I Might Move to Thailand

My first blog here in over a calendar year, just trying to fill the time with something constructive and thought since I have this blog URL still under my ownership, why not dust it off and take out of the upper hangers of my closet.

One thing that's been on my mind lately - within just about the last week, to be precise - is short videos on Twitter/X of relatively young men (late 20's, early 30's) detailing their experience of moving to Thailand. I've added some examples below. But, essentially the sentiment echoed by these fellas hits on just about every negative issue surrounding my life right now; I'm basically broke, have little to no savings, and every penny I earn from working goes to the already high costs of my (extremely basic) American life.

If you want to make solid or even good money in America, you have to work well beyond the scope of maintaining the desired social and/or propped-up colloquialism we like to refer to as "work-life balance". Making millions of dollars is not my goal, hasn't really ever been my goal, nor will it be in the future. As of right now, I have no aspirations of owning a home, having children, or involving in the formality known as marriage with a partner that I love, in part because none of those activities sound particularly appealing to me as a justification to sacrifice my free time and responsibilities, but also because the financial requirement to do any of the aforementioned (and to do them well) is so very far away from an arm's reach for me that human evolution nor any other intelligence will make this a more immediate reality for me in the next 40-50 years.

Aside from the financial constraints, the ability to live a "casual life" in present-day America seems close to impossible. Being able to work a job you love, being able to walk to a local market and buy healthy, fresh food, being able to see a doctor with the first consideration being my own wellbeing rather than how much whatever is said or done in a doctor's office will create long-lasting financial strain for me. And I'm generally very healthy, eat very well, but still in just the last month I visited a doctor to write my a prescription; before I got off the phone with the receptionist to make my intro appointment, even though I was certain that my health insurance covered the full cost of the visit, I just had to have her tell me in five different ways that I would not be responsible for any co-pay or other charge upon completion of my first visit. Like it shouldn't be that way. Of course other countries have a plethora of their own unique issues, but until I learn otherwise I'm willing to explore the risk/reward in finding out how those compare to my current life in America.

Alright now to the fellas in Thailand, having what looks like a beautiful experience so far:

My man didn't mince words. There are closer to a thousand than a hundred variables that could make a place like Thailand a much worse place to live than America, but the idea of at least finding out for my myself equals the disparity of attraction between Salma Hayek and the abuelita (God Bless her soul) that whips up Mexican food in the taco truck across the street from my apartment. Some of you that read this blog are in finance or sales, so to speak your language this is my game of LIFE version of cost-benefit analysis. In my mile-run-time of research I've done this afternoon, a sizable, fully-furnished one bedroom apartment in a major city in Thailand averages at $445/month. A little bit out of the metro areas, call it suburbs - $245/month.

I'm open to hearing anyone's claims on why ^that^ isn't worth at least exploring as an idea with the upside being a far better and more relaxing, stressless life. I'm weighing any and all options at this juncture in my life because at this point, the figurative of "there's only one way to go and that's up" is a mantra that I add to a marinade every day upon waking up and don't take out to cook until right before I go to bed at night.

Be well and god bless you for reading this