Liza, Singapore is fantastic, but it’s very expensive. If you have a high-paying job with a corporation it’s one of the nicest places on earth to live. But for anyone else, it can be a struggle. -Tom

I’m going to make a blanket statement and will take on all comers, LOL. 🙂

Thailand is not a cheaper place to live for the retired than is rural USA. The only things which are cheaper are rent and utilities including internet. Food is also cheaper but only if you buy local food from locals. Thai food is wonderful but frankly I got tired of it as a steady diet.

Western food and sundries and anything else imported is outrageously expensive. Thailand tacks on import tariffs and VATs that can break the bank. For instance the cheapest bottle of wine I ever saw was $US16 and the cheapest Western cheese was $8 a pound.

You will not buy a new Toyota Camry for less than $US30,000 – the same car you can buy in the US with a factory rebate and some negotiating for $20,000. Forget about importing your car. Whatever it’s worth in the US, will be added as an import tax and then you’ll hire a local lawyer to get it properly registered. It’s cheaper to just buy one there.

The big kicker for retired people is health care. In the US my Medicare Advantage costs me $125 a month including prescription drugs. In Thailand at my age I can’t get real insurance. Yes, the costs of excellent health care in Thailand may be only 20% what they are in the US, but if you give up your residence and Medicare in the US, and get seriously ill in Thailand, you’d better have some cash. If you can’t prove you can pay, they won’t treat you! Yes, they’ll let you die even from an auto accident.

Thailand imports a lot of everyday things and they are incredibly expensive. Laundry and dish washing soap, bar soap, toothpaste, toilet paper, shampoo – unreal prices. Of course the natives don’t need toilet paper. They have “bum guns” by each toilet (which may well be a squat toilet) and they wash themselves with this hose and their hand. This bum gun looks much like the spray hose most Americans can pull out from the kitchen sink. It is almost always cold water, so have fun. They think you are leaving yourself dirty if you just use toilet paper so you be the judge.

I could move to rural Alabama or Mississippi or even Georgia and live in better infrastructure than in Thailand and for less money if I was minimally budgeting. I would have health insurance. I would also have hot humid weather to almost match the unrelenting heat and humidity in Thailand.

Weather in Thailand? Did anyone mention the few months of “rainy season” which we would call the monsoon season? Bangkok gets about 60 inches of rain a year and has severe flooding right down town. 60 inches? Where in the US could you find 60 inches other than Forks, Washington which is near the Olympic Rain Forest?

I love Thailand. I go in the Fall, about October, and spend part or much of what the US calls winter. I miss the rainy season, but this is what they call the “high season” meaning heavy tourism season and prices skyrocket. Thailand has about 20 million tourists each year and they like November through February. I do too.