In General, Are Your Living Expenses More Or Less In The Philippines Than Your Home Country? If U.s. Please Indicate State.

[tomaw]

basic necessities such as food and shelter

Hey ya Tom.

First of all I am from down the road from you, San Diego, so I am sort of familiar with what you are used to there in Orange County.

Secondly, the more I think about it and the longer I live here your question is just to ambiguous to really give the concise answer that I believe you are looking for.

Basic Shelter: What are you used to? What do you expect here? An apartment like you can get at Crenshaw and Normandie? Or like you can rent near the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove? Trust me there is as wide of range here as there.

Basic food: Pretty much the same thing really. You can exist on the local version of Roberto's, Long John Silvers and Jack in the Box. Or step up to the next level and eat at TGI Fridays or Out Back Steak House. Or even step up to Ruth Cris Steak house caliber.

Or are you thinking of going completely native and eating nothing but native food? Two choices there also really, shop at the local supermarket or at your local wet market? Am I being Vague? You bet! So here is a comparison, you can get American pork and beans for about 2 bucks a can, locally made pork and beans for about $1.25 a can, or you can go to the local wet market buy a kilo of beans a slab of fat back pork and make your own for about 25 cents a can. About other stuff, I could pull out my electric bill and quote you the kilowatt price per hour but that wont really mean anything until we know a persons needs of air conditioning, internet and TV usage etc.

So I guess the bottom line is what your definition of "necessities" is? That and what your end goal is? When a person moves to the Philippines does he want to exist, live or enjoy himself?

You're absolutely right. There is a lot of variety from state to state, city to city and within the same city. For me a nice house in a nice middle class neighborhood, is way more obtainable in Cebu than it is anywhere in California. In a Cebu subdivision I can get a lot big enough to build a two story 3 bedroom house, in a subdivision with 24/7 security, with community pool, club house, on a hill over looking the ocean for about $16,000! The price of building the house is extremely varied depending on materials, style, size etc. However, I'm sure whether it's a nipa hut or a mansion it will cost considerably less than what contractors and carpenters would charge in California. I've seen a lot of real estate ads in Cebu where the house can be financed and paid off in five years. In California We would be looking at a 30 year mortgage! Edited June 4, 2015 by tomaw

[tomaw]

I also post on a TrIathlon and Bike/MTB forum in Australia.

I was asked about why I lived in the Philippines. So I roughed out my Top 10. As you might notice, Health Care did not make the list but it should have.

Ask further questions off this.

Kindly note here that I'm talking here in Aussie Dollars AUD. One AUD=35 Pesos, $1500 AUD=52,500 Pesos at todays rate. For comparison as a a marker one San Mig Beer=25 pesos, about 80 cents Aussie, that would be about 58 cents USD. All amounts in the narrative are rounded out

1. COST OF LIVING. We live on about $1500 AUD per month. We sometimes save some but will spend it later down the line. We do not have to pay rent because we own a small house and my wife owns the land, her share of family owned land. We pay bills like electric, cable, internet, our personal phones, under $200 AUD. We buy food and some essentials for Gina's family. We have some additional savings off the kids pension supplement from USA, we save that. We live on a farm, and produce some food, fruits and vegetables. We go to a market almost every day.

It does not currently cost us $1500 per month to live on, but we have projects going on, like extending the house. We take a trip to Manila now and then and will buy things down there, 1-2 nights in a hotel (2 nights=$50 AUD).

However if we actually lived in Metro Manila about $3000 AUD would be needed or $2500, if renting cheaper accom.

2. SPORTS AND RECREATION, personally this one is very important. It took me about 6 months living in Manila earlier to discover what was going on, and that did require some travel within the city and outside. And here in the north (Vigan City, 411 km north),it took me a further 6 months to find out what I needed to know.

Triathlon, road biking, MTB, swimming, racing or training, usually through a club. There are no pools in this area so open water.

Mountain biking is a boom sport with so many venues and events coming up 2-3 times per month. You could find also 2-3 tri's in a month, but July, August, September, October are the monsoon months, this is the off season, no events scheduled. Cost of events is extremely cheap or given free by local benefactors like mayors or provincial governors.

