Lump Sum........

[GuestHouse]

Just out of interest - what does a guy working in the Saudi sand pitt consider enough to retire to Europe? Cheers

As I often state, claims of income and savings made on the internet are always a bit suspect, so I'll skip finite numbers and answer that with 'A percentage of my final salary based on years of service will do nicely'.

[Naam]

Just out of interest - what does a guy working in the Saudi sand pitt consider enough to retire to Europe? Cheers

As I often state, claims of income and savings made on the internet are always a bit suspect, so I'll skip finite numbers and answer that with 'A percentage of my final salary based on years of service will do nicely'.

pussyfoot!

[Naam]

How much to retire in Europe?

there is no answer to this question as there is no answer to "how much is a second hand car in Chiang Rai?". Europe has expanded and cost of living varies. huge big differencies exist between living in Paris, London, Munich or in a rural area of Romania, Latvia or Bulgaria. moreover, defining "comfortably lifestyle" is extremely difficult as one man's comfort is the other man's horror and of course vice versa.

a couple of years ago i did some research and worked out a comparison "Germany/Thailand". at that time i did not take the new taxation rules into consideration which come into effect jan1, 2009 (a flat tax of 25% on interest income instead of the top 47% still prevailing). but even with lower taxes and a considerably less comfortable lifestyle than Thailand i arrive at a required pre-tax income of €UR 190,000 / USD 245,000 / GBP 155,000 p.a. which does not take into consideration the multiple amount i'd have to spend for a home which i (we) consider comfortable.

[beginner]

How much to retire in Europe?

there is no answer to this question as there is no answer ...........................

g). but even with lower taxes and a considerably less comfortable lifestyle than Thailand i arrive at a required pre-tax income of €UR 190,000 / USD 245,000 / GBP 155,000 p.a. which does not take into consideration the multiple amount i'd have to spend for a home which i (we) consider comfortable.

Surely this is a gross understatement of your needs.

Only GBP 155,000pa? This is a mere 12,916 per calendar month. Even a moderately talented and beautiful 'entertainment provider' costs GBP 500 per night in London. That's GBP 15,208 per month on bedtime comfort alone.

I think you will struggle to be happy on such a low sum. Try for GBP 1 million after tax per annum. I am pretty sure it will provide a comfortable lifestyle for most reasonable needs of most moderate people like yourself.

[Desertexile]

Just out of interest - what does a guy working in the Saudi sand pitt consider enough to retire to Europe? Cheers

As I often state, claims of income and savings made on the internet are always a bit suspect, so I'll skip finite numbers and answer that with 'A percentage of my final salary based on years of service will do nicely'.

Oh I dont know.....why would anyone bullshit to a bunch of strangers in cyberspace?

I just wondered if you had caught Gulf desease where the financial goal is never reached........just one last boat, I need that new pick up, then there's the outboard motor etc etc.

[Desertexile]

How much to retire in Europe?

there is no answer to this question as there is no answer

Of course there is mate - I asked him what he cosidered to be enough - a guy slaving away in the sandpit. His answer is thus opinion based. Obviously the answer would vary from chap to chap!

IE for me, Id consider the cost of retirement ,full time, in Europe (based upon my previous calculation) at 1.2 million (50% uplift on the Thai figures)

Someone else willy to drive a shittier car might disagree

[Naam]

How much to retire in Europe?

there is no answer to this question as there is no answer ...........................

g). but even with lower taxes and a considerably less comfortable lifestyle than Thailand i arrive at a required pre-tax income of €UR 190,000 / USD 245,000 / GBP 155,000 p.a. which does not take into consideration the multiple amount i'd have to spend for a home which i (we) consider comfortable.

