Poll: Expat Retirees -- Do You Worry About Running Out Of Money Before You Run Out Of Time?

[mike123ca]

Run out of money here or anywhere and you are poor. No difference, just cheaper here. Jim

Run out of money here or anywhere and you are poor. No difference, just cheaper here. Jim

That's true,

But if you are man, you still need money for a marriage or retirement visa.

[jamescollister]

Run out of money here or anywhere and you are poor. No difference, just cheaper here. Jim

Run out of money here or anywhere and you are poor. No difference, just cheaper here. Jim

That's true,

But if you are man, you still need money for a marriage or retirement visa.

True enough, but out here in the jungle there a few farangs. and some of them have not see their passports for years. The only time you find out they were on overstay is when they die. Don't make much difference then. Jim

[crocken]

i was wanting to take the unspent money with me to the next life....im looking for a trusting lady who will fill my coffin with my left over baht and dollars to take to the next life !

any one have any friends can help me ?

[fletchsmile]

A paranoid and personal view!

People who offer to manage your money are only out to make money. They are very adept at persuading you that the process of caring for your money is very complex and reliant on concepts and principals you wouldn't understand. They offer reassurance in the form of expensive suits and Mercs and they sometimes have names like Justin St Paul. They are usually very good at explaining the factors that caused your investments to fail.

Most private sector pension schemes are a rip off and nothing more than a gravy train for an army of lawyers,auditors,investments managers and accountants.

If you want to be sure that your money is safe and won't run out, you have to learn to manage it yourself !

After the most recent financial recent financial crash, how many experts crawled out of the woodwork to offer their expert and learned opinion on why it occurred !

If there was all that wisdom around why did it happen ? Because the only thing most of them know about is looking good in a suit and cheating people out of their money !

My little rave is over!

So true. Luckily, I came to that conclusion many years ago. Don't have a personal pension, but have plenty of investments doing much better that other people's pension funds. Plus I have access to the cash if I want it. What the point of a large retirement pot if you can't access most of the money. Another plus - no-one is taking commission from my investments. On the downside, I didn't get tax relief. But I still prefer it my way.

I have similar views on pensions, as well as managing money myself instead of using financial advisors. The result was achieving financial independence at a much earlier age, and not having to wait for pensions to kick in.

Worth also adding:

-Thailand has happy mediums like LTFs where if working you also get the tax breaks, and are only locked in for 5 calendar years, in contrast to say a UK private pension, where you can be locked in for up to 4 decades, and even more as the government keeps moving the goalposts on when you can have your own money

-In many cases even if you can't get tax relief at the start, there's a large compensation for not paying tax on the other end. Again with Thailand as an example there is usually no tax on capital gains from mutual funds, in contrast to a pension which will be largely subject to tax

Benefits of investing part of your money in Thailand to fund your financial idependence also include opportunities to reduce exchange rate risks, and better linkage to inflation rates in Thailand, which can be different from the west.

[rodus]

We can sometimes choose our own end.

My plan has always been to ensure that I have my stash of pentobarbital, well before I lose my quality of life as a result of illness or intolerable (and irreversible) poverty. Why get messy jumping off a balcony, meddle with knots or other painful (bloody!) methods when a suitable dose of happy drugs can put you to sweet endless sleep?

Totally agree, but where to get the pentobarbital? I've tried in a number of different countries, but without success. Any clues?

If that's not available, then how about this alternative which is simple, clean & cheap? A plastic bag over the head. Luxury version: add a tube into the bag from a bottle of CO2. Anyone think this would not be a pleasant way to depart the scene?

[Naam]

at age 48 i was diagnosed with liver cancer and i thought "what a shit to go at that age. but hey, nobody can take away those 2 years of retirement i really enjoyed!"

Hope you are OK now Naam.

dam_n right, about retiring early, IMO. Some folks really love their jobs and good for them but I don't miss w*rk one bit

the "liver cancer" was a misdiagnosed amebia abscess (a hole in my liver as big as a fist) and cured within three months. that was 21 years ago!

initially my and indirectly my wife's retirement was accompanied by some frustrating experience in our home country. no more secretary and personal assistants but typing a letter, folding it and putting it in an envelope, licking a stamp and placing the letter in a mailbox located one kilometer from my home. no more signing an invoice but struggling 10 minutes filling out a stupid form for a bank transfer, no more driver who opened the car door asking "where to Sir?", no more bell neither in the office nor at home "get me some coffee please", no more addressing my wife "this is the umpteenth time that i come home and find your gardeners sleeping in the shade" or "i don't like your cook running in circles around the new 14-year old wife of the old gateman who might sooner or later shoot with his frontloader a bullet up the cooks àrse and you will have to prepare dinner..."

