For All You Retired Guys And Gals

[tb86]

How many of you regret not retiring earlier, or later knowing what you know now? If you had to do it again, retiring in thailand how much money would you have waited to have saved, more or less? Im just wondering you guys with the experience of living here if you owned a house cars ect. how much money put away would you suggest, to live a active life travel eat out ect... Im way too young to retire but just interested in hearing some of your wisdom

[BigSnake]

Wouldn't change a thing, very happy with my retirement here, not a hold lot of money but we own a house, two cars, two (old) motor bike. Grow our own Lime, orange, banana, and a host of other little fruits and veggies around the front and back yard, even with all this one of my very favorite things to do is to make an early morning trip to the market at least three or four time a week, kinds get up close with the farmers/vendors, i.e., the REAL working class in the Kindgom.

[simcity]

I put myself on retirement at 40 (12 years ago), after selling my business; I did keep the business freehold and receive rent from it.

I move here, but keep my house as well in Australia.

First 2-3 years was not sure if I was doing the right move, but seeing properties value soaring in the early 2000, now I do not regret it.

How much you need?

I will say 60000 baht are comfortable for single + some to save.

[patklang]

No regrets for me too.Retired at 49 and lived here for nearly 6 years with my cashed private pension.After renting my house for 3 years i sold up and put the money in a 5 years exceutive bond,but i am 1 million baht down so far,with 3.5 years left on the bond.Got a house,car,2 motorbikes and money in the bank too,with a pension + serps in 8 years time and an inheritance if i outlive my mum and dad,which i dont think of too much,else i will get very excited lol.

[Jungian]

I retired due to stress from my former job in the USA, stress may not be the proper word, horror may be more accurate. I worked in a level 1 trauma center and have seen enough for 10 life times. In any event I do work full time here because it is on my terms and my schedule is as flexible as I want it to be not to mention no one bothers me they leave me to my own devices. I didn't work for 3 months when I arrived here and it drove me up the wall. I already owned 2 houses when my wife and arrived here (in my wife's name name) and 2 cars so other than monthly expenses which are easy to meet we have banked and invested plenty of money for the rest of our lives. My wife and I worked as many hours as possible in the USA 7 days a week when possible with the goal of coming here when we were financially secure after 10 years with only one mini vacation to Atlantic City for 3 days we had enough money to do so. We still own a rather nice sized home in the USA and 2 cars, my father maintains the cars while we rent out the house through a property management company which is responsible for everything but the bottom line is they deposit $1,100 and change in our bank account monthly. At this point I can't see retiring, I really need something to keep me busy and healthy, something that gives me purpose.

[BEENTHEREDONETHAT]

simcity and patklang put me to shame, I waited until my 50th birthday to retire. That was a bit over 25 years ago. It has been a fantastic 25 years and if I had it to do over again the only thing I would change is perhaps doing it a bit earlier in life.

We retired with a comfortable amount of money to survive on, since we retired our net worth has tripled and that was accomplished mostly with buying and selling property in Australia. Have lived in LOS for 3 years and really enjoy it. Occasionally miss the availability of being able to buy most anything. Here you have to order and then wonder how much duty you are going to get stuck with when it arrives.

You need enough money to own everything you require and (depending on your lifestyle) 50,000 to 70,000 baht a month + entertainment + enough extra to save 10% of your income a year. Never pay interest, minimize taxes and don't buy anything you can't pay cash for. If you do that you should be able to have a comfortable and enjoyable retirement.

[patklang]

simcity and patklang put me to shame, I waited until my 50th birthday to retire. That was a bit over 25 years ago. It has been a fantastic 25 years and if I had it to do over again the only thing I would change is perhaps doing it a bit earlier in life.

We retired with a comfortable amount of money to survive on, since we retired our net worth has tripled and that was accomplished mostly with buying and selling property in Australia. Have lived in LOS for 3 years and really enjoy it. Occasionally miss the availability of being able to buy most anything. Here you have to order and then wonder how much duty you are going to get stuck with when it arrives.

You need enough money to own everything you require and (depending on your lifestyle) 50,000 to 70,000 baht a month + entertainment + enough extra to save 10% of your income a year. Never pay interest, minimize taxes and don't buy anything you can't pay cash for. If you do that you should be able to have a comfortable and enjoyable retirement.

good points in your post.I see you live in Cha Am,whats it like to live there as 6 years in Pattaya may be enough for me.

[PattayaParent]

If you're still young you may have children in the future and then all calculations and plans fly out of the window when you have to find international school fees, university fees and just general costs of raising a child.

[BEENTHEREDONETHAT]

simcity and patklang put me to shame, I waited until my 50th birthday to retire. That was a bit over 25 years ago. It has been a fantastic 25 years and if I had it to do over again the only thing I would change is perhaps doing it a bit earlier in life.

We retired with a comfortable amount of money to survive on, since we retired our net worth has tripled and that was accomplished mostly with buying and selling property in Australia. Have lived in LOS for 3 years and really enjoy it. Occasionally miss the availability of being able to buy most anything. Here you have to order and then wonder how much duty you are going to get stuck with when it arrives.

