After retirement, what? - for a Thai national

[ravip]

I was thinking how a normal Thai citizen carries on after retirement. According to the bank interest, someone should have millions invested to live by the interest. Starting up a business? I guess is not for everyone.

 

What other practical means are available?

[jaideedave]

Children and or siblings...they usually all live together...much like the dot Indians

[mfd101]

Well, as for the poor people (Khmer peasants) amongst whom I live, there is no retirement (though thanks to Thaksin there is now a very modest old age monthly income from the government).

 

That's of course the reason why poor people have so many children, to look after them once they're too old to fend for themselves.

[ravip]

2 minutes ago, mfd101 said:

Well, as for the poor people (Khmer peasants) amongst whom I live, there is no retirement (though thanks to Thaksin there is now a very modest old age monthly income from the government).

 

That's of course the reason why poor people have so many children, to look after them once they're too old to fend for themselves.

What about the middle class?

An engineer, technician, policeman, secretary etc. etc

[Robin]

It is not only in Thailand.  When you are too old to work for your living, you are expected to die.   Most western pension schemes are based on this.

UK pensions are going broke because its citizens will not die soon after retiring.

[DavisH]

Just now, ravip said:

What about the middle class?

An engineer, technician, policeman, secretary etc. etc

If they're a civil servant they get a nice pension and medical care. Other professionals are likely to have a provident fund or some other kinds of investments (as well as being looked after by family). The nice thing about a civil servant pension is that you can keep working full time after 60 (not for givt though) and still get the full pension. 

[DavisH]

Just now, Robin said:

It is not only in Thailand.  When you are too old to work for your living, you are expected to die.   Most western pension schemes are based on this.

UK pensions are going broke because its citizens will not die soon after retiring.

Australia has i covered...just increase the old age pension age! Either way, I won't qualify for that, and will have to make do on earning, family and other investments. 

[GarryP]

I will draw a lovely pension of appproximately Baht 5,500 per month (Thai Social Security pension), which will be supported by my savings.  Most Thais who are official employees in companies will also get a similar amount. However, those working in small businesses or self-employed often do not pay in so they will get Baht 600/month when they retire.  

[GarryP]

5 minutes ago, Robin said:

It is not only in Thailand.  When you are too old to work for your living, you are expected to die.   Most western pension schemes are based on this.

UK pensions are going broke because its citizens will not die soon after retiring.

So they keep increasing the retirement age.

[jaideedave]

9 minutes ago, Robin said:

It is not only in Thailand.  When you are too old to work for your living, you are expected to die.   Most western pension schemes are based on this.

UK pensions are going broke because its citizens will not die soon after retiring.

Yes the governments keep raising the retirement age.Their problem is that life expectancy is rising.

In some countries they are now offering euthanasia (CDA) even for poverty struck people.(illness not required) They want you to drop dead on your last day of work.Funding pension schemes is expensive.

 

[mfd101]

In Usofa life expectancy is falling ...

[JimTripper]

Daughters and sons marrying wealthier partners who carry up the family. That’s about it in a nutshell.

[Kwasaki]

1 hour ago, ravip said:

What about the middle class?

An engineer, technician, policeman, secretary etc. etc

A guy retired from post office ran in local elections and has a electric golf cart type vehicle he uses as a taxi around our park and village. 

 

There was a teacher who retired and drank himself to death.

 

A couple who had a large shop owed by them is now a 7-11 and they just sit around their Guesthouses and Hotel they own to, there billionaires.

 

A retired police does taxis in his truck and electric golf cart.

 

As said lots of the poor here do the odd job and rely on family.

 

 

[georgegeorgia]

I was wondering about retiring Thai people the other day when I was lining up at immigration in the airport.

A old guy officer looked 60 over ,I'm thinking does he get a government pension when he retires 

 

[DiDiChok]

What a gloomy lot of people in this thread!  Yes, we're all going to die, but not today for most people.  Immigration Officers are Police, in the Government scheme and will be all right when they retire.  However, I do agree that this is not so for many other occupations.  In my village we've got all kinds of Government ex-employees who are comfortable and others have various ways of getting income including skimming from their children as mentioned before.  Is nobody thinking that the real reason for raising the pension age is caused by the lower numbers of contributing younger people these days?

 

Pensions are something that you have to contribute to over many years, as I did over 40 years and I can tell you that it wasn't cheap either.  But I was educated about it before I was 20 by my parents and I'm now over 70.  Thailand has only just woken up to Pensions and most wouldn't pay into one even if they'd got the money to do that.  The part of the Thai mind set that thinks about the future is not as well set up as it is in the west, but that is now changing at last.  An insurance broker and financial adviser lives nearby and he tells me that now, retirement planning is one of his best business aspects.

 

I remember bursting out laughing in my 20's when I met someone for the first time who he told me that he hadn't got a pension.  I thought it was a kind of April fools' joke.  When I started work you had to join the pension scheme or you couldn't have the job.  I had just been assuming that everyone else was in the same situation and they aren't.  You cannot base your retirement on a plan based on winning the lottery.  I blame the "woke" generation to whom everything is now optional when to us "Boomers" it plainly isn't.

[In the jungle]

8 hours ago, mfd101 said:

In Usofa life expectancy is falling ...

Life expectancy is also falling in the UK.

[swissie]

FACTS ANYONE?

Every Thai over 60 can get a a monthly pension of THB 600. Until now. The current government has just decided that only "poor people" will get the BHT 600 in the future. Them having to prove that they are "poor".

As an immediate reaction to this outrage, several organisations are counter-acting this outrage and demanding that the minimum rent should be raised to 3000BHT/month. May they succeed.

How much is 600 BHT in your "western currency"? 

