Question for Canadian pensioners on a tight budget

[HermesHermes]

Or anywhere else in SEA for that matter...

 

I lived off the grid for decades - at the 11th hour now scrambling to prepare for retirement.

 

You know my type at 25: "I don't want anything from the gubberment. Taxes - for slaves! I will be  a millionaire by the time I am 45. I don't care that some years I make so little that they will owe me money. It's the *principle of the thing*. I won't even file! Anyway, I travel a lot. Being Canadian is just an accident of birth, a passport of convenience. I will travel in my 30s to 50s and worry about retirement when I get there."

 

Oh oh... My plans for liberty and wealth didn't quite work out. I was too busy fooling around in Pattaya, Phnom Penh, Calcutta and Jakarta.  And now I am terrified about my old age. Why? Since I discovered the pros (there are cons too of course) of sojourning in Southeast and South Asia, the idea of living in expensive, cold, boring Canada seemed and seems like prison. But as my savings are nominal, putting it mildly, I will have to rely on welfare for geezers.

 

My plan is to live in a small city in Thailand, or more likely Vietnam or Indonesia and work part-time there. Actually anywhere Buddhist, Hindu or Christian that is cheap and warm. I don't like this having three sets of clothes, paying $18 for foreign registered mail and all the rules and regulations in Canada. Half the year if I absolutely have to be technically resident in Canada I could be here counting the days to escape. The potatoes of survival will be my retirement passive income and the gravy of extras will be from work.  I can live modestly well in the developing world on 1200+ monthly. That is living in poverty in Vancouver.

 

So, why am I so scared?

 

1. CPP: I was technically self-employed and sometimes really was, so I hardly contributed to CPP for a third of a century. I am waiting for my estimate. I expect it's going to be something like $50. Normal people get closer to $800.

 

2. OAS: I don't know if I lived 40 years in Canada. I might have, but it'll be pretty close. I worked a lot overseas. Earning $100 or $200 less than the maximum of aprox 600 will make a big difference to me. But the big question is whose responsibility is it to prove it? Mine or the government's?  What is the default? Does the default change when you haven't filed taxes for decades and are catching up now?  I lived as if government didn't exist, and preferred it that way - just doing the minimum: paying sales tax and following the speed limit.  Since I was working in the cash economy in Canada (no, not drugs), I refused to submit to monopoly health insurance and part of the time didn't even have a bank account or a car.  I am scrambling to document my life. To prove I flourished or even existed here. But even if I can reconstruct my life on paper legitimately, I can't get rent receipts from 2003 let alone 1983! Was I in Canada three months, ten months, six months? How the heck do I know about five let alone ten years ago? I didn't keep records. And how do they calculate it -- average number of months over 40 years or average each five year period? Can you have spent 10 months travelling one year, then only 1 the next year so you have a credit in residency? I am contacting banks, apartments, ambulance, hospitals, anything and everything that proves I was here. I was some of the time, but I was invisible. On purpose. I didn't foresee any downside when I was a young and 'giving the finger to the man'.

 

3. GIS: But this is the big one. Firstly, I don't get why the Canadian federal or provincial gov'ts care where you sleep after 65. They don't in Australia. Wouldn't they save money in health care if we got our medicines and surgeries in India instead of Canada? Anyway, what is to stop a snowbird from *saying* he is in Canada, but he isn't? Does anybody check? There is such a thing as ATM. There is no exit stamp or Immigration check.

 

4. Subsidized housing: I am enquiring whether I have to stay 12 months per year to get this. Because I know from experience that renting once a year for six months is a supreme hassle. But it is too costly (even if subsidized) to leave  place empty for six months in Canada, it doubles the rent if you stay only half the time. Plus, just the return airfare ($1200) means adding another $200 a month to the real costs of living in Bangkok or Saigon. Adding in these two factors could add 50% to a 'low budget' stay in Chiang Mai or Siem Reap.

 

I am not one of those smart people who bought a house, worked at a job, invested in RRSPs and all that. I have basically lived by the seat of my pants for almost 40 years. And now I am old.  But I would rather be a bum in Thailand or India than a bum here. Even with all the food banks and subsidies for this and that in Canada, you join the shuffleboard set.  I would like to hear from other Canadians who are living in SEA but maintaining their Canadian residency. The best of both worlds. If you failed to live on a low Canadian retirement income (under $800) I'd like to hear about it too. My guess is this is impossible in Thailand, difficult in Cambodia, possible in Vietnam and doable in India. 

Edited March 24, 2017 by HermesHermes
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[tonray]

Required reading for every 20 something screwing around in Thailand hoping to make it their home for the next 50 years by teaching English and not saving a satang. Old age comes at you from nowhere and by the time you see it, it's already too late.

[jerojero]

If this isn't a troll post, you are one wild and crazy guy, and obviously rather irresponsible. Sorry, but calling it as I see it. Count yourself lucky that you were born Canadian with the benefit of a passport accepted in virtually every country around the world. Millions of non-Canadians would die for such a benefit that you seem to take lightly, among other social benefits your home country offers its citizens. Good luck to you nevertheless. Can't offer you any advice you're seeking as I'm one of those boring guys who worked for 45 years in traditional jobs in boring old Canada, soon retiring in Thailand though. Cheers!

 

 

[HauptmannUK]

I am British so I don't know much about Canadian welfare. I have visited Canada however, and I didn't see any Canadians who were starving. Also I believe Canada has good hospitals. My suggestion would be to return to Canada and let the nanny state look after you. The last thing SEA needs is another down-on-his-luck Westerner trying to scratch a living.