It's more fun in the Philippines! I love this country.

Intro and First Impressions

0:21 Hey, what is up guys? I am coming to you live from Bacolod, Philippines. It's been an interesting journey to get here. I'm feeling well-rested, though I don't know how well I'll sleep tonight because I had some good coffee this morning and they do have the robusta beans here.

0:43 Just drop a note in the chat, just a plug for the Discord. It is free, you can find the link in the description below. We just chat about random stuff in there. Lately, it's been a lot of just general discussion, but you see different sub-threads in there that you feel like you want to chime in on. I think it always generates interesting discussion.

1:35 I am a little bit tired. I got up this morning about 6:30 and had a long, full day. I mostly chilled around the house until the afternoon, did some editing, and got that video on my experience coming through M done. Then I went into town and went down to the boardwalk, walked up and down the boardwalk or the boulevard quite a bit, just trying to see who all is out there.

2:17 I played some chess. There are some really talented chess students here in Dumaguete, and I was really impressed by their skill level at such a young age. It really took me back to the past where I used to play a lot as a scholastic player.

2:55 I do want to mention one thing here, and it's trying to find the nuance, because I think that's a big part of the goal of this channel is to find the nuance. In the video I released talking about first impressions, my first impressions were that dating is really great here, and I don't totally disagree with that. But I don't know that it's as straightforward as I necessarily thought.

3:32 To kind of dig into that, a few days ago when I got here, great to see everybody, welcome, welcome. I ran into a woman in a group of her friends. One of her friends asked me, 'Hey, do you think she's beautiful?' and then she kind of hid behind them and was giggling. So I reached out back out to her, got all their phone numbers just to be egalitarian about it.

4:17 I reached out to her, and we were just chatting about normal stuff, just making conversation, trying to learn more. She eventually mentions that she does have a boyfriend, and he's one of the people that was with the group. I was like, 'Yeah, that's awkward.' Like her friend is like, 'I don't know how to explain it, introducing her to foreigners in front of her boyfriend.'

4:48 So, I'm not going to name any names, and certainly they're just having fun. But it, you know, there's that element of miscommunication, right? I mean, I don't speak Bisaya, so there's going to be some things that maybe they have a certain way of joking around in English, but if I spoke Bisaya, I could ask clarifying questions and get that information.

5:13 But yeah, no big deal. It's just something to think about. I think a lot of foreigners, we come to the Philippines thinking, 'Oh yeah, they speak English.' That's what's so amazing about the Philippines. But there is a different sense of here. Many of them, their first language is Bisaya, right here in the Visayas region, in Cebuano and Ilonggo, and Mindanao. I think it's mixed, they have some different dialects, of course.

5:50 I think my buddy that lives in Northern Mindanao now, he speaks Binisaya. His mother is from Dumaguete, but there's other interesting ones like Chavacano is still an interesting one. I'll throw the name of that down in the description below or in the chat below. It's actually a dialect of Spanish, and I need to look it up because they basically speak it primarily in Zamboanga City.

6:20 So it's just so interesting to me they still have that Spanish here. No, I don't think it's spoken outside of Zamboanga. I also think that they do borrow some words from English and from Spanish. But yeah, just something to think about.

6:39 Do I think I'm going to have challenges here? No, like major challenges here dating, no, I don't think so. I think it's a matter of just getting out there and meeting people. I do plan to go to the Valencia Market. Why don't we pull up a map here? That always helps.

Valencia Market Visit Plans

7:20 Yeah, so Valencia is up above the city, and it's like in the hills. They have this famous public market on Sundays, and apparently the vegetable ladies will be asking you, 'Hey, are you single? Are you single, sir?' So I anticipate that I'll be getting asked if I'm single when I go up there on Sunday. It's Thursday night, so yeah, here in a few days I'll be going up there.

7:56 I'm not exactly sure, like I've heard that we could take a look at the map here. I've heard there's a way to not have to go to the center of town that you can somehow get to the... Bacolod Valencia Road, and then take it up here to Valencia. It's up in the hills. Mike was telling me you can be from the city center to the top of the mountain in like 45 minutes.

Transportation Options

10:31 So, really, it's spread out enough that you need your own form of public transportation. Eventually, like if I was going to live here long-term, I'd definitely be buying a motorbike. Maybe buy a trike, honestly. Trikes seem a bit safer. That's something I need to ask. I'm making a list, so this is something I do want to ask for audience engagement.

10:55 Hey, definitely. So I don't have an aircon. Now I do have a fan, and I have heard fans can kick some of that up. They can kind of swirl the pollen around in a room. But no, I don't have an aircon here.

11:30 Where was I? If you have allergies, did you bring any antihistamine meds from the USA? So I didn't. Actually, the last time I was in the US was summer of last year, so I left the US in June of last year, and I spent the year in Thailand. I should have brought some from Thailand, to be honest, or Vietnam. But you know, I really... it should have been Thailand because I went to several pharmacies in Vietnam, maybe even a half dozen pharmacies in Vietnam, trying to find certain things, and it seemed like their stock was really limited.

Allergies and Medication

12:10 You know, they do have some things here, but I want to dig around and find out about the different varieties, the different brands, because I bought allergy stuff in the US that was ineffective, and some that was effective. I mean, I think Claritin worked really well for me in the US. I just wasn't expecting it, you know, for whatever reason. Like I didn't experience allergies last time I came.

