What Do You All Do In Your Retirement

[retiredat50]

I'm already retired but considering some part-time work that I could do over the internet. I'm looking at Chiang Mai as a retirement destination and wondering about other possibilities such as starting a business. Not sure how easy this is but if the money is available then how easy is it for a foreigner (without a thai wife) to start a business in Thailand.

For the others out there. If you're retired in Chiang Mai then what do you do to keep yourself busy and happy. Do some of the expats work / does anyone out there have a small business?

Edited November 1, 2009 by retiredat50

[Ulysses G.]

Retirement seems to be wasted on the retired. Why start a business in the worst possible place at the worst possible time for it?

Learn to play golf!

[retiredat50]

Well I'm sure it's not the worst possible place. Certainly anywhere would be a better place to start a business than where I am now.

Why is Chiang Mai the worst possible place?

[pschef]

I can see why he is unwanted, funny guy

[rishi]

I'm already retired but considering some part-time work that I could do over the internet. I'm looking at Chiang Mai as a retirement destination and wondering about other possibilities such as starting a business. Not sure how easy this is but if the money is available then how easy is it for a foreigner (without a thai wife) to start a business in Thailand.

If you've got the required amount for fees etc. - starting a business in Thailand is a piece of cake. The only question is: How much are you willing to spend on this hobby of yours? - (that is money spent on legalities plus money spent on refurnishing the place - maybe for the place' third time in two years - plus etc. minus the few hundred baht a day you might take away from nearby members of the abundance of retirees running a - more or less - copy of your prospected hobby establishment.

Essentially, you ask a foolish question on a foolish place. - The better question to ask - yourself, not a public forum - is: "I've got this idea of a business in CM, how do i beat the competition - particularly the part that can afford to run this kind of business with loss?

[rishi]

Ups - i realize i missed the point I intended to make, which was triggered by the question: "Why is Chiang Mai the worst possible place?" (to start a low key hobby-sort of business, providing income) - the parenthesis my assumption.

I don't know if it's the worst place, but it must come close due to the circumstance that there are about a trillion retirees in this city, all with a lot of spare time on their hands, quite a large percentage has required a lot of expert skills in their previous live and quite a large percentage of these are more than happy to help humanity free of any charge because they've got all their pension plans etc. to support them.

Not much to be said really. Quite nice that skillful retirees help out less educated without charging a dime ....

[dave2]

my thinking of retired at 50 is he retired too early and now he NEEDS to make some money .... NOT wants to

Retired too early perhaps with little money coming in or available ????

but i might be wrong !

re ... Do some of the expats work / does anyone out there have a small business?

work ? .... no ... have a small business?... no .... coz i and many others dont need to !

i retired at 54 and i will never work again ..... thats GOOD planing !

retired at 50s ability to live here without having to work .... is questionable ...

re .... if the money is available ???? well is it or isnt it ??? .... you tell us mr retired at 50

the way i read his post and im inclined to agree with rishis comments .... but i might be wrong on a newbe with 21 posts

enjoy ... dave2

Edited November 1, 2009 by dave2

[BlueSmurf]

What do you do while retired? Well, I try to do what I could not do while I was working..I.E. NOT WORK! Exsercise in the gym, swim, eat well, relax, travel, have more sex and then some more, smile, not take risks with my hard earned money...Enjoy where I live, spend time with like minded non serious people.Not bogging myself down by buying a large property until I really know where I want to live.Most of all take pleasure in the fact i don't do what I used to do and do what I want to! Does that make me the odd one out?lol

[philliphn]

What do you do while retired? Well, I try to do what I could not do while I was working..I.E. NOT WORK! Exsercise in the gym, swim, eat well, relax, travel, have more sex and then some more, smile, not take risks with my hard earned money...Enjoy where I live, spend time with like minded non serious people.Not bogging myself down by buying a large property until I really know where I want to live.Most of all take pleasure in the fact i don't do what I used to do and do what I want to! Does that make me the odd one out?lol

Sounds perfect to me.

Join you in 7 months.

