Whenever I am not sure exactly what idea I should craft an article around, there is one “evergreen”, always ready one that will work on this blog … Moving to the Philippines. One reason it is always a “go” for me writing or visitors reading is, there’s a whole group of people who have been “thinking about” and “planning for” and “considering” moving here for years now … I just heard from a guy this am that surprised me … he was a frequent contributor to a Yahoo Group about living in the Philippines which I used to frequent back before the year 2000.
And, he still hasn’t made up his mind.
How many more like him are out there? I don’t know, but feedback from my readers here certainly let’s me know that it is more than a few.
I saw a neat quote this morning about an article from Steve Pavlina that I’ve read before … but perhaps not pointed out here. Thanks, Michael, for pointing this important concept out to me, yet again Launching Your First Product – How We Did It!
Steve Pavlina explains READY FIRE AIM perfectly in this article:
As Steve explains – the ready-fire-aim approach, rather surprisingly works a lot better than the more common ready-aim-fire approach.
“The reason is that after you’ve “fired” once, you have some actual data with which to adjust your aim. Too many people get bogged down in planning and thinking and never get to the point of action. How many potentially great ideas have you passed up because you got stuck in the state of analysis paralysis (i.e. ready-aim-aim-aim-aim-aim…)?
If you think you want to move to the Philippines, then move to the Philippines. You know,the door swings both ways … if you try to make go of it here and you find out that the luster of your dream is a little less bright, then pack up and go somewhere else.
I need not be the soul numbing, stress inducing torture than so many of you seem to make it out to be. What’s the worst that can happen? You have to pay for some plane fares back home? Let me assure you of something … if you are living in the US right now, you are likely wasting way more than the cost of some air tickets, each and every year, burning up your money on cable TV. ridiculous cell phone plans, insurance for everything up to and including orthodontics for your dog … and likely even some ore US-induced waste I haven’t thought of yet.
You might be interested in my article on “Economy Birding” in the Philippines as well. Many folks, in today’s US economy, might find out it’s very smart to come here for a few years, wipe out the debts that are making you lose sleep now, get rid of the expenses you don’t really need, so you can focus on the important issues you feel you have to pay … and in general, just adding a few years to your life.
Could I be wrong? Of course I could … but guess what? If you just sit there, worrying and wishing and never do anything, you will never, ever know.
Ready, Fire, Aim … it can work.
In the US we have other little sayings: “FISH or CUT BAIT”, “No Guts, No Glory” which is the same. You can always find an excuse for not doing something, then find reasons to back up your excuse.
Ready,Fire, Aim is a good way of putting it. You can always work out the problems with AIM as you go along. I do it all the time!!
The guy who has been talking about coming to the Philippines for 10 years, will never do it!! It requires him to make a decision, to either “fish or cut bait”. The default decision he has made is, he will “Cut Bait”
My son is the same way, He complains vociferously about his JOB-JOB. I have tried to get my son to do something. I bought Site Sell, put up a really BAD website. He complained that Site-Sell was really bad, not my site. I said okay find a better way of doing it, DID HE, NOPE!!
He is very good at doing web sites and all the stuff that goes with it.
He likes FOREX trading, I think the adrenal rush is what he likes when he is right in his trades.
Boy do you have that right, Fred. One of the best articles I ever wrote is on Bob Martin’s excellent “live in the Philippines” web magazine, titled Why you can’t live in the Philippines
The main reason you, yeah “you” out there reading this comment can’t make the move is, the individual sitting at the keyboard. If you want to make the move, make the move, if you decide not to make the move, remember whose decision it is that keeps you back … yours.
You know possibly some people don’t know that according to the mechanics of the way the Web works, I know when people come here to visit, and I often know where they are visiting _from_. I always get plenty traffic at the opening of business hours in the US on Mondays .. that’s normally my busiest time. And the referring sites are very heavily business and government sites at that time.
People are dragging their buts into a job they hate and then immediately failing to do their job and instead indulging in online fantasies. Now there is nothing at all wrong with fantasy … but it ain’t getting anything done!
Message to anyone else reading who has the same feelings Fred’s son does … if you hate your job, then get rid of it! No, you don’t necessarily have to quit and sell all your possessions and move to the Philippines … but you, and you alone are responsible for where you are “stuck” today and what you can be doing tomorrow.
And by the way, although I talk a lot about making money with an online component … note, I don’t necessarily mean “making money online” in the classic sense, the reason I do is, it is where the future is … conventional jobs in the US are not only dying, they are becoming more and more of a scam, and losing more and more of their so-called security.
Live in the past or live for the future, the choice is yours.
And BTW, Sitesell is an excellent service. I’ve been seriously thinking about getting back into it myself. their website is a gold mine of information about earning from home, without necessarily “earning money from the Internet” in the way most people seem to think of it.
