Birding? What the heck is that Dave? You mean those folks who go out with boots an binoculars trying to see how many different bids they can see in a day?
Well yes, sure, that’s birding … and a very popular hobby it is with some folks.
There’s plenty of “real” birding to be done in the Philippines … and like many hobbies, it’s one heck of a lot cheaper than the costs normally are in the USA. Check these folks out, for example: Wild Bird Club of the Philippines. Very low membership dues, tours to all sorts of viewing spots, around Manila and elsewhere in the Philippines. As they say on their site, a much better way to spend a day than cooped up in front of your TV.
But actually I had a couple different sorts of “birding” involved. How about:
Snow Birding?
Now many US and Canadian readers are going to be very familiar with this term. Typically it will mean someone who lives in Toronto or Boston or some other northern city and spends the winter months in Florida or some other southern state.
Many times a “snowbird” will even have a second home or apartment, condo or even a time share unit in the warmer state. It’s a great way of living, especially for those who really have had enough of that cold north wind and would enjoy living someplace where a windshield scraper is just an object of curiosity.
But why, one might wonder, would anyone without the slightest interest in living in Asia, and particularly the Philippines, not consider the Philippines, instead of just another US state, like Florida?
By the way, I’m not “anti-Florida” per se, it’s a lovely place with many lovely people but for me it is:
- Boring. Too many “oldies” like me whose on topic of conversation is AARP and Medicare
- Often too damn cold in the winter.
- Flat and featureless. Beaches and theme parks, neither one much appeals to me. YMMV.
If I were still living in the USA, say in Colorado where I lived for 22 years before I moved to the Philippines full time, I’d much prefer “snowbirding’ to the Philippines. Why?
- The seasons match up. From about March when it gets really hot here in Luzon is the best time to go back to Colorado where spring is “sort of” getting underway.
- From about September or October when the best part of autumn weather is done in colder states it when the rainy season and the worst of the typhoon season has passed in the Philippines.
- It’s not boring, like an “Old Folks” home. I meet, talk to and do business every day with both Filipino and foreigner friends literally from their teens to their high 90’s.
- It’s never that cold, my house doesn’t even have provisions for a furnace or heaters and never will.
- It’s not that hot, I don’t run my air conditioning much at all from September until the “heat begins to hit” in March or April.
- I can save a lot of money over what I would spend during those 6 or 7 months back in Colorado.
- I will never, ever have to shovel snow or chip ice off my sidewalk!
I’ve written about this subject before, here’s a link to one of my articles, Snowbirding in the Philippines. If you want to talk more about this, leave a comment and let’s get a conversation going.
Economy Birding?
Ah, this expression, perhaps is not so familiar. But I hinted at it in the paragraph above when I stated I could save money by living six months (give or take) of the year in the Philippines. I could literally write pages and pages of cost comparisons and “what if’s” about the subject, but I think I’ll let one graphic tell the story. Extract from the Big Mac Index, The Economist. Click for full view)
Plain and simple, It’s cheaper in the Philippines. Not only in the actual prices of many items, but in the fact there are so many expenses those of you still mired in the idea that having a conventional J*O*B, two or three cars to commuted to the job, huge child care cost that eat up all the extra income from a second job, US insurance plans, US health care plans, US cell phone plans, cable TV subscriptions, property taxes (mine were 947 Pesos this year, about $27 USD), etc., etc., etc.
Even though or price per kilowatt hour of electricity here in the Philippine is typically quite a bit higher than the US average, it still costs a LOT less to “keep the lights turned on”, that is, keep a roof over your head.
Are you sunk in debt? Out of a job? Faced with student loans you feel can never be repaid? Well think about coming to the Philippines for even a year or two, living cheap and paying things off.
In many cases the “standard” idea of moving to the Philippines when you’re old and have all your debts settled is, as we say in Tagalog, “Baliktad”. Literally “backward”. I’m a living example.
My wife and I were living in Colorado, both working, and I had a substantial pension as well. We were making no headway at all. I sold one house in 2005 for a modest (very modest) profit and we were living in a dump which I had made money off for rears as a rental property but was now nearly destroyed by years of abuse. We had more than $20k in credit card debt (all run up by me, by the way), and taxes, insurance and the continual demands of daily living were just keeping us Just Above Broke.
