before moving to Thailand, think about these 10 things...

do you ever dream about moving to Thailand if you do there's lots of things that you should consider so in this video I'm going to go over 10 things to think about before deciding to relocate here and when I get to number seven on the list pay attention because a lot of people don't even consider this one and it could turn your dream into a nightmare my name is Chris and I have another YouTube channel main channel it's called retired working for you and in that channel I show everything about life in Thailand after you've made the move but over the last couple of years a lot of you wrote to me and asked me for more information specific details about actually relocating here yourself Visa stuff Health Care stuff cost of living stuff all kinds of things so I thought I'd create this second Channel shorten it down it's just called RW for you and on this channel I'm going to put a video out once a week to help you make the move here and to help you do it a lot easier so now I guess since this Channel's new I got to do that that lame YouTuber thing and say subscribe to the channel if you're thinking about moving to Thailand just give it a little tickle all right let's get into the list 10 things you need to know before moving to Thailand and each one of these has a chapter marker so if you want to skip ahead find one that uh is answering a question you might have or if you want to come back later and quickly find any one of these there's chapter markers just trying to make it easy for you so number one cost of living this is the big one and I hear a lot of stories of people who live here on all kinds of different budgets I met a lot of people who live here on ,000 a month which is about 35,000 Tai bot I have friends who are spending over $10,000 a month and every time I make a video and show a condo or show a restaurant or just show lifestyle type of things over here I always hear it in the comments that's overpriced that's a ripoff there's no way it costs that much don't listen to this guy and all I'll say is Thailand can can offer all kinds of living accommodations meals everything that you can think of Thailand has it in all budget ranges so the best thing for you to do is to reverse engineer your lifestyle over here start with your budget how much do you have how much do you have in a monthly budget after you move to Thailand if you got $1,000 a month that's it you got $1,000 a month if you got $3,000 a month there you go 100,000 tibot that's your monthly budget if you you got5 or $10,000 a month and good for you you're going to live like an absolute King over here but start with your budget and then start to consider the lifestyle that you want and then piece it together and see if your budget affords you that lifestyle in Thailand now you might need to change up your thought process specifically about where you're going to live so if you want to live in one of the the big Islands puket K Samui those islands generally cost more than I'd say anywhere else in Thailand to be honest you can carve out a budget friendly life on those islands but it is more challenging and it's really easy to have money just flow out of your wallet if you're in puket or Samui Bangkok quite reasonable Chang ma is kind of the best of all worlds changm huah hen these are nices sized middle-sized cities that you can live very comfortably on a tighter budget pataya kind of similar to Bangkok as it when it comes to cost of living if you're into the quiet Rural Life then guaranteed uh you can live and stretch that budget a hell of a lot more if you get outside of all of the places I just mentioned and go find a city Town Farm in the Farmland up in the mountain anywhere outside the main centers of Tourism you're going to save an absolute ton of money the way I look at it is almost everything that I do feels like about half the price of what it would be in my hometown of Toronto Canada so if you're looking at renting a condo the what I could get here for ,000 dollar a month would easily cost me double that in Toronto Canada if I'm looking at meals and I'm not talking local Thai street food I'm talking International Food meals if I want to go out for Korean if I want to go for Japanese if it's just a mid-range type of international restaurant I find the bill comes in about half of what it would be back in Toronto if you can live more like a local then you're going to stretch that budget so much further so a lot of taii people are on 9 10,000 bot a month anyways cost of living is something you should consider deeply before moving here and make sure that your budget and the lifestyle that you're dreaming of can line up and you want to engineer how to make those things line up next climate Okay so Thailand is hot it's damn hot in Thailand 12 months of the year it's hot if Hot weather's not your thing I would immediately reconsider your dream of potentially living here if you can take a bit of heat on a two-e vacation and you're thinking to yourself yeah I could live in Thailand I could deal with that heat you're on vacation and it's only two weeks after months and months the heat can can certainly kind of start to wear you down a little bit especially if you're in the cities because those just tend to have less place places to escape the heat if you're living on an island near a beach then you can jump in a pool jump in the ocean a lot easier but in the cities the heat can get very restrictive hot season in Thailand is February until May so March April May I think is when it's the hottest here if you're dreaming of moving here you might be in a position where you thinking Thailand is a base and the best way to think about it is you don't have to be here 12 months of the year you might Escape off somewhere else during hot season that's what I plan to do I'm going to try and get over maybe to Korea Korea is beautiful in the spring maybe spend maybe spend March and April or April and