Is Thailand still worth it for Aussies?

[madmen]

10 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I ate Thai food for years and didn't put on weight. However, I didn't sit in a bar all day sucking on a beer bottle and I was active all the time.

Thai food is better is cooked at home, but even from a restaurant is probably better than western food from a supermarket- chockaa with sugar, preservatives, salt and various chemicals.

Heard on the radio that life expectancy in the west is going down now- probably because food is so bad for us now.

"better than western food from a supermarket- chockaa with sugar, preservatives, salt and various chemicals."

 

what food would that be? A typical meal for me would be quality seafood or beef with organic steamed vegetables, can assure its not chocka with chemicals. In fact Thailand uses insecticide and chemicals that have been banned in the west.  You got it all back the front! Your one confused puppy

 

https://www.chiangraitimes.com/thai-academics-urge-government-to-ban-dangerous-herbicides-and-pesticides.html

Edited May 22, 2019 by madmen

[totally thaied up]

Well, I go home to Thailand for most likely another year in two weeks time. Been gone for near three months. What did I learn this trip? My wife loves Australia, came to watch me vote and was amazed when six hours after polling finished, we had a declared winner. She thought it was so cool. When she walked past the polling stations, she was so surprised at how all the parties were mingling at the gate. No fighting, just everyone being pleasent. She saw Democratic reason at work.

 

I learnt now not to burn my bridges. If I still keep property in Australia, I can always go home. With out a property you are <deleted> ed and have very little chance of coming home easily. Trying to do it via renting is near impossible. I learnt with the trashed dollar, costs for basic staples is close to par with Thailand. No horrors in the cupboard there. Going out is expensive but not as bad as I thought.

 

Health coverage in Thailand is good as long as your insurance covers you. Still, it cannot compete with Australias free coverage and quality of specialist. Nowhere near...

 

All up, it costs me more to live in Thailand with a trashed dollar. I have to add on about $400 a month to cover it all on top of my pension. Add to this another $2,200 a year for health insurance, $700 for car insurance and about $4,000 plus for extra in medication and other health issues. The roads are better here, no crazy traffic. Life is more exciting in Thailand but it gets cancelled out by our great beaches. It's a touch and go choice.

 

My wife has grown a lot more. Her understanding of our slang has increased tenfold. She really enjoyed her time.

 

I really have nothing to complain about apart from the smog issue in Chiang Mai but that could be fixed by moving to a beach. In the end, most things can be fixed by money and if you have American dollars your laughing.

 

Yeap, Thailand is pretty good but I will never cut my ties with Australia now. 

Edited May 24, 2019 by totally thaied up

[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎5‎/‎22‎/‎2019 at 6:54 PM, xylophone said:

As for saying that Western food is unhealthy, well it is if you eat the wrong stuff, but have you seen how many Thais are getting fat anyway, and that's not always from eating the Western food.

I don't have the facts as to what may have changed in Thailand food since I first arrived, but back then fat Thais were unusual and now they are normal. Something changed, obviously, and certainly more processed western type food is available now, mom and pop shops sell little else than processed western style snack food and sugar loaded soft drinks.

I can't believe that a Thai still eating mainly rice and vegetables, with a little chicken or fish is going to get fat on that.

[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎5‎/‎22‎/‎2019 at 6:55 PM, Lacessit said:

Your premise is false. There have been great Labor governments, and terrible Liberal ones. As recently as 2014, the Abbott government brought down a budget which outraged even Liberal supporters with the broken promises and sheer bastardry.

The smart governments are the ones that filch good policy from their opponents after they have won.

My opinion, for what it's worth, is that ALL governments are bad now, the people that work in them have little to no idea as to how the average person lives, mainly being from affluent families and mostly going to university. Look at how many are lawyers, and we all know the best place for lawyers.

Also, many never did a real job before becoming political.

It's just a job people do, IMO, when they want to make loadsacash without having to work for it.

My comment about the labour party now, is that it's actually worse than the Liberals, not that the Liberals are any good themselves.

