Thailand should welcome retirees

[baansgr]

On 2/1/2019 at 6:08 PM, ocddave said:

Well you could always move to Sicily Italy and purchase a retirement home for 1 euro! ????  

 

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/one-dollar-home-sambuca-sicily-italy/index.html

 

They have wifi and 7/11s,

[jacko45k]

16 hours ago, Saladin said:

Oh to have a business that was so easy to make money. Why isn't the Thai government content with that, rather than paying an army of pen pushers to devise more and more barriers that even their own Immigration Department can't understand.

It's called greed, greed is good! 

Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. (Gekko).

[jacko45k]

14 hours ago, elgenon said:

How does a person in his 70s get insurance? Please give me your wisdom.

You go to see a broker when you are 64 and ask him/her. Yes you will pay quite a premium, but seek and you shall find.

[jacko45k]

14 hours ago, JackThompson said:

Agreed.  Now how, exactly, do we "become a burden" when we get no freebees here?

 

When you are no  longer a contributor. 

[catman20]

14 hours ago, JackThompson said:

That's only about 1 decent Thai salary.  Almost all of us spend at least 4 or 5 Thai salaries into the economy a month - which is still considered "not enough" by the authorities.

 

You have it exactly backwards.  They want MORE people using agents.  This change will ensure that.   They don't "check seasoning" for agent-applications, so it doesn't matter how long the seasoning is - except to the extent it lowers competition from alternate-lenders who don't pay off immigration, like the agents do. 

 

Many did meet them, and still do (the original requirements).  They have moved the goalposts.  That's the problem

 

If they could not afford to be here, they would not be here, since there are no handouts for them here.

 

Which criteria - those in place when they "Retired" here, or the moved goalposts since?

 

Which set?  The ones a week ago, the month before, or whatever they make up tomorrow?

 

Now they are requiring you leave it in during the "consideration" period afterwords - 1 or 2 months more - depending on how they feel about doing it that week (some offices, including Chang Wattana).

 

It's just another "seasoning" requirement which can ignored the same as the existing seasoning requirement. 

 

Unless they are going to arrest the crooked IOs who work with agents, none of this makes any difference to those using agents.

 

Got it backwards.  All this does is increase the "seasoning" which agent-applications don't have to show - ever.

 

No, they go to agents and get the red-carpet treatment.

 

Agents file the 90-day reports for the scumbags - part of the package-deal.  No TM-30s needed for agent-apps either, so they could be anywhere.

If they could not afford to be here, they would not be here, since there are no handouts for them here.

 

OK if you want to split hairs, it would seem that maybe at one stage they could afford to be here, now things are becoming more difficult and you need more money and the goal posts are moving, they cant afford to be retired here.

[FritsSikkink]

9 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I live in a Chiang Mai village full of middle class families, the men are all management on wages between 35k-50k. One commutes to Bangkok to earn 70k, only comes back for the weekends, he's the only big earner.

All drowning in debt. My 'poor pension' beats most of their wages.

Outside the village, most of the locals (95% of the nearby population) have trouble earning 6k, with a degree maybe 12k. The supermarkets tend to pay 9k for 6x 10hr shifts a week.

Keep that thought if it makes you feel superior. Comparing with supermarket wages again, rofl. 

[FritsSikkink]

10 hours ago, JackThompson said:

They seemed to be eating lunch at 7/11, and shopping for makeup and other fine products, when I used to encounter them.  They were never to be seen in the sit-down restaurants that I and other Westerners frequented (you know, ones where the wait-staff receive "tips").

 

Obviously, a few have a lot of money - how it works when your family were big communist-party (sic) folks.

The wife and I went out often.  I saw the streets full of boarded-up businesses where Western visitors used to spend their money, before immigration stopped them staying here.  I watched many get closed, and personally knew people who worked at them (restaurants, guest-houses, etc) - and always the same story, "The customers can't come any more because of immigration."

You used to encounter them, I see them on a daily basis. 

[BritManToo]

Just now, FritsSikkink said:

Keep that thought if it makes you feel superior. Comparing with supermarket wages again, rofl. 

Supermarkets are one of the best paying normal jobs in Thailand for the average citizen.

It's a service we all use, no point in looking down on the staff.

[jacko45k]

Just now, BritManToo said:

Supermarkets are one of the best paying normal jobs in Thailand for the average citizen.

Bloody right, where else can you get paid for hiding and playing with your phone..... oh I forget, everywhere!

