ginseng

Yea that about sums it up, however part of that pursuit is making as much money as I can so many factors much be considered.

Owen, I am a very conservative investor, I read your other thread about mutual funds under performing the market and agree yet I do put most of my money in them. Also some ETFs and index funds. I don't like to play the market, I don't like gambling with money I can't afford to lose. The gamble for me is that I may be able to have my current job remotely. That would be extremely ideal. There's really nothing to lose by taking a wait and see approach except that I am unhappy here. If I was certain remote was NOT going to be possible I'd be applying for jobs in SEA left and right, given there is the chance for this dream setup, I only feel inclined to put my toe in the water so to speak. I do agree with you Singapore is not just 2 times better than living here, it would probably be ten times better. The main thing that really makes me want to live right in Thailand is I am very passionate about learnnig the language, while I'd have even more oppurtunities to practice living so close, nothing could compare to being right in Thailand full time.

I have been upfront with my boss. His reply was he understood how I felt, but the needs of the company are that I wait until year end for a definite answer for my request. The response may involve 100% telecommuting, possible leave of abscense or telecommuting to a lesser degree. It also may be in spite of his understanding, I must decide to quit or accept my job and vacation time as it is. For that I must wait and see. I applied to this job preemptively because I hadn't seen my exact job offered anywhere before and was unsure when if ever I'd see it again. I want to gauge if I can attract the companies attention and what the renumeration package looks like. Health insurance and other benefits will be weighed very heavily towards what path I pick. If I don't hear back from them I'll just sit tight, if I do hear back and the renumeration is not acceptable I'll also sit tight, but if it's attractive I'm honestly not sure what I'll do but it does seem I'll have a bargaining chip to assure my company takes my desire to spend more time in LOS seriously. How to best use that chip should it become available is still open to debate. BigD what is Bintin?

Thanks so much guys. Singapore really does seem like a viable option. Owen you'll like this. I have a basic net profit formula for anywhere I live. All you have to do is Take net income - Cost of living. USA probably has the highest salary of anywhere I'll live but cost of living is also the highest and takes out at least half for me, sometimes more. Thailand has the lowest COL but net income is also the lowest, in fact in spite of the lowest COL the average salary will still leave you with the least net profit. Singapore seems to have a reasonable differential. A lower salary than USA, but also lower cost of living. From my calculations I'd end up with the same money if I got the salary I expect in Singapore. Also my time in LOS will go way up and cost of getting there way down. Right now trips to Thailand are my major expense. Like I've said even if I hate living in Singapore, the frequent trips to LOS and having my teerak's occasionally come visit me should make up for that. The jury is still out on this one and most likely I won't even get taken seriously for a job since I live so far, but I'm eager to learn all I can in case I make the move next year and give it a serious go. Rex, I'm trying hard not to burn any bridges, it's a very real possibility the thing in Singapore could flop. However if I absolutely had to I could come back to the USA with my tail between my legs and get a new job. I don't want to take too much risk with my life and career, but I'm willing to take some for a shot at happiness.

Thanks for the responses. I encourage everyone to try to poke as many holes in this plan as they can. I don't want to make any stupid decisions and end up worse off. As far as the language part, while Chinese is the main language it's my understanding you can get by quite well knowing just English, it's widely spoken and many would probably like the chance to improve theirs. No I haven't been to Singapore and I realize it's rather insane to think about moving somewhere without even visiting, but I don't really care how boring it is, as long as I can hop over to LOS regularly. I've worked in finance all my adult life, I've dealt with all kinds of jerks, rat racers, ladder climbers, button down pricks and cut throat people. I'm sure there are differences in Singapore but I doubt they are more aggresive than a New York floor trader and I've dealt with them plenty. My job is technology based, what I mean is I work on a computer all day, not with people so it could be done anywhere. There is a lot of proprietary knowledge I have that is particular to my current place of employment, it couldn't be outsourced to someone without experience, and I couldn't be replaced quickly, though obviously I could be replaced if it was essential. That's just for my particular job, on the grander scale I know all the technology and finance required to administer the back office systems most money managers use however I was surprised to see a job nearly identical to my current one on a Singapore job site, which is why I decided might as well give it a shot. This was the closest match to my present job I've seen anywhere in the world actually. Maybe I'm lucky that the outsourcing countries haven't mastered this synergy yet so I'm still in demand. I just finished talking to a Thai friend, she said she's been to Singapore many times and a visa is definitely no problem. She mentioned especially after Thaksin just landed that big deal. His fellow Thai's might hate him but the Singapore gov't is on very good terms with Thailand.

Why? Singapore has one of the strongest GDP's in the world. I'm not very familiar with the labor market over there so there could be many factors I'm unaware of. Do you speak from experience? BTW the job is a finance job.

