Combat school ED visas rejected in Hanoi

[Falconator]

2 hours ago, Thaidream said:

The solution to your problem is to go with your fiance to a Thai Amphur and legally register  as married.  Once this is done- travel to either the Savanakhet Laos Thai Consulate or the Thai Consulate in Ho chi Minh Vietnam and apply for a Non O Multiple Entry Visa based on marriage-  You will get a  1 year Visa with 90 day entries- so you make a border run each 90 days.  The Fee is 5,000 Baht- No financials need to be shown.

 

What you really need to think about is how you are going to support a family when you are Age 35, 45, 55 and then retire at Age 65 with no Social Security from the US Government or any pension.  A Digital Nomad Salary doesn't pay very much compared to working at a lucrative job in the USA and being vested in retirment options. To be honest- there isn't much future in being a digital nomad except being poor when you get old.

 

You are young enough to make good choices- but you  won't have many options as you age.  Thailand is really not a place for opportunities for  foreigners with minimum incomes but at the end of the day- it is your choice.  Good luck.

 

Thanks for the advice, but baby boomers don't seem to realize that the gig economy has now taken over the US. Location-independent freelancers have to move abroad in order to thrive. Plus I'm already supporting my Thai family very well, thank you very much.

 

Please check out nomadcapitalist.com to get a taste of the new nomad lifestyle. They're not backpackers, but rather serious capitalists.

 

[Falconator]

The main concern here is what to do next for typical digital nomads who don't have any local Thai family or close friends. I'm the lucky one because I have a fiance. Most of my digital nomad friends don't.

 

Let's put my personal life story and family issues on the back burner for now. There are dozens of digital nomads currently lurking here, so they just need relevant info on how to be prepared.

 

Please also understand that "digital nomad" is a convenient term to refer to people who are location-independent, not broke begpacking nomads with dreadlocks staying in crowded hostel dorms. We are still paying US / EU taxes and cannot dodge them because everything gets reported to our governments. We just happen to physically be in another location, but everything we do is registered in and legally done in our home countries.

 

[sanemax]

5 minutes ago, Falconator said:

The main concern here is what to do next for typical digital nomads who don't have any local Thai family or close friends. I'm the lucky one because I have fiance. Most of my digital nomad friends don't.

 

Let's put my personal life story and family issues on the back burner for now. There are dozens of digital nomads currently lurking here, so they just need relevant info on how to be prepared.

They could become nomadic and not live anywhere long term ?

[Falconator]

2 minutes ago, sanemax said:

They could become nomadic and not live anywhere long term ?

As mentioned in my edited response, the term "digital nomad" can be a bit of a misnomer.

 

It's a cliche term used to refer to people who are location independent, but not necessarily location unstable. Just so that our baby boomer friends here can understand, perhaps we should use the term "digital expat."

 

To thrive, you still need a stable place that you can call home, because many of us have clients that we have to work with in a stable, regular manner. We can bounce around from place to place every few months, but only for so long.

 

I almost feel like this should be a "millennial-only" thread, since we are utterly incomprehensible to the baby boomer pension-receiving retirees who are dominating this forum. Just kidding man. Gotta be nice to all the retired old gramps who are occasionally helping us out with good tips, even though the rest may be sporadically leaving sarcastic comments here.

 

[sanemax]

1 minute ago, Falconator said:

As mentioned in my edited response, the term "digital nomad" can be a bit of a misnomer.

 

It's a cliche term used to refer to people who are location independent, but not necessarily location unstable. Just so that our baby boomer friends here can understand, perhaps we should use the term "digital expat."

 

To thrive, you still need a stable place that you can call home, because many of us have clients that we have to work with in a stable, regular manner. We can bounce around from place to place every few months, but only for so long.

 

I almost feel like this should be a "millennial-only" thread, since we are utterly incomprehensible to the baby boomer pension-receiving retirees who are dominating this forum. Just kidding man. Gotta be nice to all the retired old gramps who are occasionally helping us out with good tips, even though the rest may be sporadically leaving sarcastic comments here.

 

You are making assumptions about me  now , which isnt such a good idea on an anonymous forum, because you have no idea whom you are talking too .

   I do actually run my business online and I can do it in my own time , so, I dont need any (internet) stability and can move about as I please , which I have been doing for the last ten years now .

