Considering retirement in a Tropical Climate? For many British, Australians and Americans, retirement time is just around the corner. At home, with low interest rates and high cost of living, the prospect of trying to live on a pension, in old age, is a daunting one unless you are preapred to substantially downscale your lifestyle. For some, moving to retire in another country is an option which has been successful in the past with Spain, Portugal, Mexico and Puerto Rico being among some of the more popular destinations. But why not consider retiring in the Philippines?

Over the past decade, the Philippines has become a retirement haven for thousands of foreigners, particularly the Japanese, Korean, and Northern Europeans. Along with Thailand and Malaysia, the Philippines developed communications, infrastructure, and service delivery systems specifically geared to meet the needs of foreign retirees. Better yet, unlike most European Countries and South America, nearly everyone speaks ENGLISH in the Philippines.

The Philippines offers a significantly lower cost of living. The Philippine Peso (PhP) exchange rate is approximately PhP 45 to $ 1.00 or PhP 92 to 1 Pound [Sterling (GBP)]. Housing, food, and labor costs are quite reasonable. A One bedroom condominium can be purchased for around $ 72,000 or GBP 37,000 or a Studio for only $ 45,000 or GBP 22,800 and one can dine out on average at a three star restaurant for less than PhP 500. If you hire domestic help, a private driver’s salary is approximately PhP 10,000/month, while trained housekeepers earn approximately -PhP 5,000/month. These salaries are lower if you live in the provinces.

Cable Television, Hi-Speed Internet and Satellite Communications are cheap. One can hire an air-conditioned taxicab for eight hours for less than $25.00. In a country where a provincial Governor’s salary is only PhP 28,000 per month, and a Presidential Cabinet Under-Secretary earns PhP 35,000, your pension can go a long way. So, if you have a retirement income of approximately $1,500 to $2,000 per month ( PhP 80,000 to 100,000) you can live quite well in the Philippines.
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So you’ve seen your umpteenth infomercial with the guy in his neatly pressed button-upped white T-Shirt grinning ear to ear waving his rock-solid no-money-down rags-to-riches real estate investment course for 3 easy payments of a gazillion dollars (but only if you call now) and now you are thinking, “wow this looks like a great deal, I better get it fast before the special offer expires.” You notice how there’s always a special offer? Anyway, I am not saying this guy isn’t telling the truth, however regardless of which course or school of thought you buy into there are several key areas that one must avoid when engaging in any real estate related transaction.

Pitfall Number 1: Don’t Overpay!

The whole point in investing is to find properties that are undervalued. How does one find out what is undervalued versus overvalued? Without getting into technical details, the bottom line is you need experience. Yes much like shopping for anything else, real estate is essentially one of the highest ticket items in the shopping center of life. It’s advisable to stick with one market, perhaps the one closest to you in proximity as a starting off point. Through your experience and asking the right questions, you will eventually have a feel for the pulse of the market you are looking after, and of course identify what is considered a good buy.
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Curious about how much money you’ll accumulate in your Roth retirement account?

If you’ve got Microsoft Excel (or just about any other popular spreadsheet program) running on your computer, you can use its FV function to forecast the future value of your Roth IRA or Roth 401(k).

The FV function calculates the future value of an investment given its interest rate, the number of payments, the payment, the present value of the investment, and, optionally, the type-of-annuity switch. (More about the type-of-annuity switch a little later.)
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