Ravipas Chaloenchansa,
CFA, CFP®
Thailand
Finance & Retirement
Retirement in Thailand works best when the
decisions fit together.
A guide to the decisions behind a good retirement here: care, cover, visas, money and where to live.
Retiring here is not one decision. It is seven, and each one changes the others.
This page sets out the decisions behind a retirement in Thailand, the questions each one raises, and where our guidance on it lives. It is a place to start, not advice for your own case.
Seven decisions.
One plan.
Each one leans on the others. That is why we treat them as one plan, not seven separate questions.
Healthcare and health insurance
Care first. Then the cover that pays for it.
Two decisions that are easy to merge and better kept apart: how you would be treated here, and how you would pay for it.
Healthcare
- Which hospitals would you use?
- What does care cost when you pay yourself?
- How does it work in an emergency?
Health insurance
- Local or international cover?
- What happens to the price as you age?
- What about conditions you already have?
Visa and long-stay planning
Staying, legally and for the long run.
The route you stay on is a decision in its own right, and it touches most of the others.
- Which route fits your age and plans?
- What does it ask you to show?
- What has to be renewed, and when?
Financial planning and cost of living
Plan the money
in decades.
Live the cost
by the month.
Two views of the same question. One looks thirty years ahead; the other looks at next month.
Financial planning
- What income will you rely on?
- Which currency is it in?
- How long does it need to last?
Cost of living
- What does a month cost, the way you live?
- What changes from one city to the next?
- What is easy to leave out?
Where to live in Thailand
Different places,
different retirements.
Where you settle sets the pace of every day, and it moves most of the other decisions with it.
Explore Thailand
The city
Bangkok
Sophisticated, green in places, everything close.
The north
Chiang Mai
Calm, creative, neighbourhood-sized.
The coast
Hua Hin
A quiet coast within reach of the capital.
The island
Phuket
Coastal, unhurried, a working island
behind the view.
Planning for long-term life in Thailand
Plan for the
tenth year,
not
only the first.
A retirement is long, so we ask the later questions at the start.
- What happens to your cover as you age?
- Who helps if you need care at home?
- What if one of you is on your own?
Our experts
Our experts contribute to Thailand Ready content and guidance within their respective areas of experience and professional background.
Ravipas Chaloenchansa,
Noppakun Sasipibool
Thailand
Insurance
Ravinun Poovatanakul
Thailand
Tax & International Tax
Lattapon Chaloenchansa
Thailand
Visa & Relocation
CFA®, Chartered Financial Analyst®, CIPM®, and GIPS® are registered trademarks owned by CFA Institute.
CFP® and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ are trademarks owned outside the U.S. by Financial Planning Standards Board Ltd. Thai Financial Planning Association is the marks licensing authority for the CFP marks in Thailand, through agreement with FPSB.
Where to start
Three guides to read before anything else.
Plan the retirement you want to live.
Start with the decisions. We’ll help you see how they fit.