  Although I would never class myself a DN , I am one of the original  online self sufficienters 

Maybe you should refer to yourself as self employed person who conducts his business online ?

[Falconator]

All about digital nomads 101

 

Not everyone on ThaiVisa is a pension-receiving 50+ white dude on a retirement visa who had worked 30-40 years for only a few companies and then cashed out with nice retirement benefits.
 

The world has completely changed since the good old 70s and 80s where you just get a corporate job for life and they take care of you. Contingent work, remote work, and location-independent work are now the new norm. Millennial digital workers are now migrating all over the world to take advantage of new opportunities.

 

Like it or not, this is strikingly similar to the collapse of the Soviet Union, when stability suddenly collapsed and entire societies were suddenly thrown into new capitalist free market environments.

 

The old days of baby boomer tenure and stability are now over. We are now in the new world of mass migration, extreme connectivity, contingent work, online opportunities, and very unpredictable times. It's called the new gig economy. Optimists call it flexibility and entrepeneurship, but pessimists - well, just read the comments here.

 

Many of us millennials don't even expect that the Social Security system will be fully functional when we hit retirement age. Our rapidly changing environment is causing mass migration on an unprecedented scale. Extreme connectivity means that freelancing is becoming the new norm. We're in a totally new world that even our parents can't fully comprehend.

 

Successful millennials are striking it big. Others will be worse off than their parents. Welcome to the brave new world.

 

Thai immigration is run by Thai baby boomers who don't quite understand this new phenomenon.

 

So we have this thread here because we're trying to figure out practical solutions and advice for a new generation of people living lifestyles that would not have been possible 20 years. Government policies have not responded fast enough to this because technology, by nature, adapts and changes far more rapidly than bureaucracy.

 

[sanemax]

6 minutes ago, Falconator said:

 

So we have this thread here because we're trying to figure out practical solutions and advice for a new generation of people living lifestyles that would not have been possible 20 years. Government policies have not responded fast enough to this because technology, by nature, adapts and changes far more rapidly than bureaucracy.

 

Thai Government policy has responded though , they have made the visa rules more restrictive and their view is that if you have no reason to stay in Thailand , you cannot stay long term .

  Ten years ago, anyone could stay in Thailand for as long as they liked , cannot do that these days

[Falconator]

1 minute ago, sanemax said:

Thai Government policy has responded though , they have made the visa rules more restrictive and their view is that if you have no reason to stay in Thailand , you cannot stay long term .

  Ten years ago, anyone could stay in Thailand for as long as they liked , cannot do that these days

 

That's their response to the exponentially increasing inflows of foreigners that include a whole bunch of random Chinese, Indians, and Russians.

 

It doesn't have much to do with tech-savvy remote workers. Not even the US government has responded fast enough to the gig economy. They still don't know how to properly classify and tax freelancers.

 

Some countries have responded by making it very easy for remote workers to stay into their countries. Not surprisingly, Georgia, Armenia, and Serbia, which have some of the world's highest per capita rates of online freelancing, are very digital nomad-friendly because they all know what it is. But digital nomadism isn't widely known in Thailand, so they don't really understand or know what to do with this new phenomenon. Most ordinary Thai people in Chiang Mai can't actually fully grasp the concept, even though Chiang Mai is supposed to be one of the world's top digital nomad hubs.

 

[Falconator]

Staying on topic:

 

The reason we are mentioning digital nomads here is because the vast majority of combat school students are digital nomads aged 20-35. You don't see many older people enrolled in such schools, because they are usually on retirement or marriage visas.

 

So naturally, a helpful combat school ED visa thread would have a primary focus on digital nomads.

 

I'm sure this isn't the end of things. There's been a lot of pessimism about these tightening restrictions and crackdowns, but it's also for our own good. Good guys in, bad guys out.

 

There are still many different options out there. We just have to carefully spot them out.

 

[Traubert]

Like it or not, this is strikingly similar to the collapse of the Soviet Union, when stability suddenly collapsed and entire societies were suddenly thrown into new capitalist free market environments.

 

That's where I abandoned you. You aren't old enough to remember anything about it.