12:41 Oh, hey Tony, welcome, welcome. Good to see you. Always good to see you here, Tony. So, yeah, I'm kind of sharing a little bit about my plans for this weekend, and you reminded me as well, Tony. Thanks so much for... for whatever reason, whenever I can't remember something and Tony shows up, it makes me remember. So one of the things that I want to ask everyone tonight is tomorrow, I have plans to meet, and you heard it here first, I have plans to meet with Paul, Old Dog New Tricks.

13:21 And I do want to take an opportunity to ask him some questions. So I think just for the audience that I have, there's going to be specific questions that might be more valuable. So if all of you can share your questions in the chat, then I will compile them and I'll try to select the ones that I feel like would provide the most value for the audience. And I would try to focus too on the questions you guys provide that he maybe hasn't answered before, right? Because if there's something he's talked about in a video before, I'd rather just point the audience toward his channel and say, 'Hey, this is a video that Paul did I really like.'

14:02 And Mike as well, going to be doing the same thing with Mike from Mike's Philippine Retirement. Hey, you know, these guys covered this subject. I think it's really helpful. They already talked about it. I want to be respectful of their time. They're being very generous to meet and to collaborate with me. My subscriber base is still quite modest by comparison to Paul, who's approaching like 100k, and Mike, who's going to be at 40k in no time.

14:33 So, yeah, some of the questions that come to my mind is like, I know just based on my analytics that a lot of my subscribers are in the 35 to 55 range. So one of the questions I want to ask both of them is, what is your insight for guys?

14:50 One of the most important things I want to tackle is how guys who want to achieve your lifestyle, or a comparable lifestyle, but aren't there yet can do so. My microphones filled up on data, so we'll have to revisit that question. I'm not fully financially independent, so unless my YouTube channel really takes off, I'll need to go back to work. However, I am actively pursuing that goal and am about 40% of the way toward financial independence.

15:59 A lot of guys watch Mike or Paul, who started their channels in their mid to late 60s. I'm curious about what they feel would be most important to consider. You can't just copy what they did and expect the same results, as they also have substantial YouTube channels with large subscriber bases supporting them. They're enjoying a comfortable retirement in the Philippines, and my fear is that people will live vicariously through our channels instead of consciously working towards their own goals.

17:15 The dream involves financial security and good health. It's okay if questions don't come to mind immediately; I have a few I want to address. Claritin is called Loratadine in the Philippines and is available at Watsons, Mercury, or Grace pharmacies. I'll look for it, as it might help reduce my allergy symptoms.

18:13 One challenging aspect is that while I enjoy the food here, I can't smell much of anything, which is impacting my appetite. This might be a good thing, as I need to lose some weight, but I'm hoping to overcome these allergies before I dive into my favorite Filipino dish, sinigang, so I can fully appreciate its flavor.

19:01 Something interesting I wanted to mention is relevant for many subscribers. Tony mentioned in our Discord conversation the isolation some people experience in North America. Expat mental health is an ongoing conversation for this channel. While I'm not a psychologist, I have a minor in psychology and find it important for my career and for anyone considering expat life.

Expat Mental Health and Social Circles

20:22 It seems like there are a few things at play in expat life: finances, psychology, and even dating. These are often intertwined and not comparable to life back home, which is where many guys get tripped up. They don't know how to handle the differences because they didn't realize how different it would be.

21:10 In the Philippines, it's interesting how people of all ages can have friendships. I met several retired Filipinos at the chess club who had previously lived in the US, Canada, or Australia. They often came over due to family-based immigration or reciprocity agreements, and after careers, they returned to the Philippines.

22:25 In the US, friendships between people of different ages are often criticized. I remember growing up, people found it strange if older kids hung out with younger ones, even by just a few years. There seems to be a neo-puritanism in the West with very black-and-white morality, which I don't think is a sign of a healthy society, as everyone can learn from people of all ages and experiences.

23:25 In the Philippines, older people can benefit from the energy and excitement of the youth, who aren't yet burned out, jaded, or cynical. Conversely, younger people can learn from the wisdom of older individuals. While not all older expats are insightful, there are many wise ones who can impart valuable knowledge.

24:14 There's a lot to talk about, but feel free to chime in with any questions. This stream will probably be a bit shorter because I need to get up early tomorrow to head to the city to meet Mike and Paul. Hopefully, the allergy medication works. I'll stop by Mercury or Watsons to grab some.

Second Chances and Romance

25:11 I feel a bit off today, like I'm moving slower than usual. The allergy medication is making me feel like I'm underwater, and I probably sound like it too. Tony mentioned that the Philippines seems to represent a second chance for older guys who struggled in the West, offering a chance to get ahead financially, build a new social circle, and experience romance.

25:45 Tony, I agree. I gave up on dating in the West because I felt like I was just wasting time and money on short-term relationships. It wasn't hard to find a fling, but finding someone for a long-term committed relationship was difficult. If I hadn't had that attitude, I could have used my time more effectively to build passive income and move to the Philippines sooner.

27:21 Anabolic Outpost, welcome to the channel! Tony, that's a great point about older guys getting a lot of judgment. I don't judge them, though I've noticed people try to pit them against others. It's interesting how the Philippines offers a dynamic where people of all ages can connect.

The Philippines as an Adventure

27:51 It's like, no, okay, the young guys can see the Philippines through a different lens, right? I look at the Philippines, and one of the primary appeals is the sense of adventure. This place, to me, when I first got here five years ago to visit, was that it looks like a video game. It looks like somebody built a video game map and turned it into a country. That's how cool it looks to me. It's still there's still times where it doesn't look real to me. I'm like, this looks like something that somebody designed to be aesthetically pleasing.

