winner

I have a retirement visa and have renewed it twice. Don't put your money in a Thai bank. Unnecessary! I just get a letter from the USA embassy each year attesting that my income is over 65000 baht per year. No problem with that.

I have been using it for years and have never had a problem. I have direct depoits made into the account and get my money when I need it through ATMs. No fees and tey pay interest on checking accounts.

You can own directly as long as the 49% rule is not exceeded. In my condos a RE agent (CBRE) has an 80Sq Meter condo for sale at 3.7 Mill. A falang owner is trying to sell his at 3.5 and I was just offered the same unit at 2.6 by a Thai owner who lives in it and is moving. I have seen it before!!!! Only about 15% of the condos are foreign owned so no problem there.

If you just have to buy avoid the developers and the Real Estate Agents. They have inflated the prices feeling that they can get Falang suckers to buy. Everything that comes through these people is overpriced. Also avoid Falangs who are reselling. They paid too much to start with and are passing along that pricing plus a profit to you. Only buy directly from a Thai owner who is reselling and moving. In my condos there is a 45% difference in pricing depending on who is involved in the transaction. A word to the wise........

Hey Adam Porn must get old quickly! This is her second birthday this year. The picture in the Cherry Bar website shows her with the money necklace from the last one. What's up?

Shilo Wherever you se it up Mailboxes etc will forward your mail for a fee. I signed something that gave them permission to throw away obvious junk mail and forward the rest once a month. I gave them a credit card number to charge the postage to. No problems at all. They will forward as frequently as you wish. $2 charge plus postage cost per forwarding.

Taxes are easy. You cannot file online if you are not living in the US. I just download the forms and print them. I lived in a no income tax state before I moved here so no problem with that. I fill them out and mail them from here. As far as your visa goes, you renew it here. After I collected the necessary papers--really easy--I went to immigration in Bangkok and left with my new one year visa in about 25 minutes. The first year that I was here , I had a mailbox in the US and had them forward my mail once a month. During that time I changed my address to the one here for any importan

Actually, it makes it easier. I don't live on 20000bt per month, but I could. The live-in saves me a lot of money. Before she moved in, I paid 800bt a month for a house cleaner, 1300bt per month for laundry and ate 99% of my meals in restaurants. I also spent too much time in bars and paid for a lot of pussy. She has lived with me for over three years now. She is 25 years old and very good looking (71/2-8) She does the cleaning, the laundry and ironing, and cooks 95% of our meals. I don't pay her anything (she didn't come from the bars) except normal living expenses.The main thing is th

I bought mine here. (In Thailand). You can get a phone at a reasonable price depending on the features that you want. They are on a different band here that the USA also and since American phones are locked it is a problem to use one here. I am not sure if all American phones could be used here?

Don't let pussy screw up your life. I have seen too many guys go back home after barely subsisting here for a few years and they find that things have changed back home! The job that they used to be good at has now changed and their skills are not considered current. or They are older and it is harder to get a job or Who wants to hire a guy who says that he has been working in Thailand for the past six years. They get a job that barely covers there living expenses in their home country and are screwed up financially forever. I have seen it happen many times. Work at home, save money, ta

I like your index. In Bangkok, I pay 60 baht.

I agree. With the cheap rents, why buy? You are stuck in one place if you do. If things go bad you have to protect your investment while renters just move to another place. When you sell--you may make a profit but then again you may lose money. I don't trust the economy here enough to take that risk and have to worry about it.

You are right. It is a sucker price set up for people who still think--"Imagine what this would cost me back home". The 12 milion baht condos should be selling for about half of that price.

I would disagree with you on cost of living in BKK. I have been here about 4 years now and rent a very nice condo--2 bdrooms and two baths with a combined living room and dining room plus a small kitchen. Buy a lot of Falang food at Villa Market and do anything that I want to and my monthly costs run between 50 and 60 thousant baht. More often the 50,000 number. I love Bangkok. Prefer living here to Pattaya because there are more people not associated with the bar scene. I do not live in the Falang area. (Sukhumvit or patpong), so I pay Thai prices for everything except my food weakness.

Gary 20,000 is a good price. What company is it with and how old are you? (I sound Thai). LOL Did you get it through a particular organization? (Expat club etc)

Looking at condos and their pricing I have come upon a few practical things that you should do. First of all never use an agent. They get the listing by telling the owner that they can get him top dollar! Remember that the agent represents the seller--not you. As an example of this, look at the listings from places like Sunbelt Asia and others and they are creating a price market that as someone else indicated is ridiculous. (this goes for buying a business also). Always go direct to the seller to get the best deals. It helps to have a thai friend with you as a translator. I have seen pri

Some wise information posted here. You can retire too early! I see some expats in Bkk who did so and they are just scraping by--a miserable existence. For US social security they count 35 years of work. If you have not contributed that many years those years get 0s. You get down to a minimum benefit real fast that way. Enjoy your trips 2 or 3 times per year as I did and then retire early (59 for me) and then consider a move. You don't want to come here and then after 5 or 6 years have to move back and find a job when your work experience is outdated! You cannot just live for today--as m

When foreigners overpay to start with they think that they can then get a profit by just asking more than they paid! I agree with Big D---way overpriced.

I use TuboTax here. Easy to use and good instructions. Tennessee also has no income tax. Even though I am OK on the State, I would not file in any state if I was going to live here for a long time.

I also have my retirement visa and it was based on monthly income. I do not have to show any transfering to Thai banks. Something to keep in mind is that you can have a combination of income and bank account if your pension is not enough. For example, If you had a pension income of 37,500 per month and a bank account of 400000 baht you would qualify. In Bangkok, even though I was qualified on the income side, they also wanted to see that I had a bank account here and what the balance was. It didn,t matter what was in there(go figure!). I got a letter from Bangkok bank for this.

I like the Hotel Koenig. Stayed there for 10 days. New and very clean with large rooms and good aircon. Paid 600baht per night.

The website looks nice. Do they have in-room safes? Almost a must for me. Thanks

Where is it located?

Is that the hotel over Robinsons?

Do you know if I will have trouble bringing a lady or two back with me?