[ericthai]

I'm already retired but considering some part-time work that I could do over the internet. I'm looking at Chiang Mai as a retirement destination and wondering about other possibilities such as starting a business. Not sure how easy this is but if the money is available then how easy is it for a foreigner (without a thai wife) to start a business in Thailand.

If you've got the required amount for fees etc. - starting a business in Thailand is a piece of cake. The only question is: How much are you willing to spend on this hobby of yours? - (that is money spent on legalities plus money spent on refurnishing the place - maybe for the place' third time in two years - plus etc. minus the few hundred baht a day you might take away from nearby members of the abundance of retirees running a - more or less - copy of your prospected hobby establishment.

Essentially, you ask a foolish question on a foolish place. - The better question to ask - yourself, not a public forum - is: "I've got this idea of a business in CM, how do i beat the competition - particularly the part that can afford to run this kind of business with loss?

Give the guy a break, hes asking a legit question.

You can easily start a business, however it's not as cheap as in the US, such as in the US you only need to pay a few Hundred dollars and get local permits. In Thailand it will cost you over a Thousand and you will need to employee 4 thai's as you will require a work permit, then you have monthly accounting as payroll taxes to be paid each month, quarterly and yearly reports etc. so it can be an expensive "hobbie" If you are going to do something on the internet legally you are working and would require a work permit. I would suggest you look for some volunteer work if you are looking for something to do. You can speak to some of the government schools about doing some volunteer work, maybe as a teacher or helping teachers something like. Many possibilities, but I would not start a business it can be costly and most likely you will loose money, especially with the current economics.

[thaiphoon]

Not sure what is the basis of your permission to stay, but if you are on Non O-A visa or extension of stay based on retirement you cannot obtain a work permit. So you may need to obtain Non-B (or Non-O) visa, and that would require border runs every 90 days until the business can produce 2 years audited accounts/tax receipts where after you could apply for extension of stay based on employment if you meet the requirements.

To establish your own business in Thailand you would need to set up Thai company which needs to be capitalised at minimum of THB 2million (THB 1million if married). 25% of that amount needs to be paid up, ie, paid into company's bank account to run the business. The balance can show in company accounts as money due from the shareholders. Farangs can only own a maximum of 49% of the shares in the company so you need Thai shareholder(s) for the remaining 51%. There are restrictions as to what businesses farangs can operate as detailed in the Foreign Business Act. You need to employ 4 Thais (2 if married) to obtain a work permit sponsored by your company; working in Thailand without a work permit is illegal and the penalties can be severe.

Have a look at the following link for more information

http://www.boi.go.th/english/how/legal_iss...n_investors.asp

Volunteer work would also require a work permit.

Edited November 1, 2009 by thaiphoon

[thrilled]

I'm like david Wright 4 post in front.Do absolutely nothing.Forget about A business.Just do whatever comes up.It's not hard to go to the gym,movies,motorcycling.Plenty of things to do.

[gotlost]

I'm like david Wright 4 post in front.Do absolutely nothing.Forget about A business.Just do whatever comes up.It's not hard to go to the gym,movies,motorcycling.Plenty of things to do.

I have to agree with your assesment, and being awake at this dumb hour of the morning on the TV.

[David006]

I'm like david Wright 4 post in front.Do absolutely nothing.Forget about A business.Just do whatever comes up.It's not hard to go to the gym,movies,motorcycling.Plenty of things to do.

I have to agree with your assesment, and being awake at this dumb hour of the morning on the TV.

Goodonya anyone who "retires" at 50 or 30 come to that.. if funds are adequate..keeping the old noggin from veggeing is probably key, lots of stories about previously workaholics retired bods kicking it after a few months from boredom, booze or over use of appendages or...

Not sure about the location chosen but it sounds nice up there from other threads..should go some time...

Last thing I would ever do is sit in front of a keyboard all day/night ...no not me..lol...

back to stargazing methinks.. soooo nice to sleep/eat/drink/@$^&.. when you want to ?

[xylophone]

I was a workaholic for most of my working life and came here after a burnout.

It is great to not have to get up and head off to the office, not to have to worry about staff issues, targets, business plans etc.