There was no hope in selling that rental property for even as much as I owed. We packed our stuff, hired a U-Haul to deliver it to the shipper in California (and also carry us to the airport), quit our jobs, mailed the key to the useless property to the mortgage company (“Jingle Mail”), sold our last car to pay the moving costs and came to the Philippines in 2006.
Today all the debt is paid (I owe literally, no one ANYTHING), we bought a new car and paid it off completely, bought a hose and paid it off completely, sent a niece through 4 years of college, all cash. no loans … and lest you think I could never come back to the US, my credit rating is 795 … 835 is the highest you can have.
All that was accomplished with my pension (which wasn’t even enough for us to live on in Colorado), and some low key, limited on-line entrepreneurial work which you certainly could learn to do too.
I’m not going back to the USA any time soon, but if my wife and I were to choose to do so, think how far we are now ahead of the game after 7 years of Economy Birding here in the Philippines? Money in the bank, zero debt, and a free and clear house here which we could sell, or just keep and use for vacations and “Snowbirding” in the future. See more here: Economy-Birding in the Philippines
Economy Birding in the Philippines may not be for everyone, but it sure changed my life around for the better. What about you? Comments welcome.
Excellent Article Dave,
When i first got here, I didn’t know what all these birds were i would encounter and the birdwatch.ph website helped me sort through them.
Your commentary on cost of living is pretty spot on. I would say that electricity in the Philippines is 2nd highest in the world today and people should get smart and have energy efficient appliances to keep costs under control, but relatively easy to do. 20.5 cents US per KWh compared to say 6.9 cents in California was a wake up call.
My friends like to use Thailand as comparison to the Philippines, but between the real estate bubble there and the constant political turmoil and election cycles i would rather be here than there, and one of my friends recently sold the condos he had in Thailand and moved over here on an SRRV visa.
We should all be thinking about saving energy resources, for it will all rise over time and a very scarce commodity here in this country, some places more than others.
Great read! Thanks for sharing
Thanks for the kind words, Rick. Indeed I often warder why so many people move to Thailand instead of the Philippines? I myself lived in Thailand for several years. My Phil-Am wife also lived and worked in Thailand. We both enjoyed the Thai people and we like the country a lot, but for a foreigner to retie there? No way. The Philippines beats Thailand 12 ways to Sunday. Reference that detai]ils my reasons:
Why Choose the Philippines — Is Thailand a Better Choice?
http://philfaqs.com/why-choose-the-philippines-is-thailand-a-better-choice/
Talk about boring old folks. Ex-pats, usually old, fat, bald men, who made their pension in the US choose now to spend it in some cheap, 3rd world place then brag about what a good deal such a place is. It is more than boring: it is trite and always borders on criticism of the US way of life. Well, if it were really so bad, then those m illions of Mexicans. Latin-Americans and Philippine citizens who would move here in a minute if they could must be mistaken. My modest exposure to the Philippine shows meeting uniformly pleasant people but those armed guards at markets are not there for nothing. You and yourr home probably have all the “normal” features most Philippine citizens’ do not such as a car, flush toilets, hot water, air conditioning and the like. You do not live in The Philippines. You live in the US retiree version of the Philippines. Sounds a lot like Florida actually.
Show me a US retiree living w/o US standard stuff such as the above and then I’ll agree that it’s more fun in the Philippines. But, unless you live there like the typical American retiree/ex-pat, it’s simply not. It’s just another 3rd world country.
Jim you are so off base it isn’t even funny. I know one American who not long ago lost all his money and now really doesn’t have a penny to his name and gets by on about $300 month he earns doing small projects and he is managing just fine and mostly has a happy disposition. There are thousands of examples of Foreigners living frugally and enjoying their life here far more than in the USA. On the other hand there are equal numbers of foreigners with more money than they know what to do with and all they do is complain. Oh and BTW, the guy making $300 a month has a GF you could only dream (has looks that can cause traffic accidents) of having in the USA. Maybe you should spend more time here as your comments are frankly a little ignorant. I live a life almost with all the conveniences as in the USA and it cost me about 1/3rd. I probably sacrifice mostly in things I want to eat versus what I can eat.
