Thailand voted one of the best destinations for retirees

[ldnguy]

Wow!! TAT is really getting desperate. It must have taken them countless man hours online surfing to find the article from an obscure abd insignificant news source called the Huffington post.

Then they call it popular and turn the small article into a sales pitch about retiring here. 1 paragraph stating they made top 7 list of destinations and the rest about requirements to retire here.

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Obscure? You need to get out more. Alexa shows the Huffington Post website as the 71st most popular site in the world. The Huffington Post is the complete opposite end of the scale from obscure. It's hugely popular and well-known. Figures from last year show it has over 70 million unique visitors per month. Really obscure isn't it?

[ldnguy]

Seems many on here aren't happy with Thailand. But what does it say about those people that they still choose to live here? Seems odd that so many live in a place that they don't like and where they don't feel welcome.I'd be on the first plane out of any country if I felt that way. Thailand has it's problems, as do many countries, but it's a fantastic place to retire for most people. I've been here over 4 years and still love it. Won't suit everyone, but that's up to them to decide. There are some great places to retire in Europe, for example, and many do choose that option. Maybe the Thailand haters should give it a try, as they might feel more at home there. Or how about Australia or USA - they both have lots to offer and are mostly English speaking.

[chumpy]

(croaky old man voice) Way back in '95, when I was just a young whipper-snapper looking at possibly retiring from the military with a special "buy-out" package, I thought long and hard about where I would like to retire to.

Knowing that my pension would be small, and not wanting to live somewhere where icicles would be hanging from my chin for 8 months of the year, I did 2 things. I made up a list of potential countries I might like to live in (and a check list of things I thought were important at the time) and the other thing I did was visit various Embassy's and Consulates to get first hand information.

My list of potential countries included: Peru, Belize, Costa Rica, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay. I didn't bother with Myanmar, India, any African or M.E. countries, and skipped a few that I wasn't able to (at the time) find any information about (the internet was still pretty sparse back then).

My checklist included things like - Healthcare (good hospitals, quality staff), Climate (year round temperatures, rainfall, extremes), Education systems (as an indicator of the country's progress), Infrastructure (roads/rail, power, airports, phones, etc), Politics (democracy ? dictatorship ?), Cost of living (rent, realty, food, exchange rates).

In the end I think I had about 15 items on the checklist. Using what I could from the internet and visits to the Embassy's/Consulates, I tried to grade the various countries (on a scale of 1-10 I think it was) and then totalled up the scores.

The Philippines looked OK, but at the time there were security issues, weather issues and they wanted something like an investment of 50k+ (USD) for a retirement visa (the investment could be in the form of purchasing a condo though).

Vietnam looked OK as well, except for the communist government and how their relations with China were (and still are).

Some countries were very cheap to live in, but they also had (very) corrupt police/politicians, poor infrastructure and potential difficulties getting in/out and around the country. Some were just down-right nasty - corruption, lack of infrastructure, poor education/healthcare/etc.

In the end, I picked Thailand. It had good weather, good food, good prices, decent infrastructure. From what I could gather, the education and Healthcare seemed OK. (I ended up not retiring as early as expected, made a couple trips between '97-2000 and while working in the 'stan I decided I was going to live there permanently. I'm glad I made the choice then, and I'm still glad now.)

I do find it absolutely amusing to see so many people that have also decided to live in Thailand, but have nothing but bad things to say about it. If everything is so horrible, why are they still here ? There are obviously many other, much nicer, places in the world they could be living in, yet they don't move there. Curiouser and Curiouser.

I'm also astounded that the thought of having to report your residence ONCE every 90 days is such a hard ship ! The horror, the HORROR ! Four times a year (FOUR !) they have to get off their <snip> and prove that they are still living (wherever) and aren't (dead/gone home for good/living in a dumpster by the beach).

Such incredible hardship to endure just to stay here year after year ! I can't imagine how they manage !

