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Retiring or relocating to the Philippines offers a significantly lower cost of living and reduced stress compared to Western countries, but requires careful management of expectations, self-care, and understanding cultural nuances, especially in relationships.
The video offers advice for men considering retirement or relocation to the Philippines, emphasizing the importance of self-care and realistic expectations upon arrival. Key mistakes include rushing into relationships, not resting after travel, and projecting an image of wealth. The host stresses that the Philippines offers a lower cost of living and reduced stress compared to Western countries, but newcomers must manage their own expectations and avoid overwhelming themselves with choices.
A significant portion of the discussion focuses on navigating relationships in the Philippines. It advises against settling for the first person met and highlights the cultural differences in commitment and expectations. The video suggests that while many men are initially drawn to beauty, character and genuine care are more crucial for long-term happiness. It also touches upon the perception of foreigners as wealthy and the need to manage this perception to avoid being taken advantage of.
The discussion extends to the economic benefits and lifestyle flexibility available in the Philippines. The lower cost of living, affordable healthcare, and reduced daily expenses contribute to a less stressful life. The video also addresses the normalization of the expat lifestyle, suggesting that economic pressures in Western countries will likely increase the number of expats. Ultimately, the advice is to enjoy life, retire if possible, stay active, and explore the Philippines as a viable option for a comfortable and fulfilling retirement.
When retiring in the Philippines, prioritize self-care upon arrival by resting and eating well, avoiding rushing into relationships or activities. It's crucial to manage expectations, especially regarding your financial status, and avoid displaying wealth to prevent unrealistic demands from potential partners.
Manage your expectations by understanding that relationships in the Philippines are a two-way street requiring commitment and transparency. Focus on character and genuine care over superficial beauty, as these qualities are more valuable long-term. Avoid aggressive dating app usage and allow for introductions through community connections.
The Philippines offers a significantly lower cost of living and reduced stress compared to Western countries, making it an attractive retirement destination. You can enjoy affordable healthcare, lower daily expenses, and a more relaxed lifestyle. Exploring different locations within the country can help you find a lifestyle that truly suits your preferences.
Common mistakes include rushing into relationships, not resting adequately after travel, and projecting an image of wealth that can lead to unrealistic expectations. It's important to avoid overwhelming yourself with choices and to settle into your new environment before making significant commitments.
To avoid being taken advantage of, manage the perception of your financial status and avoid displaying excessive wealth. Understand that genuine care and commitment are more important than superficial attractions. Be transparent in your communication and ensure the relationship is a balanced partnership.
While dating apps are an option, the advice is to network and allow for introductions through community connections for potentially more meaningful relationships. This approach can help you find partners who align better with your long-term goals and values.
The video advises against projecting an image of wealth to prevent unrealistic financial expectations from partners. It suggests managing your perception of being a wealthy foreigner. The key is to be frugal and stick to a budget, avoiding flaunting money to impress others. This approach helps in building genuine relationships and avoiding potential exploitation.
The video suggests prioritizing character over superficial beauty when seeking a partner in the Philippines. It recommends networking and allowing for introductions through community connections rather than solely relying on dating apps. Building a relationship is a two-way street requiring commitment and transparency, so take your time to find someone compatible.
The video strongly advises against rushing into relationships immediately after arriving in the Philippines. It emphasizes the importance of self-care, such as resting and eating well, before engaging in new activities or relationships. Taking your time allows for better decision-making and avoids potential pitfalls.
The video suggests that meeting a Filipina girlfriend at the airport, especially with her family present, can lead to immediate financial expectations. This scenario can set a precedent for the 'rich American' paying for everything. It's advisable to set expectations early and avoid situations that immediately involve significant financial outflows.
The Philippines offers a significantly lower cost of living and reduced daily expenses compared to Western countries, contributing to a less stressful life. Affordable healthcare and lifestyle flexibility are also key benefits. This makes it a viable option for a comfortable and fulfilling retirement.
0:01 Don't have anyone meet you at the airport. Don't let her think she's getting one of a rich American. But for everyone that works out, I'll tell you 20 horror stories. Many guys fantasize, 'Oh, I'm engaged, where are they now?' They're all married. Are you chasing the dream or you chasing the fantasy?
