Perhaps its just because we basically did it right, we got our rental place sorted before we jumped, in a nice area. We shopped around for the right house before deciding to build in another nice area. We have had no real issues with our visa applications or money issues, and perhaps most important, Jirawan and I are very happy having a nice quiet life not filled with social engagements or pub crawls..
We both like and enjoy Thai food, and have found sources of quality western food for the odd days when I can't take another fiery mouthful of something.
We enjoy a peaceful, low cost, low maintenance lifestyle that is easy to adapt to and allows us to enjoy the simple reality of retirement...peace and quiet.
Also of course we came with enough funds.. we're far from rich, but we have the proceeds from our house and asset sales, which buys us the new house and lets us live in reasonable comfort for the next 4.5 years. Then the pension will actually make us 2-3times better off each month giving us a chance to renew our funds which will have depleted by then.. Not having to worry about how to pay the bills is a massive +++ to your lifestyle.
That does still need some control though.. There's a problem with being a multi millionaire in a candy store... even if the candy seems cheap, the more you buy, the sooner you stop being a multi, then a singular, and then end up short of funds down to your last 100K .
But we're being careful...locking some cash away into high interest pension funds, and drip feeding interest bearing euros into our non interest bearing Thai account at a rate of 50-60K baht a month seems to be the correct target for us.
In fact that 50K also includes our current 20K rent, so when we move we'll have even less to pay out, so that 50K will go even further.
Climate wise, I am adjusting... the recent smokey seasons and scorching summer heat was uncomfortable for everyone, but we find ourselves snuggling at home in our office/study watching UK TV on our VPN systems, not missing out on too much. In fact, VPN and subscription TV is really our only real indulgence, since I am not a beer drinker/party beast we're not pissing money away on pointless things. I do like to go for the occasional meal out though, but 20quid for a nice meal is a once a fortnight thing....
But we will probably ship out to somewhere south next year to escape the smoke.. a lot of people escape for a few months to condo's or resorts to escape it.. we will maybe do the same.
The house build is progressing, we had a minor concern once we stood in the house framework and realised that the downstairs 4th bedroom was not going to be big enough, it was basically a cupboard/box room..
Far too small for our envisioned use by people who can't get up/down stairs. We suspect in 10-20 years that might be us. So not having enough room for a Zimmer frame or wheelchair to get to the bed was just not going to work. I felt a bit miffed that wasn't obvious from the plan, even if we didn't see it, the architect probably should have flagged it. But blame isn't a resolution, we identified the issue, had a conversation or 2 about it, and Jirawan came up with a masterful plan to reorganize the layout to make the room bigger, at the expense of shuffling the kitchens.. This will give us the bedroom we need and make some parts of the Thai kitchen a bit nicer too... though it will cost a bit more as we have to add that Thai kitchen as an extension now.. we're waiting to hear how much, so we can argue to cut it in half :D
6 months in 10 days though... only once had to set a wake up alarm, enjoying life, enjoying everything and finding myself less and less bothered when things don't go to plan, after 40 years of working in environments where plans need to be strictly adhered to, letting that go has proven to be a slow but beneficial process.
Roll on the next 6 months.
Ahthankyew
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