Here I have learned to chill out and do what I want, which some days can be nothing more than a couple of hours on the computer, a walk around the shopping mall, a foot massage and a movie. BUT some times I long for a little challenge, so I have bought two houses and "renovated" them, doing the electrics, plumbing and some handiwork myself (not painting, hate that). I live in one and have just sold the other.

I also help friends with the occaisional electrical job/repair, and although it is all done for free, I get the occaisional bottle of wine, a few beers, but mostly its the thanks and satisfaction I get from doing it.

I have almost learned to live a stress free life, and am still working on it.........maybe get back into playing tennis soon???

[SEETEFL]

If you are considering teaching English as an option, there are 3 choices:

Teach full-time in a Thai formal school Monday-Friday.

Teach part-time in a language school (over 20 in Chiang Mai). Hours are usually weekends and evenings, and you can tell the school when you are not available.

Teach as a volunteer through the DSS foundation a few hours per week.

We run an ISO 9001:2008 certified course accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) that will prepare people, who have not taught before, with the necessary classroom skills for any of the above choices. Also included are grammar inputs, cultural awareness training, visa assistance and survival Thai instruction.

John

http://seetefl.com

We sponsor the Teaching in Thailand page of this forum.

Edited November 2, 2009 by SEETEFL

[orang37]

... snip ... For the others out there. If you're retired in Chiang Mai then what do you do to keep yourself busy and happy ... snip ...

Sawasdee Khrup, Khun RetiredAt50,

Since I and I have never been "worn out" ("burned out" : well, yes, but, that's another story) : we cannot "re-tire." The whole concept of "retirement" is as alien to us as concepts of "sanity" or "being normal."

In our personal experience the relationship between "busy" and "happy," as those words are used in contemporary Western culture, has never been reciprocal, has varied "all over the map."

We continue to maintain the same ferocious intensity of intellectual life which has always been our habit since our awakening to what "self-education" is following my human meat-bucket's (around age 35) realizing that his nascent career in the academic social sciences and psychotherapy was leading him straight to a lifetime of moving piles of mouldy old rope from one corner of a dark warehouse to another while listening to whining people suffering from self-pity in the midst of lives of self-indulgence and surfeit

We know we are fortunate in that most of my adult human's life has been spent in passionate involvement with people and ideas, he loved (ideas he was even "obsessed" with in his "professional" computer programming years), and monetary rewards were incidental. Indeed, we are so grateful to have had that good fortune !

So what do we actually do then ?

1. live very simply, using the bicycle except in very rare cases when we fire up the car (the car really does face retirement).

2. try to enjoy the "miraculousness in ordinary" of small moments. enjoy exercise.

3. continue to spend many hours per day and night in intense reading of literature, both fiction, history, science, or pursuing computer programming related issues. live without television, using the internet for all news, etc.

4. money ? don't have much, but, hopefully, now that the human meat-bucket has ripened to a certain physical age, financial stipends from the home-country may be soon arriving.

5. friends ! of course a full social life means a trip to the zoo every two weeks or so, and hanging around on ThaiVisa, and participating in some other intensely technical forums, and visiting and being visited. And a very small (just right) group of personal friends here in CM and Thailand.

6. the "spiritual" ? of that : what can be said except to say, as Ur Orang (our spiritual teacher) once said : "the nothing that life is with it is the opposite of the nothing life is without it."

"Happy" : there's a bottomless well to explore ! My human is happier that he completely forgot that Kierkegaard said things like :

“Happiness is the greatest hiding place for despair.”

http://happydays.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10...d-on-the-couch/

But that's not meant to imply that happiness is amnesia or Alzheimer's

Our "existential" experience is that "happiness" comes in many flavours (at least more than thirty-two), and some of those flavours are "happiness while doing," "happpiness while being," "happiness in forgetting who you are," "happiness in giving," "happiness in being aware you are being given to," "happiness before, during, and after "ecstasy" ... and so forth (is there a "green tea" flavour out now ?).

If we ever run out of restless curiousity about everything, that would truly be "the end."

Just call us "never-retiring" at (our human's age) sixty-six.

Plutarch said : "the mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled."

