Some years ago a friend of mine from Malaysia decided to work in the UK.
She was a Staff nurse of many years experience on neuro surgical wards.
For the first year she was only allowed to work as RN until her work was assessed.
She was not happy but had to accept it.
When her contract was up she returned home,she did not feel the opportunities coupled with the very high cost of living in the UK was worth it,although she did learn from the experience.

regards Chas.

My wife and I watch forecloed properties every week in the newspaper, looki9ng for ‘deals’. I see birtually nothing falling, and new condo ads which there are pahes of every week are still climbing. I predict the market may take adip, becuase Hong Kong and Singapore have taken some real esyaye hits, but I don’t. personally, it will be anydeep hit … mainly becuase there are very few “upside down” loans like the US is full of.

Philippine banks operate very strangely. They make buyers come up with downpayments, theydon’t loan more thna a fraction of home value, and they charge enough interest to make aprofit, instead pf hoping to make a profit reselling “derivative” papaer.

As you have already seen, it’s a different worlsd here. But the short answer is, I have seen little or no change in the past year except a overall small rose.

This & live in the philipines are really top sites so 1st I got to say thanks.
I’m 32 & only went to the Philipines for the 1st time last Oct & its definately the place I plan to retire.
Met a lot of ex pats who quoted the $1500 as the min they recommend you nedd with the cost of living increasing.

Have a question though about house prices at the monent over there as I bought a two bed town house for 1.4m in Las Pinas & have no idea if it has gone up or down?

Cheers
Michael

Exactly. The Internet makes it possible to go pretty much completely portable … and facilitates the dream many have of living part time in one location and part time in another. I feel as you do that most of the hoola thrown about about security is based on unfamiliarity and the ‘Urban legends” which circulate so freely … I do all the business I can via the Internet and earn a non-trivial income from it as well … and of course I pay my taxes via the Internet too … even the US government agenices I draw pensions from have the annual 1099 forms online so I don’t have to wait for anything in the mail and the IRS dosen’t require sending a paper form to duplicate what they already have on file … and when they pay me my refund, which I am sure I’ll be due (fingers crossed), it goes directly into my savings account in a matter of days, not weeks as we used to wait ij the US. The Interenet has changed my life tremendously … especially since I met the love of my life there as well

But really, you don’t need to, as what I am doing. I can trade stocks, move funds, pay bills, etc through the internet. I think some still has this fear that the internet is dangerous – yes, that could be. But you can set it up in such a way that fund transfers are only allowed to certain accounts that you specify with the bank beforehand. I also take precautions – i.e. not in questionable internet cafes, erasing cookies, etc. If I can’t do it by internet, then my trusted sister does it for me.

But – to each his own, whatever you feel comfortable with. And, whatever you decide to do, ONLY YOU are responsible for it, whatever happens.

I know a fellow who started a business in Loveland, Colorado. he sells a high-tech, very important safety devise he invented for railroads. he has sold exactly _none_ of them to any US railriad, yet he does very well … his largest customer? The Chinese National railroads. They saw the safety potential and buy essentially his whole production. A huge percentage of American companies who profess to actually make a product will tell you … you can’t sell to the Chinese or other countries. Like Henry Ford used to say, “If you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.”