[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎5‎/‎22‎/‎2019 at 6:58 PM, madmen said:

"better than western food from a supermarket- chockaa with sugar, preservatives, salt and various chemicals."

 

what food would that be? A typical meal for me would be quality seafood or beef with organic steamed vegetables, can assure its not chocka with chemicals. In fact Thailand uses insecticide and chemicals that have been banned in the west.  You got it all back the front! Your one confused puppy

 

https://www.chiangraitimes.com/thai-academics-urge-government-to-ban-dangerous-herbicides-and-pesticides.html

You would be an exception then. Most people just get processed food from supermarkets.

[totally thaied up]

8 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I can't believe that a Thai still eating mainly rice and vegetables, with a little chicken or fish is going to get fat on that.

I have lost 6kg and my wife 4kg in almost three months. The main food we have dropped is rice and not much else. Most street food comes with a load of rice. I won't eat it anymore.

[thaibeachlovers]

21 hours ago, totally thaied up said:

I learnt now not to burn my bridges. If I still keep property in Australia, I can always go home. With out a property you are <deleted> ed and have very little chance of coming home easily. Trying to do it via renting is near impossible.

That's true, but it's a pity that 40 years ago I got involved with the wrong woman and lost my house. Was never able to buy another.

Moral of the story, don't let a woman get your house, and money.

[thaibeachlovers]

5 minutes ago, totally thaied up said:

I have lost 6kg and my wife 4kg in almost three months. The main food we have dropped is rice and not much else. Most street food comes with a load of rice. I won't eat it anymore.

Unless something about the rice has changed, can you explain how Thais used to be slim when their food was mainly rice?

[totally thaied up]

4 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

That's true, but it's a pity that 40 years ago I got involved with the wrong woman and lost my house. Was never able to buy another.

Moral of the story, don't let a woman get your house, and money.

Yes, from this point on I will advise anyone wanting to come to Thailand to keep a bolt hole back in their home country. I have a friend terribly sick now, is alone and cannot go back to his home country. He needs help now but being alone in a foreign country with no backup would be terrible and that is exactly what is happening to him. He needs better care than he is getting.

[totally thaied up]

4 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Unless something about the rice has changed, can you explain how Thais used to be slim when their food was mainly rice?

I feel for a farang, rice is not good food. We were not bought up on it eating several times a day. It is like anything, the amount you eat versus how much output in work you do. I see Thai farmers in my area have no weight on them at all but they are in the fields all day working. They eat a lot of rice. My wife, on the other hand, works in a office environment and is sedentary in movement during the day and eats a ton of rice that is not being burnt off. Just by reducing the rice intake, she lost weight. It is as simple as that.

[thaibeachlovers]

7 minutes ago, totally thaied up said:

Yes, from this point on I will advise anyone wanting to come to Thailand to keep a bolt hole back in their home country. I have a friend terribly sick now, is alone and cannot go back to his home country. He needs help now but being alone in a foreign country with no backup would be terrible and that is exactly what is happening to him. He needs better care than he is getting.

Anyone choosing to cut themselves off from back home and live in a foreign land takes the risk of dying alone and badly.

Given I had not enough money and was alone after getting divorced, I chose to move back to the land of welfare and old folks homes.

 

BTW, it sucks. While I will be housed and fed when I can no longer look after myself, I may wish I had died happy in LOS. Us old folks are now just money to the people that inhabit the horrid new world of aged care. Just like in LOS, unless minted, the future is not a happy one.

 

[totally thaied up]

1 minute ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Anyone choosing to cut themselves off from back home and live in a foreign land takes the risk of dying alone and badly.

Given I had not enough money and was alone after getting divorced, I chose to move back to the land of welfare and old folks homes.

 

BTW, it sucks. While I will be housed and fed when I can no longer look after myself, I may wish I had died happy in LOS. Us old folks are now just money to the people that inhabit the horrid new world of aged care. Just like in LOS, unless minted, the future is not a happy one.

