Jingthing

That's interesting. I've been there on long visits but haven't lived there as an expat, so I don't know. Their residence offer is massively better than Thailand's though, but you need a relatively large income or savings bucket to get into the system.

Yep. The rent is too damn high there on steroids now. Inflation may be waning now, but it's not as if prices are going down except in super inflated areas that almost nobody care afford anyway.

Who cares what the Thais think? Except for immigration officers, of course.

That's hilarious! So you think the other party wants to help those things? They want to cut everything except crusades against drag queens. Back to the topic, of course life abroad is not always better. But if you've only got a budget of for example 300 dollars for rent in the U.S. and such prices don't exist in the U.S., then life abroad where you can get a decent place for that, is going to better for those than can manage the move.

Who needs that? That's what the Mexican women are saying about the likes of you.

Don't be so literal. Using the word stupid was a way to get the juices flowing to stimulate a lively conversation on the topic.

That sounds like an old story because typically now people that do such a thing could never afford to live back in a place like Seattle once they sold.

I find your post weird. It's parroting the false myth that you need to be richer than average to retire abroad. Being rich is always good anywhere, but the overwhelmingly primary motivator for retirement abroad for most people that retire abroad is economics. Obviously you need some money to get started and have an emergency buffer and obviously not everyone has that. But you need some money to fit out a vehicle to live in as well.

There have been a few complaints about using the word stupid. Everyone is stupid in some ways. The word clearly helped stimulate the discussion here.

Probably never

I call BS. They're not arresting River to the Sea chanters.

This is bull. Dirt cheap rent in the US isn't even close to cheap enough. A typical Medicare recepiant pays more than 150k in lifetime out of pocket costs. Laos is a rare choice. There are many other options.

Everyone can start at 62 with reduced benefits.

I claimed at 62. Time will tell of the wisdom or folly of that.

Its not a small minority. It's the majority.

Exactly. It's not that they have reasonable demands unless people consider we want to murder you all and erase your nation reasonable.

You're conflating normal criticism with the genocidal River to the Sea chanters and people that refuse to unequivocally condemn the Hamas terrorist pogrom. Also if you don't acknowledge that self hating Jews exist then we come from different planets

I hope that isn't usually the case but self hating Jews definitely exist and sadly they are not particularly rare.

That does kind of contradict what I was told but perhaps I didn't frame the question well enough.

Correct. Only Pattaya and Sri Racha for now.

If not explicitly supporting and celebrating it most at least make excuses for it and condemning Hamas for doing their pogrom is uncommon in that crowd.

I miss a few US things. Some people of course and Ethiopian food for example. Yes I know they have it in Bangkok but I rarely go there.

Bait ignored.

If they're chanting River to the Sea and you go along with that, that's a shanda. Honestly I think your POV is tragically naive about what most current Free Palestine protesters have in mind for Israeli Jews including the peaceniks.

In the context of THIS topic it is a government pension. Why? Because retired expat destination nations that specifically require a government pension always accept it as that. Depending on the nation you might qualify for permanent residence based on your social security government pension with the current level accepted as secure lifetime income. Yes potentially social security benefits can be cut but that's academic if you've already qualified for permanent residence. Keep in mind this topic is not only about Thailand. Obviously Thailand income is based on current income and they don't specifically require income to be a government pension. Each country offering an expat retirement option obviously has specific rules. But again if they're requiring a government pension social security will always be accepted as a government pension whether it technically is or not. So assuming it's not for this topic that simply doesn't matter.