The Jeepney Business

A lot of foreigners who come to live in the Philippines are always looking for is a business where they can make enough money so that they can live here.  A lot of people who move here do not have regular streams of income at their disposal, and don’t have a lot of savings built up that they can live from.  One of the businesses a lot of people talk about is the Jeepney business.

Although the business of owning a fleet of Jeepnies is kind of romanticized by many foreigners, it is a really tough business.  Especially in today’s world of very high gasoline (or diesel) prices, it’s hard to make much money from Jeepneys, in my opinion.  If you consider how much the Jeepney fare was at the time I moved here in 2000, it has increased, but not nearly at the rate that fuel has increased.

The business model for most people who have enough money to buy a few Jeepnies is that they buy the Jeepnies and then they rent them out to drivers.  The drivers then collect a fare from each passenger who rides that day, and whatever he makes over the rental that he paid, that’s his profit for the day.   Maintenance costs of the vehicle are for the Jeepney owner to take care of.  If the Jeepney is not running, there will be no money for rental that day!

I have not heard for a few years, but last I heard, the driver would pay around P800 per day for rental of the Jeepney.  By the time that all of the costs are deducted, it honestly doesn’t leave that much for the owner.  Let’s see… what kind of costs would be involved?

• Cost of the Jeepney – maybe $10,000 or so.
• Depreciation of the Jeepney – these things are treated pretty roughly.
• Repair and Maintenance Costs – everything from Oil Changes to Engine Repairs
• Cost in time – Your time is worth money, and you will spend time chasing down people to drive, etc.

All in all, I personally don’t believe that there is a lot of money to be made in this business.  It would seem that the record bears me out too, because most foreigners who get into this type of business end up going out of business within a year or so, from what I’ve seen.

A couple other things to consider on this…  the locals don’t really like having a foreigner get into this particular business.  They will give you strong competition to drive you out of business.  Secondly, you can’t just buy a Jeepney and go out and start driving around picking up passengers.  You must get approved by the government to run on a certain route.  You cannot change to a different route one day just because there are no passengers – you must follow the route that you are assigned.  Also, they won’t give everybody a route.  If all the routes already have the maximum amount of Jeepnies, you are out of luck!

So, maybe it’s a better idea to search out a different business.  Of course, your mileage may vary!

Housing: Buy, Build or Rent?

I got a question in my e-mail box this morning, and it is one that really fits in with this blog.  Let’s take a look and see what the e-mail said:

Hi Bob – my wife and I were planning to move to the Philippines and rent a house there, maybe buy one later.  A Filipina friend here in the States recently told us that we should build a place instead.  What do you think?

Well, this is an interesting question, and like many questions, everybody’s answer may be a little different.  Let me tell you my thoughts, though.

Firstly, I believe strongly that when you first move here you should rent.  A significant number of foreigners who move here end up leaving, probably the majority.  Why do they leave?  Well, they find that they can’t handle the lifestyle here, and they go home after a few months or a few years.  Those who can live here long enough to make the adjustment, say maybe 3 to 5 years – usually end up staying permanently.  But, if you come here and dump big money on a house, then decide that you really want to go home, it can be difficult to sell the house!  This is especially true if you build a very high end home that is similar to the standards of the country you came from.  Those kind of homes are very expensive, and it can be quite difficult to find a buyer in the local market who is willing to spend that kind of money on a house.  Because of these factors, I believe that it’s best to rent when you first move here, and to do so for at least 2 to 3 years.  Rent is cheap here anyway, so that is not a worry.

After you are established here, comfortable with the lifestyle, and have decided this is the place for you, it’s time to decide what to do with your housing situation.  Should you buy a place, or build a place?

I have noticed in my time here that houses that go up for sale are usually way overpriced.  Because of this, it is usually cheaper to build a brand new house.  Of course, you might come across a deal where people really need to sell or something like that, and you can snatch up something for a very reasonable price.

My choice would be to build a place, though.  When you do this, you can really get it built just the way you want.  You can design it to fit your needs and desires to a tee.  Building can be a hassle, and you will have to keep an eagle eye on the contractor, but if you can handle that, I believe that building is the way to go.

