I am thinking of moving to LOS also

[Zorro]

Ignore the prophets of doom on this board as you have plenty of money to live adequately in Thailand.

With 250k invested at 5% you would get around 40,000 baht a month.

You could get an English teaching job to tide you over at around 30,000 and with a bit of o/time 40,000 baht a month that makes 80,000 baht a month more than enough for a comfortable lifestyle if you are working.

Who cares what they say about English teachers.

You are old enough to not worry about silly things like that.

It is better to be active and working on a low salary than not.

Plus you get to network and socialise and make contacts and maybe you will then find something in IT.

Finally if you don't like it after a year or two you can go home after an enriching experience with your capital intact.

Too many people are obsessed with the bottom line and lose sight of the fact that life needs to be lived and as i see it you have very little to lose and much to gain.

[Guest]

[color:"purple"] With 250k invested at 5% [/color]

 

Any suggestion on where a person can find this? I think he would have to lock the money in a 5 year CD? I am sure some of of the financial gurus on this board can share where I can put 250K at 5% and not lose my principal? I tried Vanguad Ginnae Mae Mutual Fund VFIIX, but I pulled out when it started to slide down. I am now starting to buy I Bonds =)

 

Thanks,

 

Rug

 

 

[mongatu]

I wouldn't put the whole nest egg in one basket but check out Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, Inc. (NYSE symbol FBR), currently paying a dividend yield of about 7.5%. (They report quarterly earnings in a day or two.)

[Guest]

 

 

Interesting.

 

As far as I can tell the majority of posts swing in favor of ?don?t do it? by a small margin. However the bulk of the ?don?t do it? posters are in Thailand whilst the bulk of the ?just go for it? gang seem to be based outside Thailand. (Which raises the question that if its such a great idea and its possible to live a great life in Thailand in a cardboard box for peanuts and forget tomorrow you might not live that long, then how come they have not done it themselves?)

 

The middle ground varies from the ?drop out for a while? group to the keep both options alive, either based here or there.

 

Others, like myself, seem less concerned about the present as you can easily live well and enjoyably with your current funds, for a while, but are concerned about the longer term.

 

The problem here is that the stereotype ?English teacher? or similar farang ?lifestyle/career? in Bangkok simply does not pay enough to provide for a decent retirement, and whether you decide to retire now at 39 or later your current funds are insufficient for either case, particularly if you dip into them from time to time to fund your living ? and recall even if you work till 55/60 here you will, likely, be retired longer.

 

So I suppose that it all depends on how you envisage your retirement. If you move here for the reasons stated then the retirement prospects, at any age, look decidedly unattractive.

 

Do you really want to end up as a broke, sick, bitter old fart moronically cursing the day you decided to toss your life, career, prospects, potential and ambitions to run away to Bangkok for a life of carefree sextourist indulgence and now living the life of a penniless Thai peasant in a wooden hut next to a paddy field in the middle of Nakon Nowhere with a toothless disease ridden old hag of a hooker with an attitude and a tattoo on her ass saying ?Fiery Jack?s been here? that you found in a bar in Walking Street when she was young and cute and who spent the decade of her 20?s taking it up the ass, and every other orifice, 10 times a week with anyone and everyone who had the price of a few beers?

 

Not my idea of paradise. And if you want to check out the level above that then next time you are in Thailand hang out in Washington Square for a while. Get yourself bored to death listening to the sad old farts with wasted lives nursing a beer for two hours and telling how great it used to be in the 60s and 70s (don?t know where they get their rosy colored specs though ? I was here in the 60s and 70s and sure as hell don?t remember it being like they describe).

 

If I was in your position and had to decide then I think I would have to look no further than the very first reply to your original post, from flyonzewall:

 

 

?given from how you have described yourself, and your interests in asia, my prediction (based on countless stories like yours) would be that you are broke and fucked up within two years, and too long gone from the west to ever get back into any sort of career.

to live happily here you need more than an interest in sex, and more than just teaching english (unless that is the profession of your choice).

 

my advise would be, based on your description, not to move here. come here on some extended holiday, but do not move here. that would be the mistake of your life.?

 

 

To my way of thinking that is really solid advice grounded in the raw and brutal reality of life for farang drop outs in Thailand. It is really saddening for many of us to see so many guys who had such great potential and hearts of gold who somewhere along the line lost the plot and ended up as old, sad, broke losers barely surviving a pitiful and meager existence in the land of smiles.

 

Live well in the land of plenty, indulge outrageously on your vacations, and put off the idea of moving here for another 10 or 20 years.