Retire In The Philippines Now

Philippine kinship uses the Generational system to define family and is considered much more simple than the complex U.S. kinship system. In the Philippine sytem differences are distinguished by generation, age, and in some cases gender.

As a child your parents would be Ama (father formal) or Tatay (father informal) and Ina (mother formal) or Nanay (informal). Uncles would be mga Tito and aunts would be mga Tita. Your Godfather would be your Ninong and your Godmother would be your Ninang. Let me say that Godparents in the Philippines are important compared to most of the U.S. and in fact may be partially responsible for helping the Godchild with educational expenses and gifts on birthdays.

Your older siblings will be known as Kuya (brother) and Ate (sister) but the formal way they are known is mga kaptid. Kuya and Ate are also used to address your older male and female cousins and if they are younger they are mga pinsan. Kuya and Ate can also be used as a sign of respect for people who are older but not necessarily your cousins.

Nieces and nephews are known as mga kapatid and if you are a Amang/Lolo (Grandfather) or Inang/Lola (Grandmother) your mga apo (grandchildren) would be the offsprings of your mga anak (children) and the offsprings of your mga pinsan (cousins).

Filipinos generally greet each other using their title like: Kumusta Ate Bing. or Kumusta Kuya Bert.

If you are living in the US or another country and want to send a gift to your sweetheart or relative in the Philippines it can be a trying situation. If you are dealing with the Philippines mail system and your present is coming from the US, forget it. I have been doing an experiment for the last few years on my niece’s birthday. I have sent a birthday card through the mail with a small gift inside and it has never made it to her yet. In fact, I’ve sent a card with nothing in it and still a no-show. Now guys you know what happens if a gift does not arrive before or on a birthday or anniversary. And how about the little niece or nephew that’s waiting for a birthday gift that never arrives.

Mother’s Day is coming very soon and if your mother or grandmother is in the Philippines, now is the time to act. There is a service that can help you and it comes to us via Bob Martin of Live in the Philippines. His site WowPhilippines offers delivery of gifts of all kinds to anyone in the Philippines. Looking for flowers they have them, looking for chocolates or a stuffed animal  they have them. They have so many items that I won’t list them here just check out their site.

Below is a list of websites that you can visit to find out about news in the Philippines. Most sites are in English but there may be sites in only Tagalog. If you have any addtions to this list please leave a comment and it will be added. If you wish please email your addtions to admin@retireinphilippinesnow.com

Philippines News Agency the official news agency in the Philippines and headquartered in Manila.

ABS-CBN News my favorite but if you don’t speak Tagalog some of the stories will be hard to understand.

GMA News another good source that I try to check everyday.

Philippine Newspapers (not a comprehensive list just a few of my favorites)

Manila Bulletin

Manila Times

Philippine Star

Laguna, a province of the Philippines located in the Calabarzon region of Luzon can be found southeast of Metro Manila. Laguna surrounds almost all of Laguna de Bay, the largest lake in the country. Actually the province got it’s name from the Spanish word lago which means lake or lagoon. It is also known as being the birthplace of Jose Rizal, the Philippine’s national hero.

Laguna has many tourist attractions including Pagsanjan Falls and hot spring resorts. Also other tourist spots include the Seven Lakes of San Pablo City and Taytay Falls  in Majayjay.  Laguna is blessed with abundant natural resources including about 40 rivers within the province and vast forests ideal for growing rice, coconuts, vegatables, and tropical fruits. It’s forests also produce some of the best bamboo, rattan, and soft hardwood in the Philippines.  Besides that Laguna has great nitespots and shopping malls. Check out the video of places in Laguna below:

Many people visit this website for many different reasons. Some visit for information on various places in the Philippines. They may be traveling there and want more information about a certain place. Some visit to learn about the rich culture of a beautiful country who celebrates that culture. And some visit for the specific reason I created this site and that is to be able to retire now in a tropical paradise.

I know sometimes I get caught up in the legal aspects of things like visas, paperwork, and various other legal matters but I’m sorry that this is part of obtaining the dream. Maybe someday we will live in a world without borders but until then that is just a necessary part of life. I hope though, that you see what I am trying to show is how to get to this tropical paradise and retire there no matter what your age.

Are there people who visit and dream about doing this and just say “It will never happen to me” or “Maybe I’ll do that when I retire from my job at 65 or 70″. Yes, there are such people and it hurts me to know that they are thinking this way because when I was younger I thought the same thing. To those folks I say, why wait? There are no guarantees that you will live long enough to retire that late in life. The time to do it is now not later.

