retirement visas

[scottish-guy]

Dear Latin,

Could you please lend me £20,000.00 - it's only a small, inconsiderable amount and you'd never miss it.

In return I'll do a nude cam show for you.

Thanks in anticipation

SG

[goji]

Sorry I realise everyone is at different places in their lives and things happen that affect peoples finances etc but is it not reasonable to expect or assume that once you reach the age where you're retiring to Thailand or wherever that it's not an unreasonable expectation that you might have that 800.000 ( £18,000 Stg) stashed away in some bank or other hidihole ?

Absolutely. After many of them have spent 30 or 40 years driving around in BMWs or whatever, then they really should have saved less than the value of one of these cars.

Also, Thailand has to set some kind of minimum income level, otherwise they might have millions of people from Bangladesh and other such places turning up and getting retirement visas. They need to make sure immigrants are solvent and will not be a burden on the Thai taxpayer. This is how the world works. In some places in the world, buying a retirement visa is much more expensive.

Life is tough & the reality is that money is needed for the entry ticket. I don't earn enough to fly at the front of the plane*. Some can only just afford to get on the back of the plane and billions of people around the world cannot even dream of long haul holidays.

Finally, if the rules have required you to have either 65,000 baht monthly income or 800,000 baht in a bank account, then it is only reasonable that you do one or the other.

Also, if your income is actually in another currency and just scrapes past 65,000 baht, it's way safer to already have the 800,000 baht in your Thai bank account. Then if your pound note only buys 20 baht after 5 years of Mr Corbyn in no 10, you still have the 800,000 in baht.

[* Well, I could fly further forward, but NOT whilst saving for retirement. Also figured I could save a shed load by running older cars for years too.]

[scottish-guy]

Imagine ever having to depend on SGT members' empathy/generosity of spirit.

You'd be better to just go out on the balcony and toss yourself off.

[Nirish guy]

I dont see any part of what Goji (or myself) has said in our posts that is mean in any way, just our opinions ( as far as I can see anyway) - I'm sure people have a 100 reasons for not saving a bit for their retirement and that's fair enough but it's also not crazy to question that seemingly and apparently we're being asked to believe that the vast majority of pensioners in Pattaya at least haven't managed to do that - personally and as Ive said before I find THAT hard to believe. BUT it if is the case then fair enough, but still hard to believe none the less.

[goji]

I'm just saying it how it is. Some people in the UK have a misplaced sense of ENTITLEMENT. The real world doesn't owe us a living and retiring to a tropical paradise costs money.

As for the savings, I agree with NIrish. If you look at the way people live in the UK, it's hard to believe most people aspiring to retire to Thailand have not got assets worth at least £18k.

[Nirish guy]

......retiring to a tropical paradise costs money.

Yeah, or even retiring to PATTAYA too it seems ! :-)

[poshglasgow]

And over the past 13 years we have seen the value of the £ fall from 75 BHT to the £ when it hit that level in September 2005, to just under 43 BHT today. That must have had a significant impact on those who retired to Thailand around that time and are still resident in the Kingdom now.

I do seem to recall that the exchange rate was even lower back around 1993 when I started visiting the LOS. Am I right in thinking that it was around 36 BHT to the 1GBP?

[francois]

what a sorry state of affairs where 800K is ....a considerable amount!!!

Too true.

[latintopxxx]

...thanks...hope none of the MBs are lurking on this board...imagine their shock at the fact that 800k is looked at as a considerable amount...enuf to loose sleep over because it would endanger residency...pitiful...sad...

[sglad]

There are many, including myself, who live on a pension which is in excess of the 65K monthly stipulation by Immigration. But we don't have 800,000 Baht to put in an account in a Thai Bank or even in a bank in our home country.
That is why the new regulation of eliminating the Embassy certification income letter is a big deal!

Thus it is not reasonable to expect that we have 800,000 in a hidihole or a bank!

What happened? Just how much meatloaf and Mont Clair have you been having, francoise??