You need enough money to own everything you require and (depending on your lifestyle) 50,000 to 70,000 baht a month + entertainment + enough extra to save 10% of your income a year. Never pay interest, minimize taxes and don't buy anything you can't pay cash for. If you do that you should be able to have a comfortable and enjoyable retirement.

good points in your post.I see you live in Cha Am,whats it like to live there as 6 years in Pattaya may be enough for me.

The wife (also farang) and I both really like living in Cha Am. It does not look like much when you drive through it going to Hua Hin from BKK but if you get down near the beach area it is very nice. We live in a 4BR 4 Ba condo 255m2 right on the beach. Have great views in all directions and very nice and clean beach.

Cha Am is less exspensive than Hua Hin and not nearly so congested as HH. If you are into night life it would probably not be the place for you but it has a great fresh food outdoor market and you can get most things you need. We take an occasional trip to Hua Hin for things we cannot get here.

It is about 2-2 1/2 hours to BKK with pretty good roads and normally not bad traffic. The crime rate seems to be reasonable and there are golf courses all over the place. Good restaurants and 4 and 5 star resorts going in. Rare to have power outage or no water. Hi Speed internet by TOT (they call it hi speed) and of course crappy UBC.

The only downside I can think of is no night life and a slow lifestyle. For us that is a plus. It is just starting to catch on so in 10 years will probably be overcrowded like HH.

Worth checking out.

[Heng]

IMO there's no such thing as being too young to retire. It's in the same category as never being too young to start your own business, take up tennis, piano, surfing, threesomes, travelling all over the place, etc.

[patklang]

simcity and patklang put me to shame, I waited until my 50th birthday to retire. That was a bit over 25 years ago. It has been a fantastic 25 years and if I had it to do over again the only thing I would change is perhaps doing it a bit earlier in life.

We retired with a comfortable amount of money to survive on, since we retired our net worth has tripled and that was accomplished mostly with buying and selling property in Australia. Have lived in LOS for 3 years and really enjoy it. Occasionally miss the availability of being able to buy most anything. Here you have to order and then wonder how much duty you are going to get stuck with when it arrives.

You need enough money to own everything you require and (depending on your lifestyle) 50,000 to 70,000 baht a month + entertainment + enough extra to save 10% of your income a year. Never pay interest, minimize taxes and don't buy anything you can't pay cash for. If you do that you should be able to have a comfortable and enjoyable retirement.

good points in your post.I see you live in Cha Am,whats it like to live there as 6 years in Pattaya may be enough for me.

The wife (also farang) and I both really like living in Cha Am. It does not look like much when you drive through it going to Hua Hin from BKK but if you get down near the beach area it is very nice. We live in a 4BR 4 Ba condo 255m2 right on the beach. Have great views in all directions and very nice and clean beach.

Cha Am is less exspensive than Hua Hin and not nearly so congested as HH. If you are into night life it would probably not be the place for you but it has a great fresh food outdoor market and you can get most things you need. We take an occasional trip to Hua Hin for things we cannot get here.

It is about 2-2 1/2 hours to BKK with pretty good roads and normally not bad traffic. The crime rate seems to be reasonable and there are golf courses all over the place. Good restaurants and 4 and 5 star resorts going in. Rare to have power outage or no water. Hi Speed internet by TOT (they call it hi speed) and of course crappy UBC.

The only downside I can think of is no night life and a slow lifestyle. For us that is a plus. It is just starting to catch on so in 10 years will probably be overcrowded like HH.

Worth checking out.

Been to Hua Hin and a quick visit to Cha Am and liked both,and a few bars in Hua Hin would suffice.Is plenty of rented houses there as i could rent my house in Pattaya for about 12-15,000 a month.

[JohnGotti]

The word retired is subjective. I doubt I will ever stop trying to make money because I am a very competitive person. I see someone in a Ferrari and it makes my blood rise a bit. If they have one, I want one too. I feel like I have enough money right now that I will not have too many problems from here on out, so I am retired from trying to get over that hill. Now, its just matter of going higher and higher. I agree that you are never too young to retire and if you are not a boring person, you will easily find hobbies and interests to keep you occupied.

[Jingthing]

My work opportunities completely dried up much earlier than I had planned. I wasn't willing to work for 1/5 of what I used to earn so I called it quits. No regrets, you deal with the cards you are dealt, but just wanted to add that we are not always fully in control of external forces.

[Maigo6]

IMO there's no such thing as being too young to retire. It's in the same category as never being too young to start your own business, take up tennis, piano, surfing, threesomes, travelling all over the place, etc.

Have to agree with that one Heng.

[JohnGotti]

My work opportunities completely dried up much earlier than I had planned. I wasn't willing to work for 1/5 of what I used to earn so I called it quits. No regrets, you deal with the cards you are dealt, but just wanted to add that we are not always fully in control of external forces.

Better to not have all your eggs in one basket.