richm7

May I ask what audio interface you were using from T.T to comp?

choppy

Choppy, I record 24-bit via a USB A/D converter using Bias Peak on OS X, and clean up the audio with ClickFix in Cool Edit Pro. Then I dither to 16 with Peak again. Convoluted, but I get good results. So the weak point is the turntable at this point.

If I get another turntable, in addition to my pitch control requirement, I'd like to get one that can work with my Grado cartridges and Grado dedicated phono stage.

-UC

Hi UC - I see you are digitizing the proper way.....excellent, I hope you keep the 24/96 files after you've red-booked them as future "masters". You know, if you ever go to a centralized HD system at home you can use those high quality 24/96 masters direct, getting as near to the vinyl as you can with digital.

On the other points, no, the TD150 does not have a pitch control. Indeed, many (if not most) high end TT's these days don't, and it is a fact that some do not run spot-on, Rega being a well-known case in point. You can often tweak the speed by adjusting the motor screws but that is not an on-the-fly capability. As long as the speed is stable and within .5% of the nominal speed only musicians with perfect pitch should even notice it being slightly fast or slow.

I see choppy talks about a direct drive TT. There certainly are quite a few available but frankly, none of them are high end and I don't believe any would meet your obviously exacting standards. High quality conventional (i.e. belt driven) turntables certainly do have chunky platters (for a number of reasons) and high quality bearings but unless they have been abused they should run for many many years without discernable bearing wear or deterioration. It does worry me a bit that you have a pully problem (again, I doubt it is the pully itself, more likely the motor shaft is bent) because that suggests that maybe the TT has had a whack at sometime (perhaps during transit) which might have done other damage.

Not surprised you can't get Thorens to do anything. Those TT's are years old now so spares are difficult if not impossible to come by. I have a sneaky feeling that the TD125 also uses the same bearing as the TD150. The TD150 was a top TT of its day (about $30 when new, so you know it's day was not yesterday! The Linn Sondek, which is really just an unashamed copy of the TD150 can easily cost over $4000 if bought new).

So, I have a motor (in BKK) and I do have a bearing, but it is in the UK at my Dad's house. I need to pick it up anyway so maybe I will go via the UK on my way back to BKK. TD150's get split for parts all the time though, so I'd try to pick a bearing up on ebay IF you need one, though I really do not think the bearing is anything to do with your speed fluctuation. It COULD be drift in the oscillator in the control circuit and you'd need to have an oscilloscope to see that (or an i/f and a 'scope program on your mac) though I wouldn't mess around with that board unless you know what you're doing - it carries lethal voltages. If it is, that's an easy component replacement. My money is still on the apparently bent shaft.

The TD125 is a pretty good TT which I think is well worth fixing. I'm happy to take a look at it for you when I get back. One question I do have is that if you have two TD125's, do they both exhibit the same problem? Surely not both motor shafts are bent? As you said in your first post, it also seems to me that one good TT could be made out of two bad ones.

I just found a copy of the service manual on the internet (isn't it wonderful!) and it seems that the motor is the standard Thorens 16 pole synchronous motor, though not clear yet whether it is 110v or 16v, they did both. I suspect 110v, so you are in luck because they are fairly commonly available (and I have one!) so if it is that bent shaft it will be easy. I took a (very) quick look at the electronics and unsurprisingly the strobe pulses are derived from the motor control frequency so I'd guess that the control board is good; just a guess, mind. Bottom line is that it seems likely to be a fairly simple fix (I thought that yesterday when I went to check the fuel level sender on my VW only to find you can't get the bugger out without removing the tank!

http://www.kabusa.com/strobeQ.htm

This is the precision tool I use to check the speed of my turntable. Mr. Balance questions its validity.

It may be more accurate than the table spec, but if the table's strobe also indicates trouble setting the speed correctly, and shows drift, then asking me to just "use my ears" seems churlish.

Am I wrong about this?

That tool is very good. It uses a reference oscillator to drive the lamp (LED I guess) so unlike the mains the frequency will be spot on. If your pulley has the wobbles it sounds like the motor drive shaft is bent and that will definitely result in speed instability - you probably see a harmonic of it using the KaB tool. The problem I see is that trying to straighten a bent drive shaft is not too easy; you did say you had two Thorens - is the other one also a 125? Otherwise, pending verification that the problem is "the wobbles" it is almost certainly possible to get a motor off of ebay, I would think. I'm not intimately familiar with the 125 so let me do some research on it to see what kind of motor it uses......believe it or not, I might have one. A very nice guy in a Hi-Fi shop in Sydney gave me THREE new ones once just as a result of chatting with him. Bloody amazing.

