In 2023 - where in Asia is the best place to retire.

[Aussie1978]

Hi,

There is so much knowledge and experience on this forum.

I’m looking to retire and move back to SEA in a few years. I’m trying to decide where I should move to

Question: given what you know now, the changes in society and the changes in the world post covid, where would you choose to retire if you could start all over? Would it still be Thailand?

Why ?

Thank you all
X

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[cdnmatt]

Depends, what are you looking for?

[Aussie1978]

Depends, what are you looking for?

I’m looking for

Beach, a quiet life, guys (18+), tropics.

[bkkmfj2648]

I am newly retired here in Thailand - since September 2022.

Originally, I was going to have 2 phases for my retirement:
Phase I - in Vietnam - perhaps first 5 years,
Phase II - for the remainder of my life in Thailand.

Vietnam was cancelled as a consequence to their reaction to covid, where they decided to NOT renew visas to foreigners during the multi year covid period - as they had a fear that foreigners were responsible for spreading covid in their country.

https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/fo...e-4418604.html

I read and watched numerous videos of foreigners (including retirees) who had lived in Vietnam for many years and when their visa was not renewed they had very little time to leave the country. Unfortunately for many retirees they had no where to go - as Vietnam was the place that they called home.

This knee-jerk reaction by the Vietnamese government made me realize that I could not take the risk of retiring in Vietnam when maybe one day the government would kick me out of their country due to fear of foreigners.

Consequently, I chose to immediately start Phase II of my retirement plan in Thailand - as I saw that the Thai government was much more accommodating towards us foreigners during covid. However, ONLY if you were already in Thailand when they decided to close their borders due to the covid crisis. If you had a valid retirement visa but were outside of Thailand when they closed their borders - you were stuck and you could not return to your retirement destination. However, if you were within Thailand's borders - your retirement visa would continue to be renewed.

So, when deciding your retirement destination - I think that you need to also understand the behavior of the government when it is stressed to understand if the country that you would choose would truly be a reliable retirement destination.

I will still visit Vietnam - but from the safety of nearby Thailand :>))

[Armando]

As an old Asia hand, Thailand was always going to be the country for retirement. Since that decision, though, I discovered Taiwan (and not just the developing gay scene and the best looking young Chinese guys in Asia) and Vietnam. I will keep Bangkok as a base as long as the Immigration Department does not increase the amount of cash required to stay here, and make reasonably regular trips to the other two countries. The young man who clicked on me when I arrived in Danang just before covid was stunning in every way. He recently came to Bangkok for a few days and I hope to see him again early next year back in Vietnam. He's not an MB and he paid for his trip here.

[Dodger]

Question: given what you know now, the changes in society and the changes in the world post covid, where would you choose to retire if you could start all over? Would it still be Thailand?

Why ?

My answer would be YES.

I just hit the 4 year mark in my retirement and couldn't be happier with my decision to call Thailand my new home.

I can honestly say that in all the years I've been coming to Thailand on holidays, and now living her full-time, I've never had any problems with Immigration other than the frustration of waiting in long queues once a year to renew my visa. I know that a lot of expats complain a lot about the 90 day reporting as well, but again, in all honesty, this doesn't bother me in the least. I simply plan to have breakfast at the restaurant in the Immigration parking lot once every 90 days while they update their records. There's always plenty of eye-candy and it's not like I have any trouble fitting it in my schedule.

Coming from Chicago I can't tell you how much I appreciate not having any more freezing cold winters to deal with. I live near the coast so it always feels like I'm on vacation...low cost -of-living makes maintaining a budget an easy task...and I highly doubt that any other country would offer the same level of opportunities for personal fulfillment for a gay man than Thailand does.

In the early stages of my planning for retirement (which took several years) I was also considering Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines, but kept coming back to the same conclusion...and that was that nowhere else on earth has as many available, accommodating, and adorable "Boys" as Thailand. That to me was enough to tilt the scales.

Good luck in your decision making...and remember..."home is what you make it".

[pong]

For me;NO-and also NO other ASEAN country. Having once had to stay for a full yr in TH never again in that hot+humid time after Songkran. Very content-and certainly now after the 3 yr gap- with the 3-4 wintermonthes. The rest of the yr in EURope and making short trips from there. Small extra thing is that our country lowers the state pension if you happen to stay in what are classified as cheaper countries-TH is among those, but that would be much less in total as airfare today is.
From what I remember in mainstream media-understandably not necessarily aiming the gay market as such- Malaysia often comes out best as all-round combo, or at least for wesetrners-much easier for visa etc as TH with its utter burocraziness.

[Dodger]

Small extra thing is that our country lowers the state pension if you happen to stay in what are classified as cheaper countries-TH is among those, but that would be much less in total as airfare today is.

Thailand is a very affordable place to live if you can afford to live here.

Sound like a play-on-words?...it really isn't.

The requirement for a foreign expat to have a minimum monthly income of 65,000 THB of hasn't changed in decades. Some of the friends I have over here have it...some take the option of freezing 800,000 THB of their savings in a Thai account to comply... - and others prefer (or are forced) to pay for the services of a Visa Agent to obtain their annual visa extensions.

The reason I'm mentioning this is because the retired expats I know who comply with Thailand's financial requirements seem to be living stress-free, and rarely if ever complain about Immigration. Conversely, those who lack the sufficient funds to live here on a permanent basis (without the use of an Agent) frequently seem "stressed" and often complaint about Thai Immigration.

I think it would be wise for anyone who's planning to retire in a foreign country to make sure they can comply with a countries financial requirements - before even taking the next step and counting how many gay bars they have. Just a thought!

[Aussie1978]

Sounds like Thailand is the place to be.. thanks for all of the comments.