Retirement

I Have Square Feet {6}

SpongBob

SpongeBob may have square pants, but I’ve got square feet. No, not the kind you walk with, but the kind you measure with.

There are a lot of adjustments to make when moving to and living in the Philippines. I’ve touched on the differences in electricity, language, currency, cultural and more. Another that can be a bit challenging for some, myself included, is the unit of measure used there (and the rest of the world except of course the United States, Liberia and Myanmar).
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Last modified: 14th October, 2013

By Category: Electricity, Home building, Retirement, Transportation Tags: , , ,

Acoustic Nga Sista sa Pilipinas {1}

Epiphone Masterbilt AJ-500R

I did the best I could with the title, as I’m still working on my Bisaya. I think I know just enough to scramble it well, and make a fool of myself, but that’s OK. Most people usually get the idea, and laugh at my obvious mistakes.

I recently bought myself a new guitar, an Epiphone Masterbilt AJ-500R. I have been looking at, and trying out, this guitar for over 5 years probably. Every time I had myself convinced to buy it, I found more important uses for the funds. That wasn’t really any different this time, but I decided if that was going to continue to be the case then I would likely never get it.
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Last modified: 14th October, 2013

By Category: Retirement Tags: , , , , , , ,

Magic Sing Karaoke {0}

Magic Sing Karaoke

Whenever we get a few filipinos together for a party we generally end up hooking up the Magic Sing, and the singing ensues long into the evening. Yes, karaoke is one of the favorite past times of filipinos. Their love of singing doesn’t dissipate once they leave the country, either. Far from it.
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Last modified: 9th February, 2010

By Category: Retirement, Samal Island Tags: , , , ,

Samal Island and the Mosquitoes {14}

Dengue Mosquito

I’ve never liked mosquitoes. I don’t know too many people that do for that matter.

For whatever reason it seems that I’ve always been more susceptible to mosquito bites than those I was with at the time. When we go camping, I’m the one that is fighting them off. A day trip to the creek, and they’re finding me. Last year during the visit to the province I was the only one with bites. Maybe it was the fresh smell of a foreigner or the bright white skin, I don’t know.

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Last modified: 14th October, 2013

By Category: Retirement, Samal Island Tags: , , , , , ,

Christmas on Samal {7}

As I was attempting to finish up the details for another Christmas in Spokane (my 20th) I started to consider how different this will all eventually be once we are living on Samal Island. Sure there would be the obvious lack of snow and cold weather – not a bad thing at all in my opinion, but there’s a lot more to it than that.

My mom is here visiting as she does most years. She lives in another part of the United States, so often I only see her this time of year. She wasn’t going to come up this time, but mentioned to me that this would be the first year ever that she had not spent with family. That really made me think. Would I have any family, other than my new pilipino relatives, to celebrate with? Would my sons, as they get older, be willing to come visit all the way across the world during the holidays, especially as they start to build families of their own? Would I be willing, if I could even afford it, to travel back the the US during this time? Not really any answers to those questions, just something to consider.

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Last modified: 21st January, 2010

By Category: Retirement, Samal Island Tags: , ,

Retire in the Philippines {19}

Retire in Philippines Hammock

As I reviewed my site recently, I noticed that I have never specifically posted as to why I want to retire in the Philippines. I have stated why Samal Island was chosen for the place to buy our land and build our house. I’ve even written about frugality and the Philippines, which touches on some of my beliefs in how I’d like to live my life. I had always figured each post kind of spelled out my reasons, but maybe not. Of course these reasons may change as time passes, but for now here are my top ten.
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Last modified: 14th October, 2013

By Category: Cost of living, Davao, Food, Home building, Retirement, Samal Island Tags: , , ,

PRA to Speed Up Davao Retirement MOA {7}

This references an article I saved late last year but never got around to posting about. It deals with the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to establish the Davao region as a retirement haven. Though the original article from Mindanao Times is no longer available online, the gist of it was that the PRA (Philippines Retirement Authority) wants to put the MOA on a fast track.
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Last modified: 21st October, 2012

By Category: Davao, Health, Retirement, Samal Island, Samal-Davao bridge Tags: , , ,

True Cost Of Living In The Philippines {14}

Philippine Flag Flying

Many are the discussions about the cost of living in the Philippines. These often go back and forth, comparing one item or service to another, and then of course the individual situations that differ for each family. The conclusion is always the same. There is no way to compare, excepting with your own situation.

I’ve been known to attempt these comparisons myself. Trying to figure out how much it would cost me to live in the Philippines. This article tells you of my true cost of living in the Philippines after 4 months. It may not be what you were expecting.
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Last modified: 14th October, 2013

By Category: Cultural Adjustment, Davao, Health, Retirement Tags: , ,

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