Thailand Tops Asia Retirement Ranking

8 hours ago, Leopold Bloom said:

In this situation, someone who was likely to take seriously the information re cost of living etc should be alerted to the importance of comparing apples with apples.

As we all know, Los is a wonderful place in many respects, but while in general the cost of living is lower than in Western countries, one should do one's homework when it comes to the things that are most important to you.

For example, I like a good bottle of wine which costs peanuts in most places in the world, but that same bottle might cost me at least 100% more in LoS. Soon, I would be hovering over bankruptcy if I tried to maintain my "home" country's standard of living.

For me I try to prioritize items that i rent or buy in terms of how much i will use it and how much of an impact it will have on my everyday life and overall convenience and happiness. The older I get the more time I spend at home so having a nice clean comfortable condo/house is top of list as it generally is also the largest percent of what i spend. Convenience to food markets/restaurants/bars and easy walking or baht bus transport is also more important as you age and mobility becomes more of an issue.

I also watch more and more tv and more time on computer so a big 65 or so inch tv is high on priority list along with a good high speed wifi and nice computer. Also like having a maid at least once a week to deal with cleaning.

For the amount of $$ I see lots of expats piss away on overpriced imported stuff, western food, lady drinks, and the like I can easily have a much nicer place which after all is where i spend most of my time. As for food I rarely eat western or imported food and that alone can save a lot of money. Fortunately I have a good list of thai food that i love and actually prefer to the old standby burger/fries that can often be 300 thb or so while i am eating a delicious likely healthier thai meal for 100 thb or so.That adds up over time.

And of course the issue of how much lady "attention" you require can be a major , sometimes the biggest, expense of all. For many guys this desire dwindles as we age and I have found it much easier to just say no to lady drinks etc and I can still have lot of fun joking around with the gals by not going for the star of the bar types.

Bottom line is everyone has their own financial situation and wants and needs. The trick is to learn the difference between what you want and what you need and how important and how much of your budget goes to each.

55 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

When OA visas started to require health insurance -- NOT grandfathered.

How can the requirements for a new type of visa be "Grandfathered"?

I'll stick to being retired in Australia. Go and visit other countries on my own timetable. I can't see how Thailand retirement can be sustainable in the longer term How many countries actually need a bunch of older foreigners clogging up their medical facilities regardless of their ability to pay?

17 minutes ago, Why bother said:

How can the requirements for a new type of visa be "Grandfathered"?

Non OA has been around since 1999 & when they added the Health Insurance requirement to it (2019), you were expected to have Health Insurance no matter how long you'd been on a Non OA VIsa/Extension (Though I believe Phuket ignored the requirement for a few years, seems they also require it nowadays).

TBH I 1/2 expected them to do the same with the Non O Visas so I took out a health insurance Policy but I planned to do this before I hit 55 anyway so the timing worked for me.

Still makes no sense to me that they can require Health Insurance for "Retirement" extensions of Non OA Visas & yet what is in reality an identical "Retirement" extension on a Non O doesn't require Health Insurance.

1 hour ago, Why bother said:

How can the requirements for a new type of visa be "Grandfathered"?

It wasn"t new.

57 minutes ago, emptypockets said:

How many countries actually need a bunch of older foreigners clogging up their medical facilities regardless of their ability to pay?

this is a very excellent point that I'm sure Thailand and such have really never thought about.

On that note, my Thai wife has jokingly said many times, "do you think Thailand really wants old falang men retiring in LOS on a fixed budget??"

11 hours ago, Jingthing said:

To wit:

Video is wrong, Thailand didn't change the rules, America stopped providing the letter.

10 hours ago, baansgr said:

Thailand beats Phillipines hands down on visas. Unless you are ex military on the SRRV, you still need $15,000 and the yearly renewal fee of $380. Extensions of tourists visa for 3 years every 2 months unless you are in manilla can be time consuming and costly.

Philippines don't require any VISA at all, you can just turn up and stay 2 years (on short term extensions), then an overnight trip away and repeat. If you are married to a local, free VISA for a year every time you arrive with her. They even provide you with a residence card so you can have utilities and bank accounts in your own name. I had several pals living in PI, no need to visit immigration for extensions, ever.

Almost forgot, PI immigration actually seem to want foreign visitors (for any length of time), where Thailand says "You come too often", PI says "You should stay longer" ....... yep, they said that to me.

Beats the pants off Thailand!

9 hours ago, BayArea said:

this is a very excellent point that I'm sure Thailand and such have really never thought about.

On that note, my Thai wife has jokingly said many times, "do you think Thailand really wants old falang men retiring in LOS on a fixed budget??"

You don't understand governments wanting foreign exchange?

It's essentially the same as foreign exports, and most countries really want foreign exports.

