My Thai Wife
Are you intrested in Thailand and the thai culture?
Are you a frequent vistior to Pattaya and phuket?
Do you want to hear intresting sexy stories about those places?
Or maybe you are looking to hear dating and travel advices?
Do you have intrest in Ladyboys or what is it like being with one?
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Join Pim and Mike while they discuss all those things, and much more!!!
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My Thai Wife
Bonus Episode - Financial Freedom in Pattaya, Thailand w\ Scott
Navigating your financial future as an expat in Thailand requires more than just standard investment advice. In this eye-opening episode, financial advisor Scott from Max Foresight joins Mike and guillaume to uncover the often-overlooked realities of managing money abroad.
Most expats don't realize they're actively losing money by keeping funds in Thai bank accounts. With inflation outpacing interest rates, your purchasing power diminishes yearly even as your account balance remains stable. Scott explains how diversified global investments can protect and grow your wealth, especially compared to traditional Western strategies that don't translate well to Southeast Asia.
The conversation tackles the surprising truth about Thai real estate – contrary to Western markets, condominiums here typically depreciate rather than appreciate. With an oversupply of units sitting empty across cities like Pattaya, property investment rarely delivers the returns expats expect. Guillaume shares his firsthand experience of why renting often makes more financial sense, offering greater flexibility at a fraction of the cost.
Perhaps most valuable is the brutally honest discussion about the expat dream of opening a bar or restaurant in Thailand. As one experienced owner puts it: "Opening a bar in Thailand is like working at Disneyland – you don't see the magic anymore." The hosts explore why these ventures frequently fail despite seeming like ideal retirement projects.
Whether you're planning retirement abroad, already living in Thailand, or simply curious about international finance, this episode delivers practical wisdom that could save you thousands. Learn how to structure your investments, manage pensions from back home, and avoid the costly mistakes that drain so many expats' savings.
Ready to make smarter financial decisions? Connect with Scott through our show notes or reach out with your questions at mythaiwifepod@gmail.com. Your future self will thank you.
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Hello everyone and welcome back to my Thai Wife Podcast. I'm Mike. Pim is not here and I made sure we have enough interesting guests in order to take her place for today, so we have Scott again. Hello Scott, how are you doing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, good you.
Speaker 1:Very good, and a guy that you heard but you never seen his face before, so now you can attach the face to the voice. Guume is here, the owner of the bull restaurant. Hello, guillaume, pleased to meet you. Yeah, how are you doing? I'm okay. Hot today, hot, yeah, hot today, hot yesterday.
Speaker 1:Yesterday it was blazing hot I was sweating the whole night almost like it was in april yeah, there was a a party at 69 and it was full, so me and english john were standing outside near the fucking karaoke that were with the time music and we both like sweating everything out like we are drinking and everything immediately goes out as a sweat.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, it was kind of not fun but the party was nice, but it was everywhere.
Speaker 1:So yeah, actually, before we start the subject that we want to talk, there was an interesting show yesterday. So every time when they do a birthday, there is kind of a show that's going on. So of course there was some drag queen singing and whatnot, and then there was some lady boy that took many white candles have you seen that before? No, and of course she lit them up and then she was just dancing and just pruning the white yeah playing with the candles.
Speaker 1:The white wax on her mouth, on her tongue, and you know how it looks. It looks not like wax, it looks like something else. All over her face, all over her body. I never saw something like this.
Speaker 3:I've seen it. Normally you have different kind of wax for the candles.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's special wax.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a wax that melts with the lower temperature. Okay, so when it comes to your body?
Speaker 2:it's not so hot On your face, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's the one they use in BDSM.
Speaker 1:Okay, so it does it. That's new for me, I didn't know that. Or if you're really into BDS you take a normal one.
Speaker 3:That is very hot, but normally if you want just to show, you can use normal, that's not for me.
Speaker 1:But I just thought like, oh, she's brave, she's a strong one, you know. And her mouth was full of like when she finished the show she just grabbed the hand, starts scraping everything out of her mouth. Yeah, it was very weird.
Speaker 2:But out of her mouth.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was very weird but, arousing at the same time, but everyone was cheering and taking videos so it was nice yeah, and she played, she did the movement, yeah, everything like like a Cleopatra. She also dressed like that. You know all the the slow movements and everything. So it was nice. You missed a nice night oh no, oh no, yeah.
Speaker 2:No, I was tired, yeah, so I had work today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and this is actually what we came to talk about.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so do you know what he's doing for work right now in Thailand. You explained to me a little bit, but not all the specifics and the detail.
Speaker 1:Okay, so of course, he can explain more and then you understand basically what, and you guys understand why we're doing that, because it's a subject that many people know about, but they don't do anything without it, and this is the reason they are losing a lot of income, or maybe losing even their pension or whatever money they got left after this horrible inflation that we have going on right now.
Speaker 2:So yeah so so yeah. So when I'm not, uh, when I'm not out partying with you or eating at the ball, um, I do have a job, so I I do work um let's just clarify first you are not working in a thai company or working in a basically a company that is from outside of thailand?
Speaker 2:yes, um, yeah, so there's many names for my job. So I'm a financial advisor, I'm a financial planner, I'm a wealth manager any of those titles can't you forget they can't. People will come across that I don't call myself a wealth manager because when people see wealth in the title, they seem to think that they need to be a multimillionaire to get advice. But that's not the case. So I've had so many people in the past say, well, I've got no money. And then when I actually talk to them and find out a bit more about them, there's plenty of stuff that we can have, they feel that you're out of their league.
Speaker 1:Basically, yeah, yeah, just because of that single word.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so yeah, wealth. The company I used to work for was Such and Such Wealth Services. I've got friends that work for such and such wealth management. Their title is wealth manager, wealth advisor, all of this.
Speaker 1:They love those titles.
Speaker 2:Some people like the title because, I don't know, maybe they think it's a bit more prestigious.
Speaker 3:Maybe people confuse wealth and wealthy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I mean, about the titles For sure, when they go to the bar and they say, like a lady asks them, what are you doing? Oh, I'm a wealth manager.
Speaker 3:You don't need to be wealthy to need a wealth manager.
Speaker 1:Yes, you just need to have some money.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I try and stay away from that term. I'm a bit more down to earth, I'm a normal guy.
Speaker 3:Yes, okay, go on, take that as you want.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so a lot of my job is helping people. I like helping people. I find it really rewarding to help people. I've helped a lot of people, so I did this job in the UK before. For how long? For about three years in the UK.
Speaker 1:Not with the same company, with another company.
Speaker 2:Yes, with another company. Before now you would class it as working offshore. In the offshore market that's more of an old school term. Now it's more the international market. So it's out here. It's helping expats that have moved to Thailand, live in here, they may have retired here or they've come to work here. But we're not limited just to Thailand, so it's pretty much all of Southeast Asia. So we've got an office in Thailand, we've got an office in Vietnam and an office in the Philippines as well. So, yeah, what do you want to know?
