How to Retire In Thailand and Double Your Income

By Godfree Roberts and Ed.D.

A comfortable retirement on a fixed income in a warm, safe, friendly country? Where can I retire like that?

In Thailand, where the Government's retirement services are designed for people on fixed incomes like Social Security. But can you retire on Social Security alone?

Well, rents here run from $80--$280/mo., eating out 3x day costs $8 -- total, and a large bottle of premium beer is $1.70. The warm weather encourages T-shirts and shorts year-round, the people are the friendliest on earth, and the streets are safe, even late at night. In the book you'll learn..
* How to live in comfort and beauty on a fixed income...starting now
* Why your income doubles when you get to Thailand (hint: buying power)
* How much you'll pay for quality for medical and dental care
* How to earn money legally in Thailand the moment you arrive
* How to understand Thai culture and fit in
* How to use the Thai Government retirement services
* How to pay for your entire trip and your accommodation
* How to save 50% on your air fare

Plus Useful Charts, Step-by-step Checklists, Detailed Budgets that fit Social Security incomes, and Helpful Guides to Preparing and Moving to Thailand. And you'll receive up-to-date maps, useful reviews and smart tips to help you get started.

Amazingly comprehensive and extremely helpful. I worked out a detailed budget before I left home. -- Krisztina Perematoni, Berkeley, CA, USA.

I wish I'd read 'How to Retire in Thailand' before I started planning my retirement. I would have cashed out much sooner. -- Steve Parkes, Goulburn, Australia

Unless your pension's over £40,000 you ought to read this book. It opened our eyes to possibilities we never dreamed of. -- Alpin McDowell, Glasgow, UK.

Godfree Roberts earned his doctorate from UMass, Amherst, has lived in five countries and holds citizenship in two. He retired in Thailand for its combination of culture and cost. He founded ThailandRetirementHelpers.com to help others do the same.

Readable, practical, brief: Save years of time and $1000s. Download your copy now.

A Simple Program for Social Security Retirees Wanting Fun, Money, Freedom and a Better Life -- by Godfree Roberts, Ed.D.

140 pages.

• Language: English
• Publisher: eBookIt.com
• Release date: Dec 20, 2016
• ISBN: 9781627760829

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Us

FOREWORD

My thanks to the 31 readers who contributed corrections, suggestions and even a chapter! to this fourth edition. Because of you it’s twice as useful as the first edition (and almost twice as long). Please drop me a line if you have ideas and corrections for the 2017 edition.  Now, some background on me…

If you're a fellow victim of the financial crisis you know that life handed us a lemon right at the end of our working lives. How to make lemonade out of it? My trick was moving to Thailand where I've been living in comfort and beauty on $2,000 a month – which I thought impossible when I was expelled from California’s middle-class five years ago.

I grew up in Australia, lived in Japan, got my doctorate at UMass, married, started a California company and lived an enjoyable life, including annual visits to Paris. The financial crisis wiped me out, and I'm now enjoying life more than ever  –  to my great surprise.

Today in Thailand my $1500/mo. pension and $800 royalties are enough to afford me a middle class with annual trips home. This book explains in detail what it takes to live comfortably on that income, on half that income, and on twice that. It’s packed with budgetary details and loads of practical stuff like Thai dental care, food costs, and the availability of medical insurance.

See you in Thailand, and drop me a line if you need help or have questions.

Godfree Roberts,

[e-mail]

Chiang Mai

January, 2017

ONE

My First Letter Home

December 12, 2011.

Dear Folks,

Two months ago I moved into a working class part of town to be near Thai friends. Living here on the wrong side of the tracks has brought to mind my former life in Beverly Hills.  

Far from being the earthly paradise that I had expected, Beverly Hills resembled Forest Lawn cemetery: manicured, quiet, dead. Not merely that nobody was ever seen walking on the manicured sidewalks. Not dead in the sense of zero interaction between residents: most interaction was actually negative.  Make too much noise – or let a party run too late – and a neighbor would literally be at your gate the next morning to serve you with a lawsuit.

My Thai neighborhood is about as far from Beverly Hills as neighborhoods can get, socially, culturally, and geographically.  As I write, there's a karaoke party going on in the carport (most things here, from family reunions to parties to businesses of all kinds, happen in carports) and, as I came up the stairs earlier this evening my neighbors, for the umpteenth time, begged me to join them for dinner – or at least a drink.  Their hospitality is relentless, their warmth infectious.

Tonight, once the music ends, the fireworks will start. Fireworks, like most things in Thailand, are unregulated and the popular ones sound like artillery shells exploding above your head or, tonight, outside my window. Oddly, the fireworks don't upset the dozen dogs that live on my block.  Though much loved, they are allowed to run (and breed) freely.  And to bark whenever, and for as long as, it amuses them. Thai dogs have a great sense of humor, so that's a lot of barking. In fact, I plan to do a video of the synchronized barking competitions that regularly go on across the street from me.

Tonight's party is in response to a neighborhood incident that gave me a glimpse into working-class Thai communal life: education is relatively new here and compulsory schooling only goes to age 14. A neighborhood boy was therefore a local celebrity when he became not only the first in his family to attend University, but the first in the entire neighborhood of 15,000 people. Everyone took great pride in his progress especially his father, a road worker, who invited my little community to attend his son’s graduation from engineering school tomorrow.

