Dustdevil
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Posts posted by Dustdevil
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7 hours ago, smedly said:
you know what is funny
Chinese are not well travelled people - they are brought here on very well fine tuned packages - plane - bus - hotel - bus - eating - bus - hotel - rinse repeat, being ripped off at every opportunity possible - they think it is all normal because they don't know any better - they are herded everywhere - charged a fortune and after 10 days shipped off home thinking - well that is what a holiday is...……..they have no concept of travel
we from the west are always well travelled - it is very hard for us to understand what exactly is going on with these Chinese (so called) tourists - they just don't know any better and are being taken advantage of - very sad really and is just massive exploitation of people that don't know any better or different
and no it isn't really funny at all
Painting with quite a wide brush, but it does apply to segments of the new middle class. One thing to note is that international travel is an important status symbol in China, as is higher education in any English-speaking country, but especially the United States. (Since there are about 60 universities in the greater Boston area, it's gauche to say they went to Harvard, or a little humiliating to say they went to Northeastern, so they say "I went to college in Boston.") If people say they've been to San Francisco, or London and/or Paris, it's important to their friends to respond Oh yes, we've been there too.
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13 hours ago, unamazedloso said:
I do everything myself and even built my own house which wasnt the plan but because the idiots stuffed the foundations i bought an excavator, destroyed it and started again and did it myself and did the lot because quite frankly everyone is out to get rich for doing things idiots can do.
Got my own machines like cnc, lathes, etc... Learnt years ago if you wana do things right, do it yourself but if your an idiot pay an idiot to do it????
Infact i learnt more about how to do diy everything since living in Thailand. I was a signwriter with basic skills a long time ago but now basically a qualified, mechanic, machinist, welder, builder, electritian, etc..
I have no life though????
Can't expect everybody to do all that stuff and have all those types of skills. Some of us are, for example, academics in the humanities, a different set of skills that takes many years of study and work. And some of us hate doing that kind of machinist/welder/builder/electrician work. We respect those who do it, of course, just as I respect farmers, because I'm not about to go slaughtering cows and raising vegetables.
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I wouldn't be able to fall in love (or stay in love) with any woman who made marriage conditional upon converting to her religion. That's arrogant and unacceptable.
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Surprisingly low social security for an EU citizen. Combined for a couple only 1200 Euros? The average benefit for retired workers in the U.S. is $17,536 per annum or $1461/mo. http://www.pensionrights.org/publications/statistic/income-social-security
That's for one person. It's not quite enough to live in the U.S. I live in a city of 400,000 (including suburban townships) and I can live on $1800-1900 a month if I don't dine out much, and that includes car ownership. It also includes the $300 or so I pay in premiums per month for Medicare, which, with the supplemental program I choose, allows me 100% access without any co-pays or deductibles, and I can go straight to any specialist I want--even at famous hospitals like Johns Hopkins (but not the Mayo Clinic) if I felt the need. But my town has excellent hospitals and specialists. Medicare and supplement cover In-patient hospital care 100% for at least a year or so. I guess I wouldn't give up my situation to live in Thailand. The only place there I really like is Chiang Mai and the air there is so hazardous.
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9 hours ago, Cryingdick said:It's like a frog in a boiling pot. How on God's green earth does somebody sit around for 4 or 5 decades and then suddenly realize they haven't prepared for retirement?
The economic refugees also compound the problem as now they are a government expense and do not pay the taxes or contribute to their homeland. If you do personally I am not aiming this at you. I am talking about people who live solely off of government entitlements, never visit their home country, and have no other income source, except maybe a small savings.
I can only speak for the situation in the USA but I feel that when you ditch America your SS should be cut. Living abroad is a privilege and a personal choice.
When pension schemes were thought up to give people basic security people weren't flying around the world. The money spent abroad doesn't feed the economy back home and creates a burden for the next generation who will not be lucky enough to receive benefits at the same age or if ever.
Government schemes are meant to aid retirement. Anybody in their right mind has separate investments to achieve a more comfortable retirement.
