Retirement Visa

[pattaya127]

Good background and pretty interesting story. i hope you contact me. 1200 is enough, but i think we westerners want to be able to have many choices or be able to move and take costlier decisions (flying home, visiting family decently, re-building a burnt house, treat friends generously, having a household with g/f or wife with kids or previous kids, etc...). Though, as a thai, you should be able to work, get a little business going. BTW, I said farang in my story, because it made more sense and sounded Oh so true!, but the water tank rip-off happened to a thai g/f of mine. Sorry about the embellishment (actually, the other way around, she was so sexy!)...

[Guest]

That's the best part...I get to fly for free on any U.S Military aircraft and other nation's military aircraft also(only those that have an agreement with the U.S...Like THSI!!) I've been to Hawaii, Guam, Japan and Korea all on US planes for free! It's called Space A travel. That's one of the big reason I stayed in the military for so long. That and the free Medical all over the world So some of the costlier necessities are provided to me for FREE!! YES.....

[Guest]

Some strange (at least to me) comments in this thread, i.e. “retirement money, retirement letter, medical exam,”.

As far as I know you only have to be 55+ and have 800,000 in a bank in Thailand or an income, if 55-59, of 500,000 baht per year or an income of not less than 50,000 baht per month, or, if 60+ income of not less than 200,000 baht per year or not less than 20,000 baht per month.

A friend of mine got one last year with a bank statement showing he had more than 800,000 in a Thai bank. He said absolutely not to the question if he had to show a retirement letter (whatever that is) and absolutely not to having to have a medical exam.

Did the rules change?

I also asked whether he had to pay tax on any pension he had paid or remitted into Thailand for living expenses. (In theory I understand that anyone here more than 180 days in any year is liable to tax on any income from abroad which is remitted into Thailand.) His reply to that was that he didn’t understand tax! Anyone know?

He also did not know whether he had to get rentry permits if he left the country on his multi entry visa as he had not left since he had been here.

Can’t wait to retire! Seems there’s a lot of things you can stop worrying about and if you don’t know the rules just don’t bother asking!

He did comment though that $1,200 a month is very little and he did not see how anyone could have a decent lifestyle on that even in Thailand.

[Guest]

I'm more familiar with retirement in Phils but somehow feel things ought not to be so different.

You don't need to "own" the amount you deposit in a bank. It just has to sit there for a while. 6 month in Phils.

In Phils they will discriminate between < 50 and > 50. Below 50, 75,000 US$, above 50, 50,000 US$. Being married to a Filipina will change the entire picture and the same applies to LOS to my knowledge.

To assume a 7-8 % inflation rate in most SE Asian countries might not be utterly trivial so an outrageous 1200 will not be as outrageous in 6 years by the way.

And for people as terribly enthousiast to retire in LOS as you, 1200 will often not be enough. Most certainly it will not be enough to support an infatuation with NEP BG's. Double that amount might not be enough either. I've met expats in BKK who manage to burn 5 thou and still complain. Hope you know what you're doing.

There's sites like

http://www.thailandtips.com/

and presumably much better sites.

[Guest]

$1,200 a month, though not a fortune, is a very nice retirement income in Thailand.

You can rent a nice apt for $250 and food and everything else is dirt cheap compared to US.

Please~