Íæż½ã½ã

Hi Cheryl.

My savings for retirement were all accomplished in my home country as are dividends, interest and other incomes.

We transfer 8 to 12 months worth of living costs to our bank here, draw it out and stick it in the safe at home and use as required, sorry but I have little faith in the banking system here being mostly franchises and not really a cooperative entity. Just our take and better to look at it than look for it.

Little chance for us to invest here at all levels.

Cheers, Steve.

I'm only new to living in the Philippines and all my sources of income incl retirement savings are kept in my home country. I use WISE to transfer a generous amount equivalent to all living expenses to my Filipina partner's bank account every fortnight and allocate between her bank, her Gcash and cash as appropriate. I get by day to day pretty much using cash only although I have a WISE card and another credit card that I use occasionally for bigger shopping expenses which I pay off directly from my home country bank account. Larger unscheduled amounts like major purchases (recently I bought a portable AC or could be holiday airfares or accommodation) I pay online using my credit card and pay off directly from my home country bank account. We're talking about establishing a bigger reserve in the Philippines (12 to 18 month expenditure like Steve above) but haven't done anything about that yet - maybe using my partner's bank account or a joint account. I'm retired and have sufficient retirement income so my appetite for risk with investments in the Philippines is nil.

1. All I can add to this is not to retire here unless you have a wise retirement fund/s based in your home country, been coming here for 14 years and like most countries the living costs keep rising so plenty of back up is or can be the winner.
2. What was a third of the price 10/12 years ago here is now about half the price compared to Australia, used to be one third the cost, prices have risen everywhere but I see here the wages remain stagnant and why many can't get ahead and put up with third world living, sad yes very.
3. 
   
4. OMO.
5. 
   
6. Cheers, Steve.

bigpearl said . . . .All I can add to this is not to retire here unless you have a wise retirement fund/s based in your home country, been coming here for 14 years and like most countries the living costs keep rising so plenty of back up is or can be the winner.
What was a third of the price 10/12 years ago here is now about half the price compared to Australia, used to be one third the cost, prices have risen everywhere but I see here the wages remain stagnant and why many can't get ahead and put up with third world living, sad yes very.

**

Addendum to Steve's good advice, especially for US citizens planning on living on SS benefits.

Each year do to inflation your COLA will increase.

But,

Your COLA will not reflect the real numbers of inflation, so what's livable today may not be livable in the future.

Totally concur with what those fine gentleman said.

I keep all investments in US brokerage and bank accounts and make transfers monthly from Wells Fargo into my partner's account at BPI, using WFB Express Send service (direct bank to bank). It has a low fee and good rate.

I also pull cash from ATM's occasionally, although the fees are high (yes I know about the Schwab card) and send her cash for unexpected expenses via World Remit - for cash pickup at M Lhuillier or Palawan Express.

I agree with Bob and Steve that the inflation rate for food and other basic items seems to be high in the Philippines, partly due to the steadily eroding value of the peso (rel to USD) although for those of us spending in USD it is compensated by the fact that we get more pesos for our dollar. When I first moved to the Philippines in 2014 the exchange rate was 45 pesos per USD, it's now around 57.

However I really feel for the locals who do not have the benefit of financial arbitrage and are stuck with low wages that do not rise with inflation (despite the min wage laws)..

@Enzyte Bob

Your COLA will not reflect the real numbers of inflation, so what's livable today may not be livable in the future.

Never underestimate the pernicious effects in time of inflation. This is especially true of expats who have retired in the Philippines 99% of whom rely on their pensions and unearned income from investments and savings.

One countries well managed economy today can suddenly turn into a nightmare in terms of fiscal rectitude tomorrow.

For example Venezuela (yes no mis-type) had the worlds lowest inflation rate between 1950 and 1980. Today suffice to say that 14 zeros have been removed from the Bolivar since 2007.

It's one thing retiring in a well managed western economy but quite another in an emerging market country like the Philippines. I'm not suggesting for one minute that the Peso will suffer the same egregious fate as the Bolivar but as they say: " Never say Never" Indeed the Philippine central bank was given total independence by the 1987 Philippine constitution and relatively speaking is a well run economy given the resources at its disposal.

In 2024 the average inflation rate was 3.2% against the US rate of 2.9%. The 'COLA' as referred to above by Bob ( for non US citizens this translates to 'cost of living allowance') thus has lost .3% of its purchasing power in the Philippines albeit somewhat neutralized by exchange rate swings which of course cut both ways.