I just can't imagine sitting around for 40 or 50 years and then wake up one morning and conclude I had better move to Bulgaria. Do they not have retirement planners over there?
That's the problem. People think the government will take care of them and give it no more thought. When the government fails to provide anything other than the most basic existence they are in disbelief.
This is nothing more than an equation. When you put the minimum in you get the minimum out. Oh, and don't assume the gubernment got your back with all dem entitlements.
I can't see any moral, political or legal reason why your social security should be cut just because you leave the United States. You've been paying into the system for decades.
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2 hours ago, Oxx said:
You mean follow the American model. USA Number One.
The US overall is certainly safer than Thailand.
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1 hour ago, Chazar said:Just a quick read of the link shows you the amount of shootings and murders actually going on daily. Lands of smiles fallacy , always has been, as the economy sinks expect even more, especially home break ins
If the economy is sinking then I wish the damned baht would get weaker.
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22 minutes ago, Odysseus123 said:
Well..I couldn't give a flying squirrel about Poty under the very best of circumstances.
However the English words are deflection,displacement and denial.
In this case it is displacement as it is immensely satisfying to kick an old age pensioner when he is down..makes you feel better..
Deceive, inveigle and obfuscate work well too.
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On 9/26/2019 at 7:13 PM, RichardColeman said:
10,000 baht a week will easily cover the 200(2nd)-400(1st) baht visa agent charge to cover the 800k. and 100,000-150k should easily cover your initial set up costs if not living the high life. Just answering
With ordinary studio and one-bedroom flats going for 6 to 10,000 baht a month in Chiang Mai my favorite city in Asia, eating an American breakfast for 35 baht at a small restaurant, lunch--make a sandwich-- and a nice open-air Thai dinner for 50 baht, total B1500 a month; 9000 for rent (there are plenty of places cheaper than that); intermediate basic health insurance, B7500, internet 1000, pay-as-you-go cell phone 600, groceries 6000, incidentals 3000, transportation (tuk tuk or Songthaew) 300. This is a modest lifestyle and does not include a car or going out to bars and totals about 29,000 baht or currently $966. I didn't include satellite or cable TV because personally I would skip that and continue paying for US Netflix and Amazon Prime using a VPN (total $26/mo.) And you can skimp on the groceries if you eat the aforementioned cheap and good breakfast and dinner outside, sandwich for lunch inside. I'm retired and currently live in a decent one-bedroom apartment in Boise, Idaho (city of 400,000 including suburbs, with a large university) and my budget is $2100 a month, and that's with a nice car, even though I could do without one--everything I need is within a mile, and the closest supermarket is basically just across the street). If I can live off $2100 a month including a car with insurance, repairs and petrol in the United States, you can live off $966 or $1000 (B30,000) in Chiang Mai with no car. I don't know about Bangkok but the latter is not my cup of tea. Personally I don't care for beach towns in Thailand, nor would I want to live in Udon Thani. Of course, you have to deposit $25,000 in a Thai bank for a while if your retirement income is below a certain threshold, but it's still your money that you can withdraw later.
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Road deaths per 100,000 people second only to lawless Libya. I think you can read up to three NY Times pieces before getting paywalled.
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Just now, Kadilo said:
You sound like a Canibal.
If you say so. The world is "cannibal," however.
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Some Thai women are the most beautiful I've ever seen. Overall, to my taste, Chinese women are the most beautiful in the world.
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I know of a celeb in the Los Angeles area who found this in her house:
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22 hours ago, smotherb said:
Great, someone who researches, but we were discussing how the Thais perceive US income. I doubt they know the difference between disposable vs. discretionary income. I believe discretionary income may be a better measure.
Maybe, but discretionary income varies greatly in the U.S. from state to state and city to city. I'd love to use my discretionary funds in Miami Beach, Key West or Seattle, but I have to make do with Boise (which is quite a pleasant and easy place to retire, at least).
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23 hours ago, MaeJoMTB said:
They say 47% of middle class Americans couldn't pay an unexpected $400 bill, and would be bankrupt in 2 months if they lost their jobs. They may have more disposable income, but that's one hell of a treadmill.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/05/my-secret-shame/476415/
The archetypal middle-class Americans spend too much and whenever they get a windfall they spend it on some stupid Bahamas vacation or a new set of wheels for the car or a wardrobe upgrade instead of saving and investing.