May in Korea when hot season hits and get the hell out of Thailand but the climate's definitely something to consider rainy season certainly doesn't bother me I think it bothers some people but it doesn't bother me I actually really enjoy rainy season and then the Glorious time of the year is November December January the temperatures cool off the air is usually at its cleanest and uh it's just Heavenly over here so that's definitely the best time of year to be here and I'll put a footnote in number two here under climate which is pollution if you're in Bangkok or changai during hot season and what's also known as Is Burning Season February March April May the air pollution is pretty bad so if you have lung issues and you want to be boots on the ground 12 months of the year in Thailand that's something that you should consider number three on the list is the health care System a lot of people write me and wonder and ask about health care in Thailand what's it like is the quality good do the doctors speak English what if I have an accident what if I need surgery my opinion is that Health Care here is world class now there's there's varying levels there's Public Health Care and there's private Health Care even the public hospital system here I've heard nothing but uh good stories and again if budget's your main concern then you could get yourself some great care at public hospitals when you enter the private hospitals place like Bangkok Hospital bum run grad there's all kinds of them you walk into these places and it feels like a five-star Resort doctors all speak English prices are still I find very reasonable compared to the Western World the service the care the technology everything that I've experienced has been world class it's made me question many a time you know what's really first world versus is third world I think a lot of people out there think about Thailand as the third world and that has some scary connotations to it you're wondering if you're going to be in some grimy hospital with a doctor who may or may not have a degree and let me tell you that uh I'd take Health Care in Thailand over my home country of Canada any day of the week Dental care is amazing it's again very cheap you do want to have health insurance that's something that I would highly recommend I use a company called Safety Wing I will leave you a link in the description they just started this new thing called Nomad health and they have a pricing calculator so if you're curious how much your health care would cost if you did move to thailam follow the link in the description below and you just enter your age and a couple of details and it spits out what your monthly cost for health insurance would be number four is Visa regulations this is something that Thailand could be better at for people especially that that just want to simplify and retire and move here and basically spend their life savings here in this country the Visa regulations there's just too many Hoops to jump through so they don't make it easy on you um there's a lot of different Visa options that you could consider retirement Visa you could get a business Visa if you're looking to start a small business here you can get an educational Visa uh you need to sign up to a a thae language school that uh is tied into the educational Visa program The Ed Visa they have volunteer visas um and if you're stinking Rich they have What's called the elite visa and you can just plop down a whole lot of cash and that one's Heavenly they have introduced what's called a long-term resident visa and this is kind of a new program still finding its legs very attractive I think you can get 10year visas in that program and it saves you a lot of the red tape things like 90day reports when you have a Visa here you have to file a report with immigration every 90 days and that's just kind of a pain in the ass and it and it feels pointless really it's like what's the point I got a one-year Visa why do I have to file a report every 90 days just just let me deal with this once a year the worst part about the Visas thing for me that you should consider is every year when your Visa comes up you have to be in Thailand to renew it I'm lucky because my Visa usually comes up every November and like I said earlier in the climate section November's Glory time here I I want to be in Thailand every single November but if my Visa renewal happened during hot season it would really suck because I'd have to be in Thailand to take care of that and it's a bit of a process you know it doesn't happen overnight so that's something to consider before moving here no matter what your Visa situation can feel daunting and I've met a lot of people who have come they've wanted to live in Thailand and they couldn't figure out the whole Visa end of things so they ended up leaving because of that and to me that's surprising I think as long as you come in with the right mindset that it's just a problem to solve a curveball to hit then there are going to be lots of solutions find yourself a good Visa agent Visa lawyer and explain your personal situation and you're going to be able to navigate those Waters as daunting as it seems just make sure you take care of your Visa you never overstay your visa and you just stay on top of it and that's part of part of life once you move to Thailand and something you need to be thinking about number five we have the education system so this is for those of you out there who have kids so you might be wondering should you move to Thailand with kids or should you wait till the kids are done School what would their school be like well I I was faced with that exact same decision I was living in La about 5 years ago our daughter had just finished uh grade 10 10th grade she was loving life in La she came and and my wife and I had always said to each other we'll just after our daughter finishes high school that's when we'll move to Thailand and then we started thinking about it and our opinion