Or know someone that does? Or thought about it?
I've been thinking about it and I can probably do it if I have to. But at the moment I don't really want to since my life here is nice enough.
So yeah, just wondering what peoples' opinions are on it since I'm sure I can learn a thing or two from listening to you guys :)
Good point, thanks :)
I'll be doing this in about 4 years :) and true once I'm overseas I won't have much
need for ozbargain while in SE Asia
Makes cents :-)
Google expat forums
I know or know of a small number of people. One in the Philippines who thinks it is great. One in Vietnam who concluded it wasn't as good as they hoped - there is a substantial difference between visiting and living. A third in Thailand. He reports mixed results too.
All three have remained abroad. I think the prospect of living in Oz on pension level money versus the much better buying power in Asia with the same amount tips the scales.
The other thing I will note is the PH guy can afford to travel back to oz twice a year, which I think helps keep him happy.
I know of a friend's former landlord in UK who, during the colder months each year, will live in Langkawi Island, Malaysia. It seems the savings from heating and the higher living costs in UK, will pay for the airfares and rent each year. Not sure if it works out to be about the same, or whether he saves money by doing this. But at least he can avoid the cold. Perhaps the same is true for someone here.
Here's a link to the Malaysian "MM2H" program, it may help.
http://www.mm2h.gov.my/index.php/en/
Unfortunately, I don't know anyone who has partaken of this or any of the other "long stay programs"
Not to mention its (Langkawi)duty free shopping 7 days a week.
The ones who are living comfortably are the ones I believe who also have decent savings, that combined with the pension allows them to live in luxury.
When I found this out years ago, I was very surprised, its an economic leak.
So are buying imported goods and taking holidays overseas.
yes it is, but we're talking an accountable dollar value, Govt money.
If I were the one's overseas I'd keep my mouth shut before the Government clamp down on it.
The point Greenpossum made down below, is probably a big reason they haven't clamped down on it.
Then again if the AUD say drops to to say 0.70USD and those poorer countries drop the same, that's over 25% reduction in their pension value.
I'd say they've already experienced over 20% reduction from when they AUD was $1.10
Remember it's very hard to "clamp down" on non-pension income. Super retirement income can be easily received overseas. Pension is means tested so the people who get it aren't going to be the rich who take lots of money out of the country.
And these amounts are probably paled by corporate transfers. Asking multinationals why they aren't paying more tax in Australia is more relevant I think.
I think the Government did tried to clamp down on paying pension to people living overseas. An Aussie pensioner living in Vietnam took the Government to the High Court and won. He basically said he can't afford to live in Australia and that he would be homeless.
Could be looked at as "overseas aid" from Australia.
And could be looked at as reducing the cost to Australia for potential high usage patients.
It's part of globalisation and has been going on for years.
Have to beware future govts may introduce tier classification of pensioners. i.e. those retiring outside receive less entitlements than those retiring inside Australia.
I think the thin edge of the wedge has already started and expats have no collective voice/representation but MUST vote.
And could be looked at as reducing the cost to Australia for potential high usage patients.
Yes, it's not as simple as money goes out of the country. I read sometime back how a typical UK health care patient consumes more than half of his/her medical costs in the last 6 months of life. It's probably similar in all first world economies. (End of life is messy, ugly and nobody wants to talk about it in modern life.) So who knows maybe it actually saves Australia money if retirees kick the bucket overseas because the health care doesn't have to be planned for and provided here.
That is, if the money aspect is what @baghern is worried about. There are other dimensions such as freedom of movement.
..but I'd still want to be buried under Australian soil (or returned in an urn might be the ozbargain way).
That'll probably be the cheapest part of the last 6 months.
The UK already do this to Pensioners. If you leave UK to live in Oz, NZ, Canada etc then your pension is frozen at the rate it was when you leave, no indexation so you just get poorer and poorer over time. Australia used to make up the difference but they don't do it anymore (fair enough). Many British expats end up returning to get their pensions indexed.
The aged pension works great overseas as your purchasing power is magnified substantially in Asia. You don't even have to return to Australia provided you have lived in Australia for over 25 years. They plan to change it to 35 years soon, but most people would be under the category of having lived in Australia for a long time. This is in order to receive the full aged pension.
