How Should We Prepare?

[BluesDude]

We have a little less than two years to go until we retire. I met my wife thirty years ago when I was stationed at Cuba Point. I lived off base in Barretto for five years. We've been back to the Philippines several times over the years and feel more at home there than here in the states. We're going to move back after I retire and would appreciate your input.

1. If you had two years to plan, what would you do?

2. What purchases would you make?

3. Would you sell everything, send a bunch of Balikbayan boxes, or ship a container?

4. What other input do you have for us or other folks getting close to making the move?

Thank you in advance. This forum is great.

[Old55]

You have visited several times the past 30 years. I would suggest spending several months the area you plan to move to before selling off everything in the States.

[stevewool]

Save hard from now till you retire, then go over for a long visit, find the area where you think you would like to be, rent a house for a while and if you still like it there then make the move,

[intrepid]

Save hard from now till you retire, then go over for a long visit, find the area where you think you would like to be, rent a house for a while and if you still like it there then make the move,

I agree with Steve.

To help answer your questions, its hard to tell what another person should purchase.  But I would advise to only purchase your necessary items that you cannot find where you plan to live.  And to know this you will have to stay there for a while.  As far as container or BB boxes, we are going the BB route.  Our larger items are now now getting older and we decided a few years ago not to buy any new here.  We plan to buy the larger items for the house in the Philippines using our savings for the items instead of container shipping.  For us the decision comes down to, "if it doesn't fit in a BB box", it is sold, given away, or trashed.  You just need to give it a lot of thought and planning.

[Thomas]

2. What purchases would you make?

Don't purchase. SELL   :lol:

If you don't have furniture you like so much so you find it worth VERY MUCH to send a (half) container, then just keep computers, some memory things, and some SMALL things.  = The things, which are economical worth to bring, plus what's hard to find in Phils. So perhaps some good quality hand tools, if you believe you will need any.  Depending of what size you have on clothes, you can need to bring a bunch.

(The bigest things I plan to bring are a music keyboard and a foldable canoe.  The canoe is just 20 kg and take only the space of 1/3 bb box.  I believe I will have around size of 5 bb boxes to move, but some are in no hurry, so I will bring them later as the free lagguage, when I will go to visit my home country. So totaly besides flight tickets will my transport costs be around 800 USD instead of 15 000 USD. Some of that saving will be lost by I will need to buy things AGAIN, which I had but skipped because they cost to much to transport.)

1. If you had two years to plan, what would you do?

I suppouse you have thoughts where you can like to live.

A big question is close or far away from family in law  :lol:

 

Check what health care insurance(-s) you need.

(I will have PhilHealth, which cost litle, but cover rather litle too. So I suppouse I will want to have some more, which cover high amounts, but don't have so high fees, because I have high self risk. I don't know which company yet.)

[i am bob]

Anything electric and only 110v, I'd leave behind. Small alliances aren't expensive and often you can find really good deals if it's something you don't need right away. Furniture made of press board is better left behind as well because of mild growth. Locally manufactured solid wood and bamboo furniture is very inexpensive! A nice set of dishes, tableware, cotton or linen sheets, the stuff we take for granted are more difficult to find good quality of... Computers? I recommend bringing laptops and tablets as they are expensive here... Desktop machines aren't with the effort IMHO... I used to think televisions were good to bring but lately I've been noticing even they have come down in price.

Though I don't have a membership and have yet to be in one, S&R is suppose to be a good place to get all the things you wish you brought but didn't... It's basically a Costco/Price Club and even carries some Kirkland products... And all the major malls have stores where you can get the same. It's more a matter of do you want to pay to ship something or would you rather get new for your new life?

[scott h]

1. If you had two years to plan, what would you do? 2. What purchases would you make? 3. Would you sell everything, send a bunch of Balikbayan boxes, or ship a container? 4. What other input do you have for us or other folks getting close to making the move? Thank you in advance. This forum is great.

 

Our situation was much like yours, long married and had visited many times over the years. This is what we did:

 

Decided to live where wife grew up, lots of friends, relatives and school mates for her to chin wag with-being older didn't have to worry so much about money requests from relatives.

 

We started saving well before 2 years, but as was mentioned we saved hard, sold our house, had a good nest egg  built up.

 

Since we are retired military, uncle sam paid for much of our move we shipped a full container. Bought and shipped the things that are either to expensive or not easily available (mattresses, tvs stuff like that.).

 

Like Bob said, things are 220v here but we did bring most of our electronics. It just takes the extra investment of buying a converter, which we did, and after over two years all of our 110v stuff is still working fine.

 

welcome and good luck :cheersty:

 

Oh,,,and asked questions on this forum until the guys were sick of me. But all the answers helped

Edited March 26, 2015 by scott h

[BluesDude]

All good advice. I think we're on track for the most part. We've been saving each month for twenty years now. On top of our savings, I'll get a fairly good monthly pension. I'm retiring at 57 years old so I'll nave to wait five years to receive social security. Six years later my wife will get her social security so that should help us to keep up with inflation. We'll keep our Blue Cross, Blue Shield healthcare partially because of advice we received here.

 

We own a small 750 sqm lot on a beach in Zambales but aren't sure if we want to build there so I think we'll wait a year before building. You guys here have confirmed waiting is probably the right thing to do.

 

We've been doing as Intrepid suggests and if it doesn't fit in a BB box we don't buy it. I think we'll just send BB boxes.

 

I've got a partial list of items like the ones "Bob" listed above. I'll continue reading the posts here and keep adding to it. If you think of anything you wish you had brought please list them here so we can learn from you.  

 

This is by far the best forum I've found and you guys give great advice. I'd suggest anyone considering moving to the Philippines to read the information here first. Thank you for sharing your experience with us wannabee's.  

[Tukaram (Tim)]

The people I know here who shipped the most stuff over were married couples.  Those of us that came over here single (then got married) shipped a lot less.  So your situation is not necessarily my situation.

 

I gave most of my stuff to my grown kids.  Sold a lot of my tools to work mates.  Gave tons of stuff away.  I sent 11 BB boxes of mostly DVD's, and my kitchen (plus a bit of magic tricks... a mans got have a hobby).  I did not bring my De Walt cordless drill & sawzall, and really wish I did.  Probably should have sent my gas powered chainsaw as well... too late now.

 

I would not worry about appliances or TV's.  They are cheap enough here - and 220 volts.   My BB shipper said I should have shipped 3 or 4 32" TV's to sell when I got over here and pay my shipping cost with the profit... sounded too much like work to me.  And i don't want to work.

 

 

For me, as an example, when I got here we had to buy everything except pans & dishes (I shipped my Chantal cookware, Sabatier knives, and Williams-Sonoma porcelain dishes).  I mean pretty much everything... rice cooker to refrigerator, couch, TV, kitchen table, bed, dressers, washing machine.... everything.  We spent right at $1,000 (USD) to set up an entire house.  How much is shipping?  But if you or your wife are particularly attached to something... ship it.  I would rather have it and not need it than get rid of it and miss it forever 

 

Main thing is sock away as much money as you can.  living is cheap here - but never as cheap as you think ha ha.       :tiphat:

[i am bob]

I was talking to a couple other expats and we all agreed on the one thing we wish we had brought... Heirloom vegetable seeds! Some things here you don't be happy with or it just isn't available... But if you have a few pots, you can always grow it!!!