28:37 The 7,000 islands, the beaches, the beautiful women, the interesting wildlife. I mean, I see all kinds of geckos and lizards and dogs and birds and fish. Like, I go down to the water, and you guys may have seen my latest video, I released a couple hours ago, where I ran like these, I go down to the beach and these fishermen are coming in and they caught a bunch of swordfish. I've never seen swordfish outside of a Western grocery store before. That was mind-blowing.

29:11 That's like something out of a video game. I would never see that in any other country I visited because you can't just like subsistence fish like that. There's rules, there's regulations. I'm not going to get too much more into that, but it's very friendly to this. This is one of the things I've heard that makes living in the province nice is that the average person in the province can very easily pull coconuts out of trees, pick mangoes, grow vegetables.

29:45 I've eaten a number of meals here with my host family where they were like, 'Yeah, we just grew these vegetables in our garden.' So it's otherworldly in the fact that there's just so many things you can't do in the West. If you don't have substantial space in the West, you're not doing a garden. Not to mention, if you work a full-time job in the West, how much time do you really have to put into a garden?

30:17 If you live in an area with a lot of pests, do you have time to go out there and spray for pests? If you're, you know, it's just very like the demands on your time in the West are so much so that there's really limited opportunity. Do I have friends that garden in the West? Absolutely. They tend to have done very well for themselves and, you know, they're very, very savvy individuals, more so than myself.

30:39 I look at myself as more of an average person. Oh, hey, welcome, welcome Frugal Wander. And yeah, getting ahead financially. Tony, great point. I mean, you don't have to have a car payment over here. I do want to, that's something I do need to dig into is can I trike? I do want to find out if foreigners can buy trikes.

31:02 So I think Bud Brown had a trike at one point or like a tuk-tuk. But I want to dig into that. So let's see here. I just want to get the rest of Tony's comments here. So yeah, financially, Tony, you don't have to own a house, you don't have to pay property tax. I've heard now, I can't speak from personal experience, but I've heard property taxes here are very, very low to the point they're negligible.

31:29 Like I've heard of people forgetting to pay their property taxes for years, going down and paying them, and it being like $6. So yeah, I mean, that's part of it. Now, I can't speak from personal experience, so at some point in the future, I, you know, I settle down with a lady and we, you know, get a build a property or whatever. I know it's a big risk.

31:57 This isn't something I'm thinking about doing tomorrow or even next year. This is, we're talking 10 years down the line, but might as well address it for the sake of discussion. You know, no car payment. You know, if you're going to build a house, you're probably paying cash. But you can build a house here for like 50k right now. Now, that may change. I know some guys have said 100k, 200k.

32:24 Yeah, you, so Defines, that's correct. You can purchase a condo. So you could purchase a house. You don't own the house. So let's see, and let me just, I want to make sure I sort out the last bit of Tony's comments. Yeah, social circle. I mean, I, you know, I hit it off with Mike right off the bat. I was like, this guy is a class act.

32:50 It, you know, he had so much. I mean, it was just like, I wish I should have had a recorder. I wish I had a recorder for when I sat down to talk with him because he starts talking and I'm just like, oh, I didn't know that. I didn't know that. I didn't know that. I didn't know that. And he had so much to share, and I thought I got a lot from his videos, which I have, but to actually sit down with the guy and to hear about all his insight, like it's a privilege. It was an honor.

33:18 I can't thank him enough for taking the time to share with me all this information. I would suggest everybody, you know, that's a subscriber of mine, that they ought to check his content out if they haven't already. Let's see here. Yeah, building a social circle, right? So I find that a lot of the guys over here have had struggles back in the West.

33:47 I mean, you know, it's a pretty drastic or dramatic thing to move halfway around the world, right? To a country you've never been to before, a country you're not speaking the local dialect, a country that doesn't have the conveniences you're used to, where you may not know anybody. And so I think the smart guys, like they do build that social circle.

34:08 They, you know, there are guys that choose isolation, and I don't blame them there. I mean, a lot of us have some PTSD from the West. You know, what I call complex PTSD. So not exactly the same as what our armed services members go through, but they've gone through a divorce, they've gone through a bad breakup, they've lost their job, they've, uh, maybe lost their home, maybe they've lost family members. I mean, there's a lot of us have some combination of these factors.

34:41 And that's part of what drove us to live over here. I know the cost of living gets brought up a lot, and I think it's easy to lead with that because it's like, it's a very concrete thing, right? I can't tell you what it's like to lose my parents, but I could show you my budget in the West. I could show you my budget here, and that's something that, you know, if you've got basic math skills, it's very easy to see. It's not an emotional thing, in my opinion.

35:06 Money, you know, it shouldn't be a super emotional thing. It is inherently emotional in some degree, but like you have to look at it somewhat clinically as you get older. So let me get caught up here. Yeah, okay. Great, Anabolic Albus. I'll get to that. I'll try to get you a response after our stream. Now, Defon says, why the Philippines and not any other country? Great question, Defon.

35:35 So I spent a year in Thailand. Right now, I'm kind of more in what I would call my discovery phase. So this phase of my expat journey, I'm not totally, you know, I'm not financially independent. And so I want to see the places that are most appealing to me to live long term. My concern about saying, okay, I'm going to live there is that I don't have enough information to make that determination.