The boy was killed last night in a motorcycle accident which led to open tears throughout the neighborhood today and a spontaneous Buddhist ceremony earlier this evening which shut down traffic as people brought plastic chairs to sit in and flowers and gifts to console the desolate parents.  It was lovely to see: with no public spaces, the flowers blanketed the road. So tonight we dance, sing, cry…

TWO

Why Live Abroad?

Before you even think about moving to Thailand let's look at the big picture: getting out of the house is always a relief, but getting out of the country can be positively therapeutic. Here are twenty reasons to live abroad:

1.  You don't have to dream about traveling any more.  You're there. You’re actually living somewhere that people pay large amounts of money fora once-in-a-lifetime visit that they’ll talk about for the rest of their lives.

2.  You don't have to say the same things to the same people every day. You can say the same things to different people, of course, but you can also have lots of new experiences and lots of new things to talk about.

3.  You can effectively double your income. In many countries your dollar buys 2-3 times more, and Thailand is one of them.

4.  You start a whole new life. Literally, a fresh start. Forget what’s bothering you, put it behind you, because no-one cares. So why should you?

5.  You become a minimalist, paring your life to essentials. Two suitcases is all you need. If your life has been freighted down by careers, kids and mortgages, you unburden yourself and return to simplicity.

6.  You're a novelty. Your mere presence causes children to run and hide. Most Thais have never been outside Thailand and many Thai children have seen only a few farangs, so you’re a novelty item!

7.  You gain daily insights into human nature – especially your own. Being thrust into a completely novel environment is amazingly instructive, especially about our own values and attitudes. It’s never too late to learn.

8.  Old habits and attitudes just evaporate. You developed most of that stuff in another time and place, for reasons that are now obsolete. You can literally abandon your baggage. Leave it at the airport.

9.  You don't know what will happen when you get up in the morning.  It’s fun to face days that are full of novelty. Thais think differently and do things differently than us, which leads to amusing misunderstandings and novel situations. Lots of them.

10.  You'll be more broad-minded and compassionate. The move can make you a better person,  believe it or not, and we can all use a little spiffing up. Seeing how the other half of the world lives is emotionally maturing.

11.  Every breeze smells new, every flavor fresh, every sound different. If you’re tired of the same old same old, Thailand’s the place for you. The Thais’ favorite fruit smells so bad you’ll almost throw up, their famous fruits are an education for your palate, and you’ll be living in a whole new soundscape (with, for example, no sirens).

12.  You'll experience a rush of creativity and new ideas. Seriously, your freedom will allow your creative juices to flow again, quite naturally. You’ll see possibilities that you didn’t know existed.

13.  You'll be functionally illiterate: as vulnerable as a child again. It’s fun to be vulnerable again, to not know your way around and not be able to understand anything you read or hear. Talk about a fresh start!

14.  You feel energy you haven't experienced since you were 20. Your curiosity will get you going and your new freedom will energize you.

15.  You meet adventurous, interesting people. Better yet, you'll be one of them. Tourists will regard you with respect and ask your wisdom on all kinds of topics.

16.  You'll be exposed to ideas you'd never encounter in ordinary life. I was recently at a restaurant and was invited to join a table (very common here) of people from Scotland, New Zealand, Slovenia, England and China. They were all bitching about their governments and telling hilarious horror stories.

17.  Old friends will be envious and want to hear your adventures. When you go home for a visit, friends and relations will actually want to hear what you’ve been up to. What a concept!

18. You'll appreciate your home country much, much more. Absence really does make the heart grow fonder and there’s nothing like a visit to the old country to rekindle your affection for the culture you grew up in.

19. Forgotten friends will remember you fondly. Maybe you’ve forgotten them for good reason, but they’ll want to forgive and forget when they email you their itinerary and suggest you put them up for three nights.

20. AirBnB is a snap. If you’re going traveling, you’ll have no problem renting your place.

THREE

Will You Like Thailand?

There's no way to know until you get here, of course.  But there are some important likes to consider.  If enough of them seem important to you then perhaps they will outweigh the dislikes that come with every person and place.  I cover the dislikable aspects in a later chapter of this book, The Downside.

The Secret of Life

Westerners are always searching for happiness, mostly through money, food and sex. Thais like those things too, but their culture provides other dimensions of happiness. Thais know the secret of life:  there's nothing we can do to become happy: we can only be happy. And Thais, as you’ll notice, be happy. They don’t mope and whine and feel sorry for themselves. They just be happy, regardless of their subjective feelings.

The Best Country on Earth?

