Surprised no reaction from BYD owners on this forum

[laowai1960]

I am a 53 year old Australian man. I lived and worked in Thailand from 1998 to 2003 and then headed to China where I taught English and business subjects at universities for 10 years.

The ever-increasing air pollution in China was starting to take its toll on my health so I've returned to Thailand.

I go back to Australia every now and then but after living in Asia for 15 years, I really don't think I could be happy living in Australia.

I need to find a way of earning an income here in Thailand.

I have a small amount of savings - about 2.5 million baht.

I am very conservative and cautious with my money.

I am posting this message in the hope that someone on Thaivisa.com may just have a legitimate investment / partnership / business proposal to offer me.

I've got my fingers crossed.

Please send me a PM if you have a serious proposal / offer.

[PattayaPhom]

Have a fantastic one bed condo in Jomtien with sitting tenant. 9.2% return plus any capitol gain

[thrilled]

That would probably be the thing.Purchase A condo and rent it out.Ya have to make sure where your location is ,you keep it filled.

I have money in the stock market.I manage 4-5% return on dividends?Nothing to write home about.Maybe get A teaching job in Thailand

[brit1984]

I recommend to keep the money in the bank for a year or so while you get settled in Thailand.

You can start off teaching business studies / business English / similar then see what investment opportunities come up.

Don't rush into anything and don't let any of those beautiful local girls affect your "conservative and cautious" approach.

[2008bangkok]

Don't have any kids as ur 2.5 will soon become nappy money

[Satcommlee]

Oh dear!!!

Wanna invest in my disfunctional bar?

Give me 20 mins and I might even draw something for you to invest in off plan..

But please let us know how many PM's you get...

[JesseFrank]

Have a fantastic one bed condo in Jomtien with sitting tenant. 9.2% return plus any capitol gain

I bet you have hundreds of fantastic condos in your portfolio.

Since you as real estate agent are not short of cash, I'm surprised that you let slip away such a fantastic investment opportunity .

[Soutpeel]

Have a fantastic one bed condo in Jomtien with sitting tenant. 9.2% return plus any capitol gain

I bet you have hundreds of fantastic condos in your portfolio.

Since you as real estate agent are not short of cash, I'm surprised that you let slip away such a fantastic investment opportunity .

I thought this poster was the regional manger of a company that flogs dodgy financial advice, and sells commission loaded investments to unsuspecting farangs

[Soutpeel]

Oh dear!!!

Wanna invest in my disfunctional bar?

Give me 20 mins and I might even draw something for you to invest in off plan..

But please let us know how many PM's you get...

Yes OP be careful what you respond to on your PM's

Now back to business..... If the OP is interested, I am the son of a former African leader who recently died and i have access to his estate worth 400 million dollars, which I would like to share with him via a mutually beneficial business deal

[impulse]

First, invest in a vasectomy and you'll have a much better chance of keeping the rest of your money. Really.

Seriously, though. I spent 10 years in China before coming to Thailand. In both locations, the best chance of a normal guy making money was from relationships in the west. In China, that meant exporting products at a decent markup and/or importing products that weren't indigenous and selling to the newly moneyed and expats. In both scenarios, you need at least one side of the transaction you can trust. That side isn't Asian.

My recommendation is to find opportunities related to China. Hard to believe, but doing business in China is less convoluted than a normal laowai doing business in Thailand. Both are risky, but I can name 100 products from China to export at 10:1 ratio of retail price to ex-works cost. (My list ran into 2 pages, single space typed). I can't name a single product from Thailand with those ratios.

If you've got zillions of dollars, the rules change. But you can't afford any mis-steps with $80,000 available. Best of luck.

Oh, and just because the product comes from China, doesn't mean you can't live in Thailand. In fact, living in Thailand and commuting occasionally makes your China tax situation easier- since you're buying in China- not working in China or Thailand. They like buyers regardless of visa status. Not so much on workers...

Edited March 9, 2014 by impulse

[tbailo]

I'd guess with your experience you could get a reasonably paid teaching job here which would cover your living expenses assuming you don't live an extravagant lifestyle. If you have a teaching degree then I suspect you could get a decent wage.

Personally I'd invest around 100,000 in a decent one on one intensive school to teach you Thai. I went to a place called Baan Aksorn for a while, 20,000 for 40 hours one on one. Estimates suggest it takes 600-700 hours to become fluent in a language like Thai for a westerner and with 200 hours you'd be well on your way. Once you can speak Thai your opportunities go way up.