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20 hours ago, smotherb said:
By whom are Americans perceived as having money, the envious Brits? While the UK cannot even make the top ten of European countries in income; there are several European countries where incomes are as much or more than the US.
Additionally, I imagine most Thais cannot tell the difference between an American and a European without asking; and even fewer know how much we get paid.
But U.S. disposable income after taxes is the highest in the western world (sources: investopedia, statistica.com, etc.)
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It's true that Americans as a whole have lost face by electing a Neanderthal president. What a change from when Obama was elected. By the way, how many self-righteous Europeans or Commonwealth citizens can claim they've elected an ethnic minority as head of state? Trump, too, shall pass, perhaps sooner than we think or dare hope. Anyway, Chiang Mai is my favorite Asian city and I find it as pleasant as it was five years ago except for the vast crowds of nouveau riche mainland Chinese. Have you heard how they loud they are esp in Dong Mueang Airport? I've been traveling internationally since 1960 (on my own since '69) and I've never seen or heard anything like it. You could hear them from 200 yards down the passageway and all the other passengers, Russians, Thais, whatever, were astonished. Anyway I'm in Ho Chi Minh City now with my gf, who likes to remind me that the Vietnamese have Chinese blood and that soon China will be the world's most powerful country, not my home country of the USA. But the Vietnamese have all been very nice to me in any case. Perhaps Thais share some of that Asian pride. I told her I don't mind about China as long as I don't have to live there (been there many times) and as long as we stand up to their meddling in our freedom of speech in the West.
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On 10/18/2017 at 12:09 AM, TallGuyJohninBKK said:
Except, obviously, you do -- apparently, because you can't get an Amazon PrimeVideo (intl) app on your Fire TV device. Which is not surprising right now, since Amazon doesn't sell Fire TVs in most countries where the intl PrimeVideo service is offered, including Thailand.
We've trod this ground before in prior threads. I agree, there's very little sensible reason why any English speaker right now should want to subscribe to the minimal PrimeVideo service (the international version of Amazon Prime video) when the U.S. version has a much larger and more appealing catalog that's quite good. If anyone wants to use or judge Amazon, judge it on their U.S. streaming content.
But frankly, that's the same situation with Netflix. For both Amazon and Netflix, their catalogs available in Thailand are only a small portion of the broader catalogs that are available via their U.S. subscriptions. Bottom line: the larger U.S. catalogs of Netflix and Amazon are easily available to anyone who actually wants them.
Really, no matter what hardware one is using, it's not that hard to set up a VPN or DNS redirect service -- which has its own benefits regardless of what streaming service one may be using. That unlocks the door to the full Amazon streaming catalog, not to mention the larger U.S. Netflix catalog, and countless other content sources as well. And of course unlocks the full benefits of using a Fire TV.
That's the easy solution, and far more productive than constantly griping about Amazon and its international PrimeVideo service.
Yes. Where else but Amazon Prime Video can you watch The Sopranos or Netflix's original show "Bosch." (I imagine the latter is included internationally?
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I'm an old Asian hand (from Connecticut) and was married to a Malaysian Chinese for 15 years. Lived in Japan and traveled everywhere in East Asia except Laos and Cambodia. Chinese are incredibly beautiful but perhaps the most jaw-droppingly beautiful young women I've seen anywhere are in Saigon.
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It's not only about Pinays overstaying to become sex workers. That is primarily the concern of the potential host nation. They are also often abused into slavery in the sex, housemaid and nanny sectors. Like Sri Lankan maids, they are commonly raped in Arab households, chained to their rooms like dogs, etc.
