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As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing "stretching" of the dollar in the context of Thai Retirement Visas. Now many folks who decide to retire in Thailand cost is obviously something that comes into play, it's generally a factor and Thailand is quite a reasonably priced place to retire, and right now at least it seems that it is even more reasonable especially for Americans based on the current position of the Dollar. 

I got to thinking of making this video after reading a recent article from the Journal of Accountancy, that's journalofaccountancy.com, the article is titled: Stretching retirement dollars by living abroad. Quoting directly: "The value of the US Dollar is the highest it has been in 20 years, meaning people can get much more for their dollar overseas. So, for retirees looking to stretch their retirement dollars while making the most of their retired life, travelling for extended periods or retiring abroad could be the answer." Quoting further: "Thailand, a longtime favourite with expats, provides a one-year visa for individuals aged 50 and over, provided the individual has a bank deposit of 800,000 Baht ($21,600)" and by the way that number is down from 23,000 just a year ago so that is an example of the exchange rate changes, that is me talking. "Or more or an income certificate showing a monthly income of not less than 65,000 baht ($1,755) or a deposit account plus a monthly income totalling not less than 800,000 baht. So on that final point I have never seen that mixed usage. That's not generally something, I have never seen that occur in practice. You are either looking at lump sum or pension or inbound funds, you can't do half of one half the other. I don't know why they put that down. I think that is a bit of a misnomer. 

In any event yeah, long story short the Dollar’s strength is really a boon especially for American retirees right now. Yeah the distance issue with respect to Thailand is always going to be there with respect to the United States; it's arguably one of the longest places to get to in terms of flying. It especially isn't helped by the fact that there are no direct flights at the moment. I would love to see direct flights between Thailand and the USA. I think it would be very conducive to tourism as well as just general relations between the two countries and people forget that Thailand is the United States oldest ally in Asia, in the Pacific, oldest, longest standing ally in Asia is Thailand, between the USA and Thailand. 

So the thing to take away from this video yeah I definitely think those who are making money or have their assets in Dollars or are Americans and are looking at living on a pension in Dollars or retiring and they are primarily Dollar denominated in terms of their assets, I think Thailand is definitely a place to look for retirees such as those.