0:17 But she didn't scam me. I have the life I wanted in the West. They're going to be very protective of you. She can't afford to miss any work, but I got it here in the Philippines at a fraction of the cost. A lot of people don't have this freedom here. Everything is black and white.
0:31 Thank you so much for joining us today. We want to thank our good friend Mike here, who's been so kind to sit down and to continue our conversation from before. We got into some interesting discussion, and I've been here for a couple of months now, and it's really gotten me thinking about new questions, new insights. I think that you learn a lot really quickly when you hit the ground running.
0:57 So without further ado, Mike, could you introduce yourself one more time? I'm Mike, and uh, welcome to my house. We invited Alex over today and decided we're going to go ahead and do a video and, uh, continue from where we left off last time. That sounds great, Mike. Well, I think we should just go ahead and get into some of the questions that I have for you today.
1:17 And the first one that comes to my mind is, 'No, you cannot borrow money.' Well, I was actually going to ask Mike for an additional 20 pesos to take the Jeep and, uh, back to town, but he's already told me no. So I've got to, it's not that long a walk out. It's not that long a walk. He says maybe I'll get there by midnight. I'm hoping that Jolly Bee will take some pity on me and, and serve me up a, a Chicken Joy meal.
1:46 What is the biggest mistake that guys make in relationships here with the first woman that they meet? A lot of guys, they immediately when they get off the plane, within 24 hours, they're on their way to their first. They've scheduled, they're still jet-lagged, they're not thinking clearly in some cases, at least. That was true for me.
2:06 What's the biggest mistake they make? Well, in that case, the biggest mistake is they need to get here. Don't have anyone meet you at the airport. Get here, get to a hotel, take a shower, get a good rest, get some sleep. And I know people are excited, you know, in the anxiety, they want, they want to start doing things. They got this hot babe that they want to meet, but you have to be rested for all this. You have to be able to comprehend everything that's going to happen to you and take it in.
2:34 And you want to be in control of the situation. You really don't want the girl meeting you, uh, pulling on you, directing where you're going, what we're going to do. Set the agenda, set the plans. This is something for you to do, uh, because when you get here, uh, you're the man. And remember, you're the prize.
2:54 And don't settle in for the first girl you meet. I know a lot of guys meet their best girl online, and a lot of them marry these girls that they met online, and it works out. But for everyone that works out, I'll tell you 20 horror stories of the ones that didn't.
3:12 Just because she locked you down online doesn't mean she's perfect for you. You have yet to spend time in person together. You have yet to meet the family, and you have to meet her in the element that you're comfortable in, not in their element. I don't want to make it seem like she's the enemy, you know, and you're in defense mode, but you need to, uh, pick the place.
3:36 And don't overspend. Don't try to show off your money. This is the biggest mistake all these guys do. They show off too much. You know, 'Hey, it's the first date. I'm going to take you to a great restaurant. We're going to, we're going to stay at a five-star hotel. We're going to get room service.' Um, if you do that, they're going to expect that all the time because you're showing them that you're rich.
3:57 And that's, we're not all rich to come here. We're all on a budget. Most of us, you know, have limits to what we can spend, and you have to limit the expectations, not just of yourself and the girl you're going to meet, but the expectations of that girl and the guy she's getting. Don't let her think she's getting one of a rich American.
4:22 Or yeah, so you have to limit all that, and you need to slow down. When, when guys arrive here, I've talked to guys who haven't left for two days yet. They got off the plane, they've met their girlfriend, they're at, at Ayala Mall, they're having coffee, and they haven't slept yet because they're so excited about coming to the Philippines.
4:40 And you should be. That was me. That was me, you know, and because you've been planning this for months and years, and the day finally arrives, but you need to freshen up, relax, uh, you know, get a stiff drink, uh, get a good night's sleep, and then attack the world here in the Philippines.
5:02 I think that's such a good point. That was certainly me when I got here. I didn't sleep great the night before. I was so excited about being in the Philippines, and I just felt all of a sudden this wall of exhaustion hit me, and I needed to rest. The first thing that you want to do when you get here is, wow, you know, isn't this the place where I could find what I'm looking for in terms of relationship?
