Retired At 50

[ThaiPauly]

OK so you have made the decison to retire early to Thailand.

maybee you have a marriage Visa instead, whatever.

If you hav'nt got children how do you use your time every day and did you find it a big comedown from the rat race to suddenly find yourself with all this time on your hands? How did you adjust, or hav'nt you yet?

I'm interested to know

Cheers

TP

[Jockstar]

OK so you have made the decison to retire early to Thailand.

maybee you have a marriage Visa instead, whatever.

If you hav'nt got children how do you use your time every day and did you find it a big comedown from the rat race to suddenly find yourself with all this time on your hands? How did you adjust, or hav'nt you yet?

I'm interested to know

Cheers

TP

Cant comment TP as i'm only 31. BTW are you gonna make the wedding?

[chownah]

I think that if you are 50 and have no idea what you like to do then that's pretty sad. I didn't figure out what I liked to do until I was about 40 or 45 and I thought that I was a pretty sad case. I found out what I liked to do by trying things. Try different sports, try different crafts, try different types of reading, make a list of every type of hobby there is in the world and try them all. If you don't know what you like to do then maybe the first thing you should do is research all of the different methods for self discovery and start learning about them and yourself....this might help you to find out what you like to do. See what is to offer at universities and take some classes. Of course you can take the short cut to lifelong satisfaction using drugs...alcohol, tobacco, and all the illegal ones.

Life is a banquet....don't starve!

[ThaiPauly]

OK so you have made the decison to retire early to Thailand.

maybee you have a marriage Visa instead, whatever.

If you hav'nt got children how do you use your time every day and did you find it a big comedown from the rat race to suddenly find yourself with all this time on your hands? How did you adjust, or hav'nt you yet?

I'm interested to know

Cheers

TP

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Cant comment TP as i'm only 31. BTW are you gonna make the wedding?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

P'M'd you Jockstar

[Thetyim]

Everything gets boring if you do it often enough.

Keep finding new things to do and try.

Some last a week some last a year.

Where I live there is zero social life but I still don't get bored.

[Rinrada]

OK so you have made the decison to retire early to Thailand.

Saw 50 off quite a few years ago now and as I sit here in my office banging away between T breaks on the old computer (brand new one actually) the idea of retirement seems such a long.. long... long way off...if ever.

Due to my previous lifestyle never really got involved with pensions or things hence no backup social security type dosh in system so if decide to call it a day it will be just for that ...another day.

Like most of us my idea is to pay off the land that we are buying in C.M. (20 rai)...another 3 instalments so by Xmas ...then get a gaff built on top (side of hill...beautiful views ) need a moter (to go to nearest pub) so wife will talk to mate who is GM of Toyota (she already has a deal)and then we will go for a couple of cows...milk cheese,butter..etc.

Goverment has basically given us the rest of the hill/mountain to keep an eye on so might go for outward bound thingy......naw ...too lazy or just bottle the mountain water and do a Del boy with "Peckham Spring"..but would anybody buy it...

Then what to do...?

Retirement to me sounds harder that working for a living but suppose one day i might give it a go.....

[Chainat1]

OK so you have made the decison to retire early to Thailand.

maybee you have a marriage Visa instead, whatever.

If you hav'nt got children how do you use your time every day and did you find it a big comedown from the rat race to suddenly find yourself with all this time on your hands? How did you adjust, or hav'nt you yet?

I'm interested to know

Cheers

TP

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

TP

Im not 50 but sort of retired (gave up work for several years anyway) and was living in Chainat. I did get bored some of the time but I found there was always something to be done and the small jobs take all day in Thailand, like going to the Amper Office or land office etc...

We would go away for a long weekend every month, just in the car traveling to different places in Thailand. I think you will start doing more of the things you like, drinking more often, playing golf 4 times aweek instead of once.

I would suggest trying new sports and hobbies and finding an interest which you can do where you live.

C1

[middlepath]

Just do not want to end up that "guy at the end of the bar" as you have mentioned before.

For me 52 almost retired find my working gets in the way of mountain biking and riding motorcycles. Now living in CM is Motorcycle, mountian biking heaven.

Want to spend more time at time gym. love to have a big yard "which will keep me from living inside the moat" so I have a few hours of yard work a day. Love to spend a hour in meditation and yoga. My Thai wif is yoga freak so I have my teacher. I stink at golf so it's only up from here, love a long walk and a hard hike. After that is all done, sitting on my pourch have a beer or ice tea and maybe read some. To sleep early so I can get up early and feel fresh, and a clear mind. What to volunteer maybe wash dishes at your resturant , not sure I can on my retirement visa, so spend the next 40 years doing and being healthy.