How dare Thailand (or any other country) actually try to keep track of all the foreigners within it's borders ! Who do they think they are ?!?!?

How dare they try to prevent foreigners from buying up the choicest land (at local prices) and then reselling it to other foreigners at prices 3-4+ times higher ! (Yes, I've talked to foreign realtors who do exactly that through their "nominee" companies. One Belgian I spoke to a couple years ago told me how he'd buy properties at local prices, quadruple the price and then re-sell them to other Belgians who thought they were getting a bargain - compared to prices in Belgium at the time I guess. )

How dare they try to prevent hordes of penniless bums from other countries from flooding in and filling up the streets and beaches with filthy beggars and thieves ! Can you imagine how great Thailand would be if they just let any and everyone into the country, and didn't care what they did or where they did it ? I'm sure that there wouldn't be crowds of broke, unwashed foreign beggars puking, crapping, panhandling, swindling and thieving all over the country (and you thought the lady-boys on Beach Road were bad).

One does not have to read many of the threads in the Visa forum to realize, quite quickly, that a very large number of the foreigners in Thailand are not that wealthy, and therefore are not contributing that much to the local economy, despite their protestations to the latter.

One estimate (from 2013) put the total number of expats living in Thailand at 3-400,000. That includes the Nigerians, Algerians, Indians, Chinese, Students, Dependants, Over-stayers, Diplomats and sundry others. That equals roughly about .6% of the total population of Thailand.

If we use the high side figure of 400,000 foreign "residents" and assume they each were single and were spending the entire 800,000 baht every year that the government seems to think single people need to, that would represent, at most, 2.8% of the Gross Domestic Product for 2012. Tell me again how your 2 Changs a week is all that is keeping the Thai economy floating ?

I would suspect that if you could get economic data regarding just the expats living in Thailand, it would probably mirror the stats in most developed countries. In other words, you would have a small percentage that have a lots of cash (lets call them the "rich"). You would have a larger group that aren't rich, but are comfortable (call them the middle class). Finally, you would have the largest group at the bottom (also known as the poor huddled masses). (In other words, a very large percentage of those 3-400,000 foreigners probably don't have a lot of money.)

Chances are that the "foreign residents" in Thailand are not spending anywhere near an average of 800,000 baht per year per person. I think there are a whole lot of people that are maybe spending a quarter of the that sum (like 15-20,000 a month perhaps).

Think of all those threads over the years, full of stories about people who've overstayed their visas (and have no money, etc, etc). The threads from the people who can't meet the financial requirements for a visa and are trying to find loopholes or scam ways around those requirements. The threads about all the "balloon chasers", foreign beggars, foreign homeless and so on and so on.

Now think about how most of those are just about Euro and English speaking foreigners and imagine how many foreigners from other "demographics" are probably as bad, or even worse.

Long story short - the foreign residents in Thailand are nowhere near the economic force some like to think they are. Thailand makes considerably more money from tourists than (foreign) residents. Even if all 400,000(ish) foreign residents were spending 800,000 baht/year (highly unlikely), tourism revenues are approx 7 1/2 times that amount. In reality, it is probably more in the region of 15-20 times (or more) that amount as again, all those foreign residents are not likely spending anywhere near 800k/year/person.

Finally, there is one matter I'm not sure on, but will try to find out. It seems so many foreigners are being held here against their will that it should be a major international crisis ! How is it possible that Thailand is able to force all these obviously disgruntled foreigners to remain ? On one hand they are seemingly clamping down on foreigners, making it more difficult for them to stay, yet on the other hand the teeming masses of unhappy expats seem unable to leave !

Actually, I think the answer is pretty obvious as I'm sure the few that have actually read this far down are aware. (Really ? You're still reading this ? GET A LIFE !)

(Bah - I now know way more about the Thai economy, Gross Domestic Product and Thai Demographics that I ever expected to. Damn internet. Now I have to try and remember what I've probably forgotten due to learning too much new UFI. Be much easier if I knew where my pants were. Or what pants are. Or where the "white" goes when snow melts. And what is up with the number 42 ? )

Perhaps the negativity is a result of some foreigners feeling alienated here,ie not accepted,looked down upon,ripped off etc.