5:23 But you have to take care of yourself. I think some guys, they are looking back in their experience in their home country and they're remembering, 'I've got to sacrifice myself for my paycheck. I've got to sacrifice myself for my employer.' But when you come here, it's really this opportunity to shift the focus to looking out for yourself, looking out for your own interests.
5:50 So I think it's such a good idea for guys to, like you said, practice that self-care, catch up on rest, have a good meal, have something, uh, nice to drink. Go back, relax. The Philippines ain't going anywhere. It's going to be here tomorrow. It's going to be here forever. You need to take care. Good words of advice. You need to take care of yourself first, then your family, if you have a family. But you need to take care of you.
6:16 Nobody's going to take care of you if you pass out from exhaustion. Uh, it's easy to be taken advantage of. Lack of sleep. I know it's hard. You're going to be laying in that bed, just like I was, looking at the ceiling saying, 'I can't sleep.' I'm going to go out, I'm going to go up to the bar and see what I can meet. You know what, what's going on?
6:36 But you need to get some rest at some point and relax. That's a great point. And in the same vein of that, I think we assume that because we're looking for a certain thing, that every guy is like us, but it's not that case. I'm curious, what percentage of guys do you think are looking for something casual versus the guys who are looking for a committed relationship, but not, not marriage, and then the third group being the guys who are looking to eventually get married?
7:07 Do you have kind of a a ratio or a percentage in mind? When it comes to, I think, I think many guys fantasize the Playboy life. And you know, when you get to be 60, 70, and talking my age group here, um, you fantasize that, you know, you're sitting back at home on the couch and you're, you know, you haven't been with a beautiful woman in ages. You know, you've been dating women close to your own age.
7:28 And, uh, here you come to the Philippines, and you've been talking online to girls that are in their 20s, early 30s, and they're beautiful. And, and you're just wanting to get one of them. You're looking to get, uh, lucky and score that first day.
7:46 In the back of your mind, you have to decide what kind of girl you really want in life. And get here, go ahead and play the field, enjoy yourself, sow the wild oats, get all that out of your system. And once you've done that, you sort of realize, hey, I would rather have a good, steady travel companion to be with, somebody who's going to live with me and, and be a partner in my life. Then you can go that route.
8:10 A lot of guys, and I'll take this with YouTubers, there's so many guys I watch that were YouTubers that were single and dating a lot. Well, where are they now? They're all married. So, you know, you take the Tim K's married, you take, you know, Paul's married, Mark Thornton's married, Gio's married. Uh, I'm married. It eventually happens that you find the right girl. She'll show up one day.
8:36 Trouble is, don't waste so much time looking for her and missing out on good things in life. She'll show up. Find a good place to live, find something enjoyable to do, find a great hobby. But she'll show up in time. You don't have to hunt for her the first week that you're here. I've fallen into this trap. I met other guys that have fallen into this trap where you ask them, 'What have you been doing so far in your first month or two months here in the Philippines?' 'Oh, I've been dating non-stop.'
9:05 And they haven't had a chance to go off and explore Cior or Apo Island, or go up to the mountains in Valencia, or, uh, maybe, you know, take a snorkeling trip in Dan. So I think there's so much to see here that sometimes we as guys, we haven't dated in such a long time, and we're so hung up on the relationship that we almost have this kind of tunnel vision.
9:26 And we're thinking, okay, I'm going to sort out the wife first and then build the life around it. It's like, no, you can pursue all kinds of different things here. You'll find the right one. I think so many of us go from this scarcity mindset back home. This is going to lead into our next question, but so many guys, they have this scarcity mindset from back home. Maybe it's been 10 years since they've been on a date. Maybe it's been 15, 20 years since they've been on a date.
9:51 And they get in their head, 'I'm just not capable of finding the right one. Maybe I'm not worthy.' Maybe. Yeah, when you get here to the Philippines, are you chasing the dream or you chasing the fantasy? Now, the dream is, I'm going to retire to the Philippines, a beautiful country. I'm going to hang out at the beach, you know, I'm going to have a, a nice chair down at the beach. I'm going to have a coconut drink, you know, with an umbrella and the straw. And I'm going to have the two girls, you know, waving palm leaves at me.
