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Another possibility is the internet service is noting use of utorrent and given such users have been recognized as heavy users, they get throttled back when such packets are identified on an ultra high speed service. This would not be service inadequacy per se. Many services do this all over the world. You can surf on this to investigate workarounds. eMule, perhaps. Or maybe some utorrent camouflaging plugin.

Shilo, I think there is a uTorrent based limit on downloads if the person is not doing original seeding. It may have nothing to do with your link. The utorrent people do this to get more content available.

At this particular point in time, there might be merit in addressing the question in two parts, rather than one. Rather than looking into "Is it a good idea to buy rental property in Pattaya?" maybe a different question might be better to ask, namely . . . "Will I know the answer to that question better one or two years from now?" Meaning, investment decisions always have three answers. Not two. It's not Yes or No. It's Yes, No and maybe later.

I missed this thread when it was more active. My only comment is to caution guys to greatly de-emphasize their personal experience with regard to inflation and more or less almost anything else. This is not the world we all grew up in and I think the odds are very poor that it will ever return to what it was. If the future is to be devastated by scarce oil, then there will be no economic growth anywhere in the world -- and oddly, despite the scarcity of oil, probably not much inflation. If that is what unfolds, then the focus should be on safety because crime will be rampant from the

Continued excellent data. The problem with discussion like this on this board is that far too often it turns into "I don't do that, I do this! I do that!" And then there's argument about what the poster should or should not be doing and criticism of what makes him comfortable and it's more or less insane. This is an excellent presentation of what a 1000 pounds per month lifestyle looks like in Jomtien and it's valuable. I'll bet somewhere along the way someone is going to have an idea of how some specific something can be found cheaper elsewhere. That doesn't criticize a choice.

Stole your aftershave? Did you call the UK embassy? This is an act of war!

Very good data. 1000 pounds a month and then detail. Very good. Could you add just a bit about how much of a drinker you are? And how many girls a week. Not how much you spend but how many beers a night. That sort of thing. You can drink and grab women however much you like. I think it might be useful to know how much of that defines the 1000 pounds a month lifestyle. And one trip out of country in that six month period. Also very good data defining the lifestyle of 1000 pounds a month. Thanks.

There are many threads on search about this. They cover the subject extensively.

I'm not going to get into the argument of who gets good advice where. I am curious about an aspect of Thai real estate (condos). Namely, insurance. Anyone ever have a place burn down and make a successful claim? What are the Thai insurer ratings and regulatory processes that ensure the insurer isn't collecting premiums with no intent ever to cover claims?

If they already have it, then its cost is X per year and gets added to the rest of the cost of living per year. If they think they don't need it, then its cost is 0 + the amortized yearly average of all medical expenses they will ever have. Theoretically the first number will be greater than the second averaged among all the people, since the company makes a profit. Anyway, it would be nice to know the going rate for health care insurance for CM expats.

FYI, it's not the cold. Plenty of them in Alaska. It's wind. That's why fans work. There isn't much horsepower in a mosquito engine so when the wind speed is up to about 7 mph, they go to the ground and stay there. Wind blows, no mosquitos. Fan blows, ditto. Air con is cold, but it also has a blower.

Keeping an eye on this thread for the always elusive present price of healthcare insurance.

Do more than just your homework on this. Look past numbers that are quoted, because many are wishful thinking at best, and outright lies at worst. There is an enormous disconnect between sales and engineering. It's almost inconceivable that you could have enough surface area in panels to power air conditioning. The technology just is not there yet, and frankly, physics being what it is, it may never be there. Don't think in terms of payback. Think in terms of possible.

I will have to apologize to the UK BMs here. I was vaguely aware that there was a requirement that they buy annuities in some time window, but it slipped my mind and I spent all my time trashing the concept in general -- which derived from the US centric perspective. Let me grab out quotes from the comments above: That's from utip and I'm not going to say I disagree, but let's examine it closely. We're talking about M62's situation which can be summed up as age 58 and smokes like a chimney. No offense. :) Here's the thing. The magical 4% derives from history (whi

