Expat Community > Philippines

Asawa
Joined 2018
Posts: 758

Excited - Accellering relocation to end-of-year

9 months ago

So, some happy news.

I may accelerate my permanent move to the Philippines to the end of this year. I've had many ah-ha moments about my retirement over the last two weeks.

Long story short: I can sustain 5x the cost of living without touching principal, and my 77 year-old father said he'd relocate with my wife/I. I was largely waiting until he passed since I'm the last of my family line.

I also expect to get displaced (layed off) in April which will give my 9+ months of full severance pay/insurance with my days 100% free to accomplish the move.

I'm squaring away plans and pre-work now. (Helping my father apply for a passport, starting dual-citizenship application for my wife, getting rid of 95% of our household goods, setting up WISE/revolut as my 5th and 6th redundant money xfer methods).

We are declutting our house now, and my wife & I will each pick one room a week to sort into piles for Sell, Donate, Discard, or Pack.

We are taking care of some elective medical issues and screenings while we still have the beneift of insurance. They will ensure we don't have any nasty surprises mid or post move.

We intend to set aside enough of a core household in storage that we can return with the basics (Kitchen Table, Pots, Silverware, 1 Bedframe, 2 bedside tables, 2 recliners, etc). We'll prepay 2 years when we go + autopay.

We'll also begin to pack a small amount of things we wish to take in carefully numbered and inventoried into Balakayban boxes. We'll put those boxes (unsent) into storage. After we settle on a permanent location (in a few years), we'll come back to send off the ones that still make sense. (That's why the labeling and inventorying as we pack is so important!).

I found a local consignment shop, and I've talked to the owner about taking all our remaining furniture in bulk. He knew of some family thrift store owners (Flee market & Ebay type folks) who would buy most of our household goods at about $0.20 to $0.25 on the dollar in bulk.

We also have the mail scanning/forwarding sorted out with a service that is aimed at RV Traveling Nomads. I have a young friend who will "rent us a closet in his house" for $40/mo as a permanent address, and I'll leave him with a durable power of attorney in case he needs to setup a new account or settle a bank/insurance issue for us. If he ever has to do anything, I'll pay him for his time/mileage.

We have our NordVPN setup. Our phone numbers switched to virtual numbers (web only). An unused crypto wallet attached to all accounts as a last resort (to buy crypto from any account, and immediately sell it to put proceeds in another) if all other xfer methods fail.

And, I have the titles to our cars so I can sell them on Carvana (on about 5 days notice), and we can sell our house which has enough equity to relocate us and live on for the first 4 years.

When it's time to move, we'll leave my father back in the house (if unsold) or a residence in). We'll go ahead to stay in a hotel for 4-6 weeks and find a short-term rental. Once we have a place, we'll come back to get him and forward on a few Balikbayan boxes.

We've done a lot more planning, but those are the highlights.

Now, I just need to loose my job... wish me luck!

-Asawa

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Excited - Accellering relocation to end-of-year

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