Seeking Knowledge

[jcasebee]

I have been looking over the posts on this forum and it seems like there are quite few people on here that are willing to share their experiences.First, I'm going to explain my situation then I will ask a few questions for you to all bat around.My wife and I (+3 kids under 12) are American citizens and are thinking about moving to the Philippines. I will be going onto a fixed income and we are hoping to maintain a "reasonable" lifestyle, give our kids a little broader world-view, and enjoy life to the fullest. The only info I have is from my father-in-law who lived in Cebu for a couple years before moving back to the States (and marrying his beautiful Filipina wife).I will need occasional access to the VA Hospital in Manila (2 or 3 times a year), but my wife and I would like to find a "small-town" atmosphere with a 3-4 bedroom house/condo/apt. My F-I-L said 3-4 bedroom houses in a gated community could be found for $600-800 American$/ month. We are planning on bringing the entire family out in July to spend a few weeks exploring before we make a decision.Definition:Decent - Reasonable access (5 minute walk) to safe water/food. Kids can play outside without fear of kidnapping/abuse. Air Conditioning/Plumbing is available. Access to public transportation.Questions:#1 What are average prices for 3-4 bedroom residences in "decent" areas? (If that is too vague feel free to give me too much information)#2 What are the safest regions/towns when it comes to Tsunami/Hurricane/Volcanoes?#3 Are there any regions that you specifically suggest avoiding?#4 What should I expect as far as monthly expenses, such as food, water, fees, etc? (I'm following another thread on Visas, so no need to include that info here)#5 What did I not ask, that I should have?Thank you for your assistance! As the time gets closer for our trip, I'm sure I will ask about specific areas to visit.jc

[Gold Heart]

I have been looking over the posts on this forum and it seems like there are quite few people on here that are willing to share their experiences.First, I'm going to explain my situation then I will ask a few questions for you to all bat around.My wife and I (+3 kids under 12) are American citizens and are thinking about moving to the Philippines. I will be going onto a fixed income and we are hoping to maintain a "reasonable" lifestyle, give our kids a little broader world-view, and enjoy life to the fullest. The only info I have is from my father-in-law who lived in Cebu for a couple years before moving back to the States (and marrying his beautiful Filipina wife).I will need occasional access to the VA Hospital in Manila (2 or 3 times a year), but my wife and I would like to find a "small-town" atmosphere with a 3-4 bedroom house/condo/apt. My F-I-L said 3-4 bedroom houses in a gated community could be found for $600-800 American$/ month. We are planning on bringing the entire family out in July to spend a few weeks exploring before we make a decision.Definition:Decent - Reasonable access (5 minute walk) to safe water/food. Kids can play outside without fear of kidnapping/abuse. Air Conditioning/Plumbing is available. Access to public transportation.Questions:#1 What are average prices for 3-4 bedroom residences in "decent" areas? (If that is too vague feel free to give me too much information)#2 What are the safest regions/towns when it comes to Tsunami/Hurricane/Volcanoes?#3 Are there any regions that you specifically suggest avoiding?#4 What should I expect as far as monthly expenses, such as food, water, fees, etc? (I'm following another thread on Visas, so no need to include that info here)#5 What did I not ask, that I should have?Thank you for your assistance! As the time gets closer for our trip, I'm sure I will ask about specific areas to visit.jc

Speaking from my opinion and knowledge of Cebu:1. You can find housing in Cebu in safe guarded subdivisions in this price range.2. The Visayans and Mindanao are fairly safe from hurricanes.3. Manila - this is just my personal opinion -- some would say any large city but I find Cebu manageable.4. There is a thread on budgets that some members have posted their information. I recently posted my budget. A lot of this varies based on the house you select and your use of air con, water, and other services. I find the cost electricity to be the most significant negative surprise -- it is high.5. Given that you have decided or have a solution for your visa, a. What kind of a lifestyle are you looking to achieve. Many Expats choice to adopt a more primitive lifestyle, others may duplicate their US standard of living, finally some might chose to upscale given the low cost of help. Living in a remote area like living on a farm, or living in a city with stores, restaurants, entertainment, etc.b. The most major open question to me is what are you goals, objectives, plans for the education of the children. In my opinion, Public school is not an option. The best is an International school but they are quite expensive. Transition to new schools will be a challenge as local schools (other than international) are on a different calendar. c. What are your long term goals and plans - return to the US, have your children have the option of returning for college? This also influences the choice of schools for your children. Where you chose to live is influenced by all these additional concerns.

