Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing presumptions that newly minted if you will, retirees should avoid when coming here to Thailand. Now I am not making this video to harangue exactly or to be nitpickety or even sort of seemingly condescending, that is not the purpose, but over the years I have noticed there are certain presumptions that foreigners make before they retire here. They are actually relatively kind of banal, they are kind of basic presumptions like assuming the way certain things work. A really good example of this in kind of a different context and it could apply broadly is things like presuming that the Common Law operates, or Common Law notions operate here in Thailand, but that is not precisely what we are getting into with this video. 

One of the major presumptions, this is just kind of tips for new retirees or folks that are looking to retire, one of the big ones that I see a lot is retirees will say well I need to deal with that but I can always do that over the phone, and we are talking here about like government benefits, we are also talking about things like pensions and things. You may have a private pension, you may have some kind of mixed pension or they call that in Australia, 'superannuation' - I think it is kind of the equivalent of a 401K - things of this nature. If you haven't moved abroad yet and you are looking to, those types of things that you are needing to deal with an institution in the United States or in your home country and I'll use the US because that is what I am most familiar with, if you are needing to deal with like Social Security or you want to get your VA benefits sorted or Medicare for example, which may not necessarily apply to you here in Thailand, but you just want to have that all sorted out so that is sitting there if you ever need it if you will. These are things that if you can do them before coming here you ought to because a lot of people I have noticed over the years, have made presumptions that "Oh, I can deal with that and call back to the United States. Okay, I may have to spend some time on a call but I can do it." Yeah look, the bureaucracies especially in an American context, although I suspect this is probably at least to some degree true throughout the so-called Anglosphere, it is not particularly customer service oriented and it is becoming less so by the day. Everything is being moved over to these digital platforms, to websites etc., where you effectively have to learn the way they want you to do it, on their website. I have done videos on this, it is quite galling in many ways and I am well aware of the fact that it is a source of great consternation amongst the Retiree Expat community. 

The thing to take away from this video on that point is, things of that nature, get them sorted before you come here. Other little things I have noticed people make presumptions on is things like driving licenses. I have talked to a number of folks in the last week or so who just kind of offhandedly said "oh yeah, I need to get a driver's license when I am over there." Somebody, I just got off the phone with them actually earlier today as of the time this video where they said "yeah, yeah I need to get a driving license but that should be easy enough to sort out once I'm there." Yeah "easy" is not something to ever say when it comes to anything having to do bureaucracy and I am not picking on Thailand. I mean anywhere in Southeast Asia if you need to deal with bureaucracy, "easy" ain't the word as we would say back in Kansas. Now you may be able to deal with it in a somewhat straightforward manner but even that, bear in mind it's a totally different bureaucracy and you are not used to dealing with it. Beyond even that you are a foreign national; you are asking for something effectively as a guest in the country, which brings me to another key point. Retirees don't ever seem, not ever, but there are a number of retirees I have noticed over the years that they fail to grasp language barriers and fail to take that into account when they are looking at moving abroad. Again depending on where you live here in Thailand, it may not even be an issue. I know people that live in places like Pattaya, Hua Hin, here in Bangkok, some folks up in Chiang Mai, Phuket even Koh Samui, places that are heavily tourist centric, okay fair enough, you may not need to deal with a great deal of language barrier because folks in those locations speak a fair amount of English. The thing to take away from this video however though is on every little thing, they are not going to have a full command of perfect colloquial English. In fact if you are lucky to find a Thai who is at that level of capability, they are probably we going to be somebody who's charging you for their services so the thing that you need to understand about that is yeah, language is something to bear in mind that it could cause you not problems, but it just adds an extra layer that you need to be aware of if you're looking to retire here. 

The final thing I will bring up with regard to presumptions by retirees especially in their budgeting, one thing I have noticed over the years, retirees do not take into account with regard to budgeting is they seem to presume they are always going to be eating Thai food. I have noticed this even with expats and backpackers and things when they try to do; years back there were these kind of absurd sort of videos where you would see from these people that are like "how to live in Thailand on 10,000 Baht a month", or "how to live in Thailand on the equivalent of $350 a month", or whatever it was. Yeah, that's theoretically possible if you never eat a Western meal and you live exactly as a Thai. Here in Bangkok that would be like an office worker but not a high level office worker, it would be like somebody starting out in their career, that would be a minimal level of salary. You can do it but again it's one of those "you can drive a car with your feet, it doesn't make it a good idea". I am not talking about this in the extreme though, I am talking about this more from the standpoint of retirees. I don't think they ever fully comprehend that yeah there is a premium associated with Western dining here and with Western food generally when you go shopping and things and that is something you should have at the back of your mind and maybe tack on an extra 15 to 30% when you are doing your tabulations if you are the type of person that likes to sit down and make a budget, if you are doing your food budget, bear in mind you are going to be eating more Western food than you think. Westerners, I do it all the time, I've lived here for 16 years but I still like my Western food and I eat it far more often than even I realize, I mean if you can't tell, I enjoy food. The point I am trying to make is this is another one of these presumptions that I think a lot of people or assumptions that people come in with or they just don't even realize it could be a thing, and it is something that can have an impact on you long-term as a retiree here in the Kingdom of Thailand.