Your citing of a single example and then leaping to a logical conclusion is not merely poor logic, it is execrable argument. You totally failed to address my point. Frankly, while you can address it, I don’t think you can overcome it. Take away what we Americans consider SOP – like hot water – and if expats couldn’t have those `normal’ things, this country would soon fade into oblivion as a retirement haven for those who like the cost of living here. Hello St. Petersburg? Any condos for sale?
Personally, I’m not an expat candidate for anywhere though I had a home in France for 7 years. What the PI needs is a benevolent dictator (like me) to run the place and organize a real country underneath it so that the folks may someday enjoy life. As it exists today. this is an oligopoly and far from benevolent.
Think about this: 20 typhoons a year and not one, single typhoon shelter anyplace. Disgraceful local politicos; just disgraceful.
I highly doubt anyone is living comfortably on $300 a month. The general consensus is in the neighborhood of $1500.
Well some of my readers have already answered, probably better than I could. You are so far from knowing how my wife and I live that it’s pitiful. If my articles are “boring”, why bother to come here and read them? My heart goes out to you regarding your unhappy life, I wish you the best. Thanks for commenting.
Wow! I guess it depends on where you went to in the Philippines, or when you were here last. It must have been a modest exposure or a long time back.
Since foreigners can only own at max 49 percent of condos, that means 51 percent must be owned by Filipinos.
So take a look at what the other 51% are doing, living at, and buying at horrendous rates. And yes, plenty of parking spots occupied by cars in them. Obviously you haven’t traveled on EDSA in Makati in rush hour, or downtown Cebu or Davao during your travels here. Nope, Filipinos dont have money…
Yea, I wanted to live in a trailer park in Dothan Alabama or North Florida or Georgia to take advantage of the gracious level of living Obamacare granted for citizens. I so distinctly remember the high standard of living there in my travels. Perhaps East LA is elegant too.
I forgot how the American wonderful the American dream is, and why all the Balikbayans are coming back home after building a life there for 20 or 30 years. But there are tons of high rises in Manila that are filled with folks doing work here, for banks, insurance companies, and not in the Outsourcing Industry.
http://ayalalandrealestate.com/abreeza-place-davao-condo-for-sal/
http://www.ayalalandcebu.com/
http://www.filinvestland.com/page.aspx?id=81
http://www.filinvestland.com/condos.aspx
http://www.skyway.com.ph/projects/stage-2.html
http://www.chtchronicles.net/news/2014/01/bicycle-commuting-to-makati-to-beat-hellish-manila-traffic
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/local-news/2012/06/20/bus-owners-worry-over-cebu-transit-project-227917
And they dont play golf either:
http://www.golfingphilippines.com/GOLFtopgolfcourses.shtml
So its not all griping Expats here, a lot of working folks having a fine life. 2nd fastest growing economy in Asia, so something must be working out right, eh?
Sorry Rick you are INCORRECT about Condo ownership. Foreigners can own 100% of a condo they have purchased. What you are referring I think is foreigners cannot have 40% ownership of the TOTAL and OUTSTANDING capital stock of a Filipino owned or controlled condominium corporation. So it is unlikely a foreigner will own enough units in a building to threaten that percentage.
I mean ………NO more than 40% ownership of the total blah blah blah
It was 60/40, so even more Filipinos on the condo board with voting rights.
Correct, you can be in a building. But you would give away voting rights as a paid in member of the condo association. The condo association will normally be a corporation of some sort for legal purposes. Each owner would have a vote based on units owned. But must be 60 percent Filipino on the board.
The board must be 60 percent Filipino, as I know, I have a corporation here. So this means that unless they pulled some fancy vote accounting, owners would not have a vote once the 40 percent ownership had been reached. In other words, if my condo i paid for was the same square meters and price as the other guy, the investment amount is the same, so why would l give up my rights as a condo owner?
If you moved into a Condo that allowed over that 40 percent foreign ownership percentage, then you will not have voting rights as a paid in member of the condo corporation, allowed to vote at meetings as if you are a paid in member, so who would get themselves in that situation?
All i know is there are tons of Filipinos living here buying condos. The real estate market is sizzling right now, across the country.
