Are you still able to live comfortably?

[jacko45k]

32 minutes ago, itsari said:

I have food on the table , roof over my head and 3 to 4 bottles of Chang beer a day on 12000 of the local inflated currency .

Your estimate of a minimum 66000 seems way over the top in my opinion .

Eat cheaper food and maybe you could afford Leo!

[Mike Teavee]

1 hour ago, itsari said:

I have food on the table , roof over my head and 3 to 4 bottles of Chang beer a day on 12000 of the local inflated currency .

Your estimate of a minimum 66000 seems way over the top in my opinion .

I take it you don't live in Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket, Koh Samui etc... then as 12K would be subsistence living in any of those places & I'm also guessing you own your own property/transport in which case you're not really living on 12K as you've got the sunken investment of the X Millions you paid for your home/transport.

 

E.g. I could pay my rent for 5 years in advance & claim that I live on a lot less than I do, but I would be fooling myself if I thought that. 

 

Of the top of my head, my bare minimum budget (assuming I kicked the GF out) would be:-

   - Rent - 10K (I can't live in a Studio so need at least 1 bedroom) 

   - Utilities - 4K (Electricity, Water, Internet, Mobile)

   - Health Insurance - 3K (I'm 55 so this is only going to go up) 

   - 500 THB pd Food (Groceries & Eating Out) - 15K

... So I'm up to 32K pm just to get by. 

 

IMHO 66K is a little on the low side (80K would be a more realistic number) if you want to really enjoy your retirement (Travel, Play Golf etc...), but if you're happy to stay at home & not do very much then you can do it on less as others have shown, but 12K pm is way beyond low.

Edited October 5, 2021 by Mike Teavee

[itsari]

53 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

Eat cheaper food and maybe you could afford Leo!

Good thinking , never gave it a thought .

[itsari]

56 minutes ago, Mike Teavee said:

I take it you don't live in Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket, Koh Samui etc... then as 12K would be subsistence living in any of those places & I'm also guessing you own your own property/transport in which case you're not really living on 12K as you've got the sunken investment of the X Millions you paid for your home/transport.

 

E.g. I could pay my rent for 5 years in advance & claim that I live on a lot less than I do, but I would be fooling myself if I thought that. 

 

Of the top of my head, my bare minimum budget (assuming I kicked the GF out) would be:-

   - Rent - 10K (I can't live in a Studio so need at least 1 bedroom) 

   - Utilities - 4K (Electricity, Water, Internet, Mobile)

   - Health Insurance - 3K (I'm 55 so this is only going to go up) 

   - 500 THB pd Food (Groceries & Eating Out) - 15K

... So I'm up to 32K pm just to get by. 

 

IMHO 66K is a little on the low side (80K would be a more realistic number) if you want to really enjoy your retirement (Travel, Play Golf etc...), but if you're happy to stay at home & not do very much then you can do it on less as others have shown, but 12K pm is way beyond low.

I am not living in any of the places you mentioned . I appreciate that where i live is cheaper . But you choose what you can afford or want to afford .

You are correct in saying I have invested money and time for the roof over my head . If you have to rent then my decision to live here may of been different . . The House does generate income as well . But the money generated goes back into the house to make more money in the future . 

 

[Mike Teavee]

Just now, itsari said:

I am not living in any of the places you mentioned . I appreciate that where i live is cheaper . But you choose what you can afford or want to afford .

You are correct in saying I have invested money and time for the roof over my head . If you have to rent then my decision to live here may of been different . . The House does generate income as well . But the money generated goes back into the house to make more money in the future . 

 

Agreed & I've always said that if I couldn't afford to live in (at least) a 1br place then I would move to somewhere where I could.

 

 

 

Even without the housing costs, I still can't get over the 12K pm though, 12k pw is more or less the budget in the OP & a few of us believe we would struggle on that. 

  

 

 

[georgegeorgia]

4 hours ago, EVENKEEL said:

I find myself in an opposite dilemma, I always lived below my means. I never had a new car, only paid cash for used. Didn't have a credit card till age 45. Retired at age 62 with a healthy savings and 401K which I maxed out for over 10 yrs. On top of that I get rent for 2 properties.

 

Here in Thailand I've paid cash for 2 homes in old lady's name, we have a kid together. My problem is I've got to get busy spending money.

 

I could very easily been one of the guys you describe with little monthly money had I always had a car payment, eaten out, not worked so hard, never tried to better myself. Didn't do to bad with a HS diploma.

Can you tell us non Americans what a 401k is? is it the same as Superanaution ?

[Mac Mickmanus]

3 minutes ago, georgegeorgia said:

Can you tell us non Americans what a 401k is? is it the same as Superanaution ?