Let's see what other expatriates who have lived all over the world have to say about their favorite countries.  Each year Hong Kong Shanghai Bank (HSBC) conducts a survey of 3,000 expatriates around the world to discover the best countries for foreigners to live in.  Out of 110 countries considered, 31 stood out. Here's how Thailand ranks in each criterion against the other 30:

Overall:  #1

Finding accommodation:  #1

Organizing healthcare:  #1

Working environment:  #2

Healthcare access and quality: #2

Quality of accommodation:  #3

Schools for children:  #3

Work / life balance:  #3

Healthy diet:  #4

Traveling more:  #5

Organizing finances:  #6

Enjoying local food:  #7

Entertainment:  #8

Making friends:  #9

Local transport:  #10

Social life:  #10

Sports:  #10

Fitting in the new culture:  #11

Integrating into the community:  #11

Local weather:  #11

Local work culture: #11

Setting up utilities:  #12

Commuting:  #13

Local shops and markets:  #13

Using the local language:  #13

Local culture:  #15

Getting used to local food:  #17

Making local friends:  #17

Learning the local language:  #25

So it's not just my imagination.  Thousands of experts agree: if you're going to live abroad, Thailand is the best country on earth to live. In 2016 The Best Places in the World to Retire site polled 389 expats from the United States and Canada. The survey’s findings:

Most thought that by moving abroad they’d achieve a lower cost of living (87%), a simpler, less stressful life (82%) and better weather (74%). Those were the top three hopes.

They realized two out of three of those desires: 84% said they achieved a lower cost of living and 74% got better weather.

But the simpler, less stressful life didn’t always materialize. Only 71% are living a simpler, less stressful life, compared to the 82% who were hoping for it.

While 56% thought they’d achieve a less materialistic, or more meaningful life (the #4 reason cited for retiring abroad), and an impressive 61% of the expats say they’ve found more meaning. Two thirds of women said they achieved this, but only 56% of men did.

The vast majority of U.S. expats in these countries (85%) are happier living abroad than they were before. 56% said they’re much happier and 28% said they’re somewhat happier. Only 5% are less happy now and 11% said they’re about as happy as before they moved. Similarly, 64% said they enjoy life abroad much more than their former lives.

What Americans miss most? First-world goods and shopping (20%) and Access to high-quality health care (16%).

42% of the expats never plan to go back to the U.S. and 37% aren’t sure; another 16% expect to return to America when they’re old or sick, 4% said as soon as possible and 3% anticipating moving back within five years.

If they had to do it all over again, nearly all would.79% of former Americans said so and another 12% said ’probably’; 3% either wouldn’t or probably wouldn’t.

Forty Reasons to Live in Thailand

Here are some 40 unconventional reasons (plus a bonus) for spending extended time in Thailand. Take your pick of what matters most to you:

1. Culture: It has taken Thais 1500 years to create a culture devoted to happiness, tolerance, and beauty. As guests there, all we have to do is enjoy it.

2. Cost of Living: If you live on a fixed income, you can more than double its buying power just by moving here.

3. Climate: Some like it hot and Thai summers oblige. Some like it warm, Thai winters are wonderful.  And there are always the cool mountains and 1,000 km of white, sandy beaches. The average temperature in Chiang Mai, where I live, is 77 F (25C).

4. Thai Women: Beautiful, gentle, gracious, and charming. They’re hard to beat.

5. Beaches: Sure, other countries have beaches, but the hundreds of miles of beaches here are attached to Thailand!

6. Beer: Something for every palate: Singha, Leo, Chang, Tiger, Phuket, Klassik, the list goes on.  Served over ice.

7. Martial arts: Unique, fast-moving, Muay Thai draws enthusiasts from around the world.

8. Flowers: Orchids grow wild everywhere. And orchids are just the beginning of Thailand’s floral glory.  You could spend a lifetime on the flowers alone.

9. Jungles: Thailand’s jungles are fascinating: filled with flowers, animals, and exotic tribal people, all within a day’s walk of bars serving cold beer.

10. Ethnic Diversity: Thailand is home to a wonderful variety of peoples each with a unique language, history, cuisine, costume, and sense of humor. A lifetime’s study and delight.

11. Nursing, Medical and Dental Care: Millions of people come to Thailand just because of the quality (and cost) of its medical care.

12. Shopping: From banana leaves spread out on the pavement at dawn to gigantic, European hypermarkets, Thailand offers an unparalleled variety of inexpensive shopping experiences.

13. Smiles: Thais' smiles came 1,000 years before the tourist slogan (The Land of Smiles).  The tourists might leave but the smiles won't.

14. Night Life: If you like your fireworks at 2 a.m., dancing, singing, music cold beer and cheap whisky, Thailand is heaven.

15. Safety: Women and children can walk the streets more safely here, day or night, than almost any place on earth.

16. History: Never colonized, so no 'attitude' towards foreigners. A unique and wildly divergent amalgam of myth, legend, and cultures, Thai history offers lifetimes of study.

17. Festivals: Like dressing up? Blowing things up? Setting things on fire? Singing? Dancing? Rowing? Looking at flowers? Dousing people with water? Thailand has a festival just for you. As I was coming to work this morning traffic was held up for miles to make room for a gigantic, wild-looking dragon snaking down the middle of the highway.  Thousands of people will be late for work.  Great!

18. Restaurants and Speakeasies: They’re literally everywhere: in carports,

Reviews for How to Retire In Thailand and Double Your Income

[david ward · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An insightful and in depth overview of the possibility of retiring in Thailand.