 

The problem is getting to the point of dying and that can take a long time. My friend sees this now. He always thought he would have good health but it has not transpired. It is a harsh world. My friend is not minted and I cannot see a happy outcome.

[sherwood]

I have no interest in returning to Australia, my wife and I own more in Thailand than I could afford back in Aus and further more I am happy. 

 

We live in her village of birth surrounded by relations and life is good. I have only a small nest egg and little chance of an OAP in seven years time ( should have been five but for dikchead Govts) so unless a major catasrophe occours I am here for the term of my natural life.

 

I love Australia, lived there all my life and at 60 have worked there for 45 of those years. The aholes have shafted the aged and pander to the bludgers who cry poor because they are too lazy to get of their ares and do something to help themselves.

 

For me Thailand works, that is my opinion, and I am staying as long as I can.

 

Do you really want to live forever 

[thaibeachlovers]

7 minutes ago, sherwood said:

Do you really want to live forever 

It's not the departing that bothers me ( we all gonna die sometime ), it's the manner of my departure.

I'm hoping that when there are so many of us oldies that they can't afford to keep us all alive, they'll reconsider and allow voluntary euthanasia.

I have zero interest in living in some horrid rest home looked after by underpaid and overworked carers, just so some corporate <deleted> can make money off me.

[xylophone]

1 hour ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Something changed, obviously, and certainly more processed western type food is available now, mom and pop shops sell little else than processed western style snack food and sugar loaded soft drinks.

I absolutely agree on that comment tbl and I have rarely been into a 7-Eleven or Family Mart since I have been here, however a few months ago I popped into the local Family Mart to get something and I was horrified at the goods they had on display.

 

For a start, sitting on the counter was a machine warming up highly processed sausages (if you could call them that) and everywhere else there was nothing but snacks, noodles containing all sorts of chemicals, sugary drinks and this and that, and I could not see one even reasonably healthy "food" amongst the lot; in fact I was disgusted at what I saw.

 

I also think that over the years the Thai food has changed a little with more rice being eaten, along with even traditional Thai foods which now have loads of sugar and other chemicals added, even in the likes of "oyster sauce" and so on.

 

It also amazes me how much fat the Thais eat in amongst the slop they get from food stalls, and my ex g/f used to occasionally pop out and get something from a roadside cart and one time I analysed it and in amongst the murky liquid there were about six or seven pieces of fat (no meat whatsoever) all about a couple of centimetres square and I commented on this, and she simply said.......aroy dee!!

 

Luckily enough she didn't get fat!

[thaibeachlovers]

3 minutes ago, xylophone said:

I absolutely agree on that comment tbl and I have rarely been into a 7-Eleven or Family Mart since I have been here, however a few months ago I popped into the local Family Mart to get something and I was horrified at the goods they had on display.

 

For a start, sitting on the counter was a machine warming up highly processed sausages (if you could call them that) and everywhere else there was nothing but snacks, noodles containing all sorts of chemicals, sugary drinks and this and that, and I could not see one even reasonably healthy "food" amongst the lot; in fact I was disgusted at what I saw.

 

I also think that over the years the Thai food has changed a little with more rice being eaten, along with even traditional Thai foods which now have loads of sugar and other chemicals added, even in the likes of "oyster sauce" and so on.

 

It also amazes me how much fat the Thais eat in amongst the slop they get from food stalls, and my ex g/f used to occasionally pop out and get something from a roadside cart and one time I analysed it and in amongst the murky liquid there were about six or seven pieces of fat (no meat whatsoever) all about a couple of centimetres square and I commented on this, and she simply said.......aroy dee!!

 

Luckily enough she didn't get fat!

Thais like to eat pure fat. I used to get satay from a roadside stall in Lamphun, and mixed in with the chunks of meat on the stick were bits of pure fat. Needless to say I didn't eat them.

[marcusarelus]

8 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Thais like to eat pure fat. I used to get satay from a roadside stall in Lamphun, and mixed in with the chunks of meat on the stick were bits of pure fat. Needless to say I didn't eat them.

