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Although you are certainly diversified, that’s a pretty risky portfolio and I do not think the upside reward will justify the downside risk for long-term investing. As for holding mostly US stocks, it is preferred by many because the risk reward calculation most people do (it is also the lowest fee situation).

I see a lot of advice on the amount in equities versus bonds – please note, a lot of recent research shows that 70 – 30 is best for maximizing returns and minimizing risk (as in going to 80% equities does not give you enough upside to justify the increased downside risk). Gold is indeed a fools errand.

I am almost entirely ETF now to keep the fees low, everything index.

Perception of a portfolio's risk very much depends upon the time frame one's considering. My portfolio is designed like a university endowment, i.e. a perpetual portfolio. Over such timescales equities will almost inevitably outperform bonds, and developing markets will outperform more established ones. I'm as confident as I can be that the upside reward justifies the downside risk.

As for holding mostly US stocks, a lot of people do it. However, they are Americans. In England people mostly hold British stocks. And in Japan people mostly hold Japanese stocks. It sort of makes sense if you're living in the country, matching your investments to the local economy. If you're an expat living in Thailand or plan to retire there it's folly to invest primarily in US stocks.

Incidentally, charges are low on American mutual funds, ETFs, &c. for the reason that the market is very well researched so active management can add very little. That is definitely not true in smaller, less well researched markets such as Thailand. Whilst I'd be happy to use a passive strategy in the US, I wouldn't in emerging markets. (Exception: I own EGShares Emerging Markets Core ETF, EMCR, which I think is a well-designed product.)

As for a 70/30 split being best, there is no one right solution. For a perpetual portfolio a 0% allocation to conventional bonds is perfectly reasonable because the upside is very limited. Life stage is also important for many people with a shorter term view, and conventional wisdom is changing. See, for example, http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304866904579268332305015074?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_yourmoney or http://alphabaskets.com/turning-asset-allocation-upside-down/ ).

Reason I asked was that I have sometimes issues with dizziness when looking up, which most probably cause by high or low blood pressure, but I'm not the kind that want to visit a doctor for every minor issue.

I think unlikely to be high or low blood pressure. High blood pressure is sometimes called "The Silent Killer" because it doesn't have any overt symptoms. With low blood pressure you might experience dizziness on getting out of bed or standing up - not when simply looking up. More likely in my opinion is some sort of inner ear problem - possibly Benign Positional Paroxysmal Vertigo which is quite common. If it is that, it's eminently curable by manipulation - no need for drugs. Best to get it checked out in any case to make sure it's nothing more serious.

Tel Aviv is nothing like Mecca. In Mecca there are no LGBT rights, and you can be lashed up to 200 times or be stoned to death for being gay.

Ignorance can sometime be bliss, do a bit of googling for Mecca

Last time I checked Mecca was still in Saudi Arabia - one of the most fervent, fundamentalist Moslem countries in the world where homosexuality is illegal and people have been lashed and/or executed on account of their sexuality, so what's your point?

Whats the situation with Mint Sauce in Thailand? Sent from my GT-P5110 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Available in jars in upmarket supermarkets. However, mint itself is readily available pretty much everywhere, so it's easy and much nicer to make one's own - though to get the authentic taste you'll need to splash out on a bottle of proper malt vinegar, which is relatively expensive.

Tel Aviv is nothing like Mecca. In Mecca there are no LGBT rights, and you can be lashed up to 200 times or be stoned to death for being gay.

Looking at available funds investing solely in Thailand the Fidelity fund has outperformed the SET in each of the last three years by a significant margin (+4.7%, +7.5%, +7.9%). (Only 3 years' history available.)

Allianz has also done pretty well (5 years history: +12.9, +13.3, -0.3, +12.6, +9.0).

Amundi pretty much hugs the index (-1.8, +6.3, +2.1, +0.2, +4.6).

Templeton's fund has underperformed the index more often than not (+0.0, -10.6, -2.9, +2.4, -1.5).

(Source: Morningstar)

There does appear to be a strong case for active management in the Thai market - though it's important to choose the right fund manager.

If you're planning on retiring to Thailand, does it really make sense to have so much of your investments in the US geared to the US economy? And what about exchange rate changes over the years? Asia's economies are rising, whilst America's is in long-term decline.

