GinBoy2

$54K, thats ฿1.7M, even for Thailand that must be quite the 'palace'!

I think you're right. Maybe with hindsight we should never have been afraid of the Russian Bear, with perhaps the exception of the nukes!

There is no good answer to this. The fact that you have a bike makes any shipping doubly difficult. From what you describe you are falling between the cracks of shipping via a DHL and a freight company. With bike in play, I'd try to consolidate everything into a freight shipment. The minimum is usually half a container, which is a lot. I seem to remember there are sites which pair up folks shipping stuff overseas in order to fill containers. Other than that forget DHL, UPS or Fedex, you'd be better selling off everything and buying new in Germany Google is your friend

I've been to Laughlin when I lived in San Diego. It's extremely tiny, it basically exists for the casinos. No commercial airlines, no Amtrak, I think there are buses to Vegas but thats about it. It's cheap for a reason I think. Vegas is desert, but you wouldn't be bored. Laughlin on the other hand...... I'm still gonna harp on altitude. You'll get dry, hot in the summer cold in the winter, but much cheaper than the coasts and not some crime ridden inner city

Trouble is Putin is recreating a version, so beloved by him, of the USSR in todays Russia. We're all old enough, well most of us, to have lived through the cold war where having 'something to trade' was the name of the game and prisoner swaps were common. I feel like we're living in a John le Carré novel right now. I think we all thought after the fall of communism, Russia would end up looking more like us. Unfortunately after a brief flirtation I think it's increasingly looking like the old USSR

Well 'hater' is an interesting word. I'd split it into two categories. 1. There is the regular guy, who is just frustrated with the various frustrations any Westerner in Thailand has to deal with. So a few gripes here and there, but read any similar blog anywhere in the world and you get that. So I don't count that as a hater. 2. Then you get to the truly pis$$$ed off. Often in two sub sets, although often intertwined. The guy who cashed in everything at home, and for a multitude of reasons has lost everything. They hate Thailand. Of course a large percentage of that group, it was basically a woman at the heart of it. So they're bitter, and rather than blame their own poor choices, blame the country. It probably makes them doubly bitter since their poor choices also limit their ability to get outta Dodge and go home

So after 23 pages what have we concluded? 1. Repatriation is still possible, you hold a US passport after all 2. Things are more expensive inflation in housing, food, energy is real, but read the EU forum and thats pretty much a universal issue right now 3. Probably the same folks who would have had problems 2, 3 years ago are the same folks today, just the repatriation option is even further away in the light at the end of the tunnel scenario. Most of us are old enough to have lived through the gas crisis in the 1970's, inflation in the early 80's. If the internet had existed back then pretty sure there would have been discussions not dissimilar to this

Depends what you do. After two of my rentals came up this year, they both rented to remote workers for $1150 & $1200. They are Californian & New York remote worker transplants. I'd bet my next pay check they are still getting CA & NY pay and are laughing all the way to the bank

The only way you are ever going to get Medicare to cough up is if you are traveling through Canada to/from Alaska, apart from that it's delusional. Now why Medicare should be treated differently from Tricare, call your Rep or Senator!

Deserts like AZ aren't the only places to look for dry climates. Altitude helps when looking for dry. We've been in the 100° region for the past week or so, peaked on Tuesday at 106° which was pretty obnoxious for any of us working outside. But no humidity to speak of, which compared to FL and the like is a blessing. Now come December we could easily dip into the teens and sub zero, but the snow is dry powder, so again not a lot of the wet sh*&^t. We're at 3500ft, places like Denver at 5000ft more of the same. High altitude climates can exhibit wild temperature swings but tend to be rather more manageable and drier. Cold is easy, you just layer up. Hot well you take off as much as you can, and God Bless AC. But a climate outside with hot/cold high humidity, that thats takes a toll

Well there is a point there that outside of metro areas where housing is cheapest, public transit can be patchy at best. Maybe a couple of underused bus routes if you're lucky. But then again you can buy a clunker for <$1000. May not be pretty but it'll do the job. As for car insurance I strongly recommend joining AARP and using their car insurance plan. We pay $1200 annually for two cars, full coverage and the maximum limits on everything. Sometimes it does actually pay to be old!

This is a real life Game of Thrones. India is obviously the wild card, yet I see them gravitating to the West given their various border issues with China, not like they haven't had a few wars! As for Thailand, they will sell their soul faster than a hooker.s underwear, so right now they are in the Western court, but that could change in a heartbeat dependent on the punters pocketbook

So I think we've agreed there are a multitude of mail forwarding options. One subtle difference is whether or not they allow you to become a resident of the State they operate in. If you are still subject to State tax consider using one which will allow you to become a resident get a DL etc. TX & SD are the two standouts. The one I used for years was Americas Mailbox. One night in a hotel and boom, you're a South Dakotan https://americasmailbox.com/

And this is why any retiree can live the good life Dinner in Chicago tomorrow night! Don't let anyone tell you can't repatriate and still enjoy the high life, you just gotta pick the right job!