We have a daughter in college in CM. Hope sure finds a good man someday, settles down and lives near us somewhere close enough and I can play grandpa. Just with help from friends not end up the "guy at the end of the bar"

[udon]

In 5 yrs I've never been bored, there is so much to do and so little time at 62.

If I have another 20 yrs left on this planet there still isn't enough time to do what I want.

Breed dogs or parrots, set up a tropical garden, do something that you like.

Good luck.

[loong]

Garden, odd jobs about the house. Always seems to be a party somewhere if in the mood. Odd weeks to Pattaya to visit friends or sightseeing.

Somedays more exhausting than working for a living, but much more enjoyable

[sadman]

I've got to be honest - I found myself in the position where I could retire at 38. I thought about it, then thought some more, and quickly realised that retirement was the last thing I wanted to do.

So I carried on working, did a master's degree followed by another one, and built up my business some more. I'm now 44 and I haven't peaked yet, so I guess I'll work some more. I enjoy it - although I'll enjoy it a lot more when I'm in LOS full-time.

Whatever it is you want to do - do it!

[meom]

Although I don't particularly enjoy working I've no idea what to do if I would retire.

Guess I just continue working until I find a better hobby

[edd]

When I am at home in Thailand, time is so short.

My weekly schedule albeit very flexible is as follows.

Mon AM. Swimming, lunch out (Tesco, Big C, etc.)

PM. Shopping. Internet surfing. phone family on the Old country

Tu. AM. Swimming,

PM. Picnic on the beach.

Wed. AM. Swimming

PM Golf driving range then a late lunch with the boys. ( Aged 69, 72,

65, and Me the youngster at 58)

Evening time is the cinema with my better half.

Th. AM. Swimming ( I know, I know, but I love Swimming)

Meet friends for lunch or we have a BBQ.

Fri. AM Going Horse riding?

PM Swimming or Golf driving range or fishing or Shopping etc, etc.

Sat. Visit friends, there is always something going on.

Evening PARTY NIGHT.

Sun. AM Quiet start, perhaps going to the gym or to the shooting range or

ex-pats club.

PM relax or just go driving and exploring Thailand.

Perhaps a show or a bar show.

Yes, I don’t know how to fill in my time, there is nothing to do.

Oh! And since I retired I got an MSc.

Something I had no time for when I was working.

Don’t waste time working, Retire and work even harder.

[buadhai]

I've been retired for about six months now. Moved to Thailand in early April. I don't have any trouble filling my days. Never bored. Have a "want to do" list that just keeps getting longer.

And, I don't miss the "rat race" one bit. (Of course, life on Saipan, even as a Fed, can hardly be called a rat race.)

I find the days and hours go by very quickly. Perhaps I've just become very good at goofing off.

My daily routine consists of an hour or so of exercise, an hour or so in the garden, some TV, the newspaper, lots of good books, the Internet, including e-mail, some web surfing and, of course, Thai Visa. I do a long bicycle trip now and then. We get out to lunch or dinner several times a week. And, we take a nice road trip once a month with day trips now and then.

I stay away from bars and limit my drinking to a few cans of Chang on the front porch each evening. (Unless I'm in Surin fighting off the sidewalk.)

I think that boredom is always one's own fault. The world is full of interesting things to do. If you just don't feel like doing any of them, perhaps a bit of introspection is called for.

[richard10365]

Exercise, help with English homework, surf the internet, watch ubc, cook, learn to read, write, and speak thai, and fishing at my friends house (thai style with a net).

[jef]

If you hav'nt got children how do you use your time every day and did you find it a big comedown from the rat race to suddenly find yourself with all this time on your hands?

TP

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What I do after the rat race?

Nothing really and enjoying doing nothing for a change

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Sometimes I wish I was at retirement stage

[simcity]

Sitting and looking at the merry go around is quiet cool ! if it is what you want!

online for stock market as a hobby , fresh food market , look after the dog , odd job , computer , bye DVD movies , cooked and invite friends over , go to bansaing for lunch , a trip to Australia or France sometime and soon when i am really retired get a beach place and communicated between Bangkok and there !

[Mighty Mouse]

I have friends who have retired and they now live in Pattaya. They keep fit by doing a power walk every second day and regularly visit the the gym.

Days consist of sitting and relaxing around the swimming pool.

The night time is their downfall. This is when they socialise with their mates who have just flown into Pattaya for a holiday. The mates are all hyped up and eager to party, and the retirees try to keep up with them. The trouble is, when the mates are all partied out and ready to go back home, more fresh mates arrive, so its an ongoing drink-a-thon.

