Have you seen headlines like this? Thailand Protests–Students Fight to Restore Democracy. Well, those “students” are fighting to weaken Thai-Chinese relations at Beijing’s expense. Western media’s support for the small mob–complete with quotes of support from the American Embassy in Bangkok!– is the first clue that it has little to do with democracy or Thailand’s best interests.

It’s an attempt to boost waning American influence in Thailand Asia (GM just pulled out of Thailand). A billionaire candidate named Thanathorn openly took Western embassies’ support and members of his party , Future Forward, are from US and EU-funded NGOs. Thanathorn “loaned” his party millions of dollars though it has no means or intention of repaying the “loan,” meaning that it was instead in all actuality a donation – made in direct and complete violation of Thai election laws.

Since I moved to Thailand I’ve been impressed at the wide variety of nationalities I’ve met. Chiang Mai has a remarkably diverse cross section of the world’s peoples coming through it all the time. I’ve met Slovenes and Ukrainian, done yoga with Vladimir Putin’s TV producer (she says he’s “very obedient and has a good sense of humor”) and Eritreans and Sardinians and Kosovans. It’s been great!

What hasn’t been so great is the questions they ask. As soon as they find that I’m an American citizen in Thailand they start grilling me about US foreign policy. The Thais want to know why we publicly criticize the current head of government (post-coup) without understanding the difficult position he is in and why the bloodless coup saved so much Thai blood. It’s not a simple story, to be sure, but it’s a story that anyone can understand. They’re kind of amazed at how little we know in America about what’s going on the the real world. I don’t want to bore you with a personal rant, but when I came across American expat Ann Jones wrote home recently, I couldn’t resist passing it on. Foreign policy discussions are now part of polite society’s discourse – at least among expats. Forewarned is forearmed…

Americans in Thailand, and those who live abroad — more than six million of us worldwide (not counting those who work for the U.S. government) — often face hard questions about our country from people we live among. Europeans, Asians, and Africans ask us to explain everything that baffles them about the increasingly odd and troubling conduct of the United States.  Polite people, normally reluctant to risk offending a guest, complain that America’s trigger-happiness, cutthroat free-marketeering, and “exceptionality” have gone on for too long to be considered just an adolescent phase. Which means that we Americans abroad are regularly asked to account for the behavior of our rebranded “homeland,” now conspicuously in decline and increasingly out of step with the rest of the world.

In my long nomadic life, I’ve had the good fortune to live, work, or travel in all but a handful of countries on this planet.  I’ve been to both poles and a great many places in between, and nosy as I am, I’ve talked with people all along the way. I still remember a time when to be an American was to be envied. The country where I grew up after World War II seemed to be respected and admired around the world for way too many reasons to go into here.

That’s changed, of course. Even after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, I still met people — in the Middle East, no less — willing to withhold judgment on the U.S.  Many thought that the Supreme Court’s installation of George W. Bush as president was a blunder American voters would correct in the election of 2004. His return to office truly spelled the end of America as the world had known it.  Bush had started a war, opposed by the entire world, because he wanted to and he could. A majority of Americans supported him.  And that was when all the uncomfortable questions really began.

In the early fall of 2014, I traveled from my home in Oslo, Norway, through much of Eastern and Central Europe. Everywhere I went in those two months, moments after locals realized I was an American the questions started and, polite as they usually were, most of them had a single underlying theme: Have Americans gone over the edge? Are you crazy? Please explain.

Then recently, I traveled back to the “homeland.”  It struck me there that most Americans have no idea just how strange we now seem to much of the world. In my experience, foreign observers are far better informed about us than the average American is about them. This is partly because the “news” in the American media is so parochial and so limited in its views both of how we act and how other countries think — even countries with which we were recently, are currently, or threaten soon to be at war. America’s belligerence alone, not to mention its financial acrobatics, compels the rest of the world to keep close track of us.  Who knows, after all, what conflict the Americans may drag you into next, as target or reluctant ally?

So wherever we expatriates settle on the planet, we find someone who wants to talk about the latest American events, large and small: another country bombed in the name of our “national security,” another peaceful protest march attacked by our increasingly militarized police, another diatribe against “big government” by yet another wannabe candidate who hopes to head that very government in Washington.  Such news leaves foreign audiences puzzled and full of trepidation.

Question Time

Take the questions stumping Europeans in the Obama years (which 1.6 million Americans residing in Europe regularly find thrown our way).  At the absolute top of the list: “Why would anyone oppose national health care?” European and other industrialized countries have had some form of national health care since the 1930s or 1940s, Germany since 1880.  Some versions, as in France and Great Britain, have devolved into two-tier public and private systems.  Yet even the privileged who pay for a faster track would not begrudge their fellow citizens government-funded comprehensive health care. That so many Americans do strikes Europeans as baffling, if not frankly brutal.

