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Due Diligence for Retirement
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What should an expat know about living or retiring to the Philippines?
tampobuster
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What should an expat know about living or retiring to the Philippines?
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There is nothing more to know than the information you already have at the click of your mouse or the touch of your fingertips. Among these are: Your preference for a temperate tropical climate. You don’t want to finalize your decision, and a month or two after living there, realize, that you don’t like the humidity that comes with sea breeze. Philippines is an archipelago of more than seven thousand islands. Breeze is everywhere. Humidity is in every breeze. Is this something you look forward to when you retire? It is water from end to end. If not, then consider changing your plans as early as now. Do you like asian food (Filipino food) or the Filipino variation of westernized meals? These meals are named almost exactly the same names as you hear them in the west. But they are not cooked in the west. They are cooked and prepared with the Filipino taste buds. Sure, you can have spaghetti. But not your spaghetti kind. If you want your kind, your taste, your preference, you have to import that from somewhere, or prepare it yourself with the exact ingredients you use from where you came from, not from the local manufacturers. Is this something you want to adventure upon retirement? Many people would do this if only to depart from the usual life and lifestyle they lived while still earning their retirement.This: Versus This: Do you enjoy adapting and adopting cultural practices? Do you like to decorate an accent of your own culture? The Philippines is a pot of gold of adaptations of cultures. You will fit anywhere, anytime. If you adapt. The Filipinos are born with innate tendencies to adapt to a culture around them. They will adapt to you. Would you adapt to them? Very flexible, considerate, adaptable, easy to teach and influence and noticeably versatile. Do you like this? Or do you prefer to be rigid and tough and rough? If you decide to retire there regardless of your cultural characteristics, chances are you, your ego will be broken to pieces in pain. But if you let go of that tough rough rigid image and embrace a new you, you will be crowned the apple of their eyes. The Philippines is a nation of fun and adventurous people, at times over the top. There are no snow skiing, but you can always try doing it in the hills of chocolate grasses. Swimming with the sharks? No problem. Roller coasters? Sure. Flintstone style. Horseback riding? You got it. Except you do it on several other animals too, not just horses. Carabaos, cows, sometimes, donkeys the size of a goat. Pick your fun. Budget? What budget? Just keep your money in your socks. We ain’t got nothing to budget. No, uh uh. Ain't gonna happen. You like McDonald’s? Sorry, thats for birthday, once a year. You are going to eat chicken, maybe sardines, and tons of fresh vegetables. Regularly. Or travel by motor bike as bus, or take the bankas as boat. It’s cheap here, man. You got to learn it. Get over your air conditioned cars. That’s for drama and show off. Take a motorcycle. Ten pesos per trip to downtown. That is about 25 cents a trip. And you could reduce that cost if you own your own motorbike and take someone with you for a fee. If that sounds adventure and fun to you, hop in on your plane and land in Cebu. You can start a life for less than a month’s salary. So you are white, or black, Hispanic, or maybe a combination of a little bit of this and that color? And your nose a little bit different? No, hugely different? Then security is an issue for you. What do you do? Change your skin? Cut back on your nose’s height? No. Be you. Be the you that you want to be. Decide to live peaceably, and leave the litigious mentality of ‘see you in court” kind behind you. Ain't gonna work that way. Eat. This is why you decide to retire there. Eat while planning what to eat next. This is perhaps the only reason that will stand the test of your decision to retire in the Philippines. Eat everything at least twice. If you don’t like to eat there, why are you there? Miami, Florida; Phoenix, Arizona. Sometimes California, or New Mexico. And sometimes Texas. Are retirement destinations of the cold northerners. If they only know 7, 107 islands are waiting for them in the coasts of the Pacific for a fraction of the cost in Hawaii. Go live as a retired expat there, and go up north in the summer, to your point of origin. In terms of water, this is also called renewable sources of energy. Go up and down the globe, just like salmons upstream the streams to take advantage of the refreshing rivers.Go. Just go. I’ll see you there, soon.
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First, you need to check which place you would like to live.Second, you need to consider availability of medical and life support systems and the costs.Third, you need to check access to the beach and other places of entertainment.Fourth, you need to check access to food that are available in your country but not available in the Philippines.Fifth, you need to be concerned about your security and the security of your family.Sixth, you need to consider the time and cost for going to and fro Immigration offices. Other than these, sleeping under a coconut tree on a hammock couldn't be better on a sleepy afternoon after a carbohydrate lunch.