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Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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As usual.... C-D replies flourish from those who have no interest or intent.
The capital of YCDT (you can't do that), because I wouldn't even consider it!
Malaysia has the MM2H program for expat retirees. (5 yr cap intent). But... If you have money.... They're gonna be very accommodating
Skilled nursing center = RM2500 - RM6000. (USD $550 - $1275) Per month.
Ipoh or Penang would be a great choice. Probably even better to find or do home health care. You can find a lot of YouTube videos describing this care in Malaysia. It's an industry for them, as many regional retirees cannot afford to remain in Singapore. They can sell or rent their Singapore flat out, and live luxuriously next door. (10 minutes Across the causeway)
KUALA LUMPUR - When a 102-year-old Malaysian retiree was first sent to the ReU Living retirement and post-operative care facility in July 2022, it was meant only to be a short stay during a brief illness.
But she enjoyed the luxury digs so much, she decided to stay for good.
The daughter of the centenarian told The Straits Times, as they had lunch at the centre in Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur: “After two weeks, she didn’t want to go home. She said it’s too lonely at home.”
All things are possible... Except while posting on C-D Retirement forum.
I agree that you're overly concerned about the legislative changes in Thailand. I think it's still a perfectly viable option for you. That said, maybe Malaysia or Indonesia would be possible alternatives? The visa situation is less straightforward, but depending how things develop over the next few years it could work out for you. Also the Philippines? That's more of an unknown for me, but I believe they have an easier retirement visa option and we know they produce plenty of nurses and caretakers.
You're misunderstanding the term self-insure. Self-insure does not mean taking out an insurance policy for yourself. It means you choose to bear the risks and associated costs yourself rather than getting an insurance policy. It's a simple way of saying I'll just pay out of pocket for whatever needs arise. In the business world, it usually means setting aside funds on a regular basis to cover these anticipated but unplanned costs whenever necessary.
No, I did not know self-insuring meant not having a health insurance! It never occurred to me that it could have that meaning (thought I even worked in healthcare, but I was on the side of providing care, not on the administrative side of it). I thought it meant buying your own insurance policy privately, as opposed to your health insurance being covered by an employer or a national health insurance system like Medicare in the US.
A lot of people are mentioning Kuala Lumpur, but a colleague (a native of India) warned me that it would not be safe there for an American citizen due to religious extremism. Not as high concern as the Middle East, but according to that colleague still a real concern. I don't really know - I have not been in either Malaysia or Indonesia, but I do know that there have been safety problems in the remote areas of Thailand bordering with Malaysia. My direct personal experience with random Malays in Singapore is that they are exquisitely unfriendly to Westerners.
112k is amount of earned income you can make abroad that is us tax exempt. Any foreign taxes paid, get you a non-refundable credit on your us taxes. Self employment taxes apply on foreign earned income, unless you paid into that countries scheme.
I lived in Thailand on a visa for retirement from 2014 to 2021. Medical care is generally better than the US, let alone dating an actual RN. I always did my own visa work...talk about having your Ts crossed and your Is dotted....others pay agents....just like people do to get visas from the various embassies in DC.
Check out www.aseannow.com for the best expat forums in Thailand. The mandatory insurance has been going on for about five years...I had a liberty mutual Thailand policy that worked with immigration, but there did seem to be a catch-22 on max age, making it impossible for over 80.
The Army is the government, the police are the Mafia..and immigration are part of the police. Paying for rank seems to be as old as the oldest profession.
Yes, I have known all of that very well. Cigna seems to be the only insurance company in the world that may insure people of unlimited age (with exclusions for practically every medical service, but at least one may have on the paper some form of "insurance" which satisfies administrative requirements for the retirement visa).
I have also been well aware of your last paragraph, and that is precisely what is causing my concern about the new tax reporting requirements in Thailand. Thai police (including immigration) in the past, however, did not bother you if you were a retiree in a nursing home, who paid the nursing home fees regularly and whose family stayed involved without intent to abandon the retiree and dump him/her on Thailand financially (ie, retirement visa extensions processed by a reputable nursing home were automatic). With piling up of new (very fuzzy and imprecise) tax regulations, that could change, and there could be loopholes opening for harassment and extortion.