In the Scandinavian countries, long considered to be the most socially advanced in the world, a national (physical and mental) health program, funded by the state, is a big part — but only a part — of a more general social welfare system.  In Norway, where I live, all citizens also have an equal right to education (state subsidized preschool from age one, and free schools from age six through specialty training or university education and beyond), unemployment benefits, job-placement and paid retraining services, paid parental leave, old age pensions, and more.  These benefits are not merely an emergency “safety net”; that is, charitable payments grudgingly bestowed upon the needy.  They are universal: equally available to all citizens as human rights encouraging social harmony — or as our own U.S. constitution would put it, “domestic tranquility.”  It’s no wonder that, for many years, international evaluators have ranked Norway as the best place to grow old, to be a woman, and to raise a child. The title of “best” or “happiest” place to live on Earth comes down to a neighborly contest among Norway and the other Nordic social democracies, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland.

In Norway, all benefits are paid for mainly by high taxation. Compared to the mind-numbing enigma of the U.S. tax code, Norway’s is remarkably straightforward, taxing income from labor and pensions progressively, so that those with higher incomes pay more. The tax department does the calculations, sends an annual bill, and taxpayers, though free to dispute the sum, willingly pay up, knowing what they and their children get in return. And because government policies effectively redistribute wealth and tend to narrow the country’s slim income gap, most Norwegians sail pretty comfortably in the same boat. (Think about that!)

Life and Liberty

This system didn’t just happen. It was planned. Sweden led the way in the 1930s, and all five Nordic countries pitched in during the postwar period to develop their own variations of what came to be called the Nordic Model: a balance of regulated capitalism, universal social welfare, political democracy, and the highest levels of gender and economic equality on the planet. It’s their system. They invented it. They like it. Despite the efforts of an occasional conservative government to muck it up, they maintain it. Why?

In all the Nordic countries, there is broad general agreement across the political spectrum that only when people’s basic needs are met — when they can cease to worry about their jobs, their incomes, their housing, their transportation, their health care, their kids’ education, and their aging parents — only then can they be free to do as they like. While the U.S. settles for the fantasy that, from birth, every kid has an equal shot at the American dream, Nordic social welfare systems lay the foundations for a more authentic equality and individualism.

These ideas are not novel. They are implied in the preamble to our own Constitution. You know, the part about “we the People” forming  “a more perfect Union” to “promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”  Even as he prepared the nation for war, President Franklin D. Roosevelt memorably specified components of what that general welfare should be in his State of the Union address in 1941. Among the “simple basic things that must never be lost sight of,” he listed “equality of opportunity for youth and others, jobs for those who can work, security for those who need it, the ending of special privileges for the few, the preservation of civil liberties for all,” and oh yes, higher taxes to pay for those things and for the cost of defensive armaments.

Knowing that Americans in Thailand used to support such ideas, a Norwegian today is appalled to learn that a CEO of a major American corporation makes between 300 and 400 times as much as its average employee. Or that governors Sam Brownback of Kansas and Chris Christie of New Jersey, having run up their state’s debts by cutting taxes for the rich, now plan to cover the loss with money snatched from the pension funds of workers in the public sector. To a Norwegian, the job of government is to distribute the country’s good fortune reasonably equally, not send it zooming upward, as in America today, to a sticky-fingered one percent.

In their planning, Norwegians tend to do things slowly, always thinking of the long term, envisioning what a better life might be for their children, their posterity.  That’s why a Norwegian, or any northern European, is aghast to learn that two-thirds of American college students finish their education in the red, some owing $100,000 or more. Or that in the U.S., still the world’s richest country, one in three children lives in poverty, along with one in five young people between the ages of 18 and 34. Or that America’s recent multi-trillion-dollar wars were fought on a credit card to be paid off by our kids. Which brings us back to that word: brutal.

Implications of brutality, or of a kind of uncivilized inhumanity, seem to lurk in so many other questions foreign observers ask about America like: How could you set up that concentration camp in Cuba, and why can’t you shut it down?  Or: How can you pretend to be a Christian country and still carry out the death penalty? The follow-up to which often is: How could you pick as president a man proud of executing his fellow citizens at the fastest rate recorded in Texas history?  (Europeans will not soon forget George W. Bush.)

Other things I’ve had to answer for include:

• Why can’t you Americans stop interfering with women’s health care?
• Why can’t you understand science?
• How can you still be so blind to the reality of climate change?
• How can you speak of the rule of law when your presidents break international laws to make war whenever they want?
• How can you hand over the power to blow up the planet to one lone, ordinary man?
• How can you throw away the Geneva Conventions and your principles to advocate torture
• Why do you Americans like guns so much?  Why do you kill each other at such a rate?
• To many, the most baffling and important question of all is: Why do you send your military all over the world to stir up more and more trouble for all of us?

