The Move Abroad Approaches

[davewe]

Hi All -

Well I don't post as much as I used to; good for my mental health

However, I do want to report that I am less than a month away from the big move to the Philippines. I retired 2 months ago, sold the house, sold all they crap and the wife and I are raring to go!

[WorldTraveler]

Congratulations on the escape. I'm trying to escape too.
Where will you be moving to in the Philippines? How long did it take to sell your house and get rid of everything? Do you have things in storage in the USA?
What kind of budget do you have for living in the Philippines? Do you ever plan on living in the USA again? Does Janet want children? Anything else you can tell us would be appreciated. Good luck.

[davewe]

Awesome news, Dave! I really wish you guys the best in the next (and best!) phase of your lives. I hope you'll continue to update us somehow, if not here on this website, then perhaps on your blog. If you can find time to update it every once in a while, that is - I know from first-hand experience how hard it can be to update a blog or just to continue writing in general when you are in good company, in a warm and sunny place and enjoying life... makes even a short update seem like pretty hard work lol. But, keep us posted. I would like to know how things go down in Dumaguete with you guys. I'm sure you and Janet will have an amazing time, making friends, making guitars, making babies. You take care. All the best wishes to you both.

Thanks MZ. More blogging and vlogging will happen I am sure not only to document our Philippines adventure but retirement in general, which to most of my American friends seems impossible to imagine.

[davewe]

Congratulations on the escape. I'm trying to escape too.
Where will you be moving to in the Philippines? How long did it take to sell your house and get rid of everything? Do you have things in storage in the USA?
What kind of budget do you have for living in the Philippines? Do you ever plan on living in the USA again? Does Janet want children? Anything else you can tell us would be appreciated. Good luck.

The downsizing has been an ongoing process for the past couple of years. For many of my peers approaching retirement or just plain old age, that is what they find most remarkable. They have all sorts of crap which they think will be impossible to get rid of. I sold what was a bit valuable on eBay and Craigslist and garage saled the rest. Right now Janet and I are down to the 9 balikpapan boxes we are shipping this week, plus 4 suitcases, the one guitar I have left (gave the other 2 to my kids), plus my computer. Other than all that the house is empty. So no, we did no storage of the furniture - it's all gone. Even stuff I never thought would sell (an expensive elliptical machine) flew out the door.

The budget will be interesting, both from a standpoint of expenses which should be lots less and income which is certainly going to be less. But I've had years to work it all out and have a pretty good emergency fund saved for the unexpected. We expect therefore to live well but not too well. We will accumulate more stuff but will keep it simple.

The house sold in 6 weeks and now we are going through an almost equally stressful closing process. We live in a "hot" real estate market, but it sure wasn't as hot as we believed. The "you're going to make a fortune" just didn't happen. But I'm happy with the outcome and just getting out of Dodge. Two more weeks till closing (fingers crossed) and a week later on the plane!

I don't plan to live in the US again, but I suppose you never say never. Don't know the stats but my guess is that the majority of expats return "Home" at some point for a variety of reasons. I intend to adjust and assimilate. I have a blog (a good place to watch our adventures) and just this morning I got an angry comment from someone saying he had lived in PI for 13 years but was going back to "civilization." He may be surprised by how much civilization has changed. OTOH, we will be visiting the US annually for a while to see family.

I retired two months ago and milked as much as i could out of my employer. I have worked there (a Fortune 500 company) for about 15 years and in that time only saw a handful of people actually retire. Saw lots get downsized, burned out and actually die, but very few retire. Believe it or not most guys 60+ can't imagine it either because of their finances, or inability to imagine a life outside of working. My identity was never caught up in working.

[OutWest]

Hi All -

Well I don't post as much as I used to; good for my mental health

However, I do want to report that I am less than a month away from the big move to the Philippines. I retired 2 months ago, sold the house, sold all they crap and the wife and I are raring to go!

What a great move! We intend to retire onto our sailboat in time. It's going through a refit now, moving us a step closer. If we dont like the neighborhood, we can change it.

[Bao3niang]

Congratulations. I'll be retired by my late 40s / early 50s, perhaps even earlier. The earlier the better I'm skipping the corporate world altogether and heading straight to Elysium in relative terms.

[nishitha]

It's good to here! You can explore many places