From USA to Phillippines? sounds great!

Welcome to Expat.com motocy85!

Harmonie.

You are pretty young to move down here~ At any rate, if you have the money to pay for your visa here and survive for one year just in case you don't get a job yet or a business established, you should be fine.
Cannot guarantee a job, but perhaps setting up a business might be better.

Moto-

Since no one else is telling you anything, I am not there yet but I am planning as well and have been for almost year now.  I have looked into many things in that time period like I have changed my mind on where I want to live 3 or 4 times now.

RP- GREAT place to go if you are street smart but still open enough to accept warm, family style, relationships.  Don't count on working (as far as I can tell).  The equal opportunity laws don't apply in PI. THe language barrier would be a problem in my line of work which is teaching and customer service.  English seems to be pretty common but I wouldn't expect everyone to speak it and as a Fireman your life would depend upon you completely understanding their language (s).  I say in plural because everyone seems to know Tagalog, Visayan, English (vowels are usually pronounced differently taking some getting used to) and various others.


Here is a site from the RP government department of labor that shows wages etc:
http://www.nwpc.dole.gov.ph/rtwpb.html#

It is a big move and the cost of bringing stuff with you is prohibitive (taxes, fees etc.) so just bring what you need and buy stuff when you are there.  An example is clothing.. I want to blend in a bit so I  will buy and wear what the locals are although I am bringing a few items that I may need.

Be brave... if this is what you want in life give it a shot and if it doesn't work you can always say you tried.  Good luck.

Dino