Jobs for retirees are 10 a penny right now. Some folks do it because they need to supplement SS, or just as in my case having tried full time retirement it's just damn boring. The airline industry is crying out for folks, which is where I work. I earn nice pocket money and I get to travel free. We travel to Denver and San Diego every couple of weeks to visit the kids for free which is helluva perk. Couple that with every billboard I pass in town desperately advertising for staff, no one can't work. Jeez my local gas station chain is advertised on their door $17/hr plus a $1000 hiring bonus. Lots of companies like us retirees, we are less flighty and tend to just do our jobs unlike the young 'un's. So No. Even a returnee on a low SS check doesn't need to be destitute unless by choice because there is plenty of work out there if you need it to supplement SS income

We kinda fall into a mid ground here. Always owned a home in the US, but when we were bouncing around China/Taiwan/Singapore for work we always rented. With the move to Thailand, we built a house which we still own and thats our vacation house. I kept rental condo's in Thailand, but as soon as we moved back to the US sold up and bought apartments here, and in hindsight one of the better real estate decisions I've ever made. But keeping a house in the US which we rented out, then renting while we were moving around for work, I never regret those choices

I've never quite 'got' the beauty pageant concept. The saying "beauty is in the the of the beholder" rings very true to me. This gal is pretty enough but I could say that dozens of women I see on the street every day. MrsG was I think a stunner back in the day, and even today in her 50's she's pretty damn sexy to me. So at the end of the day thats all that matters

I think you're not understanding what I'm saying. My wife got her 2 year green card through the CR-1, since we'd been legally married less than 2 years. It was while in the US and we applied for the removal of conditions to get her the 10 year green card the problems arose. That when my Senators office really helped

This is more of an advisory for all applicants. We were lucky and snuck in while the USCIS office was still open in BKK and my wife's CR-1 was approved in 100 days. The subsequent I-751 to remove conditions and get the 10 year green card not so quick. After two extensions I finally contacted my Senators office and they eventually unclogged the system and my wife now has her 10 year green card. I would seriously suggest you contact both your Senator and Representative's offices. They are, trust me well versed in putting pressure on these folks

California Texas (hated it) New York China Singapore China (again) Singapore (again) Taiwan Thailand Taiwan (again) Thailand (again) South Dakota

I am following this topic, whereas you are kinda all over the shop. I've followed your various threads on where to move, then you detest anyones suggestions, and I think you have no real intention to move. Very much the same with this thread, which I think is designed to rationalize why you can't repatriate, even even if you wanted to. Repatriation is not impossible for anyone who had the foresight to plan for it in the just in case scenario. So you can disparage me and folks like me, but don't rail on us for actually planning for stuff which you clearly didn't think about. You have had multiple threads about moving to different countries, so just go with that and exclude the United States, problem solved!

Well if you are saying that the only income you have is a $1200 SS check every month you would always have struggled. I think it's been said before, SS was never designed to be your sole source of income in retirement, and that comes back to that thorny issue of choices made years ago. You talk many times about changing the subject, but the premise of this thread was about increased cost making repatriation a less realistic option. I would flip that back and say, maybe if you ever considered repatriation you should have planned for this. I'm a Californian, but I knew after I moved to Asia that going back there was probably going to be impossible. So I became a South Dakotan years ago to avoid CA State tax and got a house here in Rapid City which I rented out for years. Living in the moment can be fun, but don't whine if events take a turn which you haven't planned for. I always thought at some point I'd return to the US, and especially after our son moved to the US that was always gonna happen. Now maybe I was just lucky, but at least I'd thought about the future prospects, which many others do, and at least gives you an option to repatriate. No future planning always condemns you to limited options. And as for me not doing Section 8 housing. Maybe you missed the fact that I did, and got totally hosed by a tenant that trashed the place!

But what you are also saying is that South Dakota does provide a viable option for repatriation. I'm not saying SD is the only one out of 50 as unique, but come on your doom and gloom just isn't real. Anecdotal news stories which you love to post just don't reflect the experience of average Americans You don't live in the US. We straddle both the US and Thailand, and I see both realities. You can, for the most part by your own choice be homeless almost anywhere. But for most regular folks in the US without drugs mental health issues they are surviving just fine, albeit with the struggle of the current inflation spike. But then again most us here lived through the 70/80's inflation crisis which puts todays 9% in the shade

Little bit of a theoretical exercise, since I am married and three kids. But assuming they didn't exist, upon my departure from this mortal coil, everything would go to a cat charity. Yes I know human charities benefit future generations etc etc. But my love of cats and their love for me has been one of the joys of my life

So, after 20 pages of this the best I have concluded is that I seem to be living in a parallel universe. Yes, housing costs have increased. I know my own rentals have increased in price, so I'll fess up to that. Yet here I am, I work my crappy paid retirement gig with the airlines. My equally crappy paid co-workers all seem to be able to afford housing, I don't think any of them are living out of a cardboard box and a shopping cart! We don't live in a ghetto, just a rather sedate suburban, and rather beautiful part of South Dakota. Somehow we seem to have escaped the dystopian world of homeless encampments on every street corner that seems to be the hysterical theme of this thread