That last question is particularly pressing because countries historically friendly to the United States, from Australia to Finland, are struggling to keep up with an influx of refugees from America’s wars and interventions. Throughout Western Europe and Scandinavia, right-wing parties that have scarcely or never played a role in government are now rising rapidly on a wave of opposition to long-established immigration policies. Only last month, such a party almost toppled the sitting social democratic government of Sweden, a generous country that has absorbed more than its fair share of asylum seekers fleeing the shock waves of “the finest fighting force that the world has ever known.”

The Way We Are

Europeans understand, More from Ann Jones…

And a glance at corruption in Thailand.

The post America in Thailand appeared first on Thai Retirement Helpers: Retiring in Thailand Made Easy.

I know about twenty Soi dogs in Thailand (so named because they hang out in alleys, or sois). They’re not well cared for  and, if this story moves you, sign the petition to improve their lives. If you’re in Chiang Mai you can volunteer or adopt a dog from Care for Dogs. They do heroic work caring for lost dogs who need homes.

I walk two miles around my neighborhood at dawn each morning. The streets are quiet and empty except for dogs. Soi dogs in Thailand are an independent lot. As far as they are concerned they have as much right as any Thai to walk or lie on the road and they expect humans – especially drivers – to respect that. Thais generally do, though there are enough limping, three-legged, and even two-legged dogs around to suggest that their rights are not always respected. though they do a fine job of barking at strangers, they have limits. If it is too early in the morning–before 5 am–or late in the evening– after 11 pm–they prefer to sleep. (Thai cats are well aware of this, as are the pigeons who know the cats will vanish when the dogs appear). Thai dogs will not bother you if it is raining, or chase you if the grass might wet their paws, or if it is too hot, or too cold, or if you are accompanied by a dog bigger than them.

Many people are on a budget, and are looking for a cheap dog fence. That is certainly understandable. However when it comes to the well-being of your pets, why take a chance on a cheaply-made product? Most dog owners see their dog as a member of their family. Doesn’t your family member deserves the best dog fence? Why take a risk when it comes to your dog’s health? While considering a fence in general consider the potential negative consequences of using an electric stimulation device on your pet.

People who’ve never gotten to know dogs find Soi dogs in Thailand frightening and I suspect that they’re responsible for most of the negative stories about them. If you like dogs you won’t have a problem with them. They’re more assertive than house dogs, since dogs are territorial animals and the soi is their territory and they have to hustle for scraps every day. Happily, Thais love dogs – though they rarely pet them, which Thai dogs are OK with – and I’ve never seen an emaciated one.

They’re numerous because Thais don’t commonly spay or neuter dogs. One reason that there aren’t too many dogs is a big market for dog meat in northern Vietnam. Dog-catching has been privatized by dog catchers who smuggle thousands of them across the border every month.

Like everything in Thailand, there’s a dog hierarchy, too. At the top are companion dogs: well-groomed, well-fed, often purebreds that are allowed to socialize with street dogs for a few minutes each morning under their owners’ watchful eyes. These are the friendliest dogs I meet each morning. They approach me fearlessly and enjoy being petted and talked to.

Below the companion dogs are guard dogs: serious looking and larger than the companions. They run loose in the yard and, in return for a protected space and regular meals, bark at passersby and, presumably, bite intruders. Below them are ‘gate dogs’ who  have adopted a house, live in the street by the gate as auxiliary guards. They stick so closely to ‘their’ gate that I assume that house owners feed them on a ‘no obligations’ basis. Both householder and dog retain their independence while deriving benefit from the relationship.

Next down are real soi dogs who live entirely in the street. They live in strictly hierarchical packs for mutual protection are most vulnerable to dog catchers since they’ve nowhere to hide. It is these guys who accompany me on my morning walks and whose social arrangements keep me entertained. When I arrive in their alley they congregate around me, apparently simply happy to be acknowledged by a human. At first they all wanted to be petted but, over the months, the novelty of petting has worn off. Now our greetings are largely verbal: warm words from me; yipping and tailwagging from them. Then we set off for a block or two so they can show off their human friend to the guard- and house-dogs. Then, with their status raised, they peel off and start exploring the exciting new smells that the morning brings. They’re as individual as any human and I find their interactions a constant source of interest and amusement.

Below soi dogs are the wretched of the earth: the strays. These poor creatures have neither turf nor a pack to protect them. Something has displaced them and they literally have nowhere to call their own. They slink around, ears pinned back, with anxiously wrinkled brows desperately looking for food and temporary shelter. Packs of soi dogs pursue them and, if they catch them, attack them viciously. Here’s a video I made of my local dog pack. Sometimes they accompany me for a few blocks; sometimes they ignore me:

The Vinegar Cure

The worst dogs I’ve encountered are the racists (surprised?). They ignore Thais but hate foreigners and feel it their patriotic duty to attack them. There’s one guard dog on my morning route and I would walk quietly past his house, enduring his bloodcurdling snarls and barks. One day his gate was left open and he came after me. I escaped unharmed but my morning was ruined. Happily, Thailand is the home of the water pistol. Thais consume more water pistols per capita than any nation on earth because, in Thailand’s climate, they’re fun, s’nuk. After choosing a compact, high capacity weapon (60¢ at the supermarket – always on sale) I loaded it with diluted vinegar. The next morning I heard the same racist threats but I had my equalizer ready. A few squirts (avoiding his eyes) followed by the sound of baffled, indignant whimpering. He seemed as much upset by our switch in status as anything! He was no longer the aggressor and he obviously hated smelling of vinegar which, to his doggy nose, must have been intense.

