[OnlyLiveOnce]

Brother Retirebatam,

Thanks for your most interesting and detailed insights/analyses about retiring in Batam and JB, very useful for consideration of fellow members who have such inclinations.

I would like to add some of my personal views:-
Batam (Indonesia) , JB (Malaysia) , Bangkok (Thailand), Manila (Philippines), HCM (Vietnam) and other ASEAN countries including China are all nice places too chiong and enjoy.
Retiring in these places is very much a personal consideration based on one's inclination, health and wealth. Batam and JB have advantage of proximity that is very important when you need to be back home for any emergencies. However, you may need to consider properly on the tenure and rentability of any properties you are interested to purchase and other factors such as vagaries of local laws that often discriminate non-citizen, political stability, religious sensitivity, medical facilities, cost of living and social security, among others. You may also need to re-evaluate your links and obligations to our country before leaving with regards to family, relatives, assets before making a jump.

As for myself, I have happily retired here with sufficient fund to move around all the nearby exotic and interesting places for enjoyment and fun. Remember, 'to each his own' and 'one person's meat is another's poison' .
Cheers and enjoy.