Which One? Decision time about staying.

[ev1lchris]

Stay in Thailand and teach English at a government school for 35,000 baht or go back to USA and maybe get grant money to retrain in skills which I can telecommute with like web design and programming?

One of these might have I bright future but I hate leaving Thailand!

[JohnOFphon]

If you don't plan for your retirement now, you will be sorry when it's time to retire. I have talked to many "teachers" here that don't think about the future. Only how much "fun" they have here.

I worked very hard in my home country and made sure I would have money every month from my savings and government insurance...before..I moved here.

Imagine being over 60 years old and no money. You can teach here at that age, but do you want to?

[NeverSure]

No one is ever going to get to be 65 years old. That's for old guys, LOL.

OP, check on the marketability of what you're thinking, and also think about what you can add to the equation. In other words there are millions of website designers but someone who's also an artist including a whiz at photoshop and indesign might have an edge. Yes you can hire that but you lose some control. I think it takes more natural ability and training to do graphics than it does to program websites anyway.

In any event you're asking about starting a business which is always risky, and your skill set might not be needed in 15 years. Computers may be doing all of the web designs and programming and it may be done the same way the average guy uses a computer. Think about when there was only DOS and we had to type memorized commands to get anything and then there was Mac and Windows and anyone could do it.

There will be a need for human teachers and supervisors and marketers for your lifetime because they require a human touch.

You're talking about starting a one man band which never gets real successful. You can't really grow that model and all you can do is sell your time. That means if you aren't working you aren't getting paid. I wouldn't want to drive into that dead end while taking the risk of a business after getting an education. Selling your time is OK if someone else is taking the risk, like being an employee.

Good luck with what you try and make sure you actually like the work before you put a lot of energy into getting there. I know guys with college degrees who don't work in their field because they found out they don't like it. Teaching is one of them although others like it.

Cheers

[ev1lchris]

I'm fairly good at Photoshop and my passion for technology is pretty large.

[fey]

Getting an international "telecommuting job" is not going to be easy for a newbie. Unless your thinking of being another guy putting up youtube vids for a living.

The main thing that gets gets you here as a younger guy is time. A teaching gig is going to pretty useless, esp if its just a tool to have fun (whores). Not really something thats going to look great on a resume when your older.

Your going to wake up in 5 or 10 years and discover you cant go back and start a new career. Simply because younger guys with job experience and degrees will get hired before you. It's pretty difficult to get interviews at all last time i checked. The longer your away the harder it will be.

Take thailand for what it is at this point, a vacation or gap year, and come back when you dont need to rely on a teaching gig. You'll be glad you did.

[Swiss1960]

I'm fairly good at Photoshop and my passion for technology is pretty large.

... and then there are the 10'000's of extremely savvy young people out there who learned all you know today in the first week of their playing around with tech toys...

[mesquite]

OP, have you considered Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam? English teachers make more over there. Lots of young women, though the scene is different.

[IMA_FARANG]

It all depends on how independent you are and if you have a valid specialty you can sell.

I, for example, spent nearly 45 years working OUTSIDE the U.S. as a communications technology specialist (Computers, Satellite, Microwave) before I retired in 2010.

In that nearly 45 years I spent only abut 2 years in what many people would call a "normal" life in Puerto Rico in a settled job and a "home" in the U.S.

I worked in such places as Ethiopia, Denmark, Iceland, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Greece, on year or longer contracts..... with my "home" in Thailand.....which required traveling to/from and living in those countries to make a living and support myself.

Requires a lot of independence, self reliance, and the ability to adapt to different locations and cultures.

Not for everyone, but I did it for over 40 years, and I enjoyed the challenges.

Like the Thai bar girls say, "Up to You".

Anyhow, I traveled around the world selling my communications technician skills and working and living in all those various countries.

It can be done..... you don't have to a life of just being another "number" unless you want to be.

But I agree, not everyone can handle the challenges and adapt to the changes required.

[samuibeachcomber]

I'm fairly good at Photoshop and my passion for technology is pretty large.

replying to your original post about leaving thailand,i think most hate the idea of leaving,life here can get into the blood and its a wrench to leave,but if you are a young guy loving life here but only earning 35000 baht pm.then its not enough.you need a salary that allows you to save for future investment opportunities.property prices here tend to stagnant,so little capital appreciation is to be found.making money would be easier in the west plus more opportunities.

You should go back,plenty of time for thailand later in your life.

[ev1lchris]

I plan on going back to the States and enrolling for courses such as Ruby on Rails, Python, HTML5/CSS.

I hope to get good enough somewhere down the line, a year or so, where I can get a job that will let me telecommute. Maybe even start my own business.

I've been getting advice on other forums. The responses are mostly negative but I know people who are doing this.

[DLock]

You are clearly very young.

Go home, work hard, save as much as you can, go to night school, get skills and upgrade your jobs and prospects. Join LinkedIn and apply for roles in Thailand and Asia as your resume gets better.

Come back a few times a year on budget flights when you see them, but do not waste your productive years on 35,000 baht.

Many will disagree because "youth is for living" and "got to enjoy life while your young"...and I agree to a point...but build a base that lets you live pretty well and have good prospects. Thailand is tough and it's getting tougher for non-skilled foreigners.

Don't fall for the honey trap...it's easy to do.

[Bulldozer Dawn]

No one is ever going to get to be 65 years old. That's for old guys, LOL.

OP, check on the marketability of what you're thinking, and also think about what you can add to the equation. In other words there are millions of website designers but someone who's also an artist including a whiz at photoshop and indesign might have an edge. Yes you can hire that but you lose some control. I think it takes more natural ability and training to do graphics than it does to program websites anyway.

In any event you're asking about starting a business which is always risky, and your skill set might not be needed in 15 years. Computers may be doing all of the web designs and programming and it may be done the same way the average guy uses a computer. Think about when there was only DOS and we had to type memorized commands to get anything and then there was Mac and Windows and anyone could do it.

There will be a need for human teachers and supervisors and marketers for your lifetime because they require a human touch.

You're talking about starting a one man band which never gets real successful. You can't really grow that model and all you can do is sell your time. That means if you aren't working you aren't getting paid. I wouldn't want to drive into that dead end while taking the risk of a business after getting an education. Selling your time is OK if someone else is taking the risk, like being an employee.

Good luck with what you try and make sure you actually like the work before you put a lot of energy into getting there. I know guys with college degrees who don't work in their field because they found out they don't like it. Teaching is one of them although others like it.

Cheers

Very sage advice from NS but here is my story.

I grew up poor, dirt poor in a shitty welfare housing project. I put myself through school and then started my own consultancy with nothing more than a house brick sized mobile phone and a borrowed laptop. As NS rightly points out if you sell your own labour it is impossible to scale your business. If you stop paddling the canoe it stops. I got around this by putting together a stable of subcontactors to whom I would outsource various parts of a project. I was an early starter using outsourced labour in India. I used to send work back and forwards using clumsy interfaces like sendfile.com. Then the cloud arrived and it was a doddle to have an outsourced workforce. After a decade or so my consultancy had grown to the point that I was doing projects for the largest privately held company in the world and the largest mining company in the world. I retired to Thailand in my mid forties.

If you want to be successful you have to find a small high value niche and aim to own it. Photoshop and web design is entirely saturated and you will starve if working for yourself in those areas.

[CharlieH]

As you have now booked your ticket and decision been made.

CLOSED