A sanctioned triathlon event might cost $50. An ITU short course $100 or more. An international event like the Cebu Challenge, last I checked $350 plus travel. MTB races are frequently given free or 50-100 pesos. Most I have noticed is 300 pesos=$9.Local mayor puts his staff on duty on the weekend as "volunteers" to run his race. Police also work the events and as understand everyone gets extra time off in lieu of compensation. I have also seen them wearing event shirts of the better quality which serves to identify them.

Road closures or diversions are managed because the mayor runs the town, the whole show and he/she will be the race director or co-director.

A small gym costs about $1 per session. Big gyms like Fitness First charge the international rate, around $90/month.

Golf is $20 for 18 holes and you will pay a caddy. Golf on a championship level course is around $50. Can go higher, sometimes requires requires a member to validate your play. Discounts for various categories like Senior Golfer are freely given. When I was a regular I was paying $10/18 holes plus caddy, This was accompanied by a token membership, cost around $200 per year.

Since swimming is important is better to live within a few kms of a beach and bike down as I do. Swimming pool entry is 50 cents but lap swimming times are restricted and can be a bad experience. Membership at an upmarket sports club with swimming even tennis, is $100 per month but hear you buy your intitial share for $5000, up to $10,000. I don't have that experience but a friend has a membership and he told me. Cashed up ex pats within Manila find this one to be essential. The shares can be sold on he says.

3. WOMEN AND DATING, clearly this would be on the top for anyone single. Filipino women are amazing, but I will not detail that here.

4. MARRIAGE TO FILIPINA, Marriage to a Filipina conveys the right to apply for Permanent Residency and it is granted automatically, so a big advantage as the visa runs for life.

I think no need to elaborate here. I'm married to Gina and I'm quite happy, even then we may have our ups and downs, but it is is a good life with her and I would recommend it. Admittedly it doesn't work out unless you have the money to support it.

5. FRIENDSHIPS WITH FILIPINO, OTHER. I find it better to have more Filipino friends, and sports has made that possible. I have had an entire bike club visit me here in the house during my rehab and we serve them something also. They call me "Coach" but in the local Ilocano dialect I hear them saying "Pops" or "Grandpa", it could be derogatory. but I haven't detected that. I get invited the their place and a few times we had trucks and vans going to an event , I always get the front seat. I prefer sports people, even young girls give me respect, the kind of kids that would never talk to me under normal circumstances.

I have one good friend who happens to be from The Shire, and he intro'd me to a Frenchman and we get together in Manila, not often but usually have a good night out, a few times a year. My other friends are mostly locals.

Bottom line here. Friends are important and better if they are sportsminded, like myself. Ex pats who sit around drinking while complaining about the Philippines have no interest to me.

6. FOOD, quite important to me so it comes high on the list. It's not as good as Thai food, and will take some getting used to. After some adjustment period and getting deeply into some northern foods I would give it 8/10 , but there can be things missing. And I wont eat dog or certain kinds of blood soup, so factor that. A few varieties of noodle soup, coconut based and specific to the region are absolutely the go about 3-4 hours into a ride, esp if you go out on coffee and water as I do.

We live on a farm. Get ripe mango, avocado, banana, varieties of orange in season. We can get fish from the fisherman but catch varies day to day. Oysters from the river bed, snails and frogs from the rice field, wild mushrooms, that kind of thing. And these days we might visit Maccas one a month or go to Manila craving pizza or whatever, that seems to be human nature to crave what you can't have and that can be satisfied in one visit.

Food is cheap. I give Gina $10 per day to go to the market, rounded out to 400 pesos which is closer to $12, and on the other days we eat from the farm. None of this is possible in Manila where marketing can be a daily chore and there can be shortages in the market, fresh lettuce for example, while Gina gets it here for 50 cents. Pineapple for example we dont grow here but local variety, $1-2 AUD for size about double what you see in Oz.

.