Type "401K" into a google search box to get the answer

[georgegeorgia]

I had just had a email from a  Australian guy in pattaya whos is 72 and receives his australian pension of 42,000 baht 

Apparently NIRUN apartments are around 3k-5k a month !

 

Rarely drinks ,doesnt smoke ,uses baht buses or walks and goes to the markets for his food never the supermarket.

And he lives much better he tells me than his former department of housing flat in Sydneys Redfern.....and much safer at night !!

 

I guess it depends if you can make something better....his alternative was a drug addicted apartment block in a rough neighbourhood of Sydney where young hoodlums congregrate,so he packed up and left ...i would rather live on the 50k a month in pattaya than some areas of Sydney on a pension 

Edited October 5, 2021 by georgegeorgia

[EVENKEEL]

32 minutes ago, georgegeorgia said:

Can you tell us non Americans what a 401k is? is it the same as Superanaution ?

401K is a Retirement fund which employer contributes to each payday and you can elect how many % you wish to have deducted from paycheck. 

[KhunLA]

38 minutes ago, georgegeorgia said:

I had just had a email from a  Australian guy in pattaya whos is 72 and receives his australian pension of 42,000 baht 

Apparently NIRUN apartments are around 3k-5k a month !

 

Rarely drinks ,doesnt smoke ,uses baht buses or walks and goes to the markets for his food never the supermarket.

And he lives much better he tells me than his former department of housing flat in Sydneys Redfern.....and much safer at night !!

 

I guess it depends if you can make something better....his alternative was a drug addicted apartment block in a rough neighbourhood of Sydney where young hoodlums congregrate,so he packed up and left ...i would rather live on the 50k a month in pattaya than some areas of Sydney on a pension 

Always comes down to 'choice', and choosing wisely for yourself.  For me, and 'everyday' expenses, I could easily live in the USA as cheap or cheaper (toys) than Thailand.  But with the high RE Taxes & forced useless healthcare cost ... that raises the monthly cost of living substantially, for Yanks.

 

When own home & transport outright (no loans), the rest is inexpensive both home country (atually cheaper) and Thailand.  No RE Taxes & healthcare cost makes Thailand a no brainer for Yanks.  If single and living local, I could easily live in Thailand on just those 2 expenses (taxes & health ins) that would be required in the USA.   Wouldn't make the long term visa requirements though ????

[BritManToo]

12 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

When own home & transport outright (no loans), the rest is inexpensive both home country (atually cheaper) and Thailand. 

Total nonsense, the money you spent on the homes becomes unavailable for your living, and if you have one in two countries becomes a needless drag on your remaining funds.

[georgegeorgia]

47 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Total nonsense, the money you spent on the homes becomes unavailable for your living, and if you have one in two countries becomes a needless drag on your remaining funds.

to a point i guess,at least you dont have strata fees and council rates etc when renting but i guess it could work out cheaper in the long run say buying a studio at NIRUN Apartments 400k than renting long term

[BritManToo]

8 minutes ago, georgegeorgia said:

to a point i guess,at least you dont have strata fees and council rates etc when renting but i guess it could work out cheaper in the long run say buying a studio at NIRUN Apartments 400k than renting long term

Most homes would cost 20-25 years rent up front to break even.

I was divorced (and lost my home) age 52, so I'd need to live in one place until I was 72-77 to make a purchase worthwhile.

As my parents both died in their mid-60s (I'm there now), I've always viewed it as a pointless expense to buy myself another house.

 

I seriously doubt any guy aged 60+ would save himself any money buying a house/condo. 

 

Edited October 5, 2021 by BritManToo

[thaibeachlovers]

6 hours ago, georgegeorgia said:

I guess not everyone was in high paying jobs though,some may have been clerical workers or factory workers just working Monday to Friday on basic wages .

 

I was a nurse, and paid well below what I was worth, as are all nurses, despite saving lives. Seems working in a bank is more valuable than saving people's lives.

Just because I didn't earn megabucks, it appears some posters think I should not have been allowed to live in LOS.

[RafPinto]

2 hours ago, georgegeorgia said:

Can you tell us non Americans what a 401k is? is it the same as Superanaution ?

What is Superanaution?

[thaibeachlovers]

1 minute ago, The Cipher said:

I mean, you might be right. My entire initial question was about how much people here saved in an average <period> during their working lives specifically because I'm not sure what their experiences are like and am curious about it.

My saving rate depended entirely on how much I needed to spend eg if I had to see a dentist, I wouldn't save anything that month. If my car broke, and I had to pay a mechanic to fix it, I might have to take money out of my savings.

IMO the only answer that would fit would be "it depends".

[georgegeorgia]

24 minutes ago, RafPinto said:

What is Superanaution?