10:21 Girls, you know, waving palm leaves at me to keep me cool. Chasing the dream, you know, a nice place to live, close to the beach, affordable. Or are you chasing the fantasy? Every day you're getting on your phone, you're getting on that dating app. Oh, this girl, she's in late. Guys, I'm going to late, and then that doesn't work out. You look on your phone, oh, she's in theal. She wants to meet me. Guys, I'm off to Deval. Are you chasing the dream of finding a great place to live and enjoy retirement, or are you chasing the fantasy, looking for, you know, that perfect girl to hang out with?
10:53 You sort of have to balance it. What's more important to you? The dream or the fantasy? I think that's so important. I think some guys get so hung up on the relationship, they don't realize the Philippines is a country of 7,000 islands. Each island is different from one another. I think there's about a thousand that are populated. Equally as you are looking for a relationship, you're also looking for a place that suits you. Dumag Getti isn't for everyone. I happen to be very happy here, but I readily admit if you're a big city guy, you're going to want to look at Manila or Sabu or Deva. And there's something here for many different types of people.
11:30 But you need to do some of that searching. Maybe you're a guy from a small town in the US and you thought, well, I don't ever have the budget to live in an LA or a New York, but wow, Manila, that's within my budget. So even though the assumption might be, oh, you're from a small town, move to a small town in the Philippines, it may be that opportunity for you to live that kind of cosmopolitan life. And vice versa, maybe you've lived in New York City your whole life and you thought, I'd love to move to the country, but you work on Wall Street, you work in some kind of, you know, financial industry, and there were no opportunities for you to move to the country. And so here's your chance.
12:07 I'm going to go move to the province. There's really so much lifestyle flexibility here that I think is overlooked a lot because guys are one-track minded. I've got to find the right woman, and I've got to find her fast because if I don't find her, she's going to disappear, and I'll never find her again. And that's a mistake. There's so, so many girls here, and if you go too fast, you're going to find the wrong girl because the good, the real good girls, they're below the top level layer. They're below the top layer of women.
12:36 As you're walking down the boulevard, the first women you meet that smile at you, that make that eye contact with you, they've been around the block a little bit. But the ones that are quiet and, you know, mind their own business and they're shy, those are the ones you want to find eventually. And you have to, they've got to get to know you. Getting to know you is you're going to the coffee shop or going to the same place for breakfast. You live in a community, you're part of the community, and the neighbors start to notice you. Oh, he's a nice guy, and start introducing you to, you know, their nieces and their sisters and cousins that are available.
13:17 It's hard for you just to walk up and find the perfect girl on the street. Somebody has to introduce you, and that's that networking we've talked about before. Networking, and we embarrass waitresses sometimes. Times, you know, we were out to dinner one day, and the waitress, me and Janet were together, we're a couple, but Alex is a single guy, a good-looking single guy. And I asked the waitress, I go, 'Hey, he's single.' And she goes, 'Oh, I'm engaged.' So she's a little bit giggly and embarrassed. But a moment later, I asked her, I said, 'Well, do you have a friend?' She goes, 'Oh, yeah.' And she started looking and showed Alex the picture of a friend.
13:58 You need to relax, engage, network, and people will introduce you to good, good girls in time. You don't need to be hunting them down. And if you're looking in the bar every night for the good girl, you're finding a good girl for that night, but you're not finding the good girl for your lifetime. I think that's such a great point that you have so many opportunities to be introduced to a lot of different lovely women. I mean, I think that some guys get in their head like, I've got to track her down, I've got to find her, and they don't understand the culture here because they're fresh off the plane, as I like to put it.
14:35 Because maybe they've never been to the Philippines before, maybe they've never even met a Filipino person, depending on where they're from. And they don't understand the dynamic where they're happy to introduce you to a lovely woman in their life. If you meet a woman you think she's gorgeous, maybe she's taken, maybe she's got a ring on her finger. But she may have a sister or a cousin or a coworker or, you know, a classmate. You know, there's all kinds of different situations where you might meet somebody.
