hi all, I am a kiwi ,living in Australia with my thai wife, I am due to retire in june and want to live with my wife in Thailand,my question is,what is the best and cheapest long term visa I can get? I don't think visa runs are a good long term solution.

To start with you should get a single entry non immigrant O visa based upon marriage to a Thai.

The after you arrive here you could then apply for an extension of stay based upon marriage. You would need to have 400k baht in a Thai bank for 60 days in your name only or proof of 40k baht income.

You could also for the extension based upon retirement if you are 50 or over. You would need 800k baht in the bank or proof of 65k baht.

The third option would be to get a OA long stay visa that would give you multiple one year entries for one year and by doing an entry just before the visa expire you could get another one year entry which means you could get almost 2 years of stay from the visa. Info here from Sydney consulate website.for retirement visa. http://www.thaiconsulatesydney.org/english/visa#country/a/australia