Tag Archives: Dumaguete

Stinking Rich in the Philippines

It should come as no surprise that most Americans, Europeans, Australians, or UKians (sorry – I know that’s not a real word) – aka most white guys – aka most kanos, are considered rich in the Philippines. And the assumption is right. Even the guy who makes the proverbial $1000/month in a pension or Social Security check is by Philippines standards well into the middle class.

When I first met Janet’s family (just days after I’d first met Janet) I was seated in the family home explaining to 50 relatives, friends, neighbors, and hangers on, what Janet and I were planning to do with our vacation time together. Everyone knew this was serious stuff. I asked her parents whether they had any questions. Her father quietly asked (translated by Janet) what problems I foresaw since I was rich and Janet was poor. I tried to explain to him that by American standards I was not rich. I realized halfway through my diatribe that my rant was ridiculous. Of course I was rich. I had flown halfway around the world. I was carrying a camera, tablet, and iphone worth more than they could imagine. I gracefully got out of my soliloquy and just stated that I foresaw no problems.

Now that we live in the Philippines it’s no different. OK, I take that back. It’s a little different; now everyone thinks that Janet is rich too. The family says it, not as criticism or even as envy, but just as a statement of fact: “Uncle Dave and Yaya Janet are rich.”

After all, we have a car, and a new one at that. There’s no point in saying that if I drove my Ford into the parking lot where I formerly worked, loaded with Bimmers and Teslas, my little Ford would make me appear like I was borderline homeless.

I have found myself a time or two trying to explain to someone that by American standards we are not rich. Janet has told family members how high our bills were in the U.S. Looking back on it, such explanations seem silly. By the standards of where we now live – we are rich – stinking rich. I never thought I’d be able to say that in my lifetime.

What’s my point in all this? I have a few. First off, accept your “wealth” as a reality. I know several guys who kid themselves by saying, “They know I am not rich. I live simply and drive a motorcycle.” Nonsense – everyone still thinks you’re rich – just kuriput!

Another thing that I hear a lot of foreigners rail about is the fact that Filipinos don’t seem to know the difference between Americans, Europeans, Australians, and those Brits and often just lump us together as kanos, and non-Americans flip out. It’s not that they don’t know the differences; they don’t have any reason to care about the difference. Rich is rich. What difference does it make if you’re a rich American or rich Canadian?

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The same is true in the Philippines except the amount you have to transact anywhere to be viewed as rich is about 1/10th of what you’d have to do in the US. The Bank Manager here says hello when we come into the bank. She always remembers the last issue we spoke about and questions whether it got resolved for me.

When I go into a mall every Filipino (including Janet) is searched. They rarely do more than pat me on the ass; no comments on that! Now you might think that’s because I am Caucasian, American, and old. I think it’s more likely the false perception that I am rich and the notion that a rich old, white guy’s not a thief or terrorist.

Now contrary to constant complaints about the Philippines on a variety of forums, I get excellent service here. I’m not talking about the competence of those serving me, which can be hit and miss. I’m talking about the fact that 95% of the time, people want to help or take care of me. Of course, part of that is general Filipino friendliness, but part is the notion that they’re helping the rich kano.

Now I do my part as well. I’m polite, I try not to act like an Ugly American, I don’t condescend, and I do tip, if modestly.

I find nothing wrong with taking advantage of advantages you have in life. Hell, there’s enough things that I have going against me, that I might as well enjoy being perceived as different – and so should you!

 

How Much Does it Cost to Live in the Philippines – An Idiot’s Guide

Preface: You will have to determine whether the “idiot” I referenced in the title is me or my potential readership. It’s a close call 🙂

——————–

If you’re a Philippines blogger or vlogger one thing that is expected of you is to post a Cost of Living piece. I know guys who do it annually or even more often. Why? Because they know that all of you want to read it and it drives up their readership/viewership.

So, that’s why I’m doing it 🙂

Of course, unlike a YouTube vlogger, there is no income for my doing this; only the satisfaction in knowing that several hundred (sometimes several thousand) of you wasted five minutes of your important life on my dribble. Life is good!

