F4UCorsair

I don't know what you consider small, $5,000?   $20,000?  $50,000?

If I was you, I'd open a Commsec account online, and buy Australian shares.   VHY (Vanguard High Yield) is actually a managed fund with very, very low fees, and is paying a reasonable, franked dividend.  It made up of shares from the top ten to fifteen trading on the ASX.

You may not see the capital gains that some of the individual shares have returned, but you also won't see the losses those shares have given, e.g., CBA has been very volatile over the past few years, $96.00 down to $69.00, currently trading at about $81.00.   CBA is, or was when I last looked, one of the shares in VHY, as are a couple of the miners.

There's plenty of info online about VHY for you to peruse.

If you wanted to buy individual shares, I don't think you could ignore the banks, ANZ, CBA, NAB and WBC.

The income may have to be decalared to the Social Security Dept.

Good luck..

36 minutes ago, mamypoko said:

I can tell right away you'd like my friends. And they you. They use words like loser, responsibility (conduct) like yogic mantras. 

Strange? You don't know the half of it.

When in BKK area...PM me for meetup details.

I think you misunderstand me.

What I said was that crowdfunding was open to abuse by losers, etc.

I was not specifically referring to anyone who has benefitted, but saying the concept, while being good, was always going to be perverted.

1 hour ago, thaiguzzi said:

5itis60 quid gets you nothing these days. My 79 y/o Dad is coming out here in Feb, little 3 week SE Asian tour inc here and Vietnam. Travel insurance = 600 GBP....

1 hour ago, Tapster said:

Whaaaat!!

 

I think it must be because of his age. That's waay over the top for a healthy middle-aged person.

Of course It's his age...79 Is not a 'middle aged person', It's an  old person, and possibly one with health Issues, known or otherwise.

5 hours ago, mamypoko said:

Resfriendfully disagree OP. Helping, volunteering, donating, especially to total strangers and strays has been nothing but good for me. To be fair, my philanthropic behaviors often upset my friends - and that is just another bonus.

 

You have a strange relationship with your friends If you enjoy upsetting them.

The concept of crowdfunding was a good one, but ALWAYS open to perversion by losers, those who refuse to accept responsibility for their own conduct.

On 10/3/2017 at 3:53 PM, transam said:

But I don't look at anybody, not interested, l do scan for big boobs though....

Well you'd mostly be looking at lady boys???    They have bigger boobs than Thai women.

14 minutes ago, Been there done that said:

There will be issues for most - you wrote. Good to read from you that those issues have to do with age but also cultural. 

 

What a nonsense. The overwhelming majority of thai women only stay with "us" to receive a paycheck. Sooner then later. Only on this forum i read often about true love. Jeeeezzzz what a joke !

And I see that as a cultural difference, so we agree.   Many/most Asian/Thai women marry for security (read 'pay check'), no more, whereas in the west, most (I think) marry for love, although a solid bank balance may tip the scales.

5 minutes ago, steven100 said:

but my wife always tells me it is true love just when I'm giving her the 20,000 baht on the 30th of each month.

It is!!    She loves money!

1 hour ago, MadMuhammad said:

I disagree. My ex-fiancée was 11 years my junior, a relationship I had for 7 years in Australia. I’ve just turned 40 and my partner now is 25. She is quite worldly for a Thai having studied in Australia for 3 years and travelled quite a bit. 

There are absolutely no glaring age related differences and it’s one of the healthier relationships I’ve had.

Likewise, I've been with mine for 8 years, and she's 18 years my junior.

However, I think where a western man living in Thailand and takes up with a woman 20+ years younger, there will be issues for most, not all, but most, not only age, but also cultural.

On 11/6/2017 at 1:33 PM, steven100 said:

If my wife cheats she don't get paid .......  so i trust her

Great logic....I love it.

Before you, or anybody comments, I did get it.

Not what you asked, but do your joints a favor and buy an exercise bike, preferably a recumbent model, no jarring in joints, you can read while you exercise, just as aerobically effective, and probably a lot less baht.

OP, that's not living on B4000 a month, that's SURVIVING....... but barely. 

Is that for a 31 day month, or a February (not a leap year), incidentally.?

23 hours ago, Crossy said:

I would categorise this as "unwise".

And possibly advocating criminal activity, which Is a breach of forum rules??

3 hours ago, SWW said:

Correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn't offering advice on this thread constitute promoting illegal activity?

Yes!!

3 hours ago, jesimps said:

Brilliant!

 

Has the OP tried a bit of newspaper, wetted with saliva? Sounds primitive but has worked for me and my dad before me. Only problem, you end up looking like Norman Gunston (memories of my days in Oz).

I recall him, the Little Aussie Bleeder, as he was known.

Unfriend you and block you on Facebook

It doesn't get any better than that.....manna from heaven!!

22 hours ago, thexit said:

Yes, it will prove I litftwnThailand at some point but it doesn't prove I left it in time. I could have left the country yesterday and they wouldn't know. That's what I have a bad feeling about, they might think (and the immigration facts kinda suggest it) I stayed in Thailand longer than I should have been allowed to.