Can you hang on a couple of months? Recover those TT's from the Pantip guy. If he thinks that tool is wrong, he's an idiot.

(EDIT) Oops, sorry, I see you say they ARE both 125's. Wake up Richard!

Those who bought here are still doing okay compared to the rest. Those who bought in

AUSTRALIA

UK

USA

Are totally screwed! and have dropped up to 40% and the average around 30%. USA 70% plus.

Personally Im looking at buying in Oz again, terrific interest rates and desperate owners many now retrenched cant pay mortgage. If your buying with UK or OZ $ dont even think about it with the bht where it is now

Zorro, where do you come up with such complete and utter tripe?

Lets see if we can get through such a completely misleading posting.

First, as a general rule of thumb for real estate investing a good target is to buy properties that cost 100 times rent. That ratio can go up or down a bit depending on various extraneous factors but amateurs not familiar with math would do well to use it as a benchmark. That means, if a rental for a property is 4000 zimbabwe dollars, the purchase price should be close to 4 million zimbabwe. The rental is determined by what other similar properties are renting for and an average three month vacancy between renters. Additionally, you should be careful in investing in markets that exceed 3 to 5 times the average per capita income. Think about that for a moment, if you are dealing in average property you dont want it outside what the average person can afford, right? If average properties are selling outside that ratio then that means what, you got it, Mr Bubble.

Having said the above, there are still good markets in the US, in fact some exceptionally good markets. There are also some really really bad markets. Zorro is a little prone to hyperbole with the statement of real estate dropping 70% plus in the US. There are areas such as LA and Miami that have dropped 40% and in the end probably will need to drop 70% before the ratios come into line with reality (and they will drop). There are plenty of other places where real estate is holding steady and in some cases appreciating because the ratios work, the banks were not insane, and people still need to live. However, all over the world, no matter what the valuation real or imaginary, very little is selling at any price because the banks are holding credit. WHICH IS ANTHER REASON WHY you should only buy at 100 times rent. Real estate is illiquid and when times get bad, you need someone else to pay the mortgage. If you buy in a bubble and the flipping game stops, those that paid too much end up unable to pay for the property, not enough income from the rentals. The main reason though is ROI, return on investment. You only have so much to invest, for 99.9999 percent of us its a fixed size pool of money. Buying real estate at 100 times rent is a good return on your money compared to other investments. As with any investment, dont put your eggs all in one basket however.

The OP is obviously rather new to the board and probably Thailand as this subject is done to death by the radical fringes of both sides constantly. Briefly, real estate inside rational financial guidelines is one of the best investments a person can make. One of the simplest reasons being is that banks will fund us in our purchases and give us leverage to accumulate more wealth. Real property investment, and not just boiler room flippers, takes a lot of work and does a pretty good job of tying us close to a physical location unless we want to give away a large percentage of our profit to a management company that is often more trouble than renters can be.

Where you choose to make that investment is of utmost importance in protecting your interest. There are countries that maintain a fairly strong, impartial and clear rule of law, and then there are the other banana republics where the courts are a branch of the military and completely arbitrary and almost always against the investor. Some banana republics are obvious and in the news daily, Venezuela and Zimbabwe come to mind. Others not so easy to see but are truly banana kingdoms, Thailand and Mexico fit that nicely. I would have no hesitation in England or Ozzydom. Lately I am not sure where the US falls, glad I sold my properties there two years ago, idiots!

If you decide to invest in Thailand, you have absolutely no rights here and laws change at a whim, often several times a year. There is great money to made here, but you could lose it all to the general next door if he gets upset over your dogs barking. Never invest more here than you can walk away from in anything, anytime. Real estate or a sick buffalo, it can be whisked out of reach in the fall of a gavel.

So if you have money that you can throw away and not notice it missing, and if the financial ratios are right for safe rational investing, there is plenty of property in the third world that makes good sense and good returns. If you cant throw the money away then search out and buy suitable property in the first world, where I think there are some great deals right now. Dont forget, thats not just the US and EU, it also includes some places like Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan. Real estate is a great way to build real wealth if you do the math and stay away from the boiler room vultures that congregate around the dead or soon to be dead. When it comes to investing, do the math and evaluate the risks, write it down on paper so you dont forget, THEN go talk to the lying thieving salesmen and banks with your paper in hand.

xbusman, where do you come up with such utter tripe?

