Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the financial criteria associated with Thai Retirement Visas. Specifically we are discussing the evolution of these financial criteria.

The reason I decided to make this video was because of a comment on one of our channels. Quoting directly from the comment: "Aware of the stated combo amount but always wondered about the decided criteria of the exact amount of the 800,000?" So that is the 800,000 lump sum requirement for Thai Retirement Visas. It is part of the financial criteria for maintaining a Thai Retirement Visa. You can use the lump sum of 800,000 Baht bank balance in an account. Quoting further: "Not a high amount for everyone but guessing expat retirees will contribute a fair amount in spending and living there anyway. Why not 200, 400, 500,000?" Yeah, why not? Well at one time yeah it was 200 and I believe it did go up to 400 or 600 before it ended up being 800. I have done other videos on this channel specific to this topic and frankly off the top of my head I don't remember the exact amounts. I remember back in '92 it was a 200,000 Baht bank balance and then at one point it went upward to like 400 and 600 and then ultimately in '97, I think it was '98 actually, the aftermath of the '97 financial crisis here in Thailand it went to 800,000 for Retirement Visas and then ever since we have been operating with the 800,000 Baht bank balance requirement. 

So why did it change? Well I think circumstances just changed. I think one of the big reasons for the 800,000 requirement post '97 was, and I actually read a book, there is a specific passage. I read a book by a gentleman named Jim Rickards, he is an Attorney as well but he is an economist, he wrote a number of books. In one of them he talked about Thailand was the perfect example of a major shift in economics between the West and Asia and how in '97 or post '97 Thailand was doing everything in its power to get foreign currency into the country to help improve the position of the Baht and I think the 800,000 requirement from '98 onward is probably part and parcel, it goes along with that; it was part of the policy to get in as much foreign reserve as they could while at the same time presumably attracting a high volume of folks into the country as retirees. Then as Rickards goes on, over time and it kind of started to tilt around 2007/2008 although up until COVID, COVID changed things pretty substantially. Up until then you know it was actually looking like the Baht was getting stronger and they were doing everything they couldn't weaken it. 

Long story short, this came about over time because policy changes occurred where they wanted to see retirees show more funds in an account. Do I know exactly where the number came from? Not really. It looks like it just went up in increments. I think to some degree it went up, if you think about it going back into '92 I think the Baht was still pegged to the dollar or it came off its peg right around that moment, so prior to then, 200,000 Baht was a very different proposition than what it would be six years later. The Baht weakened substantially against certain foreign currencies so that may actually explain why there was this policy change.