in today's video I'm addressing the question what if the Philippines becomes too expensive I do think Young foreigners especially living here in the Philippines should have some sense of a backup plan or other places they can go some
contingency plans one of the biggest criticisms that I feel that we face is what if it becomes super expensive in the Philippines one day and I plan to address these concerns in this video so let's go ahead and
get into it hey YouTube Alex here and in today's video I'm in dumag Getti and I wanted to answer the question what happens if the Philippines becomes too expensive look at that Sunset behind me it's absolutely gorgeous a
lot of guys these days are complaining about the cost of living here in the Philippines about how it's no longer cheap and one day we're all going to get priced out and there's this assumption that one day the
country will be too expensive and people won't be able to afford to live here and I thought I'd dispel some of these rumors or at least address some of these concerns cuz I think yeah it's fair to say
the country is not as cheap as it used to be it is a noticeable difference before the pandemic and now after the pandemic but there's more to it than just pricing alone that contributes to cost of living so
without further Ado let's get into it number one is that it's the lifestyle options that can make a place affordable it's not just cost of living it's also your optionality back in the US I cannot live without a
car it's just not possible most of you are probably in the same boat that's part of what makes the US expensive is that you're paying for the car repairs you're paying for the oil the tire rotations all these
costs that if you're living in some other countries or some other cities may not be an issue for you right my Transportation budget I spend roughly $30 equivalent on my trans Transportation budget here in duetti it would be
more expensive in Sabu or Manila but even so it would still be much less than my cost of owning and maintaining a car where in the US when I lived in California I was paying over $100 per month
just in parking fees if you're somebody who wants a really small apartment they they're outlawed in much of the United States you're not allowed to build those and you're not allowed to convert pre-existing Apartments to those where in
other countries they allow for that they allow for mixed use development in more locations they allow for you to have apartments that are very small they allow for you to go anywhere from a micro apartment to a large
home in the same city and they aren't necessarily always the biggest cities like dag Getti has plenty of budget friendly housing I have friends that live here in 3 to 4,000 peso per month Apartments all the way up
to 60,000 per month airbnbs and everything in between in the US and many cases zoning restrictions actually make a lot of budget housing illegal so you just don't have that option that you would have in some other countries
that alone your rent and your transportation options can dramatically reduce your cost of living because you're simply not having the same footprint that you're required to have in the United States in most places in the US to add
to that point here is my Homestay and you'll find these throughout the Philippines where families will build these compounds and then maybe a son or a daughter moves out maybe they get married maybe they get a job in
another part of the country or the world they end up needing to move out but the family still has the space and so why not rent it to a traveler a bachelor maybe a couple this is the father
of the host family and he's such a thoughtful man to uh help provide me with the ride to the road why did the chicken cross the road number two is that the Philippines is not a hyper industrialized country
like the United States in the United States everything is designed around the demands of Private Industry it's not the same here in the US there are many towns which are basically work towns they exist because there was a
factory there they are a hub of industry and life basically revolves around work where in the Philippines it's still a fairly agrarian society now what does this mean it means that there are plenty of small towns and farming
communities here in the Philippines now is there industry here absolutely but it's not to the same extent as what you're used to in the US particularly outside of Manila you're not going to have tons of manufacturing you know
outside of Sabu outside of cdio Deval those cities there's really mostly Light Industry you'll notice that when you come here to the Philippines it's not like everybody spends all of their time at work or at home people have
church people have different kinds of social groups a lot of people have kids here so they're spending time with school related functions it's not this work home work home work home oscillation that many Americans experience some of the
high cost of living in the US is that way simply because people have a demand to live in a certain area to work right part of why Wall Street is expensive New York City is expensive you have a
lot of Finance types who earn a lot of money who are only able to earn that kind of money there in New York City and so all the real estate the food transportation is priced accordingly similarly with the
San Francisco area a lot of high- paid tech people live there and so landlords know hey we can charge a lot for rent we can charge a lot for all these other things in a country like the Philippines
that isn't so hyperdeveloped pricing has to be more moderate now am I going to say it's cheap here no I think that's disrespectful or inconsiderate of the Filipinos who work very hard for their money who don't find it
to be cheap if you are talking about the costs andure dollar converted amounts then it is less costly in most of the Philippines than in the US because you don't have these hyper industrial areas and in the places
in the Philippines that do have a lot of Industry it is pricey right Manila is not a cheap City Sabu not a cheap City Dava not a cheap City even kagay andoro has become more expensive because these are