Choosing Where to Live

36:06 So, you know, what I noticed is some guys, they'll go to Manila and they'll say, 'Oh, this is the Philippines. Oh, you know, this isn't for me.' Well, their problem isn't with the Philippines, their problem is with the fact that Manila is a big city, and they may not be a big city person. A lot of guys push the BGC or bust kind of thing, and I don't really care for that.

36:26 They make the argument, 'Oh, BGC is the only place to live.' I don't agree with that. I think BGC naturally is going to be very appealing to a lot of people for a lot of reasons, but some guys, they want a small town. I think Dagget is great for that. Other guys, they want to be up in the hills, Valencia, Baguio is another example.

36:50 So that's the whole point for me in the Philippines. I put a year into Thailand. I left Thailand in early July and I explored all throughout Thailand. My favorite city in Thailand is Chiang Mai, but I also made it down to Krabi Province, made it down to Hat Yai City, which is one of my new favorite places in Thailand, near the border of Malaysia.

37:10 Where else in Thailand? Bangkok. I spent several months in Bangkok. Bangkok, for me, is a nice to visit, not a place I would live long term. It's just too busy. It's just, you know, for me, if I'm looking to slow down my life, I don't know if I want to go to the biggest city of any country, unless it's like a really small country that's sparsely populated, which I can't think of any that I would want to live in.

37:38 The biggest city just tends to be a business hub. It tends to be very fast-paced. People are there for work. It's not going to be a place to relax. You know, there's appeal there, right? Like if, you know, things change for me in some dramatic way, you know, maybe I get some kind of expat job in the future. Actually, at one time, worked for this company called Concentrix. Loved working there.

38:00 Well, I worked at a company that got purchased by Concentrix, but loved working there. They have a sizable presence here in the Philippines. I actually know somebody that works in BGC for, well, it's a friend of a friend that works in BGC for them. And so this individual, they're an expat, but like they're not a retired person. They're actually actively working a career, earning a western wage.

38:26 Yeah, so why the Philippines? The people. The people are awesome here. They're so awesome. I could go on and on about how much I like the people here. They are cheerful, they're smiling a lot. They're friendly. They are interesting. Like they're just, they're just interesting people.

38:48 The English helps a lot. Like I can communicate with the people here very effectively, especially in places that are popular among foreigners, and especially among the younger.

38:58 And especially among the younger generations, it's just so easy to talk with people. The people, the nature, and there's always a third one that I forget. The people, number one, the nature, number two, because the nature is just so gorgeous here. I've just never seen anything like it. I even try to show pictures of it to people back home, and it's like, 'Okay, yeah, you can see pictures.' Seeing it in 3D is, I mean, to me, it almost looks like a 3D rendering. I don't know how else to explain it; it's just a visually stunning place.

39:42 There's a lot going on. Like you go out in town, and there's just all this movement, and it's different from back home where it's like 6 p.m. rolls around and the streets are empty. The side, they roll up the sidewalks. It's a joke I hear about life in the West. You know, people aren't talking to you, they're not engaging with you. You try to talk to somebody, you know they are probably not wanting to engage.

40:06 By the way, everybody watching this, please give us a thumbs up. It helps with the YouTube algorithm, it helps to share the content with more people. But yeah, the sidewalks, you know, they roll the sidewalks up in the West at 6 p.m. in many places. Here, it's not like that. I came back tonight at like 10:00, and there downtown, the boulevard is still super lively. The chess club is open until midnight. They're open every day of the week and they're open until midnight.

40:33 A chess club could not be open until midnight in the US. They would get robbed. Somebody would go in there and try to take all the chess sets, you know, take everything that's not nailed down.

40:46 But yeah, let me get caught up here. You're one of the few YouTubers that mentions Financial Independence in East. Can you speak more on how you plan to achieve that goal and make realistic for yourself? I assume YouTube is part of the equation, but investing must do most of the heavy lifting.

Financial Independence and Income Gap

41:07 Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, I think that my goal, and I'm interviewing right now for jobs, which I need to schedule my second round with this financial technology company. They're waiting on me to schedule the next step meeting.

41:32 The goal is to just live below my means, invest every extra penny, and then once I get to a point where I'm around $1,500 per month, then I'll make the permanent move to Southeast Asia. And then I'll do YouTube, I'll continue to do YouTube to build on that. So that's the amount that'll pay my rent, food, and transportation. And then the YouTube would be to cover things like travel. Well, the $1,500 would also cover insurance. The YouTube would cover travel, maybe padding an emergency fund, saving up if I need to go back home for whatever reason to visit.

42:15 I would not want to move back home permanently. I don't even want to go back. This time around, I'm only going back to get another bag of money, if I'm going to be honest. But yeah, the YouTube would be the icing on the cake. And that way, if it ever goes away for whatever reason, I still have my base expenses covered.

42:32 And ideally, you know, but I think you know, I'm gonna overpass that. I have strong confidence in being able to add to that $1,500 baseline amount with online income. I've had different hustles in the past, like I was an Amazon seller for a while, an eBay seller for a while, an Etsy seller for a while. So I've been trying to sort out an online income for a long time, made a lot of mistakes along the way, and each of those mistakes has taught me a lot.

43:05 I have confidence that even if YouTube doesn't pan out long term, I have some other ideas in mind. I would like for YouTube to pan out because it's such a great platform, right? I mean, everybody's on YouTube. You get to connect with a lot of really talented people. The cream rises to the top. I mean, YouTube is can be a somewhat competitive space. There's like 143 million channels out there, so there's a lot of people buying to produce quality content, original content, insightful content, and it forces me to level up.