Ur-Orang, once said : "while the fire in the mind can go out, and can be re-lit, it's best to keep it going if you can."

best, ~o:37;

[orang37]

... snip ... For the others out there. If you're retired in Chiang Mai then what do you do to keep yourself busy and happy ... snip ...

Sawasdee Khrup, Khun RetiredAt50,

If we ever have the pleasure of meeting you face-to-face, and you tell us that you are "contented" and "happy," we will never question your reality, but, we must admit, in the circumstance : if you told us that we were either happy/unhappy content/discontented, we would question you (gently, of course) because for us this is true :

happy ! = happy ? (note the use of "!," "=," and "?" here are not meant to refer to programming operators in a computer language)

Since I and I have never been "worn out" ("burned out" : well, yes, but, that's another story) : we cannot "re-tire." The whole concept of "retirement" is as alien to us as concepts of "sanity" or "being normal."

In our personal experience the relationship between "busy" and "happy," as those words are used in contemporary Western culture, has never been reciprocal, has varied "all over the map."

We continue to maintain the same ferocious intensity of intellectual life which has always been our habit since our awakening to what "self-education" is following my human meat-bucket's (around age 35) realizing that his nascent career in the academic social sciences and psychotherapy was leading him straight to a lifetime of moving piles of mouldy old rope from one corner of a dark warehouse to another while listening to whining people suffering from self-pity in the midst of lives of self-indulgence and surfeit

We know we are fortunate in that most of my adult human's life has been spent in passionate involvement with people and ideas, he loved (ideas he was even "obsessed" with in his "professional" computer programming years), and monetary rewards were incidental. Indeed, we are so grateful to have had that good fortune !

So what do we actually do then ?

1. live very simply, using the bicycle except in very rare cases when we fire up the car (the car really does face retirement).

2. try to enjoy the "miraculousness in ordinary" of small moments. enjoy exercise.

3. continue to spend many hours per day and night in intense reading of literature, both fiction, history, science, or pursuing computer programming related issues. live without television, using the internet for all news, etc.

4. money ? don't have much, but, hopefully, now that the human meat-bucket has ripened to a certain physical age, financial stipends from the home-country may be soon arriving.

5. friends ! of course a full social life means a trip to the zoo every two weeks or so, and hanging around on ThaiVisa, and participating in some other intensely technical forums, and visiting and being visited. And a very small (just right) group of personal friends here in CM and Thailand.

6. the "spiritual" ? of that : what can be said except to say, as Ur Orang (our spiritual teacher) once said : "the nothing that life is with it is the opposite of the nothing life is without it."

"Happy" : there's a bottomless well to explore ! My human is happier that he completely forgot that Kierkegaard said things like :

"Happiness is the greatest hiding place for despair."

http://happydays.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10...d-on-the-couch/

But that's not meant to imply that happiness is amnesia or Alzheimer's

Our "existential" experience is that "happiness" comes in many flavours (at least more than thirty-two), and some of those flavours are "happiness while doing," "happpiness while being," "happiness in forgetting who you are," "happiness in giving," "happiness in being aware you are being given to," "happiness before, during, and after "ecstasy" ... and so forth (is there a "green tea" flavour out now ?).

If we ever run out of restless curiousity about everything, that would truly be "the end."

Just call us "never-retiring" at (our human's age) sixty-six.

Plutarch said : "the mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled."

Ur-Orang, once said : "while the fire in the mind can go out, and can be re-lit, it's best to keep it going if you can."

best, ~o:37;

[josefbl]

What do you do while retired? Well, I try to do what I could not do while I was working..I.E. NOT WORK! Exsercise in the gym, swim, eat well, relax, travel, have more sex and then some more, smile, not take risks with my hard earned money...Enjoy where I live, spend time with like minded non serious people.Not bogging myself down by buying a large property until I really know where I want to live.Most of all take pleasure in the fact i don't do what I used to do and do what I want to! Does that make me the odd one out?lol

IDEED ,I SECOND THIS , start living !! forget bussines , enjoy living ! You mentioned it = retired so...retire ! relax and do nothing or... as little as possible and again enjoy ! In chiang Mai many oportunaties to enjoy !!!!! Josef

[Gonzo the Face]

I'm already retired but considering some part-time work that I could do over the internet. I'm looking at Chiang Mai as a retirement destination and wondering about other possibilities such as starting a business. Not sure how easy this is but if the money is available then how easy is it for a foreigner (without a thai wife) to start a business in Thailand.