Surely this is a gross understatement of your needs.

we have a saying in Germany: "one has to stretch the legs according to the available length of the blanket". as far as 'entertainers' are concerned... looking forward to a triple bypass end of next next week and having reached the age 65 the needs and expenditure for entertainers are negligible

[Naam]

How much to retire in Europe?

there is no answer to this question as there is no answer

Of course there is mate - I asked him what he cosidered to be enough - a guy slaving away in the sandpit. His answer is thus opinion based. Obviously the answer would vary from chap to chap!

IE for me, Id consider the cost of retirement ,full time, in Europe (based upon my previous calculation) at 1.2 million (50% uplift on the Thai figures)

Someone else willy to drive a shittier car might disagree

i did not understand your previous calculation and i don't understand the meaning of "50% uplift on thai figures". care to elaborate?

[beginner]

How much to retire in Europe?

there is no answer to this question as there is no answer ...........................

g). but even with lower taxes and a considerably less comfortable lifestyle than Thailand i arrive at a required pre-tax income of €UR 190,000 / USD 245,000 / GBP 155,000 p.a. which does not take into consideration the multiple amount i'd have to spend for a home which i (we) consider comfortable.

Surely this is a gross understatement of your needs.

we have a saying in Germany: "one has to stretch the legs according to the available length of the blanket". as far as 'entertainers' are concerned... looking forward to a triple bypass end of next next week and having reached the age 65 the needs and expenditure for entertainers are negligible

Well all the best with the bypass. A pal of mine had a quintuple (he is diabetic) ten years ago last month. He was out riding his pushbike within weeks and has never lost interest in the length of blankets. I'm playing along with your saying although I suspect you invented it to confuse everyone.

German is a mysterious culture. What on earth does stretching legs and blanket lengths have to do with anything?

Another pal woke up in Bangkok Pattaya Hospital after collapsing with a heart attack on a local golf course. He says when he opened his eyes and saw Dr Manoon's nurses he knew he had a reason for living.

[Desertexile]

Seems you didnae understand any part of both posts.

An 'uplift' is an 'increase' so a 50% uplift on 800K would be 1.2 Mill

The rest, I reckon you can work out.

Cheers

[MJP]

it really depends on how long your midlife crisis lasts, which averages about 3 years, so plan accordingly

Knew of a guy who moved there 'permanently'. Took a couple of million quid. Came back broke.

He must of been one numb, dumb millionaire, a wise one would of invested half and lived like a prince for many years without batting an eyelid.

35 baht to the pound is very unlikely, just because it was during the heady days in the 1990s when 35 baht got you a lot more than it does now, doesn't mean it's gonna drop like a stone again. Ye of little faith

Quite correct.

Through the 1990's until the 1997 crash, the UK was in a dire recession and Thailand in a credit boom (a sort of mini version of what we see globally today). 38-40 THB to £1 until 1997, shot up to 100 and settled around 60 before climbing to 75 around 2003 to 2006 and now around 55.

Makes sense. Might drop a bit, but this recession going on depression is global and the trick is to have a Forex account to make spot trades during volatile spikes. Watch THB at least twice a day.

http://www.forexcult.com/charts.php?q=GBPT...e=1d&type=l

Could be a little bull run soon, who knows. Just be ready and don't be over optimistic/greedy.

Oh concerning the OP, best advice. No chance of retiring at 39 old chap unless you win the EuroMillions lottery. Thinking this way, you are on a slippery slope to nowhere my friend.

[rgs2001uk]

My own retirement funding calculation is based on what it would cost to live comfortably in Europe - not on what it would cost to live in Thailand.

excellent advise, if you can afford to retire and live well in a north western european country you can live better here, if not you may have to rethink.

My reasoning for this is with the exception of the very very few who obtain permanent resident status, all the rest of the foreigners in Thailand are guests, as such they need to be able to return home if for some reason they are no longer able to remain as 'guests' in Thailand.

most of us are at the mercy of thai immigration, i believe for retired as in over the age of 50 the requirement is 65k baht per month, at an exchange rate of 65 to the £ thats £1000 per month, lets assume the requirement is raised to say 80k baht per month at an exchange rate of 40 baht to the £, thats now £2000 per month needed to satisfy immigration, from reading some of the other posts on here it would appear some were ill informed and ill prepared, some in fact had no plan a,b or c.