[TheMason]

I have been looking over the posts on this forum and it seems like there are quite few people on here that are willing to share their experiences.First, I'm going to explain my situation then I will ask a few questions for you to all bat around.My wife and I (+3 kids under 12) are American citizens and are thinking about moving to the Philippines. I will be going onto a fixed income and we are hoping to maintain a "reasonable" lifestyle, give our kids a little broader world-view, and enjoy life to the fullest. The only info I have is from my father-in-law who lived in Cebu for a couple years before moving back to the States (and marrying his beautiful Filipina wife).I will need occasional access to the VA Hospital in Manila (2 or 3 times a year), but my wife and I would like to find a "small-town" atmosphere with a 3-4 bedroom house/condo/apt. My F-I-L said 3-4 bedroom houses in a gated community could be found for $600-800 American$/ month. We are planning on bringing the entire family out in July to spend a few weeks exploring before we make a decision.Definition:Decent - Reasonable access (5 minute walk) to safe water/food. Kids can play outside without fear of kidnapping/abuse. Air Conditioning/Plumbing is available. Access to public transportation.Questions:#1 What are average prices for 3-4 bedroom residences in "decent" areas? (If that is too vague feel free to give me too much information)#2 What are the safest regions/towns when it comes to Tsunami/Hurricane/Volcanoes?#3 Are there any regions that you specifically suggest avoiding?#4 What should I expect as far as monthly expenses, such as food, water, fees, etc? (I'm following another thread on Visas, so no need to include that info here)#5 What did I not ask, that I should have?Thank you for your assistance! As the time gets closer for our trip, I'm sure I will ask about specific areas to visit.jc

Make sure you budget for a top-notch private school. Most schools (public or private) in the Philippines are below the standard of US public schools. You can find good ones here, but they aren't cheap. One of the posters on this forum sends his kids to Cebu International School. I forget his name and the exact price he quoted, but I believe tuition was over $500 per month per child. In my opinion, sending your kids to public school or an average private school will do them a disservice and put them at a disadvantage for the rest of their lives. If they wanted to go to college in the US they would likely need remedial classes in order to qualify. If they go to college in the Philippines, well, there are millions of college grads here that can't get hired at Jollibee's or McDonald's.Also, if your children are not at least half-Filipino with a basic understanding of Tagalog or Cebuano I would not recommend you bring them to the Philippines. White people in the Philippines are targets for all kind of abuse and discrimination. As an adult, its managable but I would not recommend putting a child through it. They are not likely to be able to handle it. When reading various forums about the Philippines, I've only come across one expat that chose to move here with his American born and raised kids. In his case, his daughter returned to the US after about 18 months here due to the sexual harassment and sexual abuse she was subjected to by her peers. His son was framed up for drug possession and it cost the family about 500k pesos ($10,000) to buy their way out of the mess. Personally, I think you'd be crazy to move here with school-aged kids.

[Mr Lee]