5 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Philippines don't require any VISA at all, you can just turn up and stay 2 years (on short term extensions), then an overnight trip away and repeat. If you are married to a local, free VISA for a year every time you arrive with her. They even provide you with a residence card so you can have utilities and bank accounts in your own name. I had several pals living in PI, no need to visit immigration for extensions, ever.

Beats the pants off Thailand!

Yes, if you are married and arrive with your Phillipines wife...but not for others

14 hours ago, Why bother said:

When they changed the rules in 2008 (I think) they "Grandfathered" the previous requirements so that the new rules only applied to new applicants.

I would suggest that they would be very like to do the same with any new increased financial requirements.

No guarantee of grandfathering, is there? Grandfathering defeats the purpose of introducing such a policy. They would also be happy to give their banks an injection of capital.

I remember members debating that cannabis would never be legalized in Thailand. Look what happened. Things can happen quickly here, particularly for foreigners.

Another option Thailand has is a retirement visa from the ages of 50 to 75 years of age. After 75 years old, you are welcome for a holiday, but you no longer meet the criteria for a retirement visa, or any other long stay visa.

I am simply suggesting the day may come when Thailand wants to attract wealthy retirees, not just accept anyone over 50 years old, particularly those on a meager old age western pension.

I stand by my comment that the 800k can't last forever, as it's losing it purchasing power, particularly for medical. At some stage it will have to be raised, and when they raise it, they could also be looking to the raise the standard of retire expat here as well, rather than raising it just to keep up with inflation.

3 minutes ago, KhunHeineken said:

After 75 years old, you are welcome for a holiday, but you no longer meet the criteria for a retirement visa, or any other long stay visa.

Excuse me? We have literally dozens of members on retirement visa's here above the age of 75, many in their 80's. There is no such rule at all.

14 hours ago, baansgr said:

Thailand beats Phillipines hands down on visas. Unless you are ex military on the SRRV, you still need $15,000 and the yearly renewal fee of $380. Extensions of tourists visa for 3 years every 2 months unless you are in manilla can be time consuming and costly.

The Philippines SRRV, if you look at the total costs, is about the same cost as renewing a tourist visa every two months. And with the tourist visa, you don't need to deposit $15k. Just exit the country at least once every 3 years I think.

2 minutes ago, gargamon said:

The Philippines SRRV, if you look at the total costs, is about the same cost as renewing a tourist visa every two months. And with the tourist visa, you don't need to deposit $15k. Just exit the country at least once every 3 years I think.

Yes and even cheaper as Manilla it's every 6 months rather than 2 months. The SRRV you do get certain other benefits and ex military is only $1,500 needed to deposit..

23 minutes ago, marin said:

Excuse me? We have literally dozens of members on retirement visa's here above the age of 75, many in their 80's. There is no such rule at all.

Read my post again.

I basically said it's an option for the Thai government to clean out God's waiting room.

In the future, they very well may change the law, with no grandfathering, so they get expat retirees with money, who can, and will, spend it.

44 minutes ago, KhunHeineken said:

Read my post again.

I basically said it's an option for the Thai government to clean out God's waiting room.

In the future, they very well may change the law, with no grandfathering, so they get expat retirees with money, who can, and will, spend it.

So what would the limit be, the minimum amount per month?

On 7/2/2026 at 11:12 AM, koolkarl said:

They forgot to mention that you have to pay income tax on incoming remittances and get no benefits for the taxes paid.

Are you sure about that

4 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Video is wrong, Thailand didn't change the rules, America stopped providing the letter.

Thailandtravel guides

That's not exactly what happened. Thailand pressured the enbassies to actually verify the income stated and own the responsibility for that. Some embassies enbassies either couldn't do that legally or just wouldn't. Without Thailand's pressure the letters would have continued

1 hour ago, baansgr said:

So what would the limit be, the minimum amount per month?

They can make it whatever they want.

They could make it just enough to knock out the top paying, but still meager, western old aged pension country, thus all the pensions / pensioners below it, from other countries all around the world.

Or, they could raise it really high, thus raising the financial capacity / standard of foreigners living here, and also returning Thai properties to Thai's, which I am sure would be an election winner.

My point is, just as a member commented on how Cambodia can change their visa laws at any time, so can Thailand.

As I have said before, a retirement visa is nothing more than a 1 year tourist visa. it was debated in a thread a long time ago and the conclusion was the only thing an individual on a retirement visa can do that someone on a 30 visa exemption can't do was have a 5 year driving / riding license as opposed to a 2 year license.

It's not scaremongering. The 800k baht requirement simply can not stay at 800k baht forever. At some stage, the Thai government will raise it. They could raise it a little, to keep up with the cost of living, thus changing very little, or raise it a lot, as part of a broader plan, which may see many forced out of Thailand.

6 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Philippines don't require any VISA at all, you can just turn up and stay 2 years (on short term extensions), then an overnight trip away and repeat. If you are married to a local, free VISA for a year every time you arrive with her. They even provide you with a residence card so you can have utilities and bank accounts in your own name. I had several pals living in PI, no need to visit immigration for extensions, ever.