I have seen or read dozens of such Cost of Philippines Living posts. Let me summarize my opinion for you: they are all unadulterated nonsense. So, I’ve just saved you time and as they say time is money. So, by all means send me some.

OK, back on point. Why are such postings normally BS? Imagine I were to ask an American, “How much does it cost to live in the United States?” He might answer, “How the hell do I know? Do you mean live in a small town in the South or the San Francisco Bay Area?” “Do you need to own a car and what kind?” “How’s your company’s medical insurance.” “How many girlfriends do you have and how many does your wife know about?”

Sorry, I got side tracked.

In short you can live in the U.S. for $15,000/year or less and yet others claim in all seriousness that they cannot live for under $150,000/year; and they are not kidding.

The same is true in the Philippines. Do you live in a condo in Makati or a nipa hut so deep in the provinces that carabaos are beginning to look very very good to you?

Do you drive a motorbike or car or are you happy with trikes and jeepneys? Do you drink San Miguel or Red Horse? OK, there’s no financial different between those two.

Do you have one girl or five? While logically 5 should mean a higher budget, one can sometimes be more expensive. In my case the one I have would kill the other 4, so for me 1 is cheaper.

I can hear you all murmuring now: how much, how much, how much. So let me give you a few Dumaguete details and later on tell you why I think the question of “how much it costs” is irrelevant.

Rent: In Dumaguete it’s easy to rent an apartment or house for between 10k – 15k pesos, sometimes even less. Alright, for the lazy unwilling to Google the exchange rate, that’s about $200-300/month. You can certainly spend lots more, but you don’t have to.

Food: If you like to cook and eat simply, it’s easy to eat for between $100-200/month. If, like Janet and I, you like restaurants, it is actually not that much more expensive; perhaps add $100 to the budget. Janet and I rarely spend over 500P ($10) for dinner for two and often spend closer to 300P. Therefore sometimes it’s easier to eat out rather than cook.

Exception 1: If you require your favorite Western brands, and/or a weekly Australian steak, your budget will go up considerably. I hear British and German friends talk about obtaining their fave homeland foods and how much it costs. I roll my eyes. As an American there are three McDonalds and a really good sub shop in Duma, so I’m all set for American haute cuisine!

Exception 2: Do you have those 5 girlfriends I mentioned above? Then you’re not only feeding the girls, which isn’t that bad (they’re all tiny and eat like birds) but you’re feeding their friends and anyone in the restaurant who claims to be a friend. Expect your food budget to go up considerably.

Utilities: In the U.S. my electric and gas bill combined for about $200/month. Here I spend between 2500-3000P ($50-60) for electricity and that includes running an aircon most of the day. Our fiber Internet is about 2000P ($40). Janet and I pay about 600P ($12) for phone service. Garbage pickup is free in Valencia. Our Valencia water bill (and I am not making this up) has never been over 50P ($1) and sometimes there’s been no bill for the month at all. Of course Valencia water is only on about 2/3 of the time, but I still giggle whenever I get the bill. They actually pay someone to hand deliver the bill and pay cashiers to take your payment. It’s clearly a big money maker.
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Vices: If you smoke, cigarettes are dirt cheap. If you like beer, local San Miguel and Red Horse cost about 40P.  In short you can become a chain smoker and raging alcoholic without breaking your budget. I gotta get on it!

If you have a more sophisticated drinking habit, you can get nearly anything here. Johnny Walker Black Label is (I kid you not) available in any 7-11. Apparently there are many expats throughout the Philippines who go into 7-11s and get a pack of smokes, a bag of M&Ms, and a bottle of Johnny Walker Black!

Transportation: Trikes and Jeepneys are ridiculously cheap here in Duma and go most everywhere. OTOH gas is more expensive than in the US, so since I have a car, that is an expense. But my insurance bill is about half of what I paid in the U.S.

Most expats here have motorbikes, not cars. A lot of guys have told me they don’t have insurance because when you’re 75 and fall off a bike the last thing you’re thinking of is, ‘Yeah, but at least I’m well insured.’

