Gary

I have my pensions and dividends direct deposited into my US bank account. I wire transfer funds to my Thai bank as needed. I have NEVER paid any Thai taxes on those funds. I'm not 100 percent sure but I think if you have a substantial amount in a Thai bank and are collecting interest on that money, the Thai taxes will be deducted by the bank.

If you make money in Thailand you WILL pay taxes in Thailand. It's really that simple. I am retired here but would never consider investing in Thailand. I cautioned those setting up bogus companies to own property that it WAS against the law and that someday the whole scheme could turn to shit. Even now things are still pretty good here in the Kingdom, BUT, if something were to happen to the King the little tin pot wannabe dictators are all lined up like vultures. Thailand is my home but things could turn to shit VERY quickly and I will certainly keep the bulk of my money in the USA. I also pl

I'm not at all sure that a 500 baht top up will be good for a year. The entire 1,500 baht is credit and you have a year to use it up. The advantage is having the full year to use up your credit. If you could do that with 500 baht there would be no advantage.

I use AIS but I think D-Tac is about the same. A 300 baht top up only gives you about an extra 30 days before the SIM card expires. If you top up after the SIM has expired the balance you had will still be there. How long the SIM card is actually valid is another question. I had a spare that was seldom used. I had forgotten about it. It was used for GPRS Internet. I tried to top it off and got a message that the card was expired thus no good. A friend of mine now buys his SIM cards from a shop called Telewhiz (sp?). He pays 1,500 baht and it is good for an entire year.

If you plan to do any movie editing or even watch DVD movies I would not buy one that the video card shares the main memory. A stand alone card is better. My IBM has; ATI Mobility FIRE GL V3200 Installed Video Memory 128 MB Graphic Bus Interface PCI Express External Video Resolution 2048 x 1536

The only thing worse than a born again christian is a reformed smoker. Some of the last smoking section flights NEVER had any seats available in the small smoking section. I spent more time standing because of people borrowing my seat so they could have a smoke. Regular smoking flights would do well. YES, before anyone preaches to me, I know it is no good for me, BUT, I would be REALLY pissed off if I died from nothing.

Actually I just bought a new one. My old IBM Thinkpad still works after about six years but the keyboard gave up. I must use a remote keyboard now. I looked at reliability ratings and found that Apple and IBM (Lenovo) were at the top of the ratings. I just returned from a trip to the US and bought a tricked out IBM Thinkpad while there. It has a three year international warranty. I didn't want to be having problems here and have to look for someone to repair a laptop especially while it is under warranty. The model is a T43p. The retail was $3,600. Because it is a left over model without the D

I would strongly advise anyone getting a retirement visa to do their research and do it by themselves. I have a good friend who used a dodgy service. He DID get his visa but the next year it cost him 35,000 baht to get things back legal. The Thai government is closing loopholes. There used to be visa company who would deposit the 800,000 baht in your account, them take it out when you had your visa. There is now a waiting period of three months. The money must have been in your account three months prior to your retirement visa application. There is no problem using the 800,000 baht for li

The land ownership laws in the Philippines are similar to Thailand. You CAN'T own land regardless of what some misinformed people may tell you. They have softened up the visa requirements but it is still not easy to get any visa that allows you to stay and not have to leave the country at least once a year.

Four years from now the goal posts are VERY likely to be moved again and who knows in what direction. If you sell your condo make it a stipulation that you want the funds wire transfered to your UK bank. At that point you can wire transfer the funds back to Thailand and the bank will give you documents to prove that the money was wired from the UK. I retired in a similar fashion. I lived off my savings until my pensions started and had no problems.

It's not far from Nana. Depending on the traffic usually less than a half hour. They have modified bankers hours there so it's best to try to get there about 9:00 AM. Don't wait in the long line, that's for visas. Turn right at the sign that says citizen services. There won't be any line outside. You may have to wait a while to get to the service window but it won't be very long.