was that it would be good for her to experience something outside of what we called the bubble of perfection that was Los Angeles California and we thought it would be good for her to experience Asia to experience Bangkok and to get exposed to a group of international kids so she came home from school one day and we dropped the news on her that we're moving to Thailand she was not pleased to say the least but fast forward to us researching finding a great school over here and a and a year later she sat us down at the dinner table she was speaking to us again by this point in time and she said you know what I'm really glad you guys made me uh move over here she loved the experience might have been the fact that that high school kids can go out clubbing and stuff here they can't do that in LA but she loved the school loved her new friends and loved the international experience there's every system you can think of I have friends who have their kids in the British school system I think it's called the A Levels our daughter ended up flipping out of the American system and going into What's called the IB which is the international baloran that's an I can't say enough good things about the IB program do some research look it up there is French schools there's Australian schools there's I think a Canadian school any type type of school system that you're looking for they vary in size our daughter went to a school called nist nist amazing School located in central Bangkok couldn't recommend it highly enough it was an awesome education and I would say that if you think having schoolage kids is a reason against moving here then you'd be wrong I think it's a reason to move here International experience for a young developing mind is nothing but a good thing the big downside is the cost these places can cost 20 grand us a year 25 Grand US a year so they're not friendly on the budget and if you can't afford that and your kids in public school where you live then yeah that's a legitimate reason to uh postpone your dream and and wait till the kids are done high school next on our list is political volatility something to keep in mind is that Thailand's politics can become volatile I think it was 9 years ago was the last military coup where I think there was literally tanks rolling down the streets of Bangkok ton of protests even just a couple of years ago there was mass massive protests out on the streets of Bangkok police out there with fire and water cannons and stuff but keep in mind a lot of this stuff is pretty contained certainly to Bangkok and even within Bangkok It's contained to certain areas where there's almost notice that there's going to be a protest if you want to avoid it just don't go there when the protests are happening and you'll be fine this is the type of stuff that if the news cameras where you live get great footage you're going to see you know massive unrest on the streets of Bangkok on your local news but over here you know you're just out eating your pad cow and you might have heard that there was a protest going on on the other side of town but it's not all up in your face and it certainly doesn't happen all the time but certain times it flares up during elections and other times and when it flares up it's something to consider now's number seven this is the one that I told you almost nobody thinks about so when you're in Thailand you got to be aware of something that's called let me read this one crangi I probably said that wrong but this is a cultural phenomenon that translates literally as consideration but in practice it means an unwillingness to upset others in in Asia we just call it face have you heard the expression oh don't lose face oh you lost face oo she lost face this is something about Thai culture that you need to understand if you plan to live here taies don't like to generally don't like to show negative emotions it's part of the reason why this place is the land of smiles but often times those Smiles hide true emotions because the people want to save face they don't want to show their emotions if you're upset with someone in Thailand you're not as direct as in my home country of Canada or perhaps your home country wherever you're watching from you certainly don't start to fly off the handle and go all caring on the people and start to to yell and scream and demand your talk about your rights and demand to see the manager and all that sort of stuff that would be a bad idea the best thing to do when it comes to Saving Face is to understand that it's important here and to respect that and that means that sometimes it can be frustrating because when Tha people say no or sorry when Thai people say yes it doesn't always mean yes they don't want to say no they don't want to ruffle feathers so this is something that if you don't acknowledge can become very frustrating and I would imagine it's the root of why a lot of people's dream of living in Thailand turns into a nightmare there's two camps of xats who live here ones who just kind of love to badmouth the place all day about Thailand does this Thailand's stupid because of this oh you wouldn't believe what happened to me or look at that idiot and then there's the other camp like my all of my friends who love living in Thailand love the Tha people love almost everything about it because we've learned to ignore or live with or navigate this whole issue of face and so I would highly recommend that if you are thinking of move in here you know check your Western kind of direct attitude of being very direct positive or negative and learn to navigate these Thai Waters and do it the way the Thai people do it results in a much more calm and peaceful existence you you might just go down the path of hating it but if you think about it the right way becomes a draw of living here so definitely keep number seven in mind and number eight safety is Thailand safe I've talked to so many people out there who think you know Thailand third world