Let's take a look at your assertion. You reckon that a return of 1% per month on the value of a property is good. Good? It's <deleted>' remarkable. 12% per year? Dream on. That means that my ex's 350k house in England would rent at 3500 a month. I think not. Or, my $450k house in Texas at $4500. Or, my 10M baht condo in BKK at 100K. I <deleted>' wish. I flogged a house in California once for way over $700k and I can assure you that if I could have got $7000 a month for renting it I would never have sold it. PLEASE show me a market where you can get a 12% return. Not possible, unless your name is Peter Rachman (perhaps you need to look him up). My son rents in London now, and the total rent paid for a property worth 400K is 2000 quid a month. Or, 0.5%. He has done the same for years, in various properties, and the number has always been there or thereabouts. 0.5%. To my absolute knowledge for the past 5 years the number in BKK has also been 0.5% perhaps a little more, but nowhere near 1%. Look, a return of 6% on a capital investment that (in the long run) is increasing in value is bloody good. 12% is dreamland.

Hi UC,

What model of Thorens turntable are they? You talk about speed control, so are they later electronic ones or what? You also talk about a bad pulley, which is a bit confusing. What's bad about the pulley? I'm not familiar with any of the older Thorens turntables with pitch control (like say Garrard or Lenco). Pitch control on Thorens is, I believe, only associated with their electronic controlled products (TD125 and up), so if you are getting speed drift and the belt is O.K. it sounds like the the frequency generated in the control circuit is drifting. The venerable TD124 does not use a belt, it is idler driven, so I assume it is not a 124. I would have thought that anything else mechanical (sticky or worn bearings or some sort of mechanical drag) would be fairly obvious. These turntables are very sturdy precision devices with an excellent reputation and I would not let one within a million miles of a Pantip Plaza butcher. I'd get your stuff off of him as quick as you possibly can and write the 5000 baht off to experience. I'm usually in Bangkok but I happen to be in the US for at least another couple of months. If you can wait a while I can both take a look at your tables and lend you a nice TD150 with a Linn arm to do your transcription to digital (dunno why you want to do that unless you intend playing CD's in the car). No charge either, just for fun. Let me know.

Richard

this is in fact quite an easy question, but lets start out with this little morsel first...

The Bank of Thailand has said it may continue easing monetary policy at its next meeting on Feb. 25 after cutting its benchark interest rate

to 2 percent in two reductions since early December.

so here are some scenarios:

1) if property is not moving when rates are pratically zero (as they soon will be), then they will most assuredly will not sell or appreciate as interest rates rise in the future

2) if BOT does not raise interest rates or drops rates to zero, then the baht will continue to devalue, so the poor bagholder who bought his debt trap when the baht was say 35 to the dollar will have all his phantom 10% appreciation wiped away when the baht falls to 38 to the dollar

rates go up, prices come down, rates go down and you lose on currency devaluation

so to summarize, property will not rise in value (nominally or inflation adjusted) and the baht will continue to fall, and the homedebtor is in fact getting screwed twice

any questions?

Yes, since you know everything, what are next week's winning lottery numbers?

Two serious points here........my observation, and unlike many posters here I do not profess to be an expert, is that investments in general are not doing too well. I don't think property in Thailand is moving too well and I know for a fact that in the USA and UK property prices are, generally, down significantly. So, it matters not one iota whether you bought a house in Texas or in Timbuktu, if you bought it for investment purposes recently, tough titty, you've lost money. If you bought it 20 years ago however, you've still made money, though not quite as much as last week or the week before. Possibly even less if you wait until next week, but, as I said, I'm not an expert so I don't know. However, what I also DO know is that in this depressed market those folks with money to spare are BUYING property, probably not to sell next week but as an investment. Hey, if they spend 200K on a property they then rent for 1000 a month, they've made a return of 6% - pretty bloody good in the current climate. Whether or not their investment will pay off in terms of capital appreciation over the next few years, I don't know. It is a gamble and, generally, I don't gamble except for the occasional foolish flutter on the lottery, hence my request to all you know-it-alls out there to give me the winning numbers.

