This is only a hypothetical question so no need to go off the deep end and go off-topic bashing.

 

1. With changing world events possibly affecting currency rates, how far would your currency have to drop against the Thai Baht to force you to move from Thailand?

 

2.  Which countries would you think about moving to?

 

3. How many are trapped financially and could not afford to move anywhere?

 

4. How many have no place to move to?

 

5. How many can tough it out and live in Thailand no matter what the currency exchange rate drops to? 

Historically, the Thai Baht reached an all time high of 55.50 in January of 1998 and a record low of 20.36 in July of 1981

 

 

 

 

Hmm.

Lots of questions. 

There are many reasons why an expat might want to or feel "forced" to leave Thailand. 

Expats that earn baht here would be in a different situation.

Short answer -- the baht down to 20 would put fire under my arse.

24 minutes ago, bwpage3 said:

4. How many have no place to move to?

I have no place to move to ............ but rooms for rent in PI can be had from about 5,000peso/month, so no toughy.

Back to the US till things improved in Thailand. Easy for me, a shocker for wife and kid.

Wonder if anyone on this forum lived here in 1981 when the baht was 20 to 1?

O.M.G.

NY Times today MARCH 21, 2018

 

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates on Wednesday by a quarter of a percentage point and signaled that the central bank is on track to raise rates twice more in 2018.

■ The Fed said it would raise its benchmark interest rate to a range of 1.5 percent to 1.75 percent, marking the sixth time since the financial crisis that it has raised rates.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/21/business/fed-interest-rate.html

 

 

Right now the loonie is down to 23.27 bht to the dollar. It was for many years 30 bht to the dollar. I could get 3000 bht for 100 $. Now only 2300... I am suffering to say the least. 

 

I still wonder why the bht is so strong. I guess in Canadog the Americans don't appreciate that we are going to replace the color of our flag to green and the maple leaf to a pot leaf. 

 

But I will try to  hold out as long as possible.

13 hours ago, MaeJoMTB said:

I have no place to move to ............ but rooms for rent in PI can be had from about 5,000peso/month, so no toughy.

I have a two room house with bath and kitchenette in a Barrio in central PI for P2000, about $39 dollars a month and it has electric and water. Can get even cheaper one-room camaligs--native material shacks, without electric or water for as little as P200/mo; depends upon how you want to live. But then, that has nothing to do with the THB, does it?

2 hours ago, bwpage3 said:

Wonder if anyone on this forum lived here in 1981 when the baht was 20 to 1?

No, but in 1990 I had my Canadian dollars here at about 19 B and there was no problem as prices were real low at the time.  Most things were priced  less that half today prices.    

Exception were the airline tickets as there was no Low Cost Airlines , only Thai International , Thai domestic and Bangkok Air. So bus and train only for me.

 

At today prices I guess 19 B  / CDA dollars would be decisions time for me.

It's all relative to your living costs. I've paid 6k, 17k and 20k thb a month for a small condo in Bangkok over the past 3yrs. And 6 mths ago moved to a 2 level, 3br and 2 bathroom house in a gated community with 24hr security in Bang Yai in Nonthaburi province, 25km from BKK city for rent of 5,500thb per month. Total for rent, electric, water, 50/10 internet and mobile phone plan is AUD$300 per month.. So even with the Aussie dollar dropping from 31thb/AUD $ several years ago to 24thb/AUD $ currently, your money can go along way depending on how much you want to spend on your accommodation etc..

Sent from my SM-N915G using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

The average age Aussie pensioner unless they have additional funds will find it almost impossible to legally meet Immigration requirements.

In the case of Married to a Thai lady the average monthly Pension is border line. drop down to 23 baht to the AU$ and one is below the border line and can not legally qualify for a marriage or retirement extension.

Thus for those with no additional funds 23 bath to the $AU is the Crunch line

and Yes I am in that situation P.I is looking good at the moment

I rent out my house 30 miles west of London for 1000 quid a month to live here on for me , the wife and our kid - we rent 2 bed house (9,000). We get by - I have a pension at 55 kick in next June  for 700 a month, so that will help. If I was still on the 1,000 quid (more like 900 as I go back every 9 months), I'd say if the pound dropped another 15-20% I may be in trouble. Either that or the wife would have to find a job pronto ! But we learnt to live on 43 baht from 50+ baht a month, so hopefully if it recovers we will have better life - roll on next June !

