Semi-Retirement: Now Or Later

[Desperado1999]

I have been following this thread for quite sometime, in particular the ones on cost of living. I do have an idea on the cost of living and I believed I can live pretty well at about 50,000 baht per month. I would like to consult fellow forumers, whether I should go to Thailand now on a semi-retirement mode or wait till I reach 50. Currently, I am in my mid 40s, I have a passive rental income of about USD2,500 per month and a savings of USD300,000. I am single and I would like to move to Chiang Mai on a semi-retirement mode, meaning, I would find some work, not in Ciang Mai itself, but some consultancy work out of Thailand. I am aware that if I go to Thailand now, I will not be given a retirement visa, and I need to do visa runs. Will the Thai authroities allow one to travel to Thailand upteen times for the next couple of years? Since I need to travel out of Thailand frequently, the consultancy work will come in just nice for me.

Hope I can get valuable advice from people here. I have 3 months to decide, if not otherwise, due to some reasons, I can only do it in one year's time. Also, if I ever go to Chiang Mai, would you advise that I rent a property or to buy one?

[Jebhead]

So long as you have the option of regular work consulting there no reason why you cannot do it now.

Rent for a while before you commit to buying anything.

JH

[Swiss1960]

Personally, I would advise you to wait till 50 and augment your savings to minimum half a million$... specially if you want to buy something decent, you will need minimum $100K... if you will not live alone forever (which I assume you would not), then 50K Baht will not enough anymore... then your passive rent will be gone for living...

And finally all depends on the income you can generate from your semi retirement consulting job...

Personally, I think you would take high financial risks retiring already now... I will do the step not until I have 1 Million in savings, thus can deal with every emergency possible...

[jackdawson]

Do it now. There may not be a tomorrow.

Edited October 2, 2011 by jackdawson

[Ijustwannateach]

Insurance... possibility of exchange rates going even further south from dollars to baht... planning to get married? have children? send them to college?

Make sure you've factored all of these things in as potential expenses before you figure your worst case scenario, and then if that scenario isn't acceptable, you're not ready yet.

[jackr]

$2,500 is 75k baht right now so your 50k baht is easily covered... more than enough for a single guy in CM, unless he likes to indulge every night or rents a palace.

Defo rent until you know it's for you.

You could get yourself an ed visa (12 months) but would need to do a language course. You can (used to be able to) also get a 12-month multi-O based on visiting (Thai) friends here. Not sure about extending/re-applying for these.

The biggie is, what do you get when 50? If a good pension, go for it. I understand the pull is great when one resides in the West.

[elgato]

Do it now. Rent while you learn your way around.

[robblok]

I came here with almost nothing, just an idea and money i got from the sale of my home. It can work out if you have a good idea and skills. Also you have to find the right lady not one that is like a leach. It will limit your choices in the looks department then but its better for on the long run.

Also i would not buy straight away renting for a while is the best way to go. Remember houses can't be bought by foreigners.

Many people here are pessimist or don't want others to come here, sure its hard but some make it and some dont.

[thaiIand]

if you feel that your 2.5k a month rental income is good for the next 30years+ go ahead. 75k baht leaves you enough $ , as an older single guy , to put some asside and live a nice life unless you become a monger.

you could even go as far as getting a REALLY nice 20k baht studio w/ real kitchen (its a lot for 40sqm) and live a nice life with lots of outdoor activities, restaurants and small travels.

[geriatrickid]

What is your appetite for risk? US$300,000 is nothing. I am not being an arrogant smartass, but consider the impact of a catastrophic illness or accident. The reality of Thailand is that a foreigner under the age of 60 is more likely to experience a motor vehicle incident with debilitating injuries than any other cause of injury.What would you do if you contracted dengue and had to stop working for a few months while you recovered? It would certainly screw up your consulting work. The forums are filled with stories of foreigners having such events and they can eat up $50-$100,000. pretty quickly even if one has insurance. The savings issue has to be put in the perspective that we are headed for another recession , if not a depression within the year. It is only a matter of time. Yes, interests rates are low which act to keep inflation down, but we are already seeing the COL and inflation creeping up in Thailand.

