FriscoKid

I have been thinking about this because I know a few guys whose situations all look a bit similar. When they first got married their wives were working and life seemed pretty good. Two incomes and a future that appeared reasonably comfortable. But over the years things changed a bit. The wives lost their jobs for one reason or another and never really went back to work. Became housewives, for lack of a better word. Now the household income has simply become a single income, and in all the cases I've seen the husband is not exactly rolling in money. None of these guys are broke, but they are definitely not in the position they expected to be in either. Now they are the sole earners, taking on the entire financial load of two people with a future where retirement might come much later than they once expected. On top of that, the marriages themselves do not exactly look full of energy or connection anymore. They have been together for quite a long time. There are no kids involved, and from the outside it rather looks like the relationship has slowly shifted into something more like convenience and familiarity rather than a strong and caring partnership. So it raises a serious question. If a guy ends up in a situation where he is doing all the earning, the marriage has lost much of its spark, and there are no children holding the situation together, what is the practical reason for the man to stay in that situation? I wonder if they would actually be better off their own, both financially and personally. Everyone is different and people have their own reasons for the choices they make, but when you see the same pattern repeating itself a few times, you start to wonder why nobody ever seems willing to question whether the situation they are in still makes sense.

I get 3,123 Baht for the 64GB model.

I assume you have already seen this list in the screenshot since they are the extra vouchers included with a VIP subscription. From what I can tell though many of them are available for free anyway just in smaller amounts. The one I am most curious about is the first one listed which is the 50 percent discount on double digit days and midmonth payday. I am wondering whether that could translate into much larger savings on a higher priced item during one of those special sale days. At the same time I cannot quite figure out exactly how it works or what the discount really applies to. In the meantime I went ahead and made one of the larger electronics purchases from my cart yesterday since the price was already good and the only seller offering it was starting to run low on stock. When one of those sale days comes around again I can always test it with another item in my cart by clicking on it and seeing what kind of discount is actually applied.

After signing up for Shopee VIP, I was able to claim Shopee's offer for 3 months free use of ChatGPT Go. I was also able to connect this offer to my existing ChatGPT account, which was previously using the free version of ChatGPT. So now I have use of it for free for 3 months which is around an 800 Baht value. Even if the Shopee VIP program turns out to be nothing useful after a couple of months, and I decide to drop it, I figure the 3 months free use of ChatGPT Go is at least useful. The link below explains more about the service. https://www.bangkokpost.com/life/tech/3120718/openai-launches-chatgpt-go-in-thailand

A Thai tax number is fine for the tax reporting requirements. But you will likely need a legal document like a bank statement or an electricity bill with your name on it for verification of your residential address. No copies of long stay or residency visas should be required for proof of residency though.

I was just finally able to successfully sign up for Shopee VIP, and my Shopee account is in my own name rather than under a Thai person. Previously, I had my Wise debit card set as the default credit/debit card, and I also had a Thai bank account linked as a bank payment option. That setup did not allow me to sign up for Shopee VIP. I then just added a Thai bank debit card as a payment method and set it as the default credit/debit card. After doing that, I went back to the Shopee VIP signup page and was able to select the Thai bank debit card as the payment method for Shopee VIP and complete the signup successfully. Based on this, it seems that you need a local Thai bank debit or credit card for VIP signup to work, and foreigners can sign up as long as they have one. After signing up successfully, I changed the default credit/debit card payment method back to my Wise card. They charged ฿1 for the first month as an introductory promotion, with the regular price being ฿49 per month afterward. I was expecting better discount coupons to appear in my account as a Shopee VIP member, especially since I have a couple of expensive electronic items in my shopping cart right now. However, I already had all the standard coupons collected, which was already offering me ฿2000 off a major purchase. After signing up for VIP and checking my cart again, the discount remained the same at ฿2000 for those items. It appears that the added VIP coupons do not necessarily provide better discounts than the standard free coupons already available to anyone. Because of this, I may not keep the VIP service for more than a month or two if I do not see any additional savings being offered from the VIP service. Any non VIP member can collect the same vouchers I did by going to the Home tab in the Shopee app, tapping on the green icon for Free Shipping and Vouchers towards the top, and then collecting everything available. These coupons are then automatically applied to any items in your shopping basket if you click on them as if you are going to proceed with checkout. Based on my experience so far, I do not see a clear cost savings benefit from the VIP membership, at least for large electronics, since the discounts appear to be the same as the free coupons available to anyone not yet signed up for Shopee VIP.

