Retiring on 1400 per month can it be done?

Romeow22 wrote:

Easy to retire on 1400 a month in cebu?

Yes. Depending on your lifestyle and personal needs.  Many live on less.

do you have a filipina girlfriend waiting for you? It will a big difference in your lifestyle! You can live in Cebu area on $1400 but remember you won't be enjoying Paradise as you may have envisioned! Also Health insurance is a huge issue here! Will you work? Are you retired and on pension? When will you come?

I would like to work..but i hear expats cannot find work must hire phillipino's first

No girl yet

No girl is good! Why Cebu? What is it other then cheap cost of living that draws you to Philippines over somewhere like Thailand? What will you do about healthcare?

English language is the reason. A lot of people speak english than Thialand.

It's possible to live on $500 / month. Living conditions won't be ideal unless you find a cheap expat compound, but if you eat local, shop to cook as much for yourself, sure. But if you party and go with the crowd, of course your 1400 (or 500) will not last. So 1400 is totally possible!

Lol, Hua Hin is one of the best places on earth to live! More then 10000 expats there including 4000 americans! I spend a good deal of time there in addition to living here! Hua Hin has amazing beaches! One of asias best floating markets with great seafood restuarants!! I never ever had any trouble speaking only english there! I would live there full time except for the fact that I have good relationship with my girlfriends family and we enjoy being together! I know that is unusal here but I did my research before coming to stay and prepared for helping them!! We have a strict policy on what I will and will not do!! Only her oldest son has tried to exceed the policy and he paid dearly for it and the rest of the family sided with me!! I have a travel fund for the family! For every dollar I add  they add they add 20 pesos! We will visit Hong Kong DisneyWorld this year! Already funded! Planning is the key and a very well implemented policy that works for all! NEVER let lack of English speakers hold you back from paradise!! Check out huahinexpat.com

Not to much of a partier..
Once a week maybe

If you want to maintain your American lifestyle you probably need more. I shop at S&R and Landers to find the products from the states that I like. I also pay through the nose to get what I like.

I don't trust street food and neighborhood markets. . . . When eating out I only go to established places. Be prepared with very slow internet, sometimes cable & internet are down (even the water has been down to 12 hours a day).  Be prepared to pay higher prices for any of your prescription meds.

Housing maybe cheaper outside the city but lacks the size & convenience you will be used to. Better spend a few days on Youtube.

Be prepared for the outrages prices for appliances. For a name brand 50" TV I paid $800 usd, in the states I could have purchased a Samsung 65" curved screen for the same money. For a decent refrigerator I paid $800 usd & $150 usd for a microwave.

Be prepared for the appalling poverty.

Things done in the states that take 15 minutes take half or full day to accomplish here. Every simple thing you want to do, be prepared to jump through Red Tape Hoops, each hoop getting smaller until you hit a wall.

Before you quit your day job (life in the states) and burn your bridges, it's best to come to Cebu and check it out for yourself. In your case look before you leap and then look again.

Your banking will be a nightmare just to get an account if your lucky.

Thank you W9XR!! And all that if you're lucky!!! Can be much worse!!

I have to agree with W9XR on literally everything that he said. It takes a lot of patience to live here and if you want a western lifestyle, you'll pay much more for it then you did in the West.

Faaark.....why the Phillipines.
It rains for 9 months of the year & drips off the trees for the other three.
Have you tried Vietnam......Khanh Hoa Province on the central coast has the best weather in all SE Asia.

And since you blokes are only putting up with the crap because of easy women,,the women here are a class above those soft bellied muppets over there.   

Hua hin Thailand is good too.  Probably the pick of the locations there.

Otherwise,,Unless your “into” bad traffic, pollution, poverty ,cyclones and a lunatic for a president ,,I'd be hitting the road out of there.

Unless a woman has got you pegged out,,you could do better.    If your already retired like most of us...the clocks ticking.    Is that where you want to see your last sunset.?

I agree! Vietnam is a good choice on the central coast! The women are great and easy to live with!

Everything in your comment makes perfect sense.

Yogi007 wrote:

Faaark.....why the Phillipines.
It rains for 9 months of the year & drips off the trees for the other three.