43:40 You know, if I was on some platform that like seven people use, there's it's harder to gauge yourself, right? Like it's harder to measure how good you are when you're not alongside the best. Now, I never try to compete. My, you know, the goal of this channel is not to compete with this channel or that channel. It's to provide value.

44:01 And that's really what I'm focused on, providing unique value. Sorry for the typo, I think I missed your comment, Frugal Wanderer.

44:32 Defon says you don't see the actual swordfish in the West unlike from the fisherman's boat. You just see the swordfish filet that is already packaged in the grocery stores. Absolutely true. Defon, and also, I mean, like swordfish in the West is so expensive. The average person is not eating swordfish. It's just far too expensive. I mean, the price premium on it is going to be so high. Like, yeah, you could look at it in the grocery store, you're not going to eat it for dinner.

45:01 I have a host family here, and she mentioned they eat all kinds of fish that they wouldn't be able to afford if they had to go buy it. But they're, you know, as locals, as citizens, they're allowed to go catch their dinner. So they're able to eat all kinds of interesting things that maybe at a budget if they had to pay for it out of pocket. But one of her sons is actually a great fisherman. I want to go out on the boat with him.

45:29 So I know it would be a long day, you're talking like a probably six-hour day and a lot of hard work, but I want to go out on the boat with him. That would make an interesting video too. I'd probably want to get some kind of waterproof cover for my camera. Maybe I could order that on Lazada, but that would make an interesting video to see how he does it.

45:51 I also saw some guys tonight. I was down by the boulevard, these guys that were diving for sea urchin. So they were just in the, they had their boat with them, and they were just jumping off the side of the boat and kind of holding on to the boat for balance, and they swam down and grabbed a sea urchin and then swam back up and tossed it in the boat. I wish I could have bought some from them. I didn't think that I talked them a little bit. I don't know if they spoke much English, but I love sea urchin. It's delicious. I'll eat it all day.

46:22 Frugal Wanderer and Eastern Dreamer are two of my favorite bloggers, level-headed, realistic, and dreamers all at the same time. Yeah, thank you so much, Tony. I really appreciate that. That's really kind of you.

46:30 Why a trike and not just a scooter, Defon? So I'm not coordinated. I'm not very coordinated, and I'm, yeah, I'm just I tried to ride a scooter in Thailand and I started driving the wrong way down the street. It's just something that I'm just not very coordinated to handle.

46:57 A scooter is better to get through traffic. You can filter through traffic. That's a fair point, Defon. A trike is not as nimble as the scooter.

47:07 Frugal Wanderer says, I isolate for the most part and I love having an almost zero social circle. Nothing wrong with that, Frugal Wanderer, certainly. You know, certainly don't judge you for that. I mostly keep an eye out for other vloggers here in DTI because, you know, are we naturally have a filter, right? We can watch their content and decide, hey, I like their content, I like what they're talking about, I think that they, point is valid, I think they have something interesting to share, or not, right? No, content's not that good, not for me, I'm not going to watch. So I think there's nothing wrong with that.

47:45 Frugal, and like I'm sure you'll meet up with some of your subscribers and also some of the people whose channels that you're a fan of over the course of your expat journey. It's, you know, it's a marathon, it's not a sprint. I tell myself, trying to remind myself that all the time, like it's not an overnight journey.

48:03 The other part of the discovery trip for me is to get that experience. Like I don't want to be in the position where I'm totally inexperienced and like going from, I have only spent a month in the Philippines to now I'm living here full-time. I'd like to get some time under my belt, okay, I know my way around this city, okay, I know what housing is like, I know what the local produce is like, I know about things like allergies, right? When I come to try to move here long-term, I'm bringing like five boxes of allergy medication. I would have brought like enough to last me a long time, really, through the first year because I did some research and a lot of people were saying, hey, you know what, my first year in the Philippines was rough allergy-wise. Then after the first year, it started to slow down and was gone by like, you know, year or two. No more allergies. So this is just my body and my immune system specifically in overreaction mode, trying to figure out what's going on. And, you know, it's the old hardware, right? Like our ancient bodies trying to adjust to the modern world where we can just get on a plane and go anywhere.

49:27 Me as well, Tony says, me as well, Frugal W, but I like the idea of having an option of a small new circle if I want one in the future. Not easy to do in North America. Yeah, so this is, you know, once again, an inspired comment from Tony, where I could go on and on about this for an hour. I'll try to be succinct out of respect for Tony and everyone's time. But in North America, my experience has been everybody makes their friends in high school and young adulthood. So their social circles are set by like 22. I moved to California when I was 25, and by 25, my non-immigrant friends, most of them, I noticed they already had their social circle. They grew up with these different folks, maybe even middle school. They had all this shared history, and I'd go out with them.

50:16 History and I'd go out with them. They were welcoming, they were kind, but it's like there's only so many times people could talk about, 'Oh, you remember this? You remember that?' And I wasn't there for that, right? They weren't trying to be rude, they weren't trying to be exclusive or being ugly to me, but part of friendship in the West is shared hardship or shared struggle.

50:35 And when you're an adult, like you've been through a lot of hard times, right? I mean, you've already gone through a tough breakup, you've already potentially gone through some financial challenges, and you've figured out different aspects of life that a younger person hasn't figured out yet. So when you're trying to figure that out as an adult, like I just found to be post-25 and up, I don't know if I've made any friends in the United States.