As you likely know from living in Thailand for 7-8 years on retirement visa, there were no requirements for anything except age 50+, a proof of required (quite low) assets, and I think they also did some type of search for criminal record that would exclude you if you indeed were a criminal including involved with drugs. Did you ever have any difficulty with initially obtaining or renewing the visa? I don't know of anyone who had.
Btw, my personal experiences with Thai police were all positive, and involved solely them helping me a couple of times when I got lost in outer non-tourist areas of Bangkok :-).
Why did you decide to leave Thailand in 2021? Have you returned to the US, and what is your plan now for long term care in case you need it?
Chile is another possibility in this hemisphere. Climate-wise, it’s like California, but upside down. In the middle region of Chile (the lakes districts) there are communities with European style architecture built by the Germans that moved there in the 1800s. The demographic is very young compared to the U.S., and as a result health care is still affordable. Retirement and work visas are available, but I hear they have tightened the requirements (you have to prove net worth and income) in recent years.
As usual.... C-D replies flourish from those who have no interest or intent.
The capital of YCDT (you can't do that), because I wouldn't even consider it!
Malaysia has the MM2H program for expat retirees. (5 yr cap intent). But... If you have money.... They're gonna be very accommodating
Skilled nursing center = RM2500 - RM6000. (USD $550 - $1275) Per month.
Ipoh or Penang would be a great choice. Probably even better to find or do home health care. You can find a lot of YouTube videos describing this care in Malaysia. It's an industry for them, as many regional retirees cannot afford to remain in Singapore. They can sell or rent their Singapore flat out, and live luxuriously next door. (10 minutes Across the causeway)
The daughter of the centenarian told The Straits Times, as they had lunch at the centre in Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur: “After two weeks, she didn’t want to go home. She said it’s too lonely at home.”[/indent][/i]
All things are possible... Except while posting on C-D Retirement forum.
Have you lived in Malaysia? Have you filled out the forms to retire in Malaysia? Unless you have done so, I can restate your premise as: C-D replies flourish from those who are ignorant.
I spent 17 years working in Malaysia and checked out the Malaysia My Second Home Program for retirement. I completed the forms (3-inch thick stack) including full financial information from our Malaysian and USA bank and mutual fund accounts, and paid a lawyer for the legal portion. We both had to get police reports from our former states of residence. They wanted original birth certificates, not copies, which meant we had to contact our counties of birth to get new certificates issued.
They required that we prove we had RM10,000 of monthly retirement income; which to them means pensions. Since I would have been retiring at age 56 (mandatory at 60), I didn't have the equivalent of a US$2,500/month pension at the time. Social Security would not have been enough. One could prove they had US$2,500/month of passive income, but they don't understand or recognize that, their system is based upon KWSP pension income. (Do you know what KWSP is?)
Also, I bought a house for RM160,000 which was just a few years before they made the minimum purchase price RM500,000 for that state, and RM1,000,000 minimum for Penang. Have you seen how Malaysian housing is built?
At the end of the 6-month application period, I gave up. It was a P.I.T.A. and I decided to return to the USA and work for another 11-12 years in order to build up my savings, earn a pension, and add to our SS.
I have seen a number of posts about the MM2H program and it is usually from people ignorant of the reality. Malaysia changes the terms and conditions about every other year. They seriously only want very wealthy people to move there, buy their over-priced and poor quality housing, and keep their mouths shut other than eating out. If you want to partake of the cheaper medical care, take a 2-week medical vacation, but don't even think about living there.
And only 10 minutes to cross the bridge between Singapore and Johor Baru? Clearly you have NEVER made that trip.
A lot of people are mentioning Kuala Lumpur, but a colleague (a native of India) warned me that it would not be safe there for an American citizen due to religious extremism. Not as high concern as the Middle East, but according to that colleague still a real concern. I don't really know - I have not been in either Malaysia or Indonesia, but I do know that there have been safety problems in the remote areas of Thailand bordering with Malaysia. My direct personal experience with random Malays in Singapore is that they are exquisitely unfriendly to Westerners.