Leading with a lie is no way to convince anyone of anything.  Stick to stealing picnic baskets, you'll never make it as a weatherman.

I'm eyeing Cebu again myself because I want somewhere to go diving and island hopping.

Living there fulltime would be a nightmare though.

Quite surprising based on your comment yesterday https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.p … 20#4588458

Tim_L wrote:

Quite surprising based on your comment yesterday https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.p … 20#4588458

Cebu for a few days or week is alright. Some good resorts and diving to be had. Then I'll leave abruptly before those people get on my nerves.

mugtech wrote:

Yogi007 wrote:

Faaark.....why the Phillipines.
It rains for 9 months of the year & drips off the trees for the other three.

Leading with a lie is no way to convince anyone of anything.  Stick to stealing picnic baskets, you'll never make it as a weatherman.

Good to see someone took the bait. 😆😆

Actually,,the picnic baskets have lost their appeal.   
Yogi is now finding that the good ole days of BBQs with steaks, hamburger mince , sausages etc are disappearing.   
The Vegans are coming out of the woods.   Tofu sandwiches on Rye , shitty cheese platters & salads are what's stocking the baskets now......

Take care,,,

Where's Boo Boo....anyone seen Boo Boo🐾🐾🐾

Yogi007 wrote:

Actually,,the picnic baskets have lost their appeal.   
Yogi is now finding that the good ole days of BBQs with steaks, hamburger mince , sausages etc are disappearing.   
The Vegans are coming out of the woods.   Tofu sandwiches on Rye , shitty cheese platters & salads are what's stocking the baskets now......

Not for me they aren't.
If it hasn't mooed, baaed, bleated, or woofed, I don't want to eat it (excepting bread as you can't make a hotdog without it)

Hey Fred,
Yogi is OFF red meat at the moment due to African swine flu ravaging the pork stocks here.
The Vietnamese are famous for injecting dyes into pork & selling it as red meat. 

People say the swine flu only kills pigs...not humans.   But Yogi is a bear 🐻 , so I'm playing it safe.

So it's chicken & fish ....plus the odd Chinese tourist with some fava beans & a nice Chianti  🐾🐾

I love chickens, my favourite animal, especially when cooked on a BBQ.
Never much liked pork - not very tasty.

The truth is, housing, labor, and taxes are lower here than the west, but just about everything else is higher for anything close to a western life style.

You certainly can live okay on $1400 most anywhere in the Philippines if you find a reasonable place to rent.

If you like street food and rice you can live very well on that amount if you don't live in the bars.

The locals here are the best! Almost always friendly and helpful as long as you are not in a high tourist area. Even more so than vietnam, it seems the Philippines are being over run by Chinese because of the open door policy of the president and most people here don't approve but tolerate it because of their respectful nature.

My wife keeps meticulous financial records. In comparing those records with our costs in the U.S., we have found significant savings here in the RP. 

We live near Tagaytay.  Power outages are rare. Water supply is dependable. Our wireless 10mb internet is very dependable.

We purchased our TV and stereo at the end of the year when new models are introduced and sale prices put our Sony smart TV on par and slightly less than stateside prices.  (Abenson appliances).

Our LG refrigerator and washing machine were end of year floor models and we saved a LOT.  They had never been plugged in and are still working great.

We purchased our five year old car from a couple whose husband was a Toyota mechanic and was working overseas for an American firm as their vehicle maint manager. The car had 23000 KM on the
odometer, confirmed by dealer maint. records and a trip to the dealer during the drive test. They had just paid it off and were buying a larger vehicle for a growing family.  We paid less than we would have for a comparable vehicle in the states.  We shopped for two months and found a real deal.

We buy fruit and vegetables from the local outdoor markets at great prices and fresher than the grocery.

Getting things done here does take patience, I'm retired, what's the hurry.

Is it the U.S.?  Of course not.  Here you need to use your head and a little common sense. 

We like it, if we didn't, we'd leave.

Thanks for your comments

Living in a communist country in a high rise ghetto style housing is the last choice in my book.
The weather in Philippines is perfect, mostly sunny throughout the year.