 

A certain country which has a massive influence in Asia uncovered the ED visa scam five years ago. Study language for a year and your second year interview will be conducted in language that you should have learned, had you applied yourself in class.

 

Would you get in a ring with a Thai student who had studied combat? Only once I suspect. You applied on false pretenses and you rightly got rejected.

 

Plus if you're paying your employees such vast sums, sack one, work a bit harder and get an Elite visa.

[mstevens]

1 hour ago, Falconator said:

Thai immigration is run by Thai baby boomers who don't quite understand this new phenomenon.

 

So we have this thread here because we're trying to figure out practical solutions and advice for a new generation of people living lifestyles that would not have been possible 20 years.

 

 

The solutions have been presented already:

 

1. Set up a company in Thailand, get a work permit and visa and you will be able to stay indefinitely. And let's be frank here, you live in Thailand, you work while in Thailand and you avail yourself of its infrastructure....so you should be paying taxes.

 

2. Get married, get a marriage visa.

 

3. Buy an Elite card.

 

You have been presented with 3 options but no, none of them are acceptable to you. Geez, is it any wonder Millennials have a reputation for being self-entitled.

 

[dcnx]

5 hours ago, Thaidream said:

I am old  but highly educated and understand on line work but what I have found out is that  unless you design Google; Yahoo; Facebook or something similar- the average person is making peanuts. 

 

How many On line millionaires you see in Thailand. I haven't seen or met anyone.  

I can introduce you to a few living in Chiang Mai. One of them develops mobile games. He sits in Starbucks with a laptop dressed in shorts, a t-shirt, and flip flops. There’s actually a good handful of app and successful  game developers in Chiang Mai. I can only assume the same holds true for Bangkok and other cities.

 

You don’t know anyone making money in that line of work because they are not in your social circles and I’m guessing you’re retired. There are many ways to make money online that have nothing to do with building  websites. 

 

 

[sunnyboy2018]

6 hours ago, LivinLOS said:

I am paying 2 early 20 somethings over a quarter of a million euro a year.. They started doing the process I told them to do less than 2 years ago, I might be able to double it in the next 12 months. 

Explain how theres no money working online to me again please.. 

Is it legal?

[sunnyboy2018]

4 hours ago, Falconator said:

 

Thanks for the advice, but baby boomers don't seem to realize that the gig economy has now taken over the US. Location-independent freelancers have to move abroad in order to thrive. Plus I'm already supporting my Thai family very well, thank you very much.

 

Please check out nomadcapitalist.com to get a taste of the new nomad lifestyle. They're not backpackers, but rather serious capitalists.

 

gig worker equals underpaid, non guranteed hours, non unionised worker with ni security....They provide the BBs with services,  Uber Delivaroo etc. Digital Nomad. Somebody who cant afford to buy a house

[ChristianBlessing]

 
TV trolls tend to be jaded retirees with lots of failed relationships. I laugh at their cranky comments and move on.
 
The real focus here is about the combat ED visa so that we can potentially offer alternative solutions to others in the same scenario. I mentioned my family situation just as an example case, but everyone seems to be jumping on that, not about the real issue that I'm talking about.

I am not trying to be judgemental, nor have I any comment regarding your relationship(s) but am attempting to understand your issue. Are you using the education visa as a means learning Muay Thai or as a means of pursuing your digital career in while living in Thailand?

[emptypockets]

7 hours ago, Falconator said:

 

Thanks for the advice, but baby boomers don't seem to realize that the gig economy has now taken over the US. Location-independent freelancers have to move abroad in order to thrive. Plus I'm already supporting my Thai family very well, thank you very much.

 

Please check out nomadcapitalist.com to get a taste of the new nomad lifestyle. They're not backpackers, but rather serious capitalists.

 

Who, apparently, take up to two years to bank 400,000 baht.

Wake up mate, it's like any job. Some do very well and make millions. Others

(the vast majority) just get by.

Make as much as you can doing this now because the digital nomad will be amongst the first jobs to disappear when AI really takes hold.

 

As an aside I read in the news that the IRS in the US are now chasing the crypto mob for taxes.

Interesting times indeed.