Speaker 1:first of all, I want to know for obviously we are friends right so far. I've seen you and we talked mostly about the whole what is the need in Thailand right now, before even the investments? Many people come here and their life insurance sucks, or maybe they don't even have life insurance or pension insurance or whatever yeah, so this is one of the things that you do which I get it.
Speaker 1:Many people we need it. Obviously you're making money out of it and you have a lot of customers in that area. But like, what else can you do? Let's say I have not much. Let's say I have 50 000 like pounds yeah what can you help me with? Like? For me they are just sitting in the bank. I have nothing with it and you know me, I'm not a smart guy. I know nothing about like investing and stuff like that. Most of my money just as a cash in my bank.
Speaker 2:So so um so everything is. There's no general financial advice. There's no one size fits all. Everything is what we do. Everything is tailored to the individual. Your circumstances are different to mine, mine are different to kion'siyom's circumstances are much better than us.
Speaker 2:So it's all tailored to what your goals are and what you want to achieve. Basically, if you've got like 50,000 and you say, look, scott, I don't need that for 10, 15 years, then we'd love to invest that. If you might need access to some of it, then we may invest some of it and we may keep some in cash for, like, emergency funds.
Speaker 1:Okay, so it's limited.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and your timeframe for when you may need to access that money or what your goal is, will then also determine how much risk we take with it.
Speaker 1:Okay, so there is a risk.
Speaker 2:In terms of investing, okay. So yeah, investing in the stock markets comes with risk. You see the adverts you may get less than what you put in your money's at risk, all this sort of stuff. So there is risk. But the markets, markets, they go up and down all the time. Um, generally, in the 10-year period, you'll have seven good years and you'll have three bad years, but it comes up and down, you know. So we had covid. Covid, the markets plummeted, but they were back up in the same year. Um, a lot of my previous clients in the uk made money during covid.
Speaker 2:When people, you know, when we were all put into lockdown, a lot of people would have been thinking, oh god, I've seen all my money plummet away. Um, but it comes back and time, uh, history tells us that it always comes back and always goes further. So, um, so yeah, there is risk. Um, and depending on your goals and your, your attitude to risk, you know you might be, you might think, you know I'm a bit of a gambler um, I'm quite a risk taker. Uh, and then we we would look at that and explore that with the time frame. Um, if you weren't and you're a more cautious person, it doesn't mean that you can't invest. It just means that we invest in less risky investments. So it's all to suit your needs and what your goals are. Does that answer that?
Speaker 1:It is, but I know it's not only stock market. I know also now, you gave a lot of example about the stock market and everything, but I guess any kind of investment is something that you can help people with, not only in that particular area. For example, if guillaume how long 13 years ago came to thailand uh, 13 years, 13 and he didn't have the brain that he actually had and he said, okay, I have this money, I just closed the IT company or whatever, what should I do now?
Speaker 3:Yeah, the thing also is when you invest in the stock market, sometimes you can invest in stock, but sometimes you can invest in products that is based on the stock market, financial products and after, as you said, there is the risk. So, for example, you can take high risk but you can win big or lose big, or you can take like the in France we have the CAC 40, it's the 40 biggest top companies.
Speaker 3:So you basically have a wallet with a little bit of everything and you invest in 10 years and you're sure you will not lose money, Because in 10 years, with the high and up generally in the last 30, 40, 50 years, the average is 5% per year.
Speaker 1:Okay, so it's not as high as other investments. Average it's 5% per year.
Speaker 3:Okay, so it's not as high as other investments, but it's a sure investment. Maybe this year you win 20%, next year you lose 30%, but you invest in for 10 years. So in 10 years you will get 5% per year.
Speaker 1:Okay, so it's like what my brother did. He took all the money he had put in s&p 500 and, like 15 years, forget about it. You don't even check it out yeah yeah so there are risks with that.
Speaker 2:So when? So we use fund managers and we generally invest in funds, and for us everything's about diversification, so it's not putting all your eggs in one basket. Now, if you use the Cap 40, that's your right, it will go up, but you're only invested in 40 companies, and all of those companies are in France. So if something happens in France with the government and they change the rules on something, then it can be more volatile. It's the same in the UK. We've got the FTSE 100, which is the top 100 companies.
Speaker 2:Again, it's all concentrated in one country, whereas what we do so I'm not an investment specialist, that's not my job my job is to give you the advice as to what you should do to meet your goals. So we've got teams of fund managers that we work with. They're the specialists I don't pretend to be. We let it up to them to invest your money how they see fit, and they will spread that then globally. So there will be stuff in America, there'll be stuff in Europe, there'll be stuff in Asia, all over the world, and then in different asset classes. So stocks and shares, bonds, government bonds, and then even within those there's other classes. So it's really spreading it across, so you don't get that huge volatility.
Speaker 2:So, like kian said, you know you might be up 20, that might be great, um, and then next year you want to retire and then it goes down to 30, it goes down 30. So you've you've got that volatility and the s p 500 could can be the same. Now the s p 500 is is made up generally of the magnificent seven, which is the big, the top big seven. What am I saying? Uh, what am I saying? The big tech companies in America. They make up a lot of the S&P 500. Okay, so, although there's 500 companies in there, generally you're mainly invested in those Ten maybe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, yeah. So that's why we diversify within funds and within those funds we'll have different risk categories, like I said before, depending on what your goals are.
Speaker 1:So my goal is I have this amount that I told you before. I want to retire in Thailand. What can I do?
Speaker 2:So we can invest that.
Speaker 1:No, but I need it also. Some of it I need now right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there is one thing to consider is you arrive in Thailand with a lot of money. You keep it in your bank. Basically, when you keep your money in the bank, you're losing money. Yeah, especially in Europe. Usa we didn't, we didn't have a very high growth, so we don't see it much. But when you are in Southeast Asia with a higher growth, you have more inflation. So if you have 50,000 euros, in 10 years your 50,000 euros have not the same value. You still have your 50,000 euros, but they were maybe 30. But you lose in investment, in payment capacity, maybe 20%.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Let's say one bedroom apartment is 50,000 euros, but in 10 years it's going to be 100,000. So you lose 50%. For example.
Speaker 2:I used to talk to people a lot about that. It's the spending power of your money. So, like Kian said, 50,000 now is not worth 50,000 in 10 years time. So what we try and do is we try to outpace inflation as a minimum and then grow it on top as well. So you've got more in the future. But yeah, you really need to. If you've got large sums of money that are just sitting in the bank, you're losing money. There's a calculation that I can't remember how to work it out. I bet Guillaume knows. Yeah, say, if you're earning, you know 3% in the bank, but inflation's 5%, you know you're losing. Yeah, even if inflation isn't as high as the know you're losing. Yeah, even if inflation isn't as high as the interest that you're earning, you're still not getting that 3%. And as a calculation to work it out I won't bore you with that.
Speaker 1:But then basically, as you said oh, you're not making money or you're losing money.