The biggest problem with retiring early but with insufficient funds is that unless you are extremely fortunate you will at some point run out of money - Let's say for arguments sake that a guy retires early to Thailand and spends up in 5 years time - Returning to work after 5 years may not be possible, stretch that to 10 years and finding well paid work for most would be impossible.

The arguments about how much is required are as varied as the individuals who reply, we all of us have our own ideas of how much we need to live, how much of a safety net we require (if at all) but a factor many fail to consider is the costs they are going to incur when they inevitably get into a relationship with a woman in Thailand - I reckon those who get away with setting up home costs of less than Bht2 million should be smiling happily for having done so at such a bargain price. A house, furniture, white goods, a car, and then kids can punch a serious hole in almost anyone's budget.

a bit behind the curve there guesthouse, unless you are assuming the house and land is already paid for, if not i reckon any change out of 5 million baht is a bonus, lets assume 3 million for the house and land, 1 million to furnish it and 1 million for a car, not forgetting to have some spare cash to replace white goods car etc as and when they need replacing, depending on your age sooner or later the house will need replacing/rebuilding, i reckon if you get 30 years out a normal thai built house its a bonus, if the poor construction and or rising damp doesnt have your house falling down around you before that.

And that's just the guys living overseas, earning overseas and planning to move to Thailand, I can only wonder how anyone without some serious capital behind them can live on a local Thai wage and save enough to guarantee their retirement.

for some, they are only delaying the inevitable, sooner or later when they stop working they will have no capital or pension behind them, somehow i dont think immigration will care that they gave 30 years of their life to earn 30,000 baht per month. can these people not see the writing on the wall? how they sleep at night is beyond me.

Let us not forget too, many an Farang in Thailand marries a woman ten or more years younger than himself, perhaps having children and becoming a late middle aged/old aged father - How many have planned their finances to take care of their family after they've shuffled off this life I wonder?

many have not planned their finances to take care of themselves never mind a family, as they say up to you.

[GuestHouse]

I just wondered if you had caught Gulf desease where the financial goal is never reached........just one last boat, I need that new pick up, then there's the outboard motor etc etc.

I've seen plenty of that. The smart move however is to negotiate a mobilization deal based on raising one's base salary - Thus not 'Gulf Dependent' and a nice little boost the final salary pension calculation.

Mind, its a curious contrast - The Gulf where people get hooked on earning large sums of money and Thailand where others get hooked on throwing large sums of money away.

[Desertexile]

I just wondered if you had caught Gulf desease where the financial goal is never reached........just one last boat, I need that new pick up, then there's the outboard motor etc etc.

I've seen plenty of that. The smart move however is to negotiate a mobilization deal based on raising one's base salary - Thus not 'Gulf Dependent' and a nice little boost the final salary pension calculation.

Mind, its a curious contrast - The Gulf where people get hooked on earning large sums of money and Thailand where others get hooked on throwing large sums of money away.

Never a truer word spoken.

Im nearing 7 years and I set that as a maximum. Its the same sentence as committing an armed robbery in the UK - Now, whilst the time may be harder in the nick than in the desert, its still time.

I never caught Gulf disease, though I do/did like the money

Time to escape back to relative civilisation

[MJP]

I just wondered if you had caught Gulf desease where the financial goal is never reached........just one last boat, I need that new pick up, then there's the outboard motor etc etc.

I've seen plenty of that. The smart move however is to negotiate a mobilization deal based on raising one's base salary - Thus not 'Gulf Dependent' and a nice little boost the final salary pension calculation.

Mind, its a curious contrast - The Gulf where people get hooked on earning large sums of money and Thailand where others get hooked on throwing large sums of money away.

