Study reveals how much money you need to retire in Thailand

[natway09]

U gotta remember that a short  black  will cost 400 Bht in 12 years time 

[BritManToo]

1 hour ago, Alidiver said:

Need to factor currency exchange

March 2007 65 Baht to UK £

March 2021 42 Baht to UK £

For this example, multiply figures by 1.5.

you missed 1997 35 Baht to UK pound.

[JohnFlory]

Pakistan, here I come!

[talahtnut]

How do you make God laugh,

You tell him your plans.

[ICELANDMAN]

37 minutes ago, JohnFlory said:

Pakistan, here I come!

      Have fun

[Millcx]

22 hours ago, Natai Beach said:

 

No thanks.

And remember to add on the £500k for Immigration stuff

[WingFat]

I've lived in retirement in both LOS and the US, and these numbers make sense as these costs are in line with what I have experienced in both locations.

 

Another way to interpret these numbers is how much you need per year based on 14 years:

Thailand = USD 390,000/14 = 28,000/year

US           = USD 601,500/14 = 43,000/year

 

So in my experience, to have a secure retirement and not be in the precarious and stressful situation of constantly worrying about if you're going to run out of money, have assets that provide returns with minimal risk to meet your annual needs.

 

There are of course lots of variables in what it will cost you: type housing and whether you own it or not, health care (especially if you have serious underlying medical conditions), how much you want to travel,  level of entertainment, how much debt you have and VERY importantly, estimated annual rate of inflation. Lot's of people I know either ignore this or use a very low estimate of future inflation.

 

There are a lot of good retirement calculators available on the web for free. But even with those, you have to do some homework in order to properly input figures into these calculators. So before you take the retirement dive, do your homework and plan, plan, plan.

 

Also, in Thailand, if you plan to have a Thai GF/wife plan on adding at least 50% to Thai retirement costs, and do NOT tell the GF/wife about your finances; they'll tend to determine on their own what they "need" and want to spend it x2.

 

[VocalNeal]

23 hours ago, VocalNeal said:

Oh dear.????

 

Sorry all. Just realized that it is dollars not sterling . Wipes sweat from brow.???? 

[ThailandRyan]

2 minutes ago, VocalNeal said:

 

Sorry all. Just realized that it is dollars not sterling . Wipes sweat from brow.???? 

Wait it's not Baht, darn I was just thinking I could go another 50 years with what I have, and now you have dashed all that hope and elation.

[Noah K]

If you have $389,835 (roughly 12 million baht) in the bank, you can live off that comfortably for 14 years. That calculates out to spending roughly $2320 per month. That sounds about right, and, in addition to savings, some of us have a monthly retirement income. So don't forget to add that into your equation if and when you are planning to retire.

 

[VocalNeal]

Oh now I'll actually have to read the article. Does their calculation factor in equity growth if a part of the money is invested?

I still think of some of the money as my grandmother's legacy that should be kept for my children etc. I only have it because I didn't take over the family business and lose it all!. My parents used it and made it last for almost 50 years. But it does get diluted eventually.

[bolt]

Is complaining about currency exchange rates, whilst living in another country ridiculousness.

 

Live with exchange rates, deal with it, if you made a bad plan, make a new one.

expect it to worsen, if it does you'll be prepared, if it doesn't you're on to a winner.

[bolt]

1 minute ago, VocalNeal said:

Oh now I'll actually have to read the article. Does there calculation factor in equity growth if a part of the money is invested? 

No 

its use it all up then Die 

[ttrd]

23 hours ago, sirineou said:

What does  $389,835 Mean ?

Is that to retire for the rest of your life?  at what age?  and  how many years would that last you. ?

 

As they said - 14 years as a pensioner meaning roughly  (11mthb/14yrs) 785.000thb/yearly which is equal to a monthly pension of 65k/thb per month which again is the required minimum level of income in LOS today to qualify for a non-im-o visa based on pure income ...

 

With other words, the wording "savings" used in the article is just misleading - not unlike many other things from that edge ...  

 

 

[BritManToo]

18 minutes ago, bolt said:

Is complaining about currency exchange rates, whilst living in another country ridiculousness.

 

Live with exchange rates, deal with it, if you made a bad plan, make a new one.

expect it to worsen, if it does you'll be prepared, if it doesn't you're on to a winner.

Being a Brit and with Brexit over, I'm expecting my exchange rates to get better.

From 40 to 42.5 in a month isn't bad so far.

[sirineou]

23 minutes ago, ttrd said:

As they said - 14 years as a pensioner meaning roughly  (11mthb/14yrs) 785.000thb/yearly which is equal to a monthly pension of 65k/thb per month which again is the required minimum level of income in LOS today to qualify for a non-im-o visa based on pure income ...

 

With other words, the wording "savings" used in the article is just misleading - not unlike many other things from that edge ...  

 

 

Yes indeed. Any combination of savings and income that provides  about $2,000 monthly spending budget should be adequate.After  a while, when you have build the house and bought the car etc. the monthly expenses stabilize and decrease, (sometimes we don't spend $1,000 a month)  but I guess those investment can be considered as savings,  (you could have built the house, or kept the money in the bank) , which surprises me that when the Thai government is calculating savings for visa extensions , they don't have a formula for those who have invested some of their savings into homes . I think it would be more fair and encourage more investment in the Thai economy. 

