Thailand is still among the most affordable destinations for expat retirees

[marcusarelus]

36 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

I know right, the modern architecture up north is a shining example of 1st world prowess.

 

Looks great.  Back when I was concerned about people wanting and liking me I lived in a room in my parents house and the house above looks much nicer than my room.  Of course then I turned 12 and moved out. 

[ginjag]

2 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

Ok that option, so a scooter shop, gold shop, mom&pop shop and a gas station on the main road type of town? I think I'd hang myself after two days. But sure if it fits you.

Have a car, no need for a gold shop within 10 minutes of a Tesco nearly everywhere and a 7-11, together with a good local food market.......Half our to city,  what is your problem mate.  you are going OTT about life, most ex pats live according to their needs NOT their WANTS.  Many people would and do jump off balconies and hang because of your lifestyle.  ha ha

[DrTuner]

1 minute ago, ginjag said:

most ex pats live according to their needs NOT their WANTS

Sure it's not according to their resources? Because adding a 400k to the extension requirements seems to be a big deal for many, which to me is an indication they're stretched out pretty thin. 

[marcusarelus]

2 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

Sure it's not according to their resources? Because adding a 400k to the extension requirements seems to be a big deal for many, which to me is an indication they're stretched out pretty thin. 

You are assuming that the people complaining actually live in Thailand or have an extension.  You know better than that. 

[DrTuner]

6 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

You are assuming that the people complaining actually live in Thailand or have an extension.  You know better than that. 

I reckon they got an extension using an agent paying something like 20k a year to get it and can't cough up even 400k, never mind the 800k. That'd be the dwellers in that Isaan abode or some shoebox in a back alley in a city. Quite affordable.

 

Back to the OP, the "affordability" should be comparing apples to apples. So take a rural/semi-rural town in Thailand with it's expenses and .. well let's say some small US mid-west hamlet and compare those. Suddenly Thailand won't fare so well anymore. The affordability comes from downgrading lifestyle, which can be done back home as easily, just move into the woods and live with the wolves.

 

Not London compared to Nakhon Nowhere.

[marcusarelus]

6 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

I reckon they got an extension using an agent paying something like 20k a year to get it and can't cough up even 400k, never mind the 800k. That'd be the dwellers in that Isaan abode or some shoebox in a back alley in a city. Quite affordable.

 

Back to the OP, the "affordability" should be comparing apples to apples. So take a rural/semi-rural town in Thailand with it's expenses and .. well let's say some small US mid-west hamlet and compare those. Suddenly Thailand won't fare so well anymore. The affordability comes from downgrading lifestyle, which can be done back home as easily, just move into the woods and live with the wolves.

 

Not London compared to Nakhon Nowhere.

Every time I question one it turns out that they don't live in Thailand and are just on here to complain about everything.  The UK cabbie, the Mexican dude, the skeptic guy and the one who lives in Vietnam and is trying to convince everyone to move there.  None of them actually have the problem they are complaining about. 

[ginjag]

1 minute ago, DrTuner said:

I reckon they got an extension using an agent paying something like 20k a year to get it and can't cough up even 400k, never mind the 800k. That'd be the dwellers in that Isaan abode or some shoebox in a back alley in a city. Quite affordable.

 

Back to the OP, the "affordability" should be comparing apples to apples. So take a rural/semi-rural town in Thailand with it's expenses and .. well let's say some small US mid-west hamlet and compare those. Suddenly Thailand won't fare so well anymore.

 

Not London compared to Nakhon Nowhere.

Does it matter to you what they cough up  ?????  or how they manage to stay with their families to support them,  to you most are low life without 2 halfpenny's to rub together.   Make yourself get more respect and feel for many here that are NOT low life, because they do not have what you have....pity mother did not teach you more respect for others a bit lass fortunate than yourself.  Discussion here is being helpful towards each and everyone NOT picking on others who are doing their best to keep what they have here and not leave it all behind, or throw it because of a new rule from Immigration.

[puukao]

17 pages in a day means one thing....  the title is WRONG, inaccurate, click bait, not true, and clearly goes against common sense to all who live here. 

 

next....

[DrTuner]

1 minute ago, ginjag said:

Does it matter to you what they cough up  ?????  

Not really, fairly harmless bunch. Simply pointing out that the "Thailand is cheap" comes with the price of living like a working class Thai. It ain't the shiny TAT brochures with blue seas and high rise condo penthouses for 3000baht/month.

[ginjag]

2 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

Not really, fairly harmless bunch. Simply pointing out that the "Thailand is cheap" comes with the price of living like a working class Thai. It ain't the shiny TAT brochures with blue seas and high rise condo penthouses for 3000baht/month.