 

[LivinLOS]

10 hours ago, Thaidream said:

If you have any Americans working for you- you must be deducting 7'65% each pay period and sending it to the Social Security Department in the Us. In addition- US Tax law indicates you must withhold  amounts to enable the worker to pay their taxes. If your employee is American and you are not doing this you will find that the US Internal Revenue Department has a long reach.

 

If all of your employees are European- I don't know the law but I would imagine there is some type of tax regime in place as European countries generally require more taxes than the US as Europe prides more welfare for its citizens.

 

I have no idea what business you are in- but I can be sure that what you are doing is short term gain as opposed to  a person with a Masters degree working in an IT Company in the US or Europe or other business.  Long term employement at high income with all the  retirement benefits is what builds wealth. Short term ideas normmally pay short term gains with no longevity building any wealth.

 

If your are the exception= good on you but if I was in my 20s or 30s I wouldn't be  depending on pipe dreams to build long term wealth.  I would be working in an established industry at a high salary paying into the retirement scheme so I knew for sure I had a future.  

Those 2 are Europeans.. With thier own european company.. Fully accounted for.. Tho I would have accepted and suggested a Hong Kong company for tax efficiency. But thanks for your concern.. 

I started work at 22.. I retired at 28 and moved to Thailand, at which time I had 600 worldwide employees in 5 countries.. Thanks for the business advice on how I should have got a degree and found someone else to work for for 35 years. 

[LivinLOS]

8 hours ago, Falconator said:

The real focus here is about the combat ED visa so that we can potentially offer alternative solutions to others in the same scenario. I mentioned my family situation just as an example case, but everyone seems to be jumping on that, not about the real issue that I'm talking about.

If your statement are true, then marry your partner and the visa issue is solved.. If they are more just maybes, then move on to where the visa situation is easier and you can legally work. 

[Thaidream]

6 hours ago, Falconator said:

out digital nomads 101

 

Not everyone on ThaiVisa is a pension-receiving 50+ white dude on a retirement visa who had worked 30-40 years for only a few companies and then cashed out with nice retirement benefits.
 

The world has completely changed since the good old 70s and 80s where you just get a corporate job for life and they take care of you. Contingent work, remote work, and location-independent work are now the new norm. Millennial digital workers are now migrating all over the world to take advantage of new opportunities.

 

Like it or not, this is strikingly similar to the collapse of the Soviet Union, when stability suddenly collapsed and entire societies were suddenly thrown into new capitalist free market environments.

 

The old days of baby boomer tenure and stability are now over. We are now in the new world of mass migration, extreme connectivity, contingent work, online opportunities, and very unpredictable times. It's called the new gig economy. Optimists call it flexibility and entrepeneurship, but pessimists - well, just read the comments here.

 

Many of us millennials don't even expect that the Social Security system will be fully functional when we hit retirement age. Our rapidly changing environment is causing mass migration on an unprecedented scale. Extreme connectivity means that freelancing is becoming the new norm. We're in a totally new world that even our parents can't fully comprehend.

 

Successful millennials are striking it big. Others will be worse off than their parents. Welcome to the brave new world.

 

Thai immigration is run by Thai baby boomers who don't quite understand this new phenomenon.

 

So we have this thread here because we're trying to figure out practical solutions and advice for a new generation of people living lifestyles that would not have been possible 20 years. Government policies have not responded fast enough to this because technology, by nature, adapts and changes far more rapidly than bureaucracy.

I wish you well and hope it works out but I think you are deluded  in thinking that what you are doing is the model for the future.  

 

No one can seem to answer what you are going to do when you are age 65 and have no income from either a pension; social security or some steady income stream.

 

Most of you seem to be living in the moment- somehow  convinced that there is no real future and that you are going to enjoy your short life now. While it sounds sureal to many it actually is because it is based on the same type of philosophy that  Bitcoin is the wave of the future and that money can be made from thin air.  It's also the same theory that  allows banks to operate using derivatives; countries living off credit and mostly smoke and mirrors.

 

I got news for you- higher education; hard work and saving is the way of the future. Social Security will always be there for Americans and  you will also have universal healthcare as soon as a Democrat is elected President. The reason Company pensions  are mostly not provided is due to the greed of Company CEO's and Boards who believe all employees are sheep who cannot think outside of the box.  The re birth of Unions will solve that problem.