51:06 After turning 25, I think basically when I turned 25, that was like the last round of friends that I made, almost all of whom are immigrants to the US who are more open to friendship because they feel like outsiders, like I feel like an outsider in the US, right? Because when I'm in the US, I still get asked where I'm from, even though I'm from the United States. I still get asked, you know, I've got that 'perpetual foreigner' vibe. So I relate a lot to my immigrant friends in the US. I'm like, 'Oh, you guys get treated like, you know, you're not welcome here.'

51:40 Well, I'm happy to commiserate. You know, I'm happy to chat about it. Now, I know that's not the case for you, Tony, but I still think there's something to be said about people basically being settled. And by 25, like, you know what? I've met all the people I need to meet. I've made all the friends I need to meet. And, you know, also, I think people just get, you know, around that time they start to get into their careers, they're worried about money. I mean, life is so expensive in the West, and a lot of people can't really lean on their families. So it's like, 'Okay, do I put time into this friendship in a transient culture, or do I just focus on work?'

52:12 Because if you know, I'm not sure about your experience, Tony, but in my experience, I left my hometown at 22. Really, at 18, I got kicked out at 18, and then I moved again at 19, and then I moved again at 22, and then I moved again at 25. And I moved several times throughout my childhood. So by the time I was 25, I'd moved probably eight or 10 times. And that doesn't lend itself to building long-term relationships because there are bits and pieces missing from the lives of other people that I tried to reconnect with.

52:42 So I just would move, even I would have to move growing up, neighborhoods in my hometown, and that was enough. That was enough to break friendships because, like, I had to move away before middle school, and then I moved back to my hometown after middle school. Well, in those three years, everybody's changed, right? People have gone through puberty, people have developed, and so it's, um, you know, there's a lot of change that comes with that.

53:12 And I also think there's this kind of, like, I don't know how to explain it, a know-it-all culture in the West. I think that people are so atomized that they feel like, 'Oh, I know everything. What do I need to talk to Tony for?' And I think it goes across the board. I met so many people in the West who have this 'I know everything' mentality because that's rewarded, right? Confidence is extreme, like over-the-top confidence in the West is heavily rewarded.

53:42 I mean, you look at an industry like sales, that I'm a part of. You know, there's a, like, you know the term 'conman,' and they aren't familiar with what 'conman' means, right? They know that it means like a scam artist or a ripoff person. What it's short for is 'confidence man.' It's short for a guy who has this confidence to come in and, you know, swindle people without them realizing it, right?

54:13 And so, you know, people have this confidence of, like, and maybe it could be also like just support structures, right? You know, that if you run into hard times, you can go get EBT in the US, you can qualify for social housing, there are homeless shelters. It's like, 'Okay, if I hit rock bottom, I don't need to talk to a friend. I need to go reach out to the government.' The US government will provide certain things for me that they'll guarantee, whereas if I go ask a friend, I could get shot down, I could get told no. The US government's not going to tell me no. So that's part of it too.

54:51 Now, I can't speak to your experience in Canada, but I think there's some overlap there, Tony, where, like, people just feel like, 'Ah, I don't really need people. I've got the support structure.' Such that I'd rather invest the time into starting a side hustle. I'd rather invest time into, um, getting some, you know, better education, maybe a graduate degree.

55:16 Maybe I want to go out and, and also, I think too, in the West, people size you up to try to figure out what they can get out of you. I've noticed this in a number of different environments where people size me up trying to figure out, 'Can I get something or not?' If I can't get anything, I'm going to move on to the next person. So now, I think that's super transactional. I think it's inconsiderate. I think it's coldhearted.

55:39 But that's been my experience, Tony, where I've been at events for, you know, different business purposes. People ask me what my job is, and when I tell them, they turn around. They literally turn around like, 'Ah, I don't need anything from you.' So there is this culture in the West of, like, ladder climbing and trying to constantly assess, 'Can I get something? Can I not get something?'

56:08 Now, I'm not saying by the way that you don't have a lot to contribute, Tony. That's not my intention at all. I think it's all about perception. To me, in the West, it's like the only people I should pay attention to or take seriously are famous actors, CEOs, doctors, and lawyers. If you're not one of those, then, what do I really have to learn from you?

56:30 Which is nonsense. I mean, the economies in the West are so complex. I could talk to, you know, at one point, I could talk to anybody that does anything and learn something new. I could go talk to somebody that works in a fast-food restaurant. No offense to people who do that, I've worked in restaurants before. They don't get a lot of respect in Western society. I would still learn a lot from talking to people that work there.

57:00 And I had friends that worked at different establishments that I worked at, and I would go and talk to them when I was a teenager. You can learn something from almost anybody in the West. Now, is it always going to be pertinent to your job? No, right? I mean, if I'm trying to be a lawyer, do I need to apprentice under a fast-food manager? Probably not. They're probably not in the legal industry, they're probably not qualified to guide my legal career. But that doesn't mean they don't have something valuable to offer. That doesn't mean that they don't have something insightful to talk about.

57:37 So yeah, I think, you know, I think in the West, it's just becoming more and more of a transactional culture. As things become more and more expensive and people are more financially stressed, I think it just gets worse.

57:50 Let's see here. Let's get caught up here. Anabolic says, 'Thanks, I have about 200k in investments and know it's not enough to retire even in the East, but looking for inspiration to close the income gap.' Yeah, I mean, you know, I would say like what I did. I'm not going to instruct you. I try not to do advice as much as possible. I just think advice is not where I excel. But what I look at is commission sales, right? So, an 'eat what you hunt' kind of thing, where the more you sell, the higher you get paid, specifically selling expensive stuff, selling stuff that costs a lot where there's a high margin.

