Thailand's surging baht shatters expat dreams of easy retirement

[happy chappie]

I moved all of my savings over by brexit result and invested in property even though there were many saying just rent.

ive lived in the house for nearly 4 years and I'm in negotiations to sell.if it sells I'll transfer the majority of it back to the uk and will of made 2 million and four years of living here.the profit has come purely through the fall of the pound and rise of the baht.i think I must be one of only a few expats that want to see the baht go up even more.

i do feel sorry for them that planned their retirement because I don't think anyone could of predicted what has happened to both currencies.also I personally know of a few that have sold up and gone home and now all of my friends that used to visit Thailand have wiped their hands of the place.

thailand will soon feel the pain.its ok all the reports of India and China saving the day but most can't afford to visit.

 

 

[Matzzon]

21 minutes ago, Chazar said:

They let you remain??????

Fair enough as long as they not wait to long to get rid of you. ????????

[NCC1701A]

they did not interview me. and no talk of boom boom. so they missed the whole point.

 

i am eating a nice can of cat food today. what could be better than that and boom boom? i heat it up of course.

 

 

Edited October 4, 2019 by NCC1701A

[Mavideol]

not news, unfortunately we all know that for quite sometime..... and it keeps getting worse

[Lemonltr]

The article said that Maxey was getting 60 baht for his pounds 2 decades ago! . Around 15 years ago it was 75 baht to the pound. Today 37.5 exactly halved. Now, people must, and do, adjust or move but it's very harsh criticism  for not doing prior planning for such an unusually drastic change by the "holier than thou" 

[Huayrat]

2 hours ago, quandow said:

Surged? A bit of an exaggeration, and if you planned your finances that close to the wire then som nom na.

Who plans a loss of 30% of their pension? 

[Mavideol]

we shouldn't worry too much, be patient and wait (sarcasm 555)... Monday the BoT boss said "" Baht speculation on downtrend, says central bank governor

[CharlieH]

Post in violation of "fair use" and response removed.

[losername]

1 hour ago, chickenslegs said:

 

The figures given are of visas issued in each year.

 

The people in the immigration office are not getting visas, they are getting extensions of stay based upon visas issued in previous years.

100% correct.  I cannot understand why it took so long for anyone to point out the obvious misunderstanding.  I thought there would be inundation.

[quandow]

19 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

they did not interview me. and no talk of boom boom. so they missed the whole point.

 

i am eating a nice can of cat food today. what could be better than that and boom boom? i heat it up of course.

 

 

I SOOOO want to say something about eating cat food, eating a local, and your breath, but I don't want to suffer a time out (especially when it's getting so heated up over other topics). Just know the sentiment was there. ❤️

[rumak]

2 hours ago, owl sees all said:

Just have to go with the flow. Adapt and adjust.

 

Spend more time on TVForum and less on the bar stool.

Limit the pussy to just one (or two) different ones a week.

Embrace Thai food; and have more stews.

Home teach the children.

Frequent the clothes markets; shorts just 50 Baht.

Walk to the corner shop; leave the m/c at home.

Turn off the air-con; get a fan or two.

Stop feeding the soi dogs.

Cut your own hair.

Pull your own teeth.

Stay away from medical premises.

Embrace cold water showering.

Tell the wife or g/f only one new pair of shoes a month.

Limit the wife or g/f to one new handbag a month.

Tell the wife or g/f; 100 Baht lottery limit.

 

Big savings to be had for the thrifty.

 

 

You left out : wear your shirt for more than one day before washing

                    don't shower as often and cut back on the deoderant

         ( i have noticed many farangs that use that method of saving)

[timendres]

21 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

they did not interview me. and no talk of boom boom. so they missed the whole point.

 

i am eating a nice can of cat food today. what could be better than that and boom boom? i heat it up of course.

I have my Thai girl spoon feed me my cat food.

[quandow]

13 minutes ago, Huayrat said:

Who plans a loss of 30% of their pension? 