As for corporation ownership rules, it is defined in this link:
http://dti.gov.ph/dti/index.php?p=433
I only know about flipping the bird LOL
Food prices are starting to rise. One of my naughty snack foods “Lays” Potato Chips has gone from 102P to 114p a bag in about 8 months. However the USD has appreciated about 5 peso in this same time frame and has for all intent and purposes, offset the entire 12P price increase. I have no doubts that even if the peso strengthens the price of the chip will continue to go up in Peso. I have seen steady increases in Peso prices for almost everything as time goes by. Aside from food, most other cost things seem to be steadier and it is a relative bargain to live in the Province in places like Davao. MANILA – forget about it………..
But for a guy like me that gets paid in USD, life gets better over time. Im betting the USD will go to 48 PhP by end of year at current rate. This will kill the BPO industry and exports.
Until the US economy finally implodes, just a matter of time with that deficit thingie still being ignored by Congress…
Thank you for another good read Dave. As far as the snowbirding idea goes, I figure that even if I don’t own a home in the U.S., it wouldn’t be too extravagant to rent a motel for a month or two, when visiting the US.
Correct. But actually, why is “extravagant” a bad thing? When my wife and I travel on vacation, we stay in nice hotels, eat well, rent a nice car, etc. Why? Because we have structured our life, and our day to day spending so that we can. Not because we’re rich (far from it), but because we refuse to be a slave to so many bills and requirements that my fellow Americans have grown to think of as “normal”.
My message is not to tell people what they should do, but to awaken them to the idea (apparently many are shocked by it), but everyone actually has the right to declare their own standard of “normal”.
I love birding. 🙂 The Philippines has many kinds of beautiful birds. Watching them and drawing them and taking pictures and perhaps even videos is a true pleasure to do if you admire nature’s beauty. 🙂
I do that in my own backyard.
Good article Dave , enjoyed reading it and you made a good point .I live on limited funds but find it so easy to live within my budget and get more out of life here , stress free ,debt free , and beer at a fraction of the cost from back home , what more can a guy like me in his later years ask for ………
Exactly. And the whole point of the “Economy Birding” idea is that is not only for old, fat boring guys like me. Many younger people, going through trying periods in their lives, might do well to think of escaping “economic slavery” for a few months or years and setting themselves up for freedom for the rest of their lives.
See also”
Take a Financial Time Out in the Philippines
http://philfaqs.com/take-a-financial-time-out-in-the-philippines/
Another good article Dave, and one that I can appreciate because I am in Colorado now and it’s 12degreesF and we leave for the RP at the end of the week and I just saw that it is 80degreesF there!
Steve
Ha ha ha. Another escapee from the Colorado weather. My wife and I lived in Colorado for years. We made our “escape” back in 2006 and I have never looked back.
Thanks for this wonderful article Dave. It’s always encouraging to know of expats having a better life in my homeland despite coming from a first-world country. More than conveniences in life the Phils. has so much intangible to offer than most countries in the West – the people’s hospitality, love & loyalty to family are priceless.
Thank you for your comment, Rae. You know, for some reason people have made a sort of religious chant out of that “First World” and “Third World” thinking. To me it is bogus One of the reasons I am in the Philippines and one of the reasons I am almost certain to stay here is because of the tremendous economic opportunities here.
The church, the schools, the political leaders all follow the line that “you can’t make money in the Philippines”. I say (and my bank account says) they are wrong. “If Only” I could teach people that there is only one place in the world with real opportunity, and that place is wherever you happen to be.
Thanks for the birdwatching link Dave. Our place lies along a major migration route. This helps me get even more enjoyment out of what I’m seeing.
It actually took a near fatal illness for us to realize the wisdom in what you’re saying here. I was out of work, then under employed for a space of 2 years. We put ourselves on a 5 year plan, and are ahead of schedule.
Early on, it would have been impossible to convince my wife to move back. She attacked the economic opportunities of the West with the traditional fervor of a first generation immigrant, often working 3 jobs. Even now, she is seriously considering a semi-retirement, much like you’ve described here.
And to Mr. Sweeny; I’m under no delusion. I do live in the US retirees version of the Philippines. So what?
take care,
Pete
Thanks for the comment, Pete, and yes indeed, people who are “living proof” of my thoughts are always good to find.
