Retirement At 30

[KNJ]

At his age, I spent all my money on booze, drugs and women.......and wasted all the rest

[wana]

At his age, I spent all my money on booze, drugs and women.......and wasted all the rest

at age 29 ,the women should be free or your doing something wrong.....

[KNJ]

At his age, I spent all my money on booze, drugs and women.......and wasted all the rest

at age 29 ,the women should be free or your doing something wrong.....

The first divorce did not come cheap

[Berkshire]

sorry ,just to update

this is a real person and i have spoken to him again since the thread was started in more depth about his plans

1. He is 29 years old

2.Currently in BKK searching acomodation to stay in or a year or more and a school to learn thai + acquire visa

3.He was a self employed designer + acquired the cash from saved wages (not a win on lottery )or inheritance like everyone thought

4.He is thinking about options to work here (not intending to spend life on beach or in a bar etc )

everyone comes with good intentions though ,and most will blow way more money than they anticipated on stuff like girls and drinks and partying .....

Ok, so this changes things. He's not retiring, rather, relocating with 4M bt in cash. The kid will do better than most his age. But certainly no reason to rest on his laurels. Keep building that nestegg and he'll be fine in his golden years.

[Geekfreaklover]

He should use the 4 million to find his feet in BKK. Reserve 1m for a future business. Do the TEFL thing. Try some teaching. It's a skill that you can always fall back on when times get tough. Try some internet related business. Graphic design, Selling on eBay. SEO content writing. I can think of many businesses in Bangkok that would fly with 1m investement and the OP would be as good as retired. The thing is you have to be on the ground to see it. The OP should keep his eyes and ears open.

Don't get married. Don't open a bar.

Peace.

[letitbe]

If you invested 4 million you may get 200 k per year at lowish risk to live on. Doable just depends what lifestyle he wants.

Posted with Thaivisa App http://apps.thaivisa.com

If you invested 4 million you may get 200 k per year at lowish risk to live on. Doable just depends what lifestyle he wants.

Posted with Thaivisa App http://apps.thaivisa.com

and in 5 years 200k baht will buy same as 100k baht today and in 10 years I see people every day come over with a decent income of around 100k baht a month and a few years later they find their totally broke and have to return to their countries or suffer a large dropping living standard. 17 years ago I lived very well with my wife on around 40,000 baht month a few years later with 2 children we lived still very well on around 80,000 baht and today for same life style need around 200,000 baht including trips abroad 2 school fees. Luckely our children will be grown in a few years but we still expect to have a lower standard of living. So far our previous excess income has covered our later extra expenses but we are now at stage where until children are fully grown were having to eat into capital and have cut holidays in europe USA and rest to once a year from twice.

[brit1984]

Now that we have established he is coming here to work (which is completely different to retiring) I wholeheartedly support his plan to move to Thailand.

There are many good business opportunities in Thailand, given the the growing middle class of natives (and Western tourists) with money to spend, and the abundance of extremely cheap labour, as well as the immaturity of many industries.

I strongly recommend he does not waste time with TEFLing, unless he is driven by non-financial motives. There are much better (more efficient) ways to make money for a guy or girl with a bit of common sense.

He should come to live in Bangkok and search for business opportunities here, as well as setting up some online businesses.

He will be fine as long as he sets himself a strict spending budget (maybe 100k baht/month) during this prospecting period, and avoids mingling with prostitutes (the dangers of which are well covered in other threads).

[nietzche]

Retire now? No*

Semi-retire soon? Yes

If he has half a brain he should be able to use that 4 million baht to set up a business or businesses (either back home, online or in Thailand) and get them up and running so he can take a back seat, and enjoy Thailand. I would recommend he concentrates on service industry businesses as they require less up-front investment.

I am 27 and semi-retired in Bangkok. I quit my regular job (hedge fund in London) about a year ago (after the birth of my first child) and spent that year setting up various businesses (as well as enjoying family life). I now "work" 1-2 hours/day (mostly replying to emails) and get paid the same as before when I working 12-18 hours/day.

Your friend should do the same. He (like me) is young enough to lose his 4 million baht and start from scratch anyway.

* If he really wants to fully retire in Thailand immediately it is possible. However, he will have to accept a pretty awful standard of living (which will only get worse over time).

I semi-agree with this. 4 million baht is not a lot of money when you are 29. I am around this age, and one principle I follow is that you should always be accumulating on your current savings (Unless of course you are at a real age of retirement).

Brick and mortar businesses in Thailand never seem to return much in relation to the initial investment from what I hear.

4 million baht is a nice cushion to have at that age, but that's all it is. You have to set yourself up with a means to make "real" money.

I was a software engineer in the banking industry back in the U.S. for several years. I went solo after moving to Thailand, and started doing freelance small scale development for clients back in the U.S. I turn down 5 times more work than I take.

If you derive your income from back home via the internet, technology; you can easily make a handsome living here without tapping into you're nest egg.

