Too Much Money

[brianbrain]

Hi,

Over the past year and a bit I've accrued about 400,000 THB in my Thai bank / savings account. I wonder if I should transfer this to a UK account (how?) or just leave it where it is. It's not a huge sum I know, but maybe I'd get a better deal somewhere else. Or is it not worth the hassle / transfer fees? What do you think?

Thanks

Brian

[Neeranam]

I would say if you can save that amount of money in a hear and a bit, you obviously don't have any money worries.

Why not save a bit more and buy a condo - good investment??

Transferring to a UK account is simple,well when I did itearlier this year.

I transferred 200,000 baht to a UK account. Just went to the bank and filled in a simple form.

I personally wouldn't do it now, I would wait til the pound goes down a bit.

[PeaceBlondie]

Your question raises a related point: how much, percentage-wise, of one's assets should be in each country? Financial advisors always say we should diversify the nature of our assets: cash, stock market or mutual funds, bonds, real estate, etc. But for expatriates and world travellers, I think we should have roughly proportionate amounts in both of the currencies or our homeland and the country where we live - IF BOTH CURRENCIES are reasonably stable.

I've started putting some of my US dollars into my Thai baht account, but so far I haven't transferred even 5% of my cash into Thailand. Then again, an advisor would tell me I have too much in cash, anyway. I'm afraid this high exchange rate (41:1) won't last long, so I need to protect myself against the dollar strengthening against the baht. But I trust the dollar more than the baht for stability. Does anyone here think that 20% of my cash should be in baht?

[brianbrain]

I would say if you can save that amount of money in a hear and a bit, you obviously don't have any money worries.

Why not save a bit more and buy a condo - good investment??

Transferring to a UK account is simple,well when I did itearlier this year.

I transferred 200,000 baht to a UK account. Just went to the bank and filled in a simple form.

I personally wouldn't do it now, I would wait til the pound goes down a bit.

Did you pay a transfer fee to transfer back to the UK or was it "free" (ie. a poor rate of exchange)? I'd be most interested to know. I bank with Kasikorn (Thai Farmers Bank) if that makes any difference.

Regarding your suggestion, I've never seriously considered buying a condo here in Thailand. I don't have much confidence in the economy and I'd be too bothered about someone trying to rip me off. Anyway, 400K THB in savings over one year isn't that much (is it????) and I'd want to be earning much more before I considered doing something like buying a condo. Presumably I'd be spending most of my earnings on the mortgage (if such a thing was available to me as a foreigner). Or did you mean buy-to-let, in which case the rental would cover the mortgage?

BB

[poolcleaner]

.  Does anyone here think that 20% of my cash should be in baht?

I do. I think 20% minimum of your cash should be in Baht....in my account!!

If you've got enough cash in Thailand to comfortably exist on why would you feel it would be necessary to bring more in?

Cash in the US is readily available here so in case of emergency it's pretty much on hand.

Are you thinking of buying property and needing a mortgage or a retirement visa?

[Heng]

Wow, you almost have as much as Bangkok Barney (Dirty Dog).

Just deposit your money at Citibank, HSBC, or Standard Chartered. The minimum opening deposits are 100,000 (Citibank US$ savings account), 30,000 at Standard Chartered (Thai Baht savings)... don't remember what it is at HSBC.

You can just hand carry it back home next time you visit in 100 x 100 USD Amex traveller's checks. No need to declare anything. Or you can just mail them out (no one "recommends" it, but so many people do it) 10 pieces or whatever at a time, and have a friend or relative deposit them for you back home.

[Neeranam]

QUOTE (Neeranam @ Sat 2004-09-18, 04:55:57)

I would say if you can save that amount of money in a hear and a bit, you obviously don't have any money worries.

Why not save a bit more and buy a condo - good investment??

Transferring to a UK account is simple,well when I did itearlier this year.

I transferred 200,000 baht to a UK account. Just went to the bank and filled in a simple form.

I personally wouldn't do it now, I would wait til the pound goes down a bit.

Did you pay a transfer fee to transfer back to the UK or was it "free" (ie. a poor rate of exchange)? I'd be most interested to know. I bank with Kasikorn (Thai Farmers Bank) if that makes any difference.

