scorpions

Reach a mutual termination agreement $$$ during the trip to LOS Good luck!

Rates 1, 3, 6 and 12 month?

Airline fine staying in DOHA is another story ... Optimizing your stop over so

My range would be: min. 50'000 = 1'000 €/month mid. 75'000 = 1'500 €/month top 100'000 = 2'000 €/month (actually what I'm spending now in 2 weeks excl. flight already 4x year) +yearly health cost, +international travel expenses etc. to be on the safe site 150'000 = 3'000 €uro/month unforeseen: inflation rate, exchange rate, health costs, time frame etc.

Use to stay always in this area you need to provide more details

Adam, thanks for the list - interesting to see all the new developments underway. Good to see that there is not only the View Tally 24 floors big block architectures under construction (one scheme one layout fits for all - already Number 8 underway this time again in Jomtien ...) But now I'm curious do you rent or did you purchase? Edit: By the way find your Homepage excellent!!!

Very interesting read! Some simple rules which will help to increase my comfort level over the time. My conservative calculated initial withdraw level is 50% below (2.9% vs. 5.8%).

Photopucket.com Bandwidth exceed nothing to see -

100% agreed the best tool is IRFRAN VIEW! Hope it will be soon also available for the smartphone

1. Firefox 2. Opera 3. IE if really nothings works. No thanks to version 7

Send a PM!

I'd like to have your problems ...

Links broken: Here the hopefully right one: LK Metropole booking I'm still paying the same amount since trip my first trip several years ago (750 Bath/day incl. everything) in my favorite Hotel on Pratumak Hill. Unfortunately this time the Hotel is booked out due to Chinese New Year in February Versace Suite 180m2 : 12,000 / day -> price I pay for my 16 days !!! 58,800 / week 120,000 / month prices like in Dubai. Will keep on searching

"Ten worst-performing newsletters of 2006 Commentary: All of them finished well into negative numbers" No surprise to me: Ten worst-performing newsletter 2006 10x Edit: Alan's one is not included !!! Investorschronicle

The figure was a forecast of year 2040: "BRIC's will be about 40% of world economy". This are the main markets with major growth potential from my POV.

My investment strategy will change over time once I shall retire sure it will be more conservative investing in absolute return obligation assuming that the yearly generated interests/dividends/rent are sufficient. As defined from the Chinese symbol of risk: Risk is a mix of danger and opportunity Edit: In your case focusing on market I would at least try to diversify in different industries from my POV (assuming that you have also no currency diversification £,$,€,CHF etc.): Besides the bank sector also in others like utilities, REIT etc. 2006 was a great year for the stock market let's see what 2007 will brings

There are to many "gurus" out there claiming how, where and when to invest. They all fail sooner or later to beat the market (see study Campbell and Harvey (1996). Therefore I recommend to start from stretch and defining your own investment philosophies first. Here is my original starting bible called Investment Philosophies from Aswath Damodaran ( Prof @ Stern School of Business - New York University) actually you are lucky as his latest review of the book is online before it goes in print (pdf files of each chapter what do you want more? Sure if you like the book it's still worth to buy it!): http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/ The only thing he requests: "If you find any mistakes - mathematical or grammatical - could you please let me know? It would help me ensure that the typos do not find their way into the final version." He's homepage www.damodaran.com have a lot of great stuff for free. Once overcome the initial hurdle you will see that the time you invest is worthwhile. Be you own money Manager and don't let bad math ruin your investment. Objective for 07? Edit: My Objective of 06 was to define my retirement strategy. In 07 I'll continue taking the road less traveled to put this strategy now in practice. The board was and is a great help for me!

Not only to overweight one sector but also one currency, one market, stocks, funds, ETF etc. The best solution as Nobel Price winner William F. Sharpe (CAPM model, sharpe-ratio etc.) stated is: - Diversification, Diversification, Diversification My best performer this year which beets Alan's best ones slightly was my investment in a BRIC fund. Is an emerging market fund incl. Brazil, Russia, India and China. Keeping in mind that this countries alone represent 40% of the world economy and will pass ahead of the G6 (USA, Japan, Germany, Great Britain, France and Italy) around 2040 the return this year was 43,7%. Sure a risky one but on the long run I feel more than comfortable if you analyze the potential of this 4 countries in detail. The applied diversification of the geographic area, currency as well as the various sector within the fund is a good example for me to optimize the risk exposure. Sure I'll keep them for the years to come !!! Let's see in 2040 ...

After having carried out the various scenarios calculation the items which scare me most besides the general inflation increase are: 1. Health cover / insurance is an unpredictable beast 2. Any kind of state pension are impossible to forecast 3. Rental cost (might be significant above my forecast inflation scenarios 2-5%) 4. Currency exchange rate 5. Interest rate on my nest egg I really want to exclude the option to be forced to spend less therefore: 1. Will keep the private and state insurance in my home country. Assuming that the cost will increase 4-10% 2. Forecast 0! I know this is very pessimistic but due to early retirement it's impossible to predict what will happen keeping in mind we are talking about a huge time span. I'm an optimist but don't want to create any kind of income expectation which are not under my control. My pension will be the rent of my real estate here from my home country. 3. Like in 1. I assumed that the inflation of renting will increase twice (4-10%). An option would be to invest the end of service fund in my own real estate in the LOS. But as long the whole legal situation isn't clear (like ownership, visa etc.) I feel this might be to risky. 4. Currency exchange rate see now $ vs. Bath. Lucky wise the €uro exchange rate vs. Bath is stable since years but I predicted also here a reduction in line with the actual losses of the $ 15%. No way I'll transfer funds of the nest egg besides the needed yearly one for the retirement Visa to the LOS. 5. I calculated all kind of net interest scenarios from 2-5% It's easy to improve your lifestyle but it will be very difficult to reduce it. Therefore I will try to collect funds until I will reach my magic number. This keeps me also motivated to speed up the process as the retirement age will follow once the goal is reached (working the opposite way around). If I reach the retirement age first something went wrong. The magic number is an impressing one but better save then sorry!!! Happy Nest Egg collection Happy Nest Egg

Pete, great post! Still waiting for an APPLE media center mac mini alike which works like my Ipod straight forward. In my freetime I don't want to bother with the uncountable daily M$ issues. The network storage device with 2 TB is already in place ... Same Same but different - a way more heavy starting with SCORPIONS of course !!!

100% agreed with you also if I would guess that the percentage is even lower @ least here in Europe. One of my objectives for 2007 will be to get heavily involved in my investment/retirement planning. By the way your comments in the various threads were very helpful for me. I carried out all the possible retirement scenarios calculation forwards and backwards and have now a clear understanding of my magic numbers, timing and my goals. Working now my off when I'm not in holidays ... Hope to meet you one day in the LOS. Would like to offer a Owen! Already insert in the calendar my next 4 trips in 07 have a look and send me a PM if a date match

What are you waiting for? Just do it! And your smile will return

Don't let bad math ruin your retirement Interesting read: " Be your own money manager Preparing for retirement can be a complicated business -- even for great investors -- if you don't put together a proper plan. Running the numbers and experimenting with different withdrawal scenarios will take the guesswork out of your future and help you avoid that dangerous scenario where you run out of cash. No matter how complicated it gets, always remember that you are the best manager of your own money. You have your own best interests at heart, you won't charge yourself fees, and you're willing to devote every minute of your time to your future. These put you ahead of most "professional" money managers from the get-go." Edit: No I'm not working @ The Motley Fool - Educate, Amuse, and Enrich

You never looked better handsome man! Merry Xmas Adam - see you when I come back in February

That's when I sometimes switch of the light by closing the curtain ...