I did. Honestly. I actually planned on having at least 50% OVER what I wanted/needed cuz in my 60 plus years on this planet I have NEVER seen prices going down.

[VocalNeal]

2 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Sounds like another fool not planning his life properly with no escape route.

The problem with this thinking is that many are forced by nature to take the inevitable escape route not of their own choosing so all the planing goes out the window.

 

2 hours ago, Robert Tyrrell said:

COMMON SENSE

Ah common sense. It is not that common.

[JAG]

40 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

they did not interview me. and no talk of boom boom. so they missed the whole point.

 

i am eating a nice can of cat food today. what could be better than that and boom boom? i heat it up of course.

 

 

I'd hazard a guess, that having dined on a tin of warmed up cat food, the no kissing/no tongues rule will be strictly enforced by your "partner" in the subsequent "boom boom"?

[bkk6060]

56 minutes ago, happy chappie said:

I moved all of my savings over by brexit result and invested in property even though there were many saying just rent.

ive lived in the house for nearly 4 years and I'm in negotiations to sell.if it sells I'll transfer the majority of it back to the uk and will of made 2 million and four years of living here.the profit has come purely through the fall of the pound and rise of the baht.i think I must be one of only a few expats that want to see the baht go up even more.

i do feel sorry for them that planned their retirement because I don't think anyone could of predicted what has happened to both currencies.also I personally know of a few that have sold up and gone home and now all of my friends that used to visit Thailand have wiped their hands of the place.

thailand will soon feel the pain.its ok all the reports of India and China saving the day but most can't afford to visit.

 

 

Anyone that would actually pay what you paid for it is extremely uneducated.

Lower the price you paid 30% and it is worth what you paid for it.

But, good luck.  Toss it on the market with the 10's of thousands of other properties and watch it sit....

[DrTuner]

3 hours ago, LazySlipper said:

Really? The THB is strong and hurting expats lifestyle?

 

Let me get my reading glasses... must have missed something.

Probably that it's an evil farang publisher, Bloomberg. NNT would never publish such utter toss, Thailaaaan is numbah one!

[DrTuner]

3 hours ago, sungod said:

I lost all interest when I started reading quotes from Niels Colov, it lost credibility at this point,  thousands leaving? Don't know of any personally.

Learned yesterday that our neighbour, a brit, is heading back to UK, after I saw the moving truck and asked him. Means only one neighbour, a Thai, is left. Nice and quiet here, I like the apocalypse.

[bkk6060]

30 minutes ago, quandow said:

I did. Honestly. I actually planned on having at least 50% OVER what I wanted/needed cuz in my 60 plus years on this planet I have NEVER seen prices going down.

Yes,  smart as some have planned for the future, inflation, currency exchange changes, etc.

That is all part of a well balanced portfolio as one gets up in years.

Obviously, most worlwldwide don't have one or a plan and have no idea what a financial portfolio is.

[Jingthing]

Well currency risk is always an issue if you're moving abroad and relying on your home country currency. At least the guy mentioned in the OP bought a lot of stuff early when the pound was so strong. So that's a bit of hedge. The only way to avoid such risks are to stay home or in the case of Americans move to a dollarized country like Ecuador. 

[Number 6]

Seems like my monthly expenses over last 15 years run 20-25k. Doesn't include trips and holidays, dental, the odd checkup or insurance.

 

Learn how to cook or eat Thai food. Teach English if you have the education and ability. Just stop complaining and stop asking for special treatment.

 

Lots to criticize about quality of life but Thai staples being expensive is not one of them.

[Angry Dragon]

3 hours ago, BestB said:

I remember aud hitting 21 about 10-12 years ago and it was painful but then it shot up to 33.