If you've got the required amount for fees etc. - starting a business in Thailand is a piece of cake. The only question is: How much are you willing to spend on this hobby of yours? - (that is money spent on legalities plus money spent on refurnishing the place - maybe for the place' third time in two years - plus etc. minus the few hundred baht a day you might take away from nearby members of the abundance of retirees running a - more or less - copy of your prospected hobby establishment.

Essentially, you ask a foolish question on a foolish place. - The better question to ask - yourself, not a public forum - is: "I've got this idea of a business in CM, how do i beat the competition - particularly the part that can afford to run this kind of business with loss?

I think the OP is looking for mental and/or some type of occupational therapy. Its his money, its his choice whether or not to do it. If he wants to do it as a hobby, and can afford to do it.... whatever it may be,,,,,, its his choice. Some people play golf, some people tennis,,,,, this is obviously money out and none in.... so if he wants to start a business, I say go for it.

My opinion is that falling into the retirement trap of doing nothing will surely dry you up and kill you.

So OP if you want to do it, and you can afford it, and it makes you HAPPY ....... go for it......

If you would like a, less open and public chat,,,,, PM me

gonzo

[Patriciachas]

... snip ... For the others out there. If you're retired in Chiang Mai then what do you do to keep yourself busy and happy ... snip ...

Sawasdee Khrup, Khun RetiredAt50,

If we ever have the pleasure of meeting you face-to-face, and you tell us that you are "contented" and "happy," we will never question your reality, but, we must admit, in the circumstance : if you told us that we were either happy/unhappy content/discontented, we would question you (gently, of course) because for us this is true :

happy ! = happy ? (note the use of "!," "=," and "?" here are not meant to refer to programming operators in a computer language)

Since I and I have never been "worn out" ("burned out" : well, yes, but, that's another story) : we cannot "re-tire." The whole concept of "retirement" is as alien to us as concepts of "sanity" or "being normal."

In our personal experience the relationship between "busy" and "happy," as those words are used in contemporary Western culture, has never been reciprocal, has varied "all over the map."

We continue to maintain the same ferocious intensity of intellectual life which has always been our habit since our awakening to what "self-education" is following my human meat-bucket's (around age 35) realizing that his nascent career in the academic social sciences and psychotherapy was leading him straight to a lifetime of moving piles of mouldy old rope from one corner of a dark warehouse to another while listening to whining people suffering from self-pity in the midst of lives of self-indulgence and surfeit

We know we are fortunate in that most of my adult human's life has been spent in passionate involvement with people and ideas, he loved (ideas he was even "obsessed" with in his "professional" computer programming years), and monetary rewards were incidental. Indeed, we are so grateful to have had that good fortune !

So what do we actually do then ?

1. live very simply, using the bicycle except in very rare cases when we fire up the car (the car really does face retirement).

2. try to enjoy the "miraculousness in ordinary" of small moments. enjoy exercise.

3. continue to spend many hours per day and night in intense reading of literature, both fiction, history, science, or pursuing computer programming related issues. live without television, using the internet for all news, etc.

4. money ? don't have much, but, hopefully, now that the human meat-bucket has ripened to a certain physical age, financial stipends from the home-country may be soon arriving.

5. friends ! of course a full social life means a trip to the zoo every two weeks or so, and hanging around on ThaiVisa, and participating in some other intensely technical forums, and visiting and being visited. And a very small (just right) group of personal friends here in CM and Thailand.

6. the "spiritual" ? of that : what can be said except to say, as Ur Orang (our spiritual teacher) once said : "the nothing that life is with it is the opposite of the nothing life is without it."

