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Americans are retiring to Vietnam

latimes.com

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Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#111

Post by Bayart »

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…

>I'm sure some places in Western Europe may also qualify.

There are places in Spain that are essentially senile British colonies.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#112

Post by refurb »

teamwork007 wrote: post #37

One piece of information the article doesn't acknowledge is that property rights in Vietnam aren't the same as they are in the US. So if a foreigner "buys" an apartment in Vietnam, they can only have it for up to 50 years. In other words, it's an asset that is steadily decreasing in value, and not one that the "owner" can necessarily hand down to the next generation at a higher or the same value unless changes are ma…

Are you sure that’s how it works? I thought the distinction was ownership versus lease.

You lease it for 50 years, but in the end you can sell the actual property to a citizen or sell it to a non-citizen who will get a 50 year lease.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#113

Post by CapricornNoble »

tempsy wrote: post #89
fxtentacle wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure it's limited to Asian women. I believe those old white dudes who can afford it are just trying to avoid dating the stereotypical modern western girls. Here in Germany, rich guys go for a Czech, Turkish or Italian wife if they hope to have plenty of kids. And it's no secret that British guys will travel all over Europe to try their luck at dating, because apparently most aren't too happy with the supply a…

The dynamic is that these old white men aren’t actually that rich by Western standards but are by SE Asian ones, so they don’t have the status or wealth to attract a young attractive western woman but do in SEA. If they were actually rich they wouldn’t need to retire overseas to stretch out their retirement.

>>>so they don’t have the status or wealth to attract a young attractive western woman but do in SEA

Or they are totally put off by the personalities of young attractive western women and consider foreign women an objective quality-of-life upgrade.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#114

Post by lazyasciiart »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #106
colechristensen wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$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 t…

You don't have to do anything to keep your American citizenship. You can't get rid of it without a significant amount of effort.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#115

Post by CapricornNoble »

riffic wrote: post #21
ausjke wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

literally that land is not cleared well, many land mines are still in the ground, https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-vietnam-war-is-...

Among other toxins.

Yeah dousing carcinogenic defoliants all over your future retirement property is pretty piss-poor planning.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#116

Post by Ericson2314 »

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?

Because I want to switch jobs without switching doctors loads of paper work, and health is the sort of fickle thing where if I get really sick they will always be able to price-gouge me so I rather remove the profit motive.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#117

Post by peteretep »

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…

> I am just about to sell my father's $320,000 house so I can pay for his nursing home care.

You’d be doing this in the UK on the NHS too. The patient needs to pay until their assets are drawn down until a certain amount, and then the government will take over until death.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#118

Post by tptacek »

technofiend wrote: post #25
colechristensen wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$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.

No doubt based on that recommendation Ames is a great place to live, but you're still in the American healthcare system which could financially drain you dry from one major medical incident. The article specifically mentions cheap healthcare as the other draw besides cheap cost of living.

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

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#119

Post by peteretep »

campee wrote: post #17
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…

I think I'd rather live in a small town in Iowa than Vietnam for that price.

I can only speak to Bangkok, but life in Bangkok will be cheaper, safer, more convenient, the food quality will be higher, medical and dental care will be much higher standards, public transport is better, than in Iowa. I’ve spent less time in Vietnam, but it seems to be hot on the heels of Thailand.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#120

Post by arcticbull »

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?

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.
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