Closing the Income Gap Strategies

58:37 I focused on technology sales because technology is an industry with high margins. And so that's something, you know, like that worked for me. But yeah, you know, it's a long process. I mean, some people tell you, 'Just start an online business.' Well, if it was that easy, everybody would do that and leave the West. A lot of people would do that and leave the West if it was as simple as a snap of the fingers. I mean, you've got forums of tens of thousands of guys trying to figure out how to get out of the West. It's tragic.

59:14 But there's also a whole lot of beauty on the other side of the struggle. And I try to keep that in mind when I think about going back to the West. I'm filled with dread, I'm filled with anxiety, but I know it's potentially, you know, I get back into sales, like probably four years away, I'll get to that 1500 point. Outpost says, 'You need to look at S&P 500, it's up 6% over the last week.'

59:48 I defon says, 'I don't even want to look at my investments there these last few weeks.' Yeah, it's been rough. I mean, my portfolio was down 5% in a couple of days, so that was a pretty substantial drop for sure. Defon says, '1500 is cutting it close.' Yeah, I mean, that's a fair assessment. The 1500 would be 1500 plus an emergency fund, right? Plus a sizable emergency fund. So it wouldn't be like, 'Okay, 1500, I hope nothing bad happens.' It'd be like, 1500 and, you know, I've got this stack of cash that is enough for a repatriation situation, right? Flight back, rent back home, all this other stuff.

1:00:36 Back home, I could go get a job that kind of thing. Tony says, 'Have to run, thanks to the chat and symbolic cup of coffee, Eastern Dreamer, and Frugal Wander. Thanks so much for joining us tonight, Tony. Your thoughts and comments are always welcome.' Defon says, 'Unfortunately, they do not.'

1:00:57 Unfortunately, they do not have size minimums there for fish. I see, I did not know that. Have you taken ferries in the Philippines? Are they cheaper than flights? They are about the same, you know. I think it's probably, it depends. So it's kind of this like hub system here where a lot of people have to fly to Cebu or Manila and then fly again. It's kind of tricky. I would say it's cheaper, but it's also more time-consuming and it can really take a lot of time, especially considering traffic.

1:02:12 I have taken some here. I took one to Kigan, which we'll zoom over there. I took one from Balingoan to Kigan, and that was about four hours. So I know this doesn't look very far, but that was like a four-hour ferry ride. I could have basically, and it was a two-hour, so it was a two-hour public, or not public, I think it was like a van. I think we rode in a sprinter van from CDO to Balingoan. So just to get from here to here was like six hours. So distances are very deceptive in the Philippines, much more so than anywhere else I've been in the world, where people will see the distance, they'll see, oh, it's 40 miles. Well, 40 miles could be like a ferry ride and a jeepney ride or truck. Transportation logistics are definitely more complex here than some of the surrounding countries.

1:03:19 You sound like a military kid, always moving around to new posts. Yeah, I mean, I come from a military background. My grandfather was in the service, and my mom had to move around a lot. I was on my grandfather's insurance until I was 26, so I'm kind of a military kid. I think when you get in the habit of moving a lot, it just never goes away. I think it's part of the reason why I'm so comfortable being over here. If I'd stayed in the same place my whole life, I'd be a lot more nervous about it, but I moved around so much, it's like there's no difference. I've traveled; I've spent two years total outside of the US at this point, to the extent that I could go to many different countries and be just fine. You know, throw me in most Latin American countries, throw me in most East or Southeast Asian countries, throw me in anywhere in Western Europe, chunks of Eastern Europe, I'd be fine. I'd get a SIM card, I'd have a data plan, and I'd just go from there. Find a hotel within my budget, use Google to find a good restaurant. I'd be fine; it wouldn't be stressful at all. I find being in the US to be far more stressful than being outside of the US these days, just the crime in the US, the attitudes in the US, the cost of living in the US, the breakdown of society. It's just a very unfortunate situation these days, and I hope things get better at some point. Maybe they lower the interest rates, maybe. But like, you know, that's going to exacerbate inflation. So it's kind of like stuck between a rock and a hard place in the US, where the heightened interest rates cause problems, and lowering the interest rates will also cause problems. Which set of problems do we want?

1:05:45 Hi Alex, good to see you again. I hope you go to Star City and Enchanted Kingdom. I'm gonna look that up. Star City Philippines, and in Metro Manila. Very cool, interesting. Enchanted Kingdom, thank you for the call out. Oh, these are theme parks. Yeah, you know, they may be more oriented toward families, but I'm certainly not opposed to checking them out at some point. This is a great country to start a family; maybe one day that'll be me.

1:06:26 I'm actually in sales, selling roofs and siding projects on commission sales, but obviously I would need to find a remote position, which seems much more difficult. Yeah, due to tax reasons, they want people to be based in the US. I think it's also a method of control, like, hey, stay here, pay your taxes. I certainly felt that way in the US. I remember asking at a place I'd worked in the past, 'Hey, could I travel?' 'Oh, no, you got to stay here.' And so that's how part of how they control people and stop people from leaving.

