Playing It Smart Involves Many Things & Crossroads farang reach when deciding whether to live in Thailand

If you've read my earliest blogs, before I became a Thai citizen, I wanted nothing more than to become a Thai citizen.

I still feel very lucky to have Thai citizenship, and even though Thailand isn't perfect, I still live a much better life in Thailand than I ever had in Australia and America.

However, I did reach a crossroads I didn't mention in my other blogs. It wasn't a hard choice really. But it was there. I'm talking about before I started living in Thailand in 2012, I had saved up over 70'000 AUD.

It may not sound like much now, but in 2012, taking inflation into account, having 70'000 AUD back then would be like having 120'000 AUD now, with the increase in wages but much higher house prices.

Back in 2012, my father's house in Australia had a value of 400'000 AUD, now it has a value close to 800'000 AUD.

My point is, with 70'000 AUD back in 2012, I could have taken out a mortgage, and bought a house in Australia. The dream of owning a house, which most Australians born after 1980 will never be able to do, I could have done it 

So why didn't I? Well I've said this 20 billion times to people and on my YouTube, when I visited Thailand in 2007, it felt like I had woken up from a bad dream. There was so much to love about Thailand and I felt as if I belonged in Thailand.

Now, before this trip to Thailand in 2007, my dream was buying a house in Australia. I lived with my father until age 29, in 2012, when I moved to Thailand. Initially, I lived with him so I could save money to buy a house in Australia, because by not paying rent and him giving me a lift to work (I worked at the same Ford dealership he was a manager of), I saved I fair bit of money. I'll also add I don't drink or smoke, that saves money too.

Yes, I often got laughed at for living with my father while I was in my late 20's. I didn't care, I told people what my plan was, they just laughed at me and preached "you're not supposed to be living with ya father at that age". 

Even some Australian women told me they would never date me because I was living with my father. I told them "it's ok, I'm trying to get Thai citizenship, and saving up to have a great life in Thailand".

These Australian women often responded by getting angry and doing the annoying Aussie insult "you're uh wanka", and apparently I was wrong because I didn't want to move out of my father's house to make myself good enough to date in their eyes, even though I had no desire to remain in Australia permanently.

I just kept quiet and stayed calm when all this happened, I knew as soon as I got Thai citizenship, I could buy a house outright (no mortgage), use money to invest and live a great life.

Many trolls say Thailand is a country for criminals, sex pats who can't get a woman in his own country, pedos, people whom are financial failures in their own country etc.

I can say none of these apply to me. I had enough money to pay for a deposit for a house in Australia 2012, but as my initial dream became possible, I aimed for another goal, because I actually moved to Thailand before I got Thai citizenship. I got Thai citizenship in December 2012, where as I moved to Thailand in March 2012, because I had a gutful of Australia by this point. 

And yes, I did have Australian girlfriends in 2006 and 2007, but I ended those relationships after seeing they had no ambition to help me buy a house. They had no sense of fiscal economics. They just lived one day at a time, AKA "the casual Aussie lifestyle". 

Heck I even dated an Aussie lady living in Thailand in 2017, after I already was a Thai citizen, but ended the relationship when she said she didn't want me to buy a house in Thailand if she can't own half of it (foreigners cannot own land in Thailand). And yes, foreigners can own 49% of a business, but I wasn't going to do a dodgy business and create lots of legal problems for myself.

I can say I made the right decision. Had I backed out of my higher ambition, which was to buy land and a house outright in Thailand and make money from investments, best case scenario is I'd be one of those Australians working 9 to 5 to pay off a mortgage, for another 15 years maybe?

That's if an Aussie lady doesn't take half my house. In Australia, your partner doesn't need to marry you to claim half your assets, they only need to live with you for over a year. Australian women lied about the length of time they lived with my Australian uncle and other Australian males I know, in order to try to claim half of the assets of these males. 

More than 50% of marriages in Australia end in divorce after the first 5 years. Many Australian people have said I'm very "negative", thinking about divorce, but they told me to "be careful in Thailand", because they heard "horror stories" about western men marrying Thai women and about the scams in Thailand, yet their fellow Australian women can do no wrong.

This blog isn't just about me though. Every farang man will reach some sort of crossroads before deciding whether to live in Thailand or not, and decide how they will go about it (the smart way or risky way).

Some farang men want to live in Thailand or Japan, but don't want to leave their daughter whom is in her 20's and still living with him behind. A common thing I hear is, when the daughter is younger than 18, her mother wants custody (perhaps to get a better divorce settlement and child support), when the daughter is older than 18, the mother sends her to live with her father.

I personally know an American guy and an Australian guy this has happened to. The American guy has a Japanese wife and wants to live in Japan, but has been guilt-tripped into not abandoning his daughter, even though before his daughter turned 18, her mother nearly bankrupted him by fighting for custody and child support. 

Same shit with the Australian guy, he has a Thai girlfriend and wants a relaxing life with her in Thailand, but his 20 year old daughter moved in with him after her mother pretty much tossed her out, because she wasn't bringing in any more child support. His daughter begged him not to abandon her, but she can't get the appropriate visas to live with her father in Thailand.

So what do either of these 2 men do?  "Abandon" their daughter? If I was them, i'd tell the daughter maybe she can get a visa doing volunteer work in Thailand or try getting a bachelor's degree and a job as an English teacher? But, it's unfair these 2 men miss out on a great retirement in Thailand/Japan, because their daughter's mother took advantage of the corrupt family court systems in Western countries that favor women.

Now, I'll end this blog with playing it smart. See, I've talked about farang men who live in Thailand, marry a bar girl and blow all his money and ends up returning to his own country in other blogs. I mentioned these farang men need to grow balls and choose a 20 or 30 year lease instead of putting land in the Thai wife's name. If he says "why marry her if I don't trust her"? Well then go for it, but if she kicks you out of the house, don't go moaning about it on forums and YouTube, because even in Western countries, most marriages end in divorce, and whilst Thailand has a lower divorce rate than Australia and America at 39%, you're still taking a big risk and you know you virtually have no right to the house after she kicks you out.

Yes, I know there's other ways farang can get around it, such putting the land in the child's name and the child can't make any decisions about the house until they're 18, and there's ways you can make your Thai wife sign that you own the house but not the land (but she can, at least in some cases ask you to remove your house off her land).

Do you sell your house in your home country and collect a big lump sum, or do you lease out your house and use the income to fund your retirement in Thailand?

 Some Thai women have told me some farang would be better off leasing out his property in his home country because he can keep collecting an income for the rest of his life, he can pass the house onto his children (yes, some Thai women have told me this, she would rather his children get the house instead of her in the future), and have said some women might spend all of his money quickly and he'll have nothing.

Also, the value of his house could increase much in the future, which means he could increase the rent price and collect more money in the future.