Take some time here and think about what you'd like to do - I think there's no need at all to rush.

[tbailo]

First, invest in a vasectomy and you'll have a much better chance of keeping the rest of your money. Really.

Seriously, though. I spent 10 years in China before coming to Thailand. In both locations, the best chance of a normal guy making money was from relationships in the west. In China, that meant exporting products at a decent markup and/or importing products that weren't indigenous and selling to the newly moneyed and expats. In both scenarios, you need at least one side of the transaction you can trust. That side isn't Asian.

My recommendation is to find opportunities related to China. Hard to believe, but doing business in China is less convoluted than a normal laowai doing business in Thailand. Both are risky, but I can name 100 products from China to export at 10:1 ratio of retail price to ex-works cost. (My list ran into 2 pages, single space typed). I can't name a single product from Thailand with those ratios.

If you've got zillions of dollars, the rules change. But you can't afford any mis-steps with $80,000 available. Best of luck.

Oh, and just because the product comes from China, doesn't mean you can't live in Thailand. In fact, living in Thailand and commuting occasionally makes your China tax situation easier- since you're buying in China- not working in China or Thailand. They like buyers regardless of visa status. Not so much on workers...

Fancy selling a copy of that list sir?

[impulse]

My recommendation is to find opportunities related to China. Hard to believe, but doing business in China is less convoluted than a normal laowai doing business in Thailand. Both are risky, but I can name 100 products from China to export at 10:1 ratio of retail price to ex-works cost. (My list ran into 2 pages, single space typed). I can't name a single product from Thailand with those ratios.

Fancy selling a copy of that list sir?

That's my retirement plan....and the list has to be modified regularly because costs and retail prices change so quickly.

[umbanda]

First, invest in a vasectomy and you'll have a much better chance of keeping the rest of your money. Really.

Seriously, though. I spent 10 years in China before coming to Thailand. In both locations, the best chance of a normal guy making money was from relationships in the west. In China, that meant exporting products at a decent markup and/or importing products that weren't indigenous and selling to the newly moneyed and expats. In both scenarios, you need at least one side of the transaction you can trust. That side isn't Asian.

My recommendation is to find opportunities related to China. Hard to believe, but doing business in China is less convoluted than a normal laowai doing business in Thailand. Both are risky, but I can name 100 products from China to export at 10:1 ratio of retail price to ex-works cost. (My list ran into 2 pages, single space typed). I can't name a single product from Thailand with those ratios.

If you've got zillions of dollars, the rules change. But you can't afford any mis-steps with $80,000 available. Best of luck.

Oh, and just because the product comes from China, doesn't mean you can't live in Thailand. In fact, living in Thailand and commuting occasionally makes your China tax situation easier- since you're buying in China- not working in China or Thailand. They like buyers regardless of visa status. Not so much on workers...

Do you sell online?

[SheungWan]

If you are conservative and cautious with your money Thailand is probably the last place on earth for you to invite business proposals. If you want to bring the money here then split it into cash/1 year/2 year/3 year term deposits in one of the banks and don't touch it other than to buy a 3-year term deposit for each year one of the bonds matures. This is your emergency fund only. Depending on your formal qualifications will you be able to leverage your current CV experience to get some employment teaching business English. If you haven't yet completed CELTA certification do so. Don't mess around looking for new opportunities running a business. You don't have to.

[impulse]

Do you sell online?

The only times I sold online was to run some stuff up the flagpole to see what people were willing to pay on EBay (USA EBay ID and only sold to USA and, for some reason, Australia). Mostly it was one offs and samples of goods that then went onto my list if the price/cost ratio was high enough. Rarely more than a $1000 in a month and $5000 in a year- certainly not a business- and it wasn't intended to be since I was still commuting to China every few months for my real job.

Sadly, my real job in Thailand now has a clause in it where I am not allowed to moonlight any more, so the list is growing obsolete as prices and costs change.

To anyone thinking that buying something for $5 and selling it for $50 is all you need to go into business, I found that end point distribution costs, and distributors who couldn't pay, were a real killer. If you can do it online, that's the way to go- all cash and all up front... In all honesty, there are quite a few products the expat community is begging for here in Thailand and if I needed to earn a living here, that's how I'd start.

Edited March 9, 2014 by impulse