What we all know

[Neeranam]

2 hours ago, rott said:

Thai citizenship. Do you know how long it will take and how much it will cost? Not a rhetorical question.

Yes, 2-3 years and 5,000 baht. I applied last year.

[fforest1]

3 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

Yes, 2-3 years and 5,000 baht. I applied last year.

2-3 years in your opium filled dreams.....

If citizenship was easy loads of expats would have it... 

[balo]

I am proud to live here on less than 40k , unlike HappyandRich I am Happy and Poor.  

 

 

[HappyAndRich]

6 hours ago, fforest1 said:

Who are you? Do you work for the ministry of justification?.....Just about every post you make is pushing a cold hard unbendable realty.... Why even bother? 

Just a guy with an opinion. Almost same like you with the comment above.

[garyk]

IMO most of the guys here that say 65K is not enough are living in large city's. Also probably most do not know or care about others what so ever. This, I am richer than you attitude is rather sickening IMO.

Personally I choose not to associate with people like this what so ever. Losers to the Nth degree that deserve not a second glance.

 

Regards

 

[soalbundy]

10 hours ago, HappyAndRich said:

Say that twice to Mr McDuck.

I am not attacking you, far from it, you have had a successful career and you are now enjoying the fruits of your hard work. Having said that I remember a hospice nurse saying once that people on their deathbed never regret having spent too little time in the office. Like you my father was a materialist and died a rich man with a villa and a yacht in Australia. During his second heart attack he had a near death experience, when he recovered he realized that all he had worked hard for was total crap, he spent the rest of his life in introspection and deeply regretted being saved by the paramedics, he had no more interest in his wealth anymore and despite having the best medical insurance he died with his third heart attack. At 83 he died a humble man.

[soalbundy]

10 hours ago, wgdanson said:

Until YOU get an illness or have an accident. Then what happens?

You die, just like the billionaire. 

[HappyAndRich]

30 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

I am not attacking you, far from it, you have had a successful career and you are now enjoying the fruits of your hard work. Having said that I remember a hospice nurse saying once that people on their deathbed never regret having spent too little time in the office. Like you my father was a materialist and died a rich man with a villa and a yacht in Australia. During his second heart attack he had a near death experience, when he recovered he realized that all he had worked hard for was total crap, he spent the rest of his life in introspection and deeply regretted being saved by the paramedics, he had no more interest in his wealth anymore and despite having the best medical insurance he died with his third heart attack. At 83 he died a humble man.

You might be right about everything else, but not about me being a materialist. I of course own a flat in my home country if I ever would feel like moving back. That´s not materialistic. it´s Security and good planning. Over that I do not own one thing in Thailand. It´s all in other names, and I do not need half of it. Just secured that I have the possibilities to live a secure and decent life without any worries.

Edited November 7, 2018 by HappyAndRich

[nakhon thai]

I dont understand why people seem to exist only on their pension where are their savings from gd decisi.on making and just money saved. A lot of countries dont have a pension just taxes . I have no need of pension i ran my own business for 20 odd yrs more than enough at 46 yrs old

[EVENKEEL]

10 hours ago, Thaidream said:

Let us  know when- we'll send a  tuk tuk to meet you- who will drive you to Issan.  I doubt you would spend a dollar for anyone other than yourself. Another  one who thinks they are better than anyone else but is one of the cheapest charlies there are. Don't forget to go to Toronto to get your O-A visa so  you can avoid putting any money in a Thai bank.

That's my plan, not in Toronto but Hollywood. Very doable, eliminates putting money in a Thai bank.

Edited November 8, 2018 by EVENKEEL

[soalbundy]

10 hours ago, khaowong1 said:

I know quite a few farangs who live in Thailand with a wife and kids who live on a lot less than 40,000 baht a month.  They live in smaller cities outside Bangkok, Chiang Mai and other larger cities.  Some own, some rent.  

I don't know how they do it, My household has 2 kids, used to be three, and 70,000 is barely enough and we don't even go out ! Health and accident insurance for everybody, including my estranged wife, is the biggest killer and when something happens as it usually does you pay up front and wait 4 months for reimbursement, school bills, land tax (my partner has 220 rai ) car and motorbike repairs, dentist bills, repair bills in the house (usually washing machine or air-con) all serve to keep me down, rarely a month goes by without a 20,000 baht bill comes floating in.