OR the 500,000 bht they want in the pocket for an elite visa,   I mean 100,000 a year, compared with the stipulations of immigration.  better for immigration to have a non touchable bond of 500,000 and a payment to them annually of say 30k.   report every 90 days same as the elite rule is........  pay 500,000 and live in a shack maybe because there is no check how you live once they have the money.

 

Immigration have this other stance,  they want to know how much you have, with all their new changes.

Maybe the better option is pay for the elite and live how the hell you want.

[DrTuner]

1 minute ago, ginjag said:

Maybe the better option is pay for the elite and live how the hell you want.

Which is what I did because I got utterly fed up with the #6 counter at Jomthien. The price of sanity. Will be the last time immigration will get a single satang from me as I should be out of here before the 5y is up.

[marcusarelus]

11 minutes ago, puukao said:

17 pages in a day means one thing....  the title is WRONG, inaccurate, click bait, not true, and clearly goes against common sense to all who live here. 

 

next....

I can live well in Thailand on my government pensions(I have veterans insurance).  I can't do that in America.  I got a big raise coming to Thailand from Florida.  My condo maintenance fees were more than I pay for rent of my whole house here. 

 

The price of labor is so cheap that my grounds fees here are almost nothing.  I can afford a car and driver here.  In Florida I'd have to take the bus or go on some kind of welfare program. 

 

I save money here and live like a Prince.  In Florida I lived like a pauper. 

[marcusarelus]

3 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

Which is what I did because I got utterly fed up with the #6 counter at Jomthien. The price of sanity. Will be the last time immigration will get a single satang from me as I should be out of here before the 5y is up.

That's what I mean.  You don't have any problems with the new visa rules cause you are leaving on account of other problems. 

[ttrd]

8 minutes ago, ginjag said:

OR the 500,000 bht they want in the pocket for an elite visa,   I mean 100,000 a year, compared with the stipulations of immigration.  better for immigration to have a non touchable bond of 500,000 and a payment to them annually of say 30k.   report every 90 days same as the elite rule is........  pay 500,000 and live in a shack maybe because there is no check how you live once they have the money.

 

Immigration have this other stance,  they want to know how much you have, with all their new changes.

Maybe the better option is pay for the elite and live how the hell you want. 

RE - Maybe the better option is pay for the elite and live how the hell you want.

 

Until this as well will be changed as 5 yrs are considered to be a long time for a rule to last unchanged in LOS ....

[Skeptic7]

29 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

Every time I question one it turns out that they don't live in Thailand and are just on here to complain about everything.  The UK cabbie, the Mexican dude, the skeptic guy and the one who lives in Vietnam and is trying to convince everyone to move there.  None of them actually have the problem they are complaining about. 

And u just continue with false statements and condescension. I've been here for 25 years. Have a great apartment in BKK and a house in Kanchanaburi. Had an apartment in Pattaya for a few years, a few years back. Now u know... 

 

...care to make any further false statements, Oh Boastful One? 

 

Cheers... ????

 

The Skeptic Guy 

[DrTuner]

6 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

That's what I mean.  You don't have any problems with the new visa rules cause you are leaving on account of other problems. 

Yes that is correct. This topic however was about how "affordable" Thailand is. Prices are not why I'm leaving either, I just don't see any future for Thailand and need to get the kids out before it's too late for them to get a western education.

[ttrd]

5 minutes ago, Skeptic7 said:

And u just continue with false statements and condescension. I've been here for 25 years. Have a great apartment in BKK and a house in Kanchanaburi. Had an apartment in Pattaya for a few years, a few years back. Now u know... 

 

...care to make any other false statements, Oh Boastful One? 

 

Cheers... ????

 

The Skeptic Guy 

RE - have a great apartment in BKK

 

Where you enjoy the "fresh air" from the balcony and drinking your coffee with a "face mask" on ....

[DrTuner]

10 minutes ago, ttrd said:

RE - Maybe the better option is pay for the elite and live how the hell you want.

 

Until this as well will be changed as 5 yrs are considered to be a long time for a rule to last unchanged in LOS ....

It's entirely possible they could cancel the PE visas. They are valid for 5y, but all it needs is for the Ministy of Foreign Affairs to cancel them.

 

Here's one for those who haven't seen them: https://imgur.com/a/1OdeD

[marcusarelus]

8 minutes ago, Skeptic7 said:

And u just continue with false statements and condescension. I've been here for 25 years. Have a great apartment in BKK and a house in Kanchanaburi. Had an apartment in Pattaya for a few years, a few years back. Now u know... 

