Poll Monthly expenses

I mentioned in my post clearly that the bachelor pads is considered for a single person. For living with two persons they are normally too small. But there are houses available which are even smaller.

 

Then he was either in the apartment, not the bachelor pad, or he is including his electric bill and running the aircon 24 hours a day. Surely the price did not go up that much in the 3 years since I lived there.

Edit, anyway you have convinced me that I was wrong. I have been posting a lot in this thread trying to explain how it is possible to live comfortably on 1,000 a month. I keep posting the same information hoping for a different result.

I guess you have proven that it is insanity to live on 1000 a month, or at least it is insane to try and convince spoiled rich kids they can do it.

Over and out.

 

No matter what is said here, IF $800+ is all you have that is ALL you have & can spend, so, either go for it or stay as has been said be trailer Trash. We can only make the Budget fit the life we can never make life fit anything else. Thank Goodness I don't have that problem I feel sorry for the OP in the earlier Thread, he must be having a Ducky fit with all this

 

It is more about living within your means really. I have been here on and off since 2002 and prices have risen greatly, along with the amount of foreigners. Personally, I live out of UK, coming here for a month, every 3 months, yet working abroad awaiting retirement. My wife and children are here and schooling takes a great deal of the budget. When I first came here and opened up an internet cafe, foreigners were very rare and always attracted attention. The peso was worth far less and it was easy to live on 40k a month, as a policeman or teacher was paid 10k a month, and a Lee Plaza worker full time was on 4k. Things have changed and prices plus peso has risen sharply. However, that said, the locals manage on much less and apartments/bungalows can be had for just 5k a month. If you budget accordingly you should have no problem living on 40k even today. Just don't mix with the wrong people.

 

Here is a link showing pinoy people living on different salaries per month. Can give some ideas about expenses. Owning a house/apartment/condo can have a huge impact on expenses.

 

I hear you Doc but we are Foreigners expecting the Lifestyle of such while having the cash of of the Filipinos

 

People seem to argue with each other about how much a person can live on - but it is such an individual thing that EVERYONE CAN BE RIGHT. As already said, so many variables. It is INTERESTING to know how much other people can live on but it should not be a factor in a different person's life. I pay 15k per month for a 3 bed apartment and that saves me about 38k per month in rent in my home country - with other house-linked costs, I am saving about 52k per month. I know that a few things are more expensive in the Philippines, but they are items we do not use a lot. Food and eating out is cheaper for most people. This means my costs here are much lower and that is what really matters in my situation. The biggest issue is the unknown cost of health problems - this may vary from a small sum for a minor problem up to millions for major surgery - and I worry most about the fact that my wife's family may have health issues that I cannot ignore. So whatever we calculate as the amount a person needs to be 'comfortable' (which is an attitudinal factor in part), a personal or family health issue could send the budget soaring. And, as someone else mentioned, currencies fluctuate and so the 52 pesos to one USD could one day be 30. So the best solution is to live within your means (that is the most anyone can do for themselves and their family), have something set aside for emergencies and then pray.

 

You are right on the mark regarding health issues. Now, taken one at a time. Asawa’s family are Pilipinos I assume. Make sure they are covered by Phil Health. They might just pay the whole bill for them if they are poor. This is not like the old days of the 90’s where poor people would die unless you saved the day for them. Now, don’t get me wrong. Family will still ask you for help. That is the custom! But Phil Health will help a lot. Now for you, the rich expat. You can also get Phil Health, rather cheap but it may pay only the hospital bill like Medicare A in the USA. There are other yahoo forums where the people claim that Phil Health has paid much more than that but I don’t know. In addition to Phil Health you MAY want to get private insurance but read the maximum coverage in the plan. You might pay the typical $US 1K per year but their maximum payout might say P500K or US 10K. To me this is not worth it. You are guaranteed to pay them 1K fir a possible
Max of 10K payout but usually no or much less payout. But I do it anyway. Now I find my Pacific Cross cannot be used as an instant guarantee to get into the hospital because when you are over 65, their plan will only pay you directly after you settled with the hospital. This renders my Pacific cross insurance card next to useless but I do understand there is another private plan that works with Phil Health and for around the same price you can get much better coverage and have an insurance card that gets you admitted. That will be our new plan in 2018. Still, if I had something really serious and I were able to travel, I would fly to The Guam hospital, or Hawaii or go back to the mainland to use Medicare A,B and my IBM medigap, all paid for, including part B, by IBM under their prior retiree health plan that I was so fortunate to be a part of! They cover my Asawa as well.


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Quite odd with Pacific Cross. They have an add-on called ACCESS which should allow you to get the hospital costs being paid directly by Pacific Cross. This option seems to be available also for 65+ people.