[Neeranam]

2 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

Health and accident insurance for everybody, including my estranged wife, is the biggest killer

Let her pay for her own health insurance if she is estranged.

[JackThompson]

11 hours ago, Neeranam said:

...

The days of Thailand being a 3rd world country are over. Understandably, the Thai authorities want to stop poor pensioners coming here and expecting to get a red carpet and pick on underpriveleged farm girls, forced into the sex trade.

You have it backwards.  "Poor Pensioners" and other exapts fund businesses that give the underprivileged better opportunities.  Most jobs in expat-areas are not in the "sex trade" - they just don't get as much press.

 

I met my now-wife while she worked one of those jobs - and thank goodness it was for a business that served Western customers - so paid much more than the crap-paying jobs serving package-tour customers.  If the latter had been her only option, I hate to think what might have happened to her life - what she might have been forced to do. 

 

In fact, due to Immigration's "tightening" she would be much less-likely, today, to be able to get the job she had when we met - because Immigration's policies have shut many of those businesses down - forcing more Thais into "sex trade" work which primarily serves short-term tourists (not expats). 

 

Immigration's policies are diametrically-opposed to the well-being of Thais.  Their policies make the "sex-trade" more often an "only viable income-option" for Thais  - not only by reducing Farang longer-staying visitors, but also flooding in "L" visa workers, who compete directly with Thais for entry-level jobs.

 

To pretend this "tightening" of regulations helps Thais is patently false - it is quite the opposite - but, clearly, they could not care less what happens to their own citizens as they roll around in piles of new agent-money recent changes should generate from those who manage "pay agents to stay."

 

11 hours ago, Neeranam said:

Thailand is developing, and taking measures to make retitement for foreigners here a little like how it is for Thai pensioners to go and retire in farangland.

I would support easier-visas for retirees to my passport-country, but - of course - they would need to have incomes at least 2x the median-wage, to avoid abuse from those coming from lower-wage nations.  When/if Thai-wages approximate Western wages (could happen, if they quit letting in cheap foreign-labor and maximize expat-spending), then this might be relevant to our situation in Thailand.  As long as Westerners can make more income "back home" than here - it is irrelevant.

[Neeranam]

11 hours ago, khaowong1 said:

I know quite a few farangs who live in Thailand with a wife and kids who live on a lot less than 40,000 baht a month.  They live in smaller cities outside Bangkok, Chiang Mai and other larger cities.  Some own, some rent.  

The kids will be going to substandard schools, and living in a shoe box.

[Lacessit]

2 hours ago, nakhon thai said:

I dont understand why people seem to exist only on their pension where are their savings from gd decisi.on making and just money saved. A lot of countries dont have a pension just taxes . I have no need of pension i ran my own business for 20 odd yrs more than enough at 46 yrs old

Life has a way of biting us on the bum through unforeseen circumstances. Such as health issues or a relationship breakdown. Your average life expectancy is now another 34 years. I can't understand how you are able to predict your financial health so far ahead. Even Communists only have 5 year plans.

[soalbundy]

3 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

Let her pay for her own health insurance if she is estranged.

We are still married (it will stay that way because I don't want to lose half my pension) and I was the one that left, I am responsible for her according to Thai law, before I insured her she had an accident that cost me 100,000 in hospital bills, the 30 baht card they all have is for illness only, not for accidents.

[JackThompson]

11 hours ago, turgid said:

Why would you want to bring in people with limited resources when you already have plenty of your own. 

You wouldn't, if you have every citizen employed at a good-wage without their presence.  But if you still have poor people who need jobs, then their foreign-capital can provide those.

 

11 hours ago, turgid said:

Thailand will expand its middle class and tax base

That could be facilitated by ending the "L-Visa" program, which is preventing the formation of a middle-class, by letting Laos, Cambodians, and Burmese compete in fields like construction.  The only field where that program makes any sense, is in the case of foreign-owned factories who will move to Vietnam, if they have to pay Thai-standard wages.  Those jobs are essentially "already lost" - and the best the country can do is make some income from the factories and workers' in-country spending at Thai businesses.
 