My impression si that you are a sensible man, that is looking at the assets and considering the options. This suggests to me that you have something to lose and would not fancy trading in a comfortable lifestyle for one of penny pinching stress. Many of the people that will recommend you "retire" now haven't got a pot to piss in. They have nothing to lose so it is easier to say risk it all. Follow your experience and intuition and wait it out. Better yet, consider a long stay such as a 3 month stay to see if you can work in an environment with unreliable internet and the visa requirements. For all you know, you might say <deleted> it and head to a jurisdiction where it is easier to work.

In any case, rent, do not buy as foreigners cannot own the land.

[robblok]

What is your appetite for risk? US$300,000 is nothing. I am not being an arrogant smartass, but consider the impact of a catastrophic illness or accident. The reality of Thailand is that a foreigner under the age of 60 is more likely to experience a motor vehicle incident with debilitating injuries than any other cause of injury.What would you do if you contracted dengue and had to stop working for a few months while you recovered? It would certainly screw up your consulting work. The forums are filled with stories of foreigners having such events and they can eat up $50-$100,000. pretty quickly even if one has insurance. The savings issue has to be put in the perspective that we are headed for another recession , if not a depression within the year. It is only a matter of time. Yes, interests rates are low which act to keep inflation down, but we are already seeing the COL and inflation creeping up in Thailand.

My impression si that you are a sensible man, that is looking at the assets and considering the options. This suggests to me that you have something to lose and would not fancy trading in a comfortable lifestyle for one of penny pinching stress. Many of the people that will recommend you "retire" now haven't got a pot to piss in. They have nothing to lose so it is easier to say risk it all. Follow your experience and intuition and wait it out. Better yet, consider a long stay such as a 3 month stay to see if you can work in an environment with unreliable internet and the visa requirements. For all you know, you might say <deleted> it and head to a jurisdiction where it is easier to work.

In any case, rent, do not buy as foreigners cannot own the land.

You are what you state you are not. Anyway i came here with nothing and im doing great now. Will do even better in the future. Life is about taking some risks but you have to accept for yourself what kind of risks you want to take.

You can get sick in the USA or the Netherlands for that matter, but you can buy good insurance here if you have the money. It might be bad for your business but you cant really rule it all out.

Yes you can have an accident.. but you can have that at home too.

Kid you sound like a vinegar pisser. Seen it in all your posts. If i did not know you were youngish id think you were an old farang with nothing to loose.

[robblok]

Kid did make one good point, try it here first dont commit to Thailand right away its hard to work here as a foreigner because of the crazy work permit rules.

Also not everyone likes Thailand. The internet is not as bad as he is leading you to believe. At least here in BKK i get great speeds.

[thaiIand]

dont forget that thailand has interest rates of 4% and more..

300k @ 4% is 12000$ us extra a year. 30k baht a month. More than 80% of this forum live below that

Edited October 3, 2011 by thaiIand

[robblok]

dont forget that thailand has interest rates of 4% and more..

300k @ 4% is 12000$ us extra a year. 30k baht a month. More than 80% of this forum live below that

Do you really believe that ? I mean the part of 80% of the people posting here living below 30k bt a month

I don't thought that most people here made at least 50k or so unless you go tot the teaching forum. Most old timers (loads of those) must have ok pensions of more as 50k.

[thaiIand]

have you ever walked close to onnut? 30k is a fortune there

[longstebe]

dont forget that thailand has interest rates of 4% and more..

300k @ 4% is 12000$ us extra a year. 30k baht a month. More than 80% of this forum live below that

Then it's 15% tax on your earnings, thats what I got told at SCB.

[meatboy]

op has 300k dollars x30=9mill.bht,meets tg falls in love,tg buys 5mill.house,extra's1.5mill,family 1mill.car 1.5mill.bike for op,buffalo for mil.oh shit i have run out of ackers.but good luck its just a thought of what might happen.

[Desperado1999]

Thanks for the advice, so far it's 50-50 on to go now or later. My rental income will continue for as long as I do not sell my property. As at today, if I sell my property, I can fetch about USD600,000, so I might consider selling it only when I reach 60 so as to contunue to enjoy my passive income which I had currently. I do not have any other passive income nor pension when I turn 50. I am also assuming both my rents and sales proceeds will appreciate in 10-20 years' time. I am single and likely to remain as it is. I don't forsee myself to pub a lot, maybe once or twice a week. I don't drink or smoke, either do I womanize! I have friends living in Chiang Mai so i would like to join them. I will travel to Bangkok Pattaya and other provinces for short holidays every now and then. I do not have guaranteed flow of consultancy work, and I should work hard on it but not as hard as now, otherwise, it may defeats the purpose for me to move to Chiang Mai. I want to lead a more relaxing life. If I go later at 50, I would have accumulate a savings of USD800,000 if I save hard enough, hopefully my rental income will rise to USD2,800 - USD3,000 per month. I cannot try living there for 3 months and decide thereafter, as some have suggestered because I am still working. I truely appreciate many to advise it is best to rent a property first and then buy later.