 

I will grant you one thing- the World  has indeed changed- people have  become angrier- less kind to each other and much more selfish as well as greedy. It used to be that students wanted to change the World- become a force for good and have a simple and productive life.  They wanted to serve mankind , instead of being served.

 

I completely underesteand wanrting to live the dream- going abroad and the lure of a place like Thailand I have spent nearly 50 years in and out of Thailand and came here when I was in my 20's.  I soon learned that  the Thai dream while doable is an illusion unless you understand completely what is going on around you. 

 

Decades ago- a very smart man I met casually while in Thailand- explained the illusion and gave me the best advice I have ever heard- go back to America; get A Master's Degree; and work hard and in the end  you won't  have to depend on illusions or dreams.

 

Most of the digital nomads seen to think they are the wave of the future and what they are doing has some existential meaning. It doesn't- you are creating nothing; you are notadvancing civilization at all.  When one of you comes up with the cure for Alzheimers or AIDS  or Ebola- you have changed the World. 

 

[LivinLOS]

7 hours ago, Falconator said:

The main concern here is what to do next for typical digital nomads who don't have any local Thai family or close friends. I'm the lucky one because I have a fiance. Most of my digital nomad friends don't.

 

Let's put my personal life story and family issues on the back burner for now. There are dozens of digital nomads currently lurking here, so they just need relevant info on how to be prepared.

 

Please also understand that "digital nomad" is a convenient term to refer to people who are location-independent, not broke begpacking nomads with dreadlocks staying in crowded hostel dorms. We are still paying US / EU taxes and cannot dodge them because everything gets reported to our governments. We just happen to physically be in another location, but everything we do is registered in and legally done in our home countries.

 

The fact is being an online worker in Thailand has only the umbrella company route, in the sense of solo one man freelancer. Thats it, that is the only route that's legal. They could also form a Thai corporation, and go down the rabbit hole of offices, employees, payrolls, vat, etc etc.. But its clearly not the 'nomad' option, it may be for the serious resident online entrepreneur. Anything other than this is breaking Thai law, if it is possible to hide from that Thai law is another story, but it is not up for debate if being resident and working online is 'legal' only 'unenforced' 

Also, for a relatively small amount of money (it costs me far greater amounts to be in legal compliance in the jurisdictions I have work in, think 100s of k per annum) you get the red carpet treatment, no visa runs, a provided legal team, accounts done, etc etc etc..

Your claim an EU national then has to continue paying EU taxes while not resident there is false, any EU national who takes up work for a BOI registered umbrella company from day 1 stops paying ANY European taxation, you can also choose to sign out of your EU residency and not even do tax returns there, however as many choose not to give up European healthcare you would simply do 2 tax returns annually, where one tax payment is used to cancel out the other due to DTA agreements, in this case you may (depending on the EU country) need to pay self employed social security / national insurance. Cross border labour leasing and payroll / employment taxes is a field I have owned companies in for 20 something years. The fact you seem to believe this tells me you dont have much multi jurisdiction tax experience. 

Why any 'professional' would bother with the efforts of running around asia begging for short stay visas, rather than doing it correctly and legally, where everything becomes seamless, and legal, is beyond me. The costs are very reasonable and these 'non broke' freelancers will surely have a dollar amount on thier time. 

[LivinLOS]

7 hours ago, Falconator said:

As mentioned in my edited response, the term "digital nomad" can be a bit of a misnomer.

 

It's a cliche term used to refer to people who are location independent, but not necessarily location unstable. Just so that our baby boomer friends here can understand, perhaps we should use the term "digital expat."

 

To thrive, you still need a stable place that you can call home, because many of us have clients that we have to work with in a stable, regular manner. We can bounce around from place to place every few months, but only for so long.

 

I almost feel like this should be a "millennial-only" thread, since we are utterly incomprehensible to the baby boomer pension-receiving retirees who are dominating this forum. Just kidding man. Gotta be nice to all the retired old gramps who are occasionally helping us out with good tips, even though the rest may be sporadically leaving sarcastic comments here.

 

Then 'digital expats' should register and pay taxes in the country they have chosen as thier residency, pretty simple no ?? 

As for experience.. I currently have 70 something cross border contractors engaged and will likely have > 100 late this year. shooting for over 10 mil turnover in 2020 so maybe these millenials of which you boast might want a job ???? 