Medical: Your view on medical expenses in the Philippines will vary dependent upon whether you are from the United Staes or nearly any other civilized Western country. If you’re from the U.S., Philippines medical expenses will seem dirt cheap. A doctor or dentist appointment will be $10 or less. Hospitalization will seem quite reasonable. But, if you’re from one of those Civilized countries where medical care is free, you may find the cost in the Philippines to be expensive. After all nothing can beat free.

Last week I had a doctor’s appointment. The visit was 500P (under $10) but the procedure she was going to do cost. The doctor apologized profusely about the cost. I wasn’t sure why. Turns out she studied in Canada, where the procedure would have been free. I explained that in the U.S. it would not have been free – far from it – and by all means let’s do it. I was not unhappy with the total price.

So depending on your budget and whether you have any kind of medical insurance (including PhilHealth) you may at some point find yourself hit with some serious  medical bills.

——————–

So let’s get back to why I think all the other estimates on costs in the Philippines are so nonsensical. Because, folks, it’s the wrong question. Most of us are retired and on some sort of fixed income. So the question isn’t “How much does it cost to live in the Philippines?” The question ought to be, “How much do I have and what kind of life will that support in the Philippines.”

Let’s say your Social Security check is $1000/month. That’s what you have and that’s all you have. There’s no point in wondering how much condos cost in Makati. So, can you live here on $1k/month? In Dumaguete you can. Now you won’t be living high on the hog and you can only afford one girl (OK, maybe two if you’re frugal) but you can do it. If you have an income of $2k/month you can live very well.

If you have followed this blog you know that there is no way I will ever tell you how much Janet and I make or how much we have. What are we – idiots? But while it’s not a lot, we have enough to deny ourselves nothing, have some extra for travel, and Janet gets to eat lechon at least occasionally.

There’s another fault that I see guys make when calculating a budget. They only take into account their standard monthly bills: rent, utilities, food, gas, medical, etc.

I’m not just talking about major medical emergencies, which can be budget killers. I’m talking about normal shit that happens all the time, but when you worked you had enough extra to cover it: your phone dies, your car breaks down, you need new tires for your bike, you have to pay to extend your visa, you need to hire someone to clean your pool (ok, bad example).

If you’ve budgeted well you’ve added a pad to cover those life extras. If not, then pretty soon they eat into your monthly bills and that’s when you hear guys complain about how it’s really expensive in the Philippines. It’s not if you apply just a little bit of caution.

 

 

 

Why the Hell Would You Buy a Lot in the Philippines – PART 4

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

So, now Janet and I (mostly Janet) own two lots in the Philippines. I can hear some of you mumbling, “they’re nuts,” and you would not be completely wrong.

While the lot in Southern Cebu was a very good deal, by the time Janet paid the taxes (the ones that were higher than expected) it had taken a chunk out of her savings for the project.

Janet researched house building here and really learned a lot. She must have drawn up 10 different versions of a potential house design. Occasionally I would say, “You know you could get everything you want and save money by reducing the overall size of the house.” And she did!

We went to her hometown and spoke to a couple of “architects” about drawing up blueprints; architect is a misnomer; mostly they just draw up the blueprints. A blueprint is a requirement to get a permit and while some people do not bother to get the required permits, Janet was determined to do it all right. But the reality that we found out is that the blueprint and associated cost estimates are a formality that might not be used much by the builder or foreman. The first architect we interviewed seemed competent but was expensive for a provincial town. We went with guy number two, since he was cheaper.

Now, how to build the house? You can hire a contractor and certainly that’s what we will do for our own home here in Valencia. But for a simple house in a provincial area, that just adds expense and we already weren’t positive whether we could afford to build the entire house.