Speaker 2:So you can be going around saying, oh great, I'm making 3% in the bank. If inflation's 4 or inflation's 2, even you know, you're not making 3%. I get that, so yeah. So we're always trying to outpace inflation as a minimum and then grow it on top as well.
Speaker 3:The problem with inflation is you don't feel it. We feel it now in Europe, usa, because after COVID all the price rises up because of the war and all the problems. But normally you don't see it a lot. I remember when my mom and dad they bought their house, they had a mortgage. In France they have two types of mortgage. The first one has a flat rate, a mortgage to buy the house, a mortgage yeah so you have a flat rate.
Speaker 3:A mortgage to buy the house, Mortgage yeah so you have a flat rate like you're going to pay like 3% for 15 years. The second one was indexed on the inflation and we stopped doing this because there were no more inflation. So basically, inflation is like when you have a kid you see your kid every day. You don't see grown up but the uncle who come every year One time.
Speaker 3:One time per year he see the kids growing up. So that's why people say Thailand is more expensive, Because they think, oh, 10 years ago I can have this. But they don't see that everything everywhere in the world is more expensive. They had bigger salary in their country and in Thailand there is inflation, more inflation because it's more developed.
Speaker 1:Okay, but in Thailand it's a bit different, because I think you would agree with me that, not as a business owner, because you do need to buy products for your business and whatever, but as a person that comes here once in a while spending his money. The prices didn't really go up. What did change is the value of our own money back home.
Speaker 2:The exchange rate the exchange rate right.
Speaker 1:So, as we spoke last time on the podcast, many of the guys that came from the uk and been here for 15, 20, oh, I remember the pound used to give me 80 baht.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there is two things, as some people, they came after the financial crisis so they had a one euro for 50 baht for one euro, but it was exceptional because there was a financial crisis in southeast as, but generally the change did not change a lot. It was around 38, 40, about for one euro. We went to 33, but it's still a little bit the same. You lose a little bit. What is different is the offer stay a little bit the same. You lose a little bit. What is different is the offer.
Speaker 3:When you come 15 years ago, you only have small restaurants with Thai food, so basically it was cheaper. If you eat on the street 10 years ago or 15 years ago, yeah, okay, you're gonna eat for 40 baht. The same dish now is 80 baht or 70 baht, so it went higher. Also, the offer in terms of restaurants you have more quality Thai restaurants where you can sit with the air con, with the waitress that has knowledge about how to serve, how to cater to tourists, and for the same things. If you go to a steakhouse now you have some steakhouse in Pattaya that can have the same quality of steak that you can find in Dubai, in France, in Europe, anywhere.
Speaker 2:So the market has changed. I know one mistake.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know one. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:The market. The offer has changed. The lowest price have get higher.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Thailand really westernized in the past 15, 20 years. It wasn't what it used to be and I actually like it because it's much more easy for foreigners to come here and feel comfortable.
Speaker 3:You had a big development in Thailand about the middle class. There was a very small middle class before and now you have a big middle class because you have a lot of companies that produce in Thailand Korean company, japanese company, european company. They produce and they need people who have go to university to be manager and everything. So the middle class in Thailand has developed a lot with much more people. So these people, they want a different kind of life. They don't want the same life, they don't expect the same life as the people who come from the small village. Okay, they see on TV, they see the European life and they want a little bit the same. They want air con, they want a nice house. So that's why it's very, very different, okay.
Speaker 1:Would you agree, as someone that came here the past?
Speaker 2:few years. Yes, do you see the change? Or for you, I think, because I've only been coming here for the past six years, I don't see a huge change, but I have got friends that have been coming here for over 20 years and they were the same. Yeah, we used to come. It was 80 baht to the pound and everything was cheap.
Speaker 1:Back in the day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, beer was 20 baht a beer or whatever, and so, yeah, so I haven't personally seen it, just because I think it's a short period as opposed to 15, 20 years. Okay, okay so.
Speaker 1:I do feel it in the food industry a bit, but not as much as you said. But I know that in Thailand and I think, by the way, it's one of the best rules that Thailand have that foreigners actually cannot own land here. Well, it's kind of changing right now. There are some loopholes that people can do. I know one or two of them and I think we spoke about it before.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but when I came in Thailand on holidays, I had a friend who told me something about loopholes and everything. He said in Thailand you don't have problem until you have a problem if you don't do the things by the book. Once you had a problem, it's the pilot, the shit is going to pile up, okay, and then you'll be like domino everything and yeah, and then you have a very big problem. Um, there is always some guys who ask you how we can do this and you explain to them the correct way to do this. You have to do this, that, that, that. And then the other friends say, oh, I got an easy way. And they go to the easy way and they get fucked. And then when they have a problem, it's like, for example, driving license. It's very easy to get a driving license. It's not complicated, it's very easy to get a driving license.
Speaker 3:It's not complicated. It's not expensive. You got yours already Okay, so listen up. Basically me, I didn't have any driving license in Europe, so I had to pass all the tests in Thailand. Oh really, you never drove back in.
Speaker 1:Thailand.
Speaker 3:No, in France I had a 50cc so I didn't need a driving license. So I pass my driving license like a tie, do all the tests and everything. If you have an international driving license, you can transform it to a tie driving license. So it's a little bit more easy than passing all the tests. And there is some company who say oh, you can buy your driving license with us. You give us 5,000, 6,000, I don't know. You can pass, you don't need to move, you get your driving license.
Speaker 3:The problem is you don't know what you buy, because it's not our country, it's not our culture, we don't know how it works. So basically, the guy, guy, he has a driving license, looks authentic, it's authentic, it has been printed in the DMV, everything is alright. And then one day he has an accident. The police arrive, they run the number and it's not a register, it just has been printed. So it was never typed in the system. Yeah, it was not in the system, it was just printed. And then, because you want to avoid two mornings doing the test, you spend your life paying because your insurance says you can't. I don't know if we can say the word here.
Speaker 3:So the insurance will say you don't have driving license, so we don't know if we can say the word here. So the insurance will say you don't have driving license, so we don't cover you and you have to pay for the person that is injured or something. So you always have some guys that say, oh, you don't need to work on it, you can pay the immigration. Okay, I never heard that. And one day, the immigration they come, because sometimes bank come control. Or, for example, you're the immigration, I pay you every month and you want a new car. So you come to see me. You say, okay, now it's not three thousand, six thousand. What I'm gonna do. If I want to apply for a work permit, I have to ask you and you're gonna say no so I can extort you basically
Speaker 1:exactly whatever I want, and you are only relying on me, on my kindness but if you do everything by the book you don't have any problem.
Speaker 3:I asked some guy asked me oh, in your restaurant you pay the police. I say no, why should I pay the police? I've got all the license, I've got all the work permit. I have everything.
Speaker 1:If they want to control, they can control I might have to delete this part about the police, but you know why. But yeah, we will see. But about buying land, what I meant? That normally in Western countries one of the best investments is real estate, right? No, no, no, okay. So in my country and fuck you, scott.