[TwoDogz]

I wonder why someone with gardeners, gatemen, cooks, cleaners, PA's, chauffeurs...would retire to the paradise of Pattaya?

[cloudhopper]

I wonder why someone with gardeners, gatemen, cooks, cleaners, PA's, chauffeurs...would retire to the paradise of Pattaya?

To each his own - if you can.

Say, what paradise have you already comfortably retired to then?

[lovelomsak]

I burnt all my bridges so to speak when I retired in Thailand. Invested every cent.In the six years I have been retired my networth in cash after tax and personal expenses (living costs) has grown by over 8% per year. In retirement I am still getting richer even after tax. at this rate my investments should double in about 9 years.So I see no real need to worry. Also all my investments are in none risk quaranteed funds. The worst that can happen is the rate drops but I also have increased the investment amount since retirement so that will assist. Also have 3 pension funds, which are till death do us part.

[Jingthing]

Happy to hear the vast majority at least FEEL they are pretty secure. Doesn't mean they are. People have very subjective feelings related to optimism that may or may not be related to objective reality. Also, as has been pointed out, health care costs and incidents are indeed the elephant in the room for many older people.

Myself, at the time of moving here, I would have chosen --

I feel it is moderately likely I will NOT run out

but now chose

I feel it is moderately likely I will run out

but actually my feeling is somewhat between that and the 50/50 option.

Edited October 8, 2012 by Jingthing

[cloudhopper]

So I see no real need to worry. Also all my investments are in none risk quaranteed funds. The worst that can happen is the rate drops but I also have increased the investment amount since retirement so that will assist. Also have 3 pension funds, which are till death do us part.

No the worst that can happen is all your pension funds and everyone guaranteeing anything gets wiped out in a global currency crisis or deflationary burst.

[lovelomsak]

So I see no real need to worry. Also all my investments are in none risk quaranteed funds. The worst that can happen is the rate drops but I also have increased the investment amount since retirement so that will assist. Also have 3 pension funds, which are till death do us part.

No the worst that can happen is all your pension funds and everyone guaranteeing anything gets wiped out in a global currency crisis or deflationary burst.

Gee never thought of that.Scary what the future may hold huh. If that happens, then what is left? I would say you are a bit of a doomsday person. What do you see as a better way to approach the dire future that may happen as you see it?

[Briggsy]

So I see no real need to worry. Also all my investments are in none risk quaranteed funds. The worst that can happen is the rate drops but I also have increased the investment amount since retirement so that will assist. Also have 3 pension funds, which are till death do us part.

No the worst that can happen is all your pension funds and everyone guaranteeing anything gets wiped out in a global currency crisis or deflationary burst.

Gee never thought of that.Scary what the future may hold huh. If that happens, then what is left? I would say you are a bit of a doomsday person. What do you see as a better way to approach the dire future that may happen as you see it?

What is left?

Land

Natural resources

Raw political power

Military power

Perhaps the currencies of countries with large sovereign funds, Qatar, Saudi, Norway, UAE, etc.

How about that for starters.

[Naam]

I wonder why someone with gardeners, gatemen, cooks, cleaners, PA's, chauffeurs...would retire to the paradise of Pattaya?

i wonder why someone doesn't understand plain simple English written by a non-native English speaker. what part of the sentence below is it you don't understand? is it "frustrating experience" or is it "no more"?

initially my and indirectly my wife's retirement was accompanied by some frustrating experience in our home country, no more... no more... no more... no more...

the main reason why we retired in Pattaya is "again... again... again... again". this time all expenses (and more!) not borne by the companies i worked for but paid for with the taxes we don't pay to Herr Schäuble (the German finance minister)

p.s. should you, Honourable TwoDogz, Esq., still struggle to comprehend my English i can always ask my two dogs to translate the meaning into dog language.

[cloudhopper]

So I see no real need to worry. Also all my investments are in none risk quaranteed funds. The worst that can happen is the rate drops but I also have increased the investment amount since retirement so that will assist. Also have 3 pension funds, which are till death do us part.

No the worst that can happen is all your pension funds and everyone guaranteeing anything gets wiped out in a global currency crisis or deflationary burst.

Gee never thought of that.Scary what the future may hold huh. If that happens, then what is left? I would say you are a bit of a doomsday person. What do you see as a better way to approach the dire future that may happen as you see it?

Everyone's approach has to be different. Just about every pension plan in the US where I come from is already under funded even with their assumed 8% returns (and actual 1%) but it's zirp to eternity at the Fed now. Who do you think bought all the securitized crap that is still valued at par? What happens to pension funds when the financial charade we have all lived in since Nixon allowed unlimited credit creation and trade deficits in '71 pops? The government can guarantee anything, even the mathematically impossible, but it can't deliver.

