Robert Campbell

Lived in Hua Hin area for three years and Thailand for ten years. You can live for $1000 a month. But you surely won't be playing golf and dining out in restuarants. You'll be living like an old person in a rest home. Not because you can't go out but because you have no money.

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The 7 best places to retire overseas

7. Hua Hin, Thailand

Cost of living: $975 a month

American dollars will go pretty far in Thailand, where retirees could live for roughly less than $1,000 a month. (A one-bedroom apartment can be rented for about $400.) Retirees would find golf, spas and amusement parks, but the main draw is the beach. The city has a strong community of expats from European countries that U.S. retirees can befriend. People age 50 and up can qualify for long-stay visas if they show they have a pension of about $1,900 a month or open up a Thai bank account and deposit at least roughly $23,400 about two months before they apply, according to the study.

The health care system there is also both advanced and affordable, Peddicord says, making it so that some people may choose to forego medical insurance and pay for treatment and checkups as they need it. (Generally, the options are to buy health insurance local to that country or to buy a global policy that works in multiple countries but is more expensive.)

The savings found abroad can be substantial, but as with most destinations on the list, people will need to be motivated by more than money when they decide to make the move, Peddicord says. For some retirees, the distance from family and the changes to standard of living may outweigh the low costs. “When you just begin thinking about [retiring abroad] at a superficial infatuation level, it’s a very exotic, romantic, sexy idea,” says Pedddicord, who lived in Ireland and Panama before moving to Paris. “But the truth is that once you get into it, it’s not easy.”

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/get-there/wp/2015/07/28/the-7-best-places-to-retire-overseas/

They withdrew cash 1000 times then the next line it was 162 times.

Bit of a discrepancy.

I read it that they tried to use the cards 1000 times but only successfully got money 162 times.

( I have my Thai press translator turned on)

Does that make a big diference to you. Lock the f--ck--s up for life.

I suggest some of the readers be less racist or do not live here. These guys day in day out risk their life to help and save people with very little equipment like jet-skis in Australia. Then you get people who ignore red flags which should be obvious what it means and be disrespectful. The lifeguards have to put up with disrespect probably every day. I see some of the tourists they come here and look down on Thais. They would not behave the same in their own country. Most of the tourists here are budget end people and not educated.

I've lived here ten years and disagree with you. I'm on the beach three or four times a day. I body surf when we get large waves. I'd say ninety percent of the rescues are from body surfers and surfers. Only when the commotion attracts them do they come to help. Usually the swimmer is laying on a surfboard. Lifeguards very seldom do any lifeguarding in phuket. They sleep or surf. We have a great Lifeguard tower in Kata beach, I defy you to get a picture of a lifeguard in the tower. When you see a lifeguard bringing a person to shore its usually after a surfer got their attention to come and get them so they can continue surfing. I could literally tell you a hundred stories like this. Maybe if you spend a little more time on the beach when the surfs up you'll educate yourself on whats happening.

I live in Phuket for the last three years. Before Phuket we lived in Samui for six years. The last few years we left in Nov. and returned mid Jan. Nov. Dec. the weather sucks and the streets flood. A few years the water was up over my pick up hood in Lamai and Chewang. We moved after my friend who was in charge of a water treatment plant in Sweden tested the water in Jan. Feb. March and April and it was off the scales with fecal bacteria. I haven't had eye and ear problems since we left.