Hello Palawan Bob,

Philippines is a big place, the weather in the metro Manila area is not perfect. Forget about about rainy season with all the flooding, forget about the air pollution, forget about the layers of dust that accumulate on your furniture everyday, forget about the 35 degree temperature, forget about the 90%  humidity.

It's like telling everyone the weather in the US is perfect if you're living in San Diego, CA

W9XR, the question was if one can live on $1400 per month in Philippines.
My answer is yes,... if you live in the province.
Rent is cheap in the province and so is everything else.
For comparison, a small one bedroom condo in Manila is P20000 per month while in the province you can live in a real house ON THE BEACH for that money. Actually, if you look around, it may be even less than that.
Buy a second hand motorbike for transportation (P30000), shop in public markets, and your P1400 per month will make you feel like you are a millionaire.
P.S. you have chosen an "interesting" name for trolling.

Hardly a Troll Palawan Bob,

First question what is so interesting about the handle W9XR? It would be nice if you would post information or better yet an url for that  "real" beach house and what it entails for 30,000 PHP. I'm sure that's what many people are thinking about when coming to the Philippines.

How many square meters is that dream house?

I agree with you, shopping in public markets for fruits and vegetables is a real saver, but for meats, a landing a strips for flies and uninspected by any health department. In the provinces, there is no sanitation, open sewers (ditches) this is where your public market home grown and produced stuff comes from.

I live in the metro Manila area, I like plenty of states side products which is not cheap and $1400 a month would change a comfortable lifestyle. I'll post some prices of recent shopping.

Welches Grape Juice                      747 php
25 kg Dinorado Rice                     1450 php
Arizona Green Tea                          209 php
Coke Zero 1.5L                                 235 php
Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice 3L    339 php
Libbys Vienna Sausage's  18/5oz   654 php
Kelloggs  Poptarts 32ct                    509 php
Kirkland Columbia Coffee 3lbs       799 php
Sunkist Naval Oranges (US )           300 php
Kraft real Mayo                                297 php
Philadelphia Cream Cheese 250g  143 php
Jergens Ultra Lotion                         251 php       

I saw the same brand of fresh Strawberrys I bought in the states for 624 php
In the states I paid $2.50 (130 php)

Hardly your public market stuff, purchases were made at S&R, Landers & a market in Pioneer Center.

W9XR, due to lack of exploratory curiousity, many if not most foregners end up living in a big city Philippines... for a stack them and pack them life style.
The favourite excuse being; I am too sick to live far away from hospitals or I must live in a city because I like all the conveniences that a city offers (imported foods). Provinces are boring many would argue.
Very poor excuses. If you live in a city, you are missing 90% of what life offers here.
Girlfriends/wives!!!!???? No problem, how many do you need?
Fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, fish... just choose what you like.
I just bought 20kg of giant mangos, cost P200, but we also have our own trees. Top season this year!
Buko water, P20L. Fresh Tuba, P40L.
Dragon fruits, we grow our own, high season now.
Pinapples, we grow our own, end of season.
Yes, we live on gentleman's farm in total silence and clean environment... with 1 million dollar view.
Renting a house, no problem, just look around, talk to locals, and keep away from tourist trap locations, dozens are for rent.
W9XR = San Diego... got it?

Bob,

It seems you achieved what most of the incoming Expats are hoping for or expecting.

In my case I'm married, I met my Filipino wife in Las Vegas  we both were working. Will be married 11 years soon, so not looking for Girlfriends or a Wife.

I loved Las Vegas but decide to move to the Philippines so my wife could be with her family. We own a house free & clear, about 200 meters on three floors. (Two Kitchens, three full bathrooms, four bedrooms).

The house was her family house as a little girl, over a period of several years we had it torn down to the ground and rebuilt.

I would like to live in Palawan, but it would be moving kids (adults), and them giving up their jobs.

For the price of a good house, I would have to carry a mortgage even with selling our house in Pasig. The extended family are perfectly adjusted to Pasig living, they have not been spoiled by western standards. Well almost, we provided a lot of boxes over the years with western stuff. Our house has both 110V & 220V outlets. For the life of me I don't know what we are going to do with three Kitchen Mixers, two still in the box unopened and bunches (lots) of appliances sent from the states.

