old farts and the Ausie pension in VN

Call the overseas branch of Centerlink.
Live overseas indefinitly and pension is paid pro-rata to your 35year involvement with paid wages in Australia.
i.e. 35 years 100%.
Check out the eligibility for LIVING in Vietnam full time!!

cheers for that will do, I qualify for the 35 year bit, you all ready ? 

Keep your money outside VietNam on ANZ or similar.

VietNam is a black hole for currency - easy in, hard out. Interest in VN back accounts is way below inflation, great way to lose money.

Check, when you find a bank with VN operations, that you can convert directly between Ozzie$ and VN Dong. Many banks exchange Ossie$ >> USD$ >> VN Dong so you get screwed twice.

At least with the US, and other countries, maintaining your 'home' address with a relative, means you get all the benefits of a pension without the hassles of discounting if you live overseas. Get your money through the local bank branch here or an ATM.

HSBC uses the screw-you method of Foreign currency conversion, except for the US Dollar. They also keep all their accounts on US computer systems.

Thanks Jaitch,I'll be leaving every thing here in investments,the idea for the address is something I hadn't considered, but  a good 1 my bank was only charging $1.50 / atm withdrawl while there, so if I can find an atm that will give me 8 mill / time I won't worry about that

Hey Mark,
Get a local bank account in Dong and another in AUD.  You can transfer AUD to the $ account via your Aussie bank Internet banking..@$22 per transfer..  When the rate is good, take out the A$ and convert to dong at the gold shops and put into the dong account.. Then use a local ATM card at 10 cents a transaction.   OR get an OZ forex account, they give a good rate on the foreign currency and don't charge a transfer fee.  Then just use the Dong account.   I only ever transfer $5000 at a time,  because if I need to bail out of here in a hurry, that's the most you can carry without hassles.

I've seen people have problems trying to take their money home ,even when they can prove they brought it in.  There's a guy on this forum with $200k in a bank here and he's having major issues taking it home. He brought that with him, but they keep telling him bullshit stories to keep it here.