Millions want to move and live in Thailand. That is the dream.
The reality is few are able to financially survive.
Thailand is an experience and my experiences when I was younger were the greatest times of my life.
But over the years, I am starting to see what my expat husband has always been telling me?
It takes money to make it in Thailand or anywhere.
You cannot work forever, sooner or later everyone gets old and has to stop working.
Then you are forced to live on what you have financially accumulated over the course of your working life.
For some, maybe for many, this is not enough to live on. Maybe barely survive waiting for that 1 huge medical emergency that wipes you out and gets you deported.
Yes, yes, yes you can survive as a young person teaching English or starting a Youtube.
Unless of course you are the next Mark Wien’s with 10,000,000 Youtube subscribers!
However, the reality is 10 years of having fun will click by before you know it and you will have nothing saved for retirement or for your future.
Working in Thailand unfortunately does not count as experience anywhere else in the world.
You are certainly not going to land a teachers job in the first world with only a TEFL certificate, so all those years of experience are wasted.
Many find themselves going home at age 30 or 40, with no hope or prospects for a better life. In fact, many that are forced to move are seriously depressed.
My husband came to Thailand, we met and got married and had a blast. But I always knew from the beginning that he had a plan and that plan included me.
That plan entailed moving to the US, where I attended and graduated from the University of Florida and became a US citizen. Now, my husband told me, I would always have a choice.
We could have left the US much earlier than we did and returned to Thailand sooner, but we didn’t.
My husband’s reason was simple. I would need a ton of money throughout my life.
Even with a US degree, the prospects of making any good money in Thailand were slim.
My husband was wise to that fact.
He understood that every additional year he worked would be more that I would not have to work, and he continued to work well past the year he could have stopped and had plenty.
Now I own a 7/11 in Thailand and that income is enough to support me.
My husband has also saved and invested where I will never have to worry financially.
He could have moved back but he wouldn’t until he assured himself I would be well taken care of.
Sometimes I think that those saving years back in the US robbed us of many good times in Thailand and it saddens me I could not share that with my husband.
Now he is getting older and content to live in Isaan puttering around the house.
If you asked him, he was never sad at losing the time in Thailand, he beams with pride that he has accomplished his mission to take care of his family.
I would never have realized the importance of this on my own. It was only his wisdom and age that made me realize you have to put in the time if you want to have anything when you get old.
The reality is old age. We never see old age when we are young. We never think about it. We never think how much it will cost. We never think that medical issues and expensive bills are part of old age. However, that is the reality that will happen to each and everyone of us.
We always hear the saying “Life is Short…” well it is not so short if you live to 80 or 90.
The reality entails having a plan how you can afford the end of your life when you can no longer work. If you can balance that with living in Thailand, you will accomplish the dream!