Eight Countries That Offer Elder Care $500 - 2500/month

[t0oL1]

Thailand  9:42

 

[Suckrates]

12 minutes ago, t0oL1 said:

Thailand  9:42

 

 

The U.S. sucks in many respects, especially in the neglect of its elderly.....  These other countries would be GREAT,  but its very difficult of SENIORS to pick up their lives and relocate at this stage of life....  They have established relationships with family, friends and DOCTORS that need to be maintained....  Unfortunately for many, relocation is NOT an option....  It wouldnt be for ME.  

[Mavica]

Interesting video.  lot more research would be required before relocating and I'll suggest a miniscule percent of the demographic would consider leaving the USA, Canada, etc. for this purpose.  Visa requirements will be difficult for many ailing seniors to meet.  

[t0oL1]

Just imagining accessing my USA tax information from Thailand and trying to file every year in the USA.

Couple years ago someone posted on Sawasdeeabout a home in Pattaya charging $1000lmonth plus extra charges (diapers?)

[Keithambrose]

17 minutes ago, t0oL1 said:

Just imagining accessing my USA tax information from Thailand and trying to file every year in the USA.

Couple years ago someone posted on Sawasdeeabout a home in Pattaya charging $1000lmonth plus extra charges (diapers?)

By way of comparison,  a 'good' private home in the UK is at least £50,000pa, and up. There are local authority homes, but, unfortunately,  they are usually fairly poor. Often cheaper to have live in care, as long as there are no serious medical issues. 

 

[t0oL1]

Bier should open rooms upstairs for us at NIghBoys with an elevator...

[Travelingguy]

One of the costs that he doesn’t account for is medical insurance. The amount that you pay to the care home is not going to cover your doctor visits or hospital visits. Getting medical insurance in Thailand can be difficult and complicated. And that problem only gets worse as you get older and sicker. I’m sure this is a similar problem in these other countries.

[Keithambrose]

4 hours ago, Travelingguy said:

One of the costs that he doesn’t account for is medical insurance. The amount that you pay to the care home is not going to cover your doctor visits or hospital visits. Getting medical insurance in Thailand can be difficult and complicated. And that problem only gets worse as you get older and sicker. I’m sure this is a similar problem in these other countries.

In UK, NHS still functions, just!

[PeterRS]

7 minutes ago, Keithambrose said:

In UK, NHS still functions, just!

The NHS may function but try care homes. I have a friend sadly suffering from Alzheimers. He has a good pension from his company. But it would in no way cover the cost of elder care facilities - that is if there is a place available. The problem is that care homes in the UK are now enormously expensive! He and his partner moved to Chiang Mai!

I'd be interested to note what the visa situation is now in Vietnam. It used to be possible to get a one year visa and I know an Australian who sold up in Thailand and moved to a villa by the beach in Danang. Then the maximum visa was changed to three months after which a visa run is required.

[bkkmfj2648]

Thanks @t0oL1.  This video is very timely - as this is the year that I turn 65 and I had to recently make my USA SSA Medicare election - remotely from here in Thailand - which is not an easy feat - as their ssa.gov site is not always available from Thailand - so it requires many attempts and that can be anxiety producing.  Anyway, I made my Medicare election for Part A = YES and Part B = NO - as I don't see myself ever returning to live/retire in the USA.

The estimate of $9,500 USD per month for assisted elder care is very accurate, as that is the amount (more or less) that my mother had to pay during the last 3 years of her life for assisted elder care in Long Island, New York.  It was during that period that I knew that I could never afford to have assisted elder care in the USA - as that greatly exceeds my monthly income sources.

Last year, I had the opportunity to "live" in Cebu, Philippines for 2 months and 4.5 months in Da Nang, Vietnam and those 2 opportunities helped me to understand where I might want to finish the last years of my life - during the assisted elder care phase - hopefully not for another 6 to 12 years out.

Da Nang had been my first choice, but after being there for 4.5 months I realized that it just would not be sustainable - because, contrary to what he said in this video, there is no 1 year visa - there is only the 90 day tourist visa, where you need to either take the Da Nang to Laos bus (an all day 12 to 14 hour affair) or fly out to a nearby country and then return some days later.  Having to do this 4 times per year in an assisted elder care phase of life is just not practical.

For me, Cebu was too urban for my liking - even over at the beach side at Mactan Newtown.  Consequently, I plan to research other areas (Boracay and Palawan) in the next years and I will apply for the "for life" SRRV retirement visa next year.  Since I retired from a type of employer that is included in the SRRV Courtesy option, I can obtain the SRRV Courtesy visa where the requirement to lock up funds in a bank account is only $1,500 USD instead of the normal requirement of $15,000 USD.  Consequently, I have decided to obtain this SRRV Courtesy visa even if I will not live in the Philippines full time.  https://www.srrvguide.com/

Regarding Thailand, in the video, he did not discuss the other long term visa options that are available, which are the 1.) Elite Privilege and 2.) BOI LTR Wealthy Pensioner visas.  In the video he considers as a negative the need to renew the 1 year Vietnamese visa (which is false as it does not exist) but does not mention this same negative when he spoke about the Thailand traditional non-immigrant O retirement visa - which is a 1 year visa that needs to be extended each year.  For the Bronze Elite Privilege it is valid for 5 years and the BOI LTR Wealthy Pensioner visa is valid for 10 years but needs to be extended at the end of the first 5 years.

Below is a well written article regarding affordable senior care for the Philippines vs. Thailand.

https://medium.com/@dennis_13378/philippines-vs-thailand-which-country-is-better-for-affordable-senior-care-5c01325ff845

In Thailand, there is a high concentration of excellent elder care facilities being located in the Chiang Mai area.  Unfortunately, my desire is to finish my last years near the seaside.  Very near to where I live here in Pattaya - there is an elder care facility - which is very close to the beach - but the building is a low level structure and there are no sea views and it is already full.  They are expanding in other areas of Pattaya but these new facilities are farther away from the beach.  Below is their website:

https://www.pattayanursinghome.com/?lang=en

If anyone knows of any other elder care facilities that are near a beach anywhere in Thailand - please let me know so that I can go and check them out.

 

6 hours ago, t0oL1 said:

Just imagining accessing my USA tax information from Thailand and trying to file every year in the USA.

@t0oL1 I am already here in Thailand and I have successfully filed 4 different tax years of USA 1040 tax filings.  I have never had any issues accessing my USA tax information from Thailand.  I use the fantastic DHL office here in Jomtien to have my 1040 delivered to the IRS - and it has a great package tracking service.

My most stressful issue so far is being able to successfully log into mySSA account for Social Security and Medicare related issues - as the web site, ssa.gov is quite finnicky and can take several attempts over many days to finally enter into mySSA account.  Also, the Federal Benefits Unit (FBU) that assists us USA citizens is located in Manila - as there is no FBU unit here in Thailand.  The Manila FBU team tends to be very responsive - but sometimes when I have issues with the ssa.gov site they send me to a 1-800 number that is back in the USA - and that experience tends to be not so pleasant.