ken.p wrote:If my wife was to read the thread on the cost of living in Hua Hin, (believe me she has not, I would have heard) she would be moving, and coming to live with you rich guys 200,000b 120,000b a month, in fact I’m thinking of moving myself. I intend to retire soon and feel comfortable with half this amount, having already got the house car etc. As many have said 200,000b 120,000b = £4,000. £2,400 would provide a fair living back in the UK.
Hi Ken, inflation and making provision for it was the main reason posters were suggesting these higher numbers. As well as making provision for things like health emergencies and the like. Your lucky you have the property, car etc but probably half the farangs here rent (or whatever the split is) and because of issues like the one below where the UK have now changed index linking yearly inflation of certain pensions to the CPI (consumer price index) from the RPI (retail price index), then historical data shows your 'income' here would only grow at 2.8% per year. Inflation in Thailand is currently running at 4.1%, Phuket's is 8% and imho Hua Hin's is anywhere from 6-8% and if the town carries on developing fast after this recession (take a look around at the major projects currently ongoing) then inflation could be higher.
But just taking the difference between some people's incomes growing @2.8% and Thailand cost of living growing @4.1% then for someone who lives 30 years here in retirement their 100k/month which you feel is about right will only be worth 65k/month. So those people don't have a 100k/month pension at all. And if inflation grows in Hua Hin like it has been over the years in the case the town does really do a 'Phuket', then someone will have half the pension they think they have. The guys that are giving this (sound imo) advice have just seen a reduction of their income by 25-30% due to exchange rates. So these guys will need approx. 145k/m now to retain this 100k/m.
For those renting then a 23k/month 3 bed place with a pool with annual rental increases of a modest 5% (UK average past 30 years 7.3%) with the 2.8% income growth means in 30 years time their monthly property bills are around 65k/month. So anyone renting property in this example who wants a 100k/month pension in later years in life, needs around 210k/month today.
Could be better than this if say inflation dropped here, and property rentals stagnated over the next couple of decades... and could very easily be disasterously worse with higher inflation. And if you ask the guys who live here, whichever side of the '
how much' debate they're on, I believe 95% will say inflation of the cost of living in Hua Hin has increased way above the Thai average.
'Up to 12 million members of final-salary pension schemes face the prospect of a smaller pension'
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/4c27d3ce ... z1Q9XmmnRd
This follows the government decision to increase payments in line with the consumer price index (CPI) rather than the retail price index (RPI) – and advisers now warn that many will need to make extra savings. Steve Webb, pensions minister, announced that the switch for public-sector pensions would also be applied to private-sector pensions. In the past 20 years, RPI has averaged 3.6%, CPI has averaged 2.8%. Independent advice firm Hargreaves Lansdown has calculated that this change can reduce a pension up to 15%.
Based on average rates of RPI and CPI, a 40-year-old with a £5,000 preserved final-salary pension today could have expected to receive a pension of £11,600 from age 65 if uprated in line with RPI - but this falls to £9,769 with CPI uprating. Over the six years between April 2011 and March 2017, a pensioner currently receiving £10,000 a year would lose more than £2,500 in total.
SJ