where the majority of the jobs are located in the country if you're not if you're not interested in farming then you're probably going to go to one of these big cities Elo Elo for example to try to find
a job maybe in healthc care uh maybe working for a business it's not the same level of hyper industrialization that we're used to in the US some would say that there's not as much Manufacturing in the US I'd
agree with that but there is still plenty of industry based around offices commercial real estate and life for office workers still revolves around office work even if you're working from home which really seems to blur the boundary between
work and life then yeah definitely I mean if you want to be in a productive home if you want to be in a decent neighborhood that's extremely expensive in the US relative to wages some would say oh I
can live just fine in a bad a bad neighborhood and work my office job but is your boss going to tolerate crazy loud noises in the background when you're trying to get things done probably not for most of
the Filipino people that I know life revolves around family as opposed to work many Filipinos do not seem to have the extreme sense of materialism that we find in the western world where people aren't necessarily working to take
care of their families as much as they are trying to work to get that big house to get that fancy car to get that latest iPhone every year to buy these status symbols to be able to show off
their value in the west it seems like we're often judging people based on their wealth and one of the first questions that people often ask me in the US is what's your job that's usually the first question I
get asked is what do you do for a living here in the Philippines it's more often of course I know some of this is because I'm obviously not Filipino but I'm often asked where are you from the conversation
takes a totally different direction we talk about the Philippines we talk about life here we talk about activities we're not talking about work because I find in the US often people are trying to size you up to determine
hey is this person going to be valuable to me or not I don't as often have that experience here in the Philippines it makes sense to me that in a country where people can lean on their families more
they are not going to be so they're not going to be they're not going to be as self-centered to the extreme that we see in the US finally I just don't give this sense here in the Philippines is
often where it's like okay there's the factory okay there's your house and this is going to be the next 30 years of your life it seems to be more balanced than what I'm accustomed to back home the next
point is that you may need to find an alternative to the Philippines now one of the things that makes the cost go up here is one of course some foreigners coming here with a lot of money but two
also it's a growing population and to contrast that you may want to look at some countries with a declining population there are many countries in the world with aging populations they have more and more housing stock with every
year they have more and more options they don't have lots of immigration I have some examples of countries that I really like take your pick most of the countries in the world aside from those in subsaharan Africa have
declining birth rates not all of them have immigration policies that are increasing Demand on hous there are plenty of places where housing is not in short supply and I think that's just the start of the challenge there are
going to be some other issues but there's plenty of good food in other countries there's plenty of Transportation options in other countries some will say oh this one I wanted to live in has become too expensive I'm sure
there will be some other countries that become more desirable for wbx Pats in the future I don't know which countries those will be but plenty of places wax and WI Wayne they increase in popularity they decrease in popularity
places that are popular today may not be popular tomorrow and the places that are popular tomorrow may be lesser known today and if you find a gem don't feel bad about keeping it to yourself there's some places that
I've been to that I'll keep for me and my channel members only because there's some places I just don't want to see get flooded and call it selfish I think everybody's selfish but I have some places in my
back pocket that I really like that if the Philippines turns out to not work out for me then I've got some other options on my radar I think this lifestyle works best for people who have flexibility I think
for many of us it's not the USA or the Philippines it's the Philippines or some other country that offers a better quality of life better value for money better weather better dating opportunities there's a lot of reasons to
not want to live in the US these days doesn't work out from here I've got some other options that I'm willing to check out I love the Philippines but I'm not counting on it staying the same forever Point
number three is that many people who enjoy living in the Philippines would also enjoy living in other countries with a moderate cost of living some of the examples that come to my mind are Mexico Thailand Colombia are these
places as inexpensive as they were relative to the US 5 or 10 years ago yes they are not in real dollar terms as at the same price levels but if you consider how much cost of living has gone
up in the US they aren't at the same price levels as the US there's still that opportunity for geo Arbitrage where the cost of living is less than what you're used to experiencing in the US I think the
US has become the most expensive country in the world and that anybody who's living in the US going to many different places in the tropics will experience a drop in the cost of living many of the people that
I've met here in the Philippines have been to Mexico or Thailand or Colombia and they didn't absolutely dislike those places they just prefer to live here but if the Philippines became cost prohibitive to the point where they couldn't
