Your solutions on 3 million baht to find longevity here

[Korkenzieher]

For the economically active who are work permit holders in paid employment, I think having a degree is pretty much a given. It would be very hard for any company to justify employing an unqualifed farang over an unqualified (or qualified) local unless you were *very* specialised and experienced in something (thinking here of things like commercial divers, banking, and so on).

[Arcadian]

Would it be possible to run some sort of international internet business which you could run from home? Any product could be despatched from a third country and not be a bother to the local authorities. Or in Kendo`s case hook up with an international courier company to provide reliable collection and delivery services within a given area.

[Korkenzieher]

There's quite a lot of people try this kind of thing - ebay shops, and drop-shipper sites, affiliate programs - but the success rate is supposedly quite low. No harm in trying though. Mailing stuff from Thailand tends to get the attention of customs and postal services pretty quickly at both ends - I have had mail and packages opened going in both directions for no obvious reason. There are those who claim to be shipping anything from viagra to boxer-shorts and fake watches and some of them must be reasonably successful.

Consltancy services have a reasonably high success rate - translation, tax consultancy, custom programming / coding - but again, you need the skill set, and some time to build a customer base.

On the marketing side, I suspect that your own 'branded' goods would have more chance - just look at the number of T-Shirt designers there are! I have looked into a couple of things myself but a lot of the *easy* options are also quite low margin unless you have a friendly outlet service - for example, market stall traders to take your stuff (which is sufficiently different to other stuff they can do, etc. etc.); and a lot of the higher margin options are of doubtful legality.

Overall, it is a crowded marketplace, and while there are clearly some who make (a lot of!) money, internet marketing is a skill which will take some time, and possibly money to acquire.

[PeteC]

I would take a year and study Forex and on-line stock trading to get as good at it as one possibly can in that time frame. I'd then take 25K of my saved 100 and put things into practice. If the result was favourable, you have your answer. If not, time for plan B or another year of study and practice. This should include foreign exchanges also. Places like Hong Kong you can make a fortune quite quickly, but you have to literally keep up with the market every waking moment and not be risk averse. I think an initial goal would be to always maintain your starting capital of 100K and live off your gains. If you're lucky and good at what you're doing, you could end up a very wealthy person......or bankrupt. Pete

[STEVE G]

I suppose it all comes down to how much risk you want to take; people have started companies all over the world for less and been successful and of course many more have failed. Personally I know people who make a living in Europe off companies that they started with less than the sums mentioned so I don't see why you couldn't do it in Thailand if you were determined enough.

[kendo]

Steve,
As you know everything is stacked against you even being married to a Thai, and supporting step children, you are classed as an alien and have to jump through hoops just to stay in LOS.

A fool never stay's with his money very long, and we have all met these types in Thailand.

To come over and make a living before retirement does seem to be almost imposable unless you are prepared to work off shore, that i am not, i really could not be away from my little princess Amelie for any period of time i love her so much.

I have been trying to get a job for Dubai Ports who i already work for, in Leam Chabang for a long time now but the only non Thai is the MD he is British.
The only real prospect is to go out there and deliver technical or health and safety training but i am not getting very far with that at the moment as its not the best climate with the global down turn and other politics back in my work place, but alas i will keep trying.

My personal feelings are i want to live the dream now but common sense prevails in my life right now.
Kendo.

[STEVE G]

My personal feelings are i want to live the dream now but common sense prevails in my life right now.

Yes, I quite agree with you; the OP asked if it was possible and I believe it is as it's been done before but asking whether it would be prudent is another matter entirely as the risks are clearly very high.

[Marky_Mark]

Have often thought about this... Myself being 33 and my Thai wife being 32.
The 3mill is no problems already have that if i was to liquidate some assets, however I don’t believe there is the opportunity in Muang Thai to make the 3.68mill per year i do in my current employment, being in the mining supply/logistics field I have thought about the mining industry in Lao and seeking a 2weeks on / 2weeks off roster position commuting between Vientiane and Hua Hin where we have just been gifted 1rai of land, given this I think it would be having the best of both worlds, based in Thailand and earning a decent expat salary in Lao albeit working only 6 months of the year.

The only thing holding me back from our move to Thailand is my hobby of house collecting here in Australia; I have acquired some very good investment properties which enable me to leapfrog into buying more properties therefore increasing my net worth with the old buy and hold strategy.... I couldn't see this hobby continue if we were to move to Hua Hin, although give it a number of years the hobby could be continued from Hua Hin......yes i know we have time on our side, If i had it all my way and didn’t have to work for the cash flow to continue my hobby i would already being in Thailand.

Shame the wife prefers Australia at the moment; I think she needs a little more convincing when the time is right.

[hhfarang]

^ Smart wife...

[dozer]

Given that they are not of retirement age, or have any other income, £60,000 is not nearly enough to start a sustainable expat life here.
Without substantial investment it would be difficult to meet even the basic criteria for starting a business here.
The attributes that they could bring to any enterprise here, such as hard work, enthusiasm will be severely curtailed unless they are able to obtain a WP.
If they try to do without a WP, then they would run the continuous risk of falling fowl of the authorities.
So far they have managed to put 60k together, so then they need to continue working, saving and make use of the 60K to increase the amount to at least 180K and even then there is only probably a 50/50 chance of success.

[T.I.G.R.]

An interesting idea we've surely all had.....and one that should be kept to an idea. How many of us when we're young think we'll work really hard and we could retire at 35. Then we hit 32 or 33 and realize 45 might be a better goal......then 50, then with extraordinary luck it seems doable somewhere between 51 and the hereafter. That's what dreams are made of fellas; if we didn't dream life would be just too, too hard to keep plugging away wouldn't it?

