bendix

How about a generic warning that life is filled with danger and death is inevitable?

Forward planning is the key to having a happy retirement and the earlier the better, there always excuses to put off this important part of our lives. I was getting retirement forecasts from 55 and went at 60. The difference from going at 60 or 65 was just £8 a week so it was  well worth having 5 years of leisure, particularly as was also being offered a temporary pension until the old age pension kicked in which was the same as the old age pension.
I remember looking at the capital purchases I would likely need to make in the remaining years, washing machines, tv, fridges, freezers, cars etc and looked at where the money was coming from. Holidays, what do I like or want to do and where is the money coming from? Sitting on the sofa and watching tv was not an option but it is for some so how much is your full package costing? Allow a bit for inflation and something that might pop up I did not take into account and what have we got?
The car went, I had a Senior Rail Card and a freedom pass and saved £1000 a year plus fuel! The tank was 75 ltires!
Live for today or live for tomorrow? Look for a bit of restraint today and enjoy the twilight years, but as they say here "up to you."

Sadly, these threads and the replies say more about Malaysia's outdated laws and the imbecility of some of the members of this forum than anything else.

Fancy making such crass statements about someone you know nothing about.

There really are some very disturbed people here these days.

Quote: "Gold and Silver are still and will be the best long term investment one can make. These drops are just temporarily. Yes, it might drop a bit more, but it won't take long before it will skyrocket. It is just a simple fact. The whole western monetary system is due to collapse in the near future and when this happens the gold and silver price will rise and rise and rise. Until there is a full default and a new monetary system in place, only then will the gold and silver price drop sharply again. Not to mention whether there will ever be a new monetary system in place as the coming meltdown could very well be a extreme destruction and chaos for the world society. How it will turn out is a question for everybody, but won't comment more on this as it is offtopic"

Oh dear more incorrect info and doomsayers.If gold were an inflation hedge why did the inflation adjusted price of gold fall from almost $1850 in 1980 to $352 in 2001? Over that time period 21 years, it lost over 80% of its value. You'd have been well out of pocket then and still would be now even at this speculation fueled high.

The fiat currency regime is too far embedded into world markets/countries and will not collapse and make way for a system whereby one trades bits off a gold bar for goods. What is needed is a way to clean up the current system and pull out all the derivatives which are no more than ways to gamble and contribute nothing to increase the financial well-being of the monetary system/markets. That includes reigning in the financial institutions who dream up products like CDOs.

AND, although a little off topic, it makes me cringe to see the people protesting about austerity measures put in place to get countries out of debt (and these measures cannot work in reality), and blaming their governments, when these very people have been just as greedy by borrowing & spending too much, demanding higher pensions, lower taxes and more benefits!!

Jingthing, on 2012-05-14 13:23:36, said:

personally, my opinion is  that gay couples should be afforded the same rights and priveleges as a hetero couple when they make the decision to commit to each other. whether you call it a marriage or a civil union means little to me, as long as the rights conferred by each are identical.  could you please explain, in your view, what the difference between a marriage and civil union is?

HardenedSoul, on 2012-05-09 17:39:31, said:

to prove that your assumptions are based on ignorance... this is what i wrote in 2010 (Thaivisa gold forum my posting #3206) as far as gold is concerned:

"for the benefit of those TV-members who are looking for information i consider it my duty to point out flaws, incorrect facts and/or assumptions as well as wishy-washy or outright ridiculous claims.

disclaimer: i (actually "we") hold a substantial amount of physical, paper and 'mining' gold and after the 2009 mother load of investment opportunities (which are gone now) i see fair value in holding a certain percentage of gold because we are facing an uncertain future. but the afore-mentioned does not prevent that i keep on acting as 'advocatus diaboli' in this thread as a counterweight of goldbugs who float on cloud nine."

YipYipYa123, on 2012-05-09 12:25:08, said:

That is just silly.  There is always water at road side stands.  They wash things.  They drink water.  Thais are water freaks.  There is water everywhere.  Maybe you are talking about India.  Thais are very clean people.  Tell us exactly where you saw a Thai vendor scratching his arshol.  An Arshol is a very specific organ and occupies a very specific place on the body.  Thais are also modest.  What vendor would show you his or her arshol?  Time to admit it.  You were making things up.  You have never seen this in Thailand.  And also tell us if it is a common occurrence.  Where do you see vendors scratching their arshols every day?

cardholder, on 2012-05-05 18:33:43, said:

I have but so far the balls are not with me!

mikebell, on 2012-04-22 10:41:08, said:

A weird definition of patriotism.  With some trepidation I venture into this debate to say that I won't be signing; I believe I did sign something similar not so long ago, but having since thought long and hard I have decided that I can not justify doing so again. Why? - perhaps another sort of patriotism.