As you mentioned with your experience with your wife, Filipinos are often the worst enemies of the Philippines. They have been conditioned for years to believe that their own country is a “bad” place, and that migrating is the only hope.
That’s a lie, plain and simple. At least in my opinion (and actual experience)
Hi Dave – Being and Australian from one of the more expensive contries in the world, then using advantages of different economies is great. Example – my wife does about 20 hours work online for an Australian business for circa $325 a week. The tax free threshold in Australia is $18,000 a year, therefore no tax is required. $325 is our cost of living a week in Dumaguete. Therefore a family can survive on half a basic Australian income in the Philippines. That means I don’t have to work. Lol. For that we have a new 3 bedroom apartment, Silliman private school for 2 children, Good food, gym, holidays to Bacolod or towns near by etc etc. You do have to learn where to get the best bang for your buck though. But in Australia you would need to earn $1400 then pay $400 tax then live to the same standard on $1000 left. The only problem is that you need to wait till 35 to get a retiree visa. Lol. It is easy to retire young with basic income in the Philippines. I know a lot of people doing similar in countries like Indonesia, Thailand etc. It’s becoming more of a trend.
Hi Brenton,
I am glad you left this comment! I have a friend here in the US who has a Filipino wife and 15 year old son. The wife and son are going to go live in Bohol, Philippines and he is going to keep working here in the US for another 5 years. He says he wants to live there but that if he waits he can retire making $6,000 a month. I really can’t understand needing to make $6,000 a month in Bohol. The $300 a month figure sounds to good to be true, but a lot probably most Filipinos live on less.
Hi Jay –
If I may butt in, I have to agree with your friend about delaying his retirement by 5 years in order to receive a higher pension at $6,000 per month. He is thinking with his mind as he ought to, and not with his heart. I think it is a wise move, but it all depends on a couple of factors. The first is age. Is your friend “amoy lupa na” (one foot in the grave)? Secondly, what is the worth of his pension if he were to retire now?
I’ve been down that same road with the alluring visions of the Philippines at the end of it. I nearly retired prematurely because I let my heart overrule my mind. If it weren’t for my wife who beat some sense into my head, let’s just say that, I would not be today extremely satisfied with what I am receiving from the government every month for life. The Philippines is not going away; it will always be there for you.
Hi John,
The man is I think in his upper 50’s seems to be in good health, but has some kind of disability check coming. He spent 23 years in the Navy. If I were him the problem for me would be being separated from my wife and teenage son for 5 years.
I am not sure how much he would get if he retired now. I would quess at least $3,000+ a month which I would think would be good since Brenton says he is doing well on about $1,500 a month.
I brought up the $6,000 a month because I think, hope and pray that is way more money than he will need to retire in Bohol because I will never be able to get $6,000 a month even if I worked until I am 100 years old.
Absolutely, Brenton. More and more people are indeed learning that “jobs” are nothing more than economic slavery, licensed and heavily marketed by government which exist mainly to keep new crops of young people entering the slave (oops I mean job) world every year.
You know an interesting parallel between Australia and the USA? They both got started relatively recently on large land masses where there was no significant population or economy in place before the early settlers arrived.
Thus we can study in some detail how the earliest settlers built a great country out of a wilderness. A common factor with both American and Australian founders? Very, very few had “jobs” and none of them moved there to take jobs. There weren’t any jobs!
A “JOB” is not an “opportunity”, it is a form of licensed slavery, carefully designed so the the “employee” never gets too far ahead of the game, good times or bad. Otherwise, he/she might actually succeed. Heaven forefend.
You know even as late as 1916, my maternal grandfather moved from Scotland to the United States. He had a job. A job for life, actually. He was “in service” as a groom. Lifetime work, free room and board, secure as a man could be. (At least until the motor car replaced the horse, but then that is another story). He didn’t give up everything he had for a “job”, he gave the bonds of “licensed”economic slavery to give his new family a chance at a better life. He never looked back.
The day the Philippines realizes the tremendous cost to the country in sending the best and brightest to clean toilets in Saudi Arabia, or to be abused in minimum wage jobs in Hong Kong and such will be the day the Philippines can start taking it’s rightful place in the world.