1:07:06 And yeah, so, you know, it's really hard. I made a lot of sacrifices. I lived in a tiny shoebox apartment. I mostly took public transit when I go back. If I get a job in California, I'm strongly looking at selling my car because that gets rid of parking fees, that gets rid of paying for expensive California gasoline. I never used it to commute anyway; I just used my car on the weekends to go, you know, past the time, basically go down to the beach or go to some parks or things like that. But I work so much, you know, I have to time, I'd be too tired on the weekend, and I had chores, and I had to park like a mile away from my apartment.

1:07:55 But yeah, you know, that's one of the things I would say is like, if you, you know, you could downsize your apartment. But I don't know where you live, right? I'd have to ask a lot of questions to get a better sense of your background, where you live, like, do you own your home? Are you renting an apartment? Do you have to go into work? And you work remotely? Remotely does not mean around the world, from my experience. Remotely means within the country, which is better than having to go in. It's better than being stuck in one place, but it's still limited, right? For a lot of us, we'd rather just get out of the US.

1:08:43 So, who first to be rich: employee, manager, boss, or businessman? I think, if you want to be wealthy, you have to have equity in a business. You have to be an owner. I stay heavily invested just because, I mean, there's a lot of inflation back in the US. They print a lot of money, and it devalues the currency. All the money flows into assets, and so that's the way to kind of get back at inflation. The employees are, you know, lowest on the totem pole; they're going to have the hardest time to get rich. So I think you're best off anywhere in the world, well, except there are a few countries that are particularly hard on businesses. But a lot of, you know, the online business kind of circumvents that, where you can sell to anybody in the world. You can have customers anywhere in the world. Get your product, customers anywhere in the world. But yeah, I would say having some kind of business where you are, you have equity in that business, basically you have a stake in the performance of the business. So if the business is super successful, you get a piece of that.

1:10:01 Now, there are two ways to do this that I think of: coding is one, and sales is another. If you're doing customer service, that's not going to work. There's a one-to-one ratio where every hour of customer service that you do is basically one hour of production. Whereas if you sell a really big deal, you're getting a chunk of a really big deal. If you build a piece of code that serves a whole lot of people, you're getting a piece of a whole lot of people's business. Like, think about DoorDash. DoorDash isn't a restaurant; DoorDash doesn't make a dollar every time a restaurant does business. They make a percentage of every single transaction all day long. So if there are 100,000 food orders in a day, they're making a piece of 100,000 deals. So they've got leverage. They leverage all the people, all the hungry people at all these different countries.

1:11:00 If you have $1 million, who do you go with first: business or materials? I'd be honest, I'm not sure I totally understand. If I had a million dollars, how would I invest it? I'd probably build like a podcast studio, honestly. That's one idea I have: I would do a podcast studio, maybe in like BGC, because I don't see people doing podcasts there. I see people doing videos, short-form videos, but I don't see people doing seriously long, drawn-out, top-quality podcasts where you sit down with an expat or local or a couple or whoever your guest's focus is, and you talk for two, three hours and you really get down to the bottom of a certain thing. Because for whatever reason, like exact content seems to favor the short form, but I think there's space out there for long form. I'd also invest, I'd just upgrade equipment. I'd get like some really nice equipment, not that I don't have decent equipment now, but some of my equipment's broken. My Osmo Pocket in particular broke.

1:12:30 What else would I do? I'd probably just invest it, you know, honestly, if I got a million dollars, I'd probably just buy income-producing stocks and then live off that money. And then as I build the channel, reinvest all the channel money into growing the channel, right? So buying more cameras. Buying, I need to buy a tripod. That's probably within budget, but yeah, I'd invest in camera equipment.

1:12:55 But guys, I'm probably going to wind this down here pretty shortly because my nose is running up a storm, and I've got a long day tomorrow. Tomorrow's going to be a really long day, and I've got to get some rest tonight if I'm going to give it my all tomorrow. Any last questions or thoughts? Thanks so much for joining us, everybody. It's been a great stream. I wish I could go for longer tonight, but it's midnight now, and I've got to be up and at 'em in about eight, eight and a half hours is when I'll need to be out the door.

1:13:45 But yeah, I mean, there's a lot to think about. You have some really great questions, and I appreciate your input. And yeah, I mean, I'm not sure, are you a business person? Do you have a business? Let me check out your channel. I don't know if you have that as a channel that you are part of.

1:14:24 You might want to start a channel. I'm not sure about your background, but if you have like just a cell phone, then you could start to record some videos, maybe showing people your town or your city, maybe talking a little bit about it. I think a lot of foreigners and Filipinos too are curious.

1:14:44 Foreigners and Filipinos too are curious about the Philippines. You also have a big OFW audience; you have a ton of Filipinos around the world that they're wondering what's going on back home.

1:14:56 Yeah, I mean, I think you're a gamer, so yeah, you could show your gaming. That's a great idea, but I do apologize, guys. I'm starting to lose my voice a bit more quickly now, so I'm going to go ahead and call it.

1:15:12 I've heard of it, but I haven't played it. So I'm going to call it. Sorry, guys, for the allergy-ridden stream, but I think it's about time for me to call it.

1:15:29 I hope everybody has a wonderful weekend. I'm having some allergies, so I've got some really bad allergies. And tomorrow, I should be getting some allergy relief. That's the plan.

1:15:43 I'm going to have a good night's rest, so thanks so much, everybody. I'll see you next time. If you're watching this on replay and you haven't subscribed, please subscribe down below. Give us a thumbs up; it really helps the channel.

1:15:56 And comment, you know, if this has been helpful for you in spite of my allergies, then I greatly appreciate your dialogue and look forward to chatting next time. Take care, everyone.