[FritsSikkink]

10 hours ago, Brunolem said:

And where would that be? 

Bangkok most probably. 

In Isaan, which is roughly 40% of the country, Thais don't make much more than 65,000 baht per month, and heavy spending Chinese are nowhere to be seen. 

Meanwhile, Western retirees are everywhere, more and more of them. 

Cities like Sisaket or Ubon, for example, don't open supermarkets and shopping centers thanks to the locals' high income or to Chinese high rollers... yet everywhere you see Western retirees with their Thai family in tow... and in these areas retirees mean something. 

 

Thailand exists beyond Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket and other tourist traps... in fact it exists mostly outside of these places... 

 

These disparaging comments about low income and useless retirees, generally coming from Bangkok and coastal areas' dwellers, remind me of the US split between the big coastal cities "elites" and the flyover states' "deplorables"... different places, same s..t!

Yes, Bangkok where most poor pensioners can't afford to live. They can feel superior in the poorest part of Thailand and compare their earning power to people who are struggling to survive. 

[FritsSikkink]

20 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Supermarkets are one of the best paying normal jobs in Thailand for the average citizen.

 

Keep on dreaming

[Kwasaki]

19 hours ago, CMNightRider said:

Personally, I would prefer to live in a country that has a higher standard and cost of living than deposit money in a Thai bank.  

Go ahead no ones stopping ya, bon voyage.

[Brunolem]

8 hours ago, lkv said:

I wonder what the proportion of tours vs independent travellers is. Here in Bangkok i see them in malls alone or in small groups of 2-3 also, so those are clearly not with a tour.

 

But how can you make a distinction between wealthy Thai/Chinese living in Bangkok, and wealthy Chinese from the mainland visiting Bangkok... just by looking at them? 

 

[Brunolem]

2 hours ago, jacko45k said:

When you are no  longer a contributor. 

That is, when you stop eating... and probably breathing also... 

[Brunolem]

1 hour ago, FritsSikkink said:

Keep that thought if it makes you feel superior. Comparing with supermarket wages again, rofl. 

In large parts of Thailand, there are no high paying jobs available, which is why the well educated younger ones have to leave their family, and often children, hundreds of kilometers behind, in order to get a decent job in Bangkok, Chonburi or Rayong. 

 

For those who stay, your "deplorables", supermarkets are among the few offering stable jobs. 

[Brunolem]

1 hour ago, FritsSikkink said:

Yes, Bangkok where most poor pensioners can't afford to live. They can feel superior in the poorest part of Thailand and compare their earning power to people who are struggling to survive. 

But why would a retiree want to live in Bangkok, unless he wanted to shorten as much as possible what little time he has left! 

 

And why would a retiree want to feel superior to small farmers. 

 

The superiority feeling is more generally attached to those who are still in activity and want to prove something... mine is bigger than yours... 

 

The many retirees I see in Isaan are not there to impress anyone, but rather to live a quiet late part of their lives, away from the madness of the world... 

[FritsSikkink]

8 minutes ago, Brunolem said:

In large parts of Thailand, there are no high paying jobs available, which is why the well educated younger ones have to leave their family, and often children, hundreds of kilometers behind, in order to get a decent job in Bangkok, Chonburi or Rayong. 

 

For those who stay, your "deplorables", supermarkets are among the few offering stable jobs. 

I never said that people on low wages are deplorable or anything less than other people. I loath poor foreigners who think they are better than other people because they have a bit more money than the poorest people in this country. On top of that they really think they are great contributors to this country. 

[Kwasaki]

16 hours ago, JackThompson said:

Agents file the 90-day reports for the scumbags - part of the package-deal.  No TM-30s needed for agent-apps either, so they could be anywhere.

Are all people using agents scumbags, are you saying or know that you can get a 1 year extension legally using an agent with the new rule change.

Many may want or have to go the agent route to stay unless they get married where the artwork hasn't changed.  

Retirees that have been here a long time should be grandfathered IMO.

[BritManToo]

13 minutes ago, Brunolem said:

But why would a retiree want to live in Bangkok, unless he wanted to shorten as much as possible what little time he has left! 

 

And why would a retiree want to feel superior to small farmers. 

 

The superiority feeling is more generally attached to those who are still in activity and want to prove something... mine is bigger than yours... 

 

The many retirees I see in Isaan are not there to impress anyone, but rather to live a quiet late part of their lives, away from the madness of the world... 

If I were the richest person in the world, I wouldn't be living in Bangkok, not even part-time.