I had all those dreams and more but the reality was I spent my first 45 years or so tilling the fields and waiting for the crop to come in. Then once things finally get rolling and you've had the kids, the fast cars, probably more than one wife, etc. you realize you've finally hit the mark and more goes in the bank each month than comes out!!! Eureka. Now this is more like it! One can actually take a real vacation.....invest some money in the stock market, trade up on the old tract house to something a little more like rich people have, join a country club........yahoo.....we're cookin' now.

About this time you realize ten or fifteen years of this and you can actually contemplate a fat retirement account and finally being able to take the leap and live in the tropics, or whatever your dream really is.

Of course this was all just pie in the sky a long time ago wasn't it? I mean to actually do this you have to have enough money to buy a house/home and pay cash for it. You have to pay cash for a car. Above all, you can't have any debt can you? You also have to realize at this age people get sick sometimes and have enough money to provide you and yours health care if something terrible should befall you. Then there's insurance for the car and house, maintenance fees to pay, gardeners, pool boys, enough left over to put some cash away for the odd visit home......seems like just a bit more than three million baht will cover doesn't it? Oh....and don't forget the exchange rate going up and down like a yo-yo, natural disasters, real estate bubbles, stock market bubbles yada yada yada.

Here are some numbers you youngsters may scoff at, but when you do the dirty work of sitting down and calculating every variation and possibility you've got to think of all of this:

1) How much do I need based on my current lifestyle, assuming nothing bad will ever happen to me or mine. Need, by the way, is a permanent fixed income enough to take care of all of the above, and enough savings to keep putting more in than you take out. Remember, that car you just paid cash for will probably need to be replaced in a few years. That wonderful little tropical cottage might just become a bit cramped after a while.....etc.

2 How much do I need in the face of some kind of global recession and lose, say 50% of my net worth in some climactic event. Do I have family that could help out in a pinch? What if I am paralyzed or something and need daily care? Have I got enough savings to get myself back to where I'm from?

3. How much do I need in the face of actual global disaster severe enough to be able to live "off the land" if it got that bad?

Here you must see the propriety of having PROPERTY; INSURANCE; FAMILIAL SUPPORT. All these things will take luck and planning when you put yourself in harms way thousands of miles from your own immediate family and government assistance should you ever need them. Renting is not an option unless your sojourn into the tropical life is nothing more than a fling....and you actually plan on getting real when the money runs out and you need to get back to the grind.

Here's where I might be all wet, or in other words entirely too conservative....to each his own I guess. We moved here with just about a million dollar net worth six years ago. At the time that was worth almost 44 million baht. We live in a big house, have a new car and travel infrequently, but you would be very correct in saying we aren't rich, in any sense of the word. We were sucked into the financial collapse in a big way, losing about half of our net worth in the first six months of retiring here. Fortunately we made a couple of very lucky real estate investments and have been able to stick to the game plan. It could have easily gone the other way and we'd be living on a smaller scale to be sure. 25% of that net worth was eventually lost to the American housing market fiasco.......the foreclosure sale was last month. Kiss off more than $200,000 in cold hard cash, thank you B of A and the rest of the pond scum in the financial industry.

So, I guess that's about enough blabbing, I do get carried away. How does that three million baht look to you right now? Not nearly enough Dude, not nearly enough.

[STEVE G]

.....however I don’t believe there is the opportunity in Muang Thai to make the 3.68mill per year i do in my current employment,....

This is the main reason that I don't move to Thailand full time; I'm sure I could survive but there is no way that I could make the sort of income I can elsewhere. Of course you have to balance lifestyle and everything else but moving away from well paid employment at too young an age doesn't seem very sensible, particularly if you have family to support. If I couldn't find work away, it would of course be another matter.
Personally I'm planning on a lifestyle where as you get over fifty you reduce the amount of work down to the point where you work away about half the time as I consider that half an overseas income is still more than I could make in a year in Thailand and at no capital risk.

[hhfarang]

Good thinking Steve, I retired under duress from my significant other when I was making a 6 figure U.S.D. income and had job security for probably another 10 years... now we all (who have read my posts) how that has turned out. Keep working if you can if you have a good job and don't absolutely hate it.

[margaretcarnes]

There are a handful of very successful farang or farang/thai run businesses in HH. At least they appear to be doing very well. But they involve an awful lot of hard work and have taken years to build up. They have also been based on skills already acquired by the farang in running whatever type of business back home.
Over the years I've known other farang who have worked, or continue to work, legally and successfully in the LOS. Without exception that group are in some form of engineering or project/production management. In other words most have been lucky enough to be placed in the LOS by their employers.
Then there are the farang teachers, journalists, consular staff, chefs, hotel managers, senior doctors and missionaries.
The ones who continue to live comfortably in HH without work are the retirees who have very good pensions (not just state ones) and who didn't move there until they had either that - or other - excellent security. Add to that the lottery winners and ex cons and you start to get the picture.
The scenario presented by the OP - of beginning now with 60k stirling, and with a very vague idea of what to do in HuaHin is, sorry to say, pie in the sky IMO. The first 3 year lease alone could run away with a huge chunk before any other investment costs. And the way HH is going now - with yet more Thai investment in housing etc in the area - can only continue to increase the cost of everything there.

[Coldmike]

If it could be done on 3 million baht, or even 6 million, then Thailand would be very crowded with foeigners, which would likely take away much of the appeal of moving there in the first place.

After years of dreaming and pondering the same question as the OP, I can only agree with most posters that you have to work outside of Thailand, visit often, but don't move 'til you hit that magic number of the earliest age you can manage with the right amount of $. That also is a tough combination to figure out.