Throughout my life I have been a reader. When the other children were outside playing I was inside reading a book. My favorite place to go was the library and I had a card from the earliest age I can remember. Later on in life when I was hoping to achieve success I was handed a book called Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. I have read this book cover to cover a few times and have learned something new every time. Another book he wrote entitled The Law of Success is just as educational and inspiring. These two books along with books and media from Anthony Robbins have been what has inspired me to be the successful person I am. Without their guidance I would probably still be in the rat race trying to succeed in a losing race rather than being a successful internet businessman. The best part of the story is that I have found a website dedicated to the works of Napoleon Hill that I can visit every day and get some insight on the this brilliant man and his ideas. This website is called The Law of Success and was started by Allen Loomis a very successful young man who understands what it takes to be successful.

Please visit this site and read some of the information put out by this young man about Mr Hill. It will inspire you to achieve your dreams and goals whatever they may be. And if your dreams include retiring in the beautiful paradise they call “The Pearl of the Orient Seas” then maybe we can get together for coffee or a cold San Miguel someday. Mabuhay!

If you are planning to fly to the Philippines and price is a factor your should keep your eyes on the prices of flights. I do this by checking on Cheapo Air which seems to be in line with most of the other travel websites except that Cheapo Air is much more user friendly in my opinion.

I did a little research on prices to Manila to see what they currently stand at. I kept in mind that if I left in less than a month the prices would probably be inflated due to it being considered a last minute flight. For the duration of stay I picked 21 days due to that is basically what will be stamped on your passport when you arrive in Manila. I used two set of figures one from the East Coast of the US and one from the West Coast because the prices sometimes can differ depending on the coast. Here’s what I come up with:

Flights Leaving JFK New York Destination Manila Philippines

Cathay Pacific $719 + Fees 1 Stop in Hong Kong Total Trip Time: 19 Hrs 55 Min

Japan Airlines $860.80 + Fees 1 Stop in Tokyo Narita Total Trip Time: 21 Hrs 55 Min

China Airlines $916.00 + Fees 1 Stop Taipei Taiwan Total Trip Time: 26 Hrs 30 Min

*Fees on the average are $150-160 but can change anytime

Flights From Los Angeles LAX to Manila Philippines

Asiana Airlines $719 + Fees 1 Stop Seoul Korea Total Trip Time: 26 Hrs 40 Min

Japan Airlines $790.80 + Fees 1 Stop Tokyo Narita Total Trip Time 17 Hrs 20 Min

Philippine Airlines $878.00 + Fees 1 Stop Vancouver BC Total Trip Time 13 Hrs 5 Min

*Fees from LAX to Manila are on average $80-100 but of course it can change

**Please note that the above fares can also change at any time but are accurate as of this time and date.

Personally my favorite airlines for flying to Manila are: 1. Philippine Airlines 2. Cathay Pacific 3. Japan Airlines 4. China Airlines. These 4 airlines give you very good service and are reasonably on time. I don’t fly any American owned airlines because of past bad experiences with about all of them.

*Take off $10 on your next flight to Anywhere in Asia!* Using the coupon code *ASIAFLY10*, take $10 off on your next flight to any destination in Asia when you book on CheapOair.com. Coupon Coupon Expires: 31st Dec 09

Flag of the Philippines

The national flag of the Philippines is horizontal with equal bands of red and blue with a white triangle equilaterly based on the hoist side. In the center of the triangle is a golden yellow sun with eight primary rays which each contain three individual rays. At each corner of the triangle there is a five point golden yellow star. If the country is at war the flag is flown with the red field on top and during peace times the flag is flown blue side up.

The white triangle stands for equality and fraternity, the blue field for peace, truth, and justice. The red field represents patriotism and valor. The eight rays of the sun represent the first eight provinces (Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Manila, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, and Tarlac) that sought independence from Spain. The three stars represent the three major geographical divisions of the country (Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao).

As stated in a previous post, after my Ebay earnings my pay per click programs are my second best earners. Pay per click programs of which Google Adsense  is the most popular, pay you when visitors to your site click on advertisements. If you read my post earlier about building niche sites and visited a couple of mine like WV Tax Sales or Good Home Remedies you will see many pay per click ads. On these type sites they are the moneymakers and do much better than affiliate marketing, at least in my case. Pay per click doesn’t require the visitor to buy anything, all they have to do is check the information in the ad. But be careful you can be banned for soliciting people to go to your site just to click on the ads. In most cases you are prohibited from clicking on ads in your own website. As with affiliate marketing there are many types of banners and images that you can put on your site.