No reason to destroy your post. You have offered superb input for this topic and it's a topic that can be valuable for the guys on this board. I try to keep in mind on this board that there are many UK folks reading, so this topic can be examined in a non-US centric way. I also think in terms of many BMs having spent their lives supporting a family by welding or doing machine tooling or other blue collar work that did not require them to do sums in their brains every day. They could be reading this. These guys didn't sit on their asses on the dole their whole lives. They went out and

I disagree. Annuities are a hugely profitable product sold by insurers. Think Very Carefully About That Sentence. Anything hugely profitable for whomever is selling it to you is pricing it far more than its . . . let's grab the adjective "intrinsic" (and not define it) value to you. In other words, you are getting screwed. Reality is that insurance companies are not doing anything with your annuity money that you could not do yourself. They are just paying themselves a hefty profit as an additional cost to you in performing the same portfolio management you could perform in your ow

Where should one put one's money for safety? These are bad times. They are times that somewhat probably render all of our experience nearly worthless. 1) "Things will get better. They always have after a bad time in the past." 2) "It's different this time. There are things happening that have never happened before." True believers of 1) will pull out pages of historical graphs showing squiggly lines and how today matches them and they are therefore predictive. They will say that in ALL panics governments have stepped up and broken rules and broken laws and done whateve

As I type this the US markets staged an explosive rally off of -36% high-to-low (last October to last Friday). The markets (plural) were up 11% today. No one knows what happens next, but there are a great many people paid to tell you what happens next. It's very hard to ignore them all, but you should. Especially if you're the one they want to pay them. Here's a list of information that reaches no conclusion: 1. If the US had created $1 trillion (1,000 billion) dollars with the wave of a hand and pumped it into its economy, the dollar would crash versus other currencies and t

The Las Vegas idea is good, but do not presume that you have successfully established residency in Nevada (which has no state income tax) just because you got an address there -- ESPECIALLY if you are "moving" from a high tax state. They have seen this before. You're not the first. To do this safely you have to jump through many more hoops. Get a drivers' license there. One subtle and really powerful thing is to have a resident's hunting or fishing license there (this would mean a Nevada state agency recognized you as a resident -- which is powerful stuff if your previous state clai

It was very possibly why they went broke. Suggest insurance evaluation not be done by premium and various published coverages. The industry survives by assessing odds and playing them. Then if the odds go against them, they try to dodge. Personally, I would suggest paying more than the minimum for this category expenditure if you can get some information of the relevant company's history of honest reimbursement and their strength of solvency. The Expat Club there may be a good place to inquire. Group plans have several advantages, one of which is that someone in the room lik

Look, guy, you're 67. You're going to live XX more years. A good working hypothesis is 13. Sell the house. It doesn't matter if you can get 30K more for it by waiting a year. The year is more important than the 30K. It also is not a source of "income" for you if sold. Stop thinking like that. You sell the house, you get XXX K dollars. Forget what you earn in interest on it. SPEND THE PRINCIPAL. You're 67. Divide it by 13 and spend it. The interest you'll earn is frosting on the cake. Want to leave some for your son? Then take XXX K dollars and subtract son's XX K dolla

1) At age 67 (which you mention later in the thread) I suppose the presumption is that the $1500/month (NET OF BILLS, apparently) is from Social Security and whatever private pension you have. The bills in question . . . are hard to identify here. 2) One of those bills might be your Medicare premiums. You have to look deeply into this because Medicare will NOT send money overseas for medical treatment. If not, then you need to chat with them about ceasing that premium payment and use the money for med insurance in Thailand. 3) Your son wants you to rent the house. Your son may no

Just shuffled its position on the screen.

1) You do get more from SS for having military service in that time frame. http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10017.html From 1957 through 1977, you are credited with $300 in additional earnings for each calendar quarter in which you received active duty basic pay. So when you plug numbers into this next link (your lifetime of earnings that show up on that form they send you each year) Be Sure To Add Your Military Addition, because I have two different sources, including a phone call to SS, that say the military addition is NOT on the form they send you each year, but will be added when you file

One additional item. Your SS amount. Most of the estimators ss.gov provides quote what you can expect to receive at age 62. If you delay to age 65, it will be more. It is what it is. I'm just making sure you haven't forgotten something to the upside. As for not changing to Medicare, I don't know anything about this, but recommend you look into the "automatic premium payment taken from your SS check". I don't know if you're allowed to opt out of that or not.