Poor helping poor

Thanks a million for your reply and offer of assistance, your are awesome. You are the kind of expat that I hoped everyone was. God bless you and keep you healthy and happy.

Fooyuhcheng wrote:

It is possible to survive with 500 usd per month on a single expats .......

It's possible even below and in HCMC.
I love my drink also going out ...., just not every day and I stay for some reason local. 2km away I consider already far.
Most month I spend around 8 million VND, sometimes even a lot less, no family attached, but 2 dogs, which are good eaters (almost only meat).
The costs of living are very different, same as the needs. I really don't need a beer in D1, where I don't feel comfortable and have a long way to. Same as for decent meal (not western).
Living cheap? not really. I also go out, just don't like all the hustling for money in most expensive areas.
I am not a tourist, neither I have the urge to brag and show off.
But I like that bit of extra attention from places, where I am more frequently a customer.
If I want to safe money, I possible even cut down another 2 million a month and maybe even 3

I benefited from your comment.  Thanks...added it to my notes.  I don't think medicare is dependent upon soc security.  For example, some people are not yet eligible for soc sec at age 65 when they become eligible for medicare.    In that case, they can just pay  the medicare monthly fee rather than having it deducted from Soc Sec payments.

"Some Medicare Advantage (private Medicare) plans may provide coverage benefits for health care needs when enrollees travel outside the United States. (Check with your plan before traveling.) ...

Retirees who are moving to a foreign country cannot use Medicare to pay for health care while they are living overseas.Oct 12, 2015"

i love that idea!

Just brainstorming here:

I love your idea.   If nothing like that exists, maybe you could give it a nudge.   It'd be great if AirB&B would allow a non profit to use their software.  It works perfectly for planning travel. 

In Jamaica, long ago, I stayed in a private home.  They were happy to have me.  Although I think it was just a one-of for them, it was easy to arrange.

I googled NGOs operating in Viet Nam.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_n … in_Vietnam  It's possible one of these might take an interest.   

"Home stays" are often associated with language schools or language programs.  Maybe that could be a lead.

https://www.homestay.com/vietnam

SERVAS is a global org that's has been arranging homestays since the 1940s, however it is strictly no payment.

I'm a 65 year old American physical therapist who has lived and worked as a volunteer in Da Nang with my American husband for the past 12 years.  I can address two issues for you.  The first is that official attitudes towards allowing foreigners and Vietnamese to reside in the same residence varies considerably, depending upon where you are in Vietnam.  My understanding is that Da Nang, for example, is far less permissive in this regard than either Saigon or Hanoi.
My true area of expertise, however, is in health care as I worked in American hospitals for thirty years and have now been on both the providing and receiving end of health care in Vietnam.  HEALTH INSURANCE IS NOT SYNONYMOUS WITH HEALTH CARE!   My husband and I have both had surgery in Vietnam.  The cost was in the hundreds of dollars, not thousands.  The cost of my husband's cardiac meds here was the same as the DEDUCTIBLE for the same meds in America.  I am currently recovering from a nasty case of Dengue fever.  The Traditional Medicine Hospital of Da Nang sent out a lab tech to my home twice a day to do a blood draw to monitor my platelet count for a week.  They charged me nothing, as I established their neuro-rehab unit for them, but the point is that no hospital that I ever worked for in America ever offered to do ANYTHING free for me, let alone provide care for me in my home.  Health insurance is currently being heavily promoted in Vietnam and it shows every indication of becoming the same scam that it is in America.  Dropping all of our insurance coverage and auto expenses has allowed us to live quite comfortably in Vietnam on our meager Social Security retirement.

No

(My answer to the OP)

OceanBeach92107 wrote:

No

(My answer to the OP)

Correction: No to your first question. Yes to your second question.