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The concept of retirement, as well as single offices with 9-5 clocks, is hopelessly outdated.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?
Interesting question how many hours do I work? I also make my living online as a computer programmer and I spend about 12 to 14 hours a day in front of my computer. The problem is I think I work maybe 4 hours a day and only work about 30 minutes of real work. Other times I read your blog and find other interesting things to take up my time.
I read your blog to find out about other cultures. It is very interesting to be able to understand life in another place and not actually being there. I have to admit I toy with the idea now of living there. I could maybe do that now with the money I have saved. The problem is I am American and don’t have a wife or even a girlfriend that is from there. Seems that makes it an easier transition.
i can relate with you, bob. i get that question a lot. i dont have a staff, but being self employed allows me the freedom to manage my own time. people wonder about my schedule. im nowhere near that typical 9-5 gig and that confuses a lot of them.
one more thing. i’m like ben. spending a ton of time on the computer “working” every day. but i end up taking too many breaks just surfing the web. i guess i can kinda blame you for my diminished work productivity
Hi Bob,
This is really funny, I just purchased that book “the 4-day work week” today and its sitting right here next to me. I like to read your blog occasionally and your blog mentions the very book..hahha.
The book is ok thus far, I’m only a quarter way thorugh it. I’ll probably read the boo in its entirety however, I think many people will skim and find whats useful.
Anyways, I envy your lifestyle and have not put forward enough honest effort to follow suit. I was in the Philippines & Thailand around this time last year and really love the food, people and beauty.
I’d love to meet you guys sometime when I make it over again.
Good Luck and continued succcess
Chris S. – Tucson, AZ USA
Hi Bob, how many hours do I work ? well actually I dont work, but I do get paid rather alot of money for doing the things I enjoy doing, (your wondering about what I do ?) nope I am not getting paid for snorkelling, hahaha, just kidding, I work around 20 hours per week, I am self employed, I visit 2 clients a day, on average I make 1 sale a day, at the end of the week, I get my paycredit, generally I make enough comission to support myself and my wife in a fairly good standard living in my country, I don’t consider that my hours are strenuous, the rest of the time, I maintain my websites, and read your blogs Bob, that just about sums up my working week.
Hi Bob & Feyma,
You inspired me to start a blog to chronicle our adventure in Retiring to the PI. I started slow and as we go thru it I hope I can help others by sharing what I’m going thru from a womans point of view. Would it be OK if I post a link to your blog as a reference? Please checkout my blog http://retire2pi.blogspot.com/ any suggestions for improvement is always welcome especially from you. Thanks!
Im wondering why I want to move to PI when I only “work” 13 hours a week and drive about 11 hours a week, and make with my Military retirement, over 80k. BUT Its not the money, I want to move to PI to concentrate on my health (Dieabeties sp? LOL). I think tell me if Im wrong that if I get away from all this fast food, My live will last longer. What do you all think?
Interesting topic, Bob. Curious about your merchandise e-business. Do you actually ship the products from the Philippines to worldwide customers or do you do all of it from the states and just monitor the activities fromt the Philippines? I know from experience that it’s hard to bring anything from the Philippines to the states (U.S. Customs). It’s not the other way around. However, it’s very hard to get your asking price from the Filipino customers. They’ll talk you down to literally your purchase price where you don’t make any money. Currently, I’m building a website with a friend in the U.S., and we hope to market that website to U.S. customers. Then we’ll move on to the next project and just keep going from there? I’m also looking at ways to look at different business websites in the states, and see if my team here in the Philippines can find a way to improve it for the business. Is this a viable source of income as well? Till next time….
Hi Guys! Wow, lots of comments this morning!
Hi Ben – Wow, 10 to 14 hours is a long time to spend in front of your PC. I remember, though, I used to be like that. Nowadays, I probably spend a maximum of about 8 hours per day at the PC. On most days it’s more like 6. And, like both you and Macky say, a lot of the time I spend at my PC is not working, it’s surfing to sites that are not *strictly* work related.
Hi Macky – think about this…. those hours that you spend reading my blog and others are not expressly work related, but they can be considered to be such. Since you, like me, are self-employed, when you are doing research that can contribute to quality of life and also cost of life issues, those are directly related to your sustainability in your current work role. Any time that you spend learning is good for you, work related or not!
