Thailand VS Spain were to retire ? THAILAND !

[ejwalk]

I just had a long talk(Skype) with a buddy of mine who is about 10 years older than me and has been in Spain since he turned 60 ... 5 years ago .... who talked about me retiring this year ( is about done ).. and my research and opinions on strategies... Spain is fucked ... he lives in Malaga and talks about vacant flats, property values dropped between 40 and 80 % , unemployment for 17 - 35 year olds in the high twenty percent ... gangs of youths roaming the streets that use not to be their.... and apparently the social geeks in Brussels(EU ) reckons it will be whole generation before its turned around...add Greece and Portugal into the equation I think their could be the seeds for another European conflict
( maybe this time the Muslims and not the Jews will be the focus of attention )

anyway he cant sell his flat with out a loss, the pound ( his is a brit )....gone to ****... and he drinks larger at the ex-pat pubs with other people in his same situation ( 10's of thousands but he was drunk and could have been embellish it a bit)...

I wonder if the GFC has impacted other global retirement options as bad as Spain , when I visit UDON late last year it seemed out ... but I was their 8 days and drunk half the time .

So I am really starting to worry about the leap I am about to take ....

thanks again to the board veterans

[thedude]

Reckon Spain would be much easier, nicer, cheaper, friendlier, closer, etc.

Doing my part for the Province - DUDE

[BobHelm]

I think comparing Malaga with Udon is a bit of a stretch, Pataya & Malaga not far different.
Both have the problem of not only being foreign countries with strange laws (especially concerning property) but are very much tourist centres with, for a lot of reasons, no tourists. This can & has resulted in high unemployment amongst the local population who saw property prices sky rocket way out of their financial grasp when they were actually working. That the properties were taken (& so prices inflated) by foreigners who, in the main, made zero attempt to fit in with locals & just wanted to import & impose their culture lock stock & barrel with no regard to anyone else makes it rather understandable why they might be the subject of some local resentment now. Especially if they now have developed the habit of getting drunk & loudly decrying the local population for every worry known to man..

OK I exaggerate. But if anyone is going to live abroad then it makes sense for them to make sensible economic decisions & provisions. The value of the GBP is certainly outside the remit of any country someone decides to settle in. The value can go up or down against a local currency, so you have to make calculations & decisions based on both possibilities. In the case of 'third world' countries I would think it does not make much sense to tie up large sums of money either in cash or capital as both are vulnerable in a ways that can instantaneously occur with no recourse by a foreigner.
Hence someone from the UK may well believe that he got an absolute bargain buying a property for 1.2 Million 3 years ago when the GBP was 70 & not 50 baht. Maybe he has, it depends what happens in the future. He could have also expended about 180,000 baht in renting the same property for 3 years, maybe paid out just out of interest out of that lump sum & have the initial sum sat in a bank somewhere. IF he has made all the correct financial decisions!!!!

[Texpat]

The once-sexy Thai girls are like SUVs now that McDonald's is open.
There are no fishnchips, no fried mars bars and not many tattoo places here.
President Herman Von Rumpey doesn't have any sway over here and, for example, if you get banged up for heroin, they might actually put you in jail.

Spain is wonderful.

[Prenders88]

The focus is shifting to Asia, lots of the manufactoring base that Europe once had, has gone East.
Unemployment will never come down, there will never be the jobs there used to be.
Millions of young men, with no hope, and aspriations that will never be achieved.
What does Spain make? Knock off Fiat cars, and it's the World's largest producer of bad wine.
Same with Britain, nothing to sell that people want to buy, and no chance of producing themselves out of the mire.
Call centres and flipping burgers in a fast food outlet won't produce any wealth.

Even with the poxy exchange rate in Thailand I'm quids in.
No crippling Council tax
Road tax
TV tax (Licence)
No massive heating bills from October to April
Fruit and vegetables a fraction of the cost
You can't put a price on the sunshine.