A totally separate issue is FX. That's another completely different game, another gamble and one played with some success by people with loads of experience, reactions like Mohammed Ali on speed and nerves of steel. I doubt you'll find any of them mix speculating on property and playing the currency markets; if you do find one, I'll show you a poor man. The speed of movement in one just cannot tolerate the sloth of the other.

So, anyone out there who has consciously bought a property expecting to make money from capital appreciation and FX fluctutions, meet me somewhere tomorrow night because I have a bridge for sale. I've bought and sold many a property in my lifetime and I've made a lot of (on paper) money from doing so. The primary purpose was for somewhere to live, not to make money. I'd venture to suggest that mostThailand buyers bought their property as somewhere to live, either as their primary residence or as a second (or third) home. If it's the place you live, the market value does not make much difference, especially where the market is global; even those poor sods in negative equity shouldn't really care so long as they don't need to sell.

And, to all those "renters" out there (including our mate Mr. Stickman) who profess that buying is a dumb thing to do, I'll leave you to all count the rent you pissed away over the years while I look at my million dollars I've made out of property appreciation. Next week it might only be 900k, true, but I don't pay rent either.

Or it could just be that the price of building materials - steel in particular, have fallen dramatically recently in line with the oil / diesel prices???

Keep up the positive spinning Lenny

We all know now what is happening and there is much worse to come in 2009

Ha, I knew you wouldn't be able to resist, Midas.

Can some philanthropic member out there buy Midas a condo so he can stop being jealous.

I can help you get in a comment about the referee if you like. Surprised you passed up the opportunity.

Why would one complain about their significant other having to meet minimum requirements in order to become a citizen of their country? I know, its about the money but that's why they charge so much, so it is taken seriously. If it were only 50 Brit Pounds there wouldn't be any complaining. In the long run it is in the best interest of the applicant to understand the culture, laws and more importantly...the language. That's the whole point.

In the USA we have the same types of requirements. My Thai wife and I practiced her English for almost 8 years and then I spent hours and hours studying with her for the citizenship test...which she passed and is now an American citizen. Most Americans probably couldn't pass their citizenship test without studying either. Obviously more language work and pre-test study is needed instead of complaining.

If only Thailand had the same (more easily achievable) opportunity for us......think about it and then realize how lucky your wife is to have the opportunity that you and I do not in return.

I think your glass is half full but you see it as half empty.

Good Luck!

Martian

Hold on Martian, the US Citizenship test is so bloody easy an idiot could pass it.

I did, which proves the point!

Hold on, I just checked the UK test and it is easy too (yes, even I know most of the answers and I have not lived there for 25 years). I dunno what kind of degrees the OP's wife has told him she's got, but if she has a struggle passing that test she truly is an educated idiot. Or just an idiot.

I agree with earlier posters.....these are pretty basic questions anyone wanting to become a citizen should know (most) answers too. I strongly suspect that the biggest hindrance is that their language skills are so poor they can't understand the question. Language skills are tested by the Yanks too, as they should be.

I passed that, but only after putting on my best Michael Caine American accent, innit, dude.

Why would one complain about their significant other having to meet minimum requirements in order to become a citizen of their country? I know, its about the money but that's why they charge so much, so it is taken seriously. If it were only 50 Brit Pounds there wouldn't be any complaining. In the long run it is in the best interest of the applicant to understand the culture, laws and more importantly...the language. That's the whole point.

In the USA we have the same types of requirements. My Thai wife and I practiced her English for almost 8 years and then I spent hours and hours studying with her for the citizenship test...which she passed and is now an American citizen. Most Americans probably couldn't pass their citizenship test without studying either. Obviously more language work and pre-test study is needed instead of complaining.

If only Thailand had the same (more easily achievable) opportunity for us......think about it and then realize how lucky your wife is to have the opportunity that you and I do not in return.

I think your glass is half full but you see it as half empty.

Good Luck!

Martian

Hold on Martian, the US Citizenship test is so bloody easy an idiot could pass it.

I did, which proves the point!

Just consulted my wife on this and she pointed out that your GF might have a problem if the child does not have her surname; getting a passport and the like. If you do chose your surname she will have to get a letter from the Amphur certifying she is the mother (strange as it may seem, even when she is declared as the mother on the birth certificate). My wife speaks from experience because her daughter has her (Thai) father's surname and she had this problem when getting her daughter a passport.