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13 hours ago, CaptHaddock said:
Actually, it is more complicated than you realize. It's true that the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion does exempt the first $102,100 of earned income from US income tax. An expat working abroad for a non-US company is not liable for payroll tax, i.e. Social Security and Medicare contributions, since the employer is not paying into the SS system. The payroll tax rate for an employee is 7.65% while the employer pays another 7.65%. However, if the expat is working for a US company then the payroll tax does apply to both the employer and the employee. The surprise for many expats is that if he were to be self-employed he would indeed be working for a US employer, i.e. himself. So, as an American employer and employee, he would be liable for the entire 15.30% payroll tax. And unlike the income tax, there is not foreign exclusion for the payroll tax. So, he would have to pay 15.3% payroll tax on top of his Thai income tax on all his income up to the $127,000 cutoff for the payroll tax.
As to the OP's original question, if his son plans to stay in the US, he should avoid the Thai military draft by giving up his Thai citizenship, which would seem to have little value to him. If he were to consider settling in Thailand, maintaining US citizenship is a mixed bag. The US passport is an advantage, but there are tax liabilities to consider.
Also, income over the FEIE is taxed by the IRS not at the lowest income bracket, as you incorrectly assert, but at the appriopriate bracket if all the foreign income were taxable.
I worked overseas around the world from 1986 until 2015, both for foreign entities and American ones. Long story short, despite large salaries, I never paid a penny in US income taxes. Often I had free housing to added to the compensation, but if certain housing was required by the employer (such as on a Saudi military base), that was deductible. You can argue about that all day, but I used a US accounting firm do my taxes and declare my housing benefits, and despite salaries alone approaching the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, I never had to pay US income taxes. When I did work for American entities, such as a U.S. company and a U.S. university overseas, yes, I paid Social Security tax, which was actually not a bad deal because in the long run it allowed me to get larger S.S. checks now that I'm retired. I don't see any problems or need to complicate this matter to the CPA level. This young Thai man we're talking about, do you think he's going to make over $100,000 working in Thailand?? Possible but unlikely.
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10 hours ago, hoosierhiver said:
Thanks everyone for the responses. My son is identifying more and more as an "American", he is losing his Thai language skills and has not shown much desire to go back to Thailand to live or even to visit.
Does anyone have insights regarding military service? I know as a Thai citizen, he has to participate in the Thai military lottery. If he were chosen, I don't know what good he would be to them since he is losing his language skills. I wonder if he could be exempt because of this.
There is no military draft, not since Vietnam. But if he joins up for three years, like my son did, he gets a free ride through universisty, including rent. That's what my kid is doing now--going to college for free including rent. And not just the lowest-cost state colleges. BTW, most people don't get deployed to the nasty places. He spent his 3 years divided between S. Korea and Germany.
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On 12/3/2016 at 3:01 AM, skatewash said:
Really? The US has citizenship-based taxation rather than residence-based taxation. The only country in the world to do so (except for Eritrea, which is a complicated situation). Therefore, if he obtains and keeps US citizenship or keeps his Green Card status he will be liable for filing and paying US taxes for the rest of his life, not just when he is residing in the US. As a US citizen he will also be responsible under FATCA for annually reporting any financial accounts located outside the US to the US government (under very Draconian penalties for failing to do so). A Green Card holder who is a tax resident of a country outside the US would not necessarily have to report these accounts. Finally, should he wish to do so, it is becoming more difficult to renounce US citizenship, more difficult than simply to give up Green Card status. So there are some negative consequences of being a US citizen or green card holder. Whether they would negatively affect the OP's son depends on what he wants or plans to do.
People always say Oh, he'll have to pay US taxes. NO, he WON'T for the first $96,000 he earns outside the U.S. After that figure you start from zero . So if you make $100,000 overseas, you owe taxes on $4000. Since $4K is poverty level, you still won't pay any taxes until you start earning a bit more, like $124,000....and then only on the $28K that is in excess of $96K.
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Yes, up to about $96,000 is nontaxable overseas--you just have to file every year.
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Coronavirus outbreak has turned Asia’s best-performing currency into one of the worst
in Thailand News
Posted · Edited by Dustdevil
Yes, well it's still only barely 31 to the dollar. And that's the official rate. You'll still get a measly 30 at the exchange. It will take a massive bubonic plague combined with millions rioting in the streets to get it to a lousy 32.