Spence (W9XR ham radio)

W9XR wrote:

Bob,

It seems you achieved what most of the incoming Expats are hoping for or expecting.

In my case I'm married, I met my Filipino wife in Las Vegas  we both were working. Will be married 11 years soon, so not looking for Girlfriends or a Wife.

I loved Las Vegas but decide to move to the Philippines so my wife could be with her family. We own a house free & clear, about 200 meters on three floors. (Two Kitchens, three full bathrooms, four bedrooms).

The house was her family house as a little girl, over a period of several years we had it torn down to the ground and rebuilt.

I would like to live in Palawan, but it would be moving kids (adults), and them giving up their jobs.

For the price of a good house, I would have to carry a mortgage even with selling our house in Pasig. The extended family are perfectly adjusted to Pasig living, they have not been spoiled by western standards. Well almost, we provided a lot of boxes over the years with western stuff. Our house has both 110V & 220V outlets. For the life of me I don't know what we are going to do with three Kitchen Mixers, two still in the box unopened and bunches (lots) of appliances sent from the states.

Spence (W9XR ham radio)

Just an irrelevant question, which subdivision in pasig you are talking about? Its just that I am looking for a house in metro manila also and scouting for different possible locations : )

Hello Kindawn,

We live in Bg. ilog, Pasic City. I really don't know one area over another. For example making a short story long. . . . . When we lived in the states whenever my wife saw a Filipino she would keep walking without starting a conversation with them. (110,000 Filipinos in Las Vegas so you see them everywhere.)
The other day while visiting the Doctors office at St. Lukes hospital, a white guy walked passed us, so my wife smiled and said to me why didn't you say hello? So the next time he passed I said hello. The guy looked like Hulk Hogan, we chatted, he was an American from Montana living in Pasig City. His house was a long aways from us according to my wife. So Pasig City is a big place in Metro Manila. I don't know if that helps. The history of Pasic City predates the first settlement, Jamestown in the US.

Spence

W9XR wrote:

Bob,

It seems you achieved what most of the incoming Expats are hoping for or expecting.

Our house has both 110V & 220V outlets. For the life of me I don't know what we are going to do with three Kitchen Mixers, two still in the box unopened and bunches (lots) of appliances sent from the states.

Spence (W9XR ham radio)

Good to have back up appliances since you won't be back in the USA to send any BB boxes.  And your personal experience with meds is a good reminder of what can happen trying to live on imports.  We prefer the province over Pasay,  but I love going to the bay and the malls there, beats the he'll out Vegas.

W9XR, you sound like you are grounded for good in Passig city.
That's what I thought when I arrived here, I thought that our first house was hard to sell. Wrong!
Selling it in 2013 was a breeze. True, prices were still low at that time, they have doubled since then.
A 200sq m house in Passig is not cheap, selling it would certainly buy you a nice big house in the province, NO MORTGAGE!
Just saying...

Between you two, you both are correct.  But the OP asked about living in CEBU on $1400 a month, not Palawan or the NCR.

The OP didn't clarify if he meant Cebu City or Cebu Province, it can make a HUGE difference!

If you want to live a Foreigner lifestyle on $1400 a month in Cebu, be it the city or the province, it will be tough.  Shopping for American goods, wherever you live, is expensive. 

Living a modified lifestyle in Cebu City on $1400 a month could also be tough!  By modified I mean picking up some local foods and cooking them yourself in an American way, or finding resturants that serve foreign-style foods can be expensive.  Doing that on a routine basis can be very expensive.  Rent cost becomes an important issue in Cebu City and the surrounding area, depending on your requirements.

If you can live a simple life and can eat the local foods, which can be very satisfying, filling and have a complete nutrition (you may have to search) can be done for $1400 a month.  That is vegetables (the hardest to find) chicken, pork, beef(at least it says it's beef!), fish and seafood can all be found at reasonable prices, not just at the open markets.

Exactly Hobbit, it says it's beef. I call bs.... hahaha.. it's not like the beef that I'm used to anyway. Even beef claiming to be US beef I find doesn't taste like US beef which is my all time favorite meat. I find myself eating way more chicken and pork then ever before.