Getting back to Chitika this site which was started in 2003 serves over 2 billion ads per month across more than 30,000 websites. It commands more traffic than some of the top five search engines in the world and was a leader in the use of images displayed next to text ads. I advise you to check out Chitika as a money making tool to your website or blog.

On September 17, 2003 President Arroyo signed Republic Act 9225, Citizenship Retention and Re-acqusition Act of 2003 also known as the Dual Citizenship bill. This act declares that former natural born Filipino citizens who acquired foreign citizenship through naturalization are deemed not to have lost their Philippine citizenship.

The procedure for reacquiring/retaining their Philippine citizenship begins with proving he/she is a natural born Filipino by acquiring an NSO-authenicated copy of his or her birth certificate. The birth certificate is submitted with the Reaquisition/Retention of Philippine of Philippine Citizenship and (6) 2″X2″ photos. These items are then turned in to a Philippine Consulate/Embassy with a copy of a valid ID. If married and the citizen wants to retain their married name a copy of the marriage certificate must be included. There is also a US $50 processing fee to be paid with submission. After turning in the forms you have to schedule an appointment to take the Philippine Oath of Allegiance by a consular officer. Foreign spouses of Filipino citizens cannot become citizens under this act but unmarried minor children under 18 years old retain the same rights as the dual citizen. There is an addtional fee of $25 per unmarried minor child.

A few advantages that are afforded to those obtaining dual citizenship. First, being a Filipino citizen/dual citizen spouses of dual citizens can stay longer without a visa because they will be eligible to enter the country as a Balikbayan. The spouse would be able to stay for one year without a visa vice the 21 days they can now using a tourist visa. Secondly, the dual citizen has no limits on the amount of land/real estate he/she can own as well as the right to operate a business in the Philippines.

To obtain more information on dual citizenship in the Philippines you should contact or visit a Philippine Embassy or Consular. Each has it’s own application and schedule for taking the oath. Visit the Philippine Embassy site  where you can find the consulars office covering your state or region. 

Note: This post was originally posted on my site Moving to the Philippines but I have updated it here with new information and comments.

One of my best money makers so far since I started working online has been to create niche content sites for profit. A niche content site is a site that is focused tightly on a certain niche or subject. The niche marketer adds content to the site by researching or going off personal knowledge of the subject and providing information to people who happen upon the website through typing a search request into a search engine.
Many blogs would seem to be a sort of niche website but the difference in a blog is it has to be constantly updated, practically every few days or so where as a niche site is low maintenance after intial set up.

Actually it’s pretty simple to get started. First you must find niches that people will be looking for information on and build content on a website around the niche. You then add some pay per click advertising such as Google Adsense or another of my favorites Chitika and kick back and earn some money.

The next question you may ask is ” How much money can you make on these type of sites?” A steady site should make you about $2-$3 per day although I’m sure there are sites that make way more than that but lets stick with the $2-$3 number. If you would start one of these sites per week for a year at the end of the year you would have let’s say 50 sites making 100-150 dollars per day for close to $40,000 per year.  To make that number you would have to basically spend time researching, surfing the web and setting up these sites. I’m not saying that you will make the $2-$3 on every site you create but that is what could be considered steady. The money made from these type of sites could  probably be enough for your retirement in the Philippines if you get the right niches. It only takes a little while for set up and I’ll recommend some real good sources that will guide you through the whole procedure later in the post.

Some of the things you need to get started are to make sure you set up Adsense and Chitika accounts, which are free,  so you will have the advertising to add for your websites. Find a good web hosting service such as GoDaddy.com  to buy and host your websites. Hosting and buying the domains are quite inexpensive and easy to do.

My suggestion on software to use would be Wordpress which is what I use in all of my sites. It is easy to use, free to use and all you have to do is write your content add your advertising and go. For examples on successful niche sites I have created with Wordpress please go to WV Tax Sales  and Good Home Remedies. These are two of my most successful sites that are bringing in the steady income I was talking about earlier.

And now the sources I was referring to earlier. The first one a website by Caroline Middlebrook Making Money Online . This webmaster has the information I used when I first started building websites and I still refer to it almost daily. Make sure to download the free ebook at the top of the page for this is the information that teaches step by step. Another site I would recommend is the thirty day challenge a program that starts you on making profitable niche websites. Both of these are free resources but very good resources.

Making money off of niche content sites can be very easy with a little research on your part as well as a little marketing. It something that just about anyone can do regardless of computer knowledge. The profit off of these sites can help you live a very comfortable life during your retirement in the Philippines.

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