Speaker 1:Like the pricing houses went in the last 15 years like 600%, something like that, which is crazy. Like I don't know if there is any other place in the world that it went like that. I know in Japan it used to be something similar, because they always compare Japan.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but Japan is going down. No before, yeah, before.
Speaker 1:So 600% in like 15 years. So everyone that owned like a shithole somewhere can sell it for a lot of money right now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the problem is now in Thailand. There is too much condo condominium and basically most of them they are empty. Really yeah.
Speaker 1:Because I still see the advertisement everywhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah, to be fair, I was sitting in. Well, I was on the balcony of mine today and I was looking and I was thinking I've never seen those curtains open. I've never seen those ones.
Speaker 3:It looks like there's a sign in that one and I look and it was like you could tell they were all they were all empty, yeah the thing is, if I need um, I've got a condominium, I'm a promoter, developer, I've got a building, a condominium and I need to sell 40 apartments to pay everything.
Speaker 3:Okay so once I paid 40 apartments, let's say I pay 50, then I make a profit on this. So I start another project and this and this and this. So that's why most of the condominium towers they are not fully sold. So why the prices are so high. The price for the new when you have a new condo are still the same, but on the second market, second hand, it's cheaper. It go down a little bit because it's more difficult to sell. Okay, because the they don't care about selling the empty one. They want to move to another project.
Speaker 1:Okay, I remember the first time I came to Thailand. I was in Pattaya for a week and I was walking around a central festival and there was a company in the ground floor that advertised condos. So I had like 30 minutes. I said I will harass them, I will get the information, just for the knowledge. And back then it was 1.4 million for a new condo. I don't see those prices anymore. Everywhere I see 2.2, 2.4, for smaller than what they used to offer back then.
Speaker 3:When you buy a condo, if the condo is more than 10 years old. 10 years ago you can buy your studio. The studio were about 36, 34, 36 square meters. Now a studio is 24, 26 square meters, but the price is the same After. It depends where you buy. You can buy if you buy on Beach Road. It would be more expensive than on the dark side and everything, and you have more and more service, more swimming pool, more and sauna.
Speaker 1:Yes, but this is go back to what we said before, that they are really trying to westernize like the facilities.
Speaker 3:They want luxury, they want to sell luxury. Yeah, also, there is something that, after the earthquake from Bangkok on the 28th, they want to stop the look fancy but build shitty. Okay, because they have a lot of building that look very, very precious, you have marbles on the wall and everything, but the structure is shit, okay. So basically, you buy something that looks good but it's very bad. When you have a condo and you can hear your neighbor. That's very bad because there was a very thin and everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but this is why normally people, when they buy a house, maybe even a condo, they ask for inspection first, you know, just to give them the general idea of what's going on here.
Speaker 3:But when I came on holiday, I wanted to invest in real estate, but I didn't want to buy a condominium, I want to buy a small room and sell and rent to Thai people. Okay, like for 3,000, 4,000 baht per month. And I asked some advice to a friend who owns Axiom Properties. Okay, and he said, guillaume, that's the best and the worst idea you can have. It's the best idea because it's the best return on investment you can have. It's the worst idea because you're not in Thailand. If you are not in Thailand to take care of your rent and your business, then you will not make money.
Speaker 1:Okay, because let's say, like any business, you have to be there in order to make sure it's operating the way that you want let's say you buy a condominium for 1.4 million baht.
Speaker 3:Let's say I buy one in the center of Pattaya called city center residence 1.4 million baht. You can rent it for 12,000 baht. By the way, those are the real prices 1.4 million baht.
Speaker 1:You can rent it for 12,000 baht. By the way, those are the real prices over there 1.4 million is the price. I bought.
Speaker 3:It's a nice place and you can buy a second hand there for 801 million. Really ok, but I do not advise you because the construction is not that good and it gets old very quickly. But you can rent the place. You buy 1.4 million, you can rent it for 12,000. So basically, the return on investment is very low compared to what you have in Europe. Yeah, of course, and it's difficult to rent because there is a lot of offer, so it's difficult to get people to rent your place.
Speaker 1:Okay, as you said, there are many vacant places, exactly.
Speaker 2:It's supply and demand, isn't it? Yeah, there's more supply than there is demand, but I know a person.
Speaker 1:I will not say her name, but all of us us know her. She's the lady boy wife of our mutual friend. So the place she went right now have 60 rooms upstairs, something like that, and she ran them for thai people, obviously, and I think it took her four months and everything is full because it's not condominium.
Speaker 3:No, it's not.
Speaker 1:It's room sheet rooms no windows, I think on most of them.
Speaker 3:There is two things. First, it's room, so it's more easy to rent. Second, she's Thai and she knows a lot of people in Pattaya. Yeah, so it's easy for her because she don't need to have an agency and everything. Because the problem is we see this the western way in. If I was in france, I have a condo, I have a apartment, I want to rent it, I went to an agency. They will have plenty of people. If I have the same thing in thailand, I went to an agency thai people. They don't have the reflex to go to an agency. It's completely different. The new generation which look, look everything online no, they will look on the Facebook marketplace things like that.
Speaker 3:So if you know a lot of people, it's going to be easy to to rent everything, and also she has the bar so she can rent to her staff. Yeah.
Speaker 1:But this is only six people. We are talking six 60 rooms.
Speaker 3:She knew a lot of people. Yeah, if you don't know anyone and you need to pass by an agency, you're not going to rent your condo because it's going to be lost in all the offer. It's going to be very difficult to rent.
Speaker 3:Okay, so real estate in general is not the best thing in Thailand as we said, if you want to buy real estate to stay, it's for you. For me, I don't like it. I don't like it because if I want to move, I don't want to have to sell the place and buy another one, so I prefer to rent. There is another thing.
Speaker 1:Sorry to cut you, but also, as you said before, rents are so cheap here, so sometimes it's even worth it. Exactly, just invest your big amount of money, invest somewhere and just with the spare money just rent some.
Speaker 3:I rent a big house because I've got my dogs and everything, for 15,000 baht per month, with land and everything 50,000, 15,000 baht per month and with land and everything a little bit land. I've got three big room, one big living room, uh, one, uh dining room, one big kitchen garage, also right one garage for two car. So it's very big. Uh, my, my bedroom is a 54 square meters but bigger than most of the studios here, bigger than an apartment. Yeah, I pay, so 15,000 baht.
Speaker 3:But it's far from the center, it's a little bit far from the center, it's on the dark side. On the dark side I had a problem with the air con when I rent the lady. She owns the street. She has all the house in the street so she have a people working there. The guy came, cannot fix. Two days later, uh, there is a aircon guy coming. He said, okay, we need to change. I got a new aircon. Cost me zero because it's part of the owner to do this. Zero because it's part of the owner to do this. Of course I pay for, uh, the maintenance, but if this, if there is something broken, it's the owner who have to, as long as it's not damage that you cause exactly, for example, the pump or something, yeah, so it's very easy for me and if I want to move, I just move some people. They prefer to own the land, to own the place. So that's just a question of personal choice.
