How Much Will I Need/lge Purchases

[marttaff]

Hi all, hope you can help.

1)I will be retiring to the LOS in the next 2yrs, twice married leaves no house left but an apprx pension of £50k lumper and £1000 monthly, I have been told this is more than enough to settle and live in LOS to a reasonably high standard. Often reading blogs on here suggest otherwise.

Will be settling in Issan probably Nong Khai, any advice greatly appreciated. GF has land so that may help a little.

2)Does it pay to have a bank account in LOS or keep my uk one? I have noticed no one buys by cheque how do you pay for large purchases?

3)Any help with cost of living.....building a house....buying a car......

ALL ADVICE & HELP GREATFULLY RECEIVED

[Khutan]

Marttaff;

Welcome aboard.

1,ooo Quid a month outside Bangkok will be great that means you can rent a nice apartment or house in Nong Kai (Say 5000 a month for something really good), say you hire a maid and have other stuff done in the house like shopping, etc then you would pay a maximum of 5,000 a month.

That leaves you 60,000 a month to "play with" or about 2,000 a day. That would be fun. My wife and I and the Baby spend about 300 a day on food and probably 250 - 300 a day on Booze and other stuff and we live in Bangkok.

The 50K lumper is about 350,000 Baht, I would keep that in the bank and not tell anyone you have it.

I would also operate UK and Thai Bank accounts. There are more and more banks offering No Fee ATM accounts so if you don't go to the ATM too much, then you won't have too much in fee's

Good luck and I hope all is good for you

[wanttoescape]

Hi all, hope you can help.

1)I will be retiring to the LOS in the next 2yrs, twice married leaves no house left but an apprx pension of £50k lumper and £1000 monthly, I have been told this is more than enough to settle and live in LOS to a reasonably high standard. Often reading blogs on here suggest otherwise.

Will be settling in Issan probably Nong Khai, any advice greatly appreciated. GF has land so that may help a little.

2)Does it pay to have a bank account in LOS or keep my uk one? I have noticed no one buys by cheque how do you pay for large purchases?

3)Any help with cost of living.....building a house....buying a car......

ALL ADVICE & HELP GREATFULLY RECEIVED

I have been asking for this same advice recently, so I will pass on what was so graciously provided to me by some members of this forum. I don't know the conversion for british currency, so I will just give a list of expenses in baht:

Electric 2000

Ipstar satellite internet 1600

UBC Cable TV 1500

Phone 700

Water 500

Diesel 2000

Car insurance 1500

Road tax 300

Groceries 2500

Miscellaneous 7000

These items, of course, can vary greatly depending on your lifestyle. This list should be a good starting point. The miscellaneous is for booze, dining out, etc. This budget assumes you own your own home and have no rent or car payments. If you require medical insurance, you can get a quick quote from links on the forum home page. I have been told that in my situation (wife and young daughter), I could live comfortably on 25000 baht per month in the Surin area (or most areas of Isaan for that matter). Anything above that is just icing on the cake. Good luck on the move, I wish I could say I would be there within 2 years.

wanttoescape

[Thaicoon]

Hi all, hope you can help.

1)I will be retiring to the LOS in the next 2yrs, twice married leaves no house left but an apprx pension of £50k lumper and £1000 monthly, I have been told this is more than enough to settle and live in LOS to a reasonably high standard. Often reading blogs on here suggest otherwise.

Will be settling in Issan probably Nong Khai, any advice greatly appreciated. GF has land so that may help a little.

2)Does it pay to have a bank account in LOS or keep my uk one? I have noticed no one buys by cheque how do you pay for large purchases?

3)Any help with cost of living.....building a house....buying a car......

ALL ADVICE & HELP GREATFULLY RECEIVED

Your 25k will soon go if you are going to build a house, furnish it, buy a car, etc, if your girlfriend has land you would be better off to start building a small bungalow now, and get things ready for your big day, then when you do move you have everything there ready, i have done this, i built a 5 bedroom house in one rai of land 7 years ago, cost me 2.5 million, but todays prices that house would cost me double, all paid for and ready, i do frequent Buriram quite often and have a superb family looking after my interests, also i had a annex built at the back for my sister in law, who keeps the place spik and span, so when i retire and sell my Business i have everything in place. plus my wife gets a good income from land and rent.

[Nomad97]

Marttaff;

The 50K lumper is about 350,000 Baht, I would keep that in the bank and not tell anyone you have it.

I think your conversion from 50K pounds sterling is missing a decimal point. At 70 baht to the pound, 50K UK pounds sterling is 3.5 million baht, not 350K.

Agreed! Keep the money safe and spend wisely.

You will need 800K baht in your Thai bank account to support your 12-month long-stay 'retirement' visa. Conversely, 1000 pounds per month would give you more than the 65K baht per month necessary to support the same visa. However, 800K THB in the bank makes things a lot easier.

[marttaff]

Thanx to all who have contributed to date, I'm assuming that the amounts I have quoted is probably sufficient to have a nice lifestyle , what about large purchases are cheques used? and if not how do I go about it.....

Property - is it cheaper to build than buy?

