(…continued from the prior post above because Steem limits posts to 16 KiB)
I was disappointed, as filipinos are reputed to be very friendly. There were some friendly people here and there that I managed to strike up conversations with, and of course my in-laws and friends, etc. were super friendly. Maybe the lack of friendliness has more to do with Davao being a big city? There's also an element of people being intimidated by me, being huge and white. That doesn't explain so many people trying to cut in line right in front of me.
Exacerbated by the big city, Mindanao-not-Bohol, and high-trust-only-family. The gentle, Spanish disciplined, community trust Filipinos are going extinct — an aberration that was against the flow of the majority.
The patriarchs lost control, e.g. Michelle’s father (actually her mother encouraged the discipline) very strict with her but her younger siblings somewhat incorrigible because they have been exposed to modern life.
I can't speak about Mindanao has a whole, but Davao has more and more big city problems (rude people, traffic, increasingly crowded) without the big city benefits (good infrastructure w/ mass transit, good healthcare, good nightlife, fine dining [I love Penong's though], good restaurant variety with western chains, proper zoning, building standards, etc.) also security and efficiency, as you mentioned. Lack of efficiency actually sums up a lot of the day to day problems.
Concur! It was somewhat interesting when it was a sleepy town and I was much younger. At least here around Clark I get some of the benefits of development without it being (yet) a big city. So it’s a much superior mix at this juncture, although the general culture issues remain.
It's not all bad in Davao though. Services are so cheap they're practically free. I had a manicure/pedicure for the first time ever for $3. It's like $60 here. I had the best haircut of my life for 60 pesos. That would be $15 for an inferior rush job haircut here. My wife had her dress hemmed for $4 ($30+ here). Dining out is really cheap too. We easily fed 14 people for well under $100 at Penong's. Everyone was stuffed. The women are quite a bit better looking in Davao than anytown, USA, on average.
Yup. So thus my idea to leverage that, while compensating for the weaknesses with a private compound.
I would definitely like to live somewhere with American quality infrastructure, safe parks for the kid to play in, and yes, a good Western quality, non-SJW, non-socialist propagandizing school.
Concur. My question is would those Americans who might be interested in such a compound in Asia, rather just choose to stay in Florida, USA?
My point has included that we may need “a plan B in case the USA starts confiscating assets purchased with ‘dirty’, or no proof of source of funds bitcoin [or just because the Bitcoin lineage was bad before we obtained it even if we have PoSoF].”
My other point is that I some of us may want an investment to put Bitcoin proceeds into which is not exposed to Western decline. Also unlike you, I am unsatisfied with private school options in the U.S.A.. They’re not red-pilled enough. And California trends presage what eventually spreads to the rest of the U.S.A.. The lurch towards to progressives could be shocking, even in the South. We’ll see…
My stance is the South can’t break-away from the U.S.S.A. until it first suffers a horrific economic devastation which thus motivates the radical separatism. IOW, w.r.t. investments I don’t want to ride the Titanic creative destruction down before the regeneration can begin.
And unlike you, I’m not going to marry Michelle to immigrate her to the U.S.A., so the only way she can join me there in the future is to have a business in her name which she can use to attempt to qualify for a 10 year multiple-entry tourist visa. Although it looks like the visa fight between the USA and Philippines may intensify in the future, so I might have to seek a Colombian or Chilean passport for her. Anyway, I need a place to settle her and any future babies and I can’t bring her to USA soon.
Generally speaking, I've noticed that it's cheaper to buy in the USA. A mortgage payment + taxes, etc. is going to be similar to or less than the rent, on a monthly basis. Outside of the US, it's flipped. Renting seems to be cheaper. Home ownership kind of sucks anyway. I hate dealing with all the little bullshit. Leaky faucets, leaking pipes, leaking roof, tree limbs falling and damaging my home/fence. My deck is rotting and needs to be replaced. My shower needs to be recaulked. My bedroom has ugly wood paneling that needs to be replaced with drywall.
As we age we have less energy, time, and ambition to own and maintain an abode. Much better if we can have all the same advantages of owning without the drawbacks. I suppose it’s cheaper to rent in Asia because of the Asian mentality of owning land instead of putting money into other investments such as the stock market. So thus there’s a lot of competition for renters. And there’s a dearth of upper or even middle class who can pay high rents. The single largest factor may be that the demand for land is much higher due to overpopulation and so land prices exceed what renters can afford. So the wealthy get high appreciation of value with a lower rental subsidy. Also property taxes are very low here in Philippines.
Anyway, Chile is obviously one of the best choices in the western hemisphere. There are some very warm parts to the north. It has very diverse climates. The obvious cons, to me, are: more difficult immigration/visa process compared to Malaysia, Panama, etc. Spanish required, high taxes. They will tax on worldwide income after living there 3 years (6 with an extension). Not a problem unless you'd plan to stay permanently.
Forget the extension to 6 years. It’s rarely granted. And the Constitution may change significantly socialist in Chile soon. Philippines doesn’t tax foreign income and capital gains for non-citizen residents. Chile will after 3 years, but at a lower rate than domestic. Taxes will probably go up in Chile soon.
Chile is probably not a wise investment at this time, because the taxes will go up and the country will destroy it’s economy. And it’s not all that warm in the North and we’re in the early stages of global cooling. Also water is extremely scarce in the North and any mining upstream can pollute the water. Chile is ringed by active volcanoes, although Mt. Pinatubo is also next door to Clark/Angeles City.