Speaker 1:Okay. Would you recommend someone buying here Like a condo or just renting if they're moving here as a retiree?
Speaker 2:As a retiree, I'd probably say no, don't buy it. It's, I think, when you're an expat. So this was something I was going to talk about. You know, if you've got family back in the UK you've got to think about when you die and you know if you own something out here, it's going to be very difficult for them. Your family are then going to have to come out here and have to deal with the Thai authorities as to how to how to sell this.
Speaker 2:I would if I was retiring out here. I would keep stuff liquid. I wouldn't keep, I wouldn't buy real estate. Okay, um, I mean one of the reasons as well, which is when you said real estate's a really good investment, I said no, uh. So in the uk in the past it has been um, and a lot of people made a lot of money, um, by buying houses, doing them up and renting them out, and they were. You know they had good annual yields. You know growth overall, sort overall capital growth was good on them as well. But the government in the UK saw well, these people are on to a good thing, so we're going to tax them more.
Speaker 2:We're going to tax them more and then we're going to put more restrictions in place and you can't do this and you can't do that. So I used to speak to a lot of people that had we'd call it like a property portfolio, um, and I used to do all the calculations on it, work out how much growth they've had. You know, because a lot of people look at the top line and they'll say like, say kion, you're paying 15 000 bar people. Go go out and get 15000 baht a month. Okay, how much was that air conditioning unit? How much did that cost? How much?
Speaker 2:What other things have gone wrong? How much did I have to paint the place every couple of years or whatever? The maintenance, basically. And then the tax how much tax do I have to pay? So in the UK it's classed as income. The maintenance, basically, yeah, and then the tax how much tax do I have to pay? So in the UK it's classed as income. So I know that there may be people listening that have retired out here, that have still got UK properties, and I think you need to look at that and see is it?
Speaker 2:still worth doing it. I used to do these calculations with people and then I'd tell them their overall growth and then I'd say look, here's a fund that we've invested in for 10 years. You could have got more and you haven't got mr jones ringing you up in the middle of the night saying yeah this is leaking.
Speaker 2:This is that, or you know the UK, you'd get people that wouldn't pay. So you know if they don't pay for three months and if you've got a mortgage on it, you're paying the mortgage. You know all these things and I used to say this as an example to people You've heard of NVIDIA. You know the biggest company now. You know if you invest in N in the video, at no point does someone go mike. We've got a big fucking problem over here in the factory like can you come?
Speaker 1:and give.
Speaker 2:Can you come and give us a hand? Oh, I'm not free in a minute, so you know you invest in. You invest in other stuff, in funds. Fund managers are looking after it they're looking at that no one's ringing you up. You haven't got the hassle, all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 3:There is something also about the houses. You buy an apartment in Europe or in the USA, you buy 1 million and when you sell it, you will sell it 1.2, 1.4 or something. You buy a condominium here 1.4 million. You sell it for 1.2, 1.3, if you're lucky. So you don't make much money or you can even lose money.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it depends on how long you sit on it, right?
Speaker 3:Even if it's new, even if I buy it and I sell it the next week.
Speaker 1:No, no, I mean the opposite thing that the prices might go up in time.
Speaker 3:No, because the offer on the new one is the same price. Okay.
Speaker 2:So people, they get a new one for the same price. Why would you buy a second-hand one?
Speaker 3:Why do you want to buy a two-year-old apartment and they have finance? Yeah, because you know you have the finance by the realtor, for example, the. I pay 500 000 baht and then they start building the, the condominium, and in three I pay every month.
Speaker 2:yeah, so that's easy for me too, I had a similar thing, but sort of the opposite. So my first house that I bought in the uk uh, they were still building new housing the exact same house and but they were charging more than what I was putting my house up for sale for. And it was like, why would you buy that one that's brand new for you know, however, much extra? And we had loads of people coming and looking at ours rather than looking at the new ones.
Speaker 1:How old was it?
Speaker 2:Oh, it was like four or five years old, okay.
Speaker 1:The difference was like 20%, 30%, I guess. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:But the good thing was like oh look, we've had all the problems. You know, we've decorated. It's not a bare shell, it's like we've done this, we've done this to it, the garden's all nice. Because the gardens won't be done on brand new houses, so it looked more attractive. So that's like the opposite of what you're saying, you're saying it's like well, you know, if you can get a brand new one, then you know, for a small percentage more you get a brand new one.
Speaker 3:You make money in Thailand. You sell, you lose money. Yeah, I understand that. At the Sisi condo I had one condo I bought and I rent two other condos. I was doing something, I was doing Airbnb. Okay, I was doing something, I was doing Airbnb. Okay.
Speaker 1:Then the COVID arrived when it was still legal, by the way.
Speaker 3:Yeah, of course, when it was still legal, of course. So the COVID arrived, I stopped renting the two condos and the condo I bought 100% who was mine. And the condo I bought 100% who was mine. I put it as a collateral for a loan at the bank and I called my bank and said okay, can I stop paying for six months Because it's COVID. They closed the restaurant and everything. And the bank told me no, you're a foreigner, we cannot do this. I said, okay, fuck you. I stopped paying. So I stopped paying. After three months they contacted my girlfriend. They said okay, if you don't pay, we're going to take the condo. So I said it's okay, take the condo. It's like I sold you the condo. So basically, with the money I made with Airbnb and the money they gave me for the restaurant, I didn't lose money. I make a little bit profit. And I told my girlfriend do it quick, because every year you have the fee, the property fee to pay Like the key money, as they say.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's for the management. The service charge you pay by the size of your condo yeah, it's for the management Service charge, the service charge. Yeah, oh, okay, you pay by the size of your condo, and so we do it quick. And the bank was the owner now. So when the juristic person called me and said, oh, you need to pay your fee for this year, I said I'm not the owner anymore.
Speaker 1:Call the bank, that's funny, yeah, but before you said something that reminded me, you said that sometimes when you rent a place to someone, then they don't pay.
Speaker 1:You know what they are doing in Thailand for people that don't pay rent they have a lock, they put on the door and you cannot access your stuff until you pay it it's genius, but it's fucking crazy also because, for example, we know someone that she's yes Until you pay it. It's genius, but it's fucking crazy also Because, for example, we know someone that she's working in the bars, right, and she didn't pay her rent, so they locked the apartment. But how can she make money? She don't have access to her clothes. She don't have.
Speaker 3:You know, she need to look good, makeup everything and it's a ladyboy.