15:01 So speaking of that, a lot of guys were used to back home, I think, being kind of lonely. We've been single for a while. We're in this scarcity mindset. We think, I'll never meet the right one. Coming over here, we're confronted by tons of options. I mean, it's shocking. It's like something you've never experienced before. If you haven't been here, it's really going to take you by surprise when you do make it over here. What do you tell the guy who is overwhelmed by choice and he doesn't know how to handle the temptation? He's never been in a situation where he's the prize.
15:34 It's like being a kid in a candy store. You know, you go into that candy store, would your son when you were younger or a nephew or something, you say, 'Yeah, you can have one piece of candy.' In the candy store, and he runs right up to the first glass and he looks and says, 'I want this one.' But out of the corner of his eye, he sees a different piece of candy. He goes, 'Oh, I want this one.' He's just overwhelmed with the choice. No, no, I don't want that one, I want this one. He just doesn't know what to choose.
16:02 That's what you have here in the Philippines. You'll meet one girl, and she will seem perfect to you. She'll be beautiful, she'll be smart, she'll be caring of you, and she'll take care of all your needs. And you're saying this is the perfect girl for you. But then after a month or two, out the corner of your eyes, you see a friend with a girl and you go, 'Man, I wish I had a girl like that.' Maybe a little bit more shapely, maybe better in English, maybe a little bit more, uh, serene, maybe she has a job, something different. The flavor of the day for you might change.
16:33 And the temptations are out here constantly. Men have temptations. I've seen guys who are with a woman for 20 years. They're in the US, they come here with their Filipino wife, and they're enjoying life. And all of a sudden, man, that girl, was she sort of likes me? Well, of course she likes you. You know, you're a foreigner and you got money. Does she like you enough that she's going to marry? I don't know. But she'll like you enough for you to cheat on your wife. And these temptations can break up a marriage. It can break up a relationship.
17:06 You see a lot of women who end up who are here with their husbands that are American, Filipinos go back to the US because their husband cheats on them and his eye is wandering. And the same thing with a Filipina here, she'll go back to her family because her boyfriend has a wandering eye, and they break up. And it's usually a bad break up. These women will stalk you if you cheat on them, or they think that you're cheating on these girls. They're going to stalk you on your Facebook if you don't think so.
17:39 So I'll tell you a story about Janet. This is the first time I've told this story to anybody. There was a girl I made a video about that I said, 'Scam me,' but she didn't scam me. It was me being a willing participant to all this. But when I got here to the Philippines and I made this video, she contacted me and said, 'Mike, how could you tell everybody our story?' I go, 'Well, I didn't use your name, I didn't use your date of state, nobody knows it's you, but you.' I'm talking to her and I said, 'Next time I drive up to Sabu, I'll stop by and explain to you what happened.' I haven't met this girl in person, but I was going to stop and explain to her why I made the video.
18:21 And Janet found out that I was talking to this person online. So one day, Janet and I are sitting down talking, and she hands me the cell phone. She doesn't hand me said, she puts it in my face, says, 'Do you know this person?' And it's that girl. And Janet contacted her and did a video chat with her to let her know that Janet is married to Mike, and they will stalk, and they will protect what is theirs. And if you make that girl feel that she is yours, you're in a committed relationship with you. She's going to protect her boyfriend, her husband, from leaving her. She's going to protect her property.
19:01 And it's just like we protect our women. You know, if you go into a bar with your woman, you're just having a night out and you're having a drink, and some guy hits on her, you're going to be angry about this, and you're going to be protective about her. Same thing with the girls here, they're going to be very protective of you, and they're going to search, they're going to stalk. And if you think, 'Oh no, nobody's going to look at my phone, nobody's going to look at who I've been talking to,' by you not sharing that with them automatically, they're going to think you're cheating on them because you don't want to share what's going on in your life.