[LivinLOS]

7 hours ago, Falconator said:

So we have this thread here because we're trying to figure out practical solutions and advice for a new generation of people living lifestyles that would not have been possible 20 years. Government policies have not responded fast enough to this because technology, by nature, adapts and changes far more rapidly than bureaucracy.

 

It is a entrepreneurs job to comply with regulation, not regulations job to do what entrepreneurs wish it too.. 

Thailand VERY well aware of the issue of non tax paying online foreign workers, and yet it has made no 'cheap' visa class for them. The 'smart visa' solution is for the higher end, the BOI and 'one stop shop' is for the ones with capital.. Clearly they have made it clear which ones they wish to encourage. Crying that Thailand hasnt caught up with me is very self centered. 

[LivinLOS]

4 hours ago, sunnyboy2018 said:

Is it legal?

Fully.. In actual fact, they are far too straight laced IMO and dont even wish to offshore that income stream and pay themselves a smaller taxable income, which would be easily legally achievable. 

 

[LivinLOS]

16 minutes ago, Thaidream said:

I wish you well and hope it works out but I think you are deluded  in thinking that what you are doing is the model for the future.  

 

No one can seem to answer what you are going to do when you are age 65 and have no income from either a pension; social security or some steady income stream.

 

Most of you seem to be living in the moment- somehow  convinced that there is no real future and that you are going to enjoy your short life now. While it sounds sureal to many it actually is because it is based on the same type of philosophy that  Bitcoin is the wave of the future and that money can be made from thin air.  It's also the same theory that  allows banks to operate using derivatives; countries living off credit and mostly smoke and mirrors.

 

I got news for you- higher education; hard work and saving is the way of the future. Social Security will always be there for Americans and  you will also have universal healthcare as soon as a Democrat is elected President. The reason Company pensions  are mostly not provided is due to the greed of Company CEO's and Boards who believe all employees are sheep who cannot think outside of the box.  The re birth of Unions will solve that problem.

 

I will grant you one thing- the World  has indeed changed- people have  become angrier- less kind to each other and much more selfish as well as greedy. It used to be that students wanted to change the World- become a force for good and have a simple and productive life.  They wanted to serve mankind , instead of being served.

 

I completely underesteand wanrting to live the dream- going abroad and the lure of a place like Thailand I have spent nearly 50 years in and out of Thailand and came here when I was in my 20's.  I soon learned that  the Thai dream while doable is an illusion unless you understand completely what is going on around you. 

 

Decades ago- a very smart man I met casually while in Thailand- explained the illusion and gave me the best advice I have ever heard- go back to America; get A Master's Degree; and work hard and in the end  you won't  have to depend on illusions or dreams.

 

Most of the digital nomads seen to think they are the wave of the future and what they are doing has some existential meaning. It doesn't- you are creating nothing; you are notadvancing civilization at all.  When one of you comes up with the cure for Alzheimers or AIDS  or Ebola- you have changed the World. 

 

Sorry but now I am with the younger crowd.. That models dead.. Pensions probably wont exist when I get around to claiming one, and I have refused to pay into any and created my own pot. I would far rather 5 mil in investments of my choice than 100k a year taxed and the promise of a pension if I live to claim it thanks. 

The internet gives scale, it allows unprecedented reach at price points that were unimaginable a decade ago. Someone who knows how to create content, catch the attention economy, can sell anything from spark plugs to travel plugs, and thats the lowest possible common denominator affiliate marketing type niches (recently discovered a guy netting north of 10k EUR a month selling baby products via facebook.. Why ? Because he spoke a european language and the search terms for those items in that country were simply not being hit.. There are still a million 'niches' which contain a customer base a million times greater than the reach of a physical store) if you move up the value chain to corporate world where sales is the lifeblood then the return on sales can be 10s of 1000s per sale, easily.. A little skill, the willingness to use black hat made scripting and chatbots, for corporate lead generation on linkedin, and you have the potential for a a multi 100k EUR income stream after a year or twos work in the right fields. None of these things are rocket science or need coder level 'flair' and skills. 