First of all, the Philippines is a great place for retirees on a low income budget to move to if they can tolerate living in a third world country. There are many places that a person could move to that would be somewhat safe but there are many other issues which need to be addressed with reference to your children and we would need more info in order to give answers directly to those.Let me start out by addressing that you said your father in law married a beautiful lady who was from Cebu. If you wife is from that marriage then she too has Filipino blood and I believe that you should contact the Philippine Embassy or local consulates if any and see what she could do to become a dual citizen. I am pretty sure this could be done by presenting her mothers papers and her birth certificate but I am not positive and if this could be done then it would make your move over much easier in many ways. Next white and black foreigners stand out the most and are often seen as cash cows so if the children are of mixed Filipino blood then they would not stand out as much. I know I am doing a lot of if's here but you have not given us enough info.If the children look totally white then a white girl may be seen as a prize in the eye of many Filipino children just as Filipina seem to be seen as special by many of us and for many reasons and I consider my wife to be something special who I was lucky enough to meet.I am happy to see that you will be making a recon trip over because if you have never been to the Philippines or any other third world country then you may be hit by severe culture shock but let me add that a vacation is not like living there and you might not want to burn your bridges should you decide a trial run. All the poverty tugs at my heart all the time and I have been going back forth for over 15 years now and live in Cebu part of the year.As to where you would want to be that would be safe, many of us end up where our wives are from or where they have family so each of us may have different opinions and I will just give you mine. I would not move to almost all of Mindanao even though they are less affected by the typhoons beyond a lot of rain. There is one city up at the top called Cagayan de Oro and it would be less expensive to live there when compared to places like Cebu or on Luzon but does not have all the things needed as an expat in my opinion yet I am sure they will have in time because it is growing and as it grows so do prices rise. I also believe it to be safe but I do not know about for your children.So next would be Cebu City which has many things that almost make an American feel at home but not everything and prices are still moderate. You can find a home in the price range you suggested and in a safe place but Cebu City is far from perfect and you would have to decide for yourself if you could live there.Makati is very nice and a lot like NYC if that is what you like but is also not perfect and there is also crime there as well. Next let me address some of your issues.A/C is rarely like it is back in the states and most rooms have separate units and it is rare to find a home with central air and besides that electricity is more expensive in most parts of the Philippines that in many parts of the US. We have a condo with approximately 850 square feet and it cost us about $150 a month with the A/C running 24/7 and we really do not need it to run all the time but I am prone to bronchitis which all the pollution seems to bring on if we do not run it at least while they are burning garbage in the homes below us and then we also need to keep the place closed up to keep out the noise of the dogs backing and the roosters crowing all night. As for water, it is always best to drink bottled water in my opinion yet the water seems to be safe but we buy bottled water delivered for just p50 per 5 gal type bottle and some people pay as low as p30 per bottle so it might just be safer to buy filtered water that way or install your own system to filter it because there does seem to be a lot of sediment in the water. Walking distance to most places and a gated community does not compute from what I have seen of Cebu, maybe someone else could chime in because I have not seen it all but the one place that might come close would be up behind the Country Mall in Banilad. We live in a condo and it is walking distance to most things but I do not think there are any gated communities in our area. Plumbing, most modern homes have plumbing sort of like in the states but water heaters are usually on demand heaters and not whole house heaters but the richer homes may have them but I suspect they would cost more than you want to pay.Transportation in Cebu is great, taxis are cheap at about $1.00 to $1.50 to go to most places if you are centrally located and then there are jeepneys (open air small buses) and real buses for long run travel but not within the city but I hear it may be coming soon.As for Typhoons so far as I know none have impacted Cebu that much but with the world changing anything is possible for the future and that could mean anywhere in the world.Now to just address something TheMason said. Robert is from a different forum and he appears to be a very negative person who lives a pretty high American lifestyle while in the Philippines. Let me also say that he seems to be a very nice person but may see things via rich eyes, so what am I saying by this, if a person lives rich then they stand out and his son may have also grown up spoiled and was driving an SUV if I remember correctly and I would not be 100% sure he was not in some way guilty of what he was being charged with, but again because he was white and his father is white then the cash cow issue probably came into play and the charges got bumped up when his father would not pay off the right people. The Philippines is quite corrupt and if I remember the issue correctly when Roberts wife who is a Filipina with connections got involved (she should have been the first one to get involved) things changed and the charges were eventually dropped but those kids were Roberts from a previous marriage so he may have felt the need to do it himself.So what does the above say, when in the Philippines do as Filipinos do or even less low key. Dress like they dress and do not wear any fancy jewelry and do not drive fancy cars and besides in my opinion it cost less to take a taxi and definitely less to take a jeepney than to drive most places anyway.Other issues were already brought up by others so I will just leave those to their expertise because my wife and I do not have children.I do not think you would be crazy to move if your wife is part Filipino but if everyone is 100% white or black then I think you really have to visit for a long time and think long and hard about moving to the Philippines because we are all seen as rich and I do not think that perception will change any time soon.

[jcasebee]

As it seems to be a pretty important topic - My family is about as "white" as can be. My Filipina Mother-In-Law is from a later marriage. I'm 6'2" and 275 lbs, and my wife is a fairskinned red-head.I have lived in third world countries, but never "on the economy". What we were hoping for is a safe, fun, inexpensive (in that order) place to spend the next eight to ten years. After that we would probably move back to the States so the kids could go to college (we plan on either paying for a private school - which we do now, or homeschooling - which we used to do). Thanks for all the great informations.

