Move Now Or Later

[bobhx]

I have reached that awkward age of 50 and wonder if now is the time to relocate to Thailand. It had been my intention to wait until 55 but feet are getting itchy

I have savings of about 13 million baht and wonder if you guys thnk this is enough to retire to Thailand with.

Basically I have 15 years until pension becomes available.

I would want to have a reasonable lifestyle probably a house in Chiang Mai and enough to travel a little. I have aThai wife so theres another expense.

If needed I would try and get some work.

Any thoughts ,ideas and opinions would help in this decision

Cheers

[Bizz]

I have reached that awkward age of 50 and wonder if now is the time to relocate to Thailand. It had been my intention to wait until 55 but feet are getting itchy

I have savings of about 13 million baht and wonder if you guys thnk this is enough to retire to Thailand with.

Basically I have 15 years until pension becomes available.

I would want to have a reasonable lifestyle probably a house in Chiang Mai and enough to travel a little. I have aThai wife so theres another expense.

If needed I would try and get some work.

Any thoughts ,ideas and opinions would help in this decision

Cheers

BOBHX

Hi Bob im in the same boat mabye with a little extra money .

If you search the forum you will find lots of interesting information .

[stevehaigh]

I have savings of about 13 million baht and wonder if you guys thnk this is enough to retire to Thailand with.

Basically I have 15 years

almost 1M/year, that's 2700 baht/day, in Chiang Mai, you could live like a king! (no offense to the actual king).

i know people that live on 270 baht/day up north. no problem dude, go for it. at 50, it's time to move on with your life. i'm 45 and i already made that decision.

steve

[monkeygirl]

15 years is still a long time. you should come and enjoy your 'younger' years here, but keep in mind to work. why don't you come over and take a tefl course and see if you like it? you can just work part-time and live modestly. looks like you have enuf savings to tide you over if you do.

[stevehaigh]

i think your real question should be, what to do with 13M baht. That's about $US320,000, a very tidy little sum. if you invest that well, you could simply live on the interest.

i'm not a financial expert, but i can tell you i recently got out of individual stocks because I suck at it, and now i follow mutual funds pretty closely. fidelity investments has some good tools for reviewing the performance of mutual funds, i suggest you check it out.

steve

[GuestHouse]

Retiring at 50 seems a very attractive idea, until the 'holiday' wears off and you find there is bugger all to do with your days.

OK, it might be your thing, if it is take this piece of advice.

Put your money in the highest intrest account you can find NOT in Thailand

and draw money as you need it.

Even so, at the back of my mind would be a worry that the pension gets robbed by your employers/investment company/government

[astral]

Retiring at 50 seems a very attractive idea, until the 'holiday' wears off and you find there is bugger all to do with your days.

OK, it might be your thing, if it is take this piece of advice.

Put your money in the highest intrest account you can find NOT in Thailand

and draw money as you need it.

I am 57 and semi-retired.

I do contract work in the computer industry outside Thailand.

I travel when the company requires me to, but can chose not to go.

I enjoy the mental stimulation of work, but do not want the stress all the year round.

I work about 4 months a year and earn enough to cover the rest of the year.

Living here is relatively cheap. The 400,000 I need to show for my marriage visa is almost enough for the whole year.

Hope this helps.

Don't put off coming for too long,

life here has a lot of advantages.

Edited September 16, 2004 by astral

[pnustedt]

Bt13mill properly invested should enable you to live in reasonable comfort without depleting the capital sum, if you assume a monthly income of BT40K.

I'm also in a position where I plan to retire to LOS in a few years and have "itchy feet" and could do it now - but I'm gonna stick to my plan. I'd rather put up with a few years of frustration and have the reassurance of a larger sum behind me. I don't think I'll regret having too much money.

[phormio]

I have reached that awkward age of 50 and wonder if now is the time to relocate to Thailand. It had been my intention to wait until 55 but feet are getting itchy

I have savings of about 13 million baht and wonder if you guys thnk this is enough to retire to Thailand with.

Basically I have 15 years until pension becomes available.

I would want to have a reasonable lifestyle probably a house in Chiang Mai and enough to travel a little. I  have aThai wife so theres another expense.

If needed I would try and get some work.

Any thoughts ,ideas and opinions would help in this decision

Cheers

From your writing style, I'm guessing you're a yank, but no matter.

You might want to have a look at "The Four Pillars of Investing" by

William Bernstein - quite an excellent book on investing. I would limit withdrawals from your assets to 3% to be conservate. Sounds like you have a degree(s) and could land a job teaching English or something else (that's what I'll be doing in a few months); you ought to be able to meet your living expenses doing this, assuming you don't have extravagant tastes. As pnustedt says above, can't hurt to have too much money.

[Limbo]

You think it is not a question you can ask yourself?

And you alter ego doesn't know the answer? So you ask us?

Useless my dear, nobody can answer this question for you.

One day there might be the moment, that you tell yourself 'enough is enough' and that is the moment. That answer will come from your little toe, from your heart, it might even come from your brain. Trust your little toe in this more than your brain, that's the advice I give you.

For 50 thousand you live comfortable, a good house, a good car. Maybe not in Bangkok, that I don't know.

I knew once a person who worked untill he was 65, the age he would get full pension. He never saw one penny of it: he died one week after his 65th birthday.

What do you want, maybe three bedrooms in stead of two, a fourwheeldriven vehicle instead of a twowheeldriven. Two second wifes? Six beers instead of four?

A British friend of me played very succesfull on the stockmarket untill he was 72.

More and more and more. He couldn't stop. 7 Million British Pounds he left behind.

It was not written on his coffin. His remains were burnt, some nice wood hiding the car-tyres. But it was done well.

Work is like a drug, you need more and more of it, at a certain moment you cannot stop anymore. Be carefull!

I stopped at forty, because I didn't dare when I was thirty. I am a coward.

[PeaceBlondie]

I retired at age 56, got bored, and ended up in Thailand at age 60, teaching English full time and loving it. I live in Chiang Mai.

There was a poster here this week who wanted to come here at age 46, one million baht, current history of mental disorder (depression). Most of us advised against coming. But your case sounds do-able.

If you very conservatively invest 13 million back in your home country, you could withdraw 5% a year. That depletes your capital fairly much during 15 years, but not too much, and gives you and income of 650,000 baht per year, or over 54,000 per month. Again, with no offense intended to their royal highnesses, you and your wive should be able to live in CMai like a prince and princess on 50K. If you want to teach English half time you'd earn about 260 baht per contact hour.

Yes, you're ready and able. Plan and then execute your plan, if you're sure that's what you really want.

[loong]

If you can, take a year or 2 out and this will give you the chance to work out how much your individual requirements will cost you each month.

Once you know how much cash you need to keep you happy and comfortable you will be able to do the sums.

Nobody can tell you how much you will need to support your lifestyle as 100 people will tell you 100 different amounts.

Take a look at the thread at

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?act=ST&f=1&t=15956

Have you considered buying property in your home country to rent out?

However you invest your cash, you should be able to project an income and see whether it will be enough for your needs.

Do remember tho, That the Baht is relatively weak at the moment and this could change, so your dollar, pound or Euro may buy less Baht a few years down the line. I would allow at least a 20% margin if I were you.

Personally, I believe that with 13 Mill Baht, you should have absolutely no problems, but then I find that I live very comfortably on 30,000 per month, whereas others need at least 100,000.

Good luck, don't be too apprehensive.

SOMETIMES LIFE IS SHORTER THAN YOU THINK