What are my options for visas after my Tourist TR Visa expires in Thailand?

non o - retired - 800k thb on bank and thats it

How long did processing of your application take ? I'm a u.s. citizen too, and have been waiting almost 2 weeks already with my application still saying "processing"

ED visas are hard to do reentry with since the system is being badly abused right now with scam schools. Just get a retirement visa, it makes reentry easy.

Let's start with the first thing, your current visa. A multi-entry tourist visa is good for 6 months from the day it is issued, as you've seen. Every time you enter Thailand before the visa expires, you will be stamped in for 60 days. You can then get a 30 day extension from your local immigration office.

If you time things correctly, you can get almost 9 months out of this single visa.

Enter the first time and do 60+30, do a border bounce by land or air and re-enter Thailand and get 60+30, just before the expiration date of your visa do a final border bounce for another 60+30.

You may not need all of this time, but you paid your $200 for your multi-entry visa, so why not use it? Also the visa you have is really good for if you want to visit a lot of places around Thailand but use it as your home base. Go for a week/weekend to Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, etc.

You may run into trouble trying to open a bank account on a tourist visa, but as you know this is the first step in making the transition to a retirement visa.

You'll need to get 800,000 baht in a Thai bank account in your name only. And if you plan to do the conversion from tourist visa to Non-O visa inside the country, you'll also need to be able to show that this money was transferred into Thailand from overseas. This specific requirement is only needed for the initial conversion to the 90 day non-O visa and is not required for subsequent 1 year extensions. You only need to show the money for the extensions, not where it came from.

After your tourist visa runs our you can look at other options like ED, but here's no reason to do any of that if you already have the money in place for the retirement non-O which is the biggest item. It has also become a little difficult to get an Education visa if you are over 50 sometimes.