recom273

Thanks, I just sent them an email to clarify - this is interesting. What is the negative of doing this? If I transfer my pension to a fund that welcomes expats then I can manage any future investments, does the current pension stagnate? I had a couple of good meetings with some advisors today, they were quite honest in saying that the best way to proceed, if possible, is to basically do this yourself - do as @BritManToo first suggested, but they said this is becoming increasingly difficult to manage if you are a long term expat without property in the UK - as mentioned above by @PBob now the fund know I'm not in the UK I would need to jump through hoops to prove some kind of residency - the transfer cost would be comparable to a return flight to the UK, and time spent doing the legwork - I would also benefit from having a financial advisor to lay down the foundations for any future developments, for instance, inhertance. But thanks for the tip, It will be interesting to hear the reply.

Yes, correct - sorry about that - Im just saying, I wouldn't recommend either officemate or Lazada, they are all the worst Chinese made chairs with different labels and price tags, they look the part, but really aren't. Good luck with your search.

Many of the chairs in officemate can be purchased on Lazada and they are all POS. I don't do so much work now, but before and during Covid, I was spending 12-16 hours at my desk. The work was such that I couldn’t move for the duration apart from 5 mins toilet breaks. I thought spending 3k down at officemate was the key but the padding went, the fake leather split, bars running in the seat appeared. It was painful to do my shift, some days I was close to tears, constantly moving to find comfort. I bought some similar chairs from Lazada, but they were equally as bad, basically the same as chairs as officemate but cheaper. In the end I bought an ikea Markus - still going strong, I really like it, a little beyond your budget, but way better than anything else I tried.

Just to say, thanks for your input. When I contacted them at first, I told them I had been abroad for 30+ years and hadn't kept in contact - not thinking it would be an issue. Now its impossible to turn back the clock, I should have changed the policy in 1998, I should have updated the address to my parents new address, 25 years ago. Basically, two options, take the whole lot and pay 40% tax or move the pension to a company who deals with overseas customers. I have a few meetings lined up with companies in the UK, it could be in my interest to make some plans now, rather than at a later date.

Yes, it's possible - I don't think there is a charge for moving funds.

I spoke to pensionwise regarding QROPS and unless I had a large amount it wasn't worth it and HMRC rules were quite strict regarding transfer. I messaged a couple of financial service providers and they scheduled calls for tomorrow. I hope I can transfer the 25% from my original fund without any trouble, I do have a wise account, I just saw that I have a regular bank address and account number.

I don't believe that is the only viable option, there seems to be plenty of other options, for example, using a financial advisor will limiting the tax payable, as mentioned above, opening offshore accounts may help with dealing with TRD and HMRC, along with international SIPPS may suit my purpose.

Nice idea. I dont even think it's possible, when was the last time you opened a UK bank account? I hear that if you are lucky you can plead and maybe they will open a building society account for you. Again, I would rather pay someone to do it for me and save the flight.

Why is this? I spoke with pensionwise, some government advisors and they said it was difficult to arrange this, they suggested something else. That suggestion was from my existing pension fund, they say they cant advise, they just told me the facts.

Yes, this is what I want! (I discussed with the wife, it would be nice to have 30K and continue to do a little work, with no pressure) - just 10k per year. The issue is .. I live at this address in the UK, honestly, but can you just pay it into this account in Thailand - do you think they will go for it ? 😄 I like your ideas, its the perfect solution, I would just like someone to assist - to pay a financial advisor to arrange it seems the best idea. This is great, the issue is, as soon as I pull the whole lot, I pay 40% tax - afaik - and I again, I know nothing! but I value your comment and will check it.

I think I would rather enjoy it now. I can take 25% tax free which would basically finish my house and garden project and then a monthly pension and stop worrying about working.

Understood I dont think I can pretend im in the UK, I haven't set foot there for 25 years. I am not happy to meet anyone living / working here in Thailand tbh, I was just wondering if there was any legal advisor. I think I need a financial advisor in the UK that is "allowed" (idk anything, I approached some that advise my sister / parents, and they used the wording "allowed") to advise overseas clients - The pension fund told me this " .. (you) will need to transfer to a QROPS scheme via an independent financial adviser or take an uncrystallised fund pension lump sum (UFPLS). " If I was going to pretend to be in the UK, I would need someone to advise me on this, I don't even have a bank account in the UK. Then there is the TRD, I had an idea I would just ignore them, but now I have to deal with them too.

Can anyone help? Im from the UK, I have spent the last 25 years here, just living a carefree life, teaching in schools, working from hand to mouth - just for informations sake - I had some successes, I made enough money on the internet to build a pretty decent house here, I continue to work under the radar, my wife has a little business, we have enough to live on and thats fine. I never thought anything would change. Now I have a headache, I reached 55 years of age, a pension fund that I paid into and contracted out my SERPS when I was in my teens has contacted me - I have a sizable pension pot, but as I am overseas, there's nothing they can do for me, they advised me to get a financial advisor in the country of residence. I approached my parents fiancial advisor who said, he cannot advise on overseas clients - at first I thought the figure was just a few thousand GBP and that I would just take it all - but now I have a full statement, I know now I need professional advice. tdlr: Is there such thing as a reliable / certified / financial advisor here who can advise a UK client? or an UK based financial advisor who can help me in Thailand? I am really confused, never thought I would be in this situation.

