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Americans are retiring to Vietnam

latimes.com

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Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#161

Post by mantap »

axaxs wrote: post #70
fxtentacle wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While that is a horrible thing to say, I wouldn't disagree. I also saw some rather worrying couples when I was living in Saigon. That said, some Asian women also just look young even at a surprisingly high age. I recently had Germans mistake my Asian mother in law to be my younger sister. But sure, it is a big plus that in Saigon the $2k in retirement money pay not only for one person, but for an entire family. So if…

Absolutely, but I hope my comment was not taken as an endorsement by any means. I don't think most folks know how rampant it is. It was something I had read about and knew existed, but seeing it in person is eye opening. I know it's not my business and I shouldn't care, logically, but it makes me disgusted in some way every time.

If both people are getting what they want out of a relationship, what is the problem exactly?

The idea that relationships are based on love is not universal to say the least, many parts of the world still have arranged marriages that are explicitly transactional with an agreed dowry or bride price.

If it makes you feel a bit better, we are currently living through an unprecedented high in relationships based upon love rather than money.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#162

Post by coconut_crab »

bane wrote: post #29

Something many people (especially Americans) forget to consider when selecting a place to retire is the almost guaranteed need for lots and lots of high quality medical care wherever you end up. I suspect many people here on HN will retire with large enough retirement savings (and other assets) to settle down like kings in many places in the world. But the distribution of high quality care for ahem people of advancin…

Health care in Vietnam is not not too bad, at least for the price. Surely you can't expect state of the art cancer treatments here but everything else is pretty affordable. My father just had an operation to fix his retinal detachment, everything costed less than 800 USD, and only 200 USD after insurance. Another guy I know had an operation for appendicitis, and he only needed to pay 200 USD for it. And both of them used special services, it would be even cheaper if they use normal ones.

If anyone want to move to Vietnam, pick Saigon/Danang/Hue/Nhatrang and stay away from the north until they fix their air pollution problem. It's pretty bad up there. (source: I'm a Hanoian)

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#163

Post by JCharante »

CapricornNoble wrote: post #101
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…

I live part time in Tây Hồ (fly back to the States for each semester of school) and I just want to say that I've never gotten sick from the food. I'll eat street food on plastic chairs, restaurants with and without AC, and places that would be expensive even for foreigners. Of course I'll also eat what cô cooks sometimes and it's delicious. I'm not denying that you've gotten sick, but I'm just saying that it's different for everybody.

Ice cubes come from vendors and I'd be surprised if they're contaminated (that's like the entire point of buying ice instead of making it from the water supply).

The air pollution is something that is being worked on, but honestly it's not really noticable (I buy a new n95 mask every other day, problem solved).

Regarding open sewer streets, I mean, some gaps between the sidewalk and the roads are dirty but what place has sewage just flowing by? Seriously name the street and I'll visit it today.

Also have you considered staying outside the foreigner bubble? (I bet you're probably in Quảng An). Go see the real Hanoi, outside of menus that are in English and don't even have Vietnamese on them.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#164

Post by geomark »

ethbro wrote: post #64
chrisseaton wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't you also have to pay the actual insurance premium as well? Before you even get to the out-of-pocket costs? I have friends in the US who pay thousands a month for health insurance premiums.

At 65 you're eligible for single-payer, government-supported Medicare. I'm not old enough to be keeping an eye on the numbers, but it looks like ~$450 / month for hospital (free) + doctor (subsidized) + prescription (pay).

Then you consider that the total unsubsidized out of pocket cost for a surgery at a private hospital in one of the medical tourism destinations amounts to only a few months of premiums. And on top of it the service and hospitality with which the medical care is delivered is unlike any you've ever even imagined in the US.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#165

Post by baddox »

spodek wrote: post #147
trianglem wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but who would want to live in cold, wintery Iowa when you have the option of staying in a place that is warm year round.

Can't get much colder or wintery than Finland, Denmark, and Norway, but > For the second year in a row, the world's happiest country is... Finland! > Finland topped the list of 156 countries, which were ranked in the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network's 2019 World Happiness Report. The report ranks countries on several well-being variables including income, freedom, trust, healthy life expectanc…

So perhaps the answer to “who would want to live somewhere that cold?” is “people who were born there and lived their whole lives there.” This is based on my understanding that those countries have very low rates of immigration.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#166

Post by tptacek »

danielhughes wrote: post #135
tptacek wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't this article about retirement-age Americans, who are covered by Medicare?

Correct so a lot of the comments are not relevant to the article. But to clarify, Medicare does not cover Americans who choose to live abroad.

Right, but the point of the argument is that people might leave the US because health care is so much cheaper abroad.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#167

Post by baddox »

arcticbull wrote: post #120
colechristensen wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

One word: accountability. Your employer is not accountable to you, you’re at best a cost center. Your government is accountable to you via process known as democracy.

Democracy clearly, empirically does not imply that the government is accountable to you.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#168

Post by JCharante »

coconut_crab wrote: post #162
bane wrote: post #29

Something many people (especially Americans) forget to consider when selecting a place to retire is the almost guaranteed need for lots and lots of high quality medical care wherever you end up. I suspect many people here on HN will retire with large enough retirement savings (and other assets) to settle down like kings in many places in the world. But the distribution of high quality care for ahem people of advancin…

Health care in Vietnam is not not too bad, at least for the price. Surely you can't expect state of the art cancer treatments here but everything else is pretty affordable. My father just had an operation to fix his retinal detachment, everything costed less than 800 USD, and only 200 USD after insurance. Another guy I know had an operation for appendicitis, and he only needed to pay 200 USD for it. And both of them…

But then you don't get to live in Hanoi ;)

Do you know about the quality of VinMec? For VinSchool I've heard from friends who attended that they have incredible teachers and from advertisements that they have professors from ivies helping them out, so I was wondering if VinMec is also top tier. They claim to have equipment "equivalent to leading hospitals in the US, UK, Germany, Japan and Singapore" so I wonder if they also have the skills to use it effectively.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#169

Post by baddox »

freeone3000 wrote: post #98
colechristensen wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Because one isn't in an adversarial relationship with you?

You may be in the fortunate position that your government is not in an adversarial relationship with you. There are many people with that good fortune. But there are also many people who are not in that position.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#170

Post by Gracana »

spodek wrote: post #147
trianglem wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but who would want to live in cold, wintery Iowa when you have the option of staying in a place that is warm year round.

Can't get much colder or wintery than Finland, Denmark, and Norway, but > For the second year in a row, the world's happiest country is... Finland! > Finland topped the list of 156 countries, which were ranked in the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network's 2019 World Happiness Report. The report ranks countries on several well-being variables including income, freedom, trust, healthy life expectanc…

South Sudan is in their sixth year of a brutal civil war...
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