Maybe San Francisco.

 

[BritManToo]

18 minutes ago, FritsSikkink said:

I never said that people on low wages are deplorable or anything less than other people. I loath poor foreigners who think they are better than other people because they have a bit more money than the poorest people in this country. On top of that they really think they are great contributors to this country. 

I've educated two Thai ladies from junior school to second year degree students, what have you contributed?

These threads are really good at identifying people nobody wants in any country.

 

Edited February 3, 2019 by BritManToo

[Fairynuff]

22 hours ago, GreasyFingers said:

For a woman that does not act like a man, and younger too!

....and who doesn’t mind living with a Neanderthal 

[Fairynuff]

21 hours ago, possum1931 said:

Better weather, less rules to keep on breaking, don't have to bother with this tax and that tax, don't

need a very expensive TV license etc, etc, etc, etc.

Yeah I came here to avoid paying a TV licence too

[Fairynuff]

As usual a thread sharing useful information has become a thread of idiotic bickering 

[Pravda]

19 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

I've educated two Thai ladies from junior school to second year degree students, what have you contributed?

These threads are really good at identifying people nobody wants in any country.

 

 

Did it work out for you?

[JTXR]

"Why would they need the equivalent of 2,000 USD per month, when more than a third of working Americans don't even earn that amount? "

 

Well, because U.S. citizens have an absolute right to live in America, whatever their income or economic situation. 

But America is the only country where U.S. citizens have a right to live, where they can't be denied entry and residence.  All other countries can and do set whatever requirements they wish for foreigners to be able to live there.  If other countries' financial requirements for foreign retirees are more attractive than Thailand's, by all means consider moving there.  It's a big world.

[JackThompson]

8 hours ago, farangx said:

VOA fee is 2,000 baht Jack, try and keep up with the times.  Unlikely you give that much "tips" a week.

Right - my mistake. I thought they only discounted it (as like previously), but that was still not enough of a subsidy, evidently.

 

Quote

Thailand’s visa-on-arrival fee waiver for citizens of 20 countries, including China and India, will be extended until April 30.  ... The visa waiver came about due to the fall in Chinese arrivals

https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1079072-waiver-of-visa-on-arrival-fees-to-boost-chinese-new-year-tourism/

 

It would seem that many of them cannot afford the trip without the extra bit of savings.

[fruitman]

On 2/1/2019 at 4:53 PM, Brunolem said:

In my village, I wouldn't even know how to spend such an amount... 

 

Your village? This is exactly why they don't need 'poor' westerners here, they want the ones who spend 65k on a 7 days holiday.

[Nyezhov]

45 minutes ago, Brunolem said:

But why would a retiree want to live in Bangkok, unless he wanted to shorten as much as possible what little time he has left! 

Well Im still young enough to want the throb of the big city. Maybe next year Ill go veg somewhere.

[Kwasaki]

9 hours ago, marqus12 said:

It always amazed me ..." thai lady"
What does a 'Thai lady' mean? I met a lot of Thai women.
I tried very hard but I have never met a "thai lady"

 

Thai lady is an oxymoron...I could have sworn that something like that

does not exist... it is an asiatic narcissistic trace detached from reality IMO

It is not a oxymoron I believe and I was never any good at English grammar I rely on spell check and grammar check. ????

I was referring to marriage and remember the term from a woman to a lady simply by marriage, maybe old fashion these days.

I think lady is more complimentary than woman, as in lady of the house.

[JackThompson]

3 hours ago, jacko45k said:

When you are no  longer a contributor. 

Every baht we spend here is a "contribution" of free-money into their economy from our foreign-sourced capital.   

Perhaps you mean "contributor" to immigration's "off-the-books savings fund?"  If so, I agree - that seems to be the only way to be "safe" here, anymore, given honest applications are increasingly made difficult to accomplish, with more hoops and ladders added continuously.

 

1 hour ago, FritsSikkink said:

I never said that people on low wages are deplorable or anything less than other people. I loath poor foreigners who think they are better than other people because they have a bit more money than the poorest people in this country. On top of that they really think they are great contributors to this country. 

Fact is, they ARE contributors, and they see the effects of their spending on a daily basis - most especially in poorer areas - though also in tourist-areas. 

 

It has nothing to do with "feeling superior" - it has to do with seeing the madness of Thai Immigration attempting to rip them out of a place where their spending helps so many Thais - for no sane or rational reason.

Edited February 3, 2019 by JackThompson