Never a truer word spoken.

Im nearing 7 years and I set that as a maximum. Its the same sentence as committing an armed robbery in the UK - Now, whilst the time may be harder in the nick than in the desert, its still time.

I never caught Gulf disease, though I do/did like the money

Time to escape back to relative civilisation

I have a mate going to Saudi to work. Used to be an Environmental Health Officer, going to and HS&E job. Any tips?

[Desertexile]

I just wondered if you had caught Gulf desease where the financial goal is never reached........just one last boat, I need that new pick up, then there's the outboard motor etc etc.

I've seen plenty of that. The smart move however is to negotiate a mobilization deal based on raising one's base salary - Thus not 'Gulf Dependent' and a nice little boost the final salary pension calculation.

Mind, its a curious contrast - The Gulf where people get hooked on earning large sums of money and Thailand where others get hooked on throwing large sums of money away.

Never a truer word spoken.

Im nearing 7 years and I set that as a maximum. Its the same sentence as committing an armed robbery in the UK - Now, whilst the time may be harder in the nick than in the desert, its still time.

I never caught Gulf disease, though I do/did like the money

Time to escape back to relative civilisation

I have a mate going to Saudi to work. Used to be an Environmental Health Officer, going to and HS&E job. Any tips?

Yeh, bring lots of porn.

[MJP]

I just wondered if you had caught Gulf desease where the financial goal is never reached........just one last boat, I need that new pick up, then there's the outboard motor etc etc.

I've seen plenty of that. The smart move however is to negotiate a mobilization deal based on raising one's base salary - Thus not 'Gulf Dependent' and a nice little boost the final salary pension calculation.

Mind, its a curious contrast - The Gulf where people get hooked on earning large sums of money and Thailand where others get hooked on throwing large sums of money away.

Never a truer word spoken.

Im nearing 7 years and I set that as a maximum. Its the same sentence as committing an armed robbery in the UK - Now, whilst the time may be harder in the nick than in the desert, its still time.

I never caught Gulf disease, though I do/did like the money

Time to escape back to relative civilisation

I have a mate going to Saudi to work. Used to be an Environmental Health Officer, going to and HS&E job. Any tips?

Yeh, bring lots of porn.

Thanks dude, I'll let him know!

[GuestHouse]

Tips for going to a job in Saudi...

I think my top tip would be go with an open mind. I've met a lot of guys here who have arrived fully wound up to have problems, nearly all of them left early complaining about things that had not actually happened to them. With an open mind you'll almost certainly find you meet a great many Saudis who are genuinely nice people. Close your mind and you'll wind up looking for people to dislike.

Second tip would be - Play by the rules. Bring pornography into Saudi Arabia could land you in serious trouble, and you know the rules about drink so don't - or if you do don't try to sneak alcohol into the Kingdom. I also think it is a good idea to stay away from the local hooch (people either take that advice or they do not).

My third tip would be make the best of your free time. Hanging out on TV might be one way to pass your free time, reading, studying, fitness training, cycling, scuba, wind surfing or some other pastime that you will benefit from is a good idea.

And finally, make a plan and work the plan - Decide how long you want to be here, or how much you need to save, or what you want to achieve, plan to do that and work that plan.

I came here to finish a project off, my scheduled 12 months is looking like it will eventually be 15 or 16 months, but looking back on the past year or so I can only say I am really glad I came, it's been a good experience, I've met some great people, been involved in a fabulous project and I've stashed a wedge of cash too.

[MJP]

Tips for going to a job in Saudi...

I think my top tip would be go with an open mind. I've met a lot of guys here who have arrived fully wound up to have problems, nearly all of them left early complaining about things that had not actually happened to them. With an open mind you'll almost certainly find you meet a great many Saudis who are genuinely nice people. Close your mind and you'll wind up looking for people to dislike.