[udon]

Hi marttaff

No cheques.

Keep your loot in the UK & draw via ATMs, apart from the 800KB in a Thai savings a/c.

You can get an ATM card with your Thai savings a/c.

Rent for a minimum of 1 year....... don't be in a rush to build .

Hire a car for a month or so before rushing into a purchase.

70,000B a month will give you a good lifestyle.

Tell NO ONE about the 50,000 squid.

Don't leave the UK without good health/accident insurance.

Good luck!

[dereklev]

Hi marttaff

No cheques.

Keep your loot in the UK & draw via ATMs, apart from the 800KB in a Thai savings a/c.

You can get an ATM card with your Thai savings a/c.

Rent for a minimum of 1 year....... don't be in a rush to build .

Hire a car for a month or so before rushing into a purchase.

70,000B a month will give you a good lifestyle.

Tell NO ONE about the 50,000 squid.

Don't leave the UK without good health/accident insurance.

Good luck!

Sound advice from Udon, as always.

Get a Nationwide ATM account they do not charge for withdrawals other banks charge approx 3%.

If you intend to stay at your home and just have the occassional day/night out your 70K will go far.

If however you like to travel and enjoy nights out with the boys it will soon become severely dented! !

Also you must be prepared for the unexpected, trips back to the UK do not come cheap.

If you are ill private hospitals are not cheap and I assure you that you would not wish to stay in a Thai Government hospital....

As a retiree I think you will find the cost of expat health insurance in the UK prohibitive. You cannot just buy an annual travel policy as they have a limit on the number of days per trip.

Every one talks an exchange rate of 70 baht to the pound but it may not always be that way, what will you do if it drops to 60? ? That might sound alarmist but it could easily happen!!

Have you ever spent an length of time in rural Isaan? If not I strongly recommend you do before building a house. It is not to everyones liking.

I wish you good luck, but I suspect that if you still think in terms of using cheques you are unprepared for this move.

[udon]

You might be able to get 18 months travel insurance cover here: http://www.worldnomads.com/pricesandbenefi...ffiliate=LNYPLT

[marttaff]

Hi marttaff

No cheques.

Keep your loot in the UK & draw via ATMs, apart from the 800KB in a Thai savings a/c.

You can get an ATM card with your Thai savings a/c.

Rent for a minimum of 1 year....... don't be in a rush to build .

Hire a car for a month or so before rushing into a purchase.

70,000B a month will give you a good lifestyle.

Tell NO ONE about the 50,000 squid.

Don't leave the UK without good health/accident insurance.

Good luck!

Thanx...some good sound advice!! How do you go about making large purchases (like a car) etc.

[marttaff]

Hi marttaff

No cheques.

Keep your loot in the UK & draw via ATMs, apart from the 800KB in a Thai savings a/c.

You can get an ATM card with your Thai savings a/c.

Rent for a minimum of 1 year....... don't be in a rush to build .

Hire a car for a month or so before rushing into a purchase.

70,000B a month will give you a good lifestyle.

Tell NO ONE about the 50,000 squid.

Don't leave the UK without good health/accident insurance.

Good luck!

Sound advice from Udon, as always.

Get a Nationwide ATM account they do not charge for withdrawals other banks charge approx 3%.

If you intend to stay at your home and just have the occassional day/night out your 70K will go far.

If however you like to travel and enjoy nights out with the boys it will soon become severely dented! !

Also you must be prepared for the unexpected, trips back to the UK do not come cheap.

If you are ill private hospitals are not cheap and I assure you that you would not wish to stay in a Thai Government hospital....

As a retiree I think you will find the cost of expat health insurance in the UK prohibitive. You cannot just buy an annual travel policy as they have a limit on the number of days per trip.

Every one talks an exchange rate of 70 baht to the pound but it may not always be that way, what will you do if it drops to 60? ? That might sound alarmist but it could easily happen!!

Have you ever spent an length of time in rural Isaan? If not I strongly recommend you do before building a house. It is not to everyones liking.

I wish you good luck, but I suspect that if you still think in terms of using cheques you are unprepared for this move.

No Im ready for the move and spent a fair bit of time in Issan over the years, its just I cant get my head around how to purchase large priced items.....its a western thing I know Im just intrigued.

[udon]

Cash.

[dereklev]

Cash.

Yes, here cash is king!

Most places accept credit cards but they try to hit you with a 3% surcharge.....

On most of my major purchase I negotiated a discount for cash, for the few where cash was unavailable I paid by credit card but told them I would go elsewhere if they surcharged me. I have never paid the surcharge....

[marttaff]

Cash.

Yes, here cash is king!

Most places accept credit cards but they try to hit you with a 3% surcharge.....

On most of my major purchase I negotiated a discount for cash, for the few where cash was unavailable I paid by credit card but told them I would go elsewhere if they surcharged me. I have never paid the surcharge....

It is as I thought, and now fully confirmed!! my thanx to you all, any further help with the cost of living in Issan gratefully received also whether best to buy or build with the amounts I have available, am thinking of Nong Khai, where GF has land, though have visited some sites where the cost of buying may be easier than the hassle of building. Will be renting initially of course.