[DiDiChok]

This much: 

[matchar]

 

1 hour ago, DiDiChok said:

What a gloomy lot of people in this thread!  Yes, we're all going to die, but not today for most people.  Immigration Officers are Police, in the Government scheme and will be all right when they retire.  However, I do agree that this is not so for many other occupations.  In my village we've got all kinds of Government ex-employees who are comfortable and others have various ways of getting income including skimming from their children as mentioned before.  Is nobody thinking that the real reason for raising the pension age is caused by the lower numbers of contributing younger people these days?

 

Pensions are something that you have to contribute to over many years, as I did over 40 years and I can tell you that it wasn't cheap either.  But I was educated about it before I was 20 by my parents and I'm now over 70.  Thailand has only just woken up to Pensions and most wouldn't pay into one even if they'd got the money to do that.  The part of the Thai mind set that thinks about the future is not as well set up as it is in the west, but that is now changing at last.  An insurance broker and financial adviser lives nearby and he tells me that now, retirement planning is one of his best business aspects.

 

I remember bursting out laughing in my 20's when I met someone for the first time who he told me that he hadn't got a pension.  I thought it was a kind of April fools' joke.  When I started work you had to join the pension scheme or you couldn't have the job.  I had just been assuming that everyone else was in the same situation and they aren't.  You cannot base your retirement on a plan based on winning the lottery.  I blame the "woke" generation to whom everything is now optional when to us "Boomers" it plainly isn't.

The problem with most boomers is they didn't pay enough taxes to cover their government pensions due to massively increased life expectancy...

 

So now it's up to the younger generation to make up the shortfall with sky high taxes to support a rapidly ageing population.

[swissie]

33 minutes ago, DiDiChok said:

This much: 

Come on. I know the exchange rates. The question was more adressed to Farangs complaining about their meagre pension benefits in comparison of Thai old age benefits.

 

I have no idea how an old person can live on BHT 600/month. Thankfully we were born into a so called "nanny state". Otherwise most of Farangs could not live in Thailand in their "golden years". Long live a well organised "nanny state".

[still kicking]

10 hours ago, DavisH said:

Australia has i covered...just increase the old age pension age! Either way, I won't qualify for that, and will have to make do on earning, family and other investments. 

What increase I haven't seen one, but most Aussies have superannuation as well 

[still kicking]

33 minutes ago, matchar said:

 

The problem with most boomers is they didn't pay enough taxes to cover their government pensions due to massively increased life expectancy...

 

So now it's up to the younger generation to make up the shortfall with sky high taxes to support a rapidly ageing population.

Nonsense I had my business for 25 years do you know how much tax I paid?

[Lacessit]

The only form of retirement poorer Thais have, is when they are no longer capable of working. Then they have to rely on what the rest of their family can provide.

600 baht/month at age 60, 700 at 70, 800 baht/month if they make it to 80.

Most of the families in my GF's village work on the rice farms, some go further afield as tradespeople or laborers. The average family income is around 3000 baht/month.

There's a very aged woman who walks between two villages to help clean up after funeral parties. She gets paid in food and the occasional 20 baht. She's quite delighted when I stop on the road and give her 100 baht.

[matchar]

10 hours ago, still kicking said:

Nonsense I had my business for 25 years do you know how much tax I paid?

Notice how I said most not all. There are exceptions to every rule.

[JeffersLos]

A normal school director here retired and got 2m baht cash and 40k per month for life. 

 

He was also the poo yai baan for 1 or 2 years, and put the 500,000b village playground allocation into landscaping his garden before anyone could stop him.

 

He was then removed at quite the loss of face. 

 

He does have a magnificent garden though. 

[Geordieabroad]

My wife worked from age 20 till she was made redundant in 2021 aged 51 due to covid.  She was on a decent salary for 20 years and then an excellent salary for the next 11 years as branch manager for a Japanese company at Laem Chabang.  She will receive her Thai state pension in 2 years time, a total of 4,000 baht per month for 31 years continuous work, pathetic

[mfd101]

11 hours ago, swissie said:

I have no idea how an old person can live on BHT 600/month.

The same way they do in every poor country - continuing to work long after Westerners have 'retired' on pension or super, and sharing within the large extended family. In my b/f's village - some 5000 people - just about everyone is 'cousin of Yong' (my MIL 5 yrs older than me).

 

The peasants don't have a concept of 'work' and struggling up the ladder and retiring ... They just have a way of life that hasn't changed much for a hundred years since the (pseudo-)ending of slavery & serfdom here.

 

But modern technology (TV & mobile) is opening their eyes, as demonstrated by the way the votes went in May ...

[ravip]

13 hours ago, DiDiChok said:

This much: 

WOW! ...and we complain or try to justify giving a tip of 20 Bahts

Edited August 23, 2023 by ravip

[khunPer]

On 8/22/2023 at 6:00 AM, ravip said:

I was thinking how a normal Thai citizen carries on after retirement. According to the bank interest, someone should have millions invested to live by the interest. Starting up a business? I guess is not for everyone.

 

What other practical means are available?

Those that don't have saved up to retirement, might have "saved up in children and grandchildren", who will take of them, when they get old; some financial, other physical.

There is a small government retirement pension available from a few hundred baht per month, increasing with age up to almost 1,000 baht per month.

A higher government retirement pension has been an issue in the parliament election campaign earlier this year, and is one of the subject the yesterday elected new prime minister Srettha Thavisin has on his agenda.

[proton]

On 8/22/2023 at 2:40 PM, georgegeorgia said:

I was wondering about retiring Thai people the other day when I was lining up at immigration in the airport.

A old guy officer looked 60 over ,I'm thinking does he get a government pension when he retires 

 

Yes and some better than UK pensions, BIL teacher is retiring soon, he will get 40k a month