It seems to me that my generation (I was born a few months after D-Day) had the absolute best out of the rise of Britain out of the Second World War, and had the best of the welfare state. I was able to go a grammar school, an opportunity denied to my children and their generation, I had free university education, which my grandchildren won't get, I retired at 65, my children will have to work longer before they can expect any sort of pension, and their contributions are likely to be a lot higher. I had free prescriptions during my last 5 working years and travelled to work on the bus for free. I doubt such benefits will still be in place by the time my children are 60. Britain is now saddled with massive debts which are a millstone around the necks of the working population, and whatever peoples' expectations, whatever promises any particular political party makes, the future outcomes in terms of healthcare and welfare are never likely to be as good as they were for us.

In the circumstances, therefore, it seems the height of selfishness to be demanding more from those who are toiling to keep their own heads above water. I don't disagree that the distinction between entitlements in different countries seems illogical and unjustifiable, but where you live is to some extent a matter of choice - no-one's forced to live in Thailand, or to re-locate to the UK if the increases on a "pitifully small pension" mean that much to you, just go and live in the Philippines or somewhere.

Oh, and I don't buy the "I've paid in, I'm entitled to it." argument. Anybody who's saved up and bought an annuity in the last few years knows how little your pension pot will buy when you come to cash it in. The welfare state is a giant Ponzi scheme, I paid for my parents' generation, our kids are paying for us in much more straitened circumstances. I'm afraid if I was an MP, the cause of whingeing expat pensioners would be a long way down my list of worthy causes. I'm not going to whinge to my kids.

I love optimists but prefer realists, the very best you can hope for at this stage of the procedings is low 50's, if you dig into it you'll see that 70 baht was unnatuarlly high and unsupportable hence, you will never, ever see 70's again.

I left Thailand because I got bored of it. I got sick of being surrounded by Thailand 24 hours a day. I got fed up with eating, seeing, hearing, speaking and interacting with Thailand during every single waking moment. When I'm in the UK I rarely think about British culture. I don't talk about Britain all the time. In fact, I hardly notice I'm in the UK. It's not something that's in the forefront of my mind, but in Thailand I found myself constantly wrapped up in Thailand and it started to do my head in. I know this all sounds like a bit of a strange thing to say and I expect most people would read this thinking "wow, you lived in Thailand and your surprised at how Thai it was?" and I'm just as surprised as anyone at how I ended up feeling but I did feel that towards the end so I came home. I started to crave being normal again as opposed to being a falang. I started to crave being able to talk to anyone without wondering if I'll be understood. I basically started to crave normality again.

I still love Thailand, it's still my favourite country and I don't regret for one moment trying to live out there, and I will still holiday there as much as I can but as somewhere to settle, it just wasn't for me.

4.real, on 2012-04-18 10:16:24, said:

I think that you have got issues.

bendix, on 2012-03-30 08:44:01, said:

+1

Full respect to HS

The OP should get off her extraordinarily high horse and take a lesson from HS

HS has indicated that he was at the receiving end of racism in the UK, we Brits are more than prepared to believe him and we cringe at some of the stereotyping of yesteryear.

The OP is demonstrating throughout this thread that the problem lies within her.

I join SC in retiring gracefully from this thread, some people cannot be helped.

There is a proper nasty streak through all of these threads. The Thai police investigated his crimes and issued and international arrest warrant which was enacted in Prague. I say

Well done to the Royal Thai Police!!

I hope this case gets plenty of publicity as the word has to get out to Paedophiles worldwide, your time abusing Thai kids is up.

phutoie2, on 2012-03-29 23:13:52, said:

I get tired of the sweeping generalisations made by those who choose to bottom feed over here but that will never stop them from posting their inane drivel so I don't really care whether you find me tiresome or not to be honest. You are free to voice your opinion (no matter how annoying I may find that fact) and I am free to voice mine, until we are told otherwise.

Down at heel Westerners - I would say are those who seriously think that every Thai girl is after a relationship with a foreigner or wishes to acquire another nationality. I am assuming they are not very far up the social ladder because of the opinions they hold, which speak volumes about the Thai people with whom they mix. I've met a few in bars yes. Nothing wrong with visiting bars if you like them. I used to go to strip pubs in London but it never led me to believe that the majority of British girls would take their clothes off and dance on a pool table if you threw them £20.