2 minutes ago, 4MyEgo said:

Yep your right, I am truly in the sticks, e.g. water buffalo's usually slowing the traffic down vs cars ????
 

 Pattaya is a 10/11 hour drive for me on a good day, have stayed in the centre and up the road at Na kluea, fond memories. 

My village was a still an hour's drive passed a sign that said..."this is the back of beyond"

Healthcare. Private hospitals just want to get you into a bed and milk you with every test and procedure under the sun and insurance and credit cards encourage their behavior. Went to a well known private hospital to check my back and within minutes they had done an x-ray and wanted to do an MRI and cat scan with a view to operating just before my UK flight! Madness! My UK chiropractor said the op was totally unnecessary. Scared to get Wuflu test as they will then lock you into quarantine. My wife won't go to a government hospital as you have to wait all day. She even walks out of private hospitals if she has to wait more than 2 hours. And of course at my age 300-400k per annum insurance is madness.

10 minutes ago, chilly07 said:

Healthcare. Private hospitals just want to get you into a bed and milk you with every test and procedure under the sun and insurance and credit cards encourage their behavior. Went to a well known private hospital to check my back and within minutes they had done an x-ray and wanted to do an MRI and cat scan with a view to operating just before my UK flight! Madness! My UK chiropractor said the op was totally unnecessary. Scared to get Wuflu test as they will then lock you into quarantine. My wife won't go to a government hospital as you have to wait all day. She even walks out of private hospitals if she has to wait more than 2 hours. And of course at my age 300-400k per annum insurance is madness.

Very true.  It would be scary to retire here without insurance.

Being in unbearable pain (physical or mentally) at the end, with no possibility to humanely end it.

• kingdong and elnet1
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Health, some hospitals do not give me confidence

3 hours ago, possum1931 said:

A guest in Thailand?? I am surprised at you saying that. If we are "guests" here, I would sure hate to

be an enemy.

What are you doing to get that type of reaction? 

17 minutes ago, oldhippy said:

Being in unbearable pain (physical or mentally) at the end, with no possibility to humanely end it.

• kingdong and elnet1
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I see that king dong thinks my post is funny.

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When bargirls stop calling me “Hansum man”.

I live in the US right now for another 3 years until I retire and my Thai wife and I head to Thailand to travel around and enjoy retirement. I asked my wife if she had any concerns and she said if the government gets bad we can go somewhere else like Vietnam. It’s good to know she’s willing to move around in case things go bad. So I’m not worried about anything other than what car I’m going to buy when I get there. I can handle that kind of stress.

20 hours ago, oldhippy said:

Being in unbearable pain (physical or mentally) at the end, with no possibility to humanely end it.

Yes, a good country in which to retire should be one where (veterinary) Nembutal is easy to procure.

On 3/14/2021 at 1:45 PM, donnacha said:

retirement extensions but unavailable to me past a certain age. Do I then have to leave?

You are self insured if you have 800,000, 400,000 untouchable all the time. 

Just now, The Theory said:

You are self insured if you have 800,000, 400,000 untouchable all the time. 

What would happen if you had a heart attack, cancer or a very serious accident and in ICU on life-support.  Assuming you're using Thai baht, 800,000 wouldn't go far!

2 minutes ago, brewsterbudgen said:

What would happen if you had a heart attack, cancer or a very serious accident and in ICU on life-support.  Assuming you're using Thai baht, 800,000 wouldn't go far!

Perhaps hospital will keep you till the last "baht" and then they unplug you. 

Getting seriously ill. Dont trust doctors here 100% , nor the grubby public hospitals.  Not to mention if you were seriously injured in a car accident. buy the time the ambulance arrived you would be well and truly DEAD.

 

There are problems everywhere that will influence your perspective. And if there aren't any problems now, there could be some in the future. Thailand changes things, so does everywhere else - depends on the changes as to how you may be affected and how you view them.

When some really important aspects of your life are adversely affected not even specially Thai related, it is understandable that your feelings can spill over into smaller matters that then assume more importance than they are worth. For instance, the man in another thread about being "incredibly annoyed" at being behind a slow driver!

I include those aspects of "immigration" that continue for many on this forum to be a bugbear. I am a Stoic about matters that are in reality out of my control and are minor obstacles of inconvenience that for the vast majority who complain are come and go, requiring only a little patience and a calm exterior!

Pollution seems to be a problem that I accept as affecting many, particularly those with existing respiratory conditions and I feel should be acknowledged by prospective retirees before deciding to actually retire here.

As it happens I am now within the peripheral belt of Chiang Mai where pollution is very bad but fortunately I have never been affected, having actually lived in Chiang Mai or around for more than ten years and never suffered in any way.

Almost everywhere you go in the world, politics and governments are not managing many parts of life that satisfy the people.

I have retired here and I am staying. I would suggest to anyone thinking of coming here to live, to research those aspects most important to them and accept the not so important (for them) and make a decision. 

But there is no substitute for the real thing, accept that may have to make large adjustments in the light of actual experience.

