Best Posts in Thread: Taking the plunge

Even that "Average Joe, blue collar, retired expat income" depends heavily on individual circumstances.
The country of origin matters a lot, more so with regards to the level of your state pension.
But there's also big differences between private pension systems, even within one country (just think about the difference between "defined benefit" and "defined contributions" systems).
For those interested, here's a link to a fairly recent international comparison of pension systems.

From my personal perspective (so very subjective), a retired couple could live fairly comfortable in the Philippines with a budget above 100k a month (1,400 pounds), excluding the cost of health insurance and/or expenses.
However, if one insists on eating the same things as "back home" then count on groceries expenses much higher than would fit in that budget (imported stuff is typically silly expensive here, if at all available). If the fish in your "fish and chips" has to be cod, stay where you are.

My suggestion would be that when desiring to rent in a nice location, drive a car rather than a motorbike, go out for a meal regularly and to have some protection against exchange rate changes, a budget around 2,000 pounds a month is more like it.

In short, yes there are savings to be had here compared to much of Europe, no heating bill, cheaper to rent or buy a house, cheaper to dine out, but there's also pitfalls like the one about groceries mentioned above, but also the rising cost of electricity (of which you'll use a fair bit more because of aircon), and the latent risk of high health related expenses.
Better not to move here without a fair sized nest egg.

And aside from the financials, the willingness to adjust to life here and accept that things here don't work like in most first world countries is vital to a successful move. The other day we had 3 brownouts (blackouts) in 24 hours, one causing me to wake up sweaty in the middle of the night, the other causing us to order food delivery rather than prepare food, and the third to hit me in the shower. If you can't smile over things like that and say "more fun in the Philippines" when untoward things like that happen, don't live here. Frustration is not healthy.

 

3 months absent from the UK and they can kiss Free NHS goodbye. Hope they know this!!

 

Build a smaller house, not counting the balconies the house is 450 sm over three floors. I want to sell it but wife won't move again. Apart from that nothing.

 

Just to give your friend some idea about his buying power in the Philippines:

• Inflation in the Philippines over the past 10 years has been around 42% cumulative.
  However, the general inflation rate as quoted above doesn't necessary apply to your personal shopping basket.
  Typically, the lower the budget, the harder inflation bites.
• Just in case your friend might consider buying or building a house here: 10 years ago you could still buy or build a reasonably nice house under 3 million within a radius of 5 km from Downtown; nowadays count on at least double that amount.
• Similarly, minimum wages here have gone up around the same percentage as inflation, which means you'll pay higher compensation whenever you need to pay for someone's labour.
• The current Sterling/Peso exchange rate is largely the same as 10 years ago.

Whether living here is still a good proposition financially really depends on all the things @Crystalhead mentioned.
What probably matters most is the level of expectations people bring with them when moving here.
And another thing is that individual concepts of "living modestly" can vary wildly.
One persons "living modestly" might equal someone else's exuberance or alternatively someone else's poverty.

 

My wife's got a British passport and lived with me for 12 years in England but won't go back permanently, only vacations.

 

We intended to do that before we built the house, then after moving in we decided it was not a good idea.
We built a guest for any expats to use and at the moment it's occupied.

 

As i have said before the one and only reason i am here is because it is so much easier for me to get a permanent visa to live here than for my wife to get one for the UK.
We did all the palaver to get her a 2 and 1/2 year visa and when that runs out then you do it again to get another 2 and 1/2 and THEN you can apply for permanent.
STICK IT UK.

 

Slightly off-topic again but perhaps never come in the first place. There are many better countries for expats - some even like expats! But once your feet have settled it's just too much hassle to move again. And, of course, I recognise that many expats are tied here with families.