Lately there has been one crackdown on foreigners after another,it just goes on and on,and having lived in Phuket for 26 years I can tell you that I have never seen the locals as unfriendly as they are now,and that's what I am hearing from many long term expats some who work here and have families like I do,just to be clear on that,(as you seem to be implying that most complaining farangs are bums).

Also the immigration policies(for example the 90 day reporting and the yearly begging for a visa) will make sure that you will never feel or be part of society here,and that in itself pisses a lot of people off,it is not the fact that you have to physically make the effort to go to the immigration office,it's the feeling that you get that you are not really accepted,and that's exactly what immigration wants to let you know,on the visa extension forms it says "temporary stay",on the papers it also used to say "alien".

Why should things be this way if you have all the necessary documents and requirements to get a visa.

Sure it's good that the police are keeping an eye on things but there are other ways of doing that,in any case they really don't give a damn,it's all just a charade.

Officially you can get citizenship but very few people are able to get that.

Sure if you have only been here for a short while then this immigration business doesn't bother you too much but it will eventually,as you get more attached to the country and have no plans to ever live in your own country again then it surely will start to gnaw,especially when they as they often do start screwing with the laws.

If foreigners were allowed to feel more part of this society and perhaps be allowed to make contributions, like retired western people in Malaysia can, then I think you would be hearing a lot more positive things about this country,but this will not happen any time soon I think,the authorities here are living in the dark ages.

For how much expats contribute to the economy you should check the real estate sector in tourist areas,in Phuket it's huge and koh samui too,is a person who stays here for 6 months of the year,during the European winter months,an expat?,these people usually spend a lot as they work the other half of the year,what about oil workers?,many of these people are being denied visas or are not even bothering any more,it's not exactly like "welcome farang" here at the moment,well done Thailand!!!!!!And they want to project a retiree friendly image now,what an incredible load of bull.

[thesetat2013]

Seems many on here aren't happy with Thailand. But what does it say about those people that they still choose to live here? Seems odd that so many live in a place that they don't like and where they don't feel welcome.I'd be on the first plane out of any country if I felt that way. Thailand has it's problems, as do many countries, but it's a fantastic place to retire for most people. I've been here over 4 years and still love it. Won't suit everyone, but that's up to them to decide. There are some great places to retire in Europe, for example, and many do choose that option. Maybe the Thailand haters should give it a try, as they might feel more at home there. Or how about Australia or USA - they both have lots to offer and are mostly English speaking.

You sure do assume a lot. Calling people Thai haters just from their criticism, comments, and ridicule. I am sure you do the same to your wife or gf or bar girl. But you are still with her and want her.

You are right! Every country has its problems and Thailands are not as bad as some. But your problems are far worse i think as soon as you began name calling other expats who have an opinion.

Sent from my GT-S5310 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[chumpy]

Wow!! TAT is really getting desperate. It must have taken them countless man hours online surfing to find the article from an obscure abd insignificant news source called the Huffington post.

Then they call it popular and turn the small article into a sales pitch about retiring here. 1 paragraph stating they made top 7 list of destinations and the rest about requirements to retire here.

Sent from my GT-S5310 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Obscure? You need to get out more. Alexa shows the Huffington Post website as the 71st most popular site in the world. The Huffington Post is the complete opposite end of the scale from obscure. It's hugely popular and well-known. Figures from last year show it has over 70 million unique visitors per month. Really obscure isn't it?

you sound like a huffington bitch,are you employed by them?