So in the end we hired a Foreman and Janet functions as her own contractor. Here’s what that means. The Foreman, aka Boy, oversees the crew. He tells Janet every week what materials he needs. Janet purchases those materials and arranges to have them delivered to the job site. Unfortunately in her home town there are not a lot of options for where you can buy material, so she’s pretty much stuck with the vendor and whatever price is charged.
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Every Saturday Janet has to pay the crew for the week’s work. General laborers earn 250 pesos a day (about $5). Skilled labor (masons, electricians, plumbers) usually cost 400 pesos a day but Janet had Boy negotiate 350/day, based on the fact that the laborers would have consistent work. In the provinces often projects are done in fits and starts, but Janet was determined to go from beginning to end without let up. The Foreman earns 500P/day. He mostly oversees and does some labor. Our Foreman, Boy, seems quite competent. Janet had actually hired another Foreman, a cousin of hers, but just a few days before the building was to commence he took another Foreman job and bowed out. Fortunately Boy was available. And BTW, he’s a lot older than his name would imply; I’d guess close to my age.

In addition to the paid labor, Janet’s older brother works full time on the project. Her father works his farm during the day as usual and then goes to the job site and works till dark. Every weekend the kids go to the job site and help! It’s amazing to see and you can check out a brief video to see them all at work here.

At this point, at the beginning of August, the house is really coming along and if I had to venture an uneducated guess would say we are at least halfway finished. The foundation’s been done, the concrete floor has been poured, the walls are up and soon they’ll start working on the roof.

The workers, despite their modest pay, work very hard. Now they don’t necessarily work efficiently but they work hard and earn their money. When I say the work is not that efficient I mean that the basics are not there and are substituted with hard labor. There’s no wheelbarrow, for example. Almost nothing of what you’d call jigs and fixtures; things that in the West would be done for items that had to be repeated.

Everyone in the family is excited with the house. It reminds me of the last time I had any involvement with the building of a new house. I was 6 or 7 years old and my parents were building a house in the suburbs. Every weekend we’d go and check the progress. At first I thought it was all a big nothing but as the weeks went by and I saw my bedroom framed it all got very exciting. I would imagine that’s how they are all feeling now.

——————–

There’s no point in arguing with expats here who say they would never do what we are doing. I get it – really I do. Whether or not they like their girl’s family they have no interest in helping them in such  a way. Like I say I do get it. As the mantra goes, “they did fine before I came along, didn’t they?”

The truth is compared to Janet, I’ve done very little. Mostly I provided a stable environment where she could pursue her dream; a dream that her parents and family would have a decent home to live in; a home of their own. Maybe I also provided some guidance but I’m not even sure of that. After all Janet has a B.S. in Business and is quite capable of tracking the money, labor and supplies. Mostly I just look on and have people give me credit for what I mostly haven’t done. It’s a pretty good life!

 

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Why the Hell Would You Buy a Lot in the Philippines – PART 3

Part 1

Part 2

I had resisted the idea of buying a lot here in the Philippines for a long time. I wanted it easy and so leaned toward the idea of just buying an existing house.  While we saw a number of houses in the Valencia area, in most cases there was something that made each house a no go; the street, the layout, the lot size or shape, price, crazy owner, etc.

We found it difficult to find an agent who understood what we really wanted. They typically just sent us links to any house available in Valencia. We’d yell and say, “the lot is too small!” But the next listings we’d get sent would still be outside our parameters. Ironically, we ended up with a lot that was not the size we had targeted.

Tip 1: Use all the agents you want. You don’t have to feel married to any one agent. It’s more than possible they aren’t the official agent for a property anyway!

Now, there was one house within walking distance of our rental house which we liked. The lot was the size we wanted (1000 sq. mt.), the price was good, the house large enough, with the amenities we wanted, etc. It had been on the market for over 2 years. This is not unusual. Past a certain price, the houses can almost only be afforded by foreigners, therefore it’s not unusual for a house to remain on the market for a long time. After we came back from our recent trip to the U.S., we got more serious and said to ourselves, ‘Let’s see that house one more time and then make an offer.’ You can guess the rest. I contacted the agent only to be informed that earnest money had been put down on the house and it was sold.

