I can't see how it could be done on £60k.
By the time they buy a small house, pay for food and utilities, schooling, health insurance etc, the capital would be gone within a year.
It would put a lot of strain on the wife to earn enough to pay all the bills even if she started a small business with part of the capital life would be very hard, even in Issan or similar place.
Mind you, there are people who try, despite advice to the contrary, they blow all their savings and find themselves up sh1t creek without a paddle.
I've lost my mind and I am making no effort to find it.
Yes KD1975, there are certainly those who have done it on less. I understand that this figure is not enough to just 'wade in' and wave a magic wand to make all alright forever and on.
Really, the main point of the thread was to garner suggestions on business solutions/possible MOs/other possibilities (other than bars or teaching) with this start-up/relocation capital in mind that may, if you get it right, equate to some kind of longevity. OK, houses, cars, kids and other things depend on commitments you have or that you wish to have.
There have been some great replies.
Having been asked by some folk I know, I thought there must be a way to set yourself up on a 100k US$ so that you could stay and prosper in a new life. I wasn't suggesting for a minute that you do nothing and piss it away.
I suppose it is a difficult question that many would not even have considered as they are in lavish circumstances, more of a case of if you weren't in such circumstances then how would you make it work.
And it's also worth saying that you don't need 150k baht a month to live here and be OK, unless you want to be living in a house that resembles a Tudor country retreat with Kew Gardens surrounding it.
You can open a 7-11 if you get it right and have the right people for 2 million cash (plus the finance from SCB) and they make a fortune.
If your friends are young, and employable back in their home country, then give it a go, just keep enough safety net to go back and restart.
So, no teaching or bars, what about rental properties, restaurant? I think it was mentioned she is Thai?
I'm fiscally conservative, but if one wants to try their dream, and have a backup, then go for it, they can recover if young enough and will not sit around 40 years from now saying "what if..."
The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
Spitfire, what other franchise's are available in Thailand, maybe something worth looking into.
I got chatting to the British guy that owns the Subway take away in Hua Hin, more than four years ago he was not happy with the business at the time, and chatting to expats around town they told me "would not pay those prices for a sub, when you can get a meal for the same money" but my point is he's still there.
Kendo.
Is Bangkok a place or a nasty injury.......Eric Morcombe.
so how much is enough? i am moving to thailand in 2 years time. i will be 58 then and i will be able to raise £250,000, about 12 million baht at todays exchange rate. i have a woman who lives in tak, which is halfway between bkk and chiang mai, she owns her own house and works as a pharmacist assistant in a hospital. she will continue to work, but my only additional income until i reach state pension age is £200 a month that i recieve from my late wifes civil service pension. will our joint assets be enough for us to have a reasonable standard of living.
Franchises in general are a recipe for disaster a veritable Ponsi scheme where the poor buggers at the shop face do all the work and the major domo gets all the rewards. There is also the possibility that doing what every one else is doing is flogging a dead horse and there is also the the very real possibility of a similar biz opening across the road.
You need to be a little more original and I'm sure that the export road may be a good option if you do your homework and figure out what the customer really wants.
In almost any retail business, you need to have enough seed money to keep the business running for at least six months (or preferably a year) before turning a profit. I was told this by the U.S. Small Business Administration when applying for a small business Loan when the missus and I were thinking of opening a Thai restaurant in California. They said that 95% of small or family owned retail outlets fail due to this reason. It can take up to a year to become known and to build a customer base before the business becomes profitable.
Even though they said I had an excellent business plan and had done my homework (even had an excellent location available to rent) they turned down the loan for that one reason only. I did not have enough cash on hand (even with the loan I was asking for) to run the place at zero profit for one year.
So if you can think of a business where you can afford to keep stock make payroll, pay rent and utilities to keep it all going for a year with no return then you may make a go at it.
My brain is like an Internet browser; 12 tabs are open and 5 of them are not responding, there's a GIF playing in an endless loop,... and where is that annoying music coming from?
curlybaggie wrote:so how much is enough? i am moving to thailand in 2 years time. i will be 58 then and i will be able to raise £250,000, about 12 million baht at todays exchange rate. i have a woman who lives in tak, which is halfway between bkk and chiang mai, she owns her own house and works as a pharmacist assistant in a hospital. she will continue to work, but my only additional income until i reach state pension age is £200 a month that i recieve from my late wifes civil service pension. will our joint assets be enough for us to have a reasonable standard of living.
As you know you will have to get by for at least 7 years before your State Pension kicks in - at which point I suspect that the civil service pension might cease. Worth checking on that by the way. Remember also that your own State Pension will be frozen when you move, unless you can find a way round it.
On the plus side 12 million baht plus 200 quid a month plus your Thai ladies income isn't too bad when there are no housing costs involved. I'm assuming that your Thai lady is managing OK now without you there - so any extra household costs should be easily managed once you move.
One of the big differences IMO is you are not talking about living in HH, where the cost of living is above average. Up north there can be a huge difference. I have a friend who lives beyond CM and rents a very nice house for 4000 bt a month. OK it is a standard kind of new Thai terrace place but perfectly fine. They eat mainly at noodle places, get a few beers in from Tesco, but have nights out and are happy.
At the other extreme I know an English guy who used to live in HH - no Thai lady - who was last heard of living in a tent on a Penang beach.
One of the big problems with HH now IMO, as well as it's relatively high cost of living in general, is that it has become very much more consumer orientated as opposed to say 10 years ago. There is just so much to lure shoppers which wasn't available before, like the expensive MV shops and the up market cafes etc. People no longer have to make do with ChatChai market, and the once popular farang watering holes outside the Mom and Pop shops have all but disappeared. There is in fact now a kind of class divide there, with newer, wealthier expats looking down their noses at those who continue to happily get by as they have for years.
find work you can do remotely so you make Farang money but can do it from Thailand.