Australia retirement scheme made compulsory for the Employer to pay 10% on top of your gross salary into a Superanaution account that you can access when you get to 60yo ,so if your employer  pay your employee $1000 a week then they  need to pay a additional 10% into a superfund account so i think thats about $100 ,i think it might have gone up recently though ,but you cant access it to your 60yo.

(unless emergency)...I always made additional personal  contributions on top of my employers 10% ....sometimes working overtime etc i would try to send the superfund extra $100 a week if i could afford it.

Edited October 5, 2021 by georgegeorgia

[thaibeachlovers]

12 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Most homes would cost 20-25 years rent up front to break even.

I was divorced (and lost my home) age 52, so I'd need to live in one place until I was 72-77 to make a purchase worthwhile.

As my parents both died in their mid-60s (I'm there now), I've always viewed it as a pointless expense to buy myself another house.

 

I seriously doubt any guy aged 60+ would save himself any money buying a house/condo. 

 

After my first relationship broke up and I lost my house, I decided it was a mugs game buying a house when some woman would be entitled to half the value of it just because she lived with me for a few years. Certainly worked to my advantage in LOS, when I refused to build her the house she wanted.

[georgegeorgia]

25 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I was a nurse, and paid well below what I was worth, as are all nurses, despite saving lives. Seems working in a bank is more valuable than saving people's lives.

Just because I didn't earn megabucks, it appears some posters think I should not have been allowed to live in LOS.

But you work weekends and shift work and much overtime as a nurse ,i know its hard work though ,i wouldnt want to empty bed pans,deal with drunks in emergency etc and when i was visiting my sick mother in a shared ward i remember a lady in the opp bed constantly pressing her bell????

Edited October 5, 2021 by georgegeorgia

[thaibeachlovers]

22 minutes ago, georgegeorgia said:

But you work weekends and shift work and much overtime as a nurse 

Oh my, ignorance is bliss it seems.

 

I did work weekends and even public holidays just to earn enough to survive, as I wasn't married to someone also working. Time and a half of a pittance is still a pittance.

As for overtime, 5555555555555555. In my hospital we were not allowed to work overtime as that cost them too much. They moved nurses from a ward that wasn't busy to a busy ward. We were also not allowed to have a second job.

In the London hospital I worked in, they stopped Australian nurses working agency, and employed African nurses that had to join the staff. The Aussies wouldn't join the staff as they would have lost too much income.

 

As for weekends, are you saying it's OK for nurses not to have a family or social life? Nurses are mothers too, and would like to be with their kids on weekends.

 

When I first moved to London I was agency, and did some shifts at the Royal Marsden Hospital in a posh part of London.

After my shift I'd walk back to the Tube station and pass all the rich people like stockbrokers and bankers and lawyers having a meal on the pavement outside some restaurant. I'd think to myself that the bottle of wine they were drinking cost them more than what I earned on a hard day's work, and what I earned as an agency nurse was way more than the hospital staff I'd worked with.

Edited October 5, 2021 by thaibeachlovers

[thaibeachlovers]

26 minutes ago, georgegeorgia said:

But you work weekends and shift work and much overtime as a nurse ,i know its hard work though ,i wouldnt want to empty bed pans,deal with drunks in emergency etc and when i was visiting my sick mother in a shared ward i remember a lady in the opp bed constantly pressing her bell????

I grew to dislike all that stuff working on the wards so much I became a surgical theatre nurse to get away from it. I think that was the only reason I didn't give up nursing altogether.

[FalangJaiDee]

12 hours ago, The Cipher said:

Is it tho? Most of you guys are boomers, so during the relevant period in question, dollar-cost-averaging into the SPX would probably have gotten you there (source). Might not be so easy for the generation coming up, but we'll see.

 

My assumptions were also conservative in other ways. Assumed lump sum savings at the end of the year (ie, no intra-period compounding of new savings), assumed zero inheritance, assumed no net worth from primary residence.

 

Again, not trying to be a dick here. I just meant to note that I'm surprised by people's general lack of savings in retirement.