So, I do have somewhere to go back to in the UK  - or move to Nan and live in one of the wife's farms. I pity those idiot farang that have put all their eggs into one basket and sold up and retired out here, spent all their money on hookers and beers (yes, look back with great affection I'm sure) and now live hand to mouth on 7/11 rice and live in a scummy 24 mt condo.

I think the question is a bit mute as to where you would live as if the pound dropped so far as to make Thailand expensive then you are pretty buggered everywhere else !

Still, always claim to be a returning terrorist and get a council house !

1 hour ago, smotherb said:

I have a two room house with bath and kitchenette in a Barrio in central PI for P2000, about $39 dollars a month and it has electric and water. Can get even cheaper one-room camaligs--native material shacks, without electric or water for as little as P200/mo; depends upon how you want to live. But then, that has nothing to do with the THB, does it?

For those of us not in the know, where is PI ?

Thanks.

1 minute ago, SpeakeasyThai said:

For those of us not in the know, whete is PI ?

Thanks.

The Philippines 

4 minutes ago, Ban Phe Dezza said:

The Philippines 

THANKS.

A province i never visited.

3 hours ago, bwpage3 said:

Wonder if anyone on this forum lived here in 1981 when the baht was 20 to 1?

I was in Thailand at least 20 times between '67-'80, sometimes for as long as a month.

 

The THB to USD was in the 20 to 1 range from the early '50s to early '80s.

http://fxtop.com/en/currency-converter-past.php?A=1&C1=USD&C2=THB&DD=14&MM=09&YYYY=1953&B=1&P=&I=1&btnOK=Go!

 

However,  you have to remember, B20 bought you a whole lot more; e.g., a decent hotel room could be had for B100-B150 ($5-7.50). Of course, the things which could be had for the price of a decent hotel room today were also available then at similar prices; e.g, a very nice meal, or a bottle of decent wine, or  . . . .

25 minutes ago, Ban Phe Dezza said:

The average age Aussie pensioner unless they have additional funds will find it almost impossible to legally meet Immigration requirements.

In the case of Married to a Thai lady the average monthly Pension is border line. drop down to 23 baht to the AU$ and one is below the border line and can not legally qualify for a marriage or retirement extension.

Thus for those with no additional funds 23 bath to the $AU is the Crunch line

and Yes I am in that situation P.I is looking good at the moment

No financial requirements for 1 year multi Married O VISA ..... only VISA extensions are a finance problem.

PI Peso has the same exchange rate to GBP as it had 10 years back.

12 minutes ago, SpeakeasyThai said:

For those of us not in the know, where is PI ?

Thanks.

Philippine Islands; the Philippines.

Just now, SpeakeasyThai said:

THANKS.

A province i never visited.

The Philippines is a country not a Provence of over 700 Islands it has its bad points as well as good.  for those on Aussie pensions currently you get around  66.000.00 PISO  per 4 weekly age pension    1,664 AUD =67,252.93PHP

 

I live and work here. I’ve been here the better part of 15 years.

 

My salary here now, with the declining foreign currency is equivalent to a 30% wage increase. $1500 at old rates is now $2000 at current rates.

 

Why would I leave?

 

Anyone selling a condo here and transferring it to home currency could make a killing... until they needed to convert it to Baht again :- o

 

 

 

27 minutes ago, Ban Phe Dezza said:

The average age Aussie pensioner unless they have additional funds will find it almost impossible to legally meet Immigration requirements.

In the case of Married to a Thai lady the average monthly Pension is border line. drop down to 23 baht to the AU$ and one is below the border line and can not legally qualify for a marriage or retirement extension.

Thus for those with no additional funds 23 bath to the $AU is the Crunch line

and Yes I am in that situation P.I is looking good at the moment

Don't think it is that good in the PI. Some things are less expensive, alcohol and tobacco for instance. However, for many things, including decent accommodation, the PI is more expensive than Thailand. I am sure you could find lesser priced accommodation, do without a/c, internet, and cable and eat nothing but local foods and drink nothing but water and local alcohol here in Thailand and get by on less baht.