[VocalNeal]

31 minutes ago, ttrd said:

which is equal to a monthly pension of 65k/thb per month which again is the required minimum level of income in LOS today to qualify for a non-im-o visa based on pure income ...

 

The cheeky little bar stewards. So it is not based on anything real world from actual experience/surveys. More digital nomads causing confusion and mayhem?

[SW Happy]

23 hours ago, Salerno said:

 

The thing that struck me was the somewhat low life expectancy for Americans!

Junk food.

[Lingba]

another worthless piece of information that has no reasonable substance

[VocalNeal]

Would a married farang couple need double the 65,000? Just asking before I send scathing email to BS NetCredit.com

 

[BritManToo]

6 minutes ago, sirineou said:

which surprises me that when the Thai government is calculating savings for visa extensions , they don't have a formula for those who have invested some of their savings into homes . I think it would be more fair and encourage more investment in the Thai economy. 

That's because it's not your home ........ it's her home.

[AlfHuy]

1 hour ago, WingFat said:

I've lived in retirement in both LOS and the US, and these numbers make sense as these costs are in line with what I have experienced in both locations.

 

Another way to interpret these numbers is how much you need per year based on 14 years:

Thailand = USD 390,000/14 = 28,000/year

US           = USD 601,500/14 = 43,000/year

 

So in my experience, to have a secure retirement and not be in the precarious and stressful situation of constantly worrying about if you're going to run out of money, have assets that provide returns with minimal risk to meet your annual needs.

 

There are of course lots of variables in what it will cost you: type housing and whether you own it or not, health care (especially if you have serious underlying medical conditions), how much you want to travel,  level of entertainment, how much debt you have and VERY importantly, estimated annual rate of inflation. Lot's of people I know either ignore this or use a very low estimate of future inflation.

 

There are a lot of good retirement calculators available on the web for free. But even with those, you have to do some homework in order to properly input figures into these calculators. So before you take the retirement dive, do your homework and plan, plan, plan.

 

Also, in Thailand, if you plan to have a Thai GF/wife plan on adding at least 50% to Thai retirement costs, and do NOT tell the GF/wife about your finances; they'll tend to determine on their own what they "need" and want to spend it x2.

 

And never mention that you have a life insurance, worth xxx.

Life could be very short after that information to brother, uncle;.....

[sirineou]

Just now, BritManToo said:

That's because it's not your home ........ it's her home.

Not entirely true, I don't own the property, but I own 50% of the property's value. so for instance , if the wife passed away, the property will revert to me at which time I would have one year to either sell the property, or make alternate ownership arrangements. 

  But for the purpose of this thread discussion,  if it was not for me , she would not own it either. Nor would the builder own the nice pick up truck he purchased partly from the profits from my build.  etc.

 IMO  it would encourage investment, if for instance they said  , Ok we calculated that you need 400,000 bht asavings  for an extension based on marriage,but since you invested  4M baht to build a house in thailand and reduce your living expenses we think you now only need 300,000 bht savings, Wouldn't that make better sense?  would it not induce more people to build houses here? Would it not be a win win situation for all those involved?

But sadly TIT and making sense does not make sense here,  

[Sheryl]

On 3/2/2021 at 8:02 PM, Salerno said:

 

The thing that struck me was the somewhat low life expectancy for Americans!

 

They badly miscalculated it, using life expectancy at birth. Life expectancy at birth is NOT an indication of how much longer the average person will live once aged they have already reached a certain age.

 

At age 65, the average US male will live another 24 years - quiet a big difference from the 14 years these people calculated. The average woman, even longer.

 

So almost need to double their figure.

 

Of course, most people have some sort of monthly retirement income and would not need it all as savings.

 

 

[Salerno]

3 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

They badly miscalculated it,

 

For this scenario, 100%, but it was the figure ...

 

4 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

life expectancy at birth

 

that somewhat shocked me. It's lower than the OECD average and, for whatever reason (certainly not from looking into it) I assumed it would be at the higher end even with the health issues from today's lifestyle.

[sirineou]

On 3/2/2021 at 8:02 AM, Salerno said:

 

The thing that struck me was the somewhat low life expectancy for Americans!

I have a plan for that!!???? 

I read someplace that people in the Greek island of Icaria  live to be 100. so when I reach the age of 77, (I am giving me a year just to be on the safe side) ,

I am moving to Icaria , 

 

[ThailandRyan]

6 minutes ago, sirineou said:

I have a plan for that!!???? 

I read someplace that people in the Greek island of Icaria  live to be 100. so when I reach the age of 77, (I am giving me a year just to be on the safe side) ,

I am moving to Icaria , 

 

What?, you want to try and live like Icarus, well don't get burned flying to close to the sun, your wings may melt off, then you wont age much further except as a mound of ash, but then thats just a myth anyway....

[Neeranam]

On 3/2/2021 at 7:25 PM, bigupandchill said:

So I can retire to a proper country (Portugal) for only 40k more than here?

Define 'proper' country.

[Neeranam]

6 hours ago, BritManToo said:

you missed 1997 35 Baht to UK pound.

I don't think it was. It was however 37 in Oct 92.

[Neeranam]

$600k in the USA? One needs to invest $500k just to get a visa for retirement. 

I could retire comfortably here in 12 years with 0, as I'll have about 30,000 baht a month, house paid, kids grown up, and a few bitcoin ????