afford it they'd be willing to consider some other places I'm also open to living in one of those other countries if circumstances dictated that that would be a better Fit For A Time what those countries share with the
Philippines is not just a lower cost of living but also nice weather fresh food friendly people now what those countries don't have that the Philippines has is the prevalence of English future expats should plan for inflation be prepared
for prices to go up in many countries it's higher than the United States the difference being that the Baseline price is not quite so extreme even more so if you're in a hot city or a city you think
will be hot in the future and I don't mean temperature but I mean very popular city a city that's become much more expensive in recent years is medine Colombia I spent several months there in 2021 really enjoyed my
time there but I've heard rent has gone up substantially there so be prepared if you're not purchasing a property which I generally don't recommend purchasing a property but that's another discussion then be prepared for your cost of living
to go up maybe higher than what you expected so for me personally I'm focusing on getting assets that rise with inflation may not match the inflation rate so I have some other plans in mind as well don't just
say I've got this pile of cash it's going to last me for forever be prepared for cost to go up be prepared for the prices you pay tomorrow to be higher than the prices you're paying today and also
be prepared for Global instability to affect pricing be prepared for pricing to go up we've seen this in a city like toi Georgia I haven't yet been there I've done a lot of research into it but due to
ongoing Global challenges then costs in toi have gone up substantially from what they were I've heard affordable accommodation options are not so easy to come by these days and and rents are much higher than they were a few
years ago similar to Medan Colombia so the place that's economical today could become expensive tomorrow depending on changing Global circumstances bringing things back to the Philippines for Point number five there are certain factors that will moderate the cost
of living in the Philippines due to some wouldbe expats or some foreigners not wanting to live here and you might be asking man this looks like a beautiful place look at this nature behind me absolutely gorgeous but you
have to think about the inclement weather the Philippines has been subject to various typhoons major storm events even earthquakes volcanic eruptions and such factors really can serve to scare off some people who would love to live here otherwise
I see it all the time in comment sections man I'd love to live in the Philippines but I'm really concerned about a volcanic eruption or man really like to live in the Philippines but the potential for an earthquake
really scares me these factors are unavoidable right if you live here in the Philippines you've got to accept the fact that depending on where you live in the country then you could be dealing with some major weather events
throughout the year and maybe nothing happens this year but maybe something major happens in a future year I don't wish for it to happen I think these are always very tragic my heart goes out to the families and
to the people who have been impacted by these adverse weather events but you'll find when you travel throughout the country you'll meet people and talk to people people who have experienced these inclement weather events and it's really unfortunate
I've talked to a buddy who's had issues with floods in his City it's always really unfortunate but it's one of those things that's out of our control and as a foreigner if you haven't experienced these kind of Events
maybe you're from a country that doesn't have these kinds of inclement weather issues then you may be totally caught off guard and that's just one of those issues that may make other options other countries or places that don't
have the rain storms that aren't on the ring of fire more appealing to some would be expats even here behind me you can see the storm clouds rolling in and maybe it won't be an issue right maybe they
won't go anywhere but if you're person who doesn't like rain you don't like being on the ring of fire it's something to consider that not everybody will stay in the Philippines forever also you got to think about the
types of people who may be high rollers that could really spend lots of money here in the Philippines are they going to be comfortable with the more relaxed pace of Life they're maybe used to snapping their fingers and
having everything happen in the Philippines you have to be patient you really have to bring your patients here things are probably not going to happen as fast as what you're used to in the United States or in Australia
and so some of those people who could spend several thousand per month they may not be happy here they may come here and be like man I can't just tear off down the highway going 150 km per hour
I can't walk into a restaurant and get my food 10es minutes later in some cases I really have to slow down to an extent that I don't want to and so they may find themselves going to Hawaii or
some other place that's got a little bit faster Pace than here in the Philippines now I personally enjoy that pace I find it to be refreshing change but some of those people that you might call high rollers some
of them are going to have a hard time adjusting to that slower pace of life here so thank you so much for watching let us know what you think down in the comments are you worried about the cost
of living skyrocketing here in the Philippines is it a place that maybe is not going to be on your radar after a while because you think man it's gotten so expensive I can't afford it anymore let us know
otherwise maybe you've looked at the prices and you're like wow that seems like a pretty economical option for me compared to what I'm used to paying next if you want to help support the channel give us a thumbs
up it helps with the YouTube algorithm finally if you want to see more content like this subscribe to the channel down below and we'll see you soon