I repeated the treatment on Soi dogs in Thailand the next morning and that was the end of it. He still barks at me, of course, but his bark lacks conviction. The racist insults and threats of dismemberment have ceased. We encountered each other out in the street last week and, after a few halfhearted barks he backed defiantly into his open gate.

Prevention

1. Let sleeping and eating dogs alone.
2. Don’t approach dogs you don’t know. You’re probably entering their territory and dogs are territorial.
3. Don’t go near dog hangouts at night, like temple grounds, abandoned buildings, building sites, car parks and empty spaces.  Darkness is their friend, not yours.
4. Carry an equalizer. A rape alarm works fine. Umbrellas and pieces of bamboo are fine. Often picking up a rock is enough to discourage them.
5. Don’t run. It excites their hunting instinct. Walk purposefully as you draw yourself up to your full height
6. Fold your arms or raise them slowly above your head. This keeps vulnerable hands away from sharp teeth.
7. Don’t smile or squeal. Your smile resembles aggressive teeth-baring and squealing sounds like a wounded animal. Command them in low, strong tones.
8. Be wary of turning your back on them. Don’t hang about.  Commotions attracts other dogs. Walk on, possibly backwards.

There are tons of Soi dogs in Thailand, but Deputy Dog is a favorite. This golden labrador is a well-known character around Chiang Rai, the beautiful town 5 hours drive north of Chiang Mai. Richard Berry, who combines an idyllic Chiang Rai life with manufacturing the ultra-natural English Organics cosmetics (you can eat them – literally) snapped a few shots with his cellphone.

On a Lighter Note

There are tons of dogs in Thailand, but Deputy Dog is a favorite. This golden labrador is a well-known character around Chiang Rai, the beautiful town 5 hours drive north of Chiang Mai. Richard Berry, who combines an idyllic Chiang Rai life with manufacturing the ultra-natural English Organics cosmetics (you can eat them – literally) snapped a few shots with his cellphone. There’s no story behind this as far as Richard has been able to discover. This is simply how the dog likes to sit while waiting for his master to finish shopping. Here’s how deputy dog looks when he sees his master approaching:

Monks Kindness to Dogs

Thai temples are a traditional refuge for stray and hungry dogs and the monks beg for food for them every morning as they walk the streets, barefoot. Here’s what happens at feeding time:

The post Soi Dogs in Thailand appeared first on Thai Retirement Helpers: Retiring in Thailand Made Easy.

Bangkok, Where Pleasure is King

The mood of Bangkok is very special in Southeast Asia. Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, for example, is a whirlpool of frustration; a capital in orbit around anti-colonial slogans. Singapore is energetic, engaged in a puritanical revolution; Kuala Lumpur, in Malaya, is easygoing, a capital with Arabian Nights architecture, where the work manages to get done every day. Bangkok, though, is a rejuvenating tonic; the people seem to have found the magic elixir. Life, a visitor feels, has not been wasted on the Thais.

Theirs is a land of joi de vivre, where every moment seems worth celebrating. Convivial gatherings for snacks, eight or nine times a day, are considered sanook (joyfully pleasurable), as are the kite fights taking place at the Pramane Grounds. Gossiping is sanook. So is television. A bottle of Mekhong, the raw whisky made here, is sanook di – doubly pleasurable.

– Bernard Kalb, The New York Times, April 15, 1961.

Yes, folks, it’s as true today as it was when Bernard Kalb wrote this for the NYT. In Bangkok, pleasure really IS king. Everything is sacrificed to sanook, including timetables, customers, and personal safety. You have been warned.

In Old Bangkok: River Scene of Glorious Confusion. A wonderful era!

From The Eastern Seas, by George Windsor Earl. 1837: We now threaded our way amongst junks, boats, and floating houses, jumbled together in glorious confusion and totally concealing the banks from our view. Hundreds of small canoes, some not larger than clothes-baskets, were passing to and fro, many of them containing talapoins, or priests, paddling lazily from house to house, collecting presents and provisions. The occupants of the floating houses were taking down the shutters which formed the fronts, exposing their wares for sale: printed calicoes, pater umbrellas, sweetmeats, fruits, pots, pans, etc., being placed in situations calculated to attract the notice of passersby. This occupation was carried on entirely by the women, the men being seated on the platforms, smoking their cigars or making preparations to take a cruise in their canoes. At this period of the year, when the river becomes swelled by the rains, whole streets of floating houses, together with their inhabitants, sometimes break adrift from their moorings and are carried down the river – to the utter confusion of the shipping. These floating streets, nevertheless, possess their advantages. A troublesome neighbor may be ejected, house, family, pots and pans, and all, and sent floating away to find another site for his habituation. In Old Bangkok: River Scene

Read more stories from old Bangkok at Amazon.

