js007

My brother has had a couple of Golden Retrievers. Sweet dogs, but they sounded mean as hell and did a good job of alerting everyone to strange people in the area. The dogs stayed inside at night, but they could hear things a mile away, seemingly.

Sometimes, people move to a state with no income taxes for a time, prior to moving overseas. The get a new driver's license, fishing license, pay federal taxes, etc., all from the new state. In other words, they have established domicile and residence in the new state. THEN, they move overseas. I think using a mail drop service would work better after once establishing residence in the new state.

In a perfect world, I'm sure most people would like to have a house. You have more privacy, you can make more noise, and you would probably have more room. Unfortunately, the world isn't a perfect place. Houses have a security issue. And what about flooding? Does that happen regularly in housing additions? Does your stuff just get wet? All in all, I'd vote for a nice condo. I'd have to consider the fire risk, though. Maybe some wort of long escape rope?

Hey guys. The general idea is to get the information out there so people can file what they need to file. No sense getting into a bickering match.

There ARE mail forwarding places in the US that use a street address and suite number. For example, 123 Maple Street, Suite 101. That might be your address. They receive your mail and can forward it to you anywhere in the world. You can instruct them as to whether or not to throw away junk mail, and so on. There's a monthly fee and you pay for forwarding costs, but it might work at as a USA address for some. It helps to have such a service in a state with no income taxes. No sense in having state tax people on your ass if not necessary.

Here's a link to the IRS page on reporting foreign accounts. Apparently, there's a form to fill out if your foreign account balance is more than $10K. http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Report-of-Foreign-Bank-and-Financial-Accounts-FBAR

Taxes are one thing, but isn't there some sort of report that's due if you have $10K or more in a foreign bank? Or at least I read that somewhere. Usually, I just wire in money and then proceed to spend it, so I've never bothered with reporting anything.

Why would people from the USA have any trouble? US regulations?

The best way to find a cheeper apartment would be to make friends with a few bar girls and ask them. I did that once and had more suggestions than I knew what to do with. Some of the girls who have been around a while know all the good deals. Whether it's apartments or food, they know where to look. I remember one time I was staying in a guesthouse and some bar girl came over. She asked me what I was paying (I think I was paying around 15,000 baht a month) and when I told her she said her apt was similar, but only cost 5000 baht a month. Anyway, just drop into a place like TQ some day, and buy a few girls a few drinks. I'm sure they could steer you in the right direction.

I've been by that place many times, but I always got the impression there weren't many people inside. And maybe that's the case during the day? And at night, I can think of more fun venues.

Sizzler? I've never tried the place in Thailand, but here in the US I'd hardly call the place a "steakhouse." A fast food place that serves cheap steak, for the masses. Sort of like McDonald's or KFC or Burger King, but with steak. As for US steak in general? Usually, the stuff you buy in the typical US grocery store is "choice" meat. Not prime, and not the best. If you go to a good store, you can get the good stuff, but it'll cost you. For example, if you want prime filet mingon steaks, they can run $29.95 a pound in some stores. Usually around $19.95, but I've seen them as high as $29.95. Of course, in a good restaurant you can imagine what those steaks would cost, as an entree.

Well, if you can somehow manage to open a US Chase account from Thailand, using Chase might be easier. My Chase account was opened in the US and my Thai K bank account was added as a wire transfer option at a later date, from Thailand. A validation process was involved, but on the Chase site I think you can obtain the "validation" code via the email address you used when you originally set up the account. Anyway, I've never had a problem.

Can you use an email address instead?

I do the same thing, but I use Chase. Instead of three business days, the time is usually less than 24 hours. It seems to depend on what time of day I order the transfer, whether it's a weekend, etc. I get the feeling that the transfers are done during business hours in the USA, and likewise, the money is credited to my K bank account sometime early in the morning in Thailand, during business hours.

You can't beat the location. I was thinking about buying a condo there, but most of the advertised ones seem to be about 3,000,000 baht. Not exactly cheap.

For the price of a couple of drinks, Thai bar girls can teach you some of the basics. Or, hire one for the day to help you negotiate. They're experts at that.

Nio matter where you are, there's some security in owning a place vs. renting. Once you buy a place, you're shielded from rent increases. To me, that's would be the primary attraction. To be sure, rents in Thailand are cheap, for the most part. At present, renting seems to be the way to go. But who much longer will that be the case? No one knows for sure. Anyway, I'm still thinking about buying something in the under 2 million baht range. Once that's a done deal, I'll always have a place to go.

OK, Wac, what are we supposed to believe? I'd believe pretty much anything. You know that.

Diversion of the plane and a safe landing is pretty much the optimistic scenario, at this point. On TV they're now suggesting that the plane crashed into the Indiana Ocean. But what sense does that make? Why go to all the trouble of diverting a plane, just to crash it three or four hours later?

Maybe they wanted to steal the plane? Would there be a market for a stolen 777?

That makes sense. It still seems like a lot of trouble, though.

That may well be the case, but still, why would the two need stolen passports?

Slightly off topic, but if the two travelers with the stolen passports arrived from Iran, presumably with Iranian passports, why would they need to travel with "stolen" passports? Doers that make any sense?

Maybe the plane was abducted by Aliens, to be returned at a later date.

Good question. Surely that could be done. Anyway, planes don't normally drop out of the sky at cruising altitude. Might be terrorism of some sort. I don't keep up with the political situation in Malaysia. Problems?