Do We Make Right Decision About Moving To Thailand

[LANCASTER]

Lately me and my husband got cut down on our income. Now we can make mortgage payment just for the interest only. (30 years loan ).And also everythings around me seem so expensive eveywhere i turn. If we sell our house right now we will get away with some money and move to someplace that we can buy house or condo with cash. I think about thailand cause i can read and speak thai a little. Our problem is we have only high school ed. how are we gonna find job. Do we should leave or stay ? Please give me some advise. Thank you

[naka]

Yes, many are in the same boat in the UK and other English speaking countries due to

the housing bubble coming to an end. I read that the UK bankruptcy rate increased

57 % over the previous year, mainly due to mortgage costs.

However I doubt that moving to Thailand will alleviate your situation as you

have limited capital. While the cost of living in Thailand is lower than in the

UK the wages are also much much lower, even if you could find employment which

is not at all certain.

Naka.

[sriracha john]

Lately me and my husband got cut down on our income. Now we can make mortgage payment just for the interest only. (30 years loan ).And also everythings around me seem so expensive eveywhere i turn. If we sell our house right now we will get away with some money and move to someplace that we can buy house or condo with cash. I think about thailand cause i can read and speak thai a little. Our problem is we have only high school ed. how are we gonna find job. Do we should leave or stay ? Please give me some advise. Thank you

Hdtv And One Crazy Wife, complain from my wife

LANCASTER 2005-09-24 03:06:52 Post #1

My wife and i will move into bangkok from lancaster, california next month for 4years .

I take it then that the (husband?/wife?) with this nick has NOT been living in Bangkok since last October?

[Neeranam]

You could get a well paid job as an English teacher. 50,000 baht a month(EACH).

If you have money for a condo, then that is more than enough.

Anyone think 100,000 a month for a married couple is not enough in Thailand?

You could probably take it easy and live very comfortably on 60,000.

[Noel]

Yes, many are in the same boat in the UK and other English speaking countries due to

the housing bubble coming to an end. I read that the UK bankruptcy rate increased

57 % over the previous year, mainly due to mortgage costs.

Naka.

As far as I can see, a slow down in the property market has nothing to do with an individual's financial situation as regards their ability to meet existing mortgage commitments.

When they took out their mortgage one assumes they were then able to and expected to be able to meet the mortgage payments on an ongoing basis.

Their ability to pay has nothing to do with the current paper value of their property, in my humble opinion.

Even if the market crashed and they were left with negative equity, that would have no impact on monthly costs that had already been budgeted for.

The OP’s problem appears to stem solely from their reduced income.

Edited February 7, 2006 by Noel

[ding]

Yes, many are in the same boat in the UK and other English speaking countries due to

the housing bubble coming to an end.

Is the housing market tanking in the UK already? I've been thinking the bubble in the US has to pop soon. But I've thought that for 8 months.

[Noel]

Lately me and my husband got cut down on our income. Now we can make mortgage payment just for the interest only. (30 years loan ).And also everythings around me seem so expensive eveywhere i turn. If we sell our house right now we will get away with some money and move to someplace that we can buy house or condo with cash. I think about thailand cause i can read and speak thai a little. Our problem is we have only high school ed. how are we gonna find job. Do we should leave or stay ? Please give me some advise. Thank you

In my view, rather than think about running away from your problems, you need to face up to them.

Selling up and moving to Thailand on a flaky whim is not the answer.

I do not mean to be harsh, but from the limited amount you have said the likelihood would be that you might well lose everything you currently have and end up with even more to worry about.

Your focus should be on trying to restore your income to previous levels, or move down market so you can live within your means.

[PeaceBlondie]

You could get a well paid job as an English teacher. 50,000 baht a month(EACH).

If you have money for a condo, then that is more than enough.

Anyone think 100,000 a month for a married couple is not enough in Thailand?

You could probably take it easy and live very comfortably on 60,000.

Sorry, Neeranam, but I can't agree that we should give these two such hope that they'll net 1.2 million per year in Thailand. Unless they lie and cheat (false KSR degrees, false resumes, etc.), they'll be lucky to get 30,000 each in the provinces, 35,000 in Bangkok. But if they're both perfect speakers of English, brilliant in the interview, clever and intelligent, etc., they might make 80,000 in good months. It's likely they'll work ten months per year the first two years, do innnnnumberable visa runs, get taken advantage of, need to buy furniture or a scooter, etc.

What's the retention rate for first year TEFLers without university experience? Maybe 30 percent make it through the first year? But maybe I'm mis-informed. I'm the bright, hard working uni graduate who earned 162,000 baht the first year (most of it eaten up by visa fees, visa runs, and TEFL school) and 262,500 baht the second year. So, I got bad luck, after several thousand posts on two expat forums and taking their advice and working smart and hard, sanuk, edutainment, etc.

If they arrive April 1, spend 80,000 for tuition and 30.000 in living expenses for April, and get lucky, they'll start making 70,000 baht per month in May. They'll likely get a school that screws them. Just a guess; maybe they'll make three million baht their first year.