Second tip would be - Play by the rules. Bring pornography into Saudi Arabia could land you in serious trouble, and you know the rules about drink so don't - or if you do don't try to sneak alcohol into the Kingdom. I also think it is a good idea to stay away from the local hooch (people either take that advice or they do not).

My third tip would be make the best of your free time. Hanging out on TV might be one way to pass your free time, reading, studying, fitness training, cycling, scuba, wind surfing or some other pastime that you will benefit from is a good idea.

And finally, make a plan and work the plan - Decide how long you want to be here, or how much you need to save, or what you want to achieve, plan to do that and work that plan.

I came here to finish a project off, my scheduled 12 months is looking like it will eventually be 15 or 16 months, but looking back on the past year or so I can only say I am really glad I came, it's been a good experience, I've met some great people, been involved in a fabulous project and I've stashed a wedge of cash too.

Cheers GuestHouse,

My line is contaminated site remediation (the big projects >£15m to £0.5Bn). Know of anything like that out there?

[GuestHouse]

That's not the line I'm in, but you might keep an eye out for anyone doing decommissioning jobs for the likes of Shell and Exxon, these companies have stringent decontamination procedures.

[MJP]

That's not the line I'm in, but you might keep an eye out for anyone doing decommissioning jobs for the likes of Shell and Exxon, these companies have stringent decontamination procedures.

I did a Shell refinery once, Shell Haven in Essex. 350,000 cube of muck.

Interesting bunch to contract to . . .

[Naam]

Seems you didnae understand any part of both posts.

An 'uplift' is an 'increase' so a 50% uplift on 800K would be 1.2 Mill

The rest, I reckon you can work out.

Cheers

no i can't. the reason might be that we had different maths teachers. but it doesn't really matter. all the best, keep on dreaming

[ignis]

Friend in the next Village has a yearly Visa stamp says 'B-A'

he is in his 40's and has lived here some years, I have taken him twice to BKK for his yearly renewal, as his runs out around the same time as my Retirement Visa.. he has no car only a motorbike for local runs, longer runs or the 50km to BBK he goes everywhere by bus/mini van bus

Sorry no idea what a B-A Visa is

[Desertexile]

Seems you didnae understand any part of both posts.

An 'uplift' is an 'increase' so a 50% uplift on 800K would be 1.2 Mill

The rest, I reckon you can work out.

Cheers

no i can't. the reason might be that we had different maths teachers. but it doesn't really matter. all the best, keep on dreaming

Who's dreaming my old fruit? Im 34 and have 90% of the magic number already.

I failed my GCSE maths, but the simple figures work for me.

[Desertexile]

Tips for going to a job in Saudi...

I think my top tip would be go with an open mind. I've met a lot of guys here who have arrived fully wound up to have problems, nearly all of them left early complaining about things that had not actually happened to them. With an open mind you'll almost certainly find you meet a great many Saudis who are genuinely nice people. Close your mind and you'll wind up looking for people to dislike.

Second tip would be - Play by the rules. Bring pornography into Saudi Arabia could land you in serious trouble, and you know the rules about drink so don't - or if you do don't try to sneak alcohol into the Kingdom. I also think it is a good idea to stay away from the local hooch (people either take that advice or they do not).

My third tip would be make the best of your free time. Hanging out on TV might be one way to pass your free time, reading, studying, fitness training, cycling, scuba, wind surfing or some other pastime that you will benefit from is a good idea.

And finally, make a plan and work the plan - Decide how long you want to be here, or how much you need to save, or what you want to achieve, plan to do that and work that plan.

I came here to finish a project off, my scheduled 12 months is looking like it will eventually be 15 or 16 months, but looking back on the past year or so I can only say I am really glad I came, it's been a good experience, I've met some great people, been involved in a fabulous project and I've stashed a wedge of cash too.

Yeh to all of that, especially the boozse smuggling. www.vtunnel.com should solve the porn issue :-)