Even at 38 baht to the pound most retirees won’t and cannot leave Thailand

[Jingjock]

On ‎8‎/‎17‎/‎2018 at 1:14 PM, OneMoreFarang said:

d I thought bars and hookers are part of the basic living cost

Bars at a minimum, hookers geat real, not a fukin chance

[farangkinok]

On 8/17/2018 at 12:36 PM, BritManToo said:

I would!

And as I've just posted 25/pound would be OK.

(PS. I thought Mel was Australian). 

 

Mel Gibson was born in Peekskill, New York, USA January 3, 1956. He moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia, when he was 12 years old.

[persimmon]

On my first trip in 1997 I got over 90 bt / £ .Best I could find today was 41.9 .A drop below 40 would make me think seriously about coming back.Long term I would rate Thailand as a better bet for economic growth and investment,so I don`t see The £ improving much from here.

[nickmondo]

On 8/17/2018 at 2:45 PM, hyku1147 said:

Yep! Lots of undernourished bar gals these days. ?

 

A healthy guy can live good on small money. It just takes practice. Good corner rooms with free good WiFi, and free sheets and towels maid service, can be had for 5 to 6 thousand baht. Chicken breasts are cheap and abundant - as are fresh fruits and vegetables. Great tasting coffee can be had for 4 to 6 hundred baht a kilo. Gym memberships for 6 thousand baht a year. Cooking is easy with a rice cooker and a microwave - thus leaving lots of cash for important naughty activities.?

you have just described my situation perfectly!  

I have a great place in Chiang Mai for 6k.

the gym is 6k, free brilliant high speed internet, lovely cheap street food across the road.

i have loads of money left for anything i want to do.

 

[nickmondo]

13 hours ago, Henryford said:

Until the 30th March 2019. Once we leave the Evil Empire Britain and the Pound will flourish.

cant wait to find out if that is true.

Personally, I am not so confident.

Its a total mess.

I do care, because I have property in Spain.

If i did not have that, I would not give a monkeys

[rtr4]

On 8/17/2018 at 12:11 AM, Joinaman said:

lowest pension of 269 pounds ?

most people i know, me included, get the state pension of 164 pounds

 

Amd i was aboit to wrote i would be happy with 269£. But i am not British ?

[billd766]

3 hours ago, janclaes47 said:

Maybe try to read once again

 

when the exchange rate is 38 Baht to the pound?

 

For curiosity I wanted to run a scenario at a 38 baht to the UK pound and crunch some numbers around that point. To me it looks fairly tight. The lowest UK pensions come from the North East of England where they get on average, after tax, £269 a week. So let’s say £1,069 a month which is 45,000 baht to live on in Thailand.

 

And you seem to have a different Bangkok bank than others, because mine shows 41.36 today

 

 

 

Meanwhile at Kasikorn

 

 

 

You are quoting the rates for bank notes.

 

EUREuro	37.34288	37.34288	37.43875	37.06688	38.175	38.00568
GBPPound Sterling At 22:30 this evening KBank was quoting these figures  41.79750 for the TT or Telex transfer rate   Or use this link   https://daytodaydata.net/default.aspx	41.65098	41.65098	41.79750	40.77298	42.67750	42.46220

[Sheryl]

I suspect most of the people saying they can live on 20-25k (baht) a month have not factored in medical care and are uninsured.... since a decent health insurance policy for someone on the wrong side of 60 will alone cost around 7k a month (baht) rising to over 10k/month as you climb into your late 70's. And adequate self insurance requires 1-4 million baht set aside just for that purpose aling with either means to replenish it or a fallback plan to move back home when it is used up.

 

Seen more retirees than I can count come to serious grief on this account. And others forced to pull up stakes and return home.

 

Sent from my SM-J701F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cnx101]

59 minutes ago, nickmondo said:

you have just described my situation perfectly!  

I have a great place in Chiang Mai for 6k.

the gym is 6k, free brilliant high speed internet, lovely cheap street food across the road.

i have loads of money left for anything i want to do.

 

Same me but not the greasy <deleted> street food.

[Andrew65]

5 hours ago, sanemax said:

That is incorrect .

