1 hour ago, bkk6060 said:

Because they are people with limited funds with no plan, who have probably wasted their life on bad decisions, poor relationship choices, booze, bargirls, or all the above.

Then they complain and blame everything on the Thai government or anything else because they are over 50 and cannot even cough up 800,000 b.

Many are struggling here because of their own doing, thus cannot maintain and complain about the rule....

 

wow that's harsh. I agree there may be many in those categories, but I reckon that many more are simply fellows who came here when they were single, more carefree, healthier, and their home currency was 30-50% stronger than today.

With time they found out that the expenses add up: not just girls, simply when you are 60 you need a little more comforts than when you are 40. I know I am tired of eating the pad thai from the street and I want my european bread sometimes. At the same time the budget in Baht went down. Add maybe a marriage and a coupe of kids, and you are in a tight place especially if returning to the home shores is not an option.

Agreed that one cannot blame it all on the government. You could call it planning without much contingency.

 

13 minutes ago, Jip99 said:

Probably because it gave him a greater chance to appear superior.....

I believe you may have hit the proverbial nail on the head, sir. And if walking around shaking your head and clucking your tongue at the endless shiftlessness and backwardness of the local populace doesn't satisfy your 'need for superiority' jones, there's always TVF where you can pretend you're bleeping filthy rich and haven't made a bleeping misstep in your entire bleeping life, even though we all know it's all a load of bleeping horse manure.

 

Edited May 21, 20197 yr by Gecko123

good question.  here's one answer.  if you are a 180 day or plus Thai resident you get a killer corporate tax refund on top of hefty dividends, and can also quite often get in and out without the stock even staying stuck at it's "XD price" for more than a few days.  that's fun!  if you are here for more than 180 days, which retired guys and gals typically are.  even a lousy 800K is a nice chunk of change to play with.... even if you have 10 or 20 million Thai Baht bouncing around in local brokerage accounts on top of the 800K.  it's fun!  that's a reason.  but many of us also try to keep local cash as small as we can, at the same time, and playing with local Thai stocks is not nearly as much fun when you use an offshore account.  fees and late night phone calls.  unless you are a insider, which would generally mean you are Thai.... and not one of us "real" foreigners  :-)))))           

Edited May 21, 20197 yr by WeekendRaider

21 minutes ago, arithai12 said:

re: investments, you forgot to say that you can also lose it.

Now since a wise person should invest only what he/she can afford to lose, it follows that if you can invest 800k you also have much more than 800k safely stashed and therefore it makes no sense to invest exactly the funds you need for the yearly extension.

 

Or you are not wise, which is of course ok.

 

wise or not, it's my money; it should be my choice.

if i lose it and can't replace it, then i lose my visa - next year - and no complaints.

2 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

Because they are people with limited funds with no plan, who have probably wasted their life on bad decisions, poor relationship choices, booze, bargirls, or all the above.

Then they complain and blame everything on the Thai government or anything else because they are over 50 and cannot even cough up 800,000 b.

Many are struggling here because of their own doing, thus cannot maintain and complain about the rule....

 

Rubbish.

Quote

I mean, what could be the benefit of repeatedly moving it out of the bank, and then scrambling each year to re-deposit it before renewals?

Because they have to eat and pay the bills.

It really is as simple as that.

21 minutes ago, WeekendRaider said:

good question.  here's one answer.  if you are a 180 day or plus Thai resident you get a killer corporate tax refund on top of hefty dividends, and can also quite often get in and out without the stock even staying stuck at it's "XD price" for more than a few days.  that's fun!  if you are here for more than 180 days, which retired guys and gals typically are.  even a lousy 800K is a nice chunk of change to play with.... even if you have 10 or 20 million Thai Baht bouncing around in local brokerage accounts on top of the 800K.  it's fun!  that's a reason.  but many of us also try to keep local cash as small as we can, at the same time, and playing with local Thai stocks is not nearly as much fun when you use an offshore account.  fees and late night phone calls.  unless you are a insider, which would generally mean you are Thai.... and not one of us "real" foreigners  :-)))))           

thai brokerage websites are accessible from outside thailand.  you can play thai stock casino, buy/trade and sell and collect your winnings (or whatevers left), transfer to your thai bank and deposit into a fixed account, all from your beach chair in bali.

 

last year put the 800k into thai stocks.  some went up, some went down.  ignoring how much could gain (or lose) when time comes to sell, picked up over 10k in dividends.

Edited May 21, 20197 yr by ChouDoufu

Why would you leave all that money in a bank with little interest?

Get it out makes sense.

20 minutes ago, fishtank said:

Because they have to eat and pay the bills.

It really is as simple as that.

So you say you have to take out 400K baht to eat and pay bills for 6 months of the year.

Then where does the 400K baht come from when time to up your thai account back to 800K baht for the other 6 months? 

If you are making money every month with your investments, an extra 5 or 6K baht (return on 400K baht per month) is the difference between eating and paying bills for 6 months? 

Edited May 21, 20197 yr by Skallywag

1 hour ago, Gecko123 said:

If you have such disdain for people with "limited funds", why did you move to a country with a per capita income of $3,322?

Per capita GDP is 6.5K. Using PPP, it is 17K

1 hour ago, fishtank said:

Why would you leave all that money in a bank with little interest?

Get it out makes sense.

also note your fixed account interest is taxed at 15%.

dividends are taxed at 10%.

capital gains are taxed at.......................................0%.

3 hours ago, stanleycoin said:

Been here since 1998 sick of corruption, its rotten to the core.

open your eyes.

Move to a third world ultra corrupt country , and complain about corruption.

