[exhibeKed]

Okay.... more info. I'm from England.
At the moment I speak English as a first and my only language, I would like to learn Thai and I would marry my Thai lady if she would have me.
I have not got any formal education such as a degree but life has taught me some things, I currently run my own business (Coffee Franchise like Starbucks) and I hope to go toThailand with ?-? Million baht which in GBP does not seem a lot, mabye its loads in Baht I think it is loads in Baht but I'm not sure because taxes and cost of living especially when you are not working could be heavy.

Destination in Thailand will be Chaing Mai. I hate sitting around doing nothing I love to be busy and am a self confessed workaholic.
I would definately consider education and would go full time and be commited to learning Thai and getting a qualification, not sure about subject.

[DownloadMan]

OK, now the cost you speak of is negligable, but it would be different in different places.
I live now in Phetchabun and our property tax is only about 200 baht a year, Electric is more now, but depending on what you use, aircons run to 5000 a month, but homes without air are only about 500 baht, cooking gas will run less than 600 baht a year. 200 baht a month for all of your drinking water a month, and we use it for washing vegs. and meat and bottles in the bath for tooth water. And muni water was about 200 baht a month.
I would not live in Chiang Mai anymore, to much traffic congestion and pollution, no taxis or public transport except tuk tuk.I do go up there once a year for visa renewal, and that is to often for me, altho I did live there, outside of town down by San Sai, had a 2 story 200+ sq.m home with a large walled yard and paid 6000 baht a month in a compound, and 1000 baht for gardners to mow the large lawn and trim the trees.

But there is a lot more to Thailand than CM and BKK. so look and travel around and look it over, I am very happy here in central Thailand.

You have never said what your age is, that will make a difference too. as far as visa's go, and are you into night life, that has a great bearing on costs..

[uaodnabnjz]

Welcome to the forums. You haven't really given us much information to work on. Like, what country do you come from, what are your skills/education and do you see yourself marrying your "Thai sweetheart"? If you are a so-called native speaker and have a degree then you can get legal work as a teacher. If you come from other country where English is your second language then it might be possible to get legal work but it ismore likely you will get a job that pays under the table. An alternative long term approach is to set up your own comapny. However, you need 2 million baht (in theory) as registered capital. But, once you have that you can apply for a work permit and work legally.

Visa payments vary a lot. Anything from 1,000 baht to 200,000 baht. Resident visa is VERY expensive and very difficult to get. Before we can go into any details, we need to know more about your plans.

[exhibeKed]

SOoo.....this mail is probably in the wrong place, I'm KevSky and I would like to live in Thailand. But I look at loads of websites and the feeling I am getting is not very good for foreigners in Thailand.
No working in lots of basic jobs and no owning property or businesses very easily.
Loads of visas and things to pay for, and to be honest I really want to live in Thailand with my Thai sweetheart, but right now I just see one problem after another in front of me. I worry that without working and without too much capital that I fail.
So I need cost advise ....someting that is broken down so that I know what to expect to have to pay out for visas registations and resident payment books etc....help please

[uaodnabnjz]

You should find it very east to live well on 40,000 baht per month, rent and food included.

I know you are not saying this, but there are a lot of foreigners earning half that as their basic salary. And they still manage to survive. It depends a lot on your location. It is true people working inside Bangkok earn more - but the temptations to do things often are greater there, they can easily spend upwards of 40,000 a month. Out in the sticks, there isn't much you can spend your money on and as long as you live like a Thai (eat their food, use their transport etc.) then you can get by on only 10,000 baht a month. Maybe less.

To rent a house, the cheapest place would be 3,000 baht and upwards. Depending on how much space and comfort you want. If you don't have air-conditioning then the electricity bill won't be much more than 500 baht. However, we have "air" and the computers are turned on all day working on these web sites so our bill is on average 3000 baht. Sometimes more. If you are staying in a condo it can be quite expensive as they charge you more per unit. Make sure you get a house where you can pay the real bill yourself.

Water is quite cheap. For us it is about 150 baht per month. Garbage collection is about 30 baht I think. If you are not around when they come to collect it looks like you don't have to pay for that month. I don't know about yearly property tax as no-one has asked me to pay.

