.. Posted August 27, 2004 Report Share Posted August 27, 2004 think_too_mut said:Fuck the expats on good packages No thanks, big boy. Yer not my type LOL! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.. Posted August 27, 2004 Report Share Posted August 27, 2004 think_too_mut said:Where is the pension, security, being a farang there?LOL, what's that? Those things are extinct in Amerika in my experience. Are they still alive in other countries? For how much longer? Sure, I do look forward to my $600/month Social Security when I am 65 in 20 years, but I prolly will not even get that since many successive gummints have borrowed so much that SS is no longer a valid program. And besides, $600 will buy even less dog food to eat than it does now! Cheers, SD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 27, 2004 Report Share Posted August 27, 2004 Yep if you are in your 40"s it is called savings/investments about or more $700K or in your 50's $500K +/- or work till who knows when. This is for a simple inflation adjusting savings plan with average life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.. Posted August 27, 2004 Report Share Posted August 27, 2004 wcv56 said: Yep if you are in your 40"s it is called savings/investments about or more $700K or in your 50's $500K +/- or work till who knows when. This is for a simple inflation adjusting savings plan with average life. Errr, no. A pension is a retirement plan supplied by your employer for services rendered -- it is part of your total compensation plan. Extinct as far as I know (some US companies still offer 401k plans, but the match rate is usually abmysal) unless you are a gummint employee or *maybe* a union worker. What you suggest is a personal retirement plan, necessary (I agree) cuz your employer does not care about you when you are no longer of any use to him, unlike our parents. Why does one have to live in the West to have savings & investments and a *personal* retirement plan? Oh dear, I'd better liquidate right away! Cheers, SD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 27, 2004 Report Share Posted August 27, 2004 Because that Degree that you earned will earn much more in the west which will provide for future savings and career advances. How many people in Thailand earn enough to even consider their future needs other than just getting by. These wages being paid are short term considerations for a person with a degree or for a person who has done well prior to taking a job for 50K. We will never be anything other than a farang and a farang short on cash is just as bad off as a Loa or Cambodian in Thailand. At least in the west you will have several chances to excell and in Thailand will have a very slim chance and very few things to work in your favor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
think_too_mut Posted August 27, 2004 Report Share Posted August 27, 2004 >Sure, I do look forward to my $600/month Social Security when I am 65 in 20 years, but I prolly will not even get that since many successive gummints have borrowed so much that SS is no longer a valid program. And besides, $600 will buy even less dog food to eat than it does now! A-ha, Thais have known that all along the way and have never bothered to introduce what is known as Social Security in the West. No kidding, it's still in a good shape in Australia and towards the end of their working life people push into it as much as they can. A new proposal (not sure if it has been implemented) is - if you don't ask for pension when it is due (keep on working or set up a small biz or a shop or whatever), the government will give you 50% of your due pension atop of whatever you might be erning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 27, 2004 Report Share Posted August 27, 2004 I get my SS at age 66.4 ( a bit less than 20 years from now) about $1400 a month but I also do not count it towards my retirement but do hope to get the medical if it is availible. I am hoping to retire in the next few years but only because I have earned good wages ( no pension) and I save most of what I make. I do not have a degree but things worked out ok even though I have had some low paying jobs and troubled marriages. I know for me sticking it out rather than jumping on the bright lights of Thailand it has paid off. Not easy falling off the wagon and starting some type of income producing adventure in Thailand but I think I about made it intact not doing so. I should have no worry for the next 25 years of funds and it is only because I stuck it out. I do not think 10 out of a thousand that go the living in thailand route will have obtained a self supporting retirement by the time they are 50 unless they done it before they got there. I doubt many can even afford a decent vacation back home that end up working in Thailand and forget about living a modest life back home with their earnings of Thailand. Most in the west do achieve some type of retirement ability by the time they are in their 50's so this being I find the route through bkk to be full of broken dreams and non existant early retirement or any type of quailty retirement in the future if that road is followed. I don't know any farangs who have done it in a good way by working in thailand unless it was on an expat package. I think it is a bad choice for a person with a degree to start out on other than a short time gig. Life's a bit*h and most of us will be married to at least one but life goes on... Good Luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.. Posted August 28, 2004 Report Share Posted August 28, 2004 wcv56 said:I do not think 10 out of a thousand that go the living in thailand route will have obtained a self supporting retirement by the time they are 50 unless they done it before they got there. I doubt many can even afford a decent vacation back home that end up working in Thailand and forget about living a modest life back home with their earnings of Thailand....I don't know any farangs who have done it in a good way by working in thailand unless it was on an expat package. We certainly do move in different crowds, M8. Everyone I know took overseas assignments to pad their bank account. I started that way too -- my employer said: "We need help in Japan. You are qualified. We will jump you a salary grade into the first level of management plus pay you a 30% hardship allowance, pay for your housing expenses and give you two extra weeks of vacation per year if you do it. Oh, and you get $70K/year tax free." So I get a promotion that I would not have gotten in 5+ years of work and about doubled my salary with nothing to spend it on but food, beer, chicks and dubious investments! At 24 years old, of course I did it! Never looked back. Of course, I know very few teachers or other low end wage earners. My core group of friends and all our associates are all successful businessmen or MNC-employed expats, with a few living on early retirement/royalties/investments/trusts thrown in. These are the guys that pay 100K+ in rent each month because they can. In my world, these folks are 20 times more numerous than guys just scraping by . Cheers, SD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 28, 2004 Report Share Posted August 28, 2004 I have been 25 of the last 30 years working in foreign countries all on expat packages. A few times in between contracts that just paid enough to get by. I have spent more time in school than probably most with a degree but I don't have one. I started making decent money when I hit 29 and I haven't kept an updated resume for several years now. Knowing what I know now I would not advise others with a degree to take low paying work overseas. I have never worked for a foreign company and always had a legal binding contract in my home country. I get the 80K tax free but still pay plenty at 31% probably more once I get my taxes up to date. Greenspan just put out Medicare will have problems in 2019 and SS in 2042. Compounding investments is where it is at and working dead end jobs at low wages will not get you there. Better to spend 5 or 10 years accumulating a career at home than going from one low paying overseas job to another. I guess there will be those that accidently do find a job that has expat compensation from one of these dead end ones but few and far between. ( just wondering why do you say 70K tax free that ended around 1999 it has went up 2K a year for last 5 years). Kerry wants to change that to where expats have to pay full taxes.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorro Posted August 28, 2004 Report Share Posted August 28, 2004 "I know now I would not advise others with a degree to take low paying work overseas" I wouldn't advise anyone to take a low paying job either unless of course they had no other choice. A degree is not necessarily the be all and end all. Far too many people are degreed up these days and many with very good credentials cannot find work in their field. What should these people do? They have to live and eat. I have been on both sides of the fence. I am highly qualified yet couldn't get a well enough paid job in Australia to get ahead and there were plenty of people in the same position as me i might add. Retirement options were not even remotely considered as most were struggling with day to day living. These days i am sitting on a hefty tax free salary package with great holidays and plenty of spare cash and am looking at when i can retire. I have been very fortunate but with the way the labour market is these days as a result of globalisation and the shift in favour of capital over labour things will only get worse for the average wage earner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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