What always amazes me is that farangs come up here way out in the boonies and spend all kinds of money for bogus companies and leases to try to protect themselves. They pay taxes and pay an accountant to file tax returns. The main point that they are missing is that if their relationship did fall apart there is NO way that they would want to live there alone so what's the point? If you want to build a house and can easily afford it, go for it. If you spend more money than you can afford to walk away from then you are being stupid. I am very happy with my Thai wife but I will always remain

I have NEVER seen an HSBC ATM anywhere in Thailand. That said, if your ATM card doesn't have the Cirrus symbol on it you better look for another ATM card. The Cirrus card works nearly everywhere.

I can tell you for sure that getting pages added to a US passport is free and painless except getting to the US Embassy. When you get a new US passport the ten years is from the time the passport is made.

It all depends on how you want to live. If you want to live in a shoebox $80,000 is plenty. If you like nicer things you simply have to work longer and save every dime you can. You are limited to a condo in Thailand anyways.

Get a new passport and you won't have to worry about it. I got a new one at the American Embassy in Bangkok and it was kind of a pain in the ass. The new passport is made in the USA and it takes 15 days to get back to Thailand. They refuse to mail it to you so you have to pick it up in person. That doesn't sound too bad but I live more than 500 kilometers from Bangkok. I don't know how long it takes if you are in the US but it should not take that long. I think mine cost $62 US. Now I'm good for another ten years.

The first try I put some in my wife's regular garden and some more in a planter that is built around the back porch. No fertilizer. The leaves gradually withered up and the plants died. The next try was putting some in the planter again with fertilizer and in the garden again with fertilizer. Same results. The last time I planted them in the planter and sprayed them with some kind of smelly stuff from a garden center. I planted the last ones in large pots with potting soil. Again the same results. No matter what I do they all die the same. My wife tells me that I should plant right now because

As a matter of fact I have Better Boy, Big Boy, Buck's Country, Super Beefsteak and one other one that I have used all the seeds. They all acted the same. Plenty of tomatoes but all the plants died before they ripened.

The temperature where I live is not the problem. In the winter up here it gets cold enough to be able to see your breath in the mornings. The plants pollinate fine and they fruit pretty heavily. The tomatoes get to be about the size of marbles then the plant gradually withers and dies after starting out great and healthy looking. The last time I used some spray recommended by the local green thumb and even that didn't help.

Thanks anyways mrstein but I'm quite happy with my 9 percent annual dividends and I sleep well. And YES, my 15 percent stop loss is 15 percent below the purchase price. I was going to make it 10 percent but since I'm in them for the monthly dividends I decided if they drop 10 percent and still pay well, I'll hold on to them for a while longer. I do look at them almost every day and if I see the dividend start to slip I'll probably dump them before the price goes down 15 percent.

They are indeed in my retirement fund so taxes are not a consequence. I DO take the dividends direct deposited in my bank account every month. I do feel they are safe BUT still have a stop loss of 15 percent of the purchase price. Historically they have been very steady. Mine are mostly invested in bonds.

I have always wondered why no one talks much about ETF closed end funds. I have five of them and they average about 9.4 percent a year. Until the dividend drops I'll be hanging on to them. They all pay the dividends monthly so they are very easy to keep track of. Since there are only the shares originally sold the share price isn't very volatile.

The varieties of tomatoes available for sale here are the rubber ball type that have no flavor and no juice. The cherry tomatoes are the only choice if you want decent flavor. Since the cherry tomatoes are not much bigger than marbles it makes it hard to put them on a sandwich.

I haven't totally given up yet. I'm looking into hydroponic. I was told that it's something in the air that diseases the plants but I can't see how that can be. If they won't grow hydroponically I'll believe it and will give up.

I had a friend of mine bring over some seeds for me. They were meant for planting in Florida. I had five different varieties. They grew very well and blossomed. Everyone of the varieties finally withered up and died. I tried the normal soil and potting soil in pots. After four plantings and four failures I gave up. I guess that's why there are no big tomatoes grown here. Cherry tomatoes and the Thai rubber ball variety do pretty well.