Well, if it IS a DE filter it won't matter much since the DE will ultimately end up in the filter anyway. Of course, it sounds like he was not backwashing so who knows how much DE is now clogging up the filter! Check the pressure, that will tell you. It is quite possible (and I speak as a pool owner/ maintainer, not a professional) that what he's been doing is the only way (with your pool plumbing) to get the DE into the filter. With my pool you just chuck the appropriate amount of DE into the skimmer sump (after backwashing the old DE, of course), but not all pools have skimmers. My ex (for obvious reasons) pool guy did contaminate the whole pool with DE once but it cleared pretty quickly once it had been pumped through the system.

Not checking the water is another matter...............

Shame on you, she really is sending me 10000 baht a month enough to keep me in food and fuel whilst work is slack here in the UK. I have no mortgage and no property here anymore thankfully. A house i bought for £42000 in 1996 then sold for £175000 in 2003 is now up for sale after the owner spent £42000 on an extension for just £129000 poor sod!!

Sorry it ISN'T a wind up.

I can confirm it is not a wind up. I barfined her twice last week and she is obviously working very hard to send money to help out yabaaaa's sick fresian. As far as I can tell it's about 10% of her monthly income................................

Perhaps yabaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa can explain the non sequitur of the poor sod.....is his old lady going to help him out too? I can help by barfining her again if you like.

Try Ghost.....worked perfectly for me.

I have heard stories of changing it locally into $$ and carrying it out in a suitcase! Go to Pattaya and ask the Russian Mafia, I'll bet they know!

I have not tried it myself, but I do hear that it can be a problem (not the briefcase or the mafia, doing it legally!). I'd also be interested in what is legally achievable. Say you bought a Condo for $100k which is now worth $150k and you sell it and move back home. O.K. so you can show you legally imported the $100k which you can get out, but what about the rest?

Dave, now I might be missing something here so bear with me but the question I have to ask is............................................

WHY would you want to turn your monitor vertically ???????????????????????? Thats maybe why your stand doesn't allow for this action ?????????????

As said it may be me missing something ?????????????

So he can display an A4 or Letter page in it's entirety. Useful feature if you do a lot of that kind of work (an it's been around for years).

No need to "register" your marriage at the British Embassy. I assume you are legally married in Thailand - i.e. registered at the Amphur. It is a waste of time and money registering at the embassy because that and 100 baht buys you a cup of coffee.

In truth, no need even to be married to the lady to get British Citizenship for the child. You MUST be registered on the Thai birth certificate as the father, however, and you DO need a certified (by the Thai Consular Service at Chaeng Wattana) translation of the Thai birth certificate.

You CAN get a British Birth certificate if you want one (could be useful, but not essential) but it will cost you a chunk of change - I have not checked on the latest charge but the full monty (birth certificate and passport) cost me as I recall 17K baht two years ago.

You DO NOT need a British birth certificate to get the British passport, so if you want to save some money, don't bother. Either way, British Citizenship will be bestowed upon the child since you are the father. The child CANNOT pass on that citizenship unless his/her child has a mother/father with full citizenship or is born in the UK.

Apologies for repeating this as I'm sure it has been covered elsewhere, but I think that is it in a nutshell. If I have got something wrong I'm certain somebody will pick me up on it, but I'm pretty certain it is 100%.

While your statement that if you are not married the British Embassy accepts you are the father if you are named on the BC is correct, under Thai law this is not enough to be the legal fahter.

If not married, you only become the legal father if your name is on the BC and you register the child yourself and in that way acknowledge that you are the father. If you are not the one registering the child you don't become the father in a legal sense.

Mario - thank you for the clarification, I'm sure you are correct, which is interesting inasmuch as most Thais, at least upcountry, are not legally married (including my in-laws!). As an aside, this is (or at least was a few years ago) also true in the U.K. If a couple is not married, the Father cannot register the birth at all and if the mother registers the birth alone she cannot name the father unless he is there and so "testifies" to being the father. Apparently, in the U.K. if you are married you are by definition the father (!), if you are not, you have to declare it to the registrar in person!!!

This was a few years ago so apologies if it has changed in the ensuing years.

One other point on the OP is that a HUGE plus in holding British Citizenship is the ability to work and live in the EEC without a work permit. The growth of the EEC makes this a benefit nobody with the opportunity to take advantage of should pass up.

I suggest your surname (family name) and a Thai first name (middle names are a problem in Thailand - they always end up using your middle name as your surname or some similar screw-up) with a nickname (which all Thais have anyway) that works in Thai and English. So, it could be Somchai Smith, nickname Mik, for example. That way the child fits in with the locals and, in the event he/she ends up in farangland, fits there too.