Remember, your situation may vary from what I’ve written here.  There is nothing wrong with that.  No single piece of advice can fit every person, so use your best judgment to decide what is the best route for you!

The Four Hour Workweek

Everybody who reads this blog wants to move to and live in the Philippines, at least that would be my guess. Why else would anybody come here, after all? Of those who are hoping, or dreaming of retirement in the Philippines, we fall into three classes. We are retired. We are getting ready to retire. Or, we want to move here and must find some way to earn money while living in a place far from our home. Personally, I fall into the third category, or at least I used to. I have figured out how to earn enough to live here, but I am always on the lookout for new sources of income, as you should be too!

One of the things that I do for income is blogging. My blogs are monetized, in that I can earn money through the blogs, if I have enough readers who visit. In addition, I have e-commerce stores where I sell merchandise. In short, almost all of my businesses are online businesses. I have been doing the e-commerce for years, but I just got into the blogging less than 2 years ago. One of my mentors for blogging and earning money at it is Darren Rowse, and Australian fellow who earns a really nice income through blogging. As a matter of fact, one of his most popular blogs is called ProBlogger. I read Darren regularly, and I trust what he says. He is not full of hype and get-rich-quick schemes. That’s why I trust his advice.

Well, today, when I went to Darren’s site, I was very pleased with the subject, and it was one that fits in with this blog. Darren did an interview with Tim Ferris, the author of a book that has just been released called The Four Hour Workweek. Tim has some great ideas about the new wave of business and lifestyle in which you can live like a millionaire on a much smaller budget due to technology. I believe that I am an example of what Tim is talking about, living in the tropics, enjoying life, not working too hard, yet enjoying the benefits of technology to earn money for me!

One thing that caught my eye was this:

Darren – ‘The 4 Hour Work Week’ is a great title for a book – what’s it about?

Tim – The premise of The 4-Hour Workweek is that there are three currencies in a digital world: time, income, and mobility. In the last 2-3 years, it’s become possible to do things like outsource your life and create virtual businesses, both of which can enable you to live the lifestyle of a millionaire on less than $50,000 per year.

The concept of retirement, as well as single offices with 9-5 clocks, is hopelessly outdated.

Hmm… The concept of retirement is outdated! This is something that I have known for some time, but I just didn’t sit down and think it out, thus I didn’t realize that I knew it until I read what Tim said. My life is an example that the concept of retirement (and I might add, the concept of work!) being outdated.

When people ask me how many hours I work per day (it’s a question that I get frequently), my response is that I work around 2 hours per day. I have staff to take care of the real work, I just make sure that things are getting done. I have a couple of blogs (like this one) that I personally write for, and I have a bunch of blogs that my staff writes for. Sometimes, I work more hours than that, if I have some kind of special project that I want to try, or if I have a new startup that I am nursing and bringing to fruition. But, in general, I can get the work done that I need to do in about 2 hours per day. I used to have a joke that I told people who asked. I told them I worked 18 minutes per day, and did it in three shifts of 6 minutes each. A lot of people took me seriously, so I decided to stop saying that.

I am looking forward to getting Tim’s book, it sounds intriguing to me. The title might lead one to believe that he is peddling some kind of get-rich-quick scheme, but I don’t believe it is so. I trust Darren, and I don’t think he’d be promoting something that wasn’t on the up and up.

So, let’s see… I work about 2 hours per day, and I have the rest of the day to go swimming, enjoy the beach, enjoy the tropical sunshine, etc.

How many hours per day do you work?

Why?

Why are we dreamers?

Everybody dreams of something, right?  I mean, no person goes through life without dreaming about the life he would have if he just does whatever it is he dreams about.  None of us can say we haven’t had dreams.  Some are pursued, some are not.

I like to think of myself as a “doer” instead of a dreamer.  However, I must admit that I dream of many things.  A lot of the things I dream of are thing I will never do.  So, how can I be a doer?  Well, I can’t say for certain, but I feel like I pursue my dreams a lot more than the average person.  For example, out of 100 things I dream of, I probably do 70 of them, I guess.  I would bet that most people are lucky if they try to accomplish 10 of 100 dreams.

