With the changes in regulations related to visas and the health care situation, would you recommend Thailand to anyone inquiring about retiring in the Kingdom.   Which option best expresses your opinion?

 

Please feel free to leave a comment.

You should have included one or two options worded around speaking the language and accepting the culture.  Thai Visa is full of expats posting about having continuous problems with both.

If you have money - yes


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34 minutes ago, JaiLai said:

If you have money - yes


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I don't think folks with money choose Thailand as a retirement destination

 

 
I don't think folks with money choose Thailand as a retirement destination
 

Why not?


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Thia retirement blush is coming off from many foreigners due to rising costs, onerous and strong implementation (to some) of visa rules and regs., thai society's not showing sufficient deference to foreigners, thai's not behaving like citizens from third world countries (not sure why they left their own country in the first place).

Some how many of us get the feelings that Thailand doesn't really want anyone other than day's tourists who fly in get into a hotel , get on the buses, shop for trinkets visit temples and preferably leave back after few days, Thailand seems to increasingly making life difficulties for law abiding people who want to retire or if not of retirement age, just be here and enjoy Thailand, just look at the huge long queues and the long waiting list for visa in many consulate in the surrounding countries, and not to mention the hoops you need to jump through in the immigration offices all over the land, frequently moving the goalposts for more requirements more evidences, more documents higher fees and penalties, this is NOT what a host country should do...

Things that appeal to me are:

 

1. I pay no tax here ( i work outside thailand )

2. Releatively safe

3. Been here too long and can't be arsed re-locating - where too?

4. I like the weather, especially if you have digs for example in North for winter / coast for summer etc. 

5. BKK has everything available you could ever need.

6. Nightlife is superb if you know where to go, albiet can get pricey.

7. Food is pretty good and avaialble all the time everywhere you go.

8. I pay no tax here.

9. It's easy to get to other SEA countries for a jolly, flying or by land.

10. I can build anything on my land without any sort of planning permission etc.

11. Nobody bothers me coz i mind my own business.

12. There's great medical facilities, albiet pricey.

13. If i wanted to i could root a different 20 year old girl ( or boy ) everynight of the week.

14. I pay no tax here.

 

All the stuff i hate ( and there's a fai bit )  i just try to ignore....

 

 

I wouldn't recommend Thailand to any one for any reason.

Too many rules and regulations for foreigners to stay long term.

Girls and beer are too expensive.

Too dangerous.

Too polluted (Chiang Mai air was a nightmare for four months this year).

The Thais hate/despise foreigners more every year.

 

If I hadn't already bought here, I'd be going to,

Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines all easier, cheaper, and the government and peoples actually seem to want us to go there.

3 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

I wouldn't recommend Thailand to any one for any reason.

Too many rules and regulations for foreigners to stay long term.

Girls and beer are too expensive.

Too dangerous.

Too polluted (Chiang Mai air was a nightmare for four months this year).

The Thais hate/despise foreigners more every year.

 

Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines all easier, cheaper, and the government and peoples actually seem to want us to go there.

You say here's too dangerous - expand on this. I've been here 20 year plus and been involved in no altercations at all - zero, hardly seen any either.....

 

You say here's too dangerous but suggest PI - really?

 

Rules and regulations are easy to meet if you have money.

 

I thought you got your girls for free coz you're a 'stud'? - obviously not....

Stickman latest message in print says no to Thailand as a retirement place but then again he does not have lots of money till his parents die. What would one expect as a ex teacher in Thailand for most of his working life here. Money talks

If it was a straight choice between Thailand and UK, as long as they can meet the necessary requirements, it is a no brainer, the UK is finished, (including the once great NHS).

I would suggest a few trips here on vacation, before retirement, before making the decision, as Thailand is not for everyone.

 

49 minutes ago, mania said:

 

I don't think folks with money choose Thailand as a retirement destination

 

depends on what you are doing with your money.

Difficult question to answer, as it obviously depends on the person and their circumstances.

 

I disagree that 'it's all about whether you have enough money' - as indicated by a couple of other posters - as I know a few very wealthy people.  A few still live here, others have moved away, or are leaving shortly for reasons that have nothing to do with money.

16 minutes ago, Thaiwrath said:

If it was a straight choice between Thailand and UK, as long as they can meet the necessary requirements, it is a no brainer, the UK is finished, (including the once great NHS).

I would suggest a few trips here on vacation, before retirement, before making the decision, as Thailand is not for everyone.

 

"I would suggest a few trips here on vacation, before retirement, before making the decision, as Thailand is not for everyone."

 

A few trips here on vacation doesn't help at all, as living here is entirely different!

19 minutes ago, Thaiwrath said:

If it was a straight choice between Thailand and UK, as long as they can meet the necessary requirements, it is a no brainer, the UK is finished, (including the once great NHS).

I would suggest a few trips here on vacation, before retirement, before making the decision, as Thailand is not for everyone.

 

Why are you restricting your choices to Thailand or the UK?

France Portugal and Spain have much nicer weather and properties are considerably cheaper.

No.