Trading shares is one way but very risky, Sports arbing can make you money if you research and work hard.
I never heard that term; "arbing" before so I googled it and the results made is sound very dodgy and very difficult to make any money at.
My brain is like an Internet browser; 12 tabs are open and 5 of them are not responding, there's a GIF playing in an endless loop,... and where is that annoying music coming from?
margaretcarnes wrote:As you know you will have to get by for at least 7 years before your State Pension kicks in - at which point I suspect that the civil service pension might cease. Worth checking on that by the way.
I've researched this as part of my retirement plan (my state pension will not kick in for 12 years). In the event that I should die, my Thai wife will receive a percentage of my Civil Service pension for life. On the day that I would have been eligible for state pension, my wife will also qualify for the spouse's element of that pension also. She has not worked enough in the UK to qualify for a state pension in her own right.
If Margaret, or anybody else for that matter, knows differently then I'd like to know - this has been an important piece of my retirement planning to make sure my wife is financially secure (although my death has never really featured in my planning ).
Sports arbitrage isn't difficult but it is hard work. That might sound a bit of a contradiction. I have done quite a bit of it, but find in general that from Thailand, with certain sites being blocked, internet latency, time-zone differences and black / brownouts at inconvenient times, that the return doesn't often justify the risk. Sports arbitrage is really pretty much identical to day trading, whether it is stocks, futures or ForEx. It takes the same level of expertise to make a success of any of them. It is not trivial, a comes with considerable risk to your bankroll which needs to be larger than most people first realise. But once you know what you are doing, it can be quite profitable.
Likewise some of the online gaming options, particularly poker and 'bonus pimping' can turn a profit. @hhfarang - point your browser at 'matched betting' and you will find a lot of very good info about how to find the opportunities. But this is not intended as an encouragement to try it. Most of the easy money has been made.
From the "basics book of investing (aka Korkenziehers Rules of Thumb)". If want an income of say £20,000 - roughly 1M baht, or 80,000 a month, and ignoring tax implications:
Average sized accounts of say £2000 - making average returns of 10% gets you a weeks shopping at Tesco!
order of magnitude larger - £20,000 account - 10% is 2000 a year. To get that year in, year out you are outperforming 95% of the professionals
order of magintude larger still - £200,000 account gives £20,000 a year. Any more than that, consistently, and you are getting into Buffett territory.
order up again - £2,000,000. Why would you risk it in share trading?
So, in conclusion, for an acceptable quality of life here based on trading, you need either in excess of £200,000 consistently and well managed, and to be very good at the job or very lucky. That is $300,000 roughly. I would personally not fancy it with much less than close to double that. So, IMHO, I feel that $100,000 to run a trading operation simply isn't enough if you have to live out of the same money.
Had enough of the trolls. Going to sleep. I may be some time....
curlybaggie wrote:so how much is enough? i am moving to thailand in 2 years time. i will be 58 then and i will be able to raise £250,000, about 12 million baht at todays exchange rate. i have a woman who lives in tak, which is halfway between bkk and chiang mai, she owns her own house and works as a pharmacist assistant in a hospital. she will continue to work, but my only additional income until i reach state pension age is £200 a month that i recieve from my late wifes civil service pension. will our joint assets be enough for us to have a reasonable standard of living.
With a sum like that, if you were astute, you could conceivably make traditional investments in the West that would finance a modest lifestyle in Thailand with less capital risk. For instance there are cities in the UK and other parts of Europe where you could buy two or three rental apartments for that.
CB : As Steve says you could achieve rental income with that capital or be ultra safe and in invest in 1,2 and 3 year offshore bonds obtaining interest of 3-3.5% p.a. or around 625 GBP per month minimum with no risks. Add to your 200 plus wifes salary and close to 50,000 Baht per month, very doable imo.
Kendo : Re Subway, point is he isn't still here. Around 4 or 5 years ago he (Mick from Wigan) went to work in Australia for a year then back to Heinz factory in Wigan because Subway wasn't making a living. He spent all his capital and tried selling the Subway for what he paid for it but the profit did not justify the price. The rent there is crippling, I had all the figures until recently as I looked into it around 4 years ago after Mick went to Aus. I worked with his brother in Saudi. He left his wifes sister and cousin or niece running it so took the profit after their salaries but it was not enough to live on, less than 20,000 a month I think. I very much doubt he has his initial investment back yet.
Edit : I haven't been recently so unless he has returned in the last year or so............
'If you didn't have a wasted youth you wasted your youth'
curlybaggie wrote:so how much is enough? i am moving to thailand in 2 years time. i will be 58 then and i will be able to raise £250,000, about 12 million baht at todays exchange rate. i have a woman who lives in tak, which is halfway between bkk and chiang mai, she owns her own house and works as a pharmacist assistant in a hospital. she will continue to work, but my only additional income until i reach state pension age is £200 a month that i recieve from my late wifes civil service pension. will our joint assets be enough for us to have a reasonable standard of living.
CB. You need to sit down think if you could live on the income from you savings and £200 pension you receive at present, in England. If the answers yes, you will have know problem in Thailand.
If I had the same, I would put £200,000 into offshore fixed rate account paying 4.5% = £9,000 a year £750 a month plus your £200.00 = £950.00
Remember you may need deposit approx. £18,000 into a Thai bank, visa renewing conditions. (there are other options available I find this the best option) that leaves you £32,000 which you can put into an offshore instant access account paying 2.24% transferring living expenses 3, 6, 9, or 12 monthly into Thailand. I would also advise against moving more money than you need into Thailand easy to get into Thailand not so easy to get out. Good luck with whatever you decided.
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