Future Ex-Pats - Still planning to move to Thailand?

[Henryford]

Be honest most of us came here for the girls. With some of the better ones now over 100 GBP even for short time it's just not worth it. Wine is impossible to buy so are many of the western things we like, cheese etc. If i was starting again i certainly wouldn't pick Thailand.

[ubonjoe]

7 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

Some more inflammatory and off topic posts have been removed. No further notice of removed posts will be given from now on.

Just a reminder.

[marcusarelus]

Just now, Henryford said:

Be honest most of us came here for the girls. With some of the better ones now over 100 GBP even for short time it's just not worth it. Wine is impossible to buy so are many of the western things we like, cheese etc. If i was starting again i certainly wouldn't pick Thailand.

Wine, cheese and women are all ok in my house but I have USD coming in.  If I had the pound or Aussie dollar i'd be crying too. 

[marcusarelus]

5 minutes ago, sgoodes said:

It's the baht that is making me reconsider staying. I'll have 3 years up this Dec and if it drops below 20 I may pull up stumps. The health insurance doesn't bother me at all. 

Hedge.  I did in 2005.  Lock your costs in at a rate you are comfortable with. 

[marcusarelus]

5 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

Many people leave their home country to live abroad for various reasons. It changes quite a few plans if the Thai Government mandates health insurance which can only be purchased through Thai companies at ruinous prices, and cannot be obtained by anyone over 70 with pre-existing conditions. Still baffled?

Where does it say purchase only from Thai companies?  In fact is says the reverse of that?

[BritManToo]

15 minutes ago, White Christmas13 said:

dropped below 22? I just had a quote today it was 19.1

That's worse than Brexit Britain,

we dropped from 52 to 42 ...... 20%

you've dropped 32 to 20 ...... 33%

[Lacessit]

1 minute ago, marcusarelus said:

Where does it say purchase only from Thai companies?  In fact is says the reverse of that?

That's what I understand from the rather garbled translation of what the poohba said on another thread. i could be wrong.

[totally thaied up]

3 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

That's worse than Brexit Britain,

we dropped from 52 to 42 ...... 20%

you've dropped 32 to 20 ...... 33%

Yep, I am crying in my milk. It is starting to hurt now. Even though I have a pension, money every two weeks, it is just getting less and less for just no darn reason at all.

[totally thaied up]

10 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

Where does it say purchase only from Thai companies?  In fact is says the reverse of that?

It would almost double my international insurance premiums if I had to pay for a 40,000 baht OPD. My insurance then loses its relevance totally.

[White Christmas13]

I am glad I moved back to my home country (Australia) I am just a pensioner

now have no super no house which I all lost in Thailand (and don't give me the

only invest what you can afford to lose crap) I have free medical care freee

hospital, subsidized transport electricity, have no income at all just live on

the pension and still can save about $250 per fortnight I can buy a carton

of wine (4 liters) for 10 bucks (200 baht) yes I do not live in Sydney or Melbourne

I live in Perth and I never understand why I made the move to Thailand many

years ago my wife(ex now) was covered by medicare as soon she moved here

she did not even had to wait 2 years to become PR (she is now Citizen)

and she will never go back to Thailand apart from holidays to look after her mom

 

[Mavideol]

10 hours ago, Don Mega said:

Baffles me why anyone would consider leaving their home country to live abroad and not consider health insurance so cannot see why this potential new rule/law would change anyones plans.

I left my country without considering health insurance because I can take care of my bills, have been doing so without health insurance for the past 15 years and I am sure  there are more like me, please don't generalize, many people have different priorities

[ubonjoe]

7 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

Some more inflammatory and off topic posts have been removed. No further notice of removed posts will be given from now on.

And another reminder after removing some more.

[AAArdvark]

11 hours ago, Don Mega said:

Baffles me why anyone would consider leaving their home country to live abroad and not consider health insurance so cannot see why this potential new rule/law would change anyones plans.