After over a year of researching job opportunities in LOS and coming up empty, I've decided to apply for a job in Singapore, there's of course no guarantee I’ll even hear back from them but I’d like some opinions in the event they do and are able to make me a lucrative offer. Singapore is not my dream location but it is within weekend flying distance to LOS, and my understanding is it’s easy to get visa’s for your lovely teerak’s to visit you. I’m sure Singapore is no duller than where I live now and regardless it’s a helluva lot closer to LOS. My current situation is; my job is very tolerable, I have a good boss, benefits, 401K company match and generally a relaxed working environment. Perhaps the salary could be higher, but given the other positive benefits I think the salary is quite reasonable and there is room for advancement. If anyone really wants to know details about my salary PM me and I’ll gladly tell you. The major problem is I hate where I live. Like many I want to live in Thailand but short of retirement or sacrificing my career I haven’t found a logical way to do that. The wild card is there is a chance my job could become 100% remote and done over the internet. I’d like to elaborate on this a little. Recently I went to my boss and we discussed if my job could be made 100% remote. We are currently testing out a new system and I am a key player in this process. He explained I am very valuable to the company so he is willing to seriously consider it, but due to the newness of our system and uncertainties what is involved to maintain it he can’t give me an answer until the end of the year. This in my opinion was a very reasonable reply, however the year may end and he’ll have to say it’s impossible or powers beyond his control will prevent it. That said the idea of telecommuting into my present job from Thailand is very favorable and there is virtually no job opportunity which could trump this. Back to the job in Singapore, I figured it can’t hurt to apply and see where I stand over there but then I realized I don’t know what I’d do if I actually got an offer. Since I’d then have some leverage should I go back to my boss and say I need a definite answer about the telecommuting? If he thought it was just a matter of time before I could go, I’d be willing to stay til the end of the year if I had a promise of remote, but could I trust a promise so many months out and possibly lose a ticket to living near LOS? What if he simply cannot make a decision now as he said before. Should I try to negotiate something aside from 100% remote with my current employer? I'd prefer to live in LOS but increasing my time over there, maybe telecommuting to a lesser extent would be a reasonably satisfying option. They’ve never done me wrong and I have no desire to screw them, I just hate living here, I don’t want to burn any bridges. Also in spite of Singapore being close do you think it’s not as easy to hop over to LOS as I am thinking?

After thinking about it, I realized I've never had that luxury!

That's expensive even by American standards. My internet is $19.99 a month DSL and it's fast. Just tested, 1740.6 kbps, that's good enough for me.

Thanks Owen, I do work in finance so maybe I can find a niche making a western salary in Asia.

Is it hard to get a Business visa?

is it illegal to telecommute from Thailand for a USA based job without a Thai work permit?

My only worry is in twenty years if I'll wish I hadn't!

I don't care if I worked the same job, being a portfolio administrator just happens to be what I have the most experience in. Hopefully the skills I have could be applied to other jobs as well. What type of jobs in the manufactoring sector? I remember you posted some job info before and I appreciate you sharing information. I'm not looking for a free hand out just a lead.

I'm at least 20 years away from retirement but it seems like a lifetime to wait before trying out living in Thailand full time. However without work I can't afford to stay there. The cost of living in Thailand is cheaper, but I've found even Thailand can get expensive pretty fast if you want to entertain yourself. Thus even with the lower cost of living differential one might be sacrificing a lot by taking a job with a typical Thai salary. It's more expensive to live in the USA, however the salaries are markedly higher. The higher salary here better offsets the costs of living here than A thai salary would offset the cost of living in Thailand. I'm curious what jobs people have been able to land in Thailand that pay a decent salary it doesn't have to be equal to a western salary but like I said if it's too low one's not really going to enjoy living in Thailand and might be better off just taking vacations there. I'm not interested in being an English teacher, pay is way too low and no I don't think just because I come from the west I automatically deserve a higher salary than Thai people, still I wonder if any westerners have found some kind of niche and would be willing to share info. Presently I'm a Portfolio administrator for a University. I do back office work.

I'm glad to hear that. Try to find some way to preserve your principal and just spend money the principal earns. Also avoid all the sharks out there, money is lost just as quickly as it's made.

Valleyboy, I've considered the oil/gas offshore drilling route too, but having no experience in the field I'm not sure where to start. The month on month off is very desirable, no matter how bad the month on was, the month off would be sweet, though I'm sure the time would FLY when off and DRAG when on.

