boyee

Hi, Can anyone recommend a real-estate agent for Lipa area and for Tagaytay? If so please provide email or phone number. Thanks

Any one know a good company in Lipa City to get a van and driver for three days?

Hi, I'm taking my family to Iloilo and Bacolod in April 2018. I am looking for a Driver with car to take us around for those 4 days. Can anyone recommend a service or do you have any family members who want to make a few bucks? Someone you like and trust. ha ha

Hi, I am planning a trip this spring to the PI. Just bought my flight there with Pal and will be flying from island to island. Which airlines are good for local flights and how do I find low prices? Websites like travelocity seem pricy to me. Thanks Bo

has anyone actually lived on Palawan who can give feedback?

Palawan? Are you teasing me! Didn't know that was even an option. Ya might have to check that out.

Hi, I am taking my family on a trip to Iloilo, Bacolod, and Palawan first week in April. Can anyone recommend a place to stay? Not too expensive but not too cheap either. Maybe $50 to $75 per night USD range. Thanks. Bo

Everyone has their own strategy and if it works for you, life is good and you sleep at night then you are better than most in my book. why change. In a previous life I was a financial planer, well...Okay I sold life insurance. don't judge. The standard advice in retirement planning has always been you don't want to outlive your money. "Do you want a lower or higher standard of living when you stop working?" No one ever says lower so the advice is always to stock pile an enormous amount of money. If you make $100,000 per year then you will need at least that x 30 to enjoy the golden years right. I say forget mainstream financial commission motivated tactics. wall-street fiduciaries have sold us a dream, one that enslaves our soul during my hour long commute to a job I don't like so I can buy crap I don't need to impress people I don't know. There is a paradigm shift on the horizon, I think many of the folks on this forum are leading the way.

I live in the US still and have asking my wife to teach me Tagalog. But she is from Manila and only speaks Taglish. So every time I ask how to say this or that she doesn't know. She says "we just say that word in English". So maybe a better question is do you learn the Tagalog Mama and Papa speak or Taglish?

You guys are making me hungry. Hey why is food so much better in the Pi than in the US? Is it the quality of the cook or was the cow just slaughtered that morning? All the times I have been to a wet market the meat just tasted better. And not just Filipino food, Best ham burger I've ever had was in Pasig.

Wow, those numbers for SF are pretty accurate. The comparison city Dumaguete. Is that a typical city in terms of costs?

HI Tim, thanks for the reply and help. My mom is a Texan. I happen to live in the most expensive city in the Country. My coworker was looking for a starter house and every weekend was out bid by at least 20 people. Nothing stays on the market past the first open house weekend. He finally found a fixer upper for just over one million. Yes wages are higher here but what a rat race. Hence our reason for frugal living. I love my country but consumerism and lifestyle inflation makes me want to vomit. Get me outta here! Anyway I have no idea how far 2k to 3k a month can go in pi.

I was thinking $100,000 for the land and $300,000 for the house. 3,500 sf house

Mike J and Old55. Thank you for asking specifics. I like the 4% rule because your nest egg never decreases. Although it requires a larger nest to start with. Although we are very frugal now during our investment phase. We hope to make up for that in our no work phase. The pic is old so daughter will be done with school. My wife is Native born so she will get duel citizenship for land purchase. We would like to live in the province on 1-2 hectares. Large house with ya-ya. Others have suggested to rent first just in case it does not work out although it seems to me paying cash for property makes more sense long term. I'd imagine our largest expense would be air con and ya-ya fees. We would travel in ph often but would look for lowest rates of course. We'd have a van and driver unless I am brave enough to drive my self. No need to support wifey family, they are mostly middle class in Manila. Although they are so cool I'm trying to convince all of them to build a house on the property. I'm closer to them than I am to my own extended fam. Other than a somewhat expensive home with live in help and occasional traveling we wouldn't spend much on fancy restaurants or shopping. Obviously more than $1200 per month but maybe less than $3000 USD? Hope that helps.

Hi, I am a member of the F.I.R.E. community in the States. For those that are unfamiliar this group is mostly made up of a husband and wife team who are sick of the rat race career latter and consumerism lifestyle. We follow blogs like "mr. money mustache" who teach us about frugality. In a nutshell, we tend to be younger (30's and 40's), educated, live in cities and have middle income careers. We live on less than 50% of our income so we can invest the rest . Usual in tax deferred buckets with low cost index funds. The goal is to save enough money to reach our Financial Independent number or FIN. Usually based on the 4% rule. That is to have enough money in the bank and live off of 4% withdrawal rate. Or simply figure out how much you need per year and multiply that number by 25. Same thing. Once we reach our FIN, quit job and enjoy life. The idea is since we are used to a frugal lifestyle during our working years we stay frugal during our early retirement years. This brings me to this forum. I figured my FIN can be smaller if we retire outside the US. It seems to me many folks here are living off a fixed pension. I wonder if anyone here is living off their savings instead and utilize the 4% rule? Maybe they can shed some light as to what a good FIN should look like in the PI? Bo