Transcript of the above video:

So the title of this video might not be readily apparent to those who are watching it. The reason I am making this video is, it's really kind of for the guys, they're mostly men but people between 50 and roughly 60 who end up retiring here in Thailand. There are a lot of folks that end up utilizing a Retirement Visa during this period before they actually really do retire and a lot of folks, they usually have a loved one here or they just love coming to Thailand and they just don't want to mess with visas anymore so they go ahead and get a Retirement Visa and they may work offshore, work in another country. A lot of oil and gas guys I see may do this, even folks that may be contractors or things overseas. You see a lot of folks getting Retirement Visas that may not necessarily live here full time; I am not talking to those folks between roughly 50 and 60. 

The folks I am really more or less talking to are especially the young retirees. Again I am not trying to tell anybody how to live their life or what is the best thing to do for you. Only you know what is best for you so let me leave that there. But, one phenomenon I have seen is what I call the "Pleasure Island" syndrome in Thailand by folks that retire here. What am I talking about? I've mentioned Dr. Jordan Peterson before. I watch him periodically on the internet. I especially like his older stuff. Frankly the newer stuff sort of made for YouTube, it's just not as compelling to me. What I really enjoy watching is his old lectures and things and there was one where he was talking about Pinocchio and he was talking about the archetypes, I think it's from one of his university lectures. I will go out and try to find that and throw a link to it in the description if I can find it. I remember him talking about it and I was watching this years ago but something stuck with me in there. He was talking about college and how college had unfortunately become sort of like "Pleasure Island" in Pinocchio and they were talking there about younger people are going in there, they are getting into debt and they're living in this kind of, I hesitate to use the term but something akin to a fantasy world, because it's fueled by debt; there's not any real immediate consequences; folks are out studying things that you can argue don't have a lot of utility in the wider world and it's a real problem, it leads to a real long-term problem. And the sort of allegory, the metaphor if you will of "Pleasure Island" was very, very compelling to me and as he said it front loaded a lot of benefits but then if you watch for example Disney's Pinocchio, the animated version is arguably an animated masterpiece. I don't think it's arguable, it is an animated master piece but the Pleasure Island, see I remember being a kid watching that and it had a real major impact upon me. That notion that the boys show up and it's "Pleasure Island". There‘s the rough house where you can go get in the fight if you want to, and they are throwing out cigars and there's the pub and you can go in and have a beer and shoot pool and this and that but then they all turn into jackasses, they all turn into donkeys and they are all put to work. Part of that metaphor is about how if you pull forward gratification if you will, if you pull forward benefits without putting in the time to sort of have a foundation to garner those benefits, you can end up in a really bad spot. I've seen this happen multiple times actually out here in Thailand regarding retirees and what I call Young Retirees, folks that turn 50 and kind of live a retiree lifestyle but it's very unfortunate because oftentimes their resources will run out and there's nothing sadder, I've seen really close friends this happened to, where they get to like 57, 58 and now their resources, they didn't sort of factor in and it's not their fault in any sense of fault in that it's hard to predict the world. It's very hard to predict things like inflation, how that's going to go, how that's going to impact your life. Then the other thing is and I think something a lot of folks don't think of is, if they don't have a significant other in the interim, are they going to end up with a significant other and what are the costs associated with that.

Point being and again I am not trying to sound preachy, I am really not trying to tell anybody how to live, there's nothing wrong with retiring at 50, I see nothing wrong with that at all. What worries me is I think a lot of folks go into it especially folks that haven't spent a ton of time living in Thailand, they go into it presuming that the road is clear ahead and they are just going to kind of coast out into their golden years and into the twilight of their lives without a lot of problem and the fact is living costs money over time and failure to sort of take that into account and more importantly failure to sort of think ahead as to where one is going to be with regard to their financial situation over the course as the years go on and the years turn into decades, this can turn into a real problem. 

So again I am not trying to be critical of anybody but I would urge those, especially young retirees to really sit down, think out your budgeting, think out your finances; ascertain whether or not you have the resources to take you all the way in to basically the end of your life because there is nothing I have ever seen out here quite as sad, well there are other things I have seen that are sad, but it's pretty darn sad to see folks who are just trying to make their way and just want to have a pleasant life be put in a situation where they have to go back into a job market, oftentimes deal with reverse culture shock on top of all of that of going back to either their home country or another country that is very dissimilar for example from Thailand, and have to sort of re-assimilate and make some more money before going into real full retirement. It's something to seriously consider for any retiree looking to come to Thailand.