Thats without talking about the HYIP guy I knew running cryto ponzi schemes.. He hit retirement '<deleted> you money' inside 2 years.. But that is running some legit legal risk. Hes currently living in a very high end villa in southern europe, I dont think hes as retired as he claims ????  

 

[Thaidream]

52 minutes ago, LivinLOS said:

Those 2 are Europeans.. With thier own european company.. Fully accounted for.. Tho I would have accepted and suggested a Hong Kong company for tax efficiency. But thanks for your concern.. 

I started work at 22.. I retired at 28 and moved to Thailand, at which time I had 600 worldwide employees in 5 countries.. Thanks for the business advice on how I should have got a degree and found someone else to work for for 35 years.

I am happy for your success, but the truth is that there are very few like you that have been able to do it.  

[Thaidream]

10 minutes ago, LivinLOS said:

Sorry but now I am with the younger crowd.. That models dead.. Pensions probably wont exist when I get around to claiming one, and I have refused to pay into any and created my own pot. I would far rather 5 mil in investments of my choice than 100k a year taxed and the promise of a pension if I live to claim it thanks. 

The internet gives scale, it allows unprecedented reach at price points that were unimaginable a decade ago. Someone who knows how to create content, catch the attention economy, can sell anything from spark plugs to travel plugs, and thats the lowest possible common denominator affiliate marketing type niches (recently discovered a guy netting north of 10k EUR a month selling baby products via facebook.. Why ? Because he spoke a european language and the search terms for those items in that country were simply not being hit.. There are still a million 'niches' which contain a customer base a million times greater than the reach of a physical store) if you move up the value chain to corporate world where sales is the lifeblood then the return on sales can be 10s of 1000s per sale, easily.. A little skill, the willingness to use black hat made scripting and chatbots, for corporate lead generation on linkedin, and you have the potential for a a multi 100k EUR income stream after a year or twos work in the right fields. None of these things are rocket science or need coder level 'flair' and skills. 

Thats without talking about the HYIP guy I knew running cryto ponzi schemes.. He hit retirement '<deleted> you money' inside 2 years.. But that is running some legit legal risk. Hes currently living in a very high end villa in southern europe, I dont think hes as retired as he claims ????

I am not against technology, using the internet or any other type of communication- but it is higly unlikely that the wave of the future is what you describe on a massive scale.  One has to have the right product; the right undeerstanding of marketing and sales and the bottom line face to face is always the best way to close a deal. It may be by Skype or other but I want to know who I am dealing with or I don't 

 

Anyway- each to their own. I wish everyone success.

[LivinLOS]

4 minutes ago, Thaidream said:

I am not against technology, using the internet or any other type of communication- but it is higly unlikely that the wave of the future is what you describe on a massive scale.  One has to have the right product; the right undeerstanding of marketing and sales and the bottom line face to face is always the best way to close a deal. It may be by Skype or other but I want to know who I am dealing with or I don't 

 

Anyway- each to their own. I wish everyone success.

I am not saying that the things I suggested are the entire business model, in fact it almost never is its simply the marketing side of the equation, but thats just a few examples to scratch the surface.. I wouldnt personally ever bother with affiliate marketing, drop shipping, and those volume store fronts.. Usually its way too price sensitive, your reliant on cost of advertising and use of others platforms (amazon, FB, etc) which can move against you as soon as anyone else pays more per click and the niche evaporates.. Plus its actually a lot of work (pennis before steam roller etc). I can make far more spread betting or trading for less overall effort and a higher quality of life / free time. 

But lead generation using linkedin is one that is very overlooked, real companies will often agree to percentages of turnover for the right, qualified and targeted (hot) leads.. Thats what my 2 20 somethings are flat out at and I really think they are going to be into the 400 - 500k income bracket next year. I need them because its in a language I cant speak, its that simple. The technical aspects of it I could get a code monkey doing for 20k a year. 

[Falconator]

2 hours ago, LivinLOS said:

Sorry but now I am with the younger crowd.. That models dead.. Pensions probably wont exist when I get around to claiming one, and I have refused to pay into any and created my own pot. I would far rather 5 mil in investments of my choice than 100k a year taxed and the promise of a pension if I live to claim it thanks. 