 

now aud hit 19.80 and it’s super painful, but I wonder what’s around the corner 

 

how much longer can baht sustain its strength and rising prices 

my guess is that the pain for the AUD should be over.  look at the two economies:  similar GDP growth, australia has a lower current account surplus, but runs lower deficits.  If you were holding Sterling I'd be much more worried (massive current account deficit, nominal GDP growth, similar deficits to Thailand, and then there's Brexit. . .

[bkk6060]

3 hours ago, Dmaxdan said:

In fairness, from the point of view of British expats, the strong baht is only the tip of the iceberg. Brexit and our idiotic government are the main villains with regards to current exchange rates.

Sorry, not true and seems to be a common comment from British. Brexit has nothing to do with the current strong baht affecting every exchange currency in the world here.

 

The pound does not make the world go round. ????

[Scot123]

There ares so many nasty twisted people on this site. If they are themselves really expats then their self hate is amazing. I first set foot in Thailand in 2002 and fell in love. Was here in 2006 and witnessed first hand the changes in attitude to farang and nearly all my friends left Thailand. Moved here again in 2010 then new coup again the change in attitude towards expats. You must be in self deniel not to see or have felt it or in many cases blinded by the commitment you have and terrified of failure. We as a family decided to pull the plug on Thailand October 2018 left in March 2019. Not because we had to financially but because of the changes in immigration and the overwhelming not knowing what was coming. 6 police vehicles turning up at one's house in the morning full of police will do that to you. The 800k or 400k in the bank yep that was a doozy, then the gift of 400k or 200k to the banks please don't make me laugh. The compulsory insurance is just around the corner (that one scared me). I started comparing costs and was shocked at how expensive Thailand had become for us and our way of life compared to UK. We are all glad to be home children, wife and me. I do miss the weather, I do miss my friends. Oh and we left our house which I was just about to build my dream extension on..... Countries should not be run by soldiers from an ex soldier. 

[Presnock]

The strong baht we keep hearing about is due to foreigners buying bonds or whatever.  Yet daily I read that the govt is giving xbillions of baht to the rice growers because they can't sell their rice because of the strong baht, then the durian sellers get x billion of baht to prop up the durian price, then the rubber growers and processors complain that the strong baht won't allow them to sell overseas so they get x-number of baht, then the tapioca sellers get x-number of baht because the baht is too high for them to sell overseas,one crop after another that the govt is subsidizing due to a high baht and exporters say the exports are dropping monthly due to the high baht.  Something to me doesn't add up.  If the govt has to take care of all the exporters, how can they afford submarines, tanks, attack helicopters, airplanes, etc?

 

[wreckingcountry]

In fairness, from the point of view of British expats, the strong baht is only the tip of the iceberg. Brexit and our idiotic government are the main villains with regards to current exchange rates.

Ah another remainer not got offer losing ! People didn’t vote thinking “must protect the expats who left UK “


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[ericdiam]

Gets worse day by day and government dont care a <deleted>. Keep interest rates really high. Many Asian countries, EU, Australia and USA brought them down already few times this year. Here it stands on one of the highest in Asia. Tourism is really low, forecast for high season look bad, for expats who live here it becomes really expensive country, many move out. Export also suffers a lot.

Interest should be brought down by easily 1 full %

[sanemax]

16 hours ago, Dmaxdan said:

In fairness, from the point of view of British expats, the strong baht is only the tip of the iceberg. Brexit and our idiotic government are the main villains with regards to current exchange rates.

 

 

 

How have all the retirees taking their Pounds out the Country , affected the exchange rate ? 

[MartinKal]

4 hours ago, sungod said:

I lost all interest when I started reading quotes from Niels Colov, it lost credibility at this point,  thousands leaving? Don't know of any personally.

Every one one of my 6 friends gone

[baansgr]

Wow...took that long to come up with that....I'm back for a few weeks unexpected but most I know are now in pastures new....SE Asia or other....and to add apart from the expense....my first attempt to have a beer in pattaya turned into some yaba head shouting at me....Thailand is done and finished, no repeat visitors or expats....expensive, rude, just a real damn nasty place to retire