I remember in the mid 90’s through the end of the 1990’s, I dreamed and dreamed of moving to the Philippines and living in Mindanao.  I was obsessed by it.  Every day, I thought about what it would be like to live here.  Every day I made plans.  In 1996 or 1997 Feyma and I put our house up for sale, and our plan was to move here as soon as our house sold.  Well, we left our house on the market for almost a year, and it never sold.  The market was soft, I guess.   Maybe it just wasn’t mean to be at that time.  I kept dreaming, though.

In 1998, I got a really good promotion on my job, and Feyma and I decided that it was a sign that we were not meant to move to the Philippines.  We re-evaluated our position and decided that we would stay in the USA for about 10 more years.  We accepted it, and my dream was kind of on hold at that point.  Well, we did decide to take a vacation to the Philippines in 1999.  I was only able to come for 2 weeks due to the demands of my job, but Feyma and the kids stayed a month.  When we were both home, we talked, and we both said the same thing – “we really have to move to the Philippines.”

Then something happened – we found out that Feyma was pregnant!  This was totally unplanned, and unexpected since Feyma was using birth control pills at the time.  But, we decided that we still wanted to push forward with our plans to move.  We would try to sell our house after Feyma had the baby in March or April 2000.

Then, in early March 2000, before we put our house up for sale, somebody walked up to our front door, rang the doorbell and when we opened the door the guy said “My Mom used to own this land years ago.  I want to buy your house, are you willing to sell it?”   Well!  Come on in and let’s talk about it!  He made an offer, and it was significantly more than we had planned to sell for, so the deal was struck.  He even allowed us to stay in the house, rent-free, until 1 month after the baby was born.

That’s how it all happened that we moved here.  For me, it was a sign that the time had come, and we were basically meant to move at that time.  We didn’t even have to try.

But, you know what?  I was scared to death!  Feyma was scared to death too.  Suddenly moving halfway around the world was no longer a dream, it was quickly becoming reality.  We had so many things to accomplish, including having a baby!  Could we do it?  Did we even want to do it?  Moving to the Philippines was a huge thing.  Were we ready? Were our kids ready?  All of these questions clouded our minds.  But, we had been pursuing this dream for a long time, and we pushed through with it.  In retrospect, it was a great even in my life, and one that I don’t regret.

Over the coming days, I am going to write about other dreams that I hear from ex-pats here.  Some are totally unrealistic, some are doable, but never happen.

How about you?  What are your dreams?  Do you think you will ever make them happen?

Julie Campbell, R.I.P.

Recently here in the Philippines, a United States Peace Corp Volunteer was murdered, her name was Julia Campbell.  Julia Campbell, 40 years old, was from Fairfax, Virginia.  Campbell had been teaching at an Albay College on the island of Luzon since September 2005.  She was fluent in Tagalog.  I saw her do an interview on TV, and was very impressed with her ability to speak Tagalog, she was very fluent.  Apparently, during Holy Week, Julia Campbell took a mini-vacation to Ifugao Province.  Ifugao is the place where the famous Banaue Rice Terraces are located.  It was Julia’s intention to do some hiking in the area of the Rice Terraces.

Campbell was last seen on April 8 when she rode a tricycle to the area where she planned to start hiking.  She was not seen again until her dead body was discovered some 10 days later.  In the interim,  a massive search had ensued to find her, hopefully alive.  Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way.  How did she die?  She was murdered, no doubt about that.  She was found buried in a shallow grave.  People who have accidents don’t end up buried, after all.  What was the motive for the killing?  Nobody knows yet.  Maybe it was robbery.  Maybe it was a political killing (NPA?).  Whatever it was, she was just as dead.

What can we learn from the death of Julia Campbell?

• If you are going out to hike, explore or whatever, it is best not to do it alone.  This applies in the Philippines as it does anywhere in the world.  If you have an accident and get hurt, you need a partner to assist you.  It’s just better if you go out in pairs.
• Let people know what your plans are.  What route will you take?  What time do you expect to return home?
• Even though Julia was fluent in Tagalog, she still got killed.  If you don’t know how to speak the language, or at least enough to get by, you are more of a target.  Know the language of the area where you intend to visit.  Speaking Tagalog may not be much help if you are in Cebu.  Knowing Bisaya is worthless in Northern Luzon, or even Manila.  At the minimum, carry a phrase book so that you can say things that are at least the bare minimum.