19:34 But you want them to commit to you sexually, physically, emotionally, but you don't want to share to them what's in your phone. They're not going to take it too easy. I think that's a great point. I think that there's so much for us foreigners to learn about the dynamic here. I think we're maybe used to, once again, back home, that's the only experience we have. And we come over here thinking that the dynamic will be the same, where people aren't so concerned about that. But the Philippines, in one way, is sometimes called the social media capital of the world.
20:12 The capital of the world, there's such a high usage of social media here that everybody's on social media, using it for extended periods of time. Some of that is exactly what you said: they're curious, 'Is my boyfriend chatting somebody else?' They know that you're the commodity. They know that here you are a very desirable person, a guy that's got his finances together, a guy that's had a successful career, a guy that's got the disposable income to buy a plane ticket halfway around the world. That's not something that everybody can afford to do. That's why they think you're rich.
20:49 People say, 'Why I'm not rich, why you think I have money?' Well, you just flew halfway around the world to live here. You're on vacation, and we can't go from here to Bohol because it costs too much money. You come all the way from America, it's perceived income. You have the money and the ability.
21:06 Women here, once you ask them to be emotionally attached to you and committed to you, you're asking a lot out of them. Think it through very much before you move in with the girl, before you tell that girl, 'Quit your job and live with me. Don't live with your folks, come stay with me all the time.' It's one thing for a weekend, it's one thing to go on a small trip, it's one thing to ask them to take a couple days off. But if you ask them to totally commit their job, to leave their job and come and live with you, you're asking them to make the big commitment, and they're going to hold you to it. That you are committed to them also, and it's only fair. It's only fair that makes a lot of sense that it's a two-way street.
21:54 I think sometimes some guys get the 'kid in the candy shop' vibe or mentality, and they think, 'Oh, I'm so amazing and I can just do whatever I want.' They don't take a step back and remember these are people with feelings and hopes and dreams and a past and difficulties in their lives. I say this all the time: they struggle in a lot of different places in the world. It's not just limited to your experience struggling to date back home, because sometimes we get in our minds, I think as expats, there's some reason that didn't line up for us in whatever way. We get in our head that we're the only person facing struggle, and so we don't necessarily consider the perspectives of the other people that we're asking to be a sort of healing presence in our life, that gives us validation, that provides us with emotional support, that cooks dinner for us.
22:50 I remember the first time a Filipina cooked dinner for me, and it was like, 'Wow, this is the last time I had a woman cook dinner for me was when I was a kid.' Yeah, my mom or my grandma. And so different from what we're used to back home. It's a different world economically and relationship-wise. It's a look back into the past of the Western world, more to the 70s, 60s, 50s of the stay-at-home woman where she stays home, takes care of everything, and looks nice. Janet wears a dress when she gets up in the morning, cleans up, does what she does. It's something that doesn't happen.
23:35 You have, and I know people get mad at me, but you have the quote 'Walmart women' back home. They're wearing the dirty t-shirt and the sweatpants because they clean the house before they go to work. Nobody can afford to have the wife stay at home and the man's working only. Those days are long gone. But here in the Philippines, it can be done as a foreigner here because, like you said, we have expendable income. We have a stable, or at least retired men have a stable income.
24:06 Absolutely. And what's a modest amount of money back home actually can go pretty reasonably far here. You're able to live in a safe home in a nice neighborhood. You're able to purchase whatever groceries you want. It's not like back home you go out to a restaurant and I'm looking at the menu, comparing the prices, 'Can I afford a drink alongside this?' Here, sometimes we just don't even look at the price. Depending on the circumstance, depending on the context, we have a general sense of what things are going to cost, but it's not like penny by penny, 'Okay, I can afford this, I can't afford this.'
24:46 The lifestyle is a lot different. So pivoting back to your lovely wife, Janet, what was the moment like when you realized Janet's the one? The search is over.
24:58 Jan and I met, and it wasn't that long after we met that I decided she was the one. One day, she would stop by every day after work. She drove by my apartment, she would stay for a couple hours, and then go home. She had family obligations, so I respected her for all that. But one day, she every morning, she'd message me, 'Mike, how are you? I'm going to work now.' And I told her, 'Today I don't feel so well. I'm going to stay home. I'm not going to do nothing. I have a little bit of a headache.' That's all I had was a little headache.