I liked it, but I never turn down an Argentinian series. It was interesting, although giant bugs were a bit cheesy. I normally skip anything to do with Sean Bean, but I think this city is ours is one of the best things from the bbc in time. Just for a look-see, I downloaded S06 of mocro maffia wondering if my media player would find the subtitles somewhere, to my surprise, they are available on one of the sub sites.

I Just started using Temu, I ordered some garden stuff, clear orchid pots that they don’t sell on Lazada. They arrived quickly, even tho there was a National holiday in China. The problem is with j&T couriers, maybe they will learn the house numbers eventually. I am getting slightly frustrated in the shipping costs of Lazada, I don’t really use shopee. A lot of things sold on Lazada either originate or are sent from China, it seems a bit skewed to spend less than 150B on a product and pay 48B or more on shipping. I understand that’s what it costs, but shipping costs soon add up. I try to select the same suppliers, sometimes it’s impossible. Lazada needs to offer some kind of consolidated shipping like Aliexpress choice. But for the moment is good.

Yes, OP uses a Mac, with a proprietary timemachine app which is incremental, but it also stores snapshots so you can step back through time to a previous backup. It works great.

Plugging in a hdd to do timemachine backups seems a bit of a chore. I remember scheduling backups but not having it connected, and there would be an annoying warning triangle on the menu bar. It would be better to get a cheap 2 bay (Synology) NAS, there always seems to be one kicking around on marketplace. A couple of spinning drives, connect to the network and schedule for a 1:00 am backup, set and forget. I dont see what the fuss is about tbh, JBL / banana / advice are great sellers on whatever platform, JBL have an amazing phone helpline.

I was going to suggest that maybe it's a bit played out now. The first one sold millions of aluminum panniers, to myself included. The ones after seemed a little pedestrian, but I thought it was worth a look.

I don’t know if anyone is interested a new series - always interesting - it seems to have moved on from the actual waves of nazare in series of 1 and 2 - now, amongst other stuff, long term effects of big wave surfing in e01.

I wouldn’t expect the grand palace to be included, I wouldn’t be bothered if it was or wasn’t. It’s a special place for all Thais, not sure why westerners would qualify for a special price - but I hear you with the fillipino thing, they should be embarrassed, sneaking into a national park or a pile of old bricks is fine, a working religious site, nope.

This is one of the jewels in the crown, everyone talks of it forums. An overnight stay in the jungle and a night on a floating bungalow. We booked a cheap bungalow, we arrived by bike and they tried to sell us a tour, we declined and upset them for the duration. We already had the government bungalows on the lake booked. Dinner - was outrageously priced, breakfast - stopped at a coffee shop where the vans were picking up, the wife picked up the menu and put it down, refusing a coco. An unguided walk in the jungle was nothing I hadn’t seen anywhere else for free at a local authority park (no doubt there are some great sites inside the park when on a guided tour). Next we went to the dam, where we negotiated a ride out with a boatman, the price was OK, but I could hear what prices other people paid when they booked via an agency .. extortionate. In all, we paid a fair bit of money for a bank holiday weekend, whatever, it was a break out on the bike from the city, but visitors paid a whole lot more and got less. I just thought visitors were being exploited, I felt ashamed.

I did this teaching project for a term, it was a really nice experience. Visiting these little schools in villages in Songkhla province in places I never knew existed. Kids were quite poor. I never forget, as you say, the uniforms were all hand-me-downs, a lot of the kids had socks that finished at their ankles, and they tucked them in their shoes.

I get a little annoyed when kids present cut and paste homework - but like, instead of correcting the grammar on a Chinese students dissertation, I just run it through AI to begin with to give me a head start. I have used it to write exam questions, it does a pretty good job, but also, it can draw pictures .. makes life easy. I saw an AI voice assistant in action, I want to try and run a local model myself, but a little strapped on processing power and money to run a local server. I saw a video where a human calls a salon to book an appointment and its a AI booking system, and both the AI assistants are talking to one another, they come to the conclusion that they are both AI assistants and move from English to speak in "babble mode" - crazy.

There are a few series, I missed a couple of episodes or series, and I just sat there watching, Gomorrah was one that I found from the regulars here - I sat watching the episodes until the sun came up. I did the same with this, missed the first 4 episodes, saw your post and binged on all 4 in one night, awesome. I love the Tom Hardy character, Pierce Brosnan is pretty cool, Helen Mirren, not so - but all in all - awesome show. I really enjoyed The Diamond Heist documentary too.