So at that point, disappointed, we decided to build our own. The process of looking for a lot was actually a little bit easier than looking for a house. Many lots are available in Valencia and we had a few agents happy to show them to us. Lot prices here are always quoted by square meter and we saw quite a few lots with cheap prices. Almost invariably, if the price was cheap it meant the lot was too far out of town or only had right of way access to the road.

We currently live in what is the very beginning of Valencia. It’s only about 10-12 minutes away from Dumaguete and the Robinsons Mall that functions as our home away from home. Continue up the hill about 5 minutes and you are in Valencia Town. We decided that we preferred a lot somewhere between where we now live and Valencia Town or maybe a few minutes beyond the town. But many of the lots we were shown were 10-15 minutes beyond the town, meaning they were a good 1/2 hour away from civilization. That was a bit too provincial for us, though the views from that high up are beautiful.

The issue of right of way is even more important. Many inexpensive lots in the Philippines are sold off the road and there is a negotiated contract with the owner of the land that fronts the road. Often the lot is just a matter of a few meters off the road, but since we own a car, those few meters are important. We saw one lot in particular that was beautiful with a great view and equally great price, but the narrow 10 meters you have to go over someone else’s land to get there was a no go for me.

Tip 2: Think long and hard before you buy a lot with only a right of way access. It means you are connected to your neighbors forever. If they want to sing karaoke at 3:00AM you’re probably gonna let them 🙂

In the end we determined that being on a road was essential for us. It didn’t necessarily have to be paved but we had to have direct access to it.

Not long after the house we liked was sold, we were shown a lot just around the corner from it. The agent who showed it to us said it was “just under 1000 sq. meters.” Part of the lot was directly on the barangay road and there was a dirt road on another side of the lot. We spent a good half hour with the agent trying to determine the actual boundaries of the lot. In the Philippines surveyed lots have tiny stones to show the boundaries or even some natural stones in the ground might be used.

We liked what we saw, the price was decent and we were told it might be negotiable. The agent left and Janet and I hung out, imagining the layout of a house and whatever else we might want there. A few minutes later the agent returned with a copy of the title. The title showed the lot was 1355 sq. meters. “There’s no way this is 1355 sq. meters,” I said. We scratched our heads and then the agent realized that the piece of land behind where we thought the lot ended was actually part of the lot. The lot is boot-shaped with the wide portion at the barangay road. The rest is a very long strip, wide enough to build a lot of things (can you say workshop) but a bit narrow for the size of house we wanted. But the foot portion of the boot would be perfect.

We liked the lot, liked the recently paved barangay road, liked the quiet neighborhood, and liked the fact that the two roads made it sort of a corner lot.

A day or two later we met with the agent and a man who was introduced to us as the nephew of the owner. We started negotiating with him as if he was the owner. I was nervous about the fact that suddenly I was considering a lot that was a third larger than our goal. The per meter price was reduced a bit, which made us feel better. We told the nephew what documents we needed to make the deal and he assured us that his uncle had them all. I told the nephew that once we had a deal I could have the money in our Philippines bank in about a week and therefore I considered the matter of earnest money to be unnecessary. He agreed. But of course the negotiating was all moot, since this guy wasn’t really the owner.

Tip 3: Learn to negotiate with the agent or the owner’s relative but understand in the end it doesn’t mean shit till the owner agrees.

A few days later the agent called us to tell us that the owner was coming to town (he lives in Manila) to bring the documents and asked did we want to meet him. In the U.S. seller and buyer rarely meet but here it’s standard so we said, “sure.”

Later that week the owner and his posse came to our rental house. In tow were the agent, the nephew and the owner’s brother. The owner was about 70 and seemed far more interested in letting us know that his son was a famous Filipino actor, than dealing with the lot. But gradually we hammered out the details. This was very difficult since all 4 men were functioning as if they were “the man” and I was confused as to what we were actually agreeing to and with whom.