Easy, they have enough money to self insure which is forced by the requirement of keeping 800K in the bank for most of the year.  And for the older people, spending 100K or more for pretty poor insurance is not pleasant.

[fletchsmile]

11 hours ago, Don Mega said:

Baffles me why anyone would consider leaving their home country to live abroad and not consider health insurance so cannot see why this potential new rule/law would change anyones plans.

Some people are easily baffled ????

 

Considered health insurance. Decided it's not for me. Though I do have policies for the wife and kids - decided it made some sense for them.

 

That said the current rumours and confusion are unlikely to affect my plans.

 

I might think differently if I get refused an extension because I can't get medical cover or once I'm 100 and take affront to paying 250k a year for cover of 400k a year.

 

But besides that. No, won't be changing my plans.

 

  

[geoffbezoz]

What a ridiculous post based on maybe's and what ifs.

[onera1961]

56 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

Better, if you don't read the news or go to church much.

Just one incident in a decade. LTTE is vanquished now.

[mike787]

Most/all of my friends/acquaintances will NOT or have recently left.  Only one who married a Thai is holding out in CM, but has a Plan B ready for activation at a moments notice.  My rose colored glasses tainted my romantic vision of LOS, after immigration and insurance turning up the heat, amongst many other things, I'm tapping out!  

There are other options..."choose the path of least resistance".  This is NOT worth the sacrifice.  Fortunately for me, the least I invested was the street food, and the most were the ladies.  THat's it.  Glad I didn't marry, have kids, house, car, and everything else....I had a feeling things just looked too good to be true.  Some of my friends wish they were in my shoes because they want to leave, but "feel" they cannot.

[JAS21]

8 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

 

 

I'm surprised golf is cheaper for you. I'm pretty sure in Europe and Australia it's a lot cheaper, i could play unlimited golf in the UK for around £1k a year. Thailand 3x a week £8k+

 

Where we played in the UK (Pedham Place) I see that joint 7Day membership is now almost £2000. 

 

Here we have shares that tie up 750,000thb. When we play caddies and tips are at least 1200thb ...I need the caddie to tell me where my ball went..so don't complain about having to have one.

 

So with the crappy exchange rate it is actually over twice as much to play here.

 

MrsJ recently dropped the bomb... can we afford to play five times a week .....'kin hell ...

 

At nearly 74 I am here for the duration...we cancelled our UK health insurance four or five years ago now ...then it was £8800/ year and rising 10-15% every year...we now use mainly government hospitals...fortunate in that way we are in the BK area.

 

Have we ever been back to the UK since we left in 2007 ..No

[fletchsmile]

11 hours ago, jerojero said:

Cost of living is much less in Thailand than most Western countries, especially housing.

That very much depends on how you choose to live, the levels you wish to maintain (or not) and your family situation, not to mention where you choose to live in Thailand, and where you are talking about in the west. Capital city vs non-capital city etc etc

 

Costs me more to live in Thailand, than it would if I moved back to the UK and lived a similar lifestyle in the town where I grew up (non-capital city), or a lifestyle similar to my brother and family.

 

School Fees: Thailand = international school fees, 2 kids vs UK would go to the state school I went to for free

 

House: Thailand = More than my parent's house I grew up in, and a bit more than my brother's house in UK which is larger than ours. Good location in Thailand. Close to school. Main difference would be the great facilities we have access to in Thailand like swimming pool, which wouldn't want that in the UK LOL, but other than that we've paid more in Thailand (capital) than I would likely pay in the UK for a similar level of housing in my home town.

 

Not complaining BTW. My choice for Thailand. The level of living I want for our family costs more here though ????

 

Edit: Forgot to add...

 

Car: Thailand more expensive than UK

 

All just based on a nice family life, nice house with a garden, close to a good school for the kids to go to and a car .