Food is a difficult one to put a price on. Depends what kind of food you like. Buying Western type food will certainly cost you a lot more. But, if you go and eat out at a local noodle shop then it will be quite cheap. A dish will cost on average 25 baht. Call it 40 baht for arguments sake as you will want a drink. Times that by three meals a day and 31 days a month and that will cost you at least 3,720 baht. Of course, some meals will be cheaper and some more expensive. If I go to a restaurant, it coss on average 250 baht each plus beer.

If you want any specific costs please let us know.

[DownloadMan]

Yes Richard, I just used that figure off the top of my head, We very seldom spend more than 20K a month, but just wanted to give the max as some folks do the nightlife thing and we don't,, but we also eat a lot of imported beef and other stuff that is delivered to our home..
But your basics were inline with what I posted and we own our home so we do have to pay property tax. and with 24/7 45k BTU aircons it was 7000 baht for that month, so don't do that anymore.

[uaodnabnjz]

I actually own my own home too (well my company does) but I don't know about property tax. No-one has asked me to pay.

We figured out that "air" will work out at about 50 baht per night.

Yes, going out always cost a bit. It usually costs me at least 1000 baht when I go to restaurants with people as I somehow end up paying. Thai custom dictates that the person who does the inviting does the paying.

I forgot to mention before that extras like cable tv also add to the bill. UBC is 1,500-2000 baht.

[exhibeKed]

So it can be very cheap to live in Thailand as long as you can adapt to the local way of life, I think I will adapt very easily infact I look forward to it.
What is the posibility of going some way to being self suficient with crops and animals say on a small holding.

Is the annually renewed visa for a farang who is married to a Thai the best way to stay longterm and how longterm would that be........forever or is there a limit.

[DownloadMan]

I have a 12K BTU unit for the bedroom, and they told me it would be cheaper, but I didn't know it would be that cheap. But we also have 1 standard size Thai reefer, 1 large frostfree with a crosstop freezer and a chest freezer, 2 laptops and one desktop, and the puters get a real workout here as my wife works on hers from the time she gets in from school til midnite doing stuff for her school and running a big copy/scanner/printer, about a package of paper a day and ink carts. by the dozen. And our daughter on hers for hours and running the printer too. Plus a large TV on UBC. And without running any aircons, the bill is at least 1500 baht a month..

Kevsky, It will depend if your wife has property or if you buy her some, as you can't own property in your name,,And it will depend on your age which visa will be the best, land is fairly expensive tho..But you will find those things out when you start looking around..
And I haven't adapted to the Thai way, we eat good and live well and not to far from farang way, and I do not like most Thai food, but my wife doesn't eat to much meat, but the kid and I each eat a lot of prime beef,grain fed ribeye steaks.

[uaodnabnjz]

What is the posibility of going some way to being self suficient with crops and animals say on a small holding.

LOL Are you serious? It is hardly worth the trouble as food is quite cheap - even cooked food. Take a look at my food blogs as I often write about costs of eating Thai food. Oh, yes, also check out some of my earlier blogs from 2004 as I wrote quite a bit about moving into my house and buying furniture. I made a note of the cost of this on purpose to help people like you.

http://www.thai-blogs.com/index.php?blog=5&m=2004 (start at the bottom)

[exhibeKed]

Okay Richard, people like me will start at the bottom.

[DownloadMan]

Yep, when I came over, I had a carryon AWOL bag with 2 changes of cloths and some paperwork,,then 6 months later when I moved down here from CM, I had to hire a truck and crew to move me..

[97dYA9L3]

i learned a lot in this forum... i would like to know, I did married with my wife in South Africa. If i moved to Thailand let's say in 5 -10 year later, must i marry again in Thailand?
And I can get a marriage VESA easily? Is it last for one year and extend it every year? And Can I become Thai after a few years and get the Thai ID?
How much is the ADSL cost, i heard someone say it is limited by online hours, is it true? Any unlimited ADSL available?
how much the property price up(% rises) every year? You say Farang cannot own the land or house? how about condo?

[DownloadMan]

ADSL is 800 baht a month from TTT and unlimited usage, but it is not good as no ISP here is good.
You can own a house but not the land it sets on, which you can lease for 35 years at a time, and yes you can own a condo.
Yes if you learn to write and speak Thai fluently and hit a number in the drawing once a year, you have a chance of getting resident status. As to getting a yearly visa, it is possible and not to hard, but then again it all depends on what the officer you get wants you to have. There is written laws but they mean nothing when dealing with govt people.