My employer just told me they are expanding into China sometime next year there is a small chance there would be oppurtunities for me over there. Same salary and basically same job but over there. I could care less about China, but I'd be a hell of a lot closer to LOS than I am now. I have no social life here in the USA, so I don't care if I have one in China either, however more frequent trips to LOS would be a good possibility. If I get the chance think I should go for it?

Excellent post as usual Owen. I am grateful I have discovered LOS relatively young and can look forward to many trips over the years but the flip is I will have to endure the serious afflication known as Thailand fever for a longer period of time as well. I think the high prevelance of all encompassing Thailand fever on this board is due to the very understandable feeling of wanting life to be a non stop holiday in a tropical paradise with beautiful women being decades away since many on this board are just in the middle of their career. The anxiety is strongest the more far away and impossible it seems to attain. Before I discovered LOS I didn't really care about retirement the way I do now. Of course I'd love to not work but my attitude was to live for today and worry about the 401k later in life. I also believed what I think is a fallacy. I thought by the time I'm 59.5 and can access my 401k my life will be at the tail end and I want to retire well before that age not put my life on hold another 30 years. My realization that I hope is true, is that it is still smart to put money in the 401k even if you would like to retire before 59.5. The day retirement arrives is when you have enough in savings to make it until you can begin drawing from your 401k at 59.5 while also having enough in the 401k to carry you to the end of your life. So while some sacrifice is necessary depending on how much one can sock away they aren't necessarily tied to the date 401k opens up. For example if a 40 year old had 1,000,000 in savings and a million in 401k they could budget to spend that entire million over the next 20 years, assuming the remaining million available once the 401k unlocks would be enough for the rest of life. One wouldn't literally have to have a million in a 401k the moment you retire as long as it was projected to grow to a million by the time it requires being drawn down (in about 20 years with this example), but this of course is a bit of a gamble.

This is my big question too, and I know I'm not the only one. I look at websites listing Thai jobs a few times a week but after extensive review to find the job I want, (portfolio accounting with an emphasis on technology) the salary is always half or less of what I make now. Yes I know Thailand is half as expensive but what if I want to leave Thailand some day? I'll only have saved as much as that half salary allows. Though it is twice as expensive to live in the USA, that doesn't mean I can't employ every possible effort to limit my spending and retain as much of my earnings as possible, thus winning out over the cost of living, if I practiced the same frugality in Thailand I'd be left with less even though the cost of living is cheaper. I'd be willing to take a small cut to live in Thailand but really to fully live the dream and to be a handsome man well into old age you need to pack away some steady baht. Right now my plan is to become a critical player where I work so I can negotiate telecommuting from home, at which point home will be Thailand! I will continue to look for the dream job in the meantime but I certainly don't expect much.

There was a correlation between spiking prices of precious metals and declining dollar values when we had black monday in 1987. There's a very similar correlation occuring right now. I don't know all the factors that caused black monday but we could be setting up for another huge 1 day drop. Asset allocation is so critical, nothing has killed investors quicker and more definitively than too many eggs in one basket. However there are times when you need to double down if you're gut is strong about gains. I also pay close attention to country allocation. For now I have minimal investment in US and am overweight China, SEA, Japan and South America. With China being the slight heavyweight.

Why'd you mention your plans? If you engage in divorce proceeding it's everyone for themselves. Seems like what you need is a good divorce lawyer.

Damn you guys are already booking for December? I just got my July tickets last week.

Alright I'll just go the rental route. Thanks for the tips.

I'm in my early 30s and quite a few years away from retirement. I live in the bay area and there's no way I'll be able to afford a place here anytime. Everyone has their own opinions but I wouldn't buy a place here even if I could. I think everything is way overvalued and you might as well rent around San Francisco. My goal is to spend enough time in Thailand to become fluent in Thai, after that i'll probably go back and forth between the USA and Thailand. I don't think I'll have to wait until I retire but I estimate it's probably at least 5 years away until I figure out how to stay over there for a few years. Would it make any sense for me to try to get a mortgage and buy a place in Thailand? I'm leaning towards a condo in Bangkok, Chiang Mai is another consideration. I'm also open to suggestions. I have excellent credit and a very good job but not much savings. If I can get a mortgage for a place in Thailand does it make any sense to buy one if I can't live there for many years? I'm only able to get over to Thailand about twice a year a little over a month a year total. I don't think the Thai real estate market is about to skyrocket or anything but I do think prices may be signficantly higher by the time I'm ready to try to start a life over there and I may have lost out on a good investment and the ability to have my own place. I'm not really interested in renting the place, and I wouldn't care if it just sat unoccupied while I'm not there, but vandalism or other damage while I'm away is an obvious concern. Should I just wait til I'm ready to move there or is there any logic in trying to buy now? The idea of owning a place in Thailand is strangely appealing to me, like having a secret getaway.