No need to "register" your marriage at the British Embassy. I assume you are legally married in Thailand - i.e. registered at the Amphur. It is a waste of time and money registering at the embassy because that and 100 baht buys you a cup of coffee.

In truth, no need even to be married to the lady to get British Citizenship for the child. You MUST be registered on the Thai birth certificate as the father, however, and you DO need a certified (by the Thai Consular Service at Chaeng Wattana) translation of the Thai birth certificate.

You CAN get a British Birth certificate if you want one (could be useful, but not essential) but it will cost you a chunk of change - I have not checked on the latest charge but the full monty (birth certificate and passport) cost me as I recall 17K baht two years ago.

You DO NOT need a British birth certificate to get the British passport, so if you want to save some money, don't bother. Either way, British Citizenship will be bestowed upon the child since you are the father. The child CANNOT pass on that citizenship unless his/her child has a mother/father with full citizenship or is born in the UK.

Apologies for repeating this as I'm sure it has been covered elsewhere, but I think that is it in a nutshell. If I have got something wrong I'm certain somebody will pick me up on it, but I'm pretty certain it is 100%.

Iam looking for some good advice,no invest in bars etc etc, Iam looking at investing 100k sterling but really not sure where.Iam not looking at super human returns,just a nice 6 or 7 % guarenteed would be fine.If more is possible then great.

Any serious advice much appreciated.

EPG.

Actually, I'm told that bars suffer the least during a recession, which I guess is fairly obvious. So, why not a bar? I mean a real bar, not a shabby hole-in-the-wall excuse for a take-out brothel.

Please no reply on Go-Go bars or the like (see above). They are not really bars in the true sense. They will be and are suffering. Everyone has gone to a proper bar, that's one reason. If you don't believe me, check out Nana (dead, even Angelwitch) then take a stroll to the real bars along Suk (Soi 8, Robin Hood etc.). Even Cowboy has more girls than customers. Well, so I'm told, by a good friend.......................

Just looked it up for you.

Assuming you have an RBS debit card, you will be hit for 2.75% on all foreign transactions.

Then in addition you will have to pay....

another 2% for an ATM withdrawal (minimum £2 maximum £5) or

another £1.25 for a "point-of sale transaction". (I'm guessing this means buying stuff in shops.)

Scandalous charges if you ask me, particularly if you are making lots of little transactions.

Here's the link.

http://www.rbs.co.uk/personal/current-accounts/g2/terms.ashx

Cheers Briggsy - blimey, I'll be more careful in future. Since you took the trouble to do some research I went online to check a recent transaction and I have cut and pasted the relevant detail as follows

01DEC08 , BANGKOK BANK , BANGKOK THA , THB 10000.00, RATE 52.1159, ERTF 5.28, CHARGE 3.94 201.10

So, although they gave me a rate of 52.1159, with charges the true rate worked out to a paltry 49.73 (about). So, I figure with Nationwide I'd have been about THB500 better off, or three pints of Guinness in my favourite watering hole!

ive been around Thailand now for about 19 years and we have lived here permanantly for 3. when posters speak on these boards i regularaly hear them saying that they give the familly money or pay the wife a monthly amount.

now each to his own ,but i have never had to do this ,my wifes familly are not badly off ,so perhaps ime lucky ,but i was married to a Thai before and she never asked for anything ,we just shared .

so out of interest ,how many of you guys pay ? is it the norm?

The issue of Thai women looking after their family has been covered ad nauseam on TV so let's not open that one up again! I think you answer part of your question yourself when you say your wife's family are not badly off. I have had three wives (two farang) and I have had to give them all an allowance (not unreasonably - they have to live after all), unless they were working, of course (kids put an end to that). I give my Thai wife an allowance and I'm pretty sure she passes some of that to her family, which is her choice - once I give it to her, it is her money to spend as she chooses. I have a rule though, which is don't even ask for money for the family, and she doesn't. Would I help if they were in dire need? I hope so, but then I am more inclined to think that way because I don't get bombarded with sick buffalo and the like, so if they need it I'm fairly sure it would be genuine (and I'd check first, of course!!).

I'm not going to tell you how much I give my wife other than to say it is not a lot, by any means. Certainly not the THB40k++/month I read some guys dish out. If you can afford it, all well and good, I suppose, but if you want to know if she's with you for you or for the money, keep the money at the "just enough" level and no more. If you get earache over it or demands for more, you have your answer.