[Mr Lee]

As it seems to be a pretty important topic - My family is about as "white" as can be. My Filipina Mother-In-Law is from a later marriage. I'm 6'2" and 275 lbs, and my wife is a fairskinned red-head.I have lived in third world countries, but never "on the economy". What we were hoping for is a safe, fun, inexpensive (in that order) place to spend the next eight to ten years. After that we would probably move back to the States so the kids could go to college (we plan on either paying for a private school - which we do now, or homeschooling - which we used to do). Thanks for all the great informations.

Please do not be discourage by what members are telling you here, use this as a learning tool because we tend to tell it like it is and not sugar coat it. On many forums I have seen some people only tell the good side of the Philippines and make it out to be paradise and while it is to some, it may not be to others. There happens to be quite a few missionary white women in the Philippines and I have seen quite a few white children with their parents in the malls but while it may be a common sight in the malls, white children do not seem to be that common in other places, so if you take the necessary precautions and educate your children what they may encounter then my guess is that since you have been to third world countries then you could manage. As I said before the example TheMason gave is without all the facts but enough for you to use caution.As for college back home, why? It cost so much less in the Philippines when compared to the states that would probably be the time when you can save the most money and make the whole life even more worth while. JMHO. Keep reading the forum and you will then come across other questions you need answers to. Hang in there.

[Gold Heart]

As it seems to be a pretty important topic - My family is about as "white" as can be. My Filipina Mother-In-Law is from a later marriage. I'm 6'2" and 275 lbs, and my wife is a fairskinned red-head.I have lived in third world countries, but never "on the economy". What we were hoping for is a safe, fun, inexpensive (in that order) place to spend the next eight to ten years. After that we would probably move back to the States so the kids could go to college (we plan on either paying for a private school - which we do now, or homeschooling - which we used to do). Thanks for all the great informations.

I live in a community where there are many people like you and my son goes to a school (Cebu international / CIS) where the children are like yours. Since education for children is a concern. I thought I would expand. I don't know anything about home schooling. Families after making the adjustment are quite happy here. CIS is less expensive than its counterparts in Manila and other countries, but relative to other schools here it is expensive. Since there are a number of outsourcing companies and service centers growing in Cebu (Lexmark, Convergys, Accenture, et al), international assignees who come here to work from all over the world with their families live in the developments and send their kids to CIS at their company's expense. Cost is not an issue for them. CIS works to maintain accredidation with the major bodies and successfully sends graduates to a number of colleges in the US and UK. In my sons class, there are students from Switzerland, UK, Canada, US, Spain, Japan, Korea, and of course the Philippines -- not all married to Filipinas. I know this because the parents were asked to come to talk to the class about their home countries. Kids have reports on the country's heros and have dress up days to wear country costumes, etc. I have attended many school and parental functions at CIS and talk to many of these parents. They all went through periods of adjustment but are finding life enjoyable here. One of the expat mothers gave a talk on adjusting here which was quite interesting -- little things like how to manage helpers as they never had them before. Their experience is unbelievably enriching especially for the children. Spending my work career with an international company, I had the chance to talk to a number of collegues over the years who participated and it was something I always wanted to do but never got the chance. It was always a great experience for those who could make it work. Kids are more exposed to diverse cultures and people than you could ever get in US private or public schools. For example at CIS: Foreign language learning starts in Kindergarten and extended programs for swiming, cooking, soccer, wall climibing, violin, piano, and many others. I find them expensive - especially the 1st year. http://www.cis.edu.ph/ Things are not perfect. There are many of the same issues that you would find in other places. By the way, I find most of the parents live in a subdivision: Maria Luisa and you can find homes here in your price range to rent. There are several other nice subdivisions from CIS, Talamban to Banilad (where I live). There is also school bus service to CIS from these subdivisions.I hope this helps further.

[jcasebee]

Thank you all for your assistance. After spending quite a bit of time on the forums and doing more research, I think that the Philippines are not going to be our first place to visit any more. I am not discouraged by what I read, but there were many good points that I had not really considered. Thanks again,John

[Travis]

Thank you all for your assistance. After spending quite a bit of time on the forums and doing more research, I think that the Philippines are not going to be our first place to visit any more. I am not discouraged by what I read, but there were many good points that I had not really considered. Thanks again,John

don't give up the Philippines is still a good place to live on a small income the just do not make it very easy or too many people would be doing it