Why Retire in the Philppines?

The Philppines if is a wonderful place to retire for many reasons. First is the Filipinos themselves, different from ones you may know in the your country who have adopted western culture and western values at least superficially. The true Filipino is a joy to be around, once you understand a little about the culture and values of these island, tribal people, and their extended family system. See the link to Philippine Culture on the left for a pretty full explanation of the Filipino Culture and the click on the Resource link and download a free book, "The Filipino Mind," a brilliant free book by Leonardo Mercado a Filipino cultural anthropologist, or maybe better said a bi-cultural Filipino anthropologist.

Also the link to the left, Living in the Philippines Books Stores, will show you a book you can buy from Amazon called Culture Shock, Philippines, almost indispensable. The Insight Guide to the Philippines is there too. It is a winner! Join the List, do your homework, ask questions and I believe you are going to come take a look. And when you go back, if you do, you will want to return and maybe even live or retire here, or maybe just travel. You might be bold enough to start a business. Or you can forget the list, forget the reading and just come over like I did, roll with the punches and have a wonderful time! When I did it there was no list of expats to advise, no Internet, few books and bad information from Filipinos in the States who were very unhappy here and rather than encourage me to visit the Philippines, told me, "Don't go der!" Some Filipinos don't make the best ambassadors for their country they could since the have bought into the way of the host country they have adopted. But most still long to be here in their hearts, from what see. And the ones who return are happy to be here. Most just go for the money. Smart ones get it and come back, in my opinion.

Of course there are the more tangible things. You can have inexpensive, loyal, honest maids, helpers and nurses for only small wages, and they live in. You will have to search for a good one, but they are available. The people here respect older people and they are honored and appreciated for their knowledge.

Retiring in the Philippines is the light of my life, and I have had a good one. I don't need the nurses yet, but I certainly find the maids, helpers and cooks a great asset. I don't have to go pay my bills, do any chores, not even go to the bank, because I have honest people to help me.

There are so many things to do doing your retirement here, (See the links, you can access from Things to Do, on the left) from golf to just sitting in the modern shopping malls and parks, watching the lovely people go by with their delightful smiles, warm and from the inside. And they will make eye contact with you, stop and talk, if they speak pretty good English and even if they don't, many times.

Retire Early While You Are Still Alive!

And many can retire early, while they are still young when they thought before that retiring was impossible because they could not afford to retire. How much money do you need to retire in the Philippines? To retire in Manila you need more than to retire in Cebu or to retire in Davao, or to retire in a smaller town.

Are you ready of retirement or do you dread it. Will your loss of you title of "Director," or "Supervisor," you worked so hard to get, destroy you as a human being?

As I may have said else where on this unedited website, search Google or Yahoo or any search engine and see if you find anything on retirement other than how to get more money to retire. It seems you will never have enough. It is a wise man who knows when enough is enough to retire in the Philippines or anywhere else. Investment counselors want you to continue to work and invest more so you can retire richer, so they can make money and retire richer and sooner. So do stock brokers. I know that for sure. I was one. I didn't want to see a guy cash in his chips and have a good life. I wanted him to keep trading and pay me commissions. I quit that job and got a decent one.

Since retirement is about money to so many from developed countries, I will quote some old Filipino sayings. Maybe they are not Filipino but they claim them. And the live them, the Filipinos, from what I see. The Filipinos say:

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