I wasn't taking it as you sh*tting on my decisions. Everyone is coming from a different situation. There are different visas for different situations.

Yeah. Just this year my return has been nearly 11%. Of course there is no telling what could happen by the end of the year (last year my returns dropped -6% just in December). Robo-investors and fund managers do all of the leg work for their customers. It really isn't all that difficult and, as you say, any jack@$$ can dump money into a fund...so long as that jack@$$ has money to give them.

You shouldn't be "paying" anything to "invest". The point is to make money. If I wasn't making money on my investments I wouldn't be doing it. What makes me nervous about the Philippines is the quality of education and finding a good fund manager. I have serious doubts on their ability to make wise financial decisions. A lot of research will be done into finding a good one.

Absolutely. I am waiting on a job offer that would have me on a 6 and 6 rotation (6 weeks work - 6 weeks vacation). The SIRV visa would be a huge benefit as it would save me from a bunch of tourist visa renewals. If that job pulls through I will start to seriously consider a permanent, unlimited entry, visa.

I noticed they have some special investment interests/investment packages available. One was power generation...which the country desperately needs.

What you suggest for a "digital nomad" seems to be a very valid approach. I'm pretty certain they just added internet based companies to the negative list that foreigners are allowed to own a 100% share in. I'm not sure you would need to throw $75k at it, you may be able to value your business on paper to reach that number.

There is also the SVEG visa approach: if you employ 10 Filipinos you get a permanent visa. This visa has been around for a very long time (at least 10 years), but the negative list is just now starting to catch up to make it an reasonable goal.

 

Looking at Philippine market history, yes, it would add up. Could the market crash and never recover in my lifetime? Yeah, I suppose it could. Could a president declare martial law and freeze all bank assets in country and/or declare all the ills of the country are due to foreigners making any other visa type just as worthless? Yeah. I think they are both equally as likely to happen.

Not with inflation. A penny saved without interest/returns is money lost...about a 3-6% loss per year in the Philippines. That penny could also lose additional value depending on how that converts into centavos. "A penny invested is a penny earned." is a better, more accurate, saying.

No thanks. Too much work involved in paperwork, permits, regulations and management. It is, IMO, quite high risk as well.

Again, I want reliable passive income. I don't want to actually have to work for it or stress about it (well, I worked to earn the money in the first place, now I just want to sit back, relax and collect my returns) and I certainly don't want to rely on the Filipino workforce to maintain a visa. Running a business and managing Filipino workers in the Philippines is what I imagine hell to be. I can't imagine much of anything that would be more frustrating and less rewarding.

 

I am 36. The SRRV "investment" requirement is $50k USD, not $75k (that is for the SIRV, an investor's visa). I do not consider a condo an "investment". I've seen what has happened to almost every condo complex in the Philippines. They generally age just as gracefully as a trailer park. The maintenance fees and the difficulty in selling if you want to jump ship are too much of a hassle with far too much risk of losing your investment IMO.

Note: If your condo complex happens to be at the 60:40 Filipino:Foreigner mandatory ownership ratio when you want to sell you are going to get stuck unless you are willing to sell at a significant discount/loss to a Filipino. I also do not want to be tied down to one location in the country and I do not want to be bothered with renting to foreigners (75% of which seem to completely broke, have some mental disorder or both) or locals (no....just no).

I have not seen anywhere where stocks are a part of the permitted SRRV "investment" requirements. If you can show me where they specifically state this then I would be very interested in learning about it.

There is also the issue of proving that you have a pension income with the SRRV. I do not have a pension and I probably won't for the next 3-4 decades. If they consider income from military disability (which is around $420/month) and income that can be shown on a 1099INT then, yes, I meet that requirement. But what happens if that interest/investment/dividend fluctuates (as it will with market performance) and dips below the required amount? Do I lose my visa at the most inopportune time? I could go on with the "what ifs" and concerns. I know I would probably be alright...but I prepare for the worse case scenario. The SRRV is has too many moving parts and a wrench thrown at any of them could result in the whole thing to come crashing down, I'm just not interested in it.

From what I have read the SIRV (which is not a retirement visa like the SRRV) is much less of a hassle to obtain and requires much less maintenance than an SRRV. The extra $25k investment with the SIRV is not a concern. I like the simplicity of the SIRV. $75k = visa. No $75k = no visa.

 

Which also loses value with every year that passes. "Schemes" seem like a very appropriate word for the SRRV property investment option.

There's that "work" word showing its ugly head again. Going to the Philippines on a retirement visa only to end up having to run a business...lol no thanks.

There is absolutely nobody that could convince me to "invest" in real estate in the Philippines. If I can't own 100% of the land (and until they pass a law that directly says it is legal for foreigners to own land, you can't) then there is absolutely zero value in a lot/property to me. If you tell me that I, an unmarried foreigner, can own, not lease, a property (that means the title goes in my name and my name alone...not a partner's name, not a corporation's name) but can't produce a law, which would be an amendment to the constitution, or a Supreme Court ruling backing that claim up then you are just a smooth talking scam artist.

I'm not saying Gord would tell me such a thing, I doubt he would. I know that if I am unwilling to lease or buy a condo then my options are nil for "owning" property in the Philippines.