Since you have a long time to retirement you can afford to have almost all your investments in equities at the moment. Gold, bonds and cash are simply a drag on performance. You'll almost certainly not even be beating inflation with cash.

Are all the rental properties in a single town? If so, what happens if the major employer in that area goes bankrupt or leaves the area? Possibly no income and almost worthless property. That would be a very concentrated risk. Far better to invest in a diversified fund offering exposure to physical property.

Frequent urination. Feeling thirsty much of the time. Ants attracted to your urine.

However, you usually only get these symptoms when the disease has progressed quite a way. I suspect it's much more usual for the condition to be picked up during a regular medical screening.

I was surprised to find that diabetes is a leading cause of premature death in Thailand - 3rd after stroke and coronary heart disease. (Source: http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/country-health-profile/thailand). I suspect this is attributable to poor diagnosis/management of the condition. In the United States it ranks seventh.

Edit: Typo

Of course when Freud first postulated the concept of penis envy he hadn't been thinking of Thai Visa the hub-of-(not so)-latent anxieties-and-inadequacies.

Spot on. He definitely wasn't thinking of Thai Visa - he was thinking of pubescent girls who during their psychosexual development realised they didn't have a penis and were somewhat distressed.

The psychoanalytical concept of "penis envy" is in no way whatsoever related to "small penis syndrome" - anxiety caused by the belief one's penis is too small. (For reasons that science hasn't yet been able to explain "small penis syndrome" only afflicts males.)

Fortunately, being neither female, nor having a teeny wiener I don't need to be concerned about either condition.

From his Facebook photos he appears to be in dire straits - unable even to afford a shirt or trousers. I hope for his stage appearance he was at least able to borrow some clothes to cover his shame.

It's now clear that this is indeed Islamists targetting gay men. The 12 men are being tried by a Shariah court (not under secular law) and are facing being stoned to death.

Source: http://www.nationalturk.com/en/nigeria-gay-trial-12-men-face-stoning-for-allegedly-engaging-homosexuality-northern-africa-news-46286

While I had not considered it before, your comment concerning country centric investment recommendations got me thinking. If one was living in Thailand I wonder if an argument could be made that a portfolio holding a predominant piece in, for example, US stocks in the name of regional diversification might be reasonable - just a thought off the top of my head.

There clearly is a diversifying effect of holding both US and Emerging Markets. At times of "risk on" Emerging Markets will typically outperform the US, and when "risk off" (as for example, the last 12 months) Emerging Markets will perform poorly compared with the US. The UK/Europe lies somewhere between the two extremes.

If one were purely looking for long term growth and to hell with the risk, then one should probably be all in Emerging Markets. Allocating between developed and emerging markets should reduce the volatility at the expense of lower expected returns. (From memory, the correlation between the US stock market and Emerging Markets is about 0.7). For me, a tilt is towards Asian and Emerging Markets, with proportionately less in the US/Europe seems right.

In Google's defence, the Thai is misspelled. ใหม should be ไหม. ใหม doesn't exist as a word. That said, Google translate is pretty dire for Thai.

Many of the cheaper wines (QbA, QmP as was, Kabinett) are also sweet. QbA wines can legally be made with added sugar (chaptalisation).

Probably the best selling style of German wine in the UK is Liebfraumilch - an easy to drink beverage for people who don't really like (or understand) wine. So referring to sweeter wines as "starter wines" was not meant as a joke - they appeal to the less sophisticated palate. I rather doubt that many of the UK's Liebfraumilch drinkers would appreciate, for example, a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc or a German Diabetikerwien.

It is curious that one regularly sees wines here from every major wine producing country with the sole exception of Germany. Given that the sweeter German wines are often "starter wines" for people not used to drinking wine I would have thought that they would potentially be successful here. There must be some specific reason for this obvious gap in the Thai market.

stuff is so powerful I think it deserves similar caution as medication.

Sent from my Lenovo S820_ROW using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Shall I call an ambulance for myself.. i just added 1/3 of a bitter melon say 15 cm of it to my juices.

Just teasing JT.

There have been cases of deaths from drinking the juice. Reportedly, if the juice tastes much more bitter than usual, that's a warning sign, so don't drink it.