[old-timer]

The problem with this thread is that there really is no comparison between Thailand and Spain. Spain is cr@p and whoever bought an overpriced timeshare or any other property should not be complaining because it has lost it's value, afterall if it's their retirement home they are hardly likely to be selling it, also I would rather put a red hot poker up my rectum than sit with a load of ex pats in a spanish bar all whinging on about how bad Spain is, afterall it was their choice. You do not get that type of conversation amongst expats in Udon as far as I know. If this thread was headed "Thailand V Philippines or Cambodia or Vietnam I could see the point.
One other point, there are more "well fit birds" in Thailand.

OT.......

[izzix]

ha but moaning old gits sit in Udon bars griping about how bad things are .
best to NOT burn your bridges , as there are plenty of gents who go home after some years .
in Spain you dont have to deal with awkward Thais in the immigration dept and have a chunk of cash in the bank to get your annual visa. Thai bureaucracy can damage your head year in and year out .

[PhilR]

Well, i think as a Brit, the plus of Spain over Thailand is that it is near, maximum three hour flight. Also, UK pension index linked, unlike if you go to Thailand. If you a pensioner there, you can get free Spanish healthcare. The country is very familiar to Brits. The Spanish language is easier by far to learn than Thai. Spanish women are also very beautiful.

However, i think Spain is a retirement destination for Brit expats, still happy or still with, their British wife. If not, a man of older years chance of getting a pretty young Spanish wife or girlfriend are poor. Also, in Spain the culture is like UK, and you will feel you are seen as the age you are, and is in UK, the older you get, the more invisible you become!

So to me Thailand wins because Thai culture respects age and you get treated much better there. Where else could you get a wife/girlfriend so much younger than you if you so wish. Thailand also has better year round weather than Spain. Thailand is more exotic and interesting also, in my opinion. Cost of living far cheaper than Spain. When i holiday in Spain, it is okay, but when in Thailand, it's fantastic!

The visa and its financial rules are a pain i agree. And healthcare not free, but cheap private as it were in Thailand, and
of a good standard. There are far less UK expats in Thailand than Spain, and the ones there of a higher standard generally! To me, out of ten, Thailand 10, Spain 1.

[trubrit]

Well this photo was taken in Spain.

article-1262543-08F2B792000005DC-328_308x185.jpg (21.11 KiB) Viewed 489 times

But add a few bald heads and grey hairs . It could just as well been in Thailand.So, its up to you really .

[arjay]

Good post Phil. I couldn't agree more. Thailand still comes out on top.

Ageism isn't an issue in LOS, indeed as Phil says age seems to earn respect.

Unfortunately there are louts in both places.

The main pluses to Spain for me would be that its part of the EU, - thus the health care and indexed UK pensions etc.

I would miss walking and skiing in the Pyrenees, - have to go to Loie again soon.

[PhilR]

Trubrit, thanks for the endearing picture maybe taken in Spain, maybe of Brits, but, how does that affect my decision to retire to Thailand? In my trips to Udon, i haven't seen anything quite like that, or anywhere in LOS actually. Maybe you get up to such antics with your mates in a 'happy hour', but worry not, it won't stop me choosing Thailand for my retirement next year.

Yes arjay, it is lack of ageism that is so healthy in Thailand, and also come to think of it, my tgf! You mention the Pyrenees, and i do wonder if i'll ever miss the snow or Brit cooler days. Still, i can come back for the odd holiday or two i suppose!

[trubrit]

Trubrit, thanks for the endearing picture maybe taken in Spain, maybe of Brits, but, how does that affect my decision to retire to Thailand? In my trips to Udon, i haven't seen anything quite like that, or anywhere in LOS actually. Maybe you get up to such antics with your mates in a 'happy hour', but worry not, it won't stop me choosing Thailand for my retirement next year.