Recommending retirement here depends on who you're giving the advice to. Very few people I know would fit in for a variety of reasons, not just financial. I have one mate who loves the place and would be a good fit, but is wavering.

There are many retirees who came here for the wrong reasons, or just one obvious reason, and don't cope with change, nor perhaps have sufficient funds to roll with the punches. Some pensions are fixed and some of these pensioners consider costs should also stagnate. Others live in a fantasy world where they think a paradise found decades ago should stay just as they remembered it and avoid the inevitable changes that happen everywhere.

Others wish for what they left behind to be to be re-created in this very different country with it's own culture and traditions. They can't accept what it is and want the place to adapt to them. 

It's still a great place to retire to if you actually meet the visa requirements and accept it's foibles as is. You don't have to be rich to live here. just better prepared than having an old age pension as your only source of funds.

2 minutes ago, dick dasterdly said:

"I would suggest a few trips here on vacation, before retirement, before making the decision, as Thailand is not for everyone."

 

A few trips here on vacation doesn't help at all, as living here is entirely different!

I didn't say it wasn't different, I first came in 1991, retired here in 2005.

At least I had a feel for the place, and knew a bit about the place I was retiring to.

My trips helped me immensely in making my decision, as opposed to upping sticks, and moving to a place unknown to me.  

The strong Baht certainly takes the varnish off the experience

For a UK resident I think there would be better options available at the current exchange values. Certainly more consideration should be shown to other countries, more so now than a few years back for people thinking of making the move

Healthcare costs and age restrictions would be similar in any other country surely, if you have to provide for yourself? No?...........

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11 minutes ago, Thaiwrath said:

My trips helped me immensely in making my decision, as opposed to upping sticks, and moving to a place unknown to me.  

I came here on a 'divorce holiday' from the UK, met a bar girl, moved in and never looked back.

The bar girl has been upgraded several times since then.

Never worried about health care, surprised I'm not dead by now.

1 hour ago, mania said:

 

I don't think folks with money choose Thailand as a retirement destination

 

Quite a few do, especially (in my experience) those from Singapore.

20 minutes ago, dick dasterdly said:

A few still live here, others have moved away, or are leaving shortly for reasons that have nothing to do with money.

I have enough money to see my time out here but if I could move tomorrow, I would. Thai wife, property, aging parents make it hard. Four months of smog in Chiang Mai just is the pudding on the cake. Thailand is over rated now. Add a low Aussie dollar and the shine is taken right off it.

I love visiting Thailand but for me there are three reasons for not recommending it as a retirement destination: 

 

• Availability of good health insurance at a decent price 
• Safety on the roads and quality of policing if/when something goes wrong
• Pollution at ever longer periods of the year at unsafe levels. 

 

21 minutes ago, dick dasterdly said:

"I would suggest a few trips here on vacation, before retirement, before making the decision, as Thailand is not for everyone."

 

A few trips here on vacation doesn't help at all, as living here is entirely different!

 

15 minutes ago, Thaiwrath said:

I didn't say it wasn't different, I first came in 1991, retired here in 2005.

At least I had a feel for the place, and knew a bit about the place I was retiring to.

My trips helped me immensely in making my decision, as opposed to upping sticks, and moving to a place unknown to me.  

I too had many holidays here - at least one a year for a few years.

 

Nonetheless, living here is entirely different from holidays!

1 hour ago, mania said:

 

I don't think folks with money choose Thailand as a retirement destination

 

I do, and I did.

1 hour ago, noise said:

You should have included one or two options worded around speaking the language and accepting the culture.  Thai Visa is full of expats posting about having continuous problems with both.

Before a few of us were let loose on Indonesian students, we were required to attend a 4-week university course in Java, on 1) culture, 2) traditions and religion, 3) language.   In that order.

We soon learned that culture and tradition were much more important.  The language aspect was easier to learn than Thai, as we could actually read it!

It certainly helped us assimilate, and similar training for expats would go a long way in Thailand, although Thais are not so touchy about what they eat, or how they eat (left-handed was definitely out in Indonesia!).  

I have often wondered if there is a book on "introduction to Thailand".  In Jakarta, there was an excellent handbook produced by the American Women's Guild, including photos of fruit and veggies, with local names.  It made shopping at the markets so much easier.

I saw a sign in Mae Sot motorbike shop yesterday "Thais only". In all my 13 years living here I've never seen that before. Maybe they've just had a bad experience with a farang but I definitely feel that foreigners are treated with a little more suspicion now. 

Yes I can recommend retiring (Well I am not retired yet but live in LOS) here, however if you can afford it; keep a property in your home country and divide your time between the 2 places. Or if you are an EU citizen perhaps a place somewhere south in EU.  

This suggestion might make retirement planning more appealing:

Quote

Immigration could substantially reduce their workload by abolishing the 90 day physical appearance (mine doesn't do online) and granting PR to retired/married/employed residents after three trouble-free years in the Kingdom.

 

A further incentive would be to include a  'no drink-driving' clause to deter the many that indulge in the practice when they wouldn't dare do it at home.