7. CRIME RATES, this falls under why Iive in the Phils or why I would not. Crime rates are very high here. Last year there were 599 drive by shootings/murders recorded in the entire country. Few of these are ever solved and now in 2015 the the rate has already risen above the 2014 rate, causing a public outcry, but not much noticeable change. There are 2 new laws enacted recently. No pilion passengers on motor bikes allowed unless husband, wife and the kids. And no helmet allowed in city limits, residential areas. In 9 years I have seen 3 cases at the scene of the crime within a few minutes of the hit. And all of these were in the provincial area where I live. Land or property dispute or crimes of passion are what I hear about most.

The above number is only cases of "Killer for Hire" or contracted hit man. Domestic crime also including murder is quite common here. Crimes related to gambling are also common.

Large scale crime is part of the scene here, totally endemic. As is petty crime,drug dealing, bank fraud, scamming, bad credit, small scale robbery. And it's a parochial system based on an old Spanish model, where no one actually gets jailed for petty crimes even serial offenders. Barangay system it is called. There's a higher chance of a small time con artist getting bumped off and you not even sure if it's the cops that are involved.

8. SAFETY AND SECURITY, so if the crime rate is high, how can you also be safe? Crime is Filipino thing, so as such does not directly involve foreigners. Foreigners who have run into trouble have been sex offenders or shady business dealers. And of course there's big group that have been scammed or extorted for cash, as I was, as most ex pats have been at one time or another.

It's safe in the Philippines is a hard one to rationalize to those that have not been here. And there are some very bad areas I would not go day or night, as in any major city. But again foreigners are not the targets in violent crime. It more likely you might be marked by a pickpocket in fact it is bound to happen, sooner or later. It did happen to me, but I could have been more careful.

9.RETIREMENT DESTINATION, I don't know where to put this because it ties into No 1, COL, but none of this is normally affordable unless you are fully retired. Or a few people could be assigned here by a multinational company, but this is quite rare.

As for retirement destinations, I have not seen a recent table, but as I know, Costa Rica, Belize and the Latino border countries have done well, then you have the Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka , the Maldives. And it seems NZ and the Scandinavian countries always do well, not sure of the cost of living index on any of those however. And I have lived for some time in Sri Lanka but off and on, since 1986, so I know the place, but I still put the Philippines ahead.

POLLS CAN BE ALSO MISLEADING: Australia, Belize, Canada, 1,2,3 on a 2015 Forbes Magazine Poll.

ASIA ONLY:....and it's not even 100% clear what they are recommending because of different categories ref the comments.

A few reasons which stand out in favor of the Philippines.

*the standard of spoken English is high eg 90%

*low rate of inflation because of the US ties and Peso/Dollar stability

*kid's education which would be in catholic private schools, affordable (Sri Lanka and India, much better, my experience)

*health care, Phils is an international health tourist destination, but you would pay through the nose for that, I use my 40 years of nursing and back myself in the local free government hospital system. Standards can be low but if you know your way through the system you would be ok. Does not apply in Metro Manila because govt systems already overloaded.

*I have been here 9 years almost 10, and I never want to leave so take that as a rec.

10. OVERSEAS VISITORS, after a quiet few years I get some unexpected visitors here including a current "name" from pro triathlon.

I think of my place as rustic, basic, we don't have hot water, not even running water except what we pump up. I see Gina getting nervous and almost cringing when our guests arrive. I have no idea why, maybe it's the quietness, but even the wives, the strictest judges start raving about the place within the first few hours.

HEALTH CARE, see my summary just above, the topic could be expanded, and could have, perhaps should have made the Top Ten.

Thanks very much do that detailed review. You covered a lot.

[scott h]

I can get a lot big enough to build a two story 3 bedroom house, in a subdivision with 24/7 security, with community pool, club house, on a hill over looking the ocean for about $16,000!

 

Is 16 K for the property?

 

Just to give you a comparison, 2 years ago we build our 2 story, 3 bed, two bath house, about 1300 square feet total. Total cost materials and labor was right about $100,000 USD. We owned the property already. Granted we are in metro manila so your labor will most likely be less but I have heard that some (not all) materials might be a bit more.

[Dave Hounddriver]

Mainly I wantant to know the basic necessities such as food and shelter.

 

The biggest savings I found in Philippines are in accommodation and transportation.