The internet gives scale, it allows unprecedented reach at price points that were unimaginable a decade ago. Someone who knows how to create content, catch the attention economy, can sell anything from spark plugs to travel plugs, and thats the lowest possible common denominator affiliate marketing type niches (recently discovered a guy netting north of 10k EUR a month selling baby products via facebook.. Why ? Because he spoke a european language and the search terms for those items in that country were simply not being hit.. There are still a million 'niches' which contain a customer base a million times greater than the reach of a physical store) if you move up the value chain to corporate world where sales is the lifeblood then the return on sales can be 10s of 1000s per sale, easily.. A little skill, the willingness to use black hat made scripting and chatbots, for corporate lead generation on linkedin, and you have the potential for a a multi 100k EUR income stream after a year or twos work in the right fields. None of these things are rocket science or need coder level 'flair' and skills. 

Thats without talking about the HYIP guy I knew running cryto ponzi schemes.. He hit retirement '<deleted> you money' inside 2 years.. But that is running some legit legal risk. Hes currently living in a very high end villa in southern europe, I dont think hes as retired as he claims ????  

 

 

+1000

 

What planet are these cranky old dudes living on? I have no idea how people can be so ignorant of this new technological and economic storm that has completely changed the world. There's a sharp disconnect between cranky old dudes with their young Thai wives living out in remote Isan villages VS. Western kids who know how to crank cash out of their laptops from anywhere in the world, earning more than 10 times what locals in their host countries are making.

 

My co-workers are based all over the world, from Europe to South Asia and even Africa. The ones living the best lifestyles are often skilled workers in developing countries who can charge the same rates as skilled Westerners, and they are living the dream.

 

I am appalled, and amused, by all the old geezers thinking of digital nomads as failures. That's like saying that everyone working in the restaurant industry is a failure at life because they can't make it into the corporate world. Not everyone is a barista or waiter making minimum wage. Lots of guys out there running fast-food joints are financially far better off than your average corporate drone.

 

Likewise, tech illiterate people are equating all digital nomads with Bangladeshi freelancers making $1-$5 per hour. You can make $1 per hour or over $200 per hour as a remote worker. The sky is the limit.

The baby boomers' refrain here is, "Go get a lucrative job in the US and work for a corporation the good old-fashioned way." But some digital nomads in Thailand are educated guys with postgraduate degrees who are working for foreign companies, but they are doing it all remotely.

 

If still confused, please consult your best friend Google.

 

In any case, the point is that we're simply remote workers from extremely diverse backgrounds who are looking for ways to live abroad because our currencies can take us further in many parts of the world, or because of family and lifestyle reasons. Most of us are not tax dodgers or broke hippies.

 

 

[LivinLOS]

5 minutes ago, Falconator said:

Western kids who know how to crank cash out of their laptops from anywhere in the world, earning more than 10 times what locals in their host countries are making.
 

In any case, the point is that we're simply remote workers from extremely diverse backgrounds who are looking for ways to live abroad because our currencies can take us further in many parts of the world. Most of us are not tax dodgers or broke hippies.

The problem is.. they are tax dodgers.. 

The vast majority of those 'host countries' where 'currencies can take them further' demand taxation on domestic earned income from day 1 and use whats called a 'physical presence test' for determining the place of work. Western / developed countries use residency over time in those regions, so it is legal to be working for a home base operation while in country but not tax resident. That is not how asia and the developing world operates. 

So that cost of living arbitrage, comes with being a tax dodger if you refuse to get legal and pay local taxation. While there is the moral (not legal) grey area about a genuine short term tourist passing through, there really isnt one for the long staying digital expat or someone looking to arbitrage cost of living this way while refusing to contribute to the society they want to live in. Doing that is both legally and morally wrong, taxes are due, laws are to be followed. If you dont like it, go where you do like the law. 

[Trujillo]

Just curious but can you detail the following: 
"Western kids who know how to crank cash out of their laptops from anywhere in the world, earning more than 10 times what locals in their host countries are making."

 

Granted, Thailand's minimum wage is low by Western standards, but can you walk us all through what it is you do, exactly, while you make over US$100 a day in Thailand on your computers? 

 

I don't mean LivinLOS, who seems to be skimming off a percentage as a broker. I mean the grunt digital nomad. Please explain what you do and how much time you put in for this. Be specific, please.