These points are important no matter where you go, even outside the Philippines.  The area where Julia went hiking is a relatively safe area too.  All the more if you are visiting an area that is not so safe.  I, myself, tend to go to places where few foreigners venture.  I have visited nearly every province in Muslim Mindanao (only missed one so far).  Honestly, the death of Julia Campbell does make me stop and think about my own safety.  I will probably continue to visit out of the way places, but I will take additional precautions in doing so.

I’ll end this with a phrase that a Filipino friend of mine always tells me.  KEEP SAFE!

Is there a way that you can own land?

I’ve talked a number of times on this blog about the fact that unless you are a Citizen of the Philippines, you cannot own land.  There is only one exception to that – if you are a former citizen who has been naturalized in another country, then you can own a limited amount of land, basically enough to have a house here.  That is the only exception to the law that non-citizens cannot own property.

Funny thing is, lately, I’ve been getting a lot of e-mails from different foreigners from all around the world.  They are all asking questions about what they can do to own land.  It’s always the same – they want to buy it in the girlfriend’s name (most of these guys aren’t even married to local ladies), and have some sort of affidavit drawn up that will show that they (the foreign guy) is the true owner.  They ask me if there is any way to circumvent the law.  Let me just say this – the law is very clear – if you are not a citizen, you CANNOT own land.

When I tell them this, they ask if the affidavit won’t stand up in court.  Well, of course it won’t!  You cannot legally own land, so any document that says you own the land is automatically illegal, and will not be accepted by the court.  No matter what, whoever has their name on the title of the land is the owner!  You cannot change that.

Now, in my case, I am involved in a long term marriage (17 years)  to my Filipina wife, and I trust her implicitly.  Even if something did happen with our marriage (which it won’t), I feel secure that the two of us would be equitable in splitting our property.  It’s just not a concern for me.  But, if I was just purchasing real estate and putting it in the name of a girlfriend, I’d be quite concerned about that.  In that case, if you buy land and put it in a girlfriend’s name, in my opinion, you should just consider it to be hers, and she can leave you at any time.

The bottom line is this – don’t fool yourself!  Don’t let others fool you!  Use your mind and think about things.  If the law says it is illegal for you to do something, how would a piece of paper make it legal?  Bottom line is that it won’t!

What To Wear

A few weeks ago somebody asked me to write about how to dress up here in the Philippines.

For me for my everyday wear when I go out I usually wear jeans and shirt and a decent shoes. To go to the beach of course I would wear shorts and a shirt and sandals. If you go for a nice dinner to a nice place here you have to wear semi-formal clothing and nice shoes. Some places here won’t allow people inside the premises if their wearing shorts and sandals. They even have a big sign outside the door. I know some people got offended if you wear shorts to hang out in a nice place, they feel you are insulting the place and most of all the people. All of you ladies know that here in the Philippines in every city we wear clothes differently. In Manila its more liberated than in the provinces, nothing wrong with that. It’s just different to the eyes of other people in other provinces. In the provinces we wear clothes more conservatively than other big cities, nothing wrong with that too.

Like last week we went to Tugaya, Lanao del Sur, our guide asked us to wear a kumbong over our head. Don’t wear a sleeveless shirt. I simply obeyed and followed because in that side of the country it’s 99% Muslim.  I respect their culture. I’m a tourist there too. To that lady that ask me what would she wear in going to Lake Sebu? You can wear shorts, jeans or the other native skirt that looks like malong.

For me you can wear anything you want that you feel you’re comfortable of wearing. Especially because the temperature is hot here.

Update: A story about helping others

A week or two ago, I posted an article here about helping the people who you select.  In the article, I mentioned that there had been some people in the family that I have offered help to, and they turned around and messed up.  Well, I have an update about this.

Yesterday, a niece of mine showed up at the house.  This is a girl that had lived with us for about 4 or 5 years, and whom I had put through high school, and was attending college.  She was doing well, and then something happened.  Somehow, she fell in with the wrong crowd, and her behavior changed.  Her behavior got so bad that the time actually came where we had to withdraw our offer of supporting her and putting her through college.  We offered her some options on how she could get back into our good graces and return to school, but at the time her attitude was so bad that she just chose to leave and go out on her own.   This was a little over a year ago.

