How to retire in Thailand without F**king it up: The book
This is the title of a book that I recently read and honestly, I can't believe that something like this has never been released. I'm on the "back 9 of a decade" living here in Thailand and I have seen so many people come and go and most of them arrived with confidence and quite a lot of money, got lured in by the sometimes fake allure of glitz and glamour of young ladies and fancy"cheap" places, only to have their wealth and health stripped from them as they flee the country with their tails between their legs and living off of borrowed money because they have none anymore.
This book is the only one of its type that I am aware of and there is a lot of good information in it that people are likely not aware of.
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I have known several people that got duped into something really stupid that I can't believe people still fall for and that was a time-share in Phuket or Samui. I can't believe people still think this is a good idea when I believe almost everyone that has ever gotten a timeshare has ended up regretting doing so.
One couple I knew attempted to sue the person who they bought the timeshare from but these companies have very good lawyers and contracts, there was no way they were going to win and they didn't win. This decision, along with several other budgeting mishaps resulted in them needing to rejoin the workforce back in their home country in their late 60's. To me this is just tragic.
But the did the same old thing that happens so often over here in Thailand in that they think that business ventures are going to be easy because "they are so much smarter than the locals" and find out later that what they thought they were going to do simply isn't possible. There are very few foreign business owners that are truly successful over here in Thailand and for the most part I think that getting involves as a business owner in a country whose language you do not speak, is just beyond foolish.
The few people I know that have managed to make more than zero are the people that spend their every waking moment dedicated to that business and honestly man, is that what you want to really do for a job? Do you want to work 16 hours a day for almost no money? Because that is what ends up happening.
There are a ton of books out there that talk about how to make money in Thailand and well, maybe some of them have good advice, but I know from experience that it is almost always a TERRIBLE idea to come over here and start throwing money around.
I use the retired couple as an example every now and then, but I am sure there are plenty of other stories just like it.
The thing about Thailand is that if you are willing to shell out money, you can do basically anything you want. Do you want to be drunk on the beach with a beautiful lady accompanying you when you are an out of shape retiree living off of a pension? Well you can do that here but the problem is once the money dries up you are now a fatter alcoholic than when you began and there is a very good chance that your arm candy isn't going to stick around once 5-star accommodation starts dwindling down to 3-stars.
I do believe that it is possible to live here and maybe even thrive here as long as you realize that you (as a foreigner) have very little or zero rights. The courts are almost always going to rule in favor of locals even if you are clearly correct in the eyes of the true law, and if you feel as though you have more than enough money to throw it around like a goon, you will find out maybe just a bit later than everyone else that your finances have a limit and there are a lot of people here that specialize in taking it away from you.
I have met hundreds of people that have "lived" in Thailand and 95% of them no longer do and most of the reasons why are financial in origin. At the end of the day your finances are in fact limited, no matter how huge you think they are and if you allow yourself to be ripped off, you WILL get ripped off over here.
This is not to throw shade at Thai people, that's not what I am trying to say, but there is very little in the way of consumer protection in this country and even less if you are not a Thai National. Many of the legal people have the impression of "well if you weren't in the country this wouldn't have happened to you."
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I think that most people have completely absurd ideas about how you can live over here and imagine that every day of their life is going to be like the above picture. Well ,it isn't! I too once thought I would own a bit of land on the beach with some bungalows under the coconut trees. I currently live in a 2-bedroom rented house in the suburbs of a large city that is 700 miles from the nearest ocean.
I feel like I went off on a personal rant there but that is only because this book has showcased one of the only methods that I believe exists how someone can actually live here successfully. The book focuses on the importance of limiting your time in the bar-girl scene, which should be obvious and not becoming an alcoholic in a general sense - which is probably a good idea no matter where you live in the world.
It also focuses on how your investments over here should be extremely limited since you have no legal rights in most situations regardless of how long the contracts are. You are far more protected if your real investments exist in your own country. he doesn't tackle the option of crypto but I think when I speak here that most of my potential readers would agree that done well, that is probably an even better option than involving any financial institution anywhere in the world.
Strangely enough, the author's only other book I am aware of, is about crypto. In this book though, he focuses more on the social side of things and how important it is to not fall into the traps that so many people who had the same idea of retiring over here before, and have failed miserably.
The book is really cheap or is even free if you have KindleUnlimited - whatever that means - but if you are interested it is for sale for cheap here on Amazon plus all proceeds of the sale of the book are donated directly to support Thai Children charities.
It was $5 well spent for me and I'm not even close to retirement age. maybe it could be as well for others out there.