 

Its easy to find a place to rent for about US$300 or less in Philippines.  Hard to find that in Canada these days.  Car Insurance, repairs, and registration is dirt cheap here so while it may cost as much for gas, its still cheaper to drive (if you don't have accidents or stolen vehicles).

 

I also found cheap entertainment here like restaurants, massage, movie theatres etc. But most other essentials are similarly priced.  Thus if I moved back to Canada on my budget I would be paying a lot more for rent, not able to have a vehicle, and having very little entertainment.  So I like it here better.

[Thomas]

 

I can get a lot big enough to build a two story 3 bedroom house, in a subdivision with 24/7 security, with community pool, club house, on a hill over looking the ocean for about $16,000!

 

Is 16 K for the property?

 

Just to give you a comparison, 2 years ago we build our 2 story, 3 bed, two bath house, about 1300 square feet total. Total cost materials and labor was right about $100,000 USD. We owned the property already. Granted we are in metro manila so your labor will most likely be less but I have heard that some (not all) materials might be a bit more.

It can be much lower in smaller cities.  

E g in Toledo, Cebu island, which is popular among Norwegians, an in my messure posh house with 3 bedrooms in a guarded subdivision, was bought for 2.5 mill pesos around a year ago. Plus costs for improvements as e g fence. Not sure but I believe 2.5 mill included the small land.

It's for sale now, because he had to go back home of health reason.

[calasiaobound]

My rent :p3500

Electricity: p1150

Food: p7500

WiFi: p1000

Misc: p2500

Total=p15650 per month (ish)

I'm from Portland Oregon. My monthly bills were in the $ 4000 USD range

Edited June 4, 2015 by calasiaobound

[tomaw]

I can get a lot big enough to build a two story 3 bedroom house, in a subdivision with 24/7 security, with community pool, club house, on a hill over looking the ocean for about $16,000!

Is 16 K for the property?

Just to give you a comparison, 2 years ago we build our 2 story, 3 bed, two bath house, about 1300 square feet total. Total cost materials and labor was right about $100,000 USD. We owned the property already. Granted we are in metro manila so your labor will most likely be less but I have heard that some (not all) materials might be a bit more.

Yes. $16,000 is for the lot. It's in the Crown Heights Subdivision in Compostela which is about an hour drive outside Cebu. I can't say anything one way or another in regards to the cost of building your house without knowing a lot more about it. I'm sure though it would cost a lot more than that in California on labor costs alone. Edited June 4, 2015 by tomaw

[tomaw]

I can get a lot big enough to build a two story 3 bedroom house, in a subdivision with 24/7 security, with community pool, club house, on a hill over looking the ocean for about $16,000!

Is 16 K for the property?

Just to give you a comparison, 2 years ago we build our 2 story, 3 bed, two bath house, about 1300 square feet total. Total cost materials and labor was right about $100,000 USD. We owned the property already. Granted we are in metro manila so your labor will most likely be less but I have heard that some (not all) materials might be a bit more.

It can be much lower in smaller cities.

E g in Toledo, Cebu island, which is popular among Norwegians, an in my messure posh house with 3 bedrooms in a guarded subdivision, was bought for 2.5 mill pesos around a year ago. Plus costs for improvements as e g fence. Not sure but I believe 2.5 mill included the small land.

It's for sale now, because he had to go back home of health reason.

Sounds like a nice place. I'd check it out but we won't be ready to go there for a year yet. Thanks.

[tomaw]

My rent :p3500

Electricity: p1150

Food: p7500

WiFi: p1000

Misc: p2500

Total=p15650 per month (ish)

I'm from Portland Oregon. My monthly bills were in the $ 4000 USD range

How many people is that for? I live with just my wife and we only spend about half that IN CALIFORNIA! Edited June 4, 2015 by tomaw

[AlwaysRt]

 

My rent :p3500

Electricity: p1150

Food: p7500

WiFi: p1000

Misc: p2500

Total=p15650 per month (ish)

I'm from Portland Oregon. My monthly bills were in the $ 4000 USD range

How many people is that for? I live with just my wife and we only spend about half that IN CALIFORNIA!

 

 

You and your wife live on $175/mo in California???