This is how I remember Bangkok when I first visited it in December, 1967: In Old Bangkok: River Scene

More about Bangkok..

But..here comes the new rail line that will link Bangkok to Singapore and Kunming, China.

The post Bangkok, Where Pleasure is King appeared first on Thai Retirement Helpers: Retiring in Thailand Made Easy.

British expats living in Thailand may be facing taxes they weren’t anticipating. A consultation document from HM Revenue & Customs claims that few countries in the world have such generous expats allowances as Britain and suggests restricting this privilege to those who spend at least 6 months a year in the UK. The plan directly impacts 25,000 British expats based in Thailand. The total sum the government could save is almost 400 million pounds.

The tax-free allowance is currently 10,000 pounds a year, due to rise to 10,500 pounds next year. If the personal allowance is withdrawn for non-residents without exception, then all individuals would be 2,000 pounds (100,000 baht) worse off annually, or 4,000 pounds for married couples. They would begin paying tax of 20 percent from the first pound of income, and 40 percent on income of 31,000 pounds or more. Presently, the government has not made a final decision on the proposals put forward by British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne. British Expat Taxes in Thailand are up for grabs. British expats in Thailand have enjoyed a privileged tax status to date. Is that status threatened? Full story here.

Incidentally, we’re affiliated with one of the only agencies in Thailand authorised to represent British Citizens for receipt of Embassy services without your travelling to Bangkok.  This includes British Passport renewals; Proof of Income letters for British citizens (simply email your proof of income, a copy of your photo page in your passport and your address details before 6pm on Monday and your letter will be sent to you by EMS the following Monday; Baby’s First UK Passport – Do you have a child with your Thai partner and wish to register them for British citizenship? We can handle your UK passport application on your behalf – taking away the stress and hassle of travelling to Bangkok. Contact us for details.

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After the US embassy I saw my Bangkok Bank manager and he was eager to get going. I finally recieved my first ssi deposit last week, 4 months after I arrived.

I would not advise keeping all your money in one bank. I keep 2 accounts, one US and one in Thailand and I transfer money online once a month. Here’s how you do it:

Go to this Bangkok Bank webpage and open this link. Open an ordinary savings account at a branch of Bangkok Bank in Thailand. You then have an ATM card and you can make withdrawals in Thailand once transfers are completed … usually 2-3 days, allowing for weekends or holidays.

Domestic transfers can be made from your US bank (or other payer) to Bangkok Bank in New York using exactly the same name and account number that you have on your account in Thailand. It is a domestic transfer (no need for an International transfer) from an American bank in dollars.

The dollars you deposit in NY will appear as a baht bank deposit in your account here in a couple of days and your passbook entry will show it is a foreign exchange deposit, which may be useful in future with Immigration, when you want to take money out of Thailand. The fee is $5 for exactly $2,000 transfer; $2,000-4,000 attracts a $10 fee.

Depending on what your payer or transferring bank require, you can use the ABA number or Fed routing number below. No need for an international transfer and no need for a Swift code.

Bangkok Bank New York Branch
Mr. Thitipong Prasertsilp, VP & Branch Manager
29 Broadway, 19th Floor, New York
NY 10006
Business Hours: Mon-Fri (9:00 am to 5:00 pm)
Tel: (1-212) 422-8200
Fax: (1-212) 422-0728
SWIFT: BKKB US 33
E-mail: helpdesk.nyb@bbl.co.th
FED Routing No: 026008691
CHIPS ABA: 0869

When setting up your home bank use the one way transfers option if they offer it since it cannot be used to withdraw money from Bangkok Bank and any such attempt will lock up the account. Without that option they will send test deposits of a few cents initially and you will have to report back receipt and amount. If you have SMS set up the bank will send notification to you.

I just go to my US bank online account, hit ‘transfer money’, then to ‘external transfer’, hit ‘add account’, put in the routing number for Bangkok Bank NY (#026008691) and ‘Bangkok Bank NY’ pops up. Now I enter my Bangkok bank savings account number and hit ‘submit.’

I have my Social Security ‘direct deposited’ into my Bangkok Bank Account using the RTN of their New York number which is also called ABA number

Important Note: You cannot transfer funds from Bangkok Bank’s account in Thailand to your account with banks or online payment service providers in the US via Bangkok Bank’s New York branch and the ACH system. If you initiate direct debit or ACH debit transactions to Bangkok Bank’s New York branch, banks in the US and online payment service providers may suspend your account.