The Philippines main attraction to foreign male expats that make up 99% of the expat population is the relatively cheap cost of living and beautiful women (though not necessarily in that order.) Unfortunately a good % of expats who retire there are on a minimal pension. They have not for various reasons built up sufficient savings for the future either through their own financial ineptitude or because they got 'cleaned out' by their ex. The irony is that many of those expats that did not suffer this fate end up in the same situation with a Filipina.

Fortunately for UK & US citizens the state pension is inflation protected unlike for our unfortunate Australian friends. It should be noted that not all countries in the world like the Philippines have a bilateral agreement in place for index linked pensions. A brit moving to say Canada or Australia will suffer financially in the long term as there is no linkage.

For those Brits surviving on a UK state pension only there is some uncertainty in the future as to whether the state pension will have the gold plated protections in place currently.

My message to potential expats  thinking of retiring to this country in the future is to build up as much private pension provision that you can.

I plan to keep my retirement savings in the US. I now always say I am retiring in two years so no one really knows how near it is. I will follow the lessons learned from the fine young members in this forum who are more mature than I am. The local banks now report account balances of US citizens to the US IRS. My accountant here says if the balance go above USD 10K, the IRS will be flagged. I still believe it is still more affordable in the Philippines if staying long term or snowbirding, not as tourist. The price of food and daily necessities here is !@#$%^^$ high. The price of restaurant dining in Manila is high. I think to get the same dining experience, i have to pay almost the same as here, sans tip. Beer drinking bars there is much more fun and affordable  though, and that is nice. They have great live bands too. (Was there in July).

There was time I think in the 90s (or 80s?) The peso went from 26/$ to 50/$, good for converting your $$ but bad if you have local properties or bank accounts in peso.

Hallo, and what about cryptocurrencies?  I recently read that the Philippine government is creating bitcoin reserves. Is it possible to exchange crypto for cash without any problems? Is there such a thing as a Bitcoin ATM?

Greetings

@bitmonet

Hi, this was just a proposal from a lawmaker. The ATMs here give you PHP only. For each 10.000 Pesos they charge you 200+ Pesos for the withdrawal. So, if you want to stay here longer it makes sense to leave your money in your home country, open a bank account here in the Philippines and transfer the money with Wise or another company on a monthly bases. Use your credit card for all purchases which can be bought by credit card.

Greetings from Boracay

Andy

Andy_1963 said . . . . Use your credit card for all purchases which can be bought by credit card.

Using your credit cards can raise your eyebrows when your monthly statement comes due. The merchants credit card processor may tag a 3% surcharge on foreign credit cards.

In addition your credit card company will add 3% also, if not they will give you an unfavorable exchange rate. As Andy said, leave your money in your home country and transfer funds to a Philippine bank if and when you can open an bank account.

@Andy_1963

Thanks for the advice. I use Revolut and it works very well. I transfer money to my wife's account. But I will have to open an account in my name. I asked about crypto because I've accumulated quite a bit and I don't know how this market works in the Philippines.

Greetings from Vienna

@Enzyte Bob

Hi, I think it depends on the credit card you use.

I have a Mastercard and the merchant has to pay the CC fee. The exchange Rate to EUR was always better than any cash transaction. There is fee, however, it is still cheaper to pay with credit card. I verified this with our weekly shopping in Save and More.

Andy_1963 said . . . . Use your credit card for all purchases which can be bought by credit card.Using your credit cards can raise your eyebrows when your monthly statement comes due. The merchants credit card processor may tag a 3% surcharge on foreign credit cards.In addition your credit card company will add 3% also, if not they will give you an unfavorable exchange rate. As Andy said, leave your money in your home country and transfer funds to a Philippine bank if and when you can open an bank account. - @Enzyte Bob

