Living In The Philippines

The Philippines offers some of the greatest value for money upscale living to be found anywhere in the world. Forget moving across the world to eke out a living in a bamboo house eating noodles five times a week. If you want somewhere to live where you can live comfortably and well for a grand a week, there are fewer places more welcoming than the Philippines.

That US$1000 a week budget will rent you a modern, comfortable and secure house or apartment in a guarded and gated community. You will have a swimming pool, gym, club house and none of the annoyances you have to put up with in lower end estates like roosters, loud motor cycles and hawkers hassling your domestic staff.

You can have a full staff; cook, helper (maid), laundrywoman (lavendera), Yaya (nanny), yardman, driver and all of these, full time with two or three permanently on the premises for US$600 a month, even less! These dedicated domestic professionals will manage your shopping, household needs and ensure you don’t fall victim to any scams or dangers. In time you will be the ‘Patron’ and they often become part of your extended family in true Filipino style.

You can own a new or late model vehicle with A/C, power everything and ‘fully loaded’ as they say here. You can relax in the back and enjoy the ride as your experienced driver gets you and your family safely to and from wherever you want to go. Going to the Mall? He will drop you off and wait until you ‘text’ him on his cell phone and he brings the car around to the entrance. You need never spend more than seconds out of air conditioned comfort if you don’t want to.

When it comes to first class restaurants, Manila and other major cities have some of the world’s best. Many are located within five star hotels so you are guaranteed a standard of service you are familiar with. Theater, cinema and other cultural entertainments are easily enjoyed. Even if you have small children, they are as safe at home with your staff as if they were with you.

This site will present to you a range of upscale experiences and information for anyone considering living in the Philippines, but only if you plan to live there pretty much as well or better than back wherever you used to call home. There are so many advantages to living in the Philippines providing you are realistic as to the real costs of living a comfortable life there.

As a rule of thumb, anyone with an income of US$50,000 per annum can live very well there. How well can you live where you are now on US$4166 a month BEFORE Taxes?

The best advice is to get a Special Retirement Resident Visa, or SRRV and be done with it. No messing around with tourist visas and renewing every 59 days for a year or so then having to leave and return to start it all over again. If you have retired to the Philippines then make some commitment!

The SRRV has some guidelines you need to follow including limits on how much you need to invest or leave in a local bank account but generally they are not at all oppressive and the benefits do outweigh the hassles for those of us with the assets to back our application.

The new ACRi or Alien Certificate of Registration card is also included and together witht eh SRRV means you can come and go whenever you like. So if you want to take a weekend hop to Hong Kong or Bangkok you don’t need to apply for permission to leave the country or have any hassles getting back in.

Not only that, the SRRV offers other services such as help in settling in and getting your new life on track asap. Best advice is to visit the web site and read as much as you can there.

Quite frankly if you can avoid driving in the Philippines then by all means hire a driver. You can have one live-in and be on call 24/7 for US$200 a month and they know the streets, the traffic and so on. Not only that if there is an accident you are not directly responsible so any compensation claims can be minimized somewhat. They will still see Peso signs as there is a Kano in the car but nowhere near as problematic as if you were driving.

A Filipino driver will also fill in his day in the garden (make it clear before hiring him this is part of his duties) and at night he is there to help with security duties. If you hire someone from your wife’s province the problem is he might not know his way around the city. If you hire a city local he might have too many other things to do at night and want too much time off.

You can hire from an agency or use your Asawa’s family connections but selecting a driver who is safe, knowledgeable and trustworthy is not easy. However the benefits outweigh the disadvantages and difficulties. Remember you are living in the Philippines for the lifestyle it offers. Part of that is having domestic staff. Why fight the chaotic, maniacal traffic if you need not? Keep your blood pressure under control and enjoy the ride in the back, aircon on and watch a DVD or read the newspaper, even surf the net on your way to the shops. For two hundred a month it has to be great value.

One of the great things about living in the Philippines, especially in retirement, is that you can have as much help around the house as you wish. Domestic staff, locally often referred to as a ‘Helper’, are inexpensive. You can employ someone, live-in, from as little as US$50 a month. You will need at least two of these, often teenage girls. You must take care of them like an uncle, keep them from getting into ‘trouble’ and so on. The best advice is to leave that to the Asawa to manage and don’t try and apply western standards of employer-employee relations: it won’t work!