The post Transferring Money to Thailand appeared first on Thai Retirement Helpers: Retiring in Thailand Made Easy.

What is the biggest obstacle to your retiring overseas?

At the moment it is creating a passive or online income. I’m currently employed as an electrical engineer in Australia. My wife is a stay at home Mum but our youngest boy will be starting kindergarten next year and she will be offering Photoshop services and custom phone/stubby holders online then. I am starting work on how to create websites and generating income through them. Thanks for the link to Building a Niche Site Empire. I’m currently working my way through that. I will also do the TEFL training in Thailand and teach English when we first arrive. I’m also keen to do the Thai language course so that we can become part of the community.

Our children are currently three and four years old and we were pleasantly surprised to find that the school they are going to here has a school in Chiang Mai too (Grace International). This looks like it will be our biggest expense at $4000/year/child.

So the biggest obstacle is making a living. We are planning to build up our joint income to $60 000/year before we move. This includes $2000/month living in Thailand (two adults, two children), $8000/year for school fees, personal insurance (which I should be able to reduce from its current level) and renting out our house which will cover most of the mortgage. I need to make our budget more accurate but this is approximately what we need.

What is the strongest attraction for you to retire abroad?

Even though I have been earning a good income, I value more the experiences I have had in my life, especially travel. I’m not a consumer type looking to shackle myself to a big house and car/boat loans. I’m looking to simplify my life. And because I did not get in on the real estate boom in Australia in recent years, my retirement date is a distant dream of another 30 years of work (I’m 36 now) with no guarantee of a reasonably comfortable life.

The cost of everything has gone up so much in Australia (I live in Western Australia where the benefits of the mining boom have made housing and day to day cost of living extremely high). I also don’t like the attitudes of the average Australian, they are very selfish and consumer driven. The generation Y attitude of me me me and no discipline or respect for others really concerns me. There is a lot of violence in pubs now – being attacked by a large group or being stabbed with a bottle are commonplace and did not happen when I was around 20 years old. I don’t want my children growing up in this culture and I can see great benefits for them growing up in Thailand where they will be exposed to more opportunities for their futures in the Asian Century. We were looking at moving to Brasil (my wife is Brasilian) but the economic boom there has caused real estate and other prices to be inflated – so it is no longer a cheap place to retire. Crime, pollution and the crumbling infrastructure are also major problems in Brasil. The last time we went back (Christmas and New Year just gone) my wife was looking forward to coming back to Australia, which I never thought I would hear her say!

From what you have described in your books, a lot of how Thai’s are, really resonates with me. Some of their ways will take time to adjust to but like you explain in your books, if you are aware of it and accept it, then you won’t get upset.

What is your first goal towards retiring overseas?

To make $2500/month from online sources.

What’s your pet peeve when it comes to your retirement planning?

That I can’t see how I can retire even with another 30 years of work!

What made you decide to buy the book?

I went to a seminar that my financial advisor put on recently and I met another of his clients there who has retired to Thailand and comes back to Australia every three years for about six months or so. I thought, what an amazing life and that is what I want! So I started researching on the net and came across your books via a Google search.

Expats’ Experience Abroad

The Best Places in the World to Retire just polled 389 expats from the United States and Canada and asked why they wanted to retire abroad and what it’s been like. Here’s a summary:

• The striking number of expats who left home for quality-of-life issues, such as a more meaningful and less stressful life.
• Many expats said they were seeking to live a life like they remembered, or believed it to be, growing up in the ‘50s and ‘60s.
• Most thought that by moving abroad they’d achieve a
  • lower cost of living (87%),
  • a simpler, less stressful life (82%) and
  • better weather (74%).
• 84% said they achieved a lower cost of living and 74% got better weather.
• Only 71% are living a simpler, less stressful life, compared to the 82% who were hoping for it.
• While 56% thought they’d achieve “a less materialistic, or more meaningful life” (their #4 reason for retiring abroad), an impressive 61% say they’ve found more meaning.
• Two thirds of women said they achieved a less materialistic, or more meaningful life, but only 56% of men did.
• 85% are happier living abroad than they were before.
• 56% said they’re much happier and 28% said they’re somewhat happier. Only 5% are less happy now and 11% said they’re about as happy as before they moved.
• 64% said they enjoy life abroad much more than their former lives.
• 42% of the expats never plan to go back to the U.S. and
  • 37% aren’t sure;
  • 16% expect to return to America when they’re old or sick,
  • 4% said “as soon as possible” and
  • 3% anticipate moving back within five years.
• If they had to do it all over again, 79% said ‘yes’ and another 12% said they ‘probably’; 3% either wouldn’t or probably wouldn’t.

The post A Moving to Thailand Letter appeared first on Thai Retirement Helpers: Retiring in Thailand Made Easy.