Speaker 1:So she need the wigs, she needs all the stuff, and now like yeah, but that's what you have to think before, of course. But I'm saying that in Western countries you just go to the court and the court even lets you stay there for like I don't know how long Six months and if it's the winter they cannot kick you out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but that's why the prices are cheaper. That's why the rents are cheaper and that's why it's so easy to have a room. When you want to rent a condo, they don't ask you a lot of paper. They say okay, you want to rent a condo? I do, give me the money you pay two months of deposit and this month's rent and you take the condo. In Europe you cannot kick out people, but because you cannot keep up people. They need to have a lot of insurance to be sure that you can have everything and you have a good file with everything.
Speaker 3:Good. So basically, by doing like this, they can have easier access to rent, lower rent. So I think what we should do in Europe is a mix of what we do, as I understand, in Europe. We say, okay, we need to help the people when they have problem, and that's a good idea. That's something I support. But why should it be the private people who should support this? It should be the state. So let's say that, okay, now you can. I'm in france, you cannot pay the rent. We kick you out, but the government put you in a place where you still have a roof on your head and we help you there yeah, or there should be a first quarter rule.
Speaker 1:So let's say there is quarters in your place, you can apply for the government and let's say they pay 80 percent of what you should get or 70 percent, and then, okay, you want this quarters to help your laws. Don't let me kick them out.
Speaker 3:Okay, take some, some of the damage if, uh, if you can kick people more easy and you are sure to be paid, it's going to be lower rent and easy access and then the government has to do its job and provide shelter for these people, like, okay, you have been kicked out, come, we put you there. We know how to do this for some migrants. For example, we put them in hotels or things like that to help them when they arrive and we support them until they can stand on their feet and understand the country and everything. Why we cannot do this for the people, the residents?
Speaker 1:You really want to get into politics? No, but I mean, I was going to say that Because you know all of us come from different backgrounds, but I think most of our countries, like you know, all the three of our countries do have some problem with legal and illegal immigration. So I really don't want us to get into, Because this is where it will lead.
Speaker 3:What I mean is I am for helping people, but by doing what we are doing now in Europe, we are not helping people.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we are going to politics, we are not helping people in the long term.
Speaker 3:That's why it's so more easy in Thailand. In Thailand, you want a room. You can have a room tomorrow. You just pay the two-month deposit, the rent, it's okay. And if you have a problem for example, you have a nice condo and then something happens in your life and you cannot afford anymore okay, you go to another room, you take a more.
Speaker 3:What they call thai style you pay 2 000 baht until you get better, but you you don't have to think about, oh uh, where I'm gonna live. Yeah, you know, you're always gonna have a roof on your top. Yeah, I agree on your right.
Speaker 1:In western countries it takes about a week at least to find a place to stay and all the problems.
Speaker 3:The insurance company, they had buildings. You know, when they make profits, they buy buildings, so they remove the price of the building from the profits they made. So they have a lot of apartments in the center of Paris, for example, but they don't want to rent this apartment because it's a nightmare. So they just have empty apartments everywhere, which make the price go higher. Which make the price go higher because it's unrentable, not because it's empty, because it's a nightmare for them to rent.
Speaker 1:We have the same problem in some cities in Israel. We call them ghost apartments and it's actually investors. Most of them come from France. Jewish, french people that came with a lot of money said okay, we are buying a lot of places, but we will not live here. We will come here for one month every year, but we don't want to rent. So one city in Israel called Netanya is like full of ghost apartments and the prices go up because no one can rent anything.
Speaker 2:So it's like similar in the UK. So a lot of people after COVID, a lot of people that were living in London, working in London or the big cities, and then realized, oh, I can work from home now. It's like so people have bought a lot of places outside in the countryside and then they might have them as a holiday home and they'll be based there most of the time, but most of the time these places are just so it raises the prices of the suburbs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So it's just, and certain places have bought in like holiday tax. So if you have a second home, you're going to pay a hell of a lot more tax to have it and in Thailand it's the same thing.
Speaker 3:People they buy, but the difference is the rent.
Speaker 1:Because it's no nightmare, it's easy, yeah, and the rules let you actually do something if someone's not paying.
Speaker 3:The thing is the market is very different from what we have in the West. And one thing that is not related but when you want to rent or buy a house or a condo, don't come with your Western idea. We don't live the same way in Thailand. Don't bother having a big kitchen, because most of the time you won't cook. Yeah, but in the West, I don't know, I think kitchen because most of the time you won't cook.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wait, in Western, I don't know, I think all over the West countries. Like, the kitchen is the heart of the house. It has to be big, with a big island in the middle and everything. This is like when you show your house to the guests. Always, this is my kitchen. It always has to be the heart and here, no, sometimes it's even not inside the house, it's outside the house, a small kitchen that they have Because they put the smell.
Speaker 3:I like it when they do the spicy. It's burning your nose. But what I mean is you eat outside, you meet your friend outside, we live outside, so you don't need to have a big house, you don't need to have a big kitchen and sometimes it's cheaper to eat outside. And, for example, if I want to make European food, I cannot buy 50 milliliters of milk. I need to buy one liter. I cannot buy everything in small, so if I'm alone or with my girlfriend, I cannot cook for us Everything. I have to buy a big quantity. So I have to make the food for 4 or 6 persons, then freeze it and then 6 years later, just call us, I'm cooking today.
Speaker 3:We will gladly come basically, even when you eat European food or western food, it's going to be cheaper sometimes to go to the restaurant. They have some cheap restaurants where you can have something. So, basically, people, they eat outside and you live outside because it's hot, it's sunny. You don't stay at home all day, so you have a condo, you go to the swimming pool, then you go around.
Speaker 1:We don't live the same way in Thailand as in Western yeah, of course, and the Thais also, not us. In general, the Thais also live very differently from the way that we live back home.
Speaker 3:When I was in France, I had a big apartment. I had a big living room, big kitchen, kitchen. I had two rooms, one for my office, one big bedroom and everything. So I need to be comfortable because I spend a lot of time at home. Honestly, I take the house for the dogs, but for me, if I was in a one bedroom what we call one bedroom is not a studio you have a small living room and one bedroom. It's going to be easy enough for me in Thailand. So before you rent or you buy, be sure to understand how we live in Thailand.
Speaker 1:Yeah, come here, travel first, visit, stay here. Don't just say, oh, I heard on this podcast that it's great, I'm just moving.
Speaker 3:Also, when you rent, at the beginning you want to rent because you like Walking Street, you like Sao Paulo and everything. But then you understand that it's nice to be near everything when you're on holiday, but when you leave here you want to be quiet. So you want to be a little bit outside.
Speaker 1:So I've been in several condos now and I've moved away, just a bit further away, a bit further away, you'll find yourself in Satahip. At the end, I think, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Because you're right, the draw to go out is too much. I was in the base?
Speaker 1:Oh, you mean the temptation of going out all the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when you just have to get the lift down and you're out. At least now I have to get a motorbike taxi somewhere. It's still no hardship, but yeah, when you know that you can just go down, it's like you might just go to 7-Eleven but you walk past 12 bars and the base, depending on which tower you are.
Speaker 3:it's very noisy because the sounds go up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because LK Metro is right around there as well. So yeah, it's.
