Advice For Retirees

[antony77]

It is very easy to set up a retirement fund that gives you a monthly income of Bt55,000 (yearly 800,000). You do not need much money to do so. Say $100,000

It works like this: The retirement fund income is made up of investment returns and capital. Let us say the investment returns 5% which is 160,000 bt and the balance 640,000 is paid out of capital. So you have your bt800k. It can be paid monthly into your bank account abroad and then immediately returned to the fund. There is no law that you must bring this money into Thailand or spend it. This fund can be set up by a financial officer at a big Bank or a broker. There are many mutual funds suitable. The broker or Bank will give you an official letter confirming your income and you have this certified bt your embassy.

This method should be suitable for most retirees and it means not tying up of funds. But you would need to have a bank account in your own country and set up the fund there and of course have some assets which you can use to set up the fund

[monty]

Doable. All depends on what your embassy wants to certify.

Also note that immigration officers might want to see local Thai bank books showing a healthy moving around of local denominated (Baht) funds.

[Somrak]

Doable. All depends on what your embassy wants to certify.

Also note that immigration officers might want to see local Thai bank books showing a healthy moving around of local denominated (Baht) funds.

I think the idea is not to have money in Thailand.

But this don't works about the 640k Bath still have to be in a thai bankaccount. (!?)

[lopburi3]

If you want to use a Thai bank account the requirement is 800k for two or three months for retirement extension of stay.

[bellste]

And what is this small amount of only $100.000 invested in, one might ask. Is there a 100% security that you get 5% intererest. Is there any guarantees, or is it gambling? Shares? Hedge Funds? You are not trying to sell something, are you?

The THB 800.000 must be in a Thai bank account. The monthly income is min. THB 65.000 per month. THB 55.000 is not enough for a retirement visa.

I think I would rather put my money in a high interest savings account in a bank.

[pagallim]

Sounds utter nonsense to me. No mention of anticipated monthly/annual spending requirements, or the duration of the 'fund' with it diminishing by 600,000 baht/year if such annual spending requirements are used.

[Jingthing]

Its an odd way of creating a paper trail to show the required income if using the income qualifying method. Those using that method do NOT need 800K in a Thai bank account. That's a different method. There are three methods -- income only (65K per month) evidenced by embassy letter, money in Thai bank (800K), or a combination of income plus banked in Thailand over 800K. Again the OP is talking about the first method.

As far as having enough money to live in Thailand long term using the proposed scheme, that is a completely different story.

[TaoNow]

A simpler way of saying what I think OP is proposing is that you only need 800K baht equivalent in any kind of a liquid, off-shore account to be able to state honestly to one's embassy that you have the ability to pay yourself 65K baht per month for the coming 12 months.

Lopburi3 would squash me if I return to the topic of the purpose of the 800K/65K requirement -- so I won't. But I'll just say that understanding the purpose is not a trivial, academic discussion. The answer has crucial implications for making the decision whether to go for 800K in Thailand or off-shore, and whether Immo will probe the existence of the off-shore account as implied by 'monty' in the first reply above.

[antony77]

And what is this small amount of only $100.000 invested in, one might ask. Is there a 100% security that you get 5% intererest. Is there any guarantees, or is it gambling? Shares? Hedge Funds? You are not trying to sell something, are you?

The THB 800.000 must be in a Thai bank account. The monthly income is min. THB 65.000 per month. THB 55.000 is not enough for a retirement visa.

I think I would rather put my money in a high interest savings account in a bank.

when I said 800k I meant 800k income i.e 65000 per month. Often pensions are made up of income and capital withdrawals. Mine is such and is government approved. (but admittedly is based on a much higher investment) Of course in addition to this one would need spending money.

But my whole idea was a meant to get around having to tie up 800k not to circumvent the immigration requirements. . I simply leave my pension alone and use other income for living expenses. I bring and put into my Thai bank account far more than 800k for living expenses which would satisfy the immigration and comply with the whole purpose of retirement visas. But instead of bringing in 800k and leaving it unproductive I just bring in what I need from other income or sales of assets etc.

As far as security is concerned you can set up a pension funds that have very limited or even no risk, Australian Bonds pay 6% so you should be able to get risk free 5%.

[Old Croc]

Moving money backwards and forwards between investment schemes and a bank account may cause all sorts of problems:

withdrawal fees, interuption of interest accumulating periods, possible refusal of bank to ratify money moved into and immediately out of an account as "income", taxation implications on this "income" , timeliness and necessity to complete endless monthly transfer papers, etc, etc.