I want to live in the Philippines but how do I earn money?

[lblblb]

invest in real estate

[Zambales]

What the Customer Asked For:

1) You want to earn your living sitting there at your own computer,
2) You want that computer to move from the freezing wilds of Canada to the warmth of the Philippines,
3) AND you want it to all be easy? Wow. That’s a bit of a tall order.

It is possible although the "paycheck" won't amount to much. It'll be more about surviving than thriving and that's fine if you're happy to do that.

Otherwise you need to devise a way of making enough money to meet your requirements and that won't happen if you seek the easy route and aren't prepared to bust a gut in the process.

[publicduende]

I have met quite a few of these freelance (copy)writers, online marketers, SEO experts, BPO managers, etc. in Davao.

The only successful ones are those who have invested several years in the same place (e.g. Davao) and created a solid team of locals whom they have personally mentored, to significant personal effort, and manage on a daily basis, extracting profit from each one of them. These are all people who draw their income from managing multiple Filipinos, not by directly selling their services. Not something the average digital nomad can pull, especially if they don't have the time and discipline to build a team and a company, which may take years.

Since I closed my company last November, all my efforts are now placed on establishing myself - and what is left of the company brand - as a consultant for Filipino clients. It's not a tall order and it's one that, were it even modestly successful, would allow me to live comfortably in Makati. Yet, once again, I need to be always in Makati or Cebu or Davao, nursing every bit of my relationship with the client. Again, something that requires commitment and investment in terms of time (money not so much anymore, since the office overhead is gone).

Freelancing in IT has become way too competitive. One has to be lucky to make $100 a day nowadays, regardless of their skill levels.

The only way to have a differentiating factor that can push your daily rate higher is to

1) already have somebody you know abroad who will grant you a remote job with a salary/rate as close as possible to the one you would make working from their offices, or

2) specialise very well in a niche technology (e.g. blockchain and smart contract development) that may attract remote working. The kind of high-performance back-end stuff I have specialised over the years is not only quite a niche area, it will hardly be pursued by a remote worker, since it's mostly critical components of a software architecture.

[xiongmao]

I've heard that there are a few good English teaching/trainer jobs in the Phillies, mainly in corporations (e.g. call centres).

I've tried making money online this year but it's mostly been a miserable failure. The easy money has been made online, now more people are competing for less dimes.

I'm glad I stopped all unnecessary expenditure some years ago as I now make 3x as much from property and investments as I do from my online stuff.

Also teaching English in China is lucrative. I'm actually saving a fairly similar amount each month as I was working in a London IT job. I don't get paid for 2 months in the Summer, but these coincide with the lucrative Summer part-time season in Europe.

[Joseph]

Seems like what many foreigners residing in the Philippines do, is start a YouTube channel, where they share their day-to-day experiences and make a living off of it. that seems like a pretty good idea considering the money you can make from monetizing your channel on YouTube.
Doing that, can earn you a decent enough living which can be sufficient for the cost of living in the Philippines.

Plus , i can tell you from experience ,filipinas are really down with taking participants on this YouTube reality shows, which mostly being referred to as "vlog" in the islands, with their foreign partner.

Having a YouTube channel seems to be a turn on everywhere today.
Young women seem to be impressed with guys that run their own channel, age doesn't even matter.

[Decu]

Seems like what many foreigners residing in the Philippines do, is start a YouTube channel, where they share their day-to-day experiences and make a living off of it. that seems like a pretty good idea considering the money you can make from monetizing your channel on YouTube.
Doing that, can earn you a decent enough living which can be sufficient for the cost of living in the Philippines.

Plus , i can tell you from experience ,filipinas are really down with taking participants on this YouTube reality shows, which mostly being referred to as "vlog" in the islands, with their foreign partner.

Having a YouTube channel seems to be a turn on everywhere today.
Young women seem to be impressed with guys that run their own channel, thus pushing traffic to their landing pages. Very often their businesses are digitized via virtocommerce https://virtocommerce.com/b2b-ecommerce-platform

I believe that this niche is already overcrowded. Moreover, Youtube doesn;t bring really good money now.

[fdiv]

I got a job offer as an I.T. operations manager for a company that is incorporated here in the phils, but owned and operated by Americans. It is a serious company, and the salary would be comparable to a low cost of living area in the USA (my area). The fact alone that is a Philippines corporation gives me pause, even though it is legit. It would be very serious work with an unforgiving boss that requires me to stay here almost all the time. No rights, and who knows how expendible I am. We'll see..

[gsjackson]

Sock the money away while you can. Oppressive bosses don't wear well.

