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Hi all. Canadian, male, 63, living in Toronto/Oakville Ontario.

Until early this year I was expecting to work till I was 70 to build up my savings and pensions in order to live a comfortable life with my wife (Thai, from Bangkok, but family from Chiang Mai) here in Canada ... then she passed away suddenly in March. Now I have a new reality to deal with.

Since I now only have to look after myself (my step Daughter, also Thai born and raised, is grown and living/working in Japan and I have put some effort into making sure I have investments that should give her a head start on her retirement years.)

One of the first places we were going to visit when I retired was Chiang Mai, and when I was able to start considering what I wanted to do with my life after losing my wife, I decided I wanted to look into moving to a country were retirement was inexpensive, fun, and interesting ... Chiang Mai came up in all of the searches and suggestions, so given my 'connection' to the city I have decided this will be my first choice for a retirement 'base of operations' (hopefully I can do a few trips every year and do some exploring around South East Asia.)

So I've started doing my research on what it will take, and it looks like instead of waiting till I'm 70 in order to modestly afford to support two people living in Canada, I can probably more easily retire at 65 and support myself in Thailand .. so I figured, why wait till 70?

Anyway, I'm heading over to Chiang Mai this December to have a look around, maybe make some new friends so I can retire to the city with some confidence and support ... so hopefully I'll see some expats over there when I come (please introduce yourself .. especially any Canadians who are retired and getting the CPP and OAS, so I can 'grill' you on what to expect ;-)