In Dumaguete, probably the only place we would use a CC card for is the local Hyoermart for groceries and we do that occasionally, to reduce the inconvenience of ATM. Of course we specify payment in Pesos using the CC and whatever is shown on the store receipt in Pesos is reflected in our monthly statement in dollars. Whatever costs the card company has must be reflected in the exchange rate but that rate is never bad at all. We never did open a Philippine bank account in a 8 years living here. That's not to say we will never open one, we just don't need one right now but here, circumstances change all the time. We generally use remitly to pay some utilities bank to bank but usually transfer to money wallets, usually maya and sometimes gcash. From gcash and maya we pay thd bulk of our utility bills, grab food, restaurants and people (personal). Another good way to pay is remitly direct from your usa account to palawan/ Cebuano Lhuilliers/LBC for Filipino receivers.  This is low or no cost. A better method for ATM cash than using a USA debit card is to use debit cards from from maya and or gcash; those work at all ATMs and you can transfer from your USA bank to both wallets. In the past I always used to transfer from remitly or wise by my US debit card. However, debit cards eventually expire so I suggest a different method: During the transfer with REMITLY (wise will do this too), choose to transfer with your bank account instead of by debit card. You should see a notice that the money is available in "minutes". In the past, this would have been 2-4 days but now Remitly has a new "fast" transfer by ACH (not using debit card with expiration date) and the money is transfered right away, same as using a debit card. I think there is a limit because when I tried to do a large amount, remitly told me the purchase was "not eligible" for the fast transfer, only 2-4 day transfer. So I had to use a debit card in that case. Anyway, after your USA money ends up in maya or gcash wallet at very low transfer cost, you can withdraw at any ATM with an ATM charge of 15 or 18 Pesos! This is much better than the 250 Pesos charged to foreign ATM cards which you see on your bank statement at about $1.80 per withdrawal. I will note that maya and gcash debit cards expired too but unlike your USA debit cards, getting your new debit cards from gcash and maya is trival costing about $7.00 and delivering right to your Philippines address in 7 days. For my USA debit card I need to have my daughter send it DHL for about $100.00  and tracking delivery, picking it up myself at the DHL office.

@danfinn

When you choose the credit card option to convert into the local currency at point of sale you override the Mastercard/Visa default exchange rate in favour of what the vendor specifies as the rate. In my experience this is always worse than the Mastercard/Visa default exchange rate. You might want to check what the actual exchange rate is that you are getting.

@danfinn When you choose the credit card option to convert into the local currency at point of sale you override the Mastercard/Visa default exchange rate in favour of what the vendor specifies as the rate. In my experience this is always worse than the Mastercard/Visa default exchange rate. You might want to check what the actual exchange rate is that you are getting. - @Brojeslov

Maybe a misunderstanding; it's just the opposite.

1. You use a US credit card to pay in Filipino store.

2. Clerk swipes card then asks, do you pay in Pesos or Dollars.

3. Always say "Pesos".  That way, the Pesos to Dollar conversion is made by Visa, not whomever  the store converts Pesos to dollars. Nothing  is cheaper than visa/Mc conversion of Pesos to dollars. The store's converter may give you 48 Pesos per dollar while visa gives you 56.5 or more.

4. Same with the Euro ATM machines that offer to convert dollars to Pesos. Always select "no convert" and   let mc/visa convert fir you instead. MUCH better rate.

Also, you may be misreading my general point: When you use remitly to send money from your US bank to a phils bank/wallet etc., and you have complete account infirmation on file, remitly will make you choose for payment:

1. Debit Card

2. Credit Card

3. Linked checking and/savings account.

Previously, the only way to make an *instant* transfer was with debit and (I think) credit card.

You could also chose "bank account" but that is an ACH transfer which always took 2-4 days.

Now, there is something fairly recent: With remitly and wise (NOT western union), when you choose bank account instead of debit/credit card, they have a new service called "fast ACH transfer".

Why is this important?

Íæż½ã½ãs who have been here a long time see their debit cards eventually expire and it can be a big pain in the a$$ to get a new one. So, remitly and wise now allow instant transfers without the debit/credit card option and can use the bank account option instead with a FAST ACH  transfer. You see, debit and credit transfers go through mc/visa and are essentially instant. ACH transfers  were traditionally a much slower process until "fast ACH" came along. I think with "fast ACH", based on your relationship with the remittance company, Remitly/Wise takes on the small risk and transfers you money instantly and waits for the banks' ACH process to pay them a few days later.

For expats who stay here for years, this is a real benefit when their debit cards expire. In that case, to use maya or gcash ATM just use remitly fast ACH to transfer it there instantly.  As I recently found out, theris was an upper limit on remitly of dollars they would accept for fast ACH transfer on a higher dollar transaction but it is still very useful.

In any case, that has nothing to do with telling the clerk at the store to charge in Pesos.