It appears the two books are almost identical, both by the same publisher, and with almost identical credits for writing. The few recipes I've checked they are identical too. It rather irritates me that Lulu someone-or-other gets credit for the writing whilst the hard work is the recipes by Khun Oi.

The Puu Phat Phong Karii I've made a couple of times. It's good. I understand the preference for not having to work so hard to extract the crab meat. I suspect, though, that the shell adds an extra level of flavour. If you're in Thailand check out the tubs of pasteurised crab meat in TOPS. They're actually rather good - and value for money.

Personally, I prefer to kill the crab humanely, rather than putting it in the freezer.

I think she puts the onion in too early (5-7 minutes is too much - Thai style is for the onion to retain a bit of crunch). Probably also needs a bit more chilli.

Anyway, a very sound recipe, to be trusted.

For coconut cream just leave some coconut milk to stand in a bowl in the fridge. After a few hours there'll be a thick layer on the top. That's the coconut cream. Just scoop it off. Alternatively (it's not traditional and the taste isn't quite as good) put a couple of tablespoons of a neutral-tasting vegetable oil in the wok and use that to stir the curry paste. (Lots of restaurants here do that nowadays - less hassle than cracking coconut cream.)

Not sure which dish you mean by pat pong kari. Is it in the book? Which page? What's the protein? (What you've typed just means fried curry powder.)

Thanks for that, why can't we use Thai script on here? I am planing to make Kaeng Kung Mangkawn which on the recipe is called spicy lobster and pinapple curry.

Forum rules. Thai script is only allowed in the Thai language forum.

I'm guessing you're using "The Food of Thailand" with recipes by Oi Cheepchaiissara. That's my "go to" book for almost all basic Thai recipes (apart from yam makheua yaaw which she doesn't have - for that I use Chef Daeng's recipe). I've made this before a few times. Commercial red curry paste is absolutely fine. It's rather lost in the other flavours so top quality is not critical.

If you look at page 276 of the book there's a recipe for how to make the paste yourself if you want to.

Afterthoughts: you didn't mention what kind of curry you're planning on making. If you tell the vendor what you're planning he/she will often be able to blend the stock pastes to provide a customised version that's ideal for your dish. (Curries with for example beef need additional aromatic herbs to cut the strong aroma. Fish curry pastes will often need additional ginger/galangal for similar reasons.)

Red curry paste is also available in all supermarkets. My favourite (when I don't make the paste myself) is the one sold in small glass jars in Tesco-Lotus. Lobo brand pastes are incredibly salty, so reduce the fish sauce dramatically. Other brands in sachets are just about OK at a pinch.

Not allowed to use Thai script in this forum, so I'll do my best using the Latin alphabet.

Curry paste is khreuang kaeng (falling tone, mid tone respectively).

Red curry isn't called "red" in Thailand - it's spicy (phet - low tone).

Putting that together: khreuang kaeng phet.

(Nam phrik refers to the paste usually eaten with raw or lightly boiled vegetables - not curry paste.)

And now for the good news: President Museveni has refused to sign the bill to imprison gay people for life. Not that he's in the slightest way enlightened in the subject matter:

"In a letter to parliament, the president said homosexuality was caused by either 'random breeding' or a need to make money. Lesbians, he said, chose female partners because of 'sexual starvation' and the failure to marry a man."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/17/uganda-president-law-jailing-gay-people-life

Just make sure you walk away from the surgery with handfuls of antibiotics and pain killers. No point in suffering unnecessarily. And don't expect to be able to work (or even think straight) for at least a week.

You're a real comfort, aren't you?

Should I have said "don't worry, there'll be no pain and no risk of infection"? "Everything will be hunky-dory"? "Life will be just grand"?

I've experienced this and I spent a small fortune to have the procedure done privately in Harley Street in London. I remain grateful for the vast quantities of drugs and antibiotics I was given to help me through the next week. It was still a profoundly unpleasant experience.

I could lie and be a "real comfort", or I could be honest and tell the OP that this is going to be difficult and get your self doped up to the gills to get through it. It may be trite, but sometimes honesty is the best policy.

Just curious, but what percentage of the students that start at Walen as complete beginners end up passing the Por. 6 exam? And on average, how long does it take them?