[meatboy]

dont go to the pubs a lot only once or twice a week,dont drink,dont womanize are we tv.members so gullible you got to be having a laugh op.

[thaiIand]

just go for it and if you fail you can always get hired as a nany-granfather by farang families.. finding an older balanced man in thailand is quite rare

[guzzi850m2]

Wait until later. You simply can't have enough saved (unless really rich), you have to consider that the bath to $ can drop to 20, I am not saying that it does but you have to plan for it.

How about your property giving your the rental income? Is 100% sure you can rent it out all the time? Maintenance of that property? Other things to consider.

Several of my farang collages (oil offshore industry) all said that they will retire at 50 - 55 years old. Here we are 5 years later, and strange enough they (me too) all work . We all got married, kids, bought houses and a car (some have 2). All those things cost money, lots of money.

You can own a house here but not the land, and land owner ship is very tricky to say the least. I have leased the land from my wife, but having kids I don't think much about it.

Yes never buy anything for at least the first year here, it all looks nice and very attractive when coming on holiday but living here full time is a complete different matter, not all can adjust to the "wake up call". Well don't get me wrong, I love living here, but has taken my precautions and not trusting many people here including farangs & keeping my retirement fonds overseas.

Hope for the best but plan for the worst is very good way to approach matters regarding economy and moving aboard.

[jackdawson]

I don't drink or smoke, either do I womanize!

Definitely come (now); your money will last forever.

[Swiss1960]

I don't drink or smoke, either do I womanize!

Definitely come (now); your money will last forever.

Question is... what fun does the OP have in life???

[StreetCowboy]

I don't drink or smoke, either do I womanize!

Definitely come (now); your money will last forever.

It'll feel like forever...

SC

[Bkkorupcountry]

I don't drink or smoke, either do I womanize!

Definitely come (now); your money will last forever.

Question is... what fun does the OP have in life???

Good point. It depends on what sort of lifestyle the OP wants to live when either semi- or fully retired. One can live comfortably on 30-50 k (especially if one doesn't smoke / drink / womanize) but some here would have you believe that you need at least 100k to just make ends meet.

[Swiss1960]

You should really consider very well already retiring:

- your $2'500 of the current rental are pretty much gone at end of the month.

- your $300K won't last too long, once you buy a house, car etc... or need money for your semi-retirement consulting business to travel, hotels etc.

And even if you're not womanizing... I can't believe that you want to stay alone for the rest of your life, given you're now in the mid 40's. Thus, your $2'500 might suddenly not be enough for each month for the two of you... and you will need to eat up the $300K...

How sure are you about generating income from your consulting business? What happens if you don't succeed in that business?

Of course, you did see people say "do it now" and people say "wait till your 50"... and given that you could save another $500K and THEN retire, I definitely would go for option "wait"...

But at the end of the day, the question is, how much risk are you willing to take...

[NovaBlue05]

Do it now. There may not be a tomorrow.

I heard somewhere that we have til December 2012 so there's plenty of time....

[ExpatJ]

dont forget that thailand has interest rates of 4% and more..

300k @ 4% is 12000$ us extra a year. 30k baht a month. More than 80% of this forum live below that

Where can you get an interest rate of 4% or more in Thailand?

[IMA_FARANG]

I could do a book about this topic, but I won't.

Basically it IS possible to live right now on 50,000 Baht a month...and I do it now.

HOWEVER, it requires you to make certain lifestyle choices. And ONLY if you are comfortable with those choices will you be happy living in Bangkok (as I do now).

Some people might not be happy with making such choices. That's fine, it's their choice. I'm happy with mine.

First of all, look long and hard at your financial situation. Can you REALLY afford to retire? In my case, I continued working until I reached age 64. It was clear to me that the idea of retiring earlier was just wishful thinking, a nice dream but not really possible.

