[quote=“Bassman”]
What I need is to catch up to where I should be at this stage of my life.[/quote]
“Catch up to where you should be…” That’s an interesting way to look at it. You make it sound like a race! Who has the most at what age…
What else, apart from a house, do you feel you should have at this stage of life?
Who or what stipulates what you should or should not have? Are these standards you’ve set yourself or are you comparing to other people, keeping up with the Joneses?
Bull. I own my house free and clear except for taxes and maintenance. The maintenance I do myself. Taxes: if you pay rent you are paying hidden taxes. And I don’t have to worry about the rent increasing 200% or trying to get the landloard to fix the aircon, etc. Besides. buying is an investment, rent is not.
And how much money could you make if you invested the money that is currently tied up in a house? If property prices are not rising then your return on investment is the money you don’t pay on rent.
Sell the house, put the money into something that is paying a better return, and you’re achieving capital growth even after paying rent somewhere. I think the point of Bassman’s quest is to find the best investment to be putting his money (or time, which is the same thing) into. A house may be the best idea, taking a chance on a young programmer named Bill Gates, writing a book, or joining Herbalife may be better options at different moments in time.
I don’t think DB meant any insult… I read it as sincere concern for your well-being.[/quote]
No, no I didn’t mean any insult…oh well, just one more to put on my “ignore list”. :?
I don’t think DB meant any insult… I read it as sincere concern for your well-being.[/quote]
No, no I didn’t mean any insult…oh well, just one more to put on my “ignore list”. :?[/quote]
Wait a minute. Did you read my reply to Tigerman. If you did you’ll see that you got me all wrong. I know you didn’t mean any insult, just the “feeling” of going back is like that, if you know what I mean.
Take a read of the post.
I think you’ll understand that taking steps backwards is not an option.
You’re a dude DB and I certainly wouldn’t want to rattle ya or be on your ignore list
[quote=“Spack”]“Catch up to where you should be…” That’s an interesting way to look at it. You make it sound like a race! Who has the most at what age…
What else, apart from a house, do you feel you should have at this stage of life?
Who or what stipulates what you should or should not have? Are these standards you’ve set yourself or are you comparing to other people, keeping up with the Joneses?[/quote]
At one stage in my life I was in financial services with one of the biggest assurance companies in the world. The biggest in the U.K, you should know the company. I was a retirement funds advisor, a boring job and that’s why I left, and learnt a lot about retiring and still being able to live.
To be a financial stable adult you need to plan ahead. Yes, plan. Nothing is left to chance. You can’t eat your house when you become to old or too sick to work. I have a plan, goals, and a strategy to secure my financial future. I know what ages are best for achieving certain goals. I am at the end of 1/3 of a longer than average life expectancy and should be at certain financial targets. At this stage I am a little short of the mark, but that is fixable.
Keeping up with the Joneses doesn’t interest me, there is always someone with more than you, always. I am not interested in massing a huge amount of things and gadgets. More often than not I lead a life of sacrificing things that I want for those that I need. A basic economic concept is “needs and wants” and being able to identify clearly what they are - needs or wants.
Money is not something that I am interested in storing up and using selfishly, that’s not me. The more money I have, the more things I can do and the more choices I have.
Financial freedom is all about choices. Right now I don’t have a lot of choices or freedom. Wouldn’t we all want to be able to have more freedom and the ability to make more choices in our life.
I desire the abiltiy to make the choices for my life and do that which is important to me. Don’t you?
Yes, I see your point. Right now I don’t have a pension and I really think I need one. Everyone needs one! It surprises me how many foreigners here in Taiwan don’t have one and the number of people who aren’t concerned about it! I’m not just talking about the 20 somethings. There’s plenty of 30 40 50 somethings who are doing nothing towards making financial plans for the future.
I’ve read that with personal pension plans it makes a huge difference to how much you get if you start making contribution early. The earlier the better. If you’re already mid thirties plus, it’s not too late but you’ll get a lot lot less than if you had started when you were 25. Something for you kids out there to consider. I instructed Sandman to search for some good personal pension plans and report back to me - still no word, the lazy sod!