country can I walk out the streets of Bangkok at night or am I going to get mugged am I going to get robbed is someone going to someone going to drug me and slice me open and and take my kidney and uh you know those of us that live here we always get a chuckle out of that and the reason is because the answer is not only yes but it's an emphatic yes you know the only other place I've lived where I felt as safe as I do living in Thailand is in Korea Northeast Asia Korea Japan very very safe and Southeast Asia is I guess a bit hit or miss some countries are safe some countries you got to mind yourself Thailand I consider very safe now of course I'm not saying that Thailand's Crime Free it's a big country bangkok's a huge City crime does happen I'm just talking about dayt day how much do you have to worry about it and I'll tell you this I've never once walked around the streets of Bangkok no matter where I am even if I'm in an unknown neighborhood I've never once walked around around in fear I could be walking home at 2: a.m. down a side street I've never been on and see a group of shady looking characters maybe a group of like 30-year-old dudes with tattoos and stuff tough looking guys I wouldn't even cross the road to try and avoid them uh i' I'd walk right by them probably say hello and they if anything they'd probably ask me to have a drink with them uh so so yeah I I would think that Thailand and safety is not something that should concern you and on top of that you know you could leave things in restaurants I've left sunglasses at a restaurant go back two hours later they're still there I could leave my wallet on top of a bank machine in the middle of a subway station and I bet you that if I went back a few hours later one of two things would would have happened either the wallet would still be sitting there cuz everyone no one wanted wanted to take it or someone found it and returned it and I'd go talk to the staff working at the subway station and they would return it to me so safety to me is a big positive of life in Thailand I wouldn't want to live in a place like I picture the favellas of Brazil or other International destinations that have a lot more safety concerns than anywhere in Thailand number nine is culture and language we talked about culture when we were talking about faith so let's focus on the Thai language and the big question is do you need to speak Tha if you want to live here and I would say that if you lived in any of those major centers that I talk about all the time Bangkok simui pukat pataya huahin Chang ma if you live in any of those six spots the answer is no you don't need to know how to speak Tai to live a happy life to get by to not even have any real hassles if you lived in the rural areas or small nondescript cities where tourists don't frequent then yeah I think you would have a tough time getting by without learning Tai so if that's the direction you're going then you're going to need to learn Tha and I would say even if you do live in one of those major centers that I discussed learning Thai is certainly recommended I went to taii school here for a month after I moved here I I planned to go for 6 months but I'm I'm a weak weak man I quit after a month but even after a month I got what I would consider survival tie so I could give a taxi directions I could order food I could shop at markets know all the numbers and that made a big difference so I would highly recommend that you at the very least get some survival tie skills and then even more so if you really want to unlock a whole different life for yourself over here try to push through and get to an intermediate level there's a new year on the horizon and I have a feeling that my New Year's resolution is going to be to buckle down and and try and learn a little bit more tie in 2024 so I really hope to do that because once you start interacting with the locals and speak Tai with them everything just gets that much better so do you need to know how to speak taii no would it be fun and useful and beneficial to know how to speak some taii hell yeah and don't be afraid just learn a little bit a little bit goes along long way and last but not least number 10 social and expat community so moving to a country can be scary for a lot of people because of the fear of isolation the fear of loneliness so I would start by asking you a question how social are you I know two types of people the types that need to go out almost daily with friends daily nightly very social people and I know people who'd prefer to just kind of sit at their patio their balcony you know having a drink watching the sunset and they don't really have this big desire to constantly socialize so ask yourself what type of person you are and if you are the type that needs to socialize and you're wondering how you would make new friends I would think again in any of those major centers that I discussed it it isn't that hard if you were living in Small Town Thailand that might be a bit of a challenge something to consider but there's all kinds of ways to meet people if you're living in uh one of the bigger centers where most expats live and I actually did a whole video on the four best ways that I would suggest that you start to make a new friend group if you move to Thailand so I'll leave a link you can click on that watch that video and drop a comment below ask me anything you want about relocating to Thailand because I'm here to answer your questions and one day convince you to just stop dreaming about it and just do it

Channel: RW4U

Views: 176,955

Keywords: thailand, move to thailand, retire in thailand, living in thailand, relocate to Thailand, bangkok, chiang mai, phuket, pattaya, koh samui, cost of living thailand, thai visa, thai language course, bangkok thailand, cost of living, retirement visa thailand, saving face, moving to thailand, thailand life

Id: n1l60pJgnes

Length: 28min 24sec (1704 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 18 2023