Lester T - Page 3 of 3 -

Fitness: How I keep fit in Chiang Mai

Posted on March 1, 2024March 1, 2024by Lester T

Being stronger and fitter was one of my priorities during my mini retirement. And there are a plethora of opportunities to do so in Chiang Mai. So how did I choose which activities and routines to adopt?

This post discusses what works/worked for my fitness. I break up my fitness priorities into three categories: 1) strength, 2) cardio, and 3) mobility. For each category, I’ll outline what I currently do to stay fit as well as other options I tried out.

Strength

For most of my life, I have been a skinny, lanky guy. While growing up, my parents would say I didn’t eat enough. During grade school, I adopted a nickname “stickboy” (for better or worse – I embraced it, using the nickname for my screen name on AOL, eBay, and other platforms). The mini-retirement afforded me plenty of time to explore whether I can put on more muscle. While having a healthy, high-caloric diet was critical in muscle gain, I won’t be discussing my diet on this post – but instead where I went for my strength training.

Self Discovery

Happiness: Why I am happier in Chiang Mai

Posted on February 29, 2024March 1, 2024by Lester T

My definition of happiness has changed over the years. In my 20s, I thought it was “heart beats” – the number of moments I felt alive and present. In my 30s, I felt it was work success, as well as warmth and security for my family. Now in my 40s, I agree with what Arthur Brooks talks about in Strength to Strength – that:

Happiness = Have / Want

The more I have, the happier I would be. But the more I want, the less happy I would be. What I have and what I want go well beyond material possessions. I measure what I have as:

Have = f (Connections, Purpose, Freedom, Self Love)current

Want = f (Connections, Purpose, Freedom, Self Love)potential

Connections are the depth, not breadth, of my relationships. Do I have meaningful connections with others grounded in love, truth, and compassion? Purpose is the fulfillment of how I spend my time. Do I spend my time that has a positive impact on others and on myself? Freedom is the ability to control my destiny – doing what I want when I want how I want with whom I want. Do I have the choice and resources to shape my own future? And Self Love is how well I take care of myself: physically, intellectually, emotionally, spiritually. Do I fully accept and love myself, cultivating the best version of myself?

Thai Life

Day in the Life: How I spend the day in Chiang Mai

Posted on February 29, 2024March 1, 2024by Lester T

“Now that you don’t work, what do you do all day?”

I get this question a lot. Freedom is a double edged sword. Yes, I get to do what I want to do. But it requires some effort to fill all of this newfound time I have gotten back in mini-retirement. It’s the easiest thing to just fill all of this time with Netflix binging or Thai massages. And for the few first months, after getting settled in Chiang Mai, there was plenty of time I put in on both Netflix and at various massage places across the city. But I didn’t get any closer to some of the goals I had, such as learning a new language or becoming healthier.

Here’s a glimpse of – one and a half years in mini retirement – what the typical day in the life of Lester T is:

5:45am – Wake up: I meditate for 15 min (a habit I picked up from a vipassana retreat). I journal (blogger). I listen to a short self-recorded affirmation. Only after taking medications/vitamins, brushing my teeth, etc. do I check my phone. Then I prepare a light breakfast at home: oats, peanut butter, cashews, and honey.

Blog Thai Life

Quality of Life: How life is better in Chiang Mai

Posted on February 29, 2024March 1, 2024by Lester T

I chose Chiang Mai because of the high quality of life at a low cost.

In my prior post, I showed how much it costs to live in Chiang Mai – and how the costs are much lower than in the U.S. for the quality of life you have in Thailand. This post discusses how I define quality of life, and why I think Chiang Mai has the best quality of life I have seen of a city.

I’ll break up quality of life into separate categories that matter the most to me and my family, in alphabetical order: 1) Climate; 2) Culture; 3) Getting Around; 4) Health Care; 5) Safety; and 6) Schools. For each of these categories, I provide a rating on a scale of 1 to 4, 1 being negative quality of life and 4 being positive quality of life.

Mini Retirement

Funding Retirement: How I live on 100% passive income

Posted on February 28, 2024March 1, 2024by Lester T

I pay for my family’s cost of living in Thailand using two sources: 1) deferred compensation from my prior job and 2) cash withdrawals from my investment portfolio. My 2023 income from deferred compensation actually paid for all of the living expenses in Thailand, while the investment portfolio grew substantially. In other words, I am actually growing my wealth in mini-retirement! In this post, I intend to show how I was able to do this with my two sources of income.

First Income Source: Deferred Compensation

Almost a decade ago, I sat down with the Director of Compensation at my prior company. She described a benefit that I had as an executive: a SERP. She went on to explain that it’s a way to defer my compensation and reduce my tax exposure. At the time, I did not enroll in the benefit, thinking, ‘why in the world would I want to defer my pay? Didn’t Finance 101 say that money now is more valuable than money later?” But after seeing the effect that taxes had on my take-home pay, I reconsidered. Now mini-retired in Chiang Mai, I am very thankful for enrolling in this program and saving as much as I did before I resigned from my prior company.

Thai Life

Cost: How much it costs to live in Chiang Mai

Posted on February 28, 2024March 1, 2024by Lester T

How much does it cost for you and your family to live in Chiang Mai?

As noted by many expats, your cost of living will greatly vary on your standard of living. What I tried to do is to have a similar standard of living our family had in Dallas, Texas.

We are paying about $6,000 a month, including international school tuition, which is the largest expense. Excluding tuition, we are paying about $3,800 a month. This is about a quarter of our cost of living in Texas.

Mini Retirement

Resigning: Why I walked away from a $800,000 job

Posted on February 28, 2024March 1, 2024by Lester T

“Why the hell did you quit your job?”

I get this a question a lot. I know it’s a blessing to have a job that pays so well. And I worked so damn hard to get to where I was.

The simple answer: I wasn’t happy. I was an executive at a Fortune 200 company for eight years. Sure, I had a positive impact on others’ lives, especially in helping to improve the bottom line for the company and shareholders, as well as employing others (including personally hiring some people I am proud to say are my friends). The money was great – and I was very blessed to have been earning that much. But at some point the costs outweighed the benefits. The equation tipped the scale towards the option of walking away in three ways: freedom, time, and purpose.

About

About Lester T

Posted on February 27, 2024March 25, 2024by Lester T

I am an Asian American, born in Texas to Chinese immigrant parents from Vietnam. As the middle child of three, I learned that achievement could help me get attention/love. My parents taught that happiness is having a lot of success and money, and I was an eager student. I studied hard, did a lot of extracurriculars, got into a top college, and was on my way on the fast track. Marrying my wife at the age of 25 – right before starting my MBA – I made a promise to her that we will be millionaires by 40 with healthy kids, a large house in the suburbs, and a life of love and happiness.

Fast forward almost a decade, and I am a Vice President of a Fortune 200 company at the age of 35. I was making nearly $800k a year, beating the goal of becoming a millionaire by several years. We had the healthy kids. We had the large house. And we had this Instagram-worthy life seemingly filled with love and happiness.

But I wasn’t happy.