"Happy" : there's a bottomless well to explore ! My human is happier that he completely forgot that Kierkegaard said things like :

"Happiness is the greatest hiding place for despair."

http://happydays.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10...d-on-the-couch/

But that's not meant to imply that happiness is amnesia or Alzheimer's

Our "existential" experience is that "happiness" comes in many flavours (at least more than thirty-two), and some of those flavours are "happiness while doing," "happpiness while being," "happiness in forgetting who you are," "happiness in giving," "happiness in being aware you are being given to," "happiness before, during, and after "ecstasy" ... and so forth (is there a "green tea" flavour out now ?).

If we ever run out of restless curiousity about everything, that would truly be "the end."

Just call us "never-retiring" at (our human's age) sixty-six.

Plutarch said : "the mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled."

Ur-Orang, once said : "while the fire in the mind can go out, and can be re-lit, it's best to keep it going if you can."

best, ~o:37;

Dont end up like this

.

[Ulysses G.]

That was a good one! He is quite different when offline however.

[Rasseru]

That was a good one! He is quite different when offline however.

Nobody's perfect.

[pjclark1]

What do you do while retired? Well, I try to do what I could not do while I was working..I.E. NOT WORK! Exsercise in the gym, swim, eat well, relax, travel, have more sex and then some more, smile, not take risks with my hard earned money...Enjoy where I live, spend time with like minded non serious people.Not bogging myself down by buying a large property until I really know where I want to live.Most of all take pleasure in the fact i don't do what I used to do and do what I want to! Does that make me the odd one out?lol

Exactly what he says!

I go to school 3 days a week to learn Thai, costs very little and you get to meet plenty of other like minded people. Then there is the constant demands for sex from your gf to cope with, swimming, walking, drinking large amounts of beer, looking at the girls serving the beer, trying not to betray your gf (almost impossible)........ the time passes very quickly.

Some of my friends have bought bars or restaurants for their Thai girls (some of these guys believe it is their business), these all lose money when they are not on the premises (despite being full of customers). The guys don't seem to mind as at least they know where the girls are most of the time.

If you can afford the losses then OK to have a business hobby in Thailand, but don't try to fool yourself that it will ever make you any money.

[cyb]

I could never retire not totally anyway.

For me to stop work in someway has to be a non starter, I enjoy the challenge of either making money or losing some.

In fact to be honest losing a little stimulates my brain to make it back.

If i had to retire it would have to be where i could consult on a part time basis otherwise i am sure i would stagnate and pass on fairly quickly.

[Patriciachas]

That was a good one! He is quite different when offline however.

Thats a relief,thank goodness

[Lancelot]

I'm like david Wright 4 post in front.Do absolutely nothing.Forget about A business.Just do whatever comes up.It's not hard to go to the gym,movies,motorcycling.Plenty of things to do.

Doing nothing is good

[villagefarang]

I'm like david Wright 4 post in front.Do absolutely nothing.Forget about A business.Just do whatever comes up.It's not hard to go to the gym,movies,motorcycling.Plenty of things to do.

Doing nothing is good

Been doing "nothing" since I turned 40 and it hasn't killed me yet, at 55. Then again I always hated "work".

[Trickcyclist]

make a list of what you are really good at and what you really like to do.

Then visit www.bmyers.com.

Its a product developer web site which provides insights into how you can create/source profitable products, for very little money, on the Internet, from home, using your own experience and expertise.

Incidentally, I have no connection with the guy in any way, but, admire what he has achieved in the last 20 years, or, so.

Good luck.

I'm already retired but considering some part-time work that I could do over the internet. I'm looking at Chiang Mai as a retirement destination and wondering about other possibilities such as starting a business. Not sure how easy this is but if the money is available then how easy is it for a foreigner (without a thai wife) to start a business in Thailand.

For the others out there. If you're retired in Chiang Mai then what do you do to keep yourself busy and happy. Do some of the expats work / does anyone out there have a small business?

[thaigold]

I guess I'm missing something here, but the question begs; why would anyone want to start a business in retirement? I'm happily retired in the Kingdom for going on seven years now. I love it.

I spent close to half-a-century busting my buns in the American business machine. Now I'm enjoying the fruits of my labors, and one of them is certainly not working!