Regarding your suggestion, I've never seriously considered buying a condo here in Thailand. I don't have much confidence in the economy and I'd be too bothered about someone trying to rip me off. Anyway, 400K THB in savings over one year isn't that much (is it????) and I'd want to be earning much more before I considered doing something like buying a condo. Presumably I'd be spending most of my earnings on the mortgage (if such a thing was available to me as a foreigner). Or did you mean buy-to-let, in which case the rental would cover the mortgage?

BB

You ould BUY a condo outright for 1 million baht(even cheaper) the baht for renting it out. Probably around 5,000 baht if you spend 1 million. My friend bought one for 7 million on the beach and gets 60,000 a month for some months of the year!

I am also with Kasigorn, but they told me that I could only transfer $1000 dollars at a time. The fee was 500 baht(so 2000 Baht for 200,000 Baht), and a crap rate. I went across the road in Siam Square to Siam Commercial, where I also have an account(but one isn't neeed), and they said I could transfer the whole 200,000 but the rate was even worse than Kasikorn. I settled for my 3rd bank - Bangkok Bank - as they gave me the best rate. To be honest, I can't remember if there was a charge or if it was just a better rate. Anyway the total was much better. I am not sure what happens if you want to tranfer more, but from what I hear, the best thing to do is to get travellers cheques,and take them with you the next time you go, or post them.

Too much money, a nice high-class problem to have.

[phormio]

Your question raises a related point: how much, percentage-wise, of one's assets should be in each country?  Financial advisors always say we should diversify the nature of our assets: cash, stock market or mutual funds, bonds, real estate, etc.  But for expatriates and world travellers, I think we should have roughly proportionate amounts in both of the currencies or our homeland and the country where we live - IF BOTH CURRENCIES are reasonably stable. 

I've started putting some of my US dollars into my Thai baht account, but so far I haven't transferred even 5% of my cash into Thailand.  Then again, an advisor would tell me I have too much in cash, anyway.  I'm afraid this high exchange rate (41:1) won't last long, so I need to protect myself against the dollar strengthening against the baht.  But I trust the dollar more than the baht for stability.  Does anyone here think that 20% of my cash should be in baht?

A great resource dealing with investment is William Bernsteins'

" The Four Pillars of Investing ".

Investing in one country can be a bit risky, you might be better off investing in an entire region. Also, you should be able to use foreign exchange futures contracts/options to hedge - if you know you're going to need a certain amt of baht on a certain date, you can lock in the rate (same for the dollar); this way you minimize your risk by buying insurance.

IMHO the US economy is in a gradual decline with current balance deficits and economic policies that will lead to its eclipse in my lifetime, though timing is tough to predict; but which currency to move into? The Euro? The Yen ? The Yuan?

Good Luck.

[PeaceBlondie]

Thanks, phormio, for the advice. I probably know enough about general investments to realize, e.g., that I have too much of my assets in cash now (and none in real estate). About half is in a mutual fund, which is risky enough, in my opinion. International investing? No thanks, since I don't have advanced degrees in the economies of those countries.

Futures contracts/options cost money (fees, commissions, etc.). Aren't there a lot of expatriates, in Thailand and elsewhere, who have bank accounts in two or more countries? Can't we hedge easily enough by simply maintaining balances in each country?

But I don't have any plans to use 100,000 baht or more within Thailand in the next year or two. I'm planning to stay here for many years, and that gradual decline of the US economy that you mentioned is a real concern for my dollar-denominated investments and cash.

Regarding the cost of transferring the money across the ocean: it runs me about 1% and at a favorable exchange rate, in batches of 12,000 baht at the ATM in Thailand (never mind which ATM's!).

[brianbrain]

You ould BUY a condo outright for 1 million baht(even cheaper) the baht for renting it out. Probably around 5,000 baht if you spend 1 million. My friend bought one for 7 million on the beach and gets 60,000 a month for some months of the year!

I never said I had too much money, but it's a nice idea to aim for

Just out of interest, what would I get for 1 million baht? Presumably some dump of a place in a run down condo, or why else would it be so "cheap"? Talking about cheap condos is alright but presumably they are difficult to let and their value would already be on the downward spiral. Hence, I doubt they would be such a great investment. Another thing, I thought foreigners were allowed only to buy condos in designated areas or is that wrong? Can a foreigner buy any condo so long as it doesn't have ownership of land?

Thanks for the other info too.