Best Way To Invest 1,000,000 Baht In Thailand

[sramkok-pratum]

mushroom farm. you can learn how to do it at KASART UNIVERSITY my sister just start this business. not too much for overhead and fit for thailand climate. just an idea..

but for my personal advice. do everything yourself specially if money involved .. trust no one when come to money

Edited September 11, 2006 by sramkok-pratum

[britmaveric]

Invest in a Beer Bar.

[Khun Jean]

And drink a lot so you will have a high turnover.

This high turnover can be shown to a new buyer who will be very impressed with the numbers.

[udon]

Barramundi or Silver Perch fish farm? Plastic tanks.

[richard10365]

asked him how many glasses he sells during the day. He said 3000. Thats 15,000 baht/day, 75,000 baht/week, 300,000 baht/month, or 3,600,000 baht/year depending on how u want to look at it.

His operating expenses are 3000/day for the juice and 1000/month to rent the space in the cefeteria.

Very inaccurate calculation.

The 3000 also has to be questioned. If selling 1 glass takes 15 seconds. For just exchanging money, he will need a little over 12 hours of continuous trade to do that.

Correct that for reality and he is able to sell around 800 glasses. The time the students are in class are obvious quiet, so it is only when they are arriving at school, having free time and when leaving.

Of the 5 baht per glass he makes around 1-2 baht profit. Don't forget the ice, the glass, the straw, the fruit etc..

That would make a total turnover of maximum 1600 baht a day. Around 48.000 baht a month.

48.000 a month minus the cost of rent/electricity/30-50% commision to the owner of the place he rents. That will leave him with around 15.000 baht.

You also forget about the keymoney that probably has to be paid. Some large figure that is left out of the equation.

At the end, he has just enough to feed his family.

Khun Jean, The calculations are based on 3000 sales. They are correct.

I did forget about the ice and the straw. Both are not expensive in Thailand. He dosen't use electricity.

The glasses are plastic. He washes them. He switches to cheap plastic bags in the afternoon.

Sales are between 5 and 10 seconds from start to finish.

There are 2 workers

There are 5 main eating times: breakfast, mid morning snack, lunch, mid afternoon snack, and dinner. Someone is always eating because it dosent' close if the students are there. Snack times and lunch are staggered according to grade so the students are released at different times to avoid traffic jams. He has 2000 potential customers at least 3 times a day. Breakfast and dinner are not as busy.

Many parents also eat there.

It is possible for him to make 3000 sales/day. It's a good business, at the right location, and open at the right time with a popular product at a cheap price.

Maybe I didn't give enough info last time Khun Jean. Sorry about that. I hope the extra info I provided helps.

[oilysang]

As serious as this board can be, please. Well, i am writing to get some serious answers, but i am not going to be upset if there are are few funny ones.

I noticed that Thailand was ranked 18th in the world as the best place to invest. (Beating Malaysia by quite a way, i was surprised to see.)

What sort of business would be the best to buy/capitalize with, on a budget of a million baht? Lets say the investor would be an expat, and the owner/manager of the business. (Makes me wonder whether just having a particular skill set would change the choice much, but lets see what people have to say.)

I look forward to reading your posts!

Write a book on ' HOw to avoid being cheat by thai" and sell it to foreigner here.

[thaihome]

$13k a month salary for a full package expat is probably about right. You figure the base salary for an engineer/manager with 15+ years or so experience is around 100K per year, add uplift, housing, school fees, etc it is not hard to get over 150K a year. There are many (over 50 in my company) such people working and living in Thailand.

A million baht is not a lot to invest, you can probably open a small shop of some sort for that and give yourself some money to live on while building up a customer base. Investing in the SET is probably not a bad idea, but like stock markets everywhere, it carries various degrees of risk, depending on the equities chosen.

IMHO the idea of being able to invest $25 anywhere in the world and expect to live on the proceeds is somewhat farfetched.

TH

Edited September 12, 2006 by thaihome

[davidjtayler]

$13k a month salary for a full package expat is probably about right. You figure the base salary for an engineer/manager with 15+ years or so experience is around 100K per year, add uplift, housing, school fees, etc it is not hard to get over 150K a year. There are many (over 50 in my company) such people working and living in Thailand.

A million baht is not a lot to invest, you can probably open a small shop of some sort for that and give yourself some money to live on while building up a customer base. Investing in the SET is probably not a bad idea, but like stock markets everywhere, it carries various degrees of risk, depending on the equities chosen.

IMHO the idea of being able to invest $25 anywhere in the world and expect to live on the proceeds is somewhat farfetched.

TH

I think a few people have painted a rather glamerous picture of ex pat life here in Thailand .... whilst there are for sure a number of 'fat cats' with packages mentioned above this is by no means the majority ... the majority of ex pats living and working in Thailand will be pulling in nowhere near the above monthly amounts and most of my mates here (teachers and dive instructor) are quite happily living on a 50K Baht and less monthly wage ....

[naturalpoints]

And drink a lot so you will have a high turnover.

This high turnover can be shown to a new buyer who will be very impressed with the numbers.

