cnd Matt wrote:

"live like a king in Thailand for $500/month", because it just ain't true

Can't live like a king - but can live like a Thai.

I would guess that the average Thai income is around B17,000/month ($500). That would be one low-level white collar income - or a couples combined minimum wage income. (The minimum wage in Thailand is currently at 7,000/month).

If someone from the West could come over here and live like a Thai they could survive. That would require living strictly on market food and living a life without any frills, i.e. entertainment, health insurance, WIFI or a Thai boyfriend or girlfriend which ALWAYS costs you something. So yes, one could survive.

I have a friend from Germany who retired and moved to Thailand on an extremely tight budget about 6 years ago. He spent his retirement savings building a small house in Isaan on his boyfriends parents property and has been surviving their ever since. I believe his monthly budget is close to a Thais (17,000/month). He eats strictly market food, has no real form of entertainment other than play time with his boyfriend and watching the stars at night, has no health insurance coverage (in Thailand), and rarely takes any excursions outside of the village where he resides, but, amazingly enough, when I talk to him on the phone he's as happy as a lark. He now has 3 large dogs (he's a dog lover), a large garden where he grows many of the herbs and vegetables he consumes, spesks Thai fluently and gets invited to Thai occasions frequently, i.e., funerals, weddings, birthdays, new babies being born, etc. and really seems to have adopted the Thai lifestyle naturally.

This friend of mine is surely an exception...but at least I know that it can be done. He told me once that the alternative for him would be retiring in his home town in Germany where he would glued inside a small apartment on his small budget being stuck just watching TV all day.