How much money is a working man's 'nest-egg' ?

On behalf of John and myself, I would llike to ask how did you get round this problem, Januarius?

Fred on the other forum seems to be successful, property, apartments and house's.

Wow,..Markham,..that's certainly opened my eyes ,..and ears !!
I never really looked into the boundaries of which my BB would allow (legally ).
Last thing I would want is to get on the wrong side of the law,..be they my friends or not.
A very informative bit of reading you posted, and I'm going to have to look into this more.
Thank you for that...

Oss,..I do have a mortgage,..although a very small one,.. I was planning on leaving some of the procceeds to my eldest son. My wife and I have disscussed this many times although my son doesn't know yet.

The only things that I'm wary of is when my wife uses her families connections to see us through the plan. I know that the family is well known (for all the right reasons) , and they are indeed friends with most of the stalwards in the village. She even tells me that the guy who does the BIR is her mum's old boyfriend for gods sake !!
My wife's aunty has been doing this sari sari store for a few years now,..in the opposite direction from our house,...and seems to make a nice living for her husband and her 2 boys. She dabbles in cooking and selling a wee bit food now and then when she has time to spare, and it's all eaten by evening time. That's what got us interested.

Just to get everyone in the picture here,.. I'm wanting to build a small 'take-away' at the bottom of our garden on the roadside. A lean-to concrete square with a locking roller door or the likes. This would be integrated into the garden boundary wall and have access for us through a small door from our garden to the serving area. Nothing big,..maybe just 15 ft x 15ft with a serving counter at top end and some kind of 'breakfast bar' type table along both sides fixed to the walls . Enough space at the front to allow cars, tricycles to pull in and buy.

I have a lot to think over this next few weeks,..
but still looking trying to stay positive,

Thanks again for all in-put,

John

I am still reading your thread with interest, John. And I have to say that contrary to what many suggest I sense that not all filipinos intend to rip the white man off. My wife's family seem not to be that way inclined. Or maybe at some point in the future they might suddenly turn, like vampires in the night and suck the living blood out me if I were to try and venture into something like you have suggested. Fact is not one of them has asked me for a penny, nor my wife.

I do believe in horses for courses and we are all different and you sound like the folk around you over there are okay. I know for a fact that my wife's family are so reliable and honest that they have been in the employ of their bosses for many years and are almost part of their employers family themselves.

John, my answer to those that think like that are probably the ones who need to be shown how to treat the locals. What respect you show them is more than likely to be shown back to you. There will be a big differance between locals of a far off village to those that are in the city,..for a start there are more white men in the city for the locals to 'practice' ripping off !
I'm also blessed with a family who don't ask for any money, but that doesn't mean to say I don't give them any. We put my wife's sister through college as is the norm over there, but there is no big hand-outs willy-nilly.
I took pity on the old guy of the village a few years ago,..you know the one, ..he shuffles along the road every day,..his slippers are barely hanging onto his feet, which look like they belong to a lame camel. He's never washed for goodness knows how long and he's as black as a craw. (dirty )He drags along behind him a big hessian bag full of old plastic bottles. God only knows where he gets them or where he takes them,..but I would meet him every morning around 5.30 when I went for my walks before the sun rose over the mountain.
I would casually walk up to his side and slip 30 pesos into his hand and just walk on past him without saying much except 'good morning'. This year when we were over in Feb/March I saw him again,...same time, same road, same bag?,...the look on his face when he saw me coming was priceless,..a 70-something year old tramp giving me a huge smile ,...with no more than 2 odd black teeth ! Great feeling to help the old boy out,..and to this day I never told anyone.
I personally think that the Filipino people are some of the best friends I have and I only see them for 4-5 weeks at a time. I think if they realise they can't coax you to part with your money,..they will leave you alone and accept you for who you are. The locals in the village certainly leave me well alone anyway.

Jon..You seem to have misinterpreted my post entirely so to avoid that happening again,I`ll just shut up!!

Great bunch of people here talking a lot of sense.. Good thread this.
Good luck with plans BTW.

There is a way around your problem but I have to warn you that it will be significantly more expensive, more so given that you live in Scotland, but it is 100% legal.

You can apply for a 13(a) Visa at the Philippine Embassy in London but it may well entail you into making several trips with overnight stays in the Capital. The requirements are greater than locally-applied for Visas however. For example, you will need to undergo a full medical examination and provide chest x-rays etc., and you will be asked to provide character references in addition to the Police Clearance Certificate. You are also likely to be asked for around one year (or more)'s worth of Bank Statements in order to show financial capacity. Your wife will have to accompany you for at least one of your forays into London as she will be interviewed separately.

The process is slower as your application, Passport and documentation have to be sent to Manila and they are typically taking 2 to 3 months to approve (or not), so expect a 3 to 4 month wait. The Embassy will notify you when your Passport is returned and available for collection. If you are granted a Visa, you will have a relatively short period of time in which to fly-out to the Philippines.