I remain curious about Chile, but that is probably a bridge too far for me in the near-term. I already know the Philippines like the back of my hand. Have a Filipina I trust, English speaking, etc.. Maybe I can visit and keep it in mind if ever I invested in Asia and wanted to divest later. Hopefully if ever I divested in Asia, I would sell to another American who wanted to continue what I had going there. Or maybe I will earn so much money that I will never divest and instead invest in alternative locales in the future. Also for the meantime, California superior to Chile (better infrastructure, food, variety of climate, English language, vehicle choices included used vehicles not allowed in Chile, etc), so I can just spend my time in the USA in California for that climate.
Would Americans want to live in Chile if we developed something there? I think possibly yes for the climate and especially if we had a red-pilled school and they could work virtually on the Internet, but we will probably have a huge expense to bring fiber Internet to any rural land location, unlike here near Clark/Angeles which I have confirmed to have 100 Mbps fiber (download from Manila server, but from Japanese server it’s only ~12 Mbps). OTOH, wouldn’t have Asia’s overpopulation problem outside our compound.
Michelle’s father and two brothers are experts in construction work. They need a reliable job. I have a trustworthy labor supply. To bring them to Chile will be more problematic. Can be done, but seems like trying to do too much, too far, too fast? Maybe it’s better to start with something in Philippines first? Koreans are investing heavily in Angeles/Clark, so divesting at a profit for some upscale development should be easy.
Tonight in the Clark SM mall while standing in line for the BDO ATM, a Filipina-American overheard me speaking to Michelle about buying land in the area. She told me that she was visiting with her husband and two teenage kids and they currently live in California (her kids are taller than me). They’re considering buying real estate in the area because Manila is too congested for their eventual relocation back to Philippines “in about 10 years”. I told her that California would collapse economically within 10 years and Calpers is actuarial bankrupt. She called her husband over. I suggested would be a wise investment because Clark and Subic are being aggressively developed by the government with master-plans. And that CA is turning too socialist. But I told her do not educate her kids over here, because schools suck. I said the problem here is dealing with corruption, traffic, crime. Her husband shrugged and murmured, “tradeoffs.” I suggested they try to join together with other Fil-ams to make a compound to fight against any corruption united. She was smiling and we agreed we might see each other around in the future.
Maybe this explains the politeness I received in multiple occasions in Clark SM, might be bumping into Fil-ams who have returned from U.S.A. for the holidays.
The other places I would favor are Costa Rica and Panama. No income tax for foreign earned income, and fairly easy visas. Costa Rica offers visa-free travel for Filipinos for 30 days (+30 day extension). You've mentioned Colombia as well. They have visa free travel for Filipinos for 90 days (+90 day extension).
I don’t want to live in Colombia long-term, because for one reason yellow fever in lowlands and I don’t want to live in their congested mountain cities long-term. That idea was just potentially for the Colombian passport.
What do any of these tropical countries offer that Philippines does not? The main advantage other than proximity to U.S.A. is that foreigners can purchase land in their own name, which is a significant factor for me because otherwise I have to trust Michelle if purchasing in her name in the Philippines (although I can have a 50 – 75 lease in my name and own the buildings, the Philippines has been a corruption and justice system minefield). Costa Rica is socialist. All of Latin America is heading into a socialist clusterfuck. Asia is patriarchal, although Philippines is teetering on being overtaken by socialists, but I think they’ll hopefully fail. However, if going to locate in the Americas then the U.S.A. is the best. Why go off to some Latin American clusterfuck? What is the advantage? To own an asset out-of-reach of the U.S.A. societalcide? Latin American economies are likely to implode along with the West, because they’re (culturally and economically, e.g. they’ve adopted the entitlement crap) much more hitched to the West than Asian economies.
Note the lack of foreign earned income tax does not really help you if you remain a U.S. citizen, except for the interim time while U.S. capital gains taxes are reasonable. Most of these countries have double-tax prevention treaties with the U.S.A. anyway.
Also Latin America has very high VAT and import taxes. Philippines is at 12% and if you opt for SRRV retirement visa, then you can bring in $7000 of goods in one container tax-free. Here is a list of Costa Rica’s disadvantages which sounds a lot like the Philippines yet even more expensive. Housekeeper for $30 daily instead of $6 in Philippines. Also Philippines has more variety of climates, non-mountainous land in C. Luzon, and better highways.
Costa Rica Gated Community
Philippines
Vietnam could be a decent option, though I haven't looked into it much. They will presumably rise in lockstep with China. I also saw they made International Living's top-10 retirement destination list for 2020: https://internationalliving.com/the-best-places-to-retire/ I think Vietnam could be worth researching more. What do you think?
Foreigners rave about the modern parts of Vietnam but corruption and congestion is apparently a problem, c.f. also. I met a very attractive Vietnamese lady in Singapore in 2017. She was kind to me. One drawback is the temperature is significantly hotter and muggier than Angeles City/Clark.
But the huge reason to just forget about Vietnam is they don’t allow land ownership. And we probably can’t easily bring Filipinos over there, e.g. Michelle’s father and brother to do trustworthy construction.
The grass is greener phenomenon applies. I doubt there’s anything significantly better than choosing between the U.S.A. and the Philippines. Two ends of the spectrum of choices. However Chile would be far from any coming WW3.