[exhibeKed]

KevSky is feeling more positive about moving to Thailand now thanks a lot guys, In the first instance I was feeling so positive about moving to Thailand, but gradually after reading all of the negative write ups on various web sites it was making me feel nervous and I am not easily put off, okay initially I would have retreated to my shell but after a time to think and stand back and look at the bigger picture I would come back with renewed enthusiasim and now I am more determined to make a go of life in Thailand.
So I won't be making endless trips back and forth to Thailand. I intend to cut my ties with England as soon as I can. Fa said she could find me somewhere to live and with a base I see I should buy a living space under a company name with me and several Thai friends which I have yet to make.
Once I have the company I can get a work permit but It has to be specific and is not transferrable to another job.
What cost for running a small home ? - Gas Electric water councli tax etc
This info is gratefully accepted and will be returned to you one thousand fold if I could help you ........just ask.
Thanks again and keep the advise rolling in.
KevSky.

[uaodnabnjz]

OK, as you have had some business experience and you also have enough capital to start a company then I would suggest you go down that road rather than teaching. Like I said before, to set up a company you need to show assets of 2 million baht though you don't need to show straight away. I would suggest you do what I did and that was buy a house in the company name and then straight away you should have enough company assets. To have a company you need seven shareholders. Foreigners are not allowed more than 49% even though all the capital might be your own. I would suggest your girlfriend would be one shareholder and then find as many unrelated people as you can so that they don't gang up on you. You just don't know what the future holds. A further insurance for you is to get them to sign blank transfer forms for their shares. Then, if there is any problem you can always pass them onto to someone else. There are plenty of foreigners doing business in Chiang Mai and so I am sure you will find lawyers that speak English and can help you with your situation. I would suggest you do a trip here first to see what the competition is doing before you make any firm decisions.

If you have any specific questions then please let us know.

[12Cickprior]

I look at loads of websites and the feeling I am getting is not very good for foreigners in Thailand.

Very typical!

There are thousands of Thai related websites run by foreigners full of negative information that only damages Thailand's reputation.

Ironically, these foreigners actually live in Thailand! Perhaps they have been here too long as all they do is spend half their existance here bickering and complaining on the Internet and in bars about all things Thai. For a positive insight into all things Thai, paknamweb.com is the best there is.

Pls dont have any misjudged preconceptions about living in Thailand from such 'complaining foreigners'. Think about it, if Thailand was really as bad as they make it out to be - then why are they still here?!

The you have that other strange 'Farang Species' that spends half his life complaing about 99% of Thai woman suckering money out of the 'Farang'. But for some incredible reason still spends half his life lusting after new Thai girls!!!

Coming to Thailand with 7-8 million baht. Thats loads!

Dont make the mistake of jumping into any business idea as soon as you get here. Take your time, perhaps spend up to a year checking out possibilities first.

Perhaps a restaurant or guesthouse would be possible.

[DownloadMan]

Lots of people here do complain about the negatives here, but there is also a lot posted by people that have only came for a short vacation and see some bad or good and they have never lived here so really have no real idea about what they are talking about, some have even made more than 1 trip, but have never had to live here for extended periods..

But you did give some very sound advise.

And I think the success of a guest house is quiet and what food is on the menu and who cooks it as some folks, me included, do like to eat good farang food.

There is a lot of good women here, I am married to a Thai lady with a good edu. and she is a school teacher and the finest woman I have ever seen, My 5th wife and will be my last as she is a real keeper and has never seen the insides of a bar.

And as to worry about the cost of living while here looking for the right business, if you stay out of bars and shun most of the night life you will find the cost to you will be very minimal,You should find it very east to live well on 40,000 baht per month, rent and food included.

[DownloadMan]

Kevsky,,if you would care to E Mail me for any reason please feel free to do so.. ##### ..

[Edited: Not a good idea to post your email because of spam robots. Click on the person's username and you have an option to send a PM or email.]

[exhibeKed]

So it can be very cheap to live in Thailand as long as you can adapt to the local way of life, I think I will adapt very easily infact I look forward to it.
What is the posibility of going some way to being self suficient with crops and animals say on a small holding.

Is the annually renewed visa for a farang who is married to a Thai the best way to stay longterm and how longterm would that be........forever or is there a limit.

Any body - what about the visa renewal above
Kevsky