[rayongchelsea]

Seems many on here aren't happy with Thailand. But what does it say about those people that they still choose to live here? Seems odd that so many live in a place that they don't like and where they don't feel welcome.I'd be on the first plane out of any country if I felt that way. Thailand has it's problems, as do many countries, but it's a fantastic place to retire for most people. I've been here over 4 years and still love it. Won't suit everyone, but that's up to them to decide. There are some great places to retire in Europe, for example, and many do choose that option. Maybe the Thailand haters should give it a try, as they might feel more at home there. Or how about Australia or USA - they both have lots to offer and are mostly English speaking.

You sure do assume a lot. Calling people Thai haters just from their criticism, comments, and ridicule. I am sure you do the same to your wife or gf or bar girl. But you are still with her and want her.

You are right! Every country has its problems and Thailands are not as bad as some. But your problems are far worse i think as soon as you began name calling other expats who have an opinion.

Sent from my GT-S5310 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Yes, agreed. Same old crap coming from the same old guys, with these ridiculous sayings that they seem to share. 4 years is a blink of an eye.

For some it is their home, where they work, where their children are educated, where they have to deal with the institutions etc..corruption..

Thailand has more faults than he will ever discover...

Fantastic..never..just wait till the s..t hits the fan..

Btw, all these guys who retire here and say how wonderful it is, it was once, before you came. Ruined it for me.

[merlen10002]

(croaky old man voice) Way back in '95, when I was just a young whipper-snapper looking at possibly retiring from the military with a special "buy-out" package, I thought long and hard about where I would like to retire to.

Knowing that my pension would be small, and not wanting to live somewhere where icicles would be hanging from my chin for 8 months of the year, I did 2 things. I made up a list of potential countries I might like to live in (and a check list of things I thought were important at the time) and the other thing I did was visit various Embassy's and Consulates to get first hand information.

My list of potential countries included: Peru, Belize, Costa Rica, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay. I didn't bother with Myanmar, India, any African or M.E. countries, and skipped a few that I wasn't able to (at the time) find any information about (the internet was still pretty sparse back then).

My checklist included things like - Healthcare (good hospitals, quality staff), Climate (year round temperatures, rainfall, extremes), Education systems (as an indicator of the country's progress), Infrastructure (roads/rail, power, airports, phones, etc), Politics (democracy ? dictatorship ?), Cost of living (rent, realty, food, exchange rates).

In the end I think I had about 15 items on the checklist. Using what I could from the internet and visits to the Embassy's/Consulates, I tried to grade the various countries (on a scale of 1-10 I think it was) and then totalled up the scores.

The Philippines looked OK, but at the time there were security issues, weather issues and they wanted something like an investment of 50k+ (USD) for a retirement visa (the investment could be in the form of purchasing a condo though).

Vietnam looked OK as well, except for the communist government and how their relations with China were (and still are).

Some countries were very cheap to live in, but they also had (very) corrupt police/politicians, poor infrastructure and potential difficulties getting in/out and around the country. Some were just down-right nasty - corruption, lack of infrastructure, poor education/healthcare/etc.

In the end, I picked Thailand. It had good weather, good food, good prices, decent infrastructure. From what I could gather, the education and Healthcare seemed OK. (I ended up not retiring as early as expected, made a couple trips between '97-2000 and while working in the 'stan I decided I was going to live there permanently. I'm glad I made the choice then, and I'm still glad now.)

I do find it absolutely amusing to see so many people that have also decided to live in Thailand, but have nothing but bad things to say about it. If everything is so horrible, why are they still here ? There are obviously many other, much nicer, places in the world they could be living in, yet they don't move there. Curiouser and Curiouser.

I'm also astounded that the thought of having to report your residence ONCE every 90 days is such a hard ship ! The horror, the HORROR ! Four times a year (FOUR !) they have to get off their <snip> and prove that they are still living (wherever) and aren't (dead/gone home for good/living in a dumpster by the beach).

Such incredible hardship to endure just to stay here year after year ! I can't imagine how they manage !

How dare Thailand (or any other country) actually try to keep track of all the foreigners within it's borders ! Who do they think they are ?!?!?