A big majority of their satisfied users are doing conventional “off-line” business in a new, exciting and profitable way by harnessing “On line” power. Good reading for anyone thinking of getting out of that mind-numbing job they hate.
http://workfromhome.sitesell.com/TalarSystems.html
Dave,
You are so right that column On why You Can’t Live in the Philippines is awesome.
I always read it from time to time it keeps me motivated and your points are so true.
I the US their are so many people who will tell you that you are crazy and sometimes it’s depressing. It’s sad people are trying to tell other people that their plans for happiness are crazy when they haven’t even been out side the US let alone their State.
Yeah, that’s a particularly strong US trait it seems, Bruce. It’s one of the reasons I like living here, becuase I never hear neighbors and friends jump right out and ask me, “Why are you planning to do this or that?”, as if my life were theirs to be accountable for.
In the US I hear that all the time, it seems. The average person on the street, let alone a relative, automatically assumes “they” know better than you how you ought to structure your life, and that they are somehow “appointed” to be in charge of “saving” you from yourself. And the vast majority know nothing about the Philippines or living overseas in general.
What really “chaps my hide”in this business are the guys who write me and tell me how they are planning to marry some girl they have never even met … a lifetime commitment if there ever was one … and yet will agonize for years about making a simple change in residence, which basically has no real commitment at all. If a person moved here and didn’t like it, then just move somewhere else … planes fly from the Philippines in all directions.
How on earth can you say your going to marry a Filipina you never truly meet except for the bula bula you get on the internet. And then plan on moving there and living happily ever after. However second guess yourself in every decision you make. Sounds like their on some kinda cheap drug.
What ever happen to courtship and long term dating?
/what ever happen to men having a set of cohonas to man up and make a decision to forge ahead and except the consequences of that decision.
I guess were the last of a breed were men were men and dammit women new it and loved it. Becuase when we said we were going to do we did it come hell or high water.
I’m the type of guy who actually has the opposite problem. I tend to make a move too quickly and damn the consequences. But I get a thrill from it, I guess, is why. I’m moving to Phil in November after I have about 10 grand saved up. My new online copy editor job pays me over 3 grand a month and I can work anywhere in the world. So the Philippines is my choice. But I admit that I have been working on finding a way to make money online for over a year now ever since I met my Pinay. I tried freebie trading and a variety of other things….then when I thought I could not do it, I applied for and received a wonderful job that pays more than I thought I could ever make online. So I am excited about my future in the Philippines. Excited about life more now at age 43 than at any other time of my life.
Amen to that, my friend. Life is so fleeting, you really should grab the gusto while you can. You know it’s really funny, how people’s attitudes, especially most of my fellow Americans, seem to be all mixed up vis-a-vis age and risk. As you may know, I’m pushing 65 … later this year, Lord willing.
But many times I am by far the youngest mind in a room or discussion group. The young guys, with the “bloom of youth”, much better educations, many years ahead of them to make “course corrections” should they chose a wrong path and then have to go a different route … they are the ones who are so frickin’ “hung up” on security and worry that I sometimes just get depressed and leave.
Everyone wants to “wait until they are older”(why, change is harder the older you are), or “until my job is more secure” (what a joke that is these days.), or “until my kids are older”, (again, why? Why cheat them out of experiences they will otherwise never have?)
The time to travel, take career risks, etc. is when you are young and healthy, not old and (partly) fossilized
Dave,
Love the concept of ready,fire aim, but their is on constant that always delays that direct hit and that is time. A you know if you want it bad enough you’ll get it. Moving back to the PI is really the only thing on my mind. But that’s a good thing, because before you fire for that direct hit you must make sure your powder is dry. What I mean by that is you leave clean. Your debt is cleared, your money is straight, you have your visas right and you make ammends to family or say goodbye for now. I’m in the process of drying my powder , 36months to go and I’m out of here like a cat with his @$$ on fire. I hate the waiting game, but if you fire to soon or to late you’ll miss your window of opportunity and
life long happiness.
Sure, Bruce, I don’t dispute proper planning … or waiting for defined life events … like a pension coming to fruition in a few years … is wrong in any way. Just trying to get a few of the “maybe someday” folks to get a little more specific in terms of action.
One of the things that frustrates me are things like the visa question. People agonize and agonize when, in point of fact, it makes very little difference. For those married to a Filipina/former Filipina, just get on a plane and come, the first years is free and automatic … who knows, at the end of a year, one or both might say, “I hate it, I wanna go home”.
For single folks, just get on a plane and come. You can extend in tourist status for 16 months or more … you ought to be able to decide a more permanent course of action by then.
For former Philippine citizens who can’t decide if they should reacquire Philippine citizenship, just get on a plane and come. You get a one year BB privilege for free, in a year, you ought to know what you want to do.
There may be some advantages in doing certain things in the US before you go, but then again, not enough advantage to put your dreams on hold agonizing over the details.
Got a house in the US you can’t decide about? Give it to a reputable rental manager to rent for a year, and while you’re at it, see a decent local attorney and give him/her a special power of attorney to sell the house if you decide to instruct him/her to. If you decide during the first year that the lifestyle here is not for you, hey, you still have a home to comeback to.
And to those of you waiting out the pension game, do yourself a favor and put the time to use … learn a skill that will bring in income even after you move, so that you never find yourself “single stringed”, depending solely on one or two fickle government agencies. Makes for a lot less worry and stress in your life as I can truly testify.
Godspeed, Bruce and thanks for making it fun to run this place … so many times people just ask a question and then never interact again … many people don’t realize it, perhaps, but I always learn more from the people who interact than they ever learn from me.
Dave,
Learning from each other is what it is all about. The person who said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks never had an old dog. Besides if we never communicate with people who have the same intrests sometimes you feel alone on an island. Every once in a while you just need to feel the energy of other people to stay motivative.
Besides building friendships in the Philippines is important it helps people who are going through highs and lows while waiting to finally get on that plane. It also gives everyone a pool of friends to converse with while you live there.
About the pension game I’ll have two militery and city so money should not be the problem.
What the peoblem would be is bordome got to do something to stay busy. I have a strong work ethic and I just can’t stop. Besides I don’t see myself drinking beer all day long and laying on the beach until I meet my maker. So you are right have to find something to stay active in and not honey does.
Yep, that’s why I used to work so much on my http://www.retiredpay.com efforts … and many things tell me I should get my butt back over there and build that effort back up again. Not becuase I necessarily need the money (but I find I cna always spend it, if required
), but more becuase many folks in my position, and your in the not distant future, need to “empower themselves” by “empowering their retirement” … and one of the best ways to do that is earn some honest dollars.
I really didn’t like my last “real” job near the end … not becuase of money, but becuase I was systematically being “marginalized” by management’s penchant for younger, “prettier” people. It’s a fact of life no one can ignore.
But when I left that job I really missed certain aspects … mainly, “being somebody” … not a big shit manager, but being the guy who was the “go to”person for certain problems I knew how to solve.
The secret “bad thing” about retirement is, the day after you pull the pin, you are “old news”.
How much better to build your own little “ventures” before that day comes, so you are never “yesterday’s news” … and if some money comes along, hey, so much the better.
Yep. It’s kind of remarkable to me how many people have lost the whole idea of conversation. They want an answer, and when they get it they are off to do their own thing. Oh, and if it isn’t the answer they wanted, then they get pissed, make a few snide remarks and then leave. There certainly isn’t much sense of shared community.
A quote “We can’t become what we need to be by remaining what we are”. Truth is Dave is that some (I might be one of them) that the dream, the maybe of it all might be more important than the actual doing. I remember my father always talked about moving to Arkansas. He never did and I asked him if he ever would and he told me if he did then what would he dream about. Ron
Nothing wrong with dreams, Ron. I’m probably not going to be the captain of Delta’s first A-380 flight into Manila, or even become Kris Aquino’s latest flame (hey, nightmares are dreams too LoL). But I do just get kind of tired of people who refuse to admit they are only dreaming … and “say” they aren’t taking action on their dream becuase of little detail a. or little detail b., but then when you find them an answer for the problem they “said” was what was holding them back … dig into a folder of hidden doubt and come up with little detail c.
Living here is obviously not for everyone, but I do encourage people to have the courage of their convictions and realize why they made the decisions they did.
Of course, I’m also a grumpy old man, too, and the world is already entitled to my opinion, even when they didn’t ask for it
Thanks for your long and faithful readership and contributions, Ron.
Happens all the time, Bruce. In fact, you would not believe how many times I have fielded questions from guys looking for “loopholes” to avoid the requirement that a couple have met at least once, outside the United States, in order to apply for a Fiancee visa.
Oh the list of reasons are sometimes as longs a your arm … sounds a lot at times like my little nephews when they come home with tales of woe from pre-school.
I have no money for a trip, my boss won’t let me travel, I have a fear of flying, long trips give me gas … you name it, I’ve heard it.
Friends, if you want to marry a woman from another country, (and also become part of her family (becuase that is what marriage is, for those of you who haven’t figured it out yet), and you are in such dire straights that you can’t even come up with discount, round-trip air fare, then you don’t have what it takes to build a successful marriage … you need to get your own life in order before you make someone else miserable as well.
I’m a child of WW II. I know what America was then, what America was in the 1950s and 60′s when we built up a great and fearless country.
Now? Not nearly so much, I must say.