Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS) About How To Travel, Retire, Work or Start a Business and Live in the Philippines
(Previously published. Significantly updated and corrected in March, 2013, to answer a whole slew of "but does the law allow me to .... ? questions. If it doesn't say you can't, you can) OK, if you’re reading this and you are under the age of 14, go away. We’re both breaking some kind of federal law about making this site ‘child safe” or some other kind of federal anti this or anti that act, and I am not about to start complying, so run home and tell your mamma the mean old … [Read more...]
Happy New Year. It’s off to a great start and from what can see, it’s going to be a great year … for me, anyway. For you? Well it CAN be, the outcome is way more up to you than many of you want to acknowledge. Here’s how you can fix that problem. Now let me first off make a little disclaimer here. For those of you who really haven’t decided on the move, hey, no problem. It’s certainly not for everyone. But many of you reading this are very … [Read more...]
This would not be the first time I have been trapped by my own assumptions, but it is still an eye opener. It’s boring to write about things already long-explained and in common use. Unless, of course, one’s audience is not familiar with that common use, and then. one realizes, often inadvertently, that one has been writing ‘over the heads’ of the intended audience. Embarrassing. I apologize. Recently I mentioned something here on PhilFAQS, where I attempt to answer … [Read more...]
Recently I came across this great post on my colleague Tyler Tervooren’s “Advanced Riskology” blog. One of the negative aspects of growing old seems to be that the older we get, the more people tell us to “be careful”, “avoid risk”, “don’t stick your neck out’, etc.” But to me, this is exactly the opposite from the way we ought to be thinking. Do we somehow think that by “being extra careful” we can avoid the inevitable? How many of you chose to … [Read more...]
Not a lot to report today, but things are moving along well. I've struck a deal with my son to buy our car ... nice for both of us because of the situation we're both in, so we can drive until moving day and then hand him the keys in return for cash. Went to our bank and they were pretty good ... didn't get bent out of shape at all when I told them we were going to move overseas "for a while". ordered new checks with the new address, counted up and cashed out a whole bag full of US change … [Read more...]
It seemed to me at times that this day would never come, but it has. It's time to start documenting the process of a 61 year-old Colorado cowboy wanna-be moving himself and his Filipina/American wife to the wide open plains of Bulacan, Luzon, Republic of the Philippines. Why, you might ask? Well some of my reasons are already common knowledge ... lower cost of living, fascination with travel and all things Asian, living with a larger extended family ... oh, did I mention No Frickin' … [Read more...]
A few days ago I read agreat article on my blogging colleague' Chris Brogan's site which really caught my attention. Chris eloquently addresses one of the biggest problem most of us have in holding back our lives ... making decisions based on what other people say or think. Taking Other People’s Word For It by ceb More and more, I see evidence that people don’t form their own opinion. It’s easy to determine, if you know what to look for. People repeat something they’ve read in … [Read more...]
Move To The Philippines. Always a popular subject here at PhilFAQS. But you know what I hear very, very often from readers with moving to the Philippines on their mind? It's too hard? Too hard? Yep. Didn't seem that hard to me, I put our house on the market, threw some household goods in a container, my wife and I packed our bags, got on a plane and there we were. I failed to see the "hardness' involved. Perhaps we should explore a little more? Move To The Philippines --- … [Read more...]
Was listening to the Lost Boys the other day and came across this idea .. a reader-written article. A large percentage of my traffic here … especially search traffic … first time visitors … fits into the broad niche of “people who think they want to move to the Philippines, but can’t”. … I ain't rich enough I really don't belong here I don't want to meet your mommy and daddy I ain't good lookin' but you get used to it like I did Don't you want to Give me some affection Why … [Read more...]
Most of the readers here have a good idea of what Balikbayan Boxs are. (Also written as Balik Bayan Box, either way is correct really, I just like to write it as Balikbayan Box) For our purposes here we'll say it's any box shipped from the USA to the Philippines through one of quite a number of firms out there who offer this service. The name is simply the Tagalog phrase for "Return to the County". Balikbayan Boxes --- Issues If you are not familiar with the process, a person wanting … [Read more...]
For a year or so here in my life in the Philippines I had a pretty interesting writing ‘gig”. I was a regular contributor to my friend Bob Martin’s “Live in the Philippines online magazine. I enjoyed the opportunity to meet new people, hopefully improve my writing style a bit and most certainly gain for exposure, readership and a little standing in the Philippine expat community. In my view, one of the best pieces of work I ever did for Bob was an article entitled Why You Can't … [Read more...]
(Editor’s note: Sorry, but due to a mistake on my part this article “escaped” to the RSS feed last night by accident. So yes, you have seen the first part before, but this is now the complete, correct version. Sorry for the confusion) Wow a lot seems to have gone on this past few days. My wife and I celebrated the 11th anniversary of when we met, our mother/mother-in-law’s birthday as well as paying our respects to her … sadly momma passed on earlier this year, (we miss you … [Read more...]