How dare they try to prevent foreigners from buying up the choicest land (at local prices) and then reselling it to other foreigners at prices 3-4+ times higher ! (Yes, I've talked to foreign realtors who do exactly that through their "nominee" companies. One Belgian I spoke to a couple years ago told me how he'd buy properties at local prices, quadruple the price and then re-sell them to other Belgians who thought they were getting a bargain - compared to prices in Belgium at the time I guess. )

How dare they try to prevent hordes of penniless bums from other countries from flooding in and filling up the streets and beaches with filthy beggars and thieves ! Can you imagine how great Thailand would be if they just let any and everyone into the country, and didn't care what they did or where they did it ? I'm sure that there wouldn't be crowds of broke, unwashed foreign beggars puking, crapping, panhandling, swindling and thieving all over the country (and you thought the lady-boys on Beach Road were bad).

One does not have to read many of the threads in the Visa forum to realize, quite quickly, that a very large number of the foreigners in Thailand are not that wealthy, and therefore are not contributing that much to the local economy, despite their protestations to the latter.

One estimate (from 2013) put the total number of expats living in Thailand at 3-400,000. That includes the Nigerians, Algerians, Indians, Chinese, Students, Dependants, Over-stayers, Diplomats and sundry others. That equals roughly about .6% of the total population of Thailand.

If we use the high side figure of 400,000 foreign "residents" and assume they each were single and were spending the entire 800,000 baht every year that the government seems to think single people need to, that would represent, at most, 2.8% of the Gross Domestic Product for 2012. Tell me again how your 2 Changs a week is all that is keeping the Thai economy floating ?

I would suspect that if you could get economic data regarding just the expats living in Thailand, it would probably mirror the stats in most developed countries. In other words, you would have a small percentage that have a lots of cash (lets call them the "rich"). You would have a larger group that aren't rich, but are comfortable (call them the middle class). Finally, you would have the largest group at the bottom (also known as the poor huddled masses). (In other words, a very large percentage of those 3-400,000 foreigners probably don't have a lot of money.)

Chances are that the "foreign residents" in Thailand are not spending anywhere near an average of 800,000 baht per year per person. I think there are a whole lot of people that are maybe spending a quarter of the that sum (like 15-20,000 a month perhaps).

Think of all those threads over the years, full of stories about people who've overstayed their visas (and have no money, etc, etc). The threads from the people who can't meet the financial requirements for a visa and are trying to find loopholes or scam ways around those requirements. The threads about all the "balloon chasers", foreign beggars, foreign homeless and so on and so on.

Now think about how most of those are just about Euro and English speaking foreigners and imagine how many foreigners from other "demographics" are probably as bad, or even worse.

Long story short - the foreign residents in Thailand are nowhere near the economic force some like to think they are. Thailand makes considerably more money from tourists than (foreign) residents. Even if all 400,000(ish) foreign residents were spending 800,000 baht/year (highly unlikely), tourism revenues are approx 7 1/2 times that amount. In reality, it is probably more in the region of 15-20 times (or more) that amount as again, all those foreign residents are not likely spending anywhere near 800k/year/person.

Finally, there is one matter I'm not sure on, but will try to find out. It seems so many foreigners are being held here against their will that it should be a major international crisis ! How is it possible that Thailand is able to force all these obviously disgruntled foreigners to remain ? On one hand they are seemingly clamping down on foreigners, making it more difficult for them to stay, yet on the other hand the teeming masses of unhappy expats seem unable to leave !

Actually, I think the answer is pretty obvious as I'm sure the few that have actually read this far down are aware. (Really ? You're still reading this ? GET A LIFE !)

(Bah - I now know way more about the Thai economy, Gross Domestic Product and Thai Demographics that I ever expected to. Damn internet. Now I have to try and remember what I've probably forgotten due to learning too much new UFI. Be much easier if I knew where my pants were. Or what pants are. Or where the "white" goes when snow melts. And what is up with the number 42 ? )

Great post and spot on, but don't tell the knockers that.