The cheapest place for a pint in the UK is Hertfordshire , where its 3.31 quid a pint , the most expensive place is Surrey , where its 4.40 quid a pint and some London pubs charge over a fiver a pint

According to the Daily Mirror, the cheapest pints in Britain:

 

Carlisle: £2.35 (98 Baht).

Chelmsford: £2.6

Newport: £2.75

Armagh: £2.78

Salisbury: £2.8

Lancaster: £2.8

Newry: £2.8

Stoke-on-Trent: £2.89

Salford: £2.9

Dundee: £2.92

[crazydrummerpauly]

?

 

Edited August 18, 2018 by crazydrummerpauly

[Mad mick]

On 8/17/2018 at 3:35 PM, robblok said:

Whenever I read about the pound and Brexit I imagine Mel Gibson waving his big sword and shouting BREXIT. (i know the Guy is American and the movie is about Scottish freedom). Anyway that image always comes up to mind.

 

I wonder how many of the Brexit supporters (expats) would still support Brexit at 38 to the pound.

No Canadian by birth , family migrated  to Australia he was a  baby  , grew up went school from age 6 , accepted at Sydney drama academy !! married aussie girl  6 or so kids later divorced   still has aussie accent , by luck right place right moment they made  mad max first movie ?  being biased  best mad max movie finally sold into the american market population bought " rest is history

[Lacessit]

7 hours ago, Sheryl said:

I suspect most of the people saying they can live on 20-25k (baht) a month have not factored in medical care and are uninsured.... since a decent health insurance policy for someone on the wrong side of 60 will alone cost around 7k a month (baht) rising to over 10k/month as you climb into your late 70's. And adequate self insurance requires 1-4 million baht set aside just for that purpose aling with either means to replenish it or a fallback plan to move back home when it is used up.

 

Seen more retirees than I can count come to serious grief on this account. And others forced to pull up stakes and return home.

 

Sent from my SM-J701F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, you're right Sheryl. The private hospital closest to me charges 20,000 baht a day for a bed. So someone living on 25K/month would not be able to stay there without racking up serious debt.

Some of us have no option but to self-insure here, due to their pre-existing conditions.

Edited August 18, 2018 by Lacessit

[bandito]

On ‎8‎/‎17‎/‎2018 at 2:47 PM, wgdanson said:

So how do you get your Retirement Extension?

 

Aint no problem at all in TIT.

It's not what you know but who you know.

[Sheryl]

1 hour ago, Lacessit said:

Unfortunately, you're right Sheryl. The private hospital closest to me charges 20,000 baht a day for a bed. So someone living on 25K/month would not be able to stay there without racking up serious debt.

Some of us have no option but to self-insure here, due to their pre-existing conditions.

True, but the problem is that many people who say the self-insure are actually uninsured.

 

Self-insure means having a large some of money put aside (or readily liquidated asset) solely for health care costs.

 

I find most people here who say they are ":self insured" have not done this. And some couldn't if they wanted to. Which if they are also unable to afford insurance, or can't get it due to pre-exisitng conditions, IMO means they cannot afford to live in Thailand, but people tend not to accept that and insist on believing that somehow they are immune to major accidents and catastrophic illness or "I'll just forgo treatment and die" . Haven't seen anyone say that when the time comes, though, and anyway it is rarely a case of medical care or drop dead. More often, medical care  or be in excrutiating pain and/or unnecessarily disabled. 

 

Bed charges, in any hospital, are the very least of what most hospitalizations will cost. 

 

Govt hospitals are cheaper by a factor of 2-5 times depending on the treatments involved, but even in a government hospital it is quite possible to run up bills in excess of 1 million baht.

[KiChakayan]

11 hours ago, farangkinok said:

Mel Gibson was born in Peekskill, New York, USA January 3, 1956. He moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia, when he was 12 years old.

Fascism without borders... 

And ravages of old age.

Edited August 19, 2018 by KiChakayan

[wgdanson]

1 hour ago, bandito said:

 

Aint no problem at all in TIT.

It's not what you know but who you know.

And how much you are willing to pay them !

[Fat Prophet]

9 hours ago, Sheryl said:

…. And adequate self insurance requires 1-4 million baht set aside just for that purpose aling with either means to replenish it or a fallback plan to move back home when it is used up.