[publicduende]

I got a job offer as an I.T. operations manager for a company that is incorporated here in the phils, but owned and operated by Americans. It is a serious company, and the salary would be comparable to a low cost of living area in the USA (my area). The fact alone that is a Philippines corporation gives me pause, even though it is legit. It would be very serious work with an unforgiving boss that requires me to stay here almost all the time. No rights, and who knows how expendible I am. We'll see..

Nowadays executive level jobs for IT companies in Makati or BGC easily pay $4-5,000. More than enough for a single man to rent a nice condo unit near work and eat/drink out almost every day.

[fdiv]

I got a job offer as an I.T. operations manager for a company that is incorporated here in the phils, but owned and operated by Americans. It is a serious company, and the salary would be comparable to a low cost of living area in the USA (my area). The fact alone that is a Philippines corporation gives me pause, even though it is legit. It would be very serious work with an unforgiving boss that requires me to stay here almost all the time. No rights, and who knows how expendible I am. We'll see..

Nowadays executive level jobs for IT companies in Makati or BGC easily pay $4-5,000. More than enough for a single man to rent a nice condo unit near work and eat/drink out almost every day.

Yes, that's basically it, but push the upper bound up a bit. The problem is getting a chance in applying. I've applied for jobs I'm well qualified for in Singapore and Makati several years ago, but just got the hand. You have to find a way to break the ice. It was pure fate that I met one of the guys that works there at the restaurant that night. I have an interview next week. Good thing I brought a few nice shirts, LoL

[publicduende]

Yes, that's basically it, but push the upper bound up a bit. The problem is getting a chance in applying. I've applied for jobs I'm well qualified for in Singapore and Makati several years ago, but just got the hand. You have to find a way to break the ice. It was pure fate that I met one of the guys that works there at the restaurant that night. I have an interview next week. Good thing I brought a few nice shirts, LoL

I think $60,000 USD/year is the psychological threshold multinationals do not want to cross when paying for manager/junior executive level positions. These are jobs usually given to expats or those lucky Filipinos who managed to get a few years of international experience. An equivalent position in the US would probably command at least 3 times as much, so it's not like one can hit the jackpot in Makati or BGC.

[fdiv]

Yes, that's basically it, but push the upper bound up a bit. The problem is getting a chance in applying. I've applied for jobs I'm well qualified for in Singapore and Makati several years ago, but just got the hand. You have to find a way to break the ice. It was pure fate that I met one of the guys that works there at the restaurant that night. I have an interview next week. Good thing I brought a few nice shirts, LoL

I think $60,000 USD/year is the psychological threshold multinationals do not want to cross when paying for manager/junior executive level positions. These are jobs usually given to expats or those lucky Filipinos who managed to get a few years of international experience. An equivalent position in the US would probably command at least 3 times as much, so it's not like one can hit the jackpot in Makati or BGC.

Not to nitpick, but you are wrong on "three times as much". Our Ops director at the PCI DSS credit card processing center I worked at only made $90,000. And we handled about 20% of all petroleum payment processing in the US. Imagine the uptime that guy had to ensure, LOL. Plus, don't get too hung up on titles. Just because the titles are similar, doesn't mean the positions are.

[publicduende]

Not to nitpick, but you are wrong on "three times as much". Our Ops director at the PCI DSS credit card processing center I worked at only made $90,000. And we handled about 20% of all petroleum payment processing in the US. Imagine the uptime that guy had to ensure, LOL. Plus, don't get too hung up on titles. Just because the titles are similar, doesn't mean the positions are.

I was referring to IT jobs, as per your earlier post. A half-decent software developer in the US makes north of $200K/yr, even more if they work for a large public company or unicorn, where annual stock compensation is a multiple of their base salary.

[fdiv]

Not to nitpick, but you are wrong on "three times as much". Our Ops director at the PCI DSS credit card processing center I worked at only made $90,000. And we handled about 20% of all petroleum payment processing in the US. Imagine the uptime that guy had to ensure, LOL. Plus, don't get too hung up on titles. Just because the titles are similar, doesn't mean the positions are.

I was referring to IT jobs, as per your earlier post. A half-decent software developer in the US makes north of $200K/yr, even more if they work for a large public company or unicorn, where annual stock compensation is a multiple of their base salary.

Now you are comparing apples to oranges. Why do you do that? Development is not operations or support. It's completely different. Do you need to feel right about something so badly you make invalid comparisons?

[publicduende]

Now you are comparing apples to oranges. Why do you do that? Development is not operations or support. It's completely different. Do you need to feel right about something so badly you make invalid comparisons?

It depends on what you mean by "operations", dude. I have no idea what kind of IT operations role you have been offered. Managing a cloud infrastructure or a development team also falls under "operations" and usually commands much more than $90K a year.

If,as you say, an "IT operations manager" responsible for US oil payments is only on $90K, I am not surprised that some people are keen to GTFO of Bidenlandia.