Alternatives To Keeping Baht In A Thai Bank

[Tiger7Moth]

Sorry if this is at all redundant... I read the post on safety of Thai banks.

With the S&P down 10% in 2 days again and with the jobs report due out tomorrow (and with this being a global economy and it seems like all markets are in step with one another), it seems the Thai economy, like all the others, is in for hard times. With my meager savings in a Thai bank, I am worried.

I receive a US pension which is sufficient to live on, but, I would like to hold onto my savings for a rainy day. I have considered taking my money out of the Thai bank and investing in gold bullion, as an offset to further decline in world markets, which I expect. But, to be honest, I have no idea what I should do.

Any suggestions on what to do with savings currently in a Thai bank would be appreciated (I am not looking to make a bundle, maintaining my current position would be fine by me.

Thanks for any suggestions

[Goyave]

Sorry if this is at all redundant... I read the post on safety of Thai banks.

With the S&P down 10% in 2 days again and with the jobs report due out tomorrow (and with this being a global economy and it seems like all markets are in step with one another), it seems the Thai economy, like all the others, is in for hard times. With my meager savings in a Thai bank, I am worried.

I receive a US pension which is sufficient to live on, but, I would like to hold onto my savings for a rainy day. I have considered taking my money out of the Thai bank and investing in gold bullion, as an offset to further decline in world markets, which I expect. But, to be honest, I have no idea what I should do.

Any suggestions on what to do with savings currently in a Thai bank would be appreciated (I am not looking to make a bundle, maintaining my current position would be fine by me.

Thanks for any suggestions

Invest abroad or buy gold (for instance, the most basically designed bracelets, because you won't pay the design of the jewel, but mostly the gold itself).

Edited November 7, 2008 by Goyave

[jts-khorat]

Sorry if this is at all redundant... I read the post on safety of Thai banks.

With the S&P down 10% in 2 days again and with the jobs report due out tomorrow (and with this being a global economy and it seems like all markets are in step with one another), it seems the Thai economy, like all the others, is in for hard times. With my meager savings in a Thai bank, I am worried.

I receive a US pension which is sufficient to live on, but, I would like to hold onto my savings for a rainy day. I have considered taking my money out of the Thai bank and investing in gold bullion, as an offset to further decline in world markets, which I expect. But, to be honest, I have no idea what I should do.

Any suggestions on what to do with savings currently in a Thai bank would be appreciated (I am not looking to make a bundle, maintaining my current position would be fine by me.

Thanks for any suggestions

Invest abroad or buy gold (for instance, the most basically designed bracelets, because you won't pay the design of the jewel, but mostly the gold itself).

Obviously, goldbugs will disagree, but I would see gold falling in tandem with other commodities -- as they are fixed in USD -- at least until the dollar gives up its unnatural strength due to the endless amounts of money the help packages of the US government creates are used up. Then might be the right moment to have your cash ready and do whatever this situation warrants.

The only blip I see in the immediate horizon is that gold locally might rise a little bit for Christmas. Seeing it historically, gold is still very expensive in price and there is an endless number of posts in this forum where you can do further research on this.

As many will advise, being in gold should be not much more than 10-15% of your portfolio, for diversification reasons and because gold will only be really good in an absolute catastrophic scenario. In such a case I would assume that the Thai visa regulations will break the deal anyway as they want to see cash.

Also, if you must buy gold, then do not buy bracelets as Goyave advises, buy gold ingots. They are sold in 1, 2, 5 and 10 baht weights and carry no design surcharge at all.

You might have to look a little bit around, as some shops will not sell them to you right now. They do live on the design fee which can be a few hundred Baht, increasing your spread until you breakeven considerably.

For ingots the spread between buying and selling should be not more than THb 100, the spread of gold in Bangkok to other locations in the country should be also not much more than that (it is for example THb 150 between Phuket and the Bangkok gold price).

[Goyave]

... Also, if you must buy gold, then do not buy bracelets as Goyave advises, buy gold ingots. They are sold in 1, 2, 5 and 10 baht weights and carry no design surcharge at all.

You might have to look a little bit around, as some shops will not sell them to you right now. They do live on the design fee which can be a few hundred Baht, increasing your spread until you breakeven considerably.

For ingots the spread between buying and selling should be not more than THb 100, the spread of gold in Bangkok to other locations in the country should be also not much more than that (it is for example THb 150 between Phuket and the Bangkok gold price).

I said "for instance" (speaking about bracelets), but ingots are a better option, sure.