Sorry 'bout that Spack. Other things on my plate and all that. Like already having a month’s ARC extension as my ARC expired during the New Year holiday before the GIO renewed my work permit. Today they tell me they’ve sent it to some new organization which apparently has no written information but is nevertheless supposed to issue all work permits from now on. According to a woman I spoke to, they won’t be issuing any work permits for at least two months.
I can’t get a JFRV in time because I need some kind of “clean criminal record” document from the cops “at home,” where I haven’t been for 16 years. Plus, the UK cops have no such document.
So, it looks like I’m fucked.
Any other Brits here on a marriage visa? How did you get around the criminal record thing?
Sorry this is off-topic, but I need to rant. I HATE this shit!
:offtopic:
[quote=“sandman”]Any other Brits here on a marriage visa? How did you get around the criminal record thing?[/quote]You have to get a thingy through the Data Protection Act, they were a bit slow doing that for me, I had to turn up unnouced at Scotland Yard (which they aren’t keen on) to pick it up 2 days before I left for Taiwan (which is why I was in Londinium). Then I went to a solicitors at Picadilly Circus to get it notarised, then the Taiwan rep office to get the notarisation notarised.
:offtopic:
Buying is only an investment if you expect the property to appreciate in value. Putting money into a losing proposition is no different from buying a Porsche, blowing money in a casino, or “loaning” money to a worthless brother-in-law.
Yes, landlords charge rent which makes them a profit after taxes and other payments – if they can. Right now, a good friend of mine is getting financially screwed because he can’t quite make the payments on his condo with what he can charge for rent – rents have been falling for two years now in Seattle as people buy homes (cheap interest rates). He also lost two months of rent when his previous renters moved out. Forget about a profit, he just doesn’t want to lose the place because he was expecting to move back in a year or so. From what I’ve heard, the Taiwanese real estate market is in worse shape.
However, it looks like Bass Hogg is buying in NZ, not in Taipei, and presumably prices aren’t falling there.
I’d be interested in knowing what the targets are. I am 39, and am probably seriously behind. I might have to retire in Thailand, or perhaps Siberia, or even worse . . . Alabama.
That may be but I would invest in a 99-year lease in Singapore long before I would buy property in Taiwan. At least I know I have it for 99 years. I also believe the rules have changed with Singapore
Wow! This thread has more replies than I could have dreamed of. Are more people thinking about this than I thought. Come on, even if you responded thinking that I was crazy, most of your responses show that you have given this topic some serious thought. Perhaps you moved on and found the better way, the higher ground, or perhaps not.
But still, this is a pretty good thread.
=========== write a book like RICH TAIWAN DAD, POOR TAIWAN DAD, sell 400,000 copies. retire to dream cottage in Thaialnd
MaPoDoFu wrote:
[quote]If you expect the property to increase in value[quote]
Actually, I don’t care if its value decreases to nothing. I have a roof over my head for when I’m old and doddering (approx 1 more year 
) Investment wise, its better than the old story of putting a lot of money into something only to see it evaporate (with the possible exception of GOOD waterfront property)
Getting back to the original topic, has anyone looked into selling vitamins/supplements in Taiwan? In Taiwan they seem to be 3-4 times the price as in the USA. We have shipped some in the past to my wife’s family, but now we want to make this into a little business. There are probably some regulations and stuff we need to look into.
I’ve thought of that too.
Selling on Yahoo works well for that too.
[quote=“EOD”][quote] In Taiwan the laws granting foreigners permission to own property are ambiguous at best.
There is no rule of law to safeguard your investments in Taiwan. There is only the rule of the local racist thugs.
If you want to make a risky real estate investment in Asia try a condo in Phuket. I have known a few people have done well there.[/quote][/quote]
Takes a racist thug to know a racist thug. I guess in EOD’s mind racism doesnt exist in the west, only in Taiwan.
You guessed wrong. Racism exists everywhere, particularly in multi cultural societies. In real nations the laws and regulations prohibit racist practices they do not encourage them.
If we invest our money and time into Taiwan with these racist anti foreigner laws, regulations and practices then we are encouraging those practices.
How do you invest in a condo in Thailand? AFAIK foreigners cannot own property down there.
I’m not sure about that RASCAL. Foreigners do own property in Thailand. I know of 4 and they don’t have Thai spouses. One couple has a beautiful beach side house in Kho Samui that they built a few years ago for 1.5 million NT. They too are German.
:offtopic: :no-no: