PhilFAQS

Not often that I write about blogging here in PhilFAQS … which is all about the world of Traveling to the Philippines, Touring the Philippines and Living In The Philippines.  But occasionally one of my blogging acquaintances will write something that is so appropriate I just have to pass it on.  My friend Yaro Starak is an Australian based in Brisbane who has built himself a pretty darn good business on line, based mostly on blogging.  (if you want to know more about how Yaro makes at least a $6-figure income from blogging, you can get the “whole truth” here .. it’s free … but, I digress)

A lot of people visit my blog and other Philippine-related web sites with the question “How much is the cost of living there”?  Well I post some prices and will put up more as I go along, and there are many places with a lot of this sort of information.  Two that I recommend are Bob and Feyma Martin’s blog, “Live In The Philippines” and Don Herrington’s web site, Living in the Philippines .  But regardless of what information you find on living costs, I want to talk to you, straight from the shoulder today, about a problem which I feel has cost more expats more heartache. more stress and more out and out problems with living in the Philippines than any other.  Spending their life obsessing over every peso and wasting their precious remaining years searching and searching for the absolute, “world’s cheapest price” on every purchase.  If you enjoy gong to sleep at night grinding your teeth over the cab driver who ripped you off for 10 pesos back in 1998, then don’t read the rest of this post.  If you want to know how to add enjoyment to your life (and save time … how much do you have left?). then read on.

The last few months have seen some huge changes in my life. I bought my first house … Something I’ve noticed lately is a change to my mindset towards how I spend money. Ever since I began studying business, learning the 80/20 Rule, dealing with information overload, studying business systems … and just my own progression as a business owner, has led to a big mental shift.  The core concept I am talking about here is the relationship between time and money and how I leverage those two resources.

The Bargain Hunter

During previous periods in my life I had an attitude of always looking for the best price and I felt I had to thoroughly research any purchase to make sure I was getting a good deal. It wasn’t that I desperately needed to save money, although I certainly wasn’t financially stable, it was more that mentally I had a need to feel comfortable with a purchase decision. I needed to feel that I made the right decision and invested enough research beforehand.
This process has completely changed and it’s specifically because I now value time more than money. I didn’t realize it back then, but the investment I made in energy and time to find the best price and to make sure I felt “comfortable” with my decision was costing me way more than any price saving I made by finding the cheapest option….

Sometimes it’s simply smarter to go with the best given option available right now without looking around and researching. …

An Example

Let’s take an example with the purchase of a digital camera….I could walk into a store, say what my needs are and be presented with a few options…. The old Yaro, the bargain hunter, would note the brand and models presented, leave the camera store having not bought anything and then head home to go online to find alternative stores and read reviews of each camera. I’d look up eBay and find online retailers who have the same models cheaper and read reviews to find out if there are better options available…. You want to work with multiplication tables, not additions and subtractions, so you can leverage your time for significant rewards, not just flat discounts…

….. Once you break away from the linear income world, you realize that freedom - and true freedom is having abundant time and flexibility of choice - is what you really want, and you will never stress about making a purchase decision for fear of not finding the cheapest price.
Yaro Starak
Time Hunter

There’s a lot more of Yaro’s article there and I strongly suggest you go read it .. even if you don’t know a blog from a splog and couldn’t care less.  The reason I am recommending it is the forthright and intelligent way Yaro chronicles this change in his mindset during “tender years” (I think he’s in his 20’s or early 30’s).

In my retired life, especially here in the Philippines, I have met a plethora of people (many with a lot more money than me, frankly), who are shortening their lives, making their own black clouds over their heads and even damaging their relationships with others by spending their life in perpetual indecision over purchases and inability to enjoy what they have purchased because of near-insane concerns over the last peso and centavo.

Life is short.  Many of use are near the end of the line … you can’t take it with you! Live for now!

Traveling to the Philippines, Touring the Philippines and Living In The Philippines

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1. Who Are The Real Filipinos, Anyway? Part 5
2. Is Moving to the Philippines the “In Thing”?
3. Real World Business — Running An Internet Cafe — Part 1
4. Outsourcing Blogs in the Philippines
5. Blogging Meetup — Driving For Fun

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