With no wife, job, etc. you're biggest headache will be visa. If you can get yourself an easy job with small hours, then that may be you're best/least expensive bet.

[BigJohnnyBKK]

at age 29 ,the women should be free or your doing something wrong.....

Like trying it in Thailand.

Anywhere in the world, they're very rarely "free" in the long run, even if they start out that way.

He will be fine as long as he sets himself a strict spending budget (maybe 100k baht/month) during this prospecting period, and avoids mingling with prostitutes (the dangers of which are well covered in other threads).

Maybe start off at 100K in the first month, but not lock in any expenses over 20K. Then bring it down by 10K every month, or every other to go easy, and only bring the budget back up from earned income, with the goal being to no longer be spending any of the nest egg after one year.

And he can still p2p as long as he does it smart

The players aren't dangerous in and of themselves anymore than driving a car is. Just learn the rules of the road and use common sense - don't try to buy a Ferrari straight off even if you "fall in love", buy the Camry instead and rent the Ferrari on the occasional weekend.

[brit1984]

And he can still p2p as long as he does it smart

In my opinion there is nothing "smart" about having sex with a prostitute.

[notmyself]

Sincere request for details and examples please.

And I understand that the meaning of "legally" is somewhat flexible here, I imagine notmyself is being rather more strict in his interpretation.

I honestly wasn't trying to be a smartass when responding to this guy's inquiry, but it seems he'd already done some checking on his own. Thailand provides a number of ways to stay legally, from student visas, to work permits, to retirement visas, to investments related to job-creation, to marriage visas, etc. If after all that, one still can't find a legal way to stay, then it's time to go. That's what I meant by it being rather "simple."

I never considered your comment to be in any way smartass.

Student visa: Not in education and no wish to do so.

Work permit: No reason to work again.

Retirement: All well under 50 as I stated.

Investment: Only 2 of the 5 got their 2 million back and now it's 10 million. Yeah right.

Marriage: Married to non Thai or single because they wish to be.

Etc: ?

@BigJohnnyBKK "And I understand that the meaning of "legally" is somewhat flexible here".... Wonderful turn of phrase.

I refrained from posting again on this thread because I wanted to hear from the 2 people who did manage to get their 2 million back regarding the cost of doing so. They both refused to answer, so people can make of it what they will.

I have no idea the number of people who have decided to go elsewhere while spending quite large amounts of money but given the small area I do have knowledge of suggests it is quite a few.

[notmyself]

Anywhere in the world, they're very rarely "free" in the long run, even if they start out that way.

COD is cheaper than HP

[sandgroper2]

I pay $1200 PA for travel insurance, Travelmore , travel insurance.

circa 37,000thb ,seems reasonable enough

does it include visiting doctors for minor sickness or just serious accidents ?

Miss spell, its Covermore, not travel more. It covers everything, However, I decided on a $500 excess. It has no guarantee of renewal year after year.

[Semper]

There are loads of ways to stay in Thailand legally, and with not much inconveniece.

Please do tell. Additional information is... all are well under 50, single (or married to non Thai), not working and not in education.

Marry a Thai lady, Visa problems solved.

Visa problems solved, yes. But this step is were the financial problems start for some.

[maxme]

There are loads of ways to stay in Thailand legally, and with not much inconveniece.

Please do tell. Additional information is... all are well under 50, single (or married to non Thai), not working and not in education.

Marry a Thai lady, Visa problems solved.

Visa problems solved, yes. But this step is were the financial problems start for some.

Anything you like to share with the group Semper?

[notmyself]

There are loads of ways to stay in Thailand legally, and with not much inconveniece.

Please do tell. Additional information is... all are well under 50, single (or married to non Thai), not working and not in education.

Marry a Thai lady, Visa problems solved.

Visa problems solved, yes. But this step is were the financial problems start for some.

Edited April 18, 2012 by notmyself

[Razzler1973]

Investment: Only 2 of the 5 got their 2 million back and now it's 10 million. Yeah right.

What was the reasoning behind the others not getting their 2 million back? I mean was this through official channels and they just said 'nah, we're keeping that' or they manafactured a reason why it won't be returned or they just made it too time consuming to make it worth getting back?

[notmyself]

Investment: Only 2 of the 5 got their 2 million back and now it's 10 million. Yeah right.

What was the reasoning behind the others not getting their 2 million back? I mean was this through official channels and they just said 'nah, we're keeping that' or they manafactured a reason why it won't be returned or they just made it too time consuming to make it worth getting back?

The reason given was that they had somehow broken the rules but were never told exactly what rules they had broken. In fact, the 2 who did get their money back were told the same thing but they decided to pursue it beyond getting a second lawyer (all 5 got a second lawyer). I think that is all I know and will ever know as the frivolous five, as they came to be known, refuse to talk about it. Even the 2 who did get their money refuse to say how much it cost them to do it which suggests to me that the overall result was not too good.

At the end of the day they (and we) were all well aware that it was a punt, a shot in the dark to invest 2 million anyway. To answer the final part of your question, everything was 100% legit.