All I hear is âhot moneyâ, and I have no idea what that means. At least they call it âhot moneyâ in Chinese.
Sometimes if I hear or read a term Iâm unfamiliar with and wish to know what it means, I google it. Particularly if Iâm then going to start talking about it to other people.
Maybe you could try that. 
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Hot money, should be money moving to places of higher interest/ returns and avoid low or in Japanâs case no interest areas (Japan had minus rates as such better just keep cash haha).
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here is video in Japan related to h0t money and how make more. In japan wife controls all the money and give husband an allowance in most cases. Some made a lot, with rise of non Asian money rates
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Maybe look at other currencies like Philippines peso near 59 and Japanese yen 157âŠ
Taiwan should be 34 now not 32
even at 34 I would buy a lot, market rate yesterday was 35.2
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The reasons are complex⊠I dont pretend to know all of them.
But many SE countries are experiences deflation, or non-inflation right now. Prices are actually going down, but the populace is benefitting.
Take Nusa Tengara and the SE Asia mainland.
- Most houses are owned outright, generationally. No rent for country people, who are arguably 70% of the islands.
- No/Less rent, less inflation, diminished rat race.
- More people grow a little bit of food than the west. Sweet potatoes and mint in the garden wonât make you self-sufficient, but it dents the food bills.
- A focus on trades, hardware and traditional businesses instead of IT trends.
- A government that leaves you alone if you have a small business.
- Anyone can go make some sandwiches and sell them on the street. If you are really clever, you can avoid the nightmarket mafia too, as their influence is waningâŠ
Asia is doing what it always has done. Producing Value.
Good food, handicrafts. herbs, medicine from heaven to Earth. tech, hardware.
tl;dr, the rat race is less intense here, for people outside The City.
I read on another expat forumâŠsome Dude was running round a non-Thailand red light district⊠he was griping that the girls wouldnât sleep with him for 25 bucks, which was easy in Thailand, he said. haha.
Some other expats, who probably bit their tongue hard, told him, very nicely⊠that the girls had their own money, werenât desperate, and were happy to sit there all day chatting with their friends. They had all watched Pretty Woman and James De(a)n, and would only sleep with foreigners they really liked.
The West is weaker now because they donât produce useful stuff. Spinning the printing presses like Helicopter Ben or Janet Whoever will just end up with more Mickey Mouse paper. It has less to do with selling our manufacturing base, and more to do with a surplus of smug anemic hipsters who canât build anything anyone wants.
As a hardware guy, you are probably exempt from this.
tl;dr⊠SE Asia is finally reaping what itâs sown⊠and they are shutting their doors with smiles. No one can come round here waving fiat notes and barking orders any more.
If a few dozen of us are reading this, you may have thrown your lot in with SE Asia a decade ago, so you may get to experience a subtle economic renaissance in your local area.
Learning the language is the key.
I know thereâs a lot of super sized container ship (they are really large, like over 25,000 TEU and is too large to fit in the suez or panama canal), basically forming a long line from Japan all the way to the EU.
When I was in Germany, hardly anythingâs made there. Except those Chinese tech products that are kinda cheap here, is a bit more expensive there.
Only thing made in western countries are luxury brand stuff, but even those stuff are made in third world countries, and somehow rebranded, or at least they fudge the âmade in USA/Germany/Franceâ a little bit.
The US tried hard to build their chip making infrastructure, and is not having a whole lot of success at it.
Yeah, so what is the moral of this story?
Build useful stuff, build useful stuff, build useful stuff.
Thatâs basically what China did.
Not only that but they got their entire ecosystem to do so, meaning sanctions probably donât do a whole lot there. Also they have enough population to support their own manufacturing.
The US should be working with them, not try to sanction them.
Its happening all over SE Asia⊠actually its not as simple as East V West. Its just the preponderance of builders are out here.
So called Rednecks and Hillbillies, in the States are doing pretty well now⊠cos they spent 10-20 years learning trades.
COVID pretty much proved that the country people were right anyway.
Its not even about politics, so much.
Your local area is all that matters. Everything else is just noise. What if we are in a quantum simulation run by a mad Dutchman, anyway? lol.
If you can help your local area just a bit, you get seen as a Creator, not a Predator.
Know why Im stuck here here now? Cos Im breaking my **** learning Khmer. Its boring as hell, but it pays off in 2-6 months.
My Chinese is pathetic for 10 years, and I swore not to make that mistake again.
Learn the language and you get in the club. The benefits are sometimes huge.
Sorry I meant NT$ to US$
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Learning Khmer to do what?
???
Communicate.
I donât understand the question.
Canât you pull my file? Go to the Quantico database and get readingâŠ
j/k
You mentioned that you are learning Khmer. Why?
Peace Corps volunteer?
Planning to live or work there long term?
Why are you asking? You are very blunt, and borderline bizarre.
Why does anyone learn a language?
To communicate with the locals.
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So where in Cambodia are you living now?
I hope youâre enjoying your time there.
Guy
I got this homestay round the corner from 711. They got plants in the corner.
I love it here.
Have you been?
Spent time in Phnom Penh, before the COVID emergency.
I adore that city and its vibe.
Guy
There are other cool cities here. That city has a reputation. But yes, I was surprised how much I liked itâŠ
Khmer humility is intoxicatingâŠ
They show up nearly every other countryâŠ