Speaker 1:Now, I learned that mistake a few years ago and now I always stay at the far side of Soi Boncote, yeah, so it's not that far away from the main area, but it's still quiet.
Speaker 1:But still very quiet and much, much, much cheaper, like last time we spoke with tino about it apparently he also live in the area. He paid like five thousand. I paid seven thousand, like a month, which is, you know, for, as you said, not a one. This is actually only the bedroom and the toilet, but this is enough. You don't need more than that when you are here alone by yourself and not have dogs or girlfriend. That I, by the way, before we spoke something about something that reminded me there was. So in israel there is a program that it's called affordable, affordable housing. So it's like, um, it's like a lottery. So if you want and you are passing certain criterias, so basically you have to have at least to be married and to have a child. That's it. Those are the criterias, and one of them, of course, one of them, have to walk, not the child, I mean one of the parents the child have to walk.
Speaker 1:So it's like a lotteries and every contract contractor that actually is building now a big like condominium place, a certain amount of those apartments you have to give a discount of, I think, 30 percent, something like that. It sounds amazing, sounds nice, something like that. It sounds amazing, sounds nice. They they spoke about, I think, 100 000 apartments every year, which is a lot right. What actually happened? So israel is very divided in certain communities, like there is the religious community, the secular community, the arab community, the russian russian community, whatever everything. The french community also the one who make problem. Those are other communities. Believe me, the french are still one of the most nice ones, good, and the jewish friends, not the real french, thank you. And what happened? That a certain two communities, which I will not name because it's not fair for anyone and no one really cares made sure that all those lotteries went to them by driving.
Speaker 3:In France we have what we call HLM Habitation à Loyer Modéré Moderate Rent. Condo Okay, condo, okay. Normally you have some criteria and everything, but in some um, in some cities, you need to be a part of the political party. For example, my grandmother was in a communist city. Okay. And they said, okay, if you are a member of the party, if you take your card, we put your file on top and it's the same if you are in the right or far right some of them not all of them, some are fair, but some of them they say okay, if you take your card, you will get so this way they can win the election again.
Speaker 1:And, of course, yeah, but it's common, I think, everywhere in the world, also here in thailand. Many things are corrupted back home, anything like we've seen what happened in the uk for the past yeah so, yeah, how, how are we doing with time? Because I think we are a bit. Yeah, exactly, I felt it.
Speaker 3:So we spoke about the house. What can you offer for investment?
Speaker 2:So not just investment, but so I can deal with pensions. So I can specifically deal with UK pensions, which is something that I used to do a lot when I was working in the UK. It's probably about 80% of my work.
Speaker 1:But it's not only for UK. Now you can do for everyone, almost all the Europeans. I know you help.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's not so much pensions here, more life insurance but no, no, I mean it's, it's saving for your retirement, so it is a pension, but it's not uh, it's, it's not called a pension, but specifically like pensions in the uk. Um, there's a lot that we can still do for them. What I used to do a lot was we would transfer people's pensions, so people would go from one job, get a pension, then they'd move five years later, get another pension and keep going, and then by the time they came to retire, they've got 10 pensions.
Speaker 2:They're all over the fucking place. They haven't got a clue what they're doing, how much money is in any of them. Um, and what we would do is we'd look at all those, analyze them and then combine them so they're all in one place. Yeah, um, the the big thing with that? And I mean, even if people have got existing investments, we can, we can still look at that. I do a lot of analysis on the funds and how they've performed and what they're invested in, and a lot of people have got pensions or investments that they took out, however long ago. They don't speak to a financial advisor, they don't get regular updates. They they've seen that it's gone up, so they think, yay, it's, it's up, I've made some money. It's more than it was 10 years ago.
Speaker 1:So it's great.
Speaker 2:But yeah, and I used to say to people a lot look, you know your pension or whatever investment you've got. If you gave me $100,000 today and I fucked off for 10 years, you would be ringing me every day saying, scott, what are you doing? Where's my money? What are you doing with it?
Speaker 1:And then you come back after 10 years and give me like 105. Here you go, yeah, the best loan in your life.
Speaker 2:So. But yeah, I used to say to people you know, if I fucked off and you know you'd be on my back saying, where's my money, what are you doing with it? You know, yeah, but people's pensions and their investments they don't. They just think, oh, I'll forget about that, I'll bury my head in the sand. And I've had so many people that have worried that they don't have enough money in retirement. So one good thing that we can do is we can do cash flow modeling for people. So even people out here if they've retired out here, we can look at all of their expenditure, how much money they've got coming in, and we can do a forecast as to look.
Speaker 1:This is when your money will run out basically that's not a good idea to tell that to people in Pattaya.
Speaker 2:Or this is when you know I live here. You know how many girls do you take home each week?
Speaker 1:Okay, right Ladies or ladyboys, because different prices you might have to cut that down.
Speaker 2:One bar fine a week. You might have to cut that down one bar fine a week, you know. So sometimes it's good to get that peace of mind that you know, okay, actually I'm good. Or you know, maybe my pension isn't performing well. Well, look, if we moved it, maybe you get another few years out of it. But yeah, I've had a lot of clients in the past that have been really anxious and really worried about their retirement and then when you actually look at it, it's not that bad, okay. Or there's stuff that we can help with.
Speaker 1:Okay, would you like to like? Of course, I will share your business cards online, but you want to say the name of your company.
Speaker 2:Yeah, business cards? Yeah, yeah, but you want to say the name of your company? Yeah, so I work for a company called max foresight, um, which, like I said, so the the owner of the company. He works in the philippines. Um, one of the other advisors, uh, he's in vietnam. He's french. So, again, we work as a company. If there's any french listeners, I know French people like to speak to French people.
Speaker 3:It's not like they like to speak to French people Most French people they don't fucking speak English yeah.
Speaker 2:So a lot of his clients are French. So if there's French listeners and they want to speak to somebody that's French, we can do that. But yeah, so I work for that company company. We're then attached to a bigger company so we've got a big umbrella over us, um, that does all the compliance and stuff. So there's very little financial regulation in thailand. So we uh, the company that we're attached to, we've got licenses in lots of different jurisdictions, so we've got Malaysia, singapore, dubai, the UK I think the USA as well, and then like offshore, like Channel Islands, just off UK, you know, guernsey, jersey, all that sort of stuff. So, yeah, we're regulated by them. So it's not just some cowboys coming through, you know, we do because there's a lack of regulation here. We make sure the business goes through places where there is regulation, okay.
Speaker 3:And that's smart and also very assuring. Yes, yeah, okay, so we will. So if I come to Thailand, I'm retired, I've got some money and I want to open a bar, what would be your, what will be be your, advice on this?
Speaker 1:From talking to other people, I would say no, I have an advice on this, a real one. So the other day I don't remember who was that that we spoke with, but it's someone that owns many bars here and he said, like we asked him the same question, he said if now someone forced me to open a bar again, I will only open bar for the thai people. I will not even bother open bar for the foreigners. The thai people spend more money. They come in big groups just make sure they enjoy the food, everything and they enjoy more.
