Keeping funds in a safe place

I'm hopeful of being in asia again in a few months. I'm going to take a loan and leave the country. this means I cant have money in my bank like the last time as I am not paying it back (yet)

Ive got a plan to import stuff and sell it back here when I'm back after spending some years travelling in asia

Considering I'l need to remove all funds from an account and take the cash in hand with me to India what would be a safe place to store most of the money? (5k+) I'd have about 1k on me in my moneybelt but am not risking most of it. I dont think travellers cheques is a good idea because they may get annulled after the bank finds out that ive left the country

This is why I need somewhere to keep the cash in the countries I'l be visiting. india/thailand/vietnam/cambodia and possibly other countries around asia. Probably

It also needs to be something that is safe enough to store the cash without getting compromised and I can collect it when I need it. but not something my bank could trace

I do intend paying back the loan just incase you were wondering but just not how they want me to structurally re pay it.

if you can think of anything I will be unbelievably greatful!
cheers!

Hi Kieran how are you? great to hear you are returning on an erm.... more permanent basis. At the risk of becoming an accomplice, have you thought about opening an Indian bank account, i think you can??? at least this way you could earn some interest on your ill gotten gains!
By the way remember Grizzly?? He's planning on heading back on a "more permanent basis" too.Look;
The spiritual India as it once was KK

Wow, I'm about to jump to a hundred conclusions, probably all wrong, but before you jump down my throat, I have only the best intentions with this post, I would have sent a private message, but I have a feeling the post may be 'helpful' to others.

Great plan by the way, I wish I'd have thought of it a few years ago, at that time my head was in many strange places, but none of these strange places allowed sensible thoughts to enter my head.

Many, and I mean a lot of the Brit Expats living in Thailand had the same plan, but on a large scale, they screwed the banks for £500,000* and buggered off to Thailand to live the dream, sadly, most dreams they have these days include a full English breakfast, I'm not saying that these people are in prison, they're not, just that they crave the things they never thought they'd miss, a side note, did you know there's a lot of profit to be made by taking good quality bacon and sausages into Thailand?

*(those expats say that you should pay the first instalment of the loan, if it then goes to court, you can then argue that you had planned to pay back the loan.)

There's no way any person who truly loves or cares for you would agree to this plan, so you must be doing it alone (the planning), and the only sure thing to come from this plan is a fuc53d-up future (try getting a decent job without a bank account, and try living without a credit card, it's getting more difficult by the day.)

If you're other posts (and the plans contained in those posts) are correct, you're either just about to leave India, or you've just got home, I know from personal experience that life can seem so easy when you're travelling and so damn hard when you return, all those problems you'd forgotten about, all those decisions you should have taken, and all those pressures you were sure would have gone by now, there all still these, but now they seem even worse, so what's the solution, go travelling again, every problem solved????

On the road, and especially in India, I feel like a million dollars, I feel important, I feel free, I feel knowledgeable, I feel like I can talk to anyone about anything, the climate is always great, and if I'm not having a good day, just go to another great tourist place, at home, nobody understands me, everyone keeps giving me grief and wanting and wasting my time, I don't seem to share interests with anyone, I feel useless, and one by one my friends have moved out of London to be replaced with strange unfriendly faces, work is crap and I'm forever dreaming of winning the lottery, and in my worst days a few years ago, I thought how great it would be to just die, not a great feeling, but it did make me one of the best, most daring motorbike couriers you'd ever find.

I never really addressed these feelings, and one day I just had enough, I walked out on England forever, landed in Bangkok in my London Underground uniform, and slowly allowed these feelings to finish me off, the result very nearly cost me my life, and carried on interfering with my life for a long time afterwards, raising it's ugly head when I least expected it.

Read this post for an awful insight to what can happen when you least expect it.

The solution, I don't know, I'm no expert, but travelling isn't the solution, I used to feel lonely in England, but I never truly understood the meaning of loneliness till I was surrounded by wonderful things in wonderful places and had nobody to share it with.

I have probably totally got this all wrong (your post), if so, just ignore me, but if any of it means anything to you, or if you recognise some of the things I say, send me a PM, (same for anyone).

One last thing, if you do go travelling with a lot of money, it should be the expats you watch out for, especially in Thailand, even half a million runs out when you try to live the dream, and they can't go home, don't use a hotel safe that isn't in your room, and watch out for spiked drinks & food from these expats.

There is nothing in this post for OP.
Steven_ber, your train related posts are amazing and your non-train posts are woderfull!

Nice one,steven_ber, i recognize myself in your post.

Hi kullukid Good to see you mate! I do rmember grizzly, and read his spiritual enligtenment thread and im going over to say hello after this

Actually steven I've been back a year now, in a week it will be a year exactly. you are right I am highly frustrated with aspects of my life here but I have been for years and dont see what I've got to lose. the only thing i could think of was the credit card issue. but that dosnt bother me, as im not qualified to take a decent job anyway! cash in hand labour is the most financially rewarding I can hope to achieve.. and I've no interest in going to college again - tried twice already

I know where my strengths lie and if I have the money I have a strong belief I will find something to make reasonable money on importing. and thats just what I came across on a 4 month travelling visit to india when I wasnt very seriously considering the importing at the time. I also didnt have enough money to buy anything in bulk. This time I am looking specifically at the market in the whole area, as I am quite aware of the difficulties when I return if I was to without some kind of plan.

Thanks!
and steven - Where do the expats keep there money? As thailand is somewhere I hope to go this is an important question I need answered before I go. Do they open thai bank accounts?
take care everyone
PS good to see you kullukid!

I did not realize that this, taking loans and not paying them back, had become common practise.. May be you should try posting the same question on an expat forum?

The man is risking a lot,but you will notice he's not risking his own money. some may say this is considered a good move ...

Nor me, but I'm naive about a lot of the wicked ways of the world.

And amounts like £500K! It takes a lot to make me start feeling sorry for banks, but hey, this is crime and no too ways about it.

As to living on that kind of money --- well, it is a hell of a lot more (like several times more*) than I have for the two of us to live on for the forseeable future! But I can't remember the last time I had a gin & tonic, have paid for precisely one five-star-hotel meal, and visited exactly zero bars in India in the past three years! I remember John.SW sketching out a budget for his life in Ooty a year or two back: I think it was about ten times mine!

Someone spiriting their ill-gotten gains from a life of crime out of the country to somewhere where they believe they may not be caught is one thing; burning your bridges with a single act of fraud is quite another.



*an order of multiplicatitude?

Im not too sure on this, but cant you register your business name in your home country, then when you get to asia open a business account and use netbanking any where in the world? This way the account is not directly under your name, it's under your 'umbrella company name' I'm assuming you will be visiting these countries on business visa's which will make this possible. Pardon me if I'm talking rubbish, but I'm pretty sure it's a good way to legally use the money you will borrow and tardily pay off.

I think the OP mentioned 5K not 500K?

Though in my mind it doesn't make too much difference...

In the UK you can register a company ,raise funds have everything go wrong and you are not liable ,the registered company is !!
all this is considered bad business ,but these methods are used . Also i have heard of cases that have been before a judge and the judgment has been ...the card / credit company lent the money with the intent being ,there profit so there risk!!

Be careful with your own karma. And watch out for your money.
Maybe open a bank account, but pay back your loan. This is not your money, anyway. You have to pay it back.

Your probably right, though there's inflation, and the interest will mount up!

Nick was refering to a comment I made in post 3.