Americans are retiring to Vietnam • Hacker News Board

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#101

Post by CapricornNoble » Thu, Dec 26, 2019, 11:04 PM UTC

fxtentacle wrote: post #62

That guy must have been incredibly lucky with the timing. When I researched housing prices in the nice areas of Saigon in 2018, 50 square meter 1 bedroom apartments were sold at $300,000+. And "sold" here means you rent it perpetually from the development company to circumvent that 50-year land ownership limit. But that can put you at risk in case said company folds. Oh and I've also heard a lot of stories about Viet…

>>>Oh and I've also heard a lot of stories about Vietnamese women becoming rather disenchanted of hip cool American backpackers, the latter of which presumably read articles like this and decided to try their luck. The backpacker area of Saigon is considered more like a slum that you try to avoid at night.

Hanoi's French Quarter is the same way, and I'm glad the local women are hip to the game. They'll ask you "where are you staying?" If you are anywhere near Hoan Kiem Lake they will assume you are a broke backpacker and ghost you. When I was staying at a serviced apartment at West Lake (a more upscale neighborhood where foreign white-collar expats live) Tinder matches switched to "OK I come to your place tonight."

>>>One other thing that the article dangerously omits is the fact that food hygiene and/or safety testing is still pretty much non-existent even in the richest parts of Vietnam.

I've also spent about 6 months in Vietnam, cumulatively over 6 six trips. I've gotten brutally sick on 5 of those 6 visits. The lack of sanitation is the #1 reason I don't think I could EVER live there, no matter how much money I had. You can't escape the E.Coli in every ice cube and tap water supply, the open-sewer streets, and the choking air pollution.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#102

Post by onlyrealcuzzo » Thu, Dec 26, 2019, 11:05 PM UTC

fxtentacle wrote: post #72

pixelperfect wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a big disconnect between buy and rent prices? My brother was living in a nice area for a few hundred dollars per month just a few years ago.

Absolutely. Renting - for example on AirBnB - is quite cheap. I had a nice apartment with balcony for $300 monthly. But the buy prices are hugely inflated at the moment.

Price to rent everywhere has been pretty crazy for the last 6 years. So this isn't a Vietnam specific thing.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#103

Post by gscott » Thu, Dec 26, 2019, 11:08 PM UTC

wavefunction wrote: post #43

colechristensen wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really understand this. Max out-of-pocket for insurance plans now is very reasonable. If you can afford a $250k house, you can afford the max out-of-pocket cost for many many years.

I am just about to sell my father's $320,000 house so I can pay for his nursing home care. He sadly did not have the foresight to acquire long-term disability insurance or put his assets into a trust so we'll be paying out of pocket until his money runs out and he goes on Medicaid, which will still only cover 60% of his care. $320,000 / $8000+ a month (not including rising costs) means he has 3.25 years of care cover…

There are options to save money yet provide good care: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/ActiveAging/story?id=3487260&p...

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#104

Post by fxtentacle » Thu, Dec 26, 2019, 11:10 PM UTC

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #102

fxtentacle wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. Renting - for example on AirBnB - is quite cheap. I had a nice apartment with balcony for $300 monthly. But the buy prices are hugely inflated at the moment.

Price to rent everywhere has been pretty crazy for the last 6 years. So this isn't a Vietnam specific thing.

The thing specific to Vietnam is that purchase prices are very high, while rental prices are comparatively low. I believe it's due to the vicinity to China with rich investors looking for places to deposit their cash.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#105

Post by Gibbon1 » Thu, Dec 26, 2019, 11:10 PM UTC

DennisP wrote: post #97

stock_toaster wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget about the annual max gift tax limit (15k for 2020). Your father could reasonably gift you 15k a year (possibly another 15k to your spouse if you happen to be married) to reduce his savings a tiny bit quicker, so medicaid kicks in a bit sooner. At that point you could maybe even claim your parent as a dependent, and help him pay for his medical costs (which I think you can also deduct?). I'm not sure on t…

If I understand correctly from my non-CPA googling, $15K is just the amount you don't have to report to the IRS. You can give more, up to a lifetime limit of several million, before the gifts are taxed. How that interacts with medicaid, I have no idea.

This is correct the 15k per year is just a reporting limit.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#106

Post by onlyrealcuzzo » Thu, Dec 26, 2019, 11:12 PM UTC

colechristensen wrote: post #22

pcurve wrote: post #7

"They bought the four-bedroom, 3½-bathroom unit, measuring about 1,840 square feet along with a separate veranda, for about $250,000 in 2011." I'm sure it's a very nice place, but that sum is nothing to sneeze at. I wonder how much it costs now, and what is monthly expense is. Good thing is, American government has sensible reciprocal arrangement with many countries that offer national pension system that you don't n…

$250,000 is more or less the median price for a house that size in Ames, IA, a university town which regularly shows up on various "Best Places to Live" lists.

This obsession with cheap places to live intrigues me. In Memphis, TN you can rent a decent apartment in a shitty part of town for $300 a month. And Memphis isn't even close to the cheapest big city in the US.

In Birmingham Alabama, you can't get just as hot as you can in Vietnam, and your rent will be pretty similar.

Yes, healthcare and food are more expensive, but not that much. And you'll spend less on those two things over the year than if you come home once a year to keep your citizenship.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#107

Post by Consultant32452 » Thu, Dec 26, 2019, 11:13 PM UTC

labster wrote: post #24

chrisseaton wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> for about $250,000 in 2011 I can't tell if the LA Times are thinking this sounds cheap or not?

Anyone from the LA area knows that 250k for 4 bedroom is super cheap. In my area, 2 bedroom starts at $550k.

True, but I feel you can do a lot better without having to move all the way to Vietnam.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#108

Post by CapricornNoble » Thu, Dec 26, 2019, 11:14 PM UTC

axaxs wrote: post #26

starpilot wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah that price is similar for places you can find in the rural midwest US.

Yeah, but you can't find an 18 year old woman to marry you as a modern day indentured servant in the midwest. Ninety percent or so of the old white men I encountered in SEA had his arm around some poor childlike girl.

In my experience that's significantly less common in Vietnam than in Thailand or the Philippines (having been to all three, and dated women in all three).

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#109

Post by pjc50 » Thu, Dec 26, 2019, 11:18 PM UTC

colechristensen wrote: post #81

nodemaker wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find the idea that employers should have anything to do with healthcare quite revolting. Healthcare should be a deal between you and the government for which you should pay taxes. This and some other reasons are why I cannot fathom living in the US under 250K a year.

Why? Why is one large bureaucracy better than the other?

The government isn't an "at will" arrangement from which you can be sacked?

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#110

Post by refurb » Thu, Dec 26, 2019, 11:20 PM UTC

csomar wrote: post #49

pcurve wrote: post #7

"They bought the four-bedroom, 3½-bathroom unit, measuring about 1,840 square feet along with a separate veranda, for about $250,000 in 2011." I'm sure it's a very nice place, but that sum is nothing to sneeze at. I wonder how much it costs now, and what is monthly expense is. Good thing is, American government has sensible reciprocal arrangement with many countries that offer national pension system that you don't n…

That's very expensive for Vietnam or relative to what you get in terms of infrastructure/law. They either got a bad deal or the market right there is crazier than the US.

The market is crazy in Ho Chi Minh City. Considering average wages are $5-10K per year, housing is outrageous there.