Beautiful idea, save at least $200K+ over your entire working life on top of super, then combine both with the age pension and move out of this overpriced hole to Europe or Asia. Brothels are dirt cheap, food is dirt cheap, drugs are dirt cheap. WIN WIN!
this is pretty much it
forget the pension, its not worth it now, nor will it be in 25 yrs
you need to have significant assets here if you want to live overseas
there's plenty of cases of people who own property and business portfolios here who spend their time in east asia living it up
australia is honestly a hole in the wall compared to the wide world
it does help though if you can speak the language and have some contacts in your host country
Do you even know how much the pension is?
Its actually decent, thanks to Howard vote buying.
The problem is when its in the media they focus on those people who are already down and out, ie don't own their own home, want to live where they grew up.
If SE Asia living was as viable as people claim it is, this would of been a problem long ago.
People call gen Y the entitlement generation, I say thats better suited to the baby boomers.
Yes some are suffering, the majority are not. If you are living on the entire pension something seriously was wrong or you were already at the bottom of the income table.
Don't forget to take your bagful of $100 notes ; )
ELDERLY Australians committing welfare fraud on a massive scale are behind the extraordinarily high number of $100 notes in circulation, a former senior Reserve Bank official says.
Yesterday the Herald revealed there are now 10 $100 notes in circulation for each Australian, far more than the more commonly seen $20 notes.
One popular explanation is that they are used for illegal transactions as part of the cash economy, something the former Reserve official, Peter Mair, rejects as a "furphy".
In a letter to the Reserve Bank governor, Glenn Stevens, dated July 4, Mr Mair laid the blame squarely on elderly people wanting to get the pension and hiding their income in cash to ensure they qualified for the means-tested benefit.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-grey-economy-how-retirees…
Uh oh, I carry quite a lot of $100 notes around, mainly because I'm having quite a streak at the casino (nyuk nyuk nyuk, hope I didn't jinx myself @_@ )
Likewise. Makes taking the max $10,000 cash out of the country difficult. That's 100 grey nurses, quite a stack. Thousand dollar notes would be more convenient or even 500s at least. Perhaps we'll just have to wait till they start printing more money US style.
Why would anyone risk carrying $100 notes overseas? Just access your pension through an ATM in Ho Chi Minh City, Colombo, Manila, Goa, Kuta or wherever else you find yourself. Much safer!
You might want to semi retire to various SEA countries, starting with 1 to 6 months at a time over several years. This will gradually reduce your annual living expenses until your ready to "relocate" permanently.
Then perhaps having 2 destinations, a summer and a winter location with a short visit back "home to Oz" inbetween.
ie Chang Mai for summer, Phuket for winter.
From my understanding, there is a total of $2,500 of printed/coined currency for each man, woman & child in Australia if it was evenly divided up between everyone.
Yes it is possible to live overseas but you need to be selective about where you live. Aussie dollar goes a very long way in Vietnam, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Philippines, Indonesia, etc. A friend of mine lives six months a year in Vietnam and lives very comfortably on just $800 per MONTH! My father-in law lives 6 months a year in South Africa and he lives well on $1200 to $1500 per MONTH. To get the full pension you need to have lived in Australia for 35 years or longer (otherwise you will get pro rata). You will lose a couple of the pension supplements which are paid to pensioners in Australia if you live overseas - this will diminish you total benefit by something like 10 percent. If you do opt to live overseas be very mindful of the possibility that you may need expensive medical treatment at some point so try to secure proper travel insurance cover for medical expenses. Hope this is helpful……
Medical treatment in SEA is advanced and cheap, despite the horror stories on TV.
Recently a patient had his good kidney removed leaving the defective kidney intact - this took place in Australia last month.
NIB Health insurance will cover botched overseas cosmetic holiday treatments knowing how few occur, and will cover other OS treatment if required urgently as it costs them less too. Win win.
SEA countries have been developing international medical industries with American (and Australian) trained doctors like Australia has developed mining.
@ S54 - I've never seen $10k in cash, but not having $1000 notes is absurd. Carrying 10 notes would be safer than 100 notes.
@ S54 - I've never seen $10k in cash, but not having $1000 notes is absurd. Carrying 10 notes would be safer than 100 notes.
That's what the crooks say too
Point taken. Hundreds/ thousands of $20/$50 notes is a PITA for drug dealers.
I saw what Sammi did there. :)
They probably wouldn't frequent these forums. For a while out of curiosity I got newsletters from International Living but it was mostly targeted towards USAns so I unsubscribed. Now and then you hear about Aussies and other expats living in SEA. I suppose there must be forums they go to so why not look for those.