Almost forgot, PI immigration actually seem to want foreign visitors (for any length of time), where Thailand says "You come too often", PI says "You should stay longer" ....... yep, they said that to me.

Beats the pants off Thailand!

Yes -- doing it that way is very popular.

However and this has actually happened they can choose to deny the endless extensions at any time.

So SRRV gives you security against that and also not having to do the endless extensions.

Personally, I think it makes sense to start out there with a tourist visa game and then if you really decide to settle there to go for the SRRV.

Greence, Panama, and Costa Rica top the list.

1 hour ago, KhunHeineken said:

They can make it whatever they want.

They could make it just enough to knock out the top paying, but still meager, western old aged pension country, thus all the pensions / pensioners below it, from other countries all around the world.

Or, they could raise it really high, thus raising the financial capacity / standard of foreigners living here, and also returning Thai properties to Thai's, which I am sure would be an election winner.

My point is, just as a member commented on how Cambodia can change their visa laws at any time, so can Thailand.

As I have said before, a retirement visa is nothing more than a 1 year tourist visa. it was debated in a thread a long time ago and the conclusion was the only thing an individual on a retirement visa can do that someone on a 30 visa exemption can't do was have a 5 year driving / riding license as opposed to a 2 year license.

It's not scaremongering. The 800k baht requirement simply can not stay at 800k baht forever. At some stage, the Thai government will raise it. They could raise it a little, to keep up with the cost of living, thus changing very little, or raise it a lot, as part of a broader plan, which may see many forced out of Thailand.

Also a non-immigrant visa does help with bank accounts in the current environment.

Personally I think immigration WILL grandfather the 800K. They're not obligated to so that's just my opinion. Why? Well it would be extremely bad PR for Thailand for the international press to see thousands of elderly people being priced out often needing to return to nothing. Some may think I'm being over dramatic, but that trauma would be a death sentence for some in that group. They always want fresh (richer) meat and that kind of publicity would be bad for that. OR some might think they would grandfather because that would be the humane thing to do out of respect for elderly people. I don't know about that. As foreigners the respect we get here is based on the money keeping flowing, right?

3 minutes ago, DonniePeverley said:

Greence, Panama, and Costa Rica top the list.

All higher cost of living options than Thailand.

2 hours ago, KhunHeineken said:

They can make it whatever they want.

They could make it just enough to knock out the top paying, but still meager, western old aged pension country, thus all the pensions / pensioners below it, from other countries all around the world.

Or, they could raise it really high, thus raising the financial capacity / standard of foreigners living here, and also returning Thai properties to Thai's, which I am sure would be an election winner.

My point is, just as a member commented on how Cambodia can change their visa laws at any time, so can Thailand.

As I have said before, a retirement visa is nothing more than a 1 year tourist visa. it was debated in a thread a long time ago and the conclusion was the only thing an individual on a retirement visa can do that someone on a 30 visa exemption can't do was have a 5 year driving / riding license as opposed to a 2 year license.

It's not scaremongering. The 800k baht requirement simply can not stay at 800k baht forever. At some stage, the Thai government will raise it. They could raise it a little, to keep up with the cost of living, thus changing very little, or raise it a lot, as part of a broader plan, which may see many forced out of Thailand.

Doesn't matter to me, I can put as much money as they want in a Thai bank.

2 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Doesn't matter to me, I can put as much money as they want in a Thai bank.

Everyone has their number.

1 minute ago, Jingthing said:

Everyone has their number.

Pattaya will be empty before my number is up!

It seems unlikely they'll ever want rid of that many white folk.

3 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Pattaya will be empty before my number is up!

It seems unlikely they'll ever want rid of that many white folk.

Yeah I get you.

You're talking about a realistic number that they might increase it to

Not an absurd Elon Musk type of number.

Another reason to go for the SRRV sooner than later.

If you wait too long, they'll raise the depostlevels AGAIN.

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

Yeah I get you.

You're talking about a realistic number that they might increase it to

Not an absurd Elon Musk type of number.

I'd never work if I had a net worth of $1T ............. I actually gave up working when I hit $1M5.

I can never understand the urge to keep working when you already have more than you can ever spend?

Work gets in the way of having a life ......... totally pointless.

Wish I'd never worked at all, could have come to Thailand when I was 24, and just played.

Wasted 20 years working for no net gain.

8 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

I'd never work if I had a net worth of $1T ............. I actually gave up working when I hit $1M5.

I can never understand the urge to keep working when you already have more than you can ever spend?

Work gets in the way of having a life ......... totally pointless.

Wish I'd never worked at all, could have come to Thailand when I was 24, and just played.

Wasted 20 years working for no net gain.

Well some people are really passionate about their work such as artists. etc.