A large proportion of their pensions is spent on booze. This has to take a toll of anyones' health, not to mention the bank account.

Retiring in Thailand but living in the touristy areas and trying to live like a tourist, is, I believe, very unwise.

There have been some excellent suggestions made by others in this thread. I think that as long as you have a loving partner to share your life with, as long as you remain healthy, wealthy and wise, and as long as you don't sit around becoming bored, retirement at any age is something to look forward to.

[Ricardo]

I miss work , but not so much, that I would want to go back - except for a shed-load of money or a really-interesting short-term contract !

The first year was spent managing the move, getting set-up in our new house, and unwinding from a busy life before.

It helps to have an occasional social-life, I think, we have a weekly lunch with friends - rotating so it's our turn about once per month. Ditto going out to eat - it's nice to be able to, whenever we want, now the kids are into a local school and settled-in.

I've also climbed back onto my bucycle, after 10+ years away, and am enjoying slowly rebuilding my fitness & stamina (VERY slowly - must be old age !).

Slowly picking-up more Thai-language - but not going crazy over it.

Listening to all the music, and reading all the books, which work & family had never left me time to spend on.

Retirement, so far, is GREAT and I have absolutely NO regrets.

Go for it !

[wamberal]

I was able to retire early, having worked offshore for many years, mostly in Hong Kong. I met my wife after I moved back to Australia, we were introduced by mutual Thai friends.

My wife and I are happily settled in Australia. When we got married, I assumed that sooner or later we would end up moving to LOS where her family and friends are. But, no, my wife loves it here, and hates it there.

I think that relationships are the most important part of life. Relationships with wife, children, immediate family, of course; with friends and acquaintances also; and community relationships.

If you work hard on your relationships, you will have a happy and rich retirement, because you will always have fulfilling things to do, either helping others, spending time with others, or even with others helping you.

We are both Christians, and of course I think a faith is important....particularly as we get older. And I do a lot of work in and around our Church community, including a lot of work with kids, which I love because we have none of our own.

Maybe we will end up living in LOS one day. If we do, I am sure that we will find things to keep us busy.

We both walk at least 5 km every day, and I swim 1 km also. Keeping fit and in touch with current events .. the latter is so easy with the internet, are also very important.

[Sheryl]

OK so you have made the decison to retire early to Thailand.

maybee you have a marriage Visa instead, whatever.

If you hav'nt got children how do you use your time every day and did you find it a big comedown from the rat race to suddenly find yourself with all this time on your hands? How did you adjust, or hav'nt you yet?

I'm interested to know

Cheers

TP

I am only semi-retired, still work a few months of the year but only to earn the money I need to do the things that otherwise fill my time. These consist of helping (or trying to help...verdict's still out on extent of success) various people in need: 4 Cambodian kids traumatized by an abusive family; another 3 Cambodian kids in need of an education, a Cambodian mother with AIDs whose husband abndoned her, a 35 year old Thai neighbor with no money, little education and early-onset Parkinson's disease, countless Cambodian friends, acquaintances and friends of friends needing medical care, etc etc. There is no difficulty at all in finding folks needing and deserving of help and no more rewarding way to spend one's time. This may sound trite but it is actually true. Although being a health professional gives me an advantage in terms of how much I can assist and somewhat determines the kind of assistance I give, anybody with the will to do so can help and it is my experience that life/nature/God or whatever one wants to call it will direct you to where you are needed if you are open to doing so -- and you will get back far more than you ever give. Guaranteed.

I also seriously meditate, garden, and wage a never ending battle to keep the lovely nature around me on the other side of the windows and doors. But getting involved with helping other people is the most important, and the needs in this world are such that you'll always have as much or more than you can find time for to do. You'll also find that as you do this you are led into situations that challenge you in exactly the areas of personal growth that you need to be challenged...this too is a law of nature.

Actually, our very lives are a job to be done. Paid employment is just a part of it. From that one can retire if one has the means, but there is no retiring from the real job at hand...only failing to recognize and do it. Not meant to sound preachy and certainly not a criticism. We've all been conditioned and misled to think that the goal is to enjoy ourselves and that the way to do that is through various diversions, pastimes etc. All the great religions of the world teach otherwise and my own experience is that they are correct. That ain't the way.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

I have friends who have retired and they now live in Pattaya. They keep fit by doing a power walk every second day and regularly visit the the gym.

Days consist of sitting and relaxing around the swimming pool.