By the way "we just shared" can be taken many ways. Are you sure it was not a 33/33/33 split? A third for you, a third for her and a third for her family? That's sharing, after all!

Thank you for your post, richm7.

In relation to your point on bank charges, all us UK expats are familiar with the Nationwide's (Its a building society akin to a bank) Flex account. It is the only UK bank offering free debit card withdrawals overseas. i.e. with no charges. The beauty of that is you can withdraw as little as you like, even 100 Baht, as there are no charges.

Sorry I don't know if any US banks offer the same facility.

Briggsy - thanks "I did not know that" (who used to say that?). I have an account with RBS and I think they charge me 1% regardless (I don't use it much so I can't remember). Although I'm a Brit most of my money is in the US so that is the bulk of my experience. The Nationwide deal is very good, I must say; I'll have to look into it. I'm not aware of any US banks offering such a deal - perhaps someone can tell us (prediction - Naam will tell us there is one but not who it is!).

Let's do a rough calculation (monthly figures)..............

Medical (everyone sees this as an issue) THB4000 (insurance with Blue X)

Rent THB5000 (cheaper up country, of course)

Utilities (electric/water - assume a/c) THB4000 (it is a small room - so that is on the high side)

TV & Internet (assume the full monty) THB3500

Food (not cheap charlie) THB6000

Clothing THB2000

Visa various costs (no visa run) THB500

TOTAL THB25000

Which leaves you THB5000 a month for entertainment; not a lot, I'll agree, but definitely possible, given the pursuits mentioned earlier. The fact is that if you are getting on in years and living in farangland, what do do? You read the paper, read some books, watch the telly and you go for a pint. Some people are assuming the lure of the nightlife has to be considered - maybe, maybe not. If you want that, 30K won't do it, that's for sure, but otherwise, it is very possible, I think. More possible than living in Oz on AUD1200 a month or UK on GBP360 a month, that's for sure.

Of course his Oz pension is worth a lot less now.......................

you have to take my word for it Briggsy. my information comes from half a dozen multinational banks located in Europe and Singapore. i have mentioned the reverse course in several financial threads since last summer (opened even a separate thread) but nobody showed any interest.

for the lack of interest i am blaming myself because most probably i did not use proper syntax. if i had used something like "Racist Thai Bankers Reverse Course And Cheat Poor Farangs Again" the result might have been different

When the available evidence points to the opposite, I see your failure to provide a source as suspect.

Exchange rates are not guarded secrets. If "half a dozen multinational banks located in Europe and Singapore" are quoting weaker offshore rates, it should be very simple to provide a link. These are market rates offered to customers.

So once again please provide a link or source to back up your assertion.

I have to agree with Briggsy in general; the threads on this forum are full of posts like Naam's where "facts" are stated without any supporting evidence. I have a bee in my bonnet over some of the posts like this on the housing forum in particular. I have no problem with somebody dishing out advice (aka opinion) so long as it is couched in those terms, but stating "facts" without backing them up in some ways stinks of opinion disguised as fact. I have no idea about this specific case so will not comment nor can I be bothered to check the facts myself, I have better things to do, but I do get annoyed when a poster asks a perfectly reasonable question and some sad clown feels obliged to post unsubstantiated bs which is of no help to the op or any reader. To that extent, while the forum can be extremely helpful and has many informed, knowledgeable and intelligent members it also has more than its fair share of plonkers. Reader beware!

Nobody has mentioned the transaction fee here.........did the op really cash just 1000 baht? My US bank dings me $5 regardless of the amount I cash, so I tend to never cash less than 15K baht. BTW, it is actually CHEAPER to use your VISA or MC or whatever if it is linked to your bank account so you do not incur interest charges. In my case I can get as much as $7k in one go (unlikely, I'll agree) and there is both a very good rate and a flat $3 fee. O.K. you need your passport but otherwise, for me, it is the way to go. I'm sure Naam has a position on the likely rate, no doubt taken from a one time alignment of the planets, never to be repeated and unfortunately not observed by anybody else.

Sensible responses, I'm happy to see. Except from Midas, of course, though I am delighted to see he managed a post in Real Estate without mentioning his favourite referee. Perhaps someone can give Midas the money to buy a condo, then he'll no longer be jealous and <deleted>.