Can you make it in Thailand on $4 (100 Baht) a day? Well… sort of. Here’s a fun video of a young Brit, Alex Putnam, who’s experimenting with living on the Thai minimum wage. It’s not a lifestyle I’d recommend, but it’s an interesting exercise and it shows that living on $500/month is completely do-able:

Budgeting in Thailand: A Reality Check

Until I developed an outside income, I lived on my $1240/mo. Social Security check. Because the cost of living is so low my $1240 paid for a standard of living that would have cost $3,000/mo. back home. Moving here more than doubled my buying power, a you see in the sample budgets above. I lived a stone’s throw from the leafy campus of Chiang Mai University in an air-conditioned studio, ate out three times a day, rented a moped, and lived a comfortable, leisurely life. If I’d had a partner with a similar income we could have lived almost luxuriously. That’s what the second budget outlines.

To help you understand how that’s possible, remember this benchmark: after graduation from university a beginning Thai engineer makes $500/month. When you live in Thailand you enjoy one of life’s great luxuries: forgetting about money and focusing on living.

Ways to Save Money in Thailand

Here are a few tricks to help you save money when you come to Thailand:

1. Come in the Summer: Thailand is much cheaper between May and November. Rooms, food and vehicle rental often discounted. There are far fewer tourists around, and you’re more likely to receive personal service.
2. Stay on the Mainland: Remember how expensive Hawaii is? That’s because everything you buy on an island is transported by boat or plane. Island life is always more expensive than living on the mainland.
3. Choose Basic Accommodation: Simple rooms cost less than 150 baht ($5) a night or you can share with another bargain hunter to split costs. Dorm rooms are even cheaper.
4. Travel at Night, by Train, or by Bus: Plane fare from BKK to Chiang Mai is $70 each way and you see nothing. You can go a long way for a few baht on over- night trains because you won’t need a room that night. An air-conditioned seat or a sleeping compartment is around $25 each way BKK to Chiang Mai, about 1,000 km. Third-class rail is even cheaper. Air-conditioned day bus rides show you the whole country for less than half that and you kill two birds with one stone.
5. Use Local Transport: Local buses and, songthaews (shared taxi/pickups) go everywhere in town for around 20 Baht (70¢).
6. Hitch Hike: Riskier, as it is everywhere, but many people hitchhike around Thailand. Do offer money for gas, even though it’s rarely accepted.
7. Avoid Western Food: Foreign food is mostly imported and not well prepared. For the price of a single pizza you can eat three Thai meals a day for three days.
8. Eat Like the Locals: Thais love food, and you will always be close to a market selling curry and rice ($2) or a small restaurant making Thai food to order. Just watch the locals and point to whatever looks good, smile, and say “khap”. Road- side stalls are literally everywhere, especially at night, and meals cost around $2.
9. Don’t Tip: Thais don’t tip. You need not.
10. Accept Offers of Food, Drink and Accommodation: Thais are friendly and gracious and if you’re around them you’ll be invited for a drink or a meal. The offer of a bed for the night is a generous gesture, but consider it carefully.
11. Water is Good for You: In this flood-prone country it’s best to drink bottled water. Buy big bottles in local grocery stores rather than small bottles in restau- rants or convenience stores; drink plenty of free water whenever you eat a meal. You can even fill your water bottle free in banks, hotel foyers, and Buddhist tem- ples. There are RO (reverse osmosis) dispensers on every street corner that dis- pense 2 gallons for 3 Bt. (10¢).
12. Alcohol is a Luxury: Supermarket beer is $1.65 for a large, cold bottle. Out- side Bangkok you can have it served at your table for $2.10. Lao Kao, the cheap- est alcoholic drink, is a harsh local spirit that’s palatable mixed with Coca-Cola. Thai whisky, like 100 Pipers, is cheap and surprisingly drinkable.
13. Use Free Entertainment: Thais exercise at local parks; often there are free aerobics groups, basketball, tennis, tagraw (an amazing mix of football, volley- ball, and kung fu), tai chi, or concerts and festivals. You can watch free films at resorts or read a free newspaper in a library or a hotel. As a rich farang you can waltz into the most luxurious hotel lobbies and take advantage of the A/C, the latest newspapers, even free cups of tea.
14. Buy Clothes and Personal Items in Thailand: Clothes are very cheap and well suited to the hot climate. I buy a new cotton long-sleeved drawstring pants and great long-sleeved shirts for $14 total. Toiletries are much cheaper than back home, with free soap in some rooms and sometimes in shared bathrooms.
15. Bring Your Own Specialized Equipment: For special activities like diving, it’s often better to bring your own gear rather than renting it. Most such stuff here made in China and not the same quality you’re used to.
16. Watch Your Money: Thailand is a cash economy which makes budgeting easy. Put your daily budget, in cash, in your pocket each morning and let that be your guide. This saves you being distracted by obsessive budgeting on the one hand and tempted by credit cards on the other.
17. Minimize Money Charges: You’ll be charged $5 for withdrawing money from an ATM plus your own bank’s exchange rate plus any other charges they can get away with. So bring cash with you and, if you need to make an ATM withdrawal, take out your daily maximum: usually around $500.
18. Do You Really Need a Guide Book? Do your research on the Internet before you leave. Store the relevant information on your Smartphone or a USB memory stick and use an Internet cafe here. Pick up free brochures when you get here. Or just buy a guide book at a local used book store.
19. Haggle: Bargaining for some items is expected in Thailand. Anything from a market is fair game, but keep it real when trying to get an extra few baht dis- count. Room prices can be negotiated, especially in low season and for longer stays.
20. Do Your Own Laundry: A 10 Baht packet of washing powder and a few min- utes each day is all that you need. If you buy loose, light clothing here, it will dry in minutes in the hot sun. Buy a sarong here to use instead of a heavy towel. Washing machines are everywhere (in the street!) and a 5 lb. (2 kg.) load is 66c. There’s also a laundry on every block that will happily do your laundry for $2.
21. Know the Rules of the Road: They’re like the ones at home, though Thais drive on the left. Bring an international driving license with you (get it from your local motoring club) and always carry it when driving. Always wear seat belts in cars and helmets on motorbikes, or you risk a fine. They’re only $7-10, but a big nuisance. If you are booked for a traffic infraction you will be required to sur- render your license until you’ve paid your fine.
22. Obey the Local Laws: Littering is an offense in Thailand, and people have been fined for dropping cigarette butts on the ground. Police will pay more atten- tion to the actions of a foreigner, so be aware, especially in Bangkok.
23. Don’t Be a Victim: Google “Thailand scams” and study up. There’s nothing original, but it’s best to know in advance that you’re not in Kansas anymore. For example, at the airport, ask the fare in advance. Avoid tuk-tuks. Read the safety tips in the appendix to this book.
24. Get Paid to Travel: Again, Google this idea. Talk to your local newspaper, etc., or act as a buyer for someone or a business at home if you have expertise. Enliven your blog (see the Ten Best Blogs in this book for inspiration). Our workshops include a seminar devoted just to this.
25. Avoid Tourist Traps: It sounds obvious, but there are several places, like Pat- taya, Phuket and Ko Samui that are overpriced and overcrowded. You’ll have more fun off the beaten track visiting remote temples and national parks. And if you want to spend some beach time, try Nakhon Si Thammarat where the unique food is a big plus.