Yes diverging exponential functions are guaranteed doom. My approach starts with thinking about what my world might be like with limited electricity, fuel, jobs and money.

edit - It would be very instructive to try to get an intuitive feel for exponential behavior and how insidious it really is.

Edited October 8, 2012 by cloudhopper

[lovelomsak]

So I see no real need to worry. Also all my investments are in none risk quaranteed funds. The worst that can happen is the rate drops but I also have increased the investment amount since retirement so that will assist. Also have 3 pension funds, which are till death do us part.

No the worst that can happen is all your pension funds and everyone guaranteeing anything gets wiped out in a global currency crisis or deflationary burst.

Gee never thought of that.Scary what the future may hold huh. If that happens, then what is left? I would say you are a bit of a doomsday person. What do you see as a better way to approach the dire future that may happen as you see it?

Everyone's approach has to be different. Just about every pension plan in the US where I come from is already under funded even with their assumed 8% returns (and actual 1%) but it's zirp to eternity at the Fed now. Who do you think bought all the securitized crap that is still valued at par? What happens to pension funds when the financial charade we have all lived in since Nixon allowed unlimited credit creation and trade deficits in '71 pops? The government can guarantee anything, even the mathematically impossible, but it can't deliver.

Yes diverging exponential functions are guaranteed doom. My approach starts with thinking about what my world might be like with limited electricity, fuel, jobs and money.

edit - It would be very instructive to try to get an intuitive feel for exponential behavior and how insidious it really is.

You certainly are more versed than myself in knowing whats going on it appears by your post.So I must go on with my life in all its ignorance and hope the sky doesnot fall in. But I do appreciate your concern about my poor choices for retirement security. If you are retired you must have things well in hand yes.Is it possible to get some insight into how intelligent men do it? If not retired then your investment portfolio must be very interesting I think all here could and would appreciate some good advice from such a well learned man.

[cloudhopper]

You certainly are more versed than myself in knowing whats going on it appears by your post.So I must go on with my life in all its ignorance and hope the sky doesnot fall in. But I do appreciate your concern about my poor choices for retirement security. If you are retired you must have things well in hand yes.Is it possible to get some insight into how intelligent men do it? If not retired then your investment portfolio must be very interesting I think all here could and would appreciate some good advice from such a well learned man.

Yes I am retired for 15 years now since age 43. My income comes from the same impossibly leveraged financial system as yours does and I plan for it all going away, because I know it is inevitable. We from the West have been living a life of great complacency since WW2 living off the spoils of war, easily exploitable natural and human resources and unsustainable credit creation. Political promises cannot alter this reality and the coming cognitive dissonance is going to be very disturbing. Be prepared.

[cloudhopper]

Just saw this and might be of interest to readers of this topic.

[bdenner]

Survived one 2008! A 2nd will bring me close and a 3rd will certainly see me joining the line into a soup kitchen! IMHO no self funded retiree is immune.

[cloudhopper]

Survived one 2008! A 2nd will bring me close and a 3rd will certainly see me joining the line into a soup kitchen! IMHO no self funded retiree is immune.

And IMHO no corporate or government funded scheme is immune either.

[Naam]

Survived one 2008! A 2nd will bring me close and a 3rd will certainly see me joining the line into a soup kitchen! IMHO no self funded retiree is immune.

And IMHO no corporate or government funded scheme is immune either.

[cloudhopper]

Another factor to be considered in the retirement calculus is the increasing levels of corporate and government corruption in the West. I wonder how many retirees lost their ass in this crime? The segment on 'Safe Harbor' laws illustrates how corporatism will continue its financial exploitation in the US.

I love this show. Even if it's puppy love.

[cougar]

Well my pension is inflationed indexed. And I did a lot of hard work and took lot of bullshit to get it. What do I really worry about? First they'll keep upping the pension age. Second, my wife will find out where I live. I thought I knew what evil was, but I was wrong. Evil is a woman, intent on destroying you.

[chris1dna]

I will be retiring at the age of 57 on a phone co pension of around $1600 a month pre tax and a 401k with about 150k. Social security of around $1400 a month pre tax kicks in at age 62. With the 1600 plus small annuity pmts from my early tap on the 401k till age 59 1/2 I hope to average about $3000 a month before tax. Not sure what the tax burden will be yet but I'm pretty optimistic about my future in the LOS.

Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

[Rajab Al Zarahni]

Well my pension is inflationed indexed. And I did a lot of hard work and took lot of bullshit to get it. What do I really worry about? First they'll keep upping the pension age. Second, my wife will find out where I live. I thought I knew what evil was, but I was wrong. Evil is a woman, intent on destroying you.

Marriage is just too much hassle. Next time I'll just find a woman I don't like and give her a house!