[1FinickyOne]

11 hours ago, Mike Teavee said:

if you were planning your retirement destination today & didn't have any ties to Thailand would you still move here or look elsewhere?

 

Absolutely Thailand for me... but i love the people and culture, especially out of the big cities. I would learn the language all over again. 

[473geo]

I guess as have family and house paid for 7k baht a month for health ins is the 'rent' I will pay to live in Thailand. Sure I would rather it was mine to spend but in reality there may come a time when I require cover. Rather than moan and get all despondent I will scout around for the best deal. 

[CygnusX1]

White Christmas (re $A)

”dropped below 22? I just had a quote today it was 19.1”

It’s bad, but not that bad - oanda is 21.8, and even one of the big 4 Oz banks is 21.0

[scubascuba3]

At nearly 74 I am here for the duration...we cancelled our UK health insurance four or five years ago now ...then it was £8800/ year and rising 10-15% every year...

It's criminal people get priced out when they need it the most

[Destiny1990]

My advice for new expats:  Try 6 months Spain than 6 months Vietnam than 6 months Thailand than  6 months Phillipines ect.  Then decide where u like it most or simply keep rotating Countries.

Don't overly commit urself to one location and or one country.

[Lacessit]

43 minutes ago, JAS21 said:

. 

 

Here we have shares that tie up 750,000thb. When we play caddies and tips are at least 1200thb ...I need the caddie to tell me where my ball went..so don't complain about having to have one.

 

So with the crappy exchange rate it is actually over twice as much to play here.

 

 

Plenty of cheaper options here. There seems to be at least one military course in every city, not expensive. The upmarket courses frequently run promotions when volume is low off-season.

You must be playing some quite expensive courses. The best course in Northern Thailand is Santiburi in Chiang Rai, and a caddy there is about 600 baht including tip. At Mae Kok ( military ) it would be green fees ( non-member ) 800, caddy tip 300.

I can't think of any good courses in Australia where I'll get any change out of 2000 baht. And there aren't any caddies any more.

[simon43]

Be honest most of us came here for the girls.

 

Oh please, don't make that simplistic assumption.  Some of us came here to do business, not for the women (or men).

[nervona81732]

Go to Vietnam! ????

[bbi1]

If I had to do it all again, yes I would still consider Thailand as a retirement destination and yes, I would still get health insurance. Why would now be any different to the past??? Or are you referring to the over 50's compulsory health insurance thing? Doesn't affect me because firstly I'm nearly 20 years away from that age and secondly I have health insurance.

[mike787]

42 minutes ago, nervona81732 said:

Go to Vietnam! ????

Absolutely!!!  Better than Thailand (though not for everyone). 

[JAS21]

1 hour ago, Lacessit said:

Plenty of cheaper options here. There seems to be at least one military course in every city, not expensive. The upmarket courses frequently run promotions when volume is low off-season.

You must be playing some quite expensive courses. The best course in Northern Thailand is Santiburi in Chiang Rai, and a caddy there is about 600 baht including tip. At Mae Kok ( military ) it would be green fees ( non-member ) 800, caddy tip 300.

I can't think of any good courses in Australia where I'll get any change out of 2000 baht. And there aren't any caddies any more.

Maybe you misunderstand, or I was not clear ... we each have a membership share at Muang Ake 1 ... when we bought ten years ago they were about 360,000thb each. So when we play there we don't pay a green fee, just the caddie fee and tip (300+3000 each) normally.

 

So you can easily work out what it costs us to play three times a week.

 

Yes ...there are plenty of promotions ...Chaing Mai in October is good value. Also I think we are going to start playing with thailand senior golfers association again ...  their monthly comps are excellent value. Last month Green Valley 1600thb green fee, caddy fee, meal and raffle!

 

We often play the EGAT courses ... Srinakarin Dam is my favourite great value ...a few weeks ago we played Sirikit Dam and 'gasped for breath' at Mae Moh ...think I wrote something in the Golf Section about the trip.