 

 

 

22 hours ago, chickenslegs said:

My beer gets warm if I don't drink it quickly enough.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's why you can ask for ice with your beer. I'd never seen that until I came to Thailand. 

It can't be any stranger than the warm beer that's popular in England. I'd never seen that until I went to England. 

 

Same same but different! ????

23 hours ago, timendres said:

The exchange rate.

Same here, THB vs. USD, to be specific. And inflation. 

I have a pension based on 20 years in state government and university. It's not indexed for inflation, but we get raises based on the $100 billion fund's performance, smoothed over five years. So far (ten years in) so good. I'm guaranteed never to go lower than my initial pension payment, but if the stock market tanks in a major depression, that initial monthly payment isn't going to be worth what it was to begin with, due to inflation. 

20 hours ago, jayboy said:

Thailand is a great place for solvent foreigners (actually much more than mere solvency is needed) but life is getting worse and worse for those that are not.

Name a place that's getting better for the insolvent. 

On 3/14/2021 at 1:10 PM, bedbugy said:

whats your biggest fear/worry  of retiring in thailand

Communist China invades Taiwan. US and allies war with Communist China.

Cancellation of retirement extension of stay program for all expats. 

Collapse of USD below 20 baht per dollar. 

Civil war. 

Filthy food, air and water. 

I don't own land but the closing of the "company" loophole. 

 

 

    

oh and they turn soi 6 into a gigantic water park for kids. 

Medical bills and i suppose old age in general

Thailand is not place to grow old and certainly not grow old unhealthy 

My only concern is that as my age increases, so do the cost and lack of availability of health insurance, which eventually may force me to relocate back to my home country and the miserable weather there.

18 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

Communist China invades Taiwan. US and allies war with Communist China.

 

 

    

According to what I’ve read, China would hold off USA while they invaded Taiwan (only 90 miles away).  Our best hope—international boycott of Chinese junk.  Would bring China to their knees.

31 minutes ago, RocketDog said:

That's why you can ask for ice with your beer. I'd never seen that until I came to Thailand. 

It can't be any stranger than the warm beer that's popular in England. I'd never seen that until I went to England. 

 

Same same but different! ????

I visited the UK 50 yrs ago when as a sailor in 1970  I just fell in love with" Double Diamond" beer even at room temperature. 2 shillings 6 pence. When the $ got low we switched to "skrumpy" @ 2 shillings.You could even get it in beer stores in Canada before it was discontinued. We drank in the Naafi Club mostly. The good old days.pie&chips

51 minutes ago, RocketDog said:

That's why you can ask for ice with your beer. I'd never seen that until I came to Thailand. 

It can't be any stranger than the warm beer that's popular in England. I'd never seen that until I went to England. 

 

Same same but different! ????

Lager and 'English' bitter are like White and Red wines....to be drunk at different temperatures.

21 hours ago, bwpage3 said:

Thing about Thailand, is you just cannot rationally predict what will happen next year, 5 years, 10 years or 20 years.

Corrupt decisions to line pockets seems to be the more important than the country and welfare of the people.

Look at the folks locked out of Thailand due to covid. Govt could care less about family separation.

Government, protests, look next door at Myanmar. It can happen in Thailand.

Govt attitude towards expat changes. 

You plan to retire with X exchange rate on a fixed income, then the rate gets lower and lower?

Then the cost of living goes up. I don't want to die in a cheap rental because it is cheap.

Insurance to carry through to death. Who wants to be 80 years old and not be able to afford a major hospital stay?

Air pollution, traffic and the environment in general.

Instability depending on who is in control that there is no way to plan for.

What is the worse thing that could happen? There is no way to plan because really you do not know with so many stupid decisions being made at high levels.

Thailand has changed a ton. 

I keep thinking back to all the great times, and then have to tell myself those are all in the past.

Corruption, greed, materialism, high costs have ruined the place.

When you make decisions to have more western fast food on Suk and kick out all the street vendors, that is just to much change in the wrong direction. It is all about money and greed these days. No one gives a care about expats at all.

 

 

 

The bars and massage shops do.  ????

Strikes me that if you're planning to set up home in a buddhist country, then it would pay to get acquainted with the very basics of buddhism. Like uncertainty and impermanence ????

It also occurs to me that wherever you go you take yourself along with you.

4 hours ago, Isaan sailor said:

When bargirls stop calling me “Hansum man”.

Had no idea I was so good looking till I moved here.

2 hours ago, jaideedave said:

I visited the UK 50 yrs ago when as a sailor in 1970  I just fell in love with" Double Diamond" beer even at room temperature. 2 shillings 6 pence. When the $ got low we switched to "skrumpy" @ 2 shillings.You could even get it in beer stores in Canada before it was discontinued. We drank in the Naafi Club mostly. The good old days.pie&chips

Double Diamond....that brings back memories.

Retired but not (yet?) living in Thailand.

My biggest worry is about dictatorship and red tape : I don't like to feel unwelcome with all this paperwork to renew extensions of stay, 90 days notification and so on.  I would feel much better with democracy. And thai people deserve democracy.