Speaker 3:Like Garden 168.
Speaker 1:For example.
Speaker 2:You said like Dive Bar, kind of. What is Dive Bar?
Speaker 1:Sorry, what is that? I mean the same place. For example, you went with yeah, yeah, not Dive Bar, it has a Thai name.
Speaker 2:Right, okay.
Speaker 1:I know what you mean. Yeah, something like that One that's got live music band Live music, but one that's got live music, band food, the big bottles of beer not the small ones. Bigger. Yeah, but he said this is the only. If someone forced me to open a bar, which I don't want because it's a headache, that's the only thing I would do. Yeah, the guy. They come to Thailand, they like to go to the bar.
Speaker 3:Then they think, oh, I want to open a bar in Thailand, but opening a bar in Thailand is like to go to the bar. Then they think, oh, I want to open a bar in Thailand, but opening a bar in Thailand is like working in Disneyland you don't see the magic anymore yeah, yeah. I agree, and if you open a bar because you like to drink, it's the worst thing yeah, yeah, that's the thing I think.
Speaker 2:like, going back to your original question and I sort of mentioned it at the start it all comes down to what your overall goals are and what you want to do. So I'd ask people why do you want to open a bar? Because I like drinking? Okay, well, don't do that.
Speaker 1:Invest your money and just go out drinking.
Speaker 2:You know, if it's because you want something to do and you don't play golf or you don't do anything else and it's going to give you something to do, then maybe it's an option. But again, it depends on your overall wealth. If you're going to spend 5% of it on a bar and you know it's a gamble and it might not pay off, then you know, okay, maybe that's okay. If it's 80%, 90% of your wealth and you're putting everything into it, then no.
Speaker 3:It's like opening a restaurant.
Speaker 1:Wait, wait, wait. I want to cut you before you change to the restaurant. I already spoke about it, so I will not tell you the whole story because I spoke about it in another podcast. I just want not tell you the whole story because I spoke about it in another podcast. I just want to tell you the highlights.
Speaker 1:So when I just came to Thailand this time the first time I was walking around and I met some guy that just opened a bar with his wife. He's from Australia and he was excited. I came the one day before the real opening and he said you have to come tomorrow, we have girls, we have this. He was so excited and he explained to me in details how much he invests and he have five rooms upstairs and he renovated everything. And I came a week later no girls, no nothing. All the girls, no one even showed up and he's sitting there don't know what to do.
Speaker 1:I went again a month ago. Big sign for sale. I saw him inside. I said what's going on? He said I fucked up, I just fucked up. I have to go back home. I cannot. I'm losing my pencil Like his dream. I remember how happy he was and how excited he was in the first day. Oh, come on, I'm opening, you have to come, blah, blah, blah. And then like the decline, you know, and most of the bars are actually like that the thing is why I open a restaurant.
Speaker 3:Because Because I work in a restaurant before, I was not in the restaurant industry at the beginning. Then I work in a restaurant. I was not happy with the management, but the good thing is they let us do everything and they were very professional. They have tools, they have everything. It was very, very good to understand and they have. Most of people they open a restaurant. They don't know their cost and anything. In the restaurant where I worked, everything was Excel sheet and you have your numbers and you can analyze. So it was a great thing.
Speaker 3:If I was not working in this restaurant, I would not have my restaurant now. Working in this restaurant, I would not have my restaurant now. So opening a restaurant or opening a bar is a good idea if you are already in the business or if you know what you are doing. If you're a plumber and you open a bar or a restaurant, you're fucked. If you open a restaurant, for example, you can make your return on investment. It means like you put 1 million, you get 1 million back in 2.5 to 4 years. But you have also a very high risk of losing everything you can. That's what we said at the beginning.
Speaker 2:Yeah, high, high wind, but high risk yeah yeah, and it's especially with like a bar or a restaurant. Like you said, if you work in that industry and you know it, then you're a far better place than anybody else. But again, if you just buy a bar, you'll put in everything. You're putting all your eggs in one basket, and I know you said you know someone else and COVID destroyed bars out here. You don't know what's going to happen.
Speaker 1:But I want to say another point that even if you had a restaurant or a bar back home, it doesn't mean your ideas will work here. Learn the market first. This is a very different market and don't think. At least come here for a while, see what's going on before you decide to take that decision. Because again, you had a restaurant back in france, not you.
Speaker 3:And given a general thing doesn't mean it will work here it's not because, uh, you opened you, you came to thailand many times as a holiday maker that you know Thailand. You need to stay here for a long time, like one year, to start to understand all the small problems that you didn't see when you came on holiday.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and ask questions. Ask people that do on bars, that do on restaurants. Most of them are like Guillaume or like our friends that will, of course, share with you the information. They want you to be successful.
Speaker 3:And don't listen to the one who gives you the easy way when it's hard, when they tell you you have to do step 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and you think it's hard, it's a good way, the easy way. There is also a downside and then you can have problems.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we have to make a closing to this podcast. So first of all, guillaume, thank you. I love you, brother.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I speak too much.
Speaker 1:No, not at all. I enjoyed that. And again, everyone just go to the fucking Bull restaurant. It's great steaks, great hosts, great guy and really it's, on the third world, one of the best steaks you can find in Pattaya and one of the, if not the best, caesar salad I ever had. And I always keep saying that have something you want to say, not about Guillaume, about yourself.
Speaker 2:No, I was just trying to work on that. Yeah, no, it's really good though. But yeah, if you leave my details on the comments or whatever, then I've only touched on a small small bit of what I do. But, like I said, everything is. This has been sort of general advice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and if you want us to do a second part of it, just write in the comments. We will do Like. If you have your own question, we can do a Q&A for you and no problem, we will answer any, put the question in the comment and then you can make a question, or in the email, which I will say shortly.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, yeah, but yeah, like I said, everything is tailored to people's individual needs, so there's no one size fits all. Everybody has a different problem, everybody's got a different circumstance. So, yeah, if anybody would like to speak to me, get some advice, then more than happy to yeah, I will put your business card on the show notes and everything.
Speaker 1:So if you do guy, you guys do need any advice. Asking question is for free as long as he's not making money for you, so don't worry about it, yam.
Speaker 3:Closing words oh, it's okay for me. I speak a lot, I think already okay, thank you guys again.
Speaker 1:Any question you can leave in the comments or, which I prefer, just send to our email, which is my thai wife pod at gmailcom. Check the patreon and keep telling you the great stuff, and we still thinking about doing that boxing fight oh yeah, she said um.
Speaker 2:One of them said she was up for it, didn't she yeah?
Speaker 1:so we are arranging maybe a boxing fight if we will generate enough money for it between Kiwi and Pim, which will be interesting because both of them have some boxing experience. And thank you very much. See you next time. Hope you enjoy it. Bye guys.