 

Do you think that will not be an issue?

The arrival stamp of the country your flight landed In will be dated, so that  should be your proof......unless It was a country with electronic  scanning such as Australia.

Secure the patent. ....then watch as manufacturers in China, India, Vietnam,  and a host of others pirate your design, with impunity! 

You'll need 4WD if you intend using it on Bangkok sidewalks!

On 2017-3-26 at 2:13 PM, Dmaxdan said:

Legs. I have always been a bit of a leg man, and here I'm in leg heaven.

You must like what I call shapeless legs?

We're all different in our tastes, and 'good legs' to me are muscular calves, something very few Thai women have.

I'm not into Thai women but I do see their prettiness/ beauty, but not enough to do it for me, and I do hate the pidgin English, as I'm sure they'd hate my pidgin Thai.

As a westerner, 60+, I see a stigma associated with taking up with an Asian woman, being seen as a misfit who couldn't get a woman in my own country, which is not the case.

I don't condemn those who do, but just not for me. 

Sorry OP, my post is more about what I dislike than what I like.

Try to stay dry?

On 3/27/2017 at 0:55 PM, hawker9000 said:

If you have the invitation letter for Vietnam (and it's legit; there are some online frauds for those), you should be good to go. There'll be an application form to be submitted along with the letter on arrival: it should have accompanied the letter when you rcvd that, but they're available when you arrive.  I read somewhere Vietnam was going to initiate an online e-visa thing, but I'm pretty sure that's not off the ground yet.

 If you check the Vietnam Embassy site, certainly the Embassy in Australia site, they have a list of those agencies that aren't accredited.

2 minutes ago, oxo1947 said:

I isinink this may be right--- $-when you said $25 it seemed far to cheap for what their were (are) asking from Americans. In fact there was an argument going on as I was entering---an American was upset at the 2 price policy. Asking why he had to pay more than other nationals... a Canadian lent over to him & said...."think about it---the answer might come to you"

I've seen the letter advertised online for as little as A$15.00, but the fee on arrival Is A$90.00!!

I put my visa app to the embassy In the post today to avoid the queues I encountered the last couple of times.

Chicowoodduck, I don't want to throw a spanner in the works, but I don't think you have a visa.  

That sounds like just the letter from an agency, authorizing the issue of a Visa on Arrival.

There'll be another fee to pay for the issue of the visa, and potentially a long queue, occasionally well over an hour.

That's great to hear dddave.  If only it was the case elsewhere in the world.

35 minutes ago, wildewillie89 said:

 

Considering Australia (speaking as an Australian) not only supported, but actively participated in a war (that most deem illegal (zero relation to 9/11 at all) and the participants have continuous investigations relevant to war crimes)...an unnecessary war that resulted in over one million innocent deaths (most estimates) due to mass destabilisation of a region and a war that has created groups like IS due to that destabalisation that go around terrorising innocent people. I would say those numbers are pretty amazing to be as small as they are. We pissed off the Muslim world (killing their family, friends, historical artifacts and homelands), and we are discussing 4 attacks - and tell me the motives of those attacks (can you?) Were they religious or political? Didn't Bush say God told him to invade the Middle East? Aren't neo-conservative policies drenched in radical interpretations from Christianity? But we have a mistrust about 4 attacks? lol. I think it is evident in those stupid memes, things like you have more chance from dying going down a slide at a park than from a terrorist attack.

And that distrust is not at all proportional to the distrust the 'other side' (if i can use that term, just for you lol) would be feeling. Remember Pape's Research of every single suicide terrorist attack in the world for 23 years - 95% was nothing to do with religion but due to military occupation (half of the attackers were secular, i.e non religious). 

May I use another example?

Japanese soldiers executed hundreds, if not thousands, of Australians during the Pacific War, in Asia and New Guinea.  I mean executed, as opposed to killed in battle, and they cannibalized some of those they executed!!

They were subsequently trounced by the US, an ally of whom was Australia.  Trouncings don't get any bigger, incidentally.

Japan is a huge trading partner of Australia, and many Japanese live and work here, as I did in Japan.  Japanese are racist, none moreso,  but they don't kill people because they they were given a pasting years ago, or are of a different race or religion, something demanded of muslims in their holy book.   If that clause/verse is not considered relevant by 'moderate muslims', why aren't they prevailing on the so called minority to adapt to a more civilized way of life.  After all, with ONLY 4 successful attacks in Australia, the majority of almost 500,000 'moderate muslims' could have forced their will on half a dozen who thought they may create mayhem.

We're talking about the here and now.   Don't be an apologist for something that is clearly happening.   If some idiot is wearing an IS scarf, screaming 'allahu akbar' as he shoots dead an innocent person, are you trying to tell me that is not a religion inspired attack??  The 'lone wolf' defence is not relevant nor valid.

If you die at an amusement park, it is not the doing of an islamic waterslide that blows you up, stabs or shoots you!!!

IS will cease to exist in a few months now that Trump has given his generals authority to go anywhere, and do anything, to kill them off.  I have the popcorn out, and ready for the show.

This is off topic, so let's steer it back.