25:32 Here comes Janet, who only makes 5,000 pesos a month. She can't afford to miss any work. She has herself, her son to support, and also to help support the family. She comes to me, knocks on my door, takes the day off from work to take care of me. She cleaned out the apartment, she cleaned everything. She was very worried, went out and got me medication for my headache. I was fine, but the concern in her eye when she showed up showed me that she really cared about my physical well-being. There was no money involved yet at this point. There was nothing other than us seeing each other for a couple hours here and there. It was a moment that I hadn't felt my whole life.
26:14 No woman has ever said, 'You're not feeling well, I'll stay home and take care of you.' It was always, 'You know, they would go off to work, you take care of yourself, your headache will go away. You're always on your own.' Life was so hectic back home in the US. Everybody had to work every day. You couldn't miss a day's work. Somebody was always lined up to take your job if you didn't want it or didn't show up. So the stress back home made it hard to take time off and relax. To see Janet and the care she gave me, that was the ticket for me. There were a bunch of other things, but that was the main thing.
26:53 The day she did that, I think that's so powerful because, of course, like a lot of us guys, we're initially attracted to beauty. There's tons of beautiful women here in the Philippines. In my opinion, one of the things that you should be looking out for is not necessarily the beauty, because like I said, there's lots of women that meet that categorization. But what you found in your wife, I think, is incredible character. And that's something that is also not impossible to find here, but I think that it's not something that's readily apparent to you like beauty. We're visual creatures, we can recognize a beautiful woman. But when you find that character, that's something that for me personally, of course, I know every guy has different interests, different desires, but that's something that I keep an eye out for.
27:47 And hopefully, I'll find that here. I know I'll find that here with time. And I think it's incredible too for guys that they are lonely and they know, 'Wow, Mike was single back home for a time, so he was single for a while, and he was able to find the right one and to settle down and to build an incredible life.' I have the life I wanted in the West, in the US, the life that I always wanted. I have it here now at a fraction of the cost. So I have taken the life that in my head I wanted. I wanted to live in a nice little house, a little piece of land, and a good wife. I wanted to have a big TV, everything that I have, good transportation. But I got it here in the Philippines at a fraction of the cost.
28:35 So financially, it was a dream move for me. You know, the stress. Money is a stressful thing. You don't have a pension, so you have to watch every piece and every dime, every peso. So do I, so do so many other guys. But the stress level back home is so much higher than here. You miss a car payment, boom, they're repossessing your car.
29:03 People, I can't believe how much things cost compared to here. When you just look at transportation, Janet and I had our motorbikes. The yearly registration came up, and with that is one year you got to get some insurance, you got to get it registered. Here, they have a smog test, they call it a smoke test. Back home, how much would that cost you to buy one year's insurance, get yourself registered, would your car or your motorbike, and to get the smog test? I paid less than you would pay for the smog test. It was 1,566 pesos for one year's insurance, one year registration, and the smog test. The smog test was the most expensive of the bunch, that was 566 pesos, and 1,000 pesos we paid just one office that gives us one year registration and one year insurance.
29:57 You're paying more than that daily in the US. A car payment and your insurance, what is your insurance? A hundred bucks a month, 200 a month if you're lucky, depending on what you have. Yes, we only have scooters, but with a car, it's just a little bit more. It's not dramatic, and there's no mandatory things here that you have to do. There's no sales tax. They do have a sales tax, but it's in the price. When you go to buy something and it says 120 pesos, it's 120 pesos. The tax and everything's already figured into the price of the items. There's no like upcharging where you go to a department store back home, 'All right, I'm buying this, you know, they want a service warranty, I got to add 8% sales tax.' Here, everything is black and white, and it's just so stress-free.
30:48 It's just so stress-free if you hurt your wrist and you need to go see a doctor, nothing major, nothing that you're really worried about, but you want to see a doctor. It's four to eight dollars to go see a doctor for an office physical. That's like a rounding error for me for my bills. Back in the US, it's just, yeah, it's just I don't even think about that in the US. You know, if it's nothing catastrophic, you can handle these. If you fall off your bike, you sprain an ankle, break a bone, all these things which are common here are inexpensive to take care of.
