GinBoy2

So before anyone blasts me as some Thai hater. I love the country for all it's absurdities, corruption et al. But we haven't been back in 2 years because of covid, and my Thai wife, who never wanted us to move from Singapore to Thailand in the first place is becoming less and less interested in our original plan of snowbirding to our Thai house. So I'm left contemplating what do we do? We have a great house there, but what's the point of hanging on to an asset which lets face it, is worth a fraction of the cost it took to build it, ot just cut and run, hotels are c

Hmm, that's really good question and I did, as I'm sure you did, a google search and nothing on the Government told you anything. This might be one to fund the google voice account and call the 'help' line

With the amount of stuff you describe you are between a rock and a hard place. Thats way too little for any shipping company, usually they sell space on half a container minimum. So then you are back to the usual suspects, split it down and sent it by mail, Fedex, DHL etc

Well I agree with @VocalNealtake it out for a ride, get some dirt on the wheels. Don't ship it in the original box, go but a bike case. Then 'if' you got stopped you'd be on slightly firmer grounds arguing that it wasn't new. Also, since I work for an airline, the bike case is a helluva lot better protection for that pricy bike than having it chucked about by the rampers in a cardboard box

Can't think of any other reason to get an ITIN other than for 1040 filing Many of us have or do do it. Saved a bunch on my taxes having the married allowance before we moved to the US and my wife got an SSN

Not quite sure I understand your point. Immigrants, and my wife is one in the US enjoy all the benefits of a citizen pretty much, up to the point that they can't vote. A 'long stay tourist' in Thailand on a yearly extension of a non immigrant visa has exactly the same rights, as well a tourist which is basically nothing. I'm unclear who you were directing the 'superiority' comment too. Farangs in Thailand or the Thais themselves?

Well we've been around and around on this one, how old is this thread again??? The only bulletproof way to maintain a US number and importantly to receive text messages from financial institutions is to get the cheapest US carrier plan that supports WiFi calling, with a phone that also supports it. They are all getting really savvy about detecting VPN server farms and the rest, so the VOIP solution if they do work, it's only a matter of time until they catch up and block them

That's the fundamental issue. In Thailand 'expats' aren't ever anything more than long stay tourists, with the same rights, or lack of than any joe smo that flies in for a two week vacation, regardless of whether you are married to a Thai, have kids, own a condo or whatever. Now we all moan and whine about immigration in home countries, but in reality you pay the fees, file the paperwork and your wife gets residency, after which she in all cases looks just like any citizen of said country, just can't vote. My wife has now been a permanent resident in the US

Yeah the lack of traffic here is a real plus. As much as we'd like to move to Colorado and be closer to the kids, cost and just the general peaceful living here kinda clouds our decision.

Definitely days long gone

I lived in Mission Valley but worked in Rancho Bernardo, so had a reverse commute. As I crossed the hill on I-15 past Miramar I'd see 8 lanes of practically stationary traffic headed south into the city. Don't miss that for a second. I miss lots of other things about San Diego, the beaches, the food, the weather, but definitely not the traffic

Hmm, traffic don't miss any of that. I lived in San Diego for years, where when you looked at Google maps the traffic algorithm would show red when traffic was backed up for 10 miles. Here in Rapid City, 5 cars stopped at a red light is enough to generate a red on google traffic maps! No, i'm happy with South Dakota traffic 'backup's'

Thing is I could live in The Springs, Boulder, parts of Denver, Breck, Vail, all of them fantastic places. it's just could I justify the price? We live in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Driving distance to Denver, equally stunning landscape at a fraction of the price. Every time we go to Boulder my wife and I have this battle over whether we should move there. It's fabulous, but 4x expensive from where we live

Not sure about that. My daughter lives in City Park and our son lives in RINO. They would both like to buy something in City Park, but it's super expensive. My son and his girlfriend are ready to start a family, so they wanna move out of the apartment world of RINO. Fort Collins ain't cheap, but equally it's not Denver, or worst still Boulder, which I must admit, I've contemplated cashing out my rentals and buying something there. Fort Collins is turning into a Denver commute hub. Yep it's getting pricey, but we were looking at what they could a

Let's put this into some sort of perspective The red hot markets tend to be where job growth is going through the roof, Coastal California, NE Coast, Denver, NW, TX etc. But for a retiree you aren't looking for somewhere with hot job possibilities. That's where the likes of Wyoming come into play. As I mentioned earlier a guy from this group moved to Wyoming, Gillette to be precise. The average house price is $278K, so obviously there are homes way below that, in a smallish city, but pretty nice with an airport and decent infrastructure.