Your estimate is that both will find full time work easily, and keep their jobs easily, and get double salary. Yeah, if that works, that'll work. If it doesn't work, just the opposite. I know an English couple who both try to work. She gets full time; he gets two hours per week.

Okay, I'll try to start a double poll: how much total income per year did serious teachers make in their first year in Thailand, and their second year.

Edited February 7, 2006 by PeaceBlondie

[sriracha john]

You could get a well paid job as an English teacher. 50,000 baht a month(EACH).

If you have money for a condo, then that is more than enough.

Anyone think 100,000 a month for a married couple is not enough in Thailand?

You could probably take it easy and live very comfortably on 60,000.

Sorry, Neeranam, but I can't agree that we should give these two such hope that they'll net 1.2 million per year in Thailand. Unless they lie and cheat (false KSR degrees, false resumes, etc.), they'll be lucky to get 30,000 each in the provinces, 35,000 in Bangkok. But if they're both perfect speakers of English, brilliant in the interview, clever and intelligent, etc., they might make 80,000 in good months. It's likely they'll work ten months per year the first two years, do innnnnumberable visa runs, get taken advantage of, need to buy furniture or a scooter, etc.

What's the retention rate for first year TEFLers without university experience? Maybe 30 percent make it through the first year? But maybe I'm mis-informed. I'm the bright, hard working uni graduate who earned 162,000 baht the first year (most of it eaten up by visa fees, visa runs, and TEFL school) and 262,500 baht the second year. So, I got bad luck, after several thousand posts on two expat forums and taking their advice and working smart and hard, sanuk, edutainment, etc.

If they arrive April 1, spend 80,000 for tuition and 30.000 in living expenses for April, and get lucky, they'll start making 70,000 baht per month in May. They'll likely get a school that screws them. Just a guess; maybe they'll make three million baht their first year.

Your estimate is that both will find full time work easily, and keep their jobs easily, and get double salary. Yeah, if that works, that'll work. If it doesn't work, just the opposite. I know an English couple who both try to work. She gets full time; he gets two hours per week.

Okay, I'll try to start a double poll: how much total income per year did serious teachers make in their first year in Thailand, and their second year.

If I'm not mistaken, PB... Neeranam's post was a bit of sarcastic witticism... *if for some reason it was not, I humbly apologize*

Recall the OP and they aren't even college grads... the odds of a couple of Non-TEFL, Non-Uni-graduated teachers making 100,000 a month are the same as me winning the lottery.

Besides... the wife really doesn't come here since they don't have High Definition television.

{refer to his/hers/theirs previous posts}

[Neeranam]

They could walk into a job upcountry eg khon Kaen for 30,000 a month. All they want there are white faces, or "dancing white monkeys". at least 2 months holiday a year, with the chance of earning more. If they get a part-time job too, they could earn 80,000 a year easily. Let's see - 3,000 a month for a large house. This leaves them about 2,500 baht a day to try and eke a living! They could eat at the best restaurant in town every night. They could buy a car instead of buying a house.

Ok they would find it hard in Bangkok with no experience, but they would still find that they had a much better standard of living than where they are now. they probably can't afford to go out more than once a week now.

[Soju]

You could get a well paid job as an English teacher. 50,000 baht a month(EACH).

If you have money for a condo, then that is more than enough.

Anyone think 100,000 a month for a married couple is not enough in Thailand?

You could probably take it easy and live very comfortably on 60,000.

Besides... the wife really doesn't come here since they don't have High Definition television.

{refer to his/hers/theirs previous posts}

I looked up that post by Lancaster:

My wife and i will move into bangkok from lancaster ,california next month for 4years .We love MBK and thai food. But my wife keeps bugging me about TV in thailand . She addited to HDTV , is anyone have any idae about HD system available in bangkok?

I don't mean to be overly critical of anyone's English ability, but just read Lancaster's post and then thiink if they really could ever be so lucky to get 50,000 Baht per month teaching English? I don't want to say more for fear of it being interpreted as a flame, but I think any recommendations for them to move to Thailand would not be in their best interest. Better to find some dirt cheap place to live in the States.

[GuestHouse]

The way I read it, the OP proposes to move to Thailand with all their capital and buy a condo for cash. They then NEED to make a living in order to well.... erm.... Live.

It seems to me they are undercapitalized, if they don’t find work they have no income to support themselves, and would then be faced with having to make some tough decisions, probably returning to the US to make more money but that entails renting property etc.

I take the view that a single person moving to Thailand and taking such risks is perhaps not wise, but sometimes do-able. I don’t believe it is do-able with couples.

I also think that a woman moving to Thailand late in life with her male partner needs to consider very carefully the legal status of investments and assets and too the lesser protection she has under Thai law. (Unless of course she herself is Thai).

My advice would be that you need enough cash to buy your condo outright. An absolut minimum of Bht1million in the bank to get you through the first year, and enough money held by you get you back home and set you up in an appartment/car etc if you have to go back to work.... and never touch your 401 to do that.

[Maestro]

I take it then that the (husband?/wife?) with this nick has NOT been living in Bangkok since last October?

...and I take it the OP is a troll.

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Maestro