do or have things that in the past we have denied our selves while living a frugal life style , will she still want to live our frugal life style in the knowledge that the 3 Million Baht will be there for her once I pass away . I’m not sure what she will think . Thanks guy’s your continuing comments are appreciated Thank You

I know this may sound childish and nonsensical, but its a subject that is causing me great concern . Me, Well I’m 76 years old and in good health and I have permanently lived in Thailand along with my wonderful Thai wife for the past 19 years . We have one daughter. Financially I have approximately 3 Million Baht in a Thai savings bank account . I receive a State pension of around 35,000 Baht a month . My monthly expenditure is around 25,000 Baht a month. - including my Private health Insurance My wife does not work . My state pension will be terminated on my death I have no personal life insurance . In my mind I have always thought that after I have died the money in my Thai savings bank account would be there for my wife and daughter. I have discussed the subject of my bank account with my wife and the idea that I would like to keep my bank balance as high as possible so that in the event of me passing away , there would still be money in my bank account for her and our daughter. With that idea in mind my self and my wife set out to live as frugally as possible , in the hope that doing so would not force us to withdraw any living expenses money from my bank account . So in other words really at my suggestion , both our personal spending habits have been cut down to the bare minimum in the hope that we do not have to withdraw any money from my bank account that upon my death will provide my widowed wife with money . Generally speaking due to our plan to live as frugally as possible , both of us don’t purchase any thing like new clothes ( my wife only buys second hand ) or decent mobile phones, computers or take holidays , or eat out in restaurants or buy expensive foreign foods for my self ,or other little luxuries . Us living as frugally as possible has only one aim and that is to try and make sure that upon my death , my un touched bank balance will be there for my wife and daughter. I was recently talking to a good friend and described to him about my self and my wife not spending any unnecessary money and the reason we were living a very frugal lifestyle . My good friend on hearing what I was doing ( in the hope of sustaining my bank balance ) said that I was crazy especially at my age , and that I should be enjoying my time of life and stop worrying about what the future may hold for my wife and daughter after I have passed away . On hearing my good friend’s comment I’m now torn between staying on our current path and not spending any unnecessary money , or throw caution to the wind and stop worrying about what the future may hold for my darling wife and daughter after I have passed away and just talk to my wife about our spending habits and hopefully spend more money that's in my bank account , so we both could enjoy our life together but on a better level. Although my wife has been very understanding about our spending I’m sure she would like for the first time to buy some nice things for her self ,and that goes for me as well. I must admit that I do from time to time dream about spending some money that's in my bank account on my self but then the little voice in side my head keeps whispering in my ear , don’t be selfish . Currently if both my wife and my self stick to our frugal way of life , we can just about manage our finances and not have to withdraw any money from my bank account. But our frugal life style is not what I would call a ‘’ Happy ‘’ situation. So there you have it , stay with the frugal lifestyle and when the time comes to draw my last breath and finally say good bye, at least its knowing that my beloved wife and daughter will have some money from my bank account . I have a nagging doubt that my above logic may not be the best option. Your thoughts would be most welcome . Thank You.