Lacessit

Luk Kruengs are not treated well in Thai schools. Tiger Woods is a luk krueng, a big exception.

HIV is never cured, it's medication for the rest of one's life.

I don't use them, mainly because there is no way of knowing how long the food is sitting on the back of a scooter, breeding bacteria.

You are such a romantic.

71 mostly bickering posts on this thread does not look like intelligence to me.

It's quite common for a Thai to refuse to admit to a mistake, as it causes loss of face, which is very important to them. It's also very common for a Thai to tell someone what he/she thinks that someone wants to hear. Bad news used to get the messenger beheaded in Thailand. I go back to businesses that treat me well. If they don't, I don't.

I remember the statement about Jaguar - one needed to own two, because one of them would always be in the service shop.

We won't all be driving them. There is simply not enough lithium, cobalt and nickel available to meet EV demand. Rio Tinto is one of the world's biggest miners. At a recent Minerals and Metals conference in Australia, the head of Rio's lithium division said lithium mining would need to produce 10 times what is being mined currently, to meet current demand alone. Governments that decree complete replacement of EV's by whatever time frame are indulging in fantasy. We won't be driving EV's that require carrying capacity either. Batteries are heavy, there's no point to a semi-trailer where half the payload is the battery it has to lug around. My apologies if this post derails the topic.

It is more difficult for foreign women to retire here, they need more social interaction than men, and may be ignored by Thais unless they are fluent, or can find a foreigner enclave. My choice was not difficult, low cost of living and a GF 23 years younger than me. In Australia, rentals are through the roof, and most women available are wrinkled whales.

Actually, it's the fossil fuel industry lobbies that are stopping us. Add in Murdoch media. Trump appointed an oil industry executive as Environment Secretary. In Australia, 90% of the advisers in the Prime Minister's Department had links to the fossil fuel industry when the Liberals were in power. It doesn't matter whether you take climate change seriously. If you are less than 60 yo, and live to 80, it will kick you in the butt, like it or not. Either through an actual disaster, such as Maui, or in the hip pocket, via insurance premiums.

I mean the amount of energy required to construct, maintain and harvest such a system will always be more than it is worth in terms of removing carbon dioxide. It's called entropy.

Average assumes data is normally distributed. In the US, it is more likely to be Gaussian. The Americans I knew were mostly on social security alone. I very much doubt they met the 800K requirement, far more likely they were paying an agent to fudge the yearly extension. As you say, they were not living like kings, but they were not poverty stricken either. One I knew would put aside money from his SS to fund 1-2 week holidays in other Asian countries, he especially liked Vietnam. Another ate McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hut exclusively. He died when his digestive system ground to a halt.

Ah yes, a variant of the Carbon Capture and Storage ( CCS ) boondoggle, on which billions have been spent. It's a real shame none of the facilities have met their design specifications, but that's what one gets for attempting to circumvent the Second Law of Thermodynamics. One point in your favor, interest in geothermal power is increasing. In Australia, there's a couple of companies that have gone bust trying to bring it to fruition.

I've known Americans here who were far from the income level you are quoting, they were getting about USD 1550/ month. Your median of $47K is probably biased by much more wealthy retirees of independent means. Be that as it may, British and Australian pensioners do not fare as well. Australia is the same as the US, retirement homes are all about money and profits. Many are owned by overseas investors.

It depends on a foreigner's comfort level with what Thais regard as normal. I can speak from experience, having done 14 days COVID quarantine in a Thai provincial hospital. Very basic, with mattresses about 2 inches thick. Getting strawberry jam on a ham and salad roll as mayonnaise was a new culinary adventure for me. As was showering and fending off mosquitoes simultaneously. Where are the retirement facilities you speak of located?

AFAIK in Thailand, the options appear to be: 1/ Have a Thai girlfriend or wife to take care. 2/ Hire a carer. I understand nurses are compulsorily retired from government hospitals at age 45. The going rate is 10K - 15K baht/month. 3/ Mid-tier aged care facility, there's one somewhere in Hang Dong costing 45K baht/month. 4/ Top care, north on the 118 from Chiang Mai. 90K baht/month. I'd sooner shoot myself than go into aged care in Australia. There's a Royal Commission supporting my point of view. As for hospitals, unless one has private health care, it's a 12 - 18 month wait for any surgery that is not classed as an emergency.

I was once refused a visa extension by Chiang Mai Immigration, when I had a medical certificate, and was forced to do a border bounce instead. So who decides who is handicapped and disabled? Show me where staff of a retirement home can enable an able-bodied retiree to evade the in person requirement, or is this another corruption example?

I did read the full article, which covers both retirement homes, and retirement outside said homes in Thailand. I was referring to the latter. There are no free lunches. Such a service would be added to the bill. AFAIK no foreigner is excused from attending Immigration in person for retirement extensions. I understand there is a retirement facility off the 118 north of Chiang Mai, 90,000 baht/month. Beyond the financial reach of most retirees.

IMO you could find the exchange rate on transfers given by the bank is quite inferior to what Wise gives. I don't know what a FET is, apologies if you have already researched exchange rates.

Try an oxy-acetylene torch ( not recommended for weatherboards ).

IMO it's a good way to commit financial suicide. The OP would need to be fluent in Thai, have good connections, and have experience in the hospitality business. Alternatively, he could keep working until he has a nest egg of 300-400K USD, or equivalent. Invest the funds in his home country for a return of 40-50K baht/month. Come to Thailand, rent a house or condo wherever he wants. Thailand has thousands of guesthouses, they have close to no customers in low season, which is about 8 months of the year.

A completely irrelevant article. It omits to mention the obligatory yearly trek to Immigration for a retirement extension, which can be withheld at any time if the IO is having a bad day.

Please elaborate, I haven't seen any imaginative BS on this thread for quite a while.

Portugal.

Your post is repeating another, with the same level of irrelevance.