Probably better for you than a deep fried Mars bar.

Edited May 25, 2019 by marcusarelus

[sherwood]

26 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

It's not the departing that bothers me ( we all gonna die sometime ), it's the manner of my departure.

I'm hoping that when there are so many of us oldies that they can't afford to keep us all alive, they'll reconsider and allow voluntary euthanasia.

I have zero interest in living in some horrid rest home looked after by underpaid and overworked carers, just so some corporate <deleted> can make money off me.

Good post fella, that is my way of thinking also.

 

[Thainess]

No. I'd suggest that if you're the One True Aussie, you should stay put in Aussieland and try to persuade everyone else to leave instead.

[poida2]

On 5/17/2019 at 1:39 PM, zaZa9 said:

"I put my 800k in a Thai bank in 2011. It cost me under AUD$25k. The exchange rate the time was 32.3.  If I were to transfer the same amount back to Australia now, because of currency fluctuations, I would get more than AUD36k. What's that rate of return?"

 

 

This is where I get a bit muddled - and am never sure "which is better".

I didnt know back then what the currencies would do , but I knew quite clearly what the interest rates were.

So many comparisons and possibilities with shifting X rates and bank interest returns from different banks/account types to look back upon ..

 

I locked in money in 2009  for 5 years in Aus in a fixed interest account and got 6%. Then , after 2014  , I got about 3% sliding downwards to now ( maybe 1.75% ?) . In comparison , my K Bank here has  given me 0% . ( It still wants to .. 55)

Im no accountant , and the compound interest maths is beyond my feeble abilities , but Im hazarding a guess that your 800k ( $25k aud )  placed in my Aus bank in 2011 , would still be worth  about the same  ,  today .

 

Q1. In 2011 I put 800k baht in bank, cost 25k AUD. Now in 2019 its worth 36k AUD (AUD falling against the Baht). What is the rate of return ?

A: 4.66% p.a.

Q2 If you had invested that 25k AUD in the bank in Australia in 2011, what would it be worth today?

A: Looking up historical deposit rates, starting at 4.12% and ending at 1.95%, you would have ~$30k.

Buying 800k baht in AUD in 2011 (and leaving it for in a thai bank bank for 8 years, even if it didn't attract interest) and then converting it back to AUD was an effective strategy. Crystal ball anyone?

Q3. If you had locked 25k AUD in the bank in Australia in 2009 for 5 years and got 6% pa.
Then after 2014 got about 3% sliding down to 1.75% now, what would it be worth today (2019) ?

A: About $38k

 

Edited May 28, 2019 by poida2

[HeyHeyHey]

15 hours ago, poida2 said:

Q1. blablabla

A: blablabla

Q2 blablabla

A: blablabla

Q3. blablabla

If you just bought Aussie All Ordinaries Accumulation Index in 2011 you would have $47,250 now

 

and way more if you went with US ETFs

[Old Croc]

40 minutes ago, HeyHeyHey said:

If you just bought Aussie All Ordinaries Accumulation Index in 2011 you would have $47,250 now

 

and way more if you went with US ETFs

If I had bought Bitcoin in 2011 I would be a multi millionaire.

It's amazing how clever people can be in hindsight!

[Sandy Freckle]

On 5/25/2019 at 3:41 PM, totally thaied up said:

I will advise anyone wanting to come to Thailand to keep a bolt hole back in their home country.

Yes indeed..., I enjoy visiting Thailand and other SEA countries during our Aussie winter..., regardless of exchange rate. BUT..., for all its faults, I love Australia much more ! I know 'blessed' is an overused or even abused word, but it's what I feel I am when I can rent out my Aussie property while I'm away. I like to return to LOS when the smoke has gone and it starts to cool down.
And..., I get to go 'home' when the warmer weather returns there. 
Never...., never sell your primary asset(s)

Edited May 28, 2019 by Sandy Freckle