Most of the people mentioning Malaysia or Kuala Lumpur are ignorant of the reality. They watch youtube videos of people who are probably just traveling through the country or else living there just a few years. If you want eyeball numbers, you usually paint a rosy picture.
In my 17 years there, I never felt unsafe, but there are anti-western sentiments in certain segments of the population. I taught in one of the local university programs and later, one of those lecturers became a terrorist bomber in Indonesia. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2009/...n-mohammed-top
We watched the 9/11 attacks on Malaysian evening television and the next morning there were several Malay colleagues laughing about the people jumping out of the burning buildings. The only colleague who expressed sympathy to me (the only white person in the college) was an Iraqi lecturer. Several Malay men insisted that Israel was behind the attacks and told me that not a single Jewish name was on the list of people killed.
And let's talk about road safety. I don't have enough fingers to count the number of former colleagues and students who have been killed in car accidents in the past 11 years since I left.
I worked for 16 years overseas and had to report my income on Form 2555. Since my income was below the foreign earned income exclusion, I didn't owe any federal income tax, but I did owe FICA (Social Security).
The exclusion goes up each year:
$107,600 for 2020
$108,700 for 2021
$112,000 for 2022
$120,000 for 2023
Additionally, anyone with a foreign bank or savings account (e.g., unit trust) has to report that on Form 2555. Under Obama, the IRS began requesting more information from foreign banks regarding the holdings of USA citizens. For example, when I went in to my Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank (now HSBC) branch to open a unit trust (their version of a mutual fund) they told me that they didn't want to sell me any shares since they felt the USA reporting requirements for them were too onerous.
112k is amount of earned income you can make abroad that is us tax exempt. Any foreign taxes paid, get you a non-refundable credit on your us taxes. Self employment taxes apply on foreign earned income, unless you paid into that countries scheme.
The foreign earned income exclusion is currently set at $120,000, if one meets all of the requirements.
I worked for 16 years overseas and had to report my income on Form 2555. Since my income was below the foreign earned income exclusion, I didn't owe any federal income tax, but I did owe FICA (Social Security).
The exclusion goes up each year:
$107,600 for 2020
$108,700 for 2021
$112,000 for 2022
$120,000 for 2023
Additionally, anyone with a foreign bank or savings account (e.g., unit trust) has to report that on Form 2555. Under Obama, the IRS began requesting more information from foreign banks regarding the holdings of USA citizens. For example, when I went in to my Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank (now HSBC) branch to open a unit trust (their version of a mutual fund) they told me that they didn't want to sell me any shares since they felt the USA reporting requirements for them were too onerous.
Oh, I know exactly what that poster was doing, and as I said, they were conflating two issues - foreign tax credit, and foreign earned income exclusion.
Most of the people mentioning Malaysia or Kuala Lumpur are ignorant of the reality. They watch youtube videos of people who are probably just traveling through the country or else living there just a few years. If you want eyeball numbers, you usually paint a rosy picture.
In my 17 years there, I never felt unsafe, but there are anti-western sentiments in certain segments of the population. I taught in one of the local university programs and later, one of those lecturers became a terrorist bomber in Indonesia. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2009/...n-mohammed-top
We watched the 9/11 attacks on Malaysian evening television and the next morning there were several Malay colleagues laughing about the people jumping out of the burning buildings. The only colleague who expressed sympathy to me (the only white person in the college) was an Iraqi lecturer. Several Malay men insisted that Israel was behind the attacks and told me that not a single Jewish name was on the list of people killed.
And let's talk about road safety. I don't have enough fingers to count the number of former colleagues and students who have been killed in car accidents in the past 11 years since I left.
Your post agrees with impressions of a couple of other people I know who spent time in Malaysia. Someone else I know worked on a temp contract in Jakarta (Indonesia), and said pretty much the same.
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