Silk,

If we choose to leave our homeland and retire in paradise - regardless of where paradise is - we are at a disadvantage. Most of us have no family where we're moving to [unless we marry there] don't read, write or speak the language and don't truly know the lay of the land like back home. The time to think about these issues is before we make the move to paradise. Even if you DO have a ton of money you're still a target - and then for your money as well. No one robs a poor person - well, except for another poor person, but expect no help. If you have a family in Thailand you're ahead of the game but in the end you're still going to lose.

I guess there's always an advantage of having a condo on a top floor - or access to the roof. Or perhaps you know someone with a top floor condo that you can use as a launching pad. Still, no one forces us to retire in paradise and usually paradise isn't paradise but some illusion we created in our minds and then sold to ourselves. That said we had better plan ahead and with a bit of work you can have in place medical/hospitalization insurance to cover any catastrophic illness or injury and then hope like heck you stay healthy. Or we can stay home in our home country under the illusion we're going to be cared for in our old age. Probably just that - an illusion. I can't speak for he socialized medicine practiced in Great Britain, Australia and Canada but I do know there can be a LONG wait for care and the care is NOT the best - rather the best you're going to get. But IF you're wealthy you're far better off. Poverty sucks

Serendipity2