[nostrel]

breading camels and sell them in Saudie?

makeing Buffalo Burgers ,surely a big hit in patters

[nostrel]

start a school teaching farangs the how toos of running a business in LOS.

and also property buying and selling

[teej]

buy one of those beauty parlors advertised on Sunbelt Asia as "price reduced for quick sale as owner sick/retiring/marrying farang/focusing on other business intersests/partner dispute/etc..... just think, you can own a massage parlor for just 500k baht and take in annual receipts of 400google with profits of 2200000000000 baht. easy money!

has anybody ever made any money buy "buying" one of those businesses? proof from an owner would be more acceptable than a response from Sunbelt saying, "yes, we have clients who make a jillion dollars a year all of the time"

[unforgiven]

Even it is small money you could consider an investment in a fixed bank account, small studio condo, GSB lottery, chae (Thai mututal fund), contraband or buy into an existing business that you have skills to offer

You could go into politics! Bet the 1 million baht that Thaksin will remain in power after the next election. In two months you will have a 100% return on investment.

I've done well with the aberdeen growth fund.Invested 700,000bt in 2000..now worth 2.3million and the currencys stronger than when I invested at 1usd=39.5bt

[unforgiven]

buy one of those beauty parlors advertised on Sunbelt Asia as "price reduced for quick sale as owner sick/retiring/marrying farang/focusing on other business intersests/partner dispute/etc..... just think, you can own a massage parlor for just 500k baht and take in annual receipts of 400google with profits of 2200000000000 baht. easy money!

has anybody ever made any money buy "buying" one of those businesses? proof from an owner would be more acceptable than a response from Sunbelt saying, "yes, we have clients who make a jillion dollars a year all of the time"

Ya I agee ,I there for suckers..................start you own business

[kmm2908]

You could try this link for a land investment option:

http://www.1st-choice-homes.com/?p=invest

Not sure of the minimum investment but looks interesting.

[udon]

An Agarwood Plantation in Thailand.

[fxm88]

How about this candle shop?

[thaihome]

$13k a month salary for a full package expat is probably about right. You figure the base salary for an engineer/manager with 15+ years or so experience is around 100K per year, add uplift, housing, school fees, etc it is not hard to get over 150K a year. There are many (over 50 in my company) such people working and living in Thailand.

A million baht is not a lot to invest, you can probably open a small shop of some sort for that and give yourself some money to live on while building up a customer base. Investing in the SET is probably not a bad idea, but like stock markets everywhere, it carries various degrees of risk, depending on the equities chosen.

IMHO the idea of being able to invest $25 anywhere in the world and expect to live on the proceeds is somewhat farfetched.

TH

I think a few people have painted a rather glamerous picture of ex pat life here in Thailand .... whilst there are for sure a number of 'fat cats' with packages mentioned above this is by no means the majority ... the majority of ex pats living and working in Thailand will be pulling in nowhere near the above monthly amounts and most of my mates here (teachers and dive instructor) are quite happily living on a 50K Baht and less monthly wage ....

Well, since we are basing our opinions what the "majority of expats" make on our own experiences I will give mine. All of my friends and all of the expats I know make comparable salaries as above. The example I gave was for an American working overseas, of course, Brits and Aussie's base salaries are lower, but nonetheless, every expat I know is making a salary close or higher than what he would make at home (even the ones we refer to as “local expats”), that is why they are working oversees. I don't think I have ever met but just a couple of your 50k a month types.

TH

[~G~]

$13k a month salary for a full package expat is probably about right. You figure the base salary for an engineer/manager with 15+ years or so experience is around 100K per year, add uplift, housing, school fees, etc it is not hard to get over 150K a year. There are many (over 50 in my company) such people working and living in Thailand.

A million baht is not a lot to invest, you can probably open a small shop of some sort for that and give yourself some money to live on while building up a customer base. Investing in the SET is probably not a bad idea, but like stock markets everywhere, it carries various degrees of risk, depending on the equities chosen.

IMHO the idea of being able to invest $25 anywhere in the world and expect to live on the proceeds is somewhat farfetched.

TH

I think a few people have painted a rather glamerous picture of ex pat life here in Thailand .... whilst there are for sure a number of 'fat cats' with packages mentioned above this is by no means the majority ... the majority of ex pats living and working in Thailand will be pulling in nowhere near the above monthly amounts and most of my mates here (teachers and dive instructor) are quite happily living on a 50K Baht and less monthly wage ....

Well, since we are basing our opinions what the "majority of expats" make on our own experiences I will give mine. All of my friends and all of the expats I know make comparable salaries as above. The example I gave was for an American working overseas, of course, Brits and Aussie's base salaries are lower, but nonetheless, every expat I know is making a salary close or higher than what he would make at home (even the ones we refer to as “local expats”), that is why they are working oversees. I don't think I have ever met but just a couple of your 50k a month types.

TH

1. You mentioned $13K a month, which is over 480K baht a month. You really claim that over 50 expats in your company get those figures? What does your company do that it can afford paying over 24,000,000 baht a month, or 288,000,000 baht a year, just for expat salaries? I think you are just speculating rather than giving real figures.