Local or foreign equity markets? US or other countries? For equity markets outside of Thailand, Interactive Brokers is the best choice. They will also quickly open accounts for foreigners living in Thailand.

I would say I would have no major regrets, a few maybe, but that's normal. Nobody ever lives a perfect life. I've done most of what I want in life already. I could still do more, but if I don't get a chance to do more, I can accept that too. I've traveled a lot, I've made money, I've seen a lot of of the world, I've exposed myself to a lot of art, culture, music and history, and I've spent pleasurable time with a number of women. Is there much else that one could ask for?

These are hypothetical questions. He could have said you have ten minutes to think about your life before you die, but that is unnecessary. Everyone understands the point of the topic without inventing some dramatic scenario where you sit and ponder your life just before the electricity shuts off. Perhaps the real issue is that you are uncomfortable asking yourself these questions, so you look for a way to avoid them. If so then, that's your own choice. Do as you wish.

It is indeed. But deep introspection is always good. Bless you.

The one other thing I have done with the one physical card that stays unlocked is disable almost all payment methods. In the card control settings in the Wise app I turned off all eight of the payment method options except for two. The only physical payment method I allow is chip transactions, which require the card to be physically inserted into a card reader and usually a PIN is needed to complete the payment. Contactless payments, other physical card methods, and online purchases are all disabled. If the card is lost or stolen, it cannot be used for tap and go payments or online shopping, and without the PIN it is effectively useless in most stores. The only other option I keep enabled on the card is overseas payments so I can use the card when traveling , for example in Thailand. Overall, with the low €100 daily limit, and the limiting card controls, the risk of misuse is very small.

Yes, if you rarely use the Wise cards, it makes more sense to just keep them locked. All of my digital Wise cards that are stored on e-commerce websites for online future shopping use stay locked, and I only unlock them temporarily when making an online purchase. The one digital card that exists only in my Apple Wallet on my iPhone and Apple Watch stays unlocked at all times because that card gets used often, often multiple times per day, plus the number is not stored on any website where it could be compromised in a hack. That said, I still replace that digital card every couple of months just to be safe and have also now set a daily limit for it. As for physical cards, I almost never use them at all. They are just a backup option. One stays permanently locked, and the other is unlocked because I can set a very low daily spending limit now. That unlocked card is the one I carry in my wallet as a backup. I only carry it for the rare occasions when a store uses an older card reader that does not accept contactless mobile wallet payments and requires inserting a physical card. It does not happen often, but it does happen occasionally. Now that daily limits can be set for each card individually, I only keep that one physical card unlocked now because I once ran into a situation in a store where my digital card watch payment was not accepted, I had the physical card with me, but it was locked, and I did not have my phone with me to access the app to unlock it. So I ended up unable to complete the payment. To avoid that happening again, I now always carry that one physical card unlocked, but with only a €100 daily spending limit in case it is lost or stolen. That low limit is enough to at least cover any typical daily costs I might have for food or groceries. So that's good enough and limits my risk to €100. Happy shopping...

I only noticed this about a week ago, so it may have been added to the app earlier, but you can now set both daily and monthly spending limits on Wise cards. It’s a great extra security feature in case a card is lost, stolen, or compromised, and it just makes everything more secure. They had spending limits before, but they applied to the account as a whole, and the minimums were still very high. Now, you can set any amount you want. What’s also really useful is that each card can have different limits. I have three digital cards and two physical cards, and I can configure them all separately. Previously, I kept most of my Wise balances in “Jars,” separating the bulk of it from the spending balances for added security. With the ability to set low daily spending limits on each card, that no longer seems necessary. I also used to keep my physical cards frozen when not in use, but with low spending limits in place, I don’t feel the need to freeze them anymore.

I do save a lot of money by Shopping on Shopee. I use them for nearly all my online shopping now, except for the occasional purchase on Lazada. Recently, I even got my Wise debit card to work on Shopee as well. If I can get Shopee VIP setup then perhaps I can save even more money that way.

Also, the Shopee AI chat bot only appears to only operate in Thai text.