It's way it is.  Not changing anytime soon. [IMHO]

4 hours ago, Sheryl said:

Back when the requirement was only to have it in for 3 months before, I moved the money in once a year and spent it down for living expenses then replenished, worked fine. A single money transfer once a year is hardly onerous.

 

Now that it has to stay there i  its entirety 3 months after and then half of it for 6 months etc etc it has indeed become too much of a hassle and I am just leaving it in a fixed deposit. Not happy about it, though, and may switch tio the income method once the various "kinks" in that are sorted out and US Social Security ID is operative.

Yes, very short and to the point and well stated.  Many people would have no desire to have extra un-used money sitting in a foreign bank account. 

... a  once good idea that now reeks of tit for tat...

10 hours ago, geoffbezoz said:

You are rich insofar as you clearly understand the value of life and it is about being comfortable and happy rather than well off and dismissive of those that aren't. You are rich indeed in mindset  in my book and enjoy your life.

Many people are like you, bud the thai government don`t care about farang. In Thailand there are more than 20 million poor people that have les than you. Mostly farang use more money in a month than those poor people earn in one year. Even that the government here don`t care to make our life good. So what is Thailand?  

11 hours ago, ChouDoufu said:

800k is more or less $26K.

you can leave it in the thai savings account and earn 2,000 baht.

you can stick it in a thai fixed deposit account and earn 10,000 baht.

My time deposit here pays 2.5% tax-free. That's 20,000B on my 800kB deposit.

 

9 hours ago, arithai12 said:

wow that's harsh. I agree there may be many in those categories, but I reckon that many more are simply fellows who came here when they were single, more carefree, healthier, and their home currency was 30-50% stronger than today.

With time they found out that the expenses add up: not just girls, simply when you are 60 you need a little more comforts than when you are 40. I know I am tired of eating the pad thai from the street and I want my european bread sometimes. At the same time the budget in Baht went down. Add maybe a marriage and a coupe of kids, and you are in a tight place especially if returning to the home shores is not an option.

Agreed that one cannot blame it all on the government. You could call it planning without much contingency.

 

All this with barmaids is a source of poverty that the Thaland government does not want to take care of. Nothing has changed just the last 12 years I have been here, and it is a tourist attraction, and therefore you do nothing about it. With so many poor here, more than 20 million having an annual income less than average per month spent by prisoners, it never ceases to blame human dignity, but to make the government realize it and do something effectively requires real sense . The Baht strength in the twelve years has increased by over 30%, but poverty is not downward. Only the prosperous harvest of it. There is great rudeness in the wake of capitalism.

11 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

Because they are people with limited funds with no plan, who have probably wasted their life on bad decisions, poor relationship choices, booze, bargirls, or all the above.

Then they complain and blame everything on the Thai government or anything else because they are over 50 and cannot even cough up 800,000 b.

Many are struggling here because of their own doing, thus cannot maintain and complain about the rule....

 

True enough that there are some hoisted on their own petard. Then again, I suppose I could be seen as part of that crew ... or not. I retired to Thailand, in good measure, because I can live a better middle-class retirement here than I can in my own country. From what I see and hear, I am not alone. Yes, partly my own fault, after all, no one forced me to be an educator for my life's work. As to 800,000K ... thanks but my funds are invested to generate income so this money is better kept where it is.

12 hours ago, CanadaSam said:

I mean, what could be the benefit of repeatedly moving it out of the bank, and then scrambling each year to re-deposit it before renewals?

 

Because in a Credit Union you can get more interest, between 4-6%, than in a commercial bank. Only problem being is that immigration does not accept money in a Credit Union as being appropriate when obtaining ones annual visa.

I have removed several off topic inflammatory, bickering posts and replies to the them. Much more of the same will result in this topic being closed.  No further notice of posts being removed will be given. If your post disappears you can assume it stepped over the line.

13 hours ago, CanadaSam said:

because this is a long term residence visa

Well not really, it is a year-on-year extension on a permission to stay, with changing requirements each time! (Or so it appears lately). 

I, as you suggest, simply leave the money there but some cannot afford it, living off income, and perhaps have been borrowing it in the past. 

11 hours ago, Jip99 said:

 

 

Probably because it gave him a greater chance to appear superior.....

The forum has more than it's share of like minded people. And the original post, a troll from another one of them.

But, simply my opinion.

I normally leave in in all year round. Out of 18 extenions I only took it out two times....on both occasions to put towards a condo that I knew I would make money on re-selling them.

Why do you leave it in? Because you have loadsa money??

1 minute ago, jesimps said:

Why do you leave it in? Because you have loadsa money??

I don't have income and live off savings. It seems expedient.

13 hours ago, wgdanson said:

Then why not leave the 800 in the bank, and use the income they WILL use to top it up for eating/bills. It's called budgeting.

You can only use 400k of that 800 for 6 months a year anyway.

Stating the obvious. Maybe it's because it's their money and they choose to do it their way rather than yours.

13 hours ago, stanleycoin said:

Wrong , its the fault of dishonest immigration officers, 

Spot on!

Maybe some people prefer to transfer money one a year and save on bank transfer fee.

 

They use the 800,000 B during the year.

 

Meanwhile their monthly pension is still deposited in their country and they are ready again to make the next years transfer.

 

I guess every person can manage this according to their needs.

 

.

1 hour ago, Dania2019 said:

So what is Thailand? 

Thailand is good to the Thais.

Thailand is good to all foreigners who respect the laws of the land.

Thailand can be a trying place to live to those trying to circumvent prevailing rules and disrespect their culture.

1 minute ago, CapraIbex said:

Thailand can be a trying place to live to those trying to circumvent prevailing rules

But if you want to circumvent them, see a Thai and bring money!