 

Seen more retirees than I can count come to serious grief on this account. And others forced to pull up stakes and return home.

"and return home" or take the much shorter/quicker  "flying without wings" exit off a condo balcony in Pattaya. Thailand is deceivingly cheap as regards living day to day (food, rent, transport), but when you factor in the "hidden" costs of health care and school fees for the elderly and those expats with kids, Thailand is actually quite expensive, especially when you consider that these latter costs are free or heavily subsidized back in the West.  

[Henryford]

13 hours ago, Expatwannabee said:

I could be wrong (certainly would not be a first) but the EU do not appear to be negotiating in good faith. There a 2 possible Brexit outcomes (ignoring the 3rd possibility of Brexit cancelled) 1) No agreement and crash out to WTO rules and 2) A negotiated Brexit with little changing to the status quo other than officially we are not a member. Everyone seems to agree that crashing out will be bad for the EU but worse for the UK. However, the EUs preferred negotiated Brexit would still leave things almost as bad for the UK but be a significant improvement for the EU. For that reason I prefer the Hard Brexit. 

Correct Britain has only two choices:-

 

1. Hard BREXIT and be a free prosperous country again.

2. Total capitulation and be Juncker's bitch

[pattaya1234was]

15 hours ago, Joinaman said:

OUCH 

Mine at 82 Pounds

[jadee]

On 8/17/2018 at 12:48 PM, KiChakayan said:

"The lowest UK pensions come from the North East of England where they get on average, after tax, £269 a week."

So UK's got its Issan?...

Interestingly, the north-south divide in both the UK and Thailand are very similar. Just as Brits complain that London both generates the majority of tax revenue (and receives the most investment) so do Thais have similar complaints about Bangkok in relation to the rest of the country. 

[Kwasaki]

17 hours ago, possum1931 said:

Yes, as long as you are not too old.

 

Fed up with replying to, to old, many greedy insurance companies cut you off at 65, I got insured at 67 nearly 4 years ago.

[Kwasaki]

17 hours ago, wgdanson said:

Do you mean that younger people do not have accidents or get serious illnesses?

No !!   Don't know where your from,  I'm English brought up with the NHS. 

[NoshowJones]

4 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

Fed up with replying to, to old, many greedy insurance companies cut you off at 65, I got insured at 67 nearly 4 years ago.

Be wary of what you are or are not covered for. Also be wary of rises of premiums and maybe even 

getting cut of in future years. I got health insurance from a local Thai company and paid for two years, I asked Sheryl for advice about it and told her it was in Thai, she advised me to ask them for it in English, they kept humming and hawing about it so I cancelled it.

All I am saying is be careful.

[transam]

11 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

No !!   Don't know where your from,  I'm English brought up with the NHS. 

Yes, free healthcare....?

[wgdanson]

19 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

No !!   Don't know where your from,  I'm English brought up with the NHS. 

So do you mean that only young people use the NHS, and old people get their own health insurance. I am English.

[transam]

Must confess with today's crap exchange rate I probably would not be here if it were the same when l made the move. I was lucky back then getting 70bht to the pound, built a fab place in a fab location for peanuts as well as my trusty pickup. Must be a difficult decision for guys now unless you are loaded..

[simoh1490]

Not too many people will want to face up to the reality of their own tipping point in all of this, at one point must they take action, at 40, at 35, at 30, it's scary stuff and the older and more entrenched you've become here, the worse it is.

[theoldgit]

3 minutes ago, simoh1490 said:

Not too many people will want to face up to the reality of their own tipping point in all of this, at one point must they take action, at 40, at 35, at 30, it's scary stuff and the older and more entrenched you've become here, the worse it is.

I've had three close friends return to the UK over the last six months, one was a retired Chief Immigration Officer, though he was running two homes, one here and one in the UK, and doing so had become unsustainable so probably not a typical example.

[transam]

When I first came here the place I rented was 4000bht a month, it is now 10,000bht a month, building my (our) own place was for me the right decision...Fab view, no neighbours, can crank my music up, walk around in boxers in my garden near all year round..Suppose a happy bunny...