Americans are retiring to Vietnam • Hacker News Board

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#81

Post by colechristensen » Thu, Dec 26, 2019, 10:09 PM UTC

nodemaker wrote: post #66

colechristensen wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All except the smallest employers are required by law to provide health insurance to full-time employees and may have employees contribute up to only 10% of their household income. I did some random shopping for a typical family of 5 and found a max rate of ~$1600/mo for insurance premiums. You would only pay this if you were self-employed, part-time employed at a pretty shitty job, or unemployed and run out of the v…

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?

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#82

Post by tempsy » Thu, Dec 26, 2019, 10:14 PM UTC

bane wrote: post #74

tempsy wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh why do you think retirees choosing a place to retire are “forgetting to consider” healthcare costs? If anything that is the #1 thing most people think about.

Many retirees don't consider it deeply at all and end up in places far removed from good long-term health care.

Source?

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#83

Post by fxtentacle » Thu, Dec 26, 2019, 10:16 PM UTC

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.

I believe that it may well become an existential crisis for western cultures that guys are conditioned by advertisements to expect an attractive girlfriend in exchange for being successful at work, but in reality that rarely works out.

On the one side, that leads to men who feel like they deserve an attractive girlfriend and take evil methods for acquiring one.

On the other side, there's a booming industry in the US and Europe that teaches rich single white dudes how to be a decent enough human being for long enough to go on a normal date with a normal girl.

But for the guy, after they have committed most of their youth to financial success in the hopes that it will lead to a mate, switching course later on will be very painful. And lots of frustrated overly horny dudes might destabilize the country.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#84

Post by teamwork007 » Thu, Dec 26, 2019, 10:20 PM UTC

digianarchist wrote: post #79

vntx wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. Vietnam still is a communist country in that respect. The government still owns all the land and is legally leasing it to its citizens and foreigners. In reality, now that Vietnam is increasingly open to the world economy the government has to treat property rights better or else it'll scare foreign investment away. The lack of private property rights and the Vietnam's Communist Party stranglehold on the econo…

Nothing to do with communism. Capitalist Thailand has thirty year limits on property ownership with the exemption of condo buildings that are majority owned by Thai citizens. Hell even Singapore limits property ownership of foreigners.

I hate using the terms capitalist and communist since they are both pretty loaded, but I think in the case of Vietnam and China it does have something to do with their recent Communist or Socialist histories. Property rights are usually seen as the bedrock of a capitalist society for better or worse. Vietnam and China's land is technically still owned "by the people" (aka government) and since both countries have opened they have gradually loosened those rights. Singapore is often seen as an anomaly to people who see things on the capitalist/communist spectrum, but you're right they have rights similar to those seen in China and Vietnam and often cited as a model for those countries to provide more property rights without allowing for a 'Western' model.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#85

Post by tartoran » Thu, Dec 26, 2019, 10:21 PM UTC

jjeaff wrote: post #39

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…

Can they sell it at the end of those 50 years and buy something else? If so, I can't see why purchasing one would necessarily be steadily decreasing in value, except for the requirement of a rushed sale if you waited until the very last minute to sell.

Then wouldn't it work out to rent instead?

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#86

Post by fxtentacle » Thu, Dec 26, 2019, 10:22 PM UTC

TechBro8615 wrote: post #77

axaxs wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Indeed, this is kind of a gross thing that is definitely happening in not-so-subtle ways. It's also been called "sex tourism." In fact, it appears the man in the article may fit that profile. I think there's a big difference between "American couples are retiring to Thailand" and "single American men are retiring to Thailand and marrying Thai women."

"American girls found inferior to Asian girls by random rich old white dude from America". I wonder if that would be enough to trigger a shit-storm.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#87

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Dec 26, 2019, 10:32 PM UTC

tartoran wrote: post #85

jjeaff wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can they sell it at the end of those 50 years and buy something else? If so, I can't see why purchasing one would necessarily be steadily decreasing in value, except for the requirement of a rushed sale if you waited until the very last minute to sell.

Then wouldn't it work out to rent instead?

[deleted]

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#88

Post by keiferski » Thu, Dec 26, 2019, 10:34 PM UTC

quaquaqua1 wrote: post #42

CPLX wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely there are some differences between Myanmar and Tokyo right? There’s a lot of countries in Asia.

Ironically some of the SEA countries probably have better medical services than Tokyo. You guys are criticizing me for calling Asia a monolith but I can assure you the difference between Tokyo and Myanmar is smaller than NYU and the Midwest

Some of the best medical centers in the country are in the Midwest...

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#89

Post by tempsy » Thu, Dec 26, 2019, 10:34 PM UTC

fxtentacle wrote: post #71

tempsy wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not but the old white man/submissive younger Asian woman dynamic is one of those uncomfortable stereotypes that ring true

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.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#90

Post by stevenwoo » Thu, Dec 26, 2019, 10:45 PM UTC

stock_toaster wrote: post #56

wavefunction wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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…

There are the local medicaid/medicare administrations and elder care law specialists that can advise on medical care as well as the various tax writeoffs and eligibility for programs that the poster should investigate now since rules vary so much from state to state in the USA, and he is talking about years of care.