31:22 A lot of what people talk about when it comes to inflation in the US is their rent, their transportation, their food. They don't talk about medical inflation. They don't talk about the increase in healthcare costs. That's something that I don't know, for whatever reason, just doesn't seem to get brought up as much, but that's a major factor here. I know in the back of my mind, if I have a healthcare need, I can afford to just pay out of pocket. I can go down to the hospital.
31:49 I don't want to make it seem like healthcare is free here. If you have a major problem, you need a stance, you have a heart attack, those are going to cost you money. The big ones are going to cost you money. But for the, you know, fall down, breaking an arm, you got a scrape, you got a rash, you had sex with the wrong girl and you need to go get some shots or some pills, these are inexpensive things that you can take care of on a daily basis.
32:14 You have to be aware of the overall cost for major medical issues. In the back of your mind, in your own head as a person, this is a personal choice. How much insurance you have or what kind of safety net you have for this, it's a personal choice. Nobody can tell you how much insurance to have, if you have any at all, or how much money they have in the bank in case you need an emergency fund. All personal choices.
32:43 But you look at our house here. This we pay $600 a month for this. I couldn't afford this in the US. It'd be, you know, $1,500 plus in a rural town. At one time, a guy like you, an expat, he was looked at as a bit cavalier. He's a guy who's going off into the frontier. He's living in some country nobody's ever heard of, an adventurer.
33:08 Do you think guys like you, guys like Paul, that they're helping to normalize this lifestyle? And that more people, due to the economics in the US, in the UK, you might be from Canada or Australia, will feel in a way pulled into this lifestyle? Some might say pushed into this lifestyle. Do you think the number of expats will increase in the coming years?
33:28 It will. It will. As long as the Baby Boomers are still in large numbers, but you have to take the America is a revolving door. Okay, they need the younger, healthy people to come in and work a lot of jobs because the older people are old. And as the revolving door, if you didn't set up your life right, and I'm not saying if you live here, you didn't do things right, but a lot of us, if we had a wife, kids, grandkids, a house, and a white picket fence, we wouldn't be over here.
33:58 We're over here because economic reasons, emotional reasons, personal reasons. As you get older, if you want to have a comfortable life, you have to find where your income fits. And that could be a retirement community, that could be an assisted living community, somewhere where your finances let you live comfortably.
34:18 And a lot of guys are leaving to go to South America, Central America, Asia, even some places in Europe because their money is stronger there, and they can have a comfortable way of life. You know, with a cost of living that it's better for them emotionally and financially to leave the US. And that's the freedom that we have as Americans. A lot of people don't have this freedom.
34:41 We can leave with our pension, our Social Security, and go live almost anywhere in the world, and the money will follow us. The government won't say, hey, if you're gone too long, you don't get your money. As Americans, we have a lot of freedom. Our passport is pretty damn strong. There's a lot of countries that'll let us in, and we tolerate us.
34:59 Yes, you got to have money, but you need less money to live in these countries than you do to live in Chicago or New York City or any of the big cities. I just want to thank you so much, Mike, for your time today. I'm going to wrap up here. We want to thank Mike for his time. He's been so generous to have us here today to talk to my audience.
35:20 Any final words, Mike? Final words, man, just enjoy your life. Retire. If you're retirement age, don't wait too long. If you can financially retire, retire. I know a lot of people say, oh, I want to keep working because once you quit working, you die. You got to stay active. You can find hobbies and many things to do.
35:41 If you want to travel, come travel to the Philippines. Enjoy the Philippines. Learn about it, and then decide what vacation or what retirement destination you want in the future. Just because I'm happy here doesn't mean everybody else is going to be happy here, but it is a great place to come. They're a welcoming community here, even though there's bad things happening in many different places.
36:03 And my heart goes out to the young men that got kidnapped. We pray for him and his family. Yes. And we pray everything works out there. But all in all, it's a great place to live. Well, thanks so much, Mike, for your time today. Thank you so much for watching, and we'll see you soon. Peace out, guys. Bye, guys.
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