2. I don't get what does this thread has to do with expat packages anyway?!

[bendix]

There are plenty of international companies operating in Bangkok that have several expats on deals of 300-500k baht a month.

By definition, these are international companies such as banks, accounting firms, law firm, consulting companies etc who rely on expat expertise to assist local operations. There's nothing unusual about it.

[bendix]

An Agarwood Plantation in Thailand.

Well, it can't be that profitable.

I'm pretty sure one of the guys in those pics can be seen serving beers in a bar in Sukhumvit 22 most nights.

[udon]

An Agarwood Plantation in Thailand.

Well, it can't be that profitable.

I'm pretty sure one of the guys in those pics can be seen serving beers in a bar in Sukhumvit 22 most nights.

He bought the bar for his partner.

Is that ok?

[~G~]

There are plenty of international companies operating in Bangkok that have several expats on deals of 300-500k baht a month.

By definition, these are international companies such as banks, accounting firms, law firm, consulting companies etc who rely on expat expertise to assist local operations. There's nothing unusual about it.

Question was average expat income. Out of maybe 100,000 expats living in Thailand, will it be safe to say that only a few percents get salary of around 480K baht a month? Will it be safe to say that the average is less than half of that?

[~G~]

There are plenty of international companies operating in Bangkok that have several expats on deals of 300-500k baht a month.

By definition, these are international companies such as banks, accounting firms, law firm, consulting companies etc who rely on expat expertise to assist local operations. There's nothing unusual about it.

Of course, in each international company will be a few executives that make those figures. But this guy mentioned 50 expats in one company, all receiving over 480K baht a month.

Don't downplay it, we are not talking about "several", we are not talking about "300K". 50 Expats in the same company making over 480K baht a month.

I'd say that there are not many companies in Bangkok that can boast such feaures. Maybe a few.

[thedude]

$13k a month salary for a full package expat is probably about right. You figure the base salary for an engineer/manager with 15+ years or so experience is around 100K per year, add uplift, housing, school fees, etc it is not hard to get over 150K a year. There are many (over 50 in my company) such people working and living in Thailand.

A million baht is not a lot to invest, you can probably open a small shop of some sort for that and give yourself some money to live on while building up a customer base. Investing in the SET is probably not a bad idea, but like stock markets everywhere, it carries various degrees of risk, depending on the equities chosen.

IMHO the idea of being able to invest $25 anywhere in the world and expect to live on the proceeds is somewhat farfetched.

TH

I think a few people have painted a rather glamerous picture of ex pat life here in Thailand .... whilst there are for sure a number of 'fat cats' with packages mentioned above this is by no means the majority ... the majority of ex pats living and working in Thailand will be pulling in nowhere near the above monthly amounts and most of my mates here (teachers and dive instructor) are quite happily living on a 50K Baht and less monthly wage ....

Well, since we are basing our opinions what the "majority of expats" make on our own experiences I will give mine. All of my friends and all of the expats I know make comparable salaries as above. The example I gave was for an American working overseas, of course, Brits and Aussie's base salaries are lower, but nonetheless, every expat I know is making a salary close or higher than what he would make at home (even the ones we refer to as “local expats”), that is why they are working oversees. I don't think I have ever met but just a couple of your 50k a month types.

TH

1. You mentioned $13K a month, which is over 480K baht a month. You really claim that over 50 expats in your company get those figures? What does your company do that it can afford paying over 24,000,000 baht a month, or 288,000,000 baht a year, just for expat salaries? I think you are just speculating rather than giving real figures.

2. I don't get what does this thread has to do with expat packages anyway?!

~G~, it is quite possible that some of those expat packages are paid offshore, not by the local company, these can sometimes be considered to be part of "HQ costs", which may or may not be allocated down to the local company. Also, depending on the type of business, 288 million baht or 7.5 million usd may not be a very big part of total turnover. Some companies may even choose to start a subsidiary "service" company to hold these expat costs in order to move them out of the company books that will be consolidated back to HQ. All i'm saying is the scenario described is not at all improbable and there are many large foreign companies in Thailand that operate in such a way.

[~G~]

~G~, it is quite possible that some of those expat packages are paid offshore, not by the local company, these can sometimes be considered to be part of "HQ costs", which may or may not be allocated down to the local company. Also, depending on the type of business, 288 million baht or 7.5 million usd may not be a very big part of total turnover. Some companies may even choose to start a subsidiary "service" company to hold these expat costs in order to move them out of the company books that will be consolidated back to HQ. All i'm saying is the scenario described is not at all improbable and there are many large foreign companies in Thailand that operate in such a way.

I perfectly accept that possibility, but between pointing the extreme examples, if any, and saying that 480K baht a month is an average expat salary in Thailand, there is indeed a long way.

[justbrad]

I also have a million.. could team up and start a little business of some sort?

[listenup]

I also have a million.. could team up and start a little business of some sort?

I also have a million and am willing to listen to ideas.

[bendix]

Buy a second hand bus and set up a visa run company.

[justbrad]

Buy a second hand bus and set up a visa run company.

I reckon 3mil is enough to invest in a little business.. any ideas? I am def interested.