11 hours ago, turgid said:

As income levels rise those middle  class will complain about paying tax to support foreigners who clog up  services and  dont contribute  - just like Singapore,  UK and USA and every other country in the world. 

That occurs only when the foreigners EARN LESS than the locals - as in the UK, USA, etc - and get taxpayer-funded "services" -  which we don't here in Thailand.  The only "clogging" is done by package-tour tourism by non-Westerners - but that is being expanded, as we are being shoved-out.

 

11 hours ago, turgid said:

i'd argue that a rural village income in Thailand shouldnt be the baseline for immigration.  

It's not - it is many times that level, even at 40K.  When a foreigner shows up and starts spending into the local economy, it has a huge positive-impact on many lives in a village.

 

11 hours ago, turgid said:

So to get a partner into the UK with no kids they will have to pass an English test  and you'll have to have min 2M Baht on deposit .  

Yes, at which point they enter a Western system that will easily give PR, an economic safety-net for life, etc.  By contrast, we get nothing, and Thailand can and will just deport us, if/when we cease being self-funded - regardless of how many years we lived here and helped Thais with our foreign-sourced capital spending.

[Neeranam]

4 minutes ago, JackThompson said:

Most jobs in expat-areas are not in the "sex trade" - they just don't get as much press.

Do you mean tourist areas?

 

I've met many foreigners who met their wives in Pattaya. Why on earth they(the men) go to that place is a mystery to me. 

[Neeranam]

5 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

We are still married (it will stay that way because I don't want to lose half my pension) and I was the one that left, I am responsible for her according to Thai law, before I insured her she had an accident that cost me 100,000 in hospital bills, the 30 baht card they all have is for illness only, not for accidents.

Are you saying that if you get divorced divorced, you'd lose half your pension? 

[JackThompson]

22 hours ago, JaiLai said:

This situation could potentially make the consulate in Savanaket start asking for financial proof for non O’s based on marriage??

I wonder if a stat-dec from the US Embassy in Vientiane stating 40K Gross-Income would work there?

 

Anyone tried one from the US-Embassy in KL for Penang or KL Non-Os based on marriage?

Edited November 8, 2018 by JackThompson

[JackThompson]

12 hours ago, Mavideol said:

20 hours ago, grego49 said:

I have always wondered why a single person needs 800,000 to look after himself and a married person with a wife and possibley a couple of kids to look after only needs 400,000 ??

have been wondering about it for quite sometime (more than 10 years) as well and couldn't figure it out, did you?

It costs no where near 65K - and not even 40K; the figures are arbitrary. 

As has been noted in other threads, the income thresholds are strictly to limit numbers - because they don't want "too many" farangs here.  Every one of us, even if only spending 30K/mo or less, are helping support Thai businesses, families and are providing jobs for Thais.

To people with certain mind-sets, it's more important to "reduce farangs" in Thailand, than to let farangs' spending help more thai Thai people have better lives.  Increasing "minimum income thresholds" for expats beyond 2x a Thai wage Prevents Thai Upward-Mobility - which some in the upper-class may resent.  Perhaps, as in my passport-country, the wealthy prefer a surplus of "cheap" peasants to exploit.

[soalbundy]

2 hours ago, nakhon thai said:

I dont understand why people seem to exist only on their pension where are their savings from gd decisi.on making and just money saved. A lot of countries dont have a pension just taxes . I have no need of pension i ran my own business for 20 odd yrs more than enough at 46 yrs old

That was your destiny, life has many facets, others have different destinies. My brother is a businessman, he has always worked hard and is a millionaire, I wouldn't recognize a business opportunity if it walked up and slapped me in the face, I have studied, speak 3 languages and have also worked hard all my life and rely on a pension, that's just the way it is.  

[ubonjoe]

This topic has now run it course after going through a the last few pages of it and cleaning out several inflammatory, off topic , baiting and bickering posts.

Topic now