Lol not a boomer, I’m 30

[georgegeorgia]

1 hour ago, The Cipher said:

I mean, you might be right. My entire initial question was about how much people here saved in an average <period> during their working lives specifically because I'm not sure what their experiences are like and am curious about it.

you cant always save every pay period, next week i will have a dentist bill for  a teeth filling,that will be about $300 plus here in Sydney 7000 baht

   This months expenses in Sydney Australia compared to Thailand , living in a 1 bedroom apartment in the CBD

 

                    Telstra unlimted internet  monthly fixed                              $80                       about 2000 baht a month 

                    Electricity average                               $130/$140   a month         3400  baht  (last year was  $1635 a year 40,000 baht

                 Sydney City     Council Rates                                            $125 a month       last year was $1480 a year          3000 baht a month

                       Strata building owner  levies 1 bedroom CBD apartment  $435 a month  ($1300 a quarter)     10,000 baht a month     

                 Sydney Water rates   

                                About  $50 a month  FIXED $609 a year   around   month  1200b 

                   HCF   Health insurance hospital only cover  $170 per month 

                    

                      And then dont forget grocery budget ,transport costs , gym fees, entertainment ,massage ,etc

       

Edited October 5, 2021 by georgegeorgia

[BritManToo]

40 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

After my shift I'd walk back to the Tube station and pass all the rich people like stockbrokers and bankers and lawyers having a meal on the pavement outside some restaurant. I'd think to myself that the bottle of wine they were drinking cost them more than what I earned on a hard day's work, and what I earned as an agency nurse was way more than the hospital staff I'd worked with.

You'd be wrong about the bottle of wine costing them anything, company expenses was paying for all those meals.

My boss used to roll in of a morning, "Come on chaps, down to Claridge's for Bucks fizz and salmon kedgeree, on my 'entertainment' expenses" We usually had jugs of Margarita's as well. The Ramada also used to do great all-you-can-eat breakfasts.

[BritManToo]

14 minutes ago, georgegeorgia said:

you cant always save every pay period, next week i will have a dentist bill for  a teeth filling,that will be about $300 plus here in Sydney 7000 baht

   This months expenses in Sydney Australia compared to Thailand , living in a 1 bedroom apartment in the CBD

 

                    Telstra unlimted internet  monthly fixed                              $80                       about 2000 baht a month 

                    Electricity average                               $130/$140   a month         3400  baht  (around $1600 a year 40,000 baht

                     Council Rates                                            $125 a month                 3000 baht a month

                       Strata building owner  levies 1 bedroom CBD apartment  $425 a month       10,000 baht a month     

                        Water rates                                               $50 a month      1200 baht  

Tough luck, I had two teeth rebuilt, 800bht each.

Internet 630bht (+35bht for HBO), Electricity 800bht, Council rates 400bht inc refuse collection, water 300bht.

 

So you're paying ....... $800 (20,000bht) ..... and I'm paying 2,000bht ...... for essentially the same services.

[georgegeorgia]

4 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Tough luck, I had two teeth rebuilt, 800bht each.

Internet 630bht (+35bht for HBO), Electricity 800bht, Council rates 400bht inc refuse collection, water 300bht.

 

So you're paying ....... $800 (20,000bht) ..... and I'm paying 2,000bht ...... for essentially the same services.

But if i was not working and on a Aussie pension of 50,000 baht a month i wouldnt be able to afford to live in Sydney ,i would have to move hours away or to Asia 

Edited October 5, 2021 by georgegeorgia

[The Cipher]

25 minutes ago, FalangJaiDee said:

Lol not a boomer, I’m 30

Oh, word. So am I.

 

Most people on here are like 30 years older than us, so my brain just takes shortcuts. Sorry about jumping to conclusions there.

[KhunLA]

3 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Total nonsense

I agree with that part, about your reply, as you obviously haven't a clue.  RE is how I retired early, along with being able to live here basically rent free for 20+ yrs.  

 

Money you spent on house, you get back when you sell it, and then some.  On my 3rd build here.  1st one paid for 2nd one, and 2nd paid for 3rd one with a lot left over, as we downsized considerably from the 2nd.  3rd build is worth 25% more than cost already, and it's not even finished yet  ????

 

If staying anywhere for 3-5 yrs, building / buying is always better then renting, as long as you didn't overpay for the house.  Land & RE, is and always will be one of the best hedges against inflation.

 

Didn't mention anything about having homes in 2 countries, but that would be great, as rental income for living in the other country, and quite a few expats finance their stays overseas that way.  

Edited October 5, 2021 by KhunLA

[BritManToo]

16 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

I agree with that part, about your reply, as you obviously haven't a clue.  RE is how I retired early, along with being able to live here basically rent free for 20+ yrs.  

I also retired early, age 45.

Yay, for retiring early.

Edited October 5, 2021 by BritManToo

[KhunLA]

43 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

I also retired early, age 45.

Yay, for retiring early.

Beat me by a year ???? 46 and couple months.  As soon as 1st house was completed, I left the USA permanently.  Was actually commuting to work for 6 months prior, though more time here than USA in those 6 months.

 

No way I could do 20 more, I'd be suicidal.  Besides, I've out lived most of my hometown friends and more than a few working peers ????  Although partying was always just a hobby to me, not a lifestyle.