You will not, however, be issued with an ACR-I card together with your Visa. You will need to go to BI in Intramuros (or Mandaue), pay the appropriate fee (currently US$50) and be photographed and fingerprinted. The residents' version of ACR cards takes around 2 to 3 months to issue. ACR-I cards have to be renewed every two years and renewal applications should be made at least 2 months before your current card(s) expire. The ACR-I card will enable you to avail of full-service banking and your bank account(s) can be credited from local sources.

The 13(a) applied for out of country is currently the full and permanent version, however that may change at any time and with minimal prior notice.

Bear in mind that unless your children are in possession of Philippine Passports, they too will most likely require Visas and if any of your (British) Passports have less than 5 years' validity, I would advise you to get new ones before making your Visa applications. Passports can be renewed via the Manila Embassy but at a higher cost, a 2 to 4 month delay and two round-trip visits to Manila.

You don't say how old your children are but if they're of secondary school age, I'd suggest you look into home-schooling and arrange for them to take GCSEs. Several of the Examination Boards offer GCSEs and A levels to external students and I think that at least one of the Cebu City international schools is an examination centre. That home-schooling can be in addition to whatever they can get at the local school. Methersgate was quite right when he said that Filipinos are incapable of thinking for themselves; the education system here doesn't groom students to be problem solvers and is not task and project based as in the UK.

Quite honestly, based on the experiences of two friends, the best way to renew a British passport, if resident in the Philippines, is to fly to Britain.

This is because all Passports are in fact issued in Britain - your application goes to the Consulate in Manila who send it to the Regional Processing Centre in Hong Kong who do nothing except sit on it and send it to London, where it sits in another pile and eventually the whole process is repeated in reverse.

Factor this in to all calculations

Januarius ; okay,..I maybe have interpreted your input the wrong way,..I am very interested to hear advice from both positive and negative views, especially as this is the British forum, but your remark didn't look like that to me ,...
".Look...Sounds like you have already made up your mind so....Off you go!!."

Let's just put it down to miss-understanding,..I don't intend to offend anyone on here , and I'm certainly getting the answers and guidance I was hoping for so far.
If we decide to try anything it will be at the back-end of the year when my work season finishes, so time enough to sort out visas and look at the matter in greater detail.
Until I'm fully 100% satisfied that I'm doing the right thing for my family I will be staying here in Scotland. I never have taken huge risks in my life,... small ones yes,...but would this not count as the biggest ever !! ?

Thanks to all so far.

My daughter.

John, your daughter is charming.

I think I cannot be the only person reading your thread with great interest, because what you are writing about applies to so many of us who are in very similar positions.

I didn't read Januarius' comments as hostile or trying to be smart.

Yours is a very valuable thread.

One problem is that if you do business that anyone can do, anyone can do it so the margins are small.

So, can we (all of us!) add a second income, however small, somehow?

It is worth thinking "what can I do to supplement a pension from anywhere where I can get an Internet connection?"

In my case, I write for the shipping industry technical press - it doesn't pay much but would keep me in beer and fags at Philippines prices.

Another possibility, which I am looking at, would be to pick up a qualification as a teacher of English as a foreign language (TOEFL) before leaving the UK. I have noticed that English accents are sought after for this.

You may have other and better ideas

This is where I could make complications and a lot of stress for myself in thinking of a second income. You see, I don't need to sell my business,..I could maybe keep it running with a very responsible and trustworthy worker or two. But how long would it last for them to realise that them being paid x amount per week and me getting x-amount over in the Phils it would be better for them to dump me and start up their own business with MY contacts ?(and probably my tools too )
I'd say I would spend more time trying to organise jobs in UK than living over in Phils, so I've written that one off.
I'm a qualified landscaper of gardens, I see many places that could benefit from my handywork when I'm over at the village,..but I can't see me sweating away for any longer than 1 hour a day before collapsing in a heap !! (not for £5 a day anyway ).
There is of coarse the ship-yard. I think I could grab a job there with a managerial position rather than the physical work, although I'm still very much capable of doing so if it wern't so damned hot ! lol.

Don't write it off - your business has a value so sell it to whoever is interested on an "earn out" basis whereby they pay you something over time, out of the income of the business, for your tools, your contacts and advice over Skype.

I took this a couple of years ago. TOEFL. When I was laid off. However, my perception is that as a Brit, the Philippines isn't the best place to sell that qualification owing to English being so widely used and taught there anyway. Okay in a place like Thailand, maybe.

But I take your point about the accent, unless of course one has a strong Geordie or Scouse accent for example.

I see it just the other way round - the Philippines is where other Asians go to learn English, because it is much cheaper to go here to study than to go to Britain, Australi, New Zealand or the