Hi Chris – I’d enjoy meeting you anytime that we end up in the same place at the same time, or even nearby. Keep me posted on how you enjoy the book!
Hi Peter – it sounds like you have a good handle on the “don’t work yourself to death” thing. Working just a few hours per day is great!
Hi Speedbump – If you would like to link to my site, I’d be most honored. Good luck to you with your effort!
Hi Mitch – It sounds like your work schedule is under control! I congratulate you for that! There are other reasons to move here, though. It seems you have discovered one of them when you mention being able to take care of your health. The most common diet here is not really a healthy one. Too much deep fried stuff and lots of grease! However, you have a much better option here of fresh fish and other such healthy things. In addition, there are lots of Health Clubs here that are very inexpensive and joining one might be great! If you don’t work too many hours in a week, you could certainly have plenty of time for exercise. Like you, I have diabetes. I have managed to lose about 130 pounds since I moved here in 2000. I still have to work more on my diabetes, but I’ve made good progress.
Hi Julius – I have a number of e-stores. None of them send merchandise to the USA, although I used to have one doing that. When you are shipping in single orders there is usually no problem with customs, it’s when you are shipping in container loads that you run into problems. For my main business, what I do is sell to customers mostly in the USA, Canada, Europe and Australia. However, I ship in the Philippines. In other words, the customer abroad buys items from me, and I deliver to their family, girlfriend or whatever here in the Philippines. When I started doing this, I was the only such company around. Now there are dozens! I still am able to maintain a good market share, though.
Unfortunately, I work too many hours a week. In addition, I am a writer. Unfortunately, a reasonably successful writer, so I end up spending a chunk of time doing that.
If my life were different, I would pack it in, and journey across the ocean. While I could not live off my writing in the U.S., I certainly could there.
Thanks so Bob for this great and infromative article about Davao. I enjoyed reading it and you give great insite on what to expect there!!
Hi Bob. I agree with what you mean by competition. The people here in the Philippines are so keen on what’s making money and what’s not. You start a business here and, as soon as others see that you’re making money, you’ll see similar businesses opening up everywhere. Starting a business here in the Philippines is so easy that anyone can do with a very little capital. In fact, most businesses here don’t even have a license.
This is what’s popularly know as the undeground economy. That’s because these unlicensed businesses do not pay taxes. How do you compete with these two obstacles? The stiff competition and the underground economy.
I think I’d rather stick with the e-commerce business. Like you said before, you have to have a leverage if you’re seeking active income in the Philippines. Use the local economy for abroad revenue. You’ll have both sides of the sectors beat. First your competition abroad will never be able to compete with you–unless they want to outsource. And that could get complicated unless you set yourself up in the Philippines. Second, the local labor will not be able to steal your ideas and run away with, unless they have contacts abroad to help them get set up. Even if you have aspiring competition out there, the percentage is stilll relativekt small than trying to use one sector as the labor and source of revenue.
The only other thing I’d like pursue (once I get the time to do it) is to attract foreign tourist to my adventure tour business. Philippines is steadily getting back on its feet as a vacation spot in Asia. I’d like very much to be a part of that growth. till next time….
I think that is one of the things that is rather appealing to me about the Philippines. I have two jobs. I am a writer and, unlike many writers, actually make money at it. Not enough to live on (well, at least not with 3 kids!), but a reasonable amount. So I, like most writers, also have a day job. It’s a good job that gives me summers off.
However, if it were possible, I would certainly consider moving there and living off the writing income. Given the numbers that people talk about, it would be sufficient.
And, yes, it would be fewer hours in a week.
Hi Tom – It sounds like moving here would be something to think about! Less stress, more time for yourself, etc!
Hi Jennifer – I’m glad that you enjoyed the article!
Hi Julius – You are 100% right about people here copying your business idea if they think you are succeeding. You know what they say – imitation is a great form of flattery!
Hi Tom – It really sounds like the writing is something you enjoy, and if you were here you could spend a little more time on it, and perhaps increase what you earn!
All I can say is WOW! Very good book. You have to have a copy of your own so that you will really understand what Tim is trying to share about productivity. Thanks for this post Bob, keep on posting nice entries.
More Power to your blog Bob!
-Samantha