Secondly, you need to look long and hard at your idea of working as a "consultant" while living in Thailand. It is not usually possible to simply come to Thailand and get a job. For one thing, why would a Thai company hire a foriegn consultant at a salary for which it could get 3 Thai employees to do the same job UNLESS that foriegner had unique and valuable talents that made hiring him/her a better idea than hiring 3 Thai employees? In short, you will have to prove yourself and be able to demostrate why you are worth more to that company than 3 Thai emplyees would be.

Also, there are certain jobs in Thailand reserved for Thais and prohibited to foriegners. No matter how good you are at your job, you can't work in those prohibited professions...EVEN AS a consultant. You need to find out about that before you make your choice.

Some people assume they can come to Thailand and "work" via the internet. Well, that's possible...but the Thai law on that point is outdated...pre-internet.... and it is very unclear as to whether or not that is legal, at least to the Thai tax authorities. The Thai tax people would probably take the postion that any effort made in Thailand, whether or not you were paid for that effort was considered WORK IN THAILAND and therefore you must pay Thai income tax on that effort. So you need to consider that very carefully before you make your decision.

You should RENT if you do come here. Foriegners CAN NOT own land in Thailand. Yes, there are ways to lease a house...but the land it is on will never be yours. I won't go into the details, but just understand that basically you will never really OWN that land and the house on it.

But, I promised to keep this short...so I will.

Just be aware that there are many points you need to consider and learn about BEFORE you make your decision. So, think long and hard about it.

P.S. Just to add...about rent. I chose some years ago to have my Thai wife buy an old Thai house in her name on the outskirts of Bangkok (at least when she bought it) and had it converted to my western standards. It means I pay effectively no rent...and cuts my monthly expenses down considerably. I don't necessarily recommend this, but it did work for me.

Edited October 4, 2011 by IMA_FARANG

[thaiIand]

I could do a book about this topic, but I won't.

Basically it IS possible to live right now on 50,000 Baht a month...and I do it now.

HOWEVER, it requires you to make certain lifestyle choices. And ONLY if you are comfortable with those choices will you be happy living in Bangkok (as I do now).

Some people might not be happy with making such choices. That's fine, it's their choice. I'm happy with mine.

First of all, look long and hard at your financial situation. Can you REALLY afford to retire? In my case, I continued working until I reached age 64. It was clear to me that the idea of retiring earlier was just wishful thinking, a nice dream but not really possible.

Secondly, you need to look long and hard at your idea of working as a "consultant" while living in Thailand. It is not usually possible to simply come to Thailand and get a job. For one thing, why would a Thai company hire a foriegn consultant at a salary for which it could get 3 Thai employees to do the same job UNLESS that foriegner had unique and valuable talents that made hiring him/her a better idea than hiring 3 Thai employees? In short, you will have to prove yourself and be able to demostrate why you are worth more to that company than 3 Thai emplyees would be.

Also, there are certain jobs in Thailand reserved for Thais and prohibited to foriegners. No matter how good you are at your job, you can't work in those prohibited professions...EVEN AS a consultant. You need to find out about that before you make your choice.

Some people assume they can come to Thailand and "work" via the internet. Well, that's possible...but the Thai law on that point is outdated...pre-internet.... and it is very unclear as to whether or not that is legal, at least to the Thai tax authorities. The Thai tax people would probably take the postion that any effort made in Thailand, whether or not you were paid for that effort was considered WORK IN THAILAND and therefore you must pay Thai income tax on that effort. So you need to consider that very carefully before you make your decision.

You should RENT if you do come here. Foriegners CAN NOT own land in Thailand. Yes, there are ways to lease a house...but the land it is on will never be yours. I won't go into the details, but just understand that basically you will never really OWN that land and the house on it.

But, I promised to keep this short...so I will.

Just be aware that there are many points you need to consider and learn about BEFORE you make your decision. So, think long and hard about it.

P.S. Just to add...about rent. I chose some years ago to have my Thai wife buy an old Thai house in her name on the outskirts of Bangkok (at least when she bought it) and had it converted to my western standards. It means I pay effectively no rent...and cuts my monthly expenses down considerably. I don't necessarily recommend this, but it did work for me.

guy said he'd work online with other countries..

and no one can own land in Thailand, not even Thais. Government, mafia and other malicious people are always stealing land if they really want it, it doesn't look very hard so whats the problem? He's old. 30year lease is all he needs.