Well, over the past year, we have often wondered where she was, how she was doing, etc.  We worried about her, because she is family, after all.  No matter how bad of a mistake she made, she was still our family, and somebody that we loved.  We were quite surprised yesterday when she showed up here at the house!  She had been through some hard times, and had been too proud to come back and talk to us, but yesterday she finally mustered up the courage.   I am happy that she did.  We spent a lot of time talking yesterday, and she even stayed overnight with us.  She won’t be living here again, but I did offer her a job in my company, and she accepted.  Maybe someday she can earn my trust and affection back to the point where it was a couple years ago, and if she is able to do that and show me that she has learned from her trials, I will consider letting her finish her education.

I believe that the fact that she has accepted that she made a big mistake when she left here is the first step to a real reconciliation with us.  It’s a big step too, one that is hard for a young person to make, because of pride.  Pride is something that can really hold a person back, if they so choose.

The road to recovery and reconciliation begins.  Let’s see where it takes us.

This business idea is not a good one

In relation to this blog, the thing that people ask me the most is how they can get into a business here.  They need to earn money so that they can live here, and they don’t know how to do it.  Well, I have made other posts in the past about ideas on how you can make money, but there is something I want to address specifically.

When guys tell me that they have a website that they are operating, or that they have an idea for a website, and they think it can make money for them, inevitably, the most common thing they are going to mention is a dating site, or some kind of site where they will introduce Filipinas to Western men for love and marriage.  I have a couple of problems with this kind of business.

First, the biggest problem is that it doesn’t make any money!  There are so many of these sites on the net already, and many of them are doing it for free.  Maybe they are hoping to draw traffic to their site so they can leverage ad dollars from AdSense or some other advertising campaign on the site.  But, as I said, there are hundreds, probably thousands of these sites already, and the odds of making any kind of serious money doing this are very slim.

There is another problem though, and one that you must consider if you are thinking of living here.  This kind of site is illegal here in the Philippines.  You could end up in jail if you operate this kind of site while living here.  If you operate this kind of site and don’t live here, don’t be surprised if you are not allowed into the country when you come to visit.

In 1990, a law was passed here in the Philippines called Republic Act 6955 which is also called the “Anti Mail Order Bride Law”.  Because of this law, people operating sites that are used for introductions for dating or marriage are subject to being jailed!  Believe me, you don’t want to end up in a Philippine jail!

So, if you are looking for a business here, don’t look the way of an online dating or marriage introduction site!  It can get you in a lot of trouble, and probably won’t make you much money!

Being an ex-pat opens many windows

Living in a country other than your own opens all sorts of windows that you did not have in your home country. The “window” that I want to talk about today is having friends from all over the world.

I never really thought about this topic until about a year ago. I have an American friend that I have known for years who lives in Iligan. We knew each other in the States before either of us moved over here too. Well, about a year ago, my friend told me that he and his wife were going to come to Davao for a visit. We were quite happy that they were coming, as it was their first time to visit Davao. We had been to Iligan a few times, but this would be their first trip to Davao. My friend, Marc, told me that a few other friends would be coming along on the trip too.

Well, when they showed up at the house, I was surprised that there was Marc, an American, and also people from Switzerland, Australia and Haiti! My goodness, what an International Crowd we had. This got me thinking about friendships. I realized that I now had friends from countries all over the world. When I lived in the USA, almost all of my friends were Americans. Those who were not Americans were immigrants to America, and thus were “becoming” Americans.

I find it nice to have an International group of friends. It opens up my eyes and helps me understand things differently. Maybe my view is still very American, but at least I can see other sides of the issue, and consider those other opinions.

Of course, living in the Philippines, most of my friends are Filipino.  I have a large number of ex-pat friends too, though.  Of my ex-pat friends, probably half are American and the rest are from all over the world.

So, as you can see, moving outside your own country really does open many culturally different windows of opportunity.  It’s a learning experience to say the least!  I believe that it broadens the way you think, and makes you a more interesting person.