I mentioned to the owner what I had discussed with the nephew; that once we were settled I would wire the money from our U.S. bank and have it in our Philippines account in about a week. The owner looked around at his posse incredulously. “I was told you had the money now and we could do this all today.” The nephew and agent looked like they would very much rather be somewhere else. It was an interesting insight into Filipino psychology since no one took responsibility for misinforming the owner nor did anyone say, “Gee I think you must have misunderstood.”
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Being the American I just hit it head on. “No, I don’t have the money yet, though I can get it quickly. But we don’t have all the documents nor have we drawn up a deed of sale. So there’s no way we can do anything now.” It was agreed that once we had everything together the owner’s brother would let him know and he would come back to Dumaguete.

Fortunately he had all the required documents although one of them was still in the name of the previous owner from almost 30 years prior. Turned out that took a few days to resolve.

Tip 4: If the documentation is not all there or close to being ready consider walking.

We had a deal and Janet and I felt pretty good; that is until later that afternoon when the agent returned and said, “A lawyer recommended that the owner get earnest money. But don’t worry. He doesn’t want very much.”

I exploded, “We agreed there would be no earnest money. And how much is not very much?” I asked that question several times before I got a meek answer. “Maybe 50,000 pesos.” “That sounds like very much to me,” I said.

Nonetheless, the next morning we met the owner and his posse at a local restaurant/outdoor cafe. I had in the meantime been able to withdraw the required earnest money from our ATM. Even though I knew that earnest money was a reasonable request I was not thrilled that they had gone back on one of the things we’d agreed to. I was also not too thrilled to be handing over 50,000 pesos to some codger that I didn’t know in a public place. Janet had spent much of the previous evening writing an earnest money agreement which everyone signed. Janet and I went away from the meeting saying to each other, “well, I guess we have a lot.”

Tip 5: Until the deed of sale has been signed and the money exchanged you don’t really have a firm deal. Decide what you can and can’t live with if things change.

Over the course of the next week there was a certain amount of drama surrounding the obtaining of all the documentation. The owner’s brother was our communications point, since the owner made it clear that he just wanted to sign the papers and get paid. The brother was my age and just as cranky. The owner had told me that his brother loves to drink. Perhaps that was his way to let us know I’d be having problems with the brother. There were in fact a couple of stressful moment where Janet and I looked at each other and said, “if this doesn’t happen, we’ll ask for the earnest money back and cancel all this.”

But it did all happen. One of the things the brother insisted on was that they wanted cash. Our bank manager had suggested a Manager’s Check, but brother was having none of it. I was to find out why the day we closed.

In the meantime we found a lawyer and gave him the documentation to draw up a deed of sale. The seller had already agreed to pay the taxes if we paid all the fees associated with the transfer of the title. The lawyer suggested that he would calculate the tax and we would minus the tax cost off of what we would pay the seller and then just pay the taxes ourselves. That way we knew the taxes had been paid.

The big day came. Janet and I were anticipating problems with the owner and his brother and committed to each other that if they’d try to change the deal we’d get up from the table  and tell them the deal was off. Such a stance was unnecessary. They were both tame as pussy cats; probably too excited for the cash to come. I asked once again if the owner really wanted cash, because once he left my bank..and I held up my hands. Turns out the owner was sharper than his brother and had hired a van and driver to make sure they got safely from our bank to his bank. And then he told me the truth. “I know a Manager’s Check is a good idea, but it takes a day to clear and everyone wants their money in cash today and I have a lot of mouths to feed.”

The documents signed, an hour later we were at my bank. It took some time for the bank to get the cash ready and the owner and posse were impatient.

While we waited for the money the owner felt confident enough (well, that’s one word for it) to tell me how much he’d paid for the property over 25 years before. It was all classified as agricultural back then and he’d paid absolute chump change. I congratulated him on the profit he’d made.

Finally the cash arrived bundled in plastic; the kind of bundle you see in drug deals in movies. It turns out that in the Philippines there’s no bill for all intents and purposes greater than a 1000 peso note (about $20). There were a hell of a lot of 1000 peso notes. The owner threw the plastic bundled cash in a bag, we shook hands and off he went.

I was later told that he’d spent much of the rest of the day doling out pesos. I suspect there were a few seriously celebrating Filipinos that night.

And yes – a Part 4 is coming!