 

...care to make any further false statements, Oh Boastful One? 

 

Cheers... ????

 

The Skeptic Guy 

You were complaining about the marriage extension

 

13 minutes ago, Skeptic7 said:

And u just continue with false statements and condescension. I've been here for 25 years. Have a great apartment in BKK and a house in Kanchanaburi. Had an apartment in Pattaya for a few years, a few years back. Now u know... 

 

...care to make any further false statements, Oh Boastful One? 

 

Cheers... ????

 

The Skeptic Guy 

What visa extension were you complaining about that you don't have? 

[ThomasThBKK]

Just now, DrTuner said:

It's entirely possible they could cancel the PE visas. They are valid for 5y, but all it need is for the Ministy of Foreign Affairs to cancel them.

 

Here's one for those who haven't seen them: https://imgur.com/a/1OdeD

Mine looks slightly difference, everything is printed on it, no hand typing.

 

Last time they got rid of the elite visa they didnt cancel the visas. Only the services, there are people still on the old lifetime elite visas... so i doubt they would do that.

[DrTuner]

Just now, ThomasThBKK said:

Last time they got rid of the elite visa they didnt cancel the visas. Only the services, there are people still on the old lifetime elite visas... so i doubt they would do that.

That's because the PE visa is issued by MFA, Thailand Elite is the company that takes your 500k and gives you the member card and bunch of other useless stuff. Can't get the PE visa without that membership. If TE goes belly up, the visa remains valid. Will lose the ability to cruise in swampy with the golf cart shouting 'MEEPMEEPM********S" though. 

[marcusarelus]

12 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

Yes that is correct. This topic however was about how "affordable" Thailand is. Prices are not why I'm leaving either, I just don't see any future for Thailand and need to get the kids out before it's too late for them to get a western education.

I'd do the same thing for the kids but I wonder why you are trying to win the award for the most insulting of Thailand poster before you go. 

[DrTuner]

1 minute ago, marcusarelus said:

I'd do the same thing for the kids but I wonder why you are trying to win the award for the most insulting of Thailand poster before you go. 

Hey a man's gotta have a hobby.

[ttrd]

2 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

Hey a man's gotta have a hobby.

Hell yeah - a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do ....

[Skeptic7]

9 minutes ago, ttrd said:

RE - have a great apartment in BKK

 

Where you enjoy the "fresh air" from the balcony and drinking your coffee with a "face mask" on ....

Yes...save for the mask. Presently a maskless ????

 

Point being...? 

[Skeptic7]

54 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

You were complaining about the marriage extension

Wrong! 

 

54 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

What visa extension were you complaining about that you don't have?

Wrong again! Have mine. Always have...always will. (Clue to the clueless...While following the new extension requirements is not a problem personally, it certainly is not a requirement that anyone has to like them)

 

Here's a suggestion... 

 

Try keeping your trolling targets straight and gather all the facts before posting. 

[ta158]

7 hours ago, Hummin said:

If somebody leaving Thailand because is it a banana repuplic, then what is Mexico ?

thailand - mexico

 

https://thethaiger.com/news/national/two-headless-bodies-found-on-rayong-beaches-near-pattaya

 

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30363635

 

 

 

[DrTuner]

54 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

I'd do the same thing for the kids but I wonder why you are trying to win the award for the most insulting of Thailand poster before you go. 

Actually... I do have an explanation. See, I grew up in the countryside with farms around me and from time to time they would cover the fields with bullshit and then aerate it so it'd act as good fertilizer. TAT & co are spreading the amazing Thailand BS so thick I just feel it's my responsibility to fluff it all up.  

[ThomasThBKK]

Just now, ta158 said:

thailand - mexico

 

https://thethaiger.com/news/national/two-headless-bodies-found-on-rayong-beaches-near-pattaya

 

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30363635

 

 

 

https://www.numbeo.com/crime/compare_cities.jsp?country1=Mexico&country2=Thailand&city1=Mexico+City&city2=Bangkok

 

 

looks better for thailand.....

[DrTuner]

4 minutes ago, ThomasThBKK said:

https://www.numbeo.com/crime/compare_cities.jsp?country1=Mexico&country2=Thailand&city1=Mexico+City&city2=Bangkok

 

looks better for thailand.....

I've scratched off South America as a destination because of the violence. Still, Argentina somehow looks interesting. Must be all that BBQ.

 

https://www.numbeo.com/crime/compare_cities.jsp?country1=Thailand&country2=Argentina&city1=Pattaya&city2=Buenos+Aires&tracking=getDispatchComparison