The night time is their downfall. This is when they socialise with their mates who have just flown into Pattaya for a holiday. The mates are all hyped up and eager to party, and the retirees try to keep up with them. The trouble is, when the mates are all partied out and ready to go back home, more fresh mates arrive, so its an ongoing drink-a-thon.

A large proportion of their pensions is spent on booze. This has to take a toll of anyones' health, not to mention the bank account.

Retiring in Thailand but living in the touristy areas and trying to live like a tourist, is, I believe, very unwise.

There have been some excellent suggestions made by others in this thread.  I think that as long as you have a loving partner to share your life with, as long as you remain healthy, wealthy and wise, and as long as you don't sit around becoming bored, retirement at any age is something to look forward to.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Change abode and make the addy care of the post office. Change of Life ... Change of Friends

[loong]

We've all been conditioned and misled to think that the goal is to enjoy ourselves and that the way to do that is through various diversions, pastimes etc. All the great religions of the world teach otherwise and my own experience is that they are correct. That ain't the way.

This is, of course your opinion and you are entitled to it. Everybody's goals in life are different.

My goal is to enjoy my life, I came to that decision alone, not through conditioning by other people.

I am going to keep my opinions about religion to myself as I have a feeling that you would not like them

[Buff-horns]

OK so you have made the decison to retire early to Thailand.

maybee you have a marriage Visa instead, whatever.

If you hav'nt got children how do you use your time every day and did you find it a big comedown from the rat race to suddenly find yourself with all this time on your hands? How did you adjust, or hav'nt you yet?

I'm interested to know

Cheers

TP

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

seems to me a lot of guys who retire to LOS hit the skids ,idleness, ennui, too much booze, talking gibberish to locals, no exercise because its too hot and they drive a car or bike everywhere. a generally dissolute lifestyle leading to an early grave, due to lack of exercise, and fatty unhealthy diet.

and then theres the hassle with the local women possibly leading to a swallow dive off the balcony ! some retirement !

[The_Eye_Of_Sauron]

I get out of bed at 11 am, which I find means there's less boring time to occupy myself in.

I like to play on Thaivisa quite a lot of the day. Every 3 days or so I go outdoors, but thats a bit boring too.

I get most of my Thai information from Felix Lynn's radio show. That saves me from going outdoors to experience it myself.

I like to treat myself to a cornetto (THB20) from time to time if I am not on a diet, but I haven't had one for over two months. Maybe next month.

Edited September 13, 2005 by The_Eye_Of_Sauron

[buadhai]

Sometimes I wish I was at retirement stage

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How close, Doc?

[buadhai]

I am going to keep my opinions about religion to myself as I have a feeling that you would not like them

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Come on, Uncle, let it all hang out....

[The Skipper]

seems to me a lot of guys who retire to LOS hit the skids ,idleness, ennui, too much booze, talking gibberish to locals, no exercise because its too hot and they drive a car or bike everywhere. a generally dissolute lifestyle leading to an early grave, due to lack of exercise, and fatty unhealthy diet.

and then theres the hassle with the local women possibly leading to a swallow dive off the balcony ! some retirement !

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Being retired can be tough..

...and don't forget the possibility of slipping on the soap suds at the Darling...

sooo many hazards...

beats dying on the job though

[ThaiPauly]

I have friends who have retired and they now live in Pattaya. They keep fit by doing a power walk every second day and regularly visit the the gym.

Days consist of sitting and relaxing around the swimming pool.

The night time is their downfall. This is when they socialise with their mates who have just flown into Pattaya for a holiday. The mates are all hyped up and eager to party, and the retirees try to keep up with them. The trouble is, when the mates are all partied out and ready to go back home, more fresh mates arrive, so its an ongoing drink-a-thon.

A large proportion of their pensions is spent on booze. This has to take a toll of anyones' health, not to mention the bank account.

Retiring in Thailand but living in the touristy areas and trying to live like a tourist, is, I believe, very unwise.

There have been some excellent suggestions made by others in this thread.  I think that as long as you have a loving partner to share your life with, as long as you remain healthy, wealthy and wise, and as long as you don't sit around becoming bored, retirement at any age is something to look forward to.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thsi is a very well thought out post Mighty Mouse. When I lived in Bangkok I used to go out with my Son and his freinds partying all the time. It not only took a toll on my wallet but also my health, I just can't do what 20-30 year olds can do anymore when it comes to partying it up. Thats one of the main reasons for moving to Chaing mai, to get OUT of that scene. I don't have the same problems here. My freinds here are mostly TV members who are nearer my age.If I go back to BK then it will be a booze fuelled weekend, but I can take the odd one now and again without it affecting me long term

Cheers for the post