A driver will usually also do double duty as a gardener and even as security, so budget at least US$150 and choose wisely. This person must not only need to be able to drive safely and know his way around town, but he must also be very trustworthy. That is by far the most important quality and this is why it pays to listen to your Asawa or trusted Pinoy friends.

Other help includes a cook, lavenderia (laundry woman) and if you have children, a YaYa or nanny. Lavenderia are usually older women who live out and come in as many times a week as you need them to make sure the laundry is always done for you. Depending on the arrangement, allow another US$50 and that should cover laundry supplies as well.

A good cook can make all the difference to your enjoyment of life. Find one who has cooked for westerners before otherwise you will have nothing to eat but bland Filipino food and find a lot of breakages occurring in the kitchen. He or she needs to know how to operate your oven (you must have an oven!), microwave and other appliances, keep the refrigerator (they call it the ‘reff’) cold and not turned up to save electricity and how to store food other than leaving it out with an upturned plate covering it from the flies.

Pay well for a good cook, say up to US$200 a month.  So far you have spent US$300 a month and you have two maids, a cook, a laundress and a driver/gardener/watchman. I would add another $50 and hire a young lad to help the driver, do the lawns, sweep the paths, clean the pool, carry the shopping etc. Then add US$50 more to bring the total staff bill to US$400 and cover them all with PhilHealth. This national health insurance costs aobut US$2 a month per person and covers them and their families for a range of medical expenses. If you make contributions to SSS on their behalf every month as well, or simply put it away, then you will have staff who have a lot to lose if they displease you.

As I have already said, leave the day to day management of the staff to your Asawa. If she is not a Filipina then choose either the driver or the cook (whoever is the oldest and most mature) and work with them. Tell them what you want done and by when and leave them to direct the staff.

When it comes to hiring staff there are a number of agencies that place people however where possible have your Asawa find them from her province. Bring them to the city and look after them and they will have ‘utang na loob’ to you. (debt of honor) Try not to be too friendly or else they will take that as weakness. Be firm but fair and they will hesitate to steal or be lazy. Remember, this is the Philippines and different rules apply.

Golf courses are to be found throughout the Philippines and many of them are world class links courses. The service enjoyed when you play a round with your own beautiful Filipina caddy, drinks boy and cart driver is what luxury living is all about. When you realize you can do this for a fraction of what it costs back home then it is even more attractive a pass time.

You can join a golf club and buy ‘B’ Class shares. As the golf club, and thus the land it is on, is owned by the members and it is illegal for a foreigner to own land as such, these B Class shares give you all the privileges but without the ownership of the land.

You can find club memberships for sale in the local newspapers and online and fees will vary depending on how prestigious the club is, the facilities offered and so on. All of the good clubs offer excellent dining and You can find club memberships for sale in the local newspapers and online and fees will vary depending on how prestigious the club is, the facilities offered and so on. All of the good clubs offer excellent dining and entertainment facilities as well as the golfing, plus exercise and tennis opportunities, swimming pools and much more.

A lot of expats often complain about those who live behind high walls in secure compounds like the upscale Filipinos choose to live. They prefer to live cheek by jowl with their neighbours and really soak up the Filipino color. Such as the roosters crowing all night and day, the little kids forever staring through your windows and watching your every move and of course everyone knowing when you are in or out.

There are some good things about living ‘native’ but for those of us on a better budget, we tend to follow the example of the more well off Pinoys. Walled compounds offer security and privacy and both are not always easily obtained here, especially the privacy. Hordes of kids and locals staring open mouthed gets old pretty quickly. You can;t blame them as they think all of us Kano’s are movie stars.

Security is important because as a Kano you will always be considered to be well off by local standards. Many nice houses are surrounded by squatter encampments that spring up and are difficult to dislodge, even if they are on private property. So having a high wall and a solid gate you can guarantee a degree of privacy and security. Many such houses are offered for rent for less than US$1000 a week, include maid and gardener’s quarters and even a swimming pool, tennis court and manicured gardens.

Once you move up out of the cheap stuff there is a lot to be had for your dollar! If you are going to retire to a place you call paradise, then make sure it is all you want it to be and in the Philippines that is easy to achieve.