The topic title posed the question whether to retire in Thailand or Spain. I merely illustrated one aspect of Spain and suggested it might just have well been taken in Thailand, and said to the OP that " It was up to him " You have obviously already decided your future retirement .I certainly won't worry about it . However if you are disturbed by the image I suggest you take a further look round before coming permanently as these scenes or similar, are becoming a regular occurrence in the more "popular" tourist spots . Thankfully not Udon yet, but these yobs will,one day , be retiring too .
My personal antics were not the subject under discussion. I don't understand your need to comment on them.

[PhilR]

I certainly don't worry about your personal antics trubrit, as you wouldn't on mine. But the scene in Spain, will never be replicated by Brits in Thailand, even Pattaya, as the numbers of young Brit tourists are far fewer in Thailand because of cost and distance from UK. At work, as some of my work colleagues look around for a new 'Stag do' destinations, Thailand has been mentioned, but these guys are a bit more upmarket than most Brits, as the other destination in contention is Las Vegas.

As for it reaching Udon, i completely doubt it! All the regular work fella's who like to 'party' go to Pattaya. They may stray down to Phuket, but that is it. Udon Thani? No chance. One guy at work goes all round Thailand using all his 10 week LUL holiday in Thailand every year, but he is pretty unique, and even he hasn't got to Udon Thani yet. As for me, i loved Loei and the peace and quiet there, down to Nong Hin. Now bad behaved Brits there? No chance, but, if i do see it, i'll post about it trubrit, believe me! But, i don't see Paddy Power giving odds on that ever happening somehow.

[izzix]

yes an olderly gent can get himself a young dollybird but only as long as his money holds out and he would have to be generous too. Then as he ages she will prolly be shaging a young Thai guy who will be pulling her strings for more money and some as we know end up as dogs meat .And the family will be constantly begging for money and goods so its a double edged sword .And when he dies they will keep his body in the freezer so as to keep the pension money on stream


[quote]


http://www.andrew-drummond.com/tag/ian-beeston/

Andrew Herrington, a retired Birmingham lorry driver who now lives in
Thailand, lowered his voice and turned to his companions: 'Well, you
know, he married a bar girl. What did he expect?'

Sitting on the ground floor of his home - a two-storey house squatting
in a rice paddy in Isan, north-east Thailand - Herrington, aged 51,
was talking about his friend and neighbour, Ian Beeston, who was found
murdered last weekend after predicting that his Thai wife would kill
him.

Beeston, 69, a retired design engineer, had been beaten and stabbed in
his house - police say he took seven hours to die. His wife,
Wacheerawan, 42, and her Thai lover, Somchit Janong, 48, confessed and
have been charged with murder. In bizarre and macabre fashion, Janong
even re-enacted for police and photographers the manner in which he
had clubbed Beeston to death.

This was no isolated romance that culminated in a tragedy. The British
embassy in Bangkok processes the wedding documents of up to 70 couples
each week. The requests are almost exclusively from older British men
- among 860,000 UK tourists each year - hoping to marry younger Thai
women. But for any British man hoping to follow in Beeston's footsteps
and build a new better life in Thailand, his death was a stark
reminder of how badly things can go wrong.

Three of the group of worried farangs - the Thai term for foreigners -
who had gathered in Isan, have invested a hefty chunk of their life's
savings building houses nearby on the fringes of Suwannaphum village,
deep in Thailand's poorest province, Roi Et. Beeston's house, which
swallowed up all of his £250,000 retirement nest egg, was described
locally as 'palatial'. Unsurprisingly, in the wake of the killing, a
siege mentality has taken hold.

[/quote]

[BobHelm]

Well it must almost be a daily occurrence then izzix - as you only had to go back 2 years to find the tale...As, by the figures contained in the story an additional 7,000 marriages have been processed by the UK embassy since this tale the odds of it happening seem rather slimmer than being an expat killed by a car in Spain!!
12 Million baht plus for a house near Roi Et ??? A fool & his money methinks!!