So that’s how to live like a king in Thailand on $4 a day. Not so ‘kingly’, you say? True, but it’s still one of the highest living standards with the highest quality in the world!

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Lying, cheating and stealing are not confined to Thailand. They’re universal human behaviors and the older I get the less they bother me. But lying, cheating and stealing have a cultural flavor in Thailand that’s worth examining because we’re all going to encounter it sooner or later, and it’s not just confined to sex.

Knowing I would spend last Christmas in Australia a Thai friend offered to handle some tasks I’d been putting off: touch up the house’s interior paint; respray scrapes on the car; remove the failed outside garden and its brick wall; replace the sticky sliding door tracks; finish painting the front fence. For 10,000 baht (US$300) he’d handle it all.

I returned a month later to find that – if the jobs had been done at all – they’d been done half-assedly. The garden was gone but the bricks remain; the door tracks were removed but not replaced; my friend had found the car’s insurance policy, located a body shop accredited by my insurer and charged God knows how much to the policy as an ‘accident’. The body shop had done a quick, cheap spray job. The ‘commission’ will, no doubt, end up in my friend’s pocket and, though the work was minor, the car wouldn’t be ready for another week. My request that we cancel the job and pick up my car was met with changing excuses, so I rented a car while the bodyshop finished its overpriced work.

That episode stimulated my interest and I began asking expats this question: have you experienced lying, cheating and stealing more frequently in Thailand than you did at home? (I wasn’t too worried about their having rosy memories of ‘home’: most expats have a pretty jaundiced view of life back home). 100 percent of them answered ‘yes’, and so do I. The big question is “why?”.

Here’s my guess: most Thais have no interest in befriending farangs socially. Their culture, like all ancient cultures, does not accept new members other than by birth – and we don’t share their obsession with hierarchy and ‘face’. So a higher proportion of Thais who choose to associate with farangs tend to be from lower income groups and do so for monetary gain. As a good friend said: look at the Thais in your life and ask, if they were farangs, would you still be around them? Do you hang out with losers and crude people at home? If not, why do so in Thailand? Is it because such people are likely going to  hurt you? Then why are you letting the Thai equivalent of such people into your life? Thais…..liars, cheats and thieves? Only if you choose to mix with the tiny percentage that are.

The rest of the country? Some of the most honest, kindest and nicest Thai people you could possibly meet. Just like anywhere. And, when you do get lied to or cheated or have something stolen, ask yourself if your choice of friends – just as you would at home.

Finally, here’s someone who knows a bit about how the Thai girlfriend game involves lying, cheating and stealing:

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