Hello Dexternik,
Cebu is a great area to relocate to out of the city.聽 I personally live across the straights in the City of Ormoc, on Leyte Island. which was hit hard by the Typhoon last November.聽 We use the 2.5 hour fast ferry ride to cross the straight to go to Cebu to shop every once and a while.聽 I moved here from California's Central Valley in late 2010 and love the islands and life style here.聽 Where you live is totally dependent on how you like your lifestyle.聽 Lots of people, big cities and expensive COL, not so many people, medium to smaller cities and moderate COL, and rural a few people and inexpensive COL.
Income:
$2,800.00 USD (120,000php) is more than enough to live comfortable live here if you are conservative.聽 If you live a flashier life style then you will find you will spend more than you wish sometimes.聽 A few warnings for you here:聽 People here will take advantage of you when ever they can by raising prices.聽 They are more than happy to help you spend your money.聽 Dress like the poorest person in the world, wear no expensive jewelry or flash your money.聽 Open a USA bank account with Wells Fargo Bank and then open an account with BPI in Cebu.聽 The two banks have an agreement to do money transfers from the USA and the cost is only 5 to 10 dollars a transfer and a slightly lower exchange rate, which is still better than some other ways to transfer..聽 Only hitch with WFB is you have to make the first transfer from in the USA, then you can do it electronically after that.聽 You will need a POA on the USA account, so someone there can do the first one for you.聽 Otherwise, plan on a trip back to the USA to do it.
Medical:
There is no medical insurance here except PhilHealth, which pays about 25 percent of your hospital stay.聽 A recommendation is that if you pay $800.00 for insurance in the USA, then I would cancel it and use the money to put in a savings account here for your medical needs.聽 I pay less USA dollars a month here, than my co-pay back in the USA a month.聽 Hospitals here are way different than in the USA also, their system here works completely different here.
Relationships and marring here:
This is the great question.聽 I was extremely lucky with my wife when I came here because she was the sister of a friend of mine here that I visited when I came here for medical reasons.聽 Women here are always looking for a foreigner to marry.聽 They feel it is an easy life for them.聽 There are a bunch of rules if you marry a Filipina under 26 years old.聽 There are a lot of cultural differences here.聽 My wife and I had our share the first two years I was here, since all has been wonderful with her.聽 You will find out fast enough when you get here that all is not what if seems.聽 She says she is single, but she may have a common law husband and several kids that you do not know about hidden in the wings.聽 You will really need to do your due diligence when getting to know a girl here and let her know that you will not tolerate any lies.聽 You may find that you will never see her again after that conversation.聽 Treat your wife here good, love her, tell her that she is beautiful and sexy.聽 The women here love to be praised.聽 You will find that your wife or girlfriend will test your loyalness by having her friends around and flirting with you.聽 If you are serious about her, then she should be the only woman in your world always.聽 My home is always full of beautiful women and for me they are not even here because I love my wife so much.
Recommendation:
When you marry here, you need the parents approval of the marriage, if under 26 years old.聽 A younger wife means immaturity and age difference.聽 I am 66 and my wife is 26 and the age difference was the first thing we discussed.聽
Live here for a year or so and go thru the hassle of visa renewals so you can see where to relocate permanently.聽 This will give you time to look around and meet different women.
Get a Filipino you can trust to scout out a place to live and negotiate the price for you before you look at the place.聽 Do the same when buying furniture and other items here.聽 When people here see a foreigner the raise the price. An example of this would be a two bedroom apartment for 8k php for the Filipino, but if you were the person inquiring about it the cost would be 10k php a month and with a one month security deposit and two months rent up front.聽 Check out the area that you choose to live for location, squatter areas and stores, hospitals.聽 Be advised, you can not own property here, and cars and motorbikes are questionable.聽 The only thing you can own is a condo and there are two types.聽 A condominium development and high rises.聽 High rises are not recommended because we are in seismic Zone 4 and construction here lacks the standards for this zone.聽 Ownership to condos is limited to, I think, 40 percent of the complex can be foreign owned and 60 percent Filipino owned.聽 The land is 100 percent Filipino owned, and you are at their mercy.聽 There are others that disagree about this, but if you go online and search Filipino law and read the statutes you will see what your rights are really.聽 I know a foreigner that bought land and built a home without due diligence and when he was done out of the woodwork was a relative of the previous owner that claimed having an interest in the land and the family could not sell it to him.聽 He lost 4.5m php on the experience. If you are thinking of doing any type of investing, land , home, or vehicles here do your due diligence and read the laws ruling the transaction before you know.聽 Lawyers here are also corrupt when it comes to聽 monetary dealings.聽 If you are directed to a certain lawyer for a purchase by the seller, then take all the paperwork to a different lawyer in a different city for a second opinion.聽 You would not believe who is related to who here.
If you find a woman, go and meet her parents and family.聽 Use your senses when there, look, watch and listen.聽 If you are unsure about your choice in lady, have her get her NSO birth certificate copy.聽 Then you take it and go to the NSO and check her marriage status and if she has given birth ever.聽 There are fees for these services, but well worth the aggravation you may have later from an unwanted surprise.聽 People here use many names, it is really hard to determine if it is her real name or not.聽 They can go to the NSO and file a application for delayed birth certificate and give different name.聽 It will boil back to the parents and how many children they recorded during their life.聽 It really boils down to your feelings and if you trust, or are open minded to accept surprises in your life.
When you marry it is advisable to move a distance from the in-laws to cut down on visits, or you being their new home. There will always be a reason for need of money.聽 I give my wife 10k a month to do whatever she want with it.聽 We help the family when ever we can depending on if we have extra funds or not.聽 We live comfortably on my 1,700.00USA a month SSA.聽 I have not driven a car since coming here and it is cheaper to pay transportation here then own and drive a car.聽 The exception is if you are in the medium to big cities where taxis are and they are expensive.
Look at the weather here when deciding where to live.聽 The northern and southern areas of the country get much more rain then the central areas do.聽 The whole country is subject to more than 20 typhoons a year, most are nothing, but every once and a while they hit land real bad like last November.
Buy your self a MagicJack there in the USA and activate it.聽 Get the five year plan for $99.00.聽 It has paid for itself many, many, many times over.聽 I run mine 24/7 and have my USA phone here to get and do calls to the USA.
I hope this helps you out a little bit.
TC RAC
FB: Zoy47
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