1 USD in 1981 is worth $2.74 today adjusted for inflation. Minimum wage in the US in 1981 was $3.35. Thailand has a higher rate of inflation but assuming it was constant does that mean 20 baht to $1 in 1981 is roughly equivalent to 20*2.74 =54.8 baht in todays baht? I'd like to know what you could purchase with 20 baht in 1981.

 

When I came in 2005 $1 was ~40-45baht and a plate of fried rice (my metric for measuring inflation) was 20-25 baht (in the north). Today that's $1 -> 30 baht and fried rice is 30-35 baht so food has basically doubled since I've been here. More pollution, traffic, congestion also so my quality of life has gotten worse over the last 13 years.

I'm wondering how many of the people that might leave would "never buy a house in Thailand".

 

It doesn't make sense, of course, if you're just here for a year or two but it sure does if you expect to stay longer. I'd call them idiots but that's just the schadenfreude talking.

1 minute ago, misterme said:

I live and work here. I’ve been here the better part of 15 years.

 

My salary here now, with the declining foreign currency is equivalent to a 30% wage increase. $1500 at old rates is now $2000 at current rates.

 

Why would I leave?

 

Anyone selling a condo here and transferring it to home currency could make a killing... until they needed to convert it to Baht again :- o

 

 

 

A rather quaint way to look at it. If you made USD1500 at old rates; that would be what, B54,000 at 36 to 1?  No matter the current USD to THB rate, you are still making B54,000, are you not?

15 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Hmm.

Lots of questions. 

There are many reasons why an expat might want to or feel "forced" to leave Thailand. 

Expats that earn baht here would be in a different situation.

Short answer -- the baht down to 20 would put fire under my arse.

Thailand
Can't understand for the life of me why anyone would want to stay here paying out Farang money to endorse an effrontery albeit the said baht monetary system whilst being a subservient pillar of their ao-called society. Get real my friends there's more to life !!! 

first came to thailand in 2016, being really smart we changed money at sydney airport, got around 22 bhart  per dollar, we thought we were rich when my mate and i arrived  in bangkok ,back then , compared to now, i can not see many things that are that much dearer, we , as newcomers paid then a hell of a lot for pussy, we definately got ripped of, you still can get 25 bhart for aus dollar now so i think its still good value here now, when i moved here permanately , i bought heaps of cash and changed at 32  bhart, put it in the bank, so in reality, now i am way in front, just back from aus and there is no way that i will ever go back there, its bloody expensive and there is a law for every thing, at least you are free here, i pay no rent live on our farm, we clear 150k bhart a year and we live like kings on my old age pension and i can not see any thing changing here to i check out, no i am staying

33 minutes ago, Ban Phe Dezza said:

The average age Aussie pensioner unless they have additional funds will find it almost impossible to legally meet Immigration requirements.

In the case of Married to a Thai lady the average monthly Pension is border line. drop down to 23 baht to the AU$ and one is below the border line and can not legally qualify for a marriage or retirement extension.

Thus for those with no additional funds 23 bath to the $AU is the Crunch line

and Yes I am in that situation P.I is looking good at the moment

Same here, if the $Aus gets down below 23 Bhat and camps there which looks highly probable at the moment, that'll be it for a lot of Aussie's relying mainly on the pension.

Never worth the bother Go back to Oz is this best way


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

1 minute ago, lannarebirth said:

I'm wondering how many of the people that might leave would "never buy a house in Thailand".

 

It doesn't make sense, of course, if you're just here for a year or two but it sure does if you expect to stay longer. I'd call them idiots but that's just the schadenfreude talking.

I would not buy in Thailand, but I have neither a Thai wife nor Thai children. However, I did not buy in Vietnam or in the PI when I did have a wife from each. Instead, I bought where I could have the property in my own name, sell it at fair market prices quickly, or leave it to whoever I wanted.  I can buy a house in Florida and lease it with management fees for enough to rent a bigger home in Thailand with utilities included; the same situation exists in Vietnam and the PI. Consequently, I see no need to buy here or anywhere else I do not have full ownership control.