Retire 2 Thailand

About Us

Retire 2 Thailand started when I was doing the quintessential retired-guy activity. The idea came to me while I was out on the golf course. I had been fully retired in Chiang Mai, Thailand for over a year, although my wife and I had spent the past 5 winters shuttling between Chiang Mai and Seattle (and visiting and living in Thailand for the past 40 years). The only place that I have ever been that compares with a beautiful Chiang Mai winter is an equally pleasant Seattle summer. The last 5 years were spent without our ever seeing a rainy day or a temperature higher than 85F or lower than 60F.

I started this odyssey when I was 55 years old, tired of corporate life, and had enough saved to hang on until Social Security kicked in. Then I had the prospects of living in semi-poverty for the rest of my life. Moving to Thailand changed that. My Social Security benefits, which would be about a third of what I would need to continue living in Seattle, places me in a very comfortable situation here in Chiang Mai. If you are like me, the cost of living might be one of the reasons why you are looking abroad for your retirement and why you are visiting us now.

The idea for a website devoted to helping people understand what they might be getting into once they decided to give Thailand a look as maybe a place to spend some or all of their retirement years came out of another retirement occupation I had taken up. For almost two years I had been writing a monthly column for Chiang Mai City Life magazine called A Retiring Attitude – Tips on Retiring to Thailand. And now there were a few publishers considering my idea of compiling these essays into a single volume. So, with all the research I had been doing for the column and books, why not make this information available to other prospective retirees? Thus was born Retire 2 Thailand .

There are basically two types of information one needs in making a decision about where to spend the golden years. The first is information about the place, its history, geography, weather, culture, food, etc. We have steered you to websites that should help you get the information you need. The other kind of information is more to answer the question, What do I need to do to live in Thailand? That starts with getting the right visa, leaning about the cost of living, learning the language, shopping, banking, real estate, golf of course, and hearing what others have to say about their lives here. Retire 2 Thailand is a place where you can begin your education about Thailand and learn whether this would be the right place for you.

Many thanks to the really good and smart people at www.phuketdir.com . With their encouragement and expertise they helped changed what was once going to be a couple of pages of web links into what you see here.

We hope we can help you make the correct decision about whether Thailand is the right place for you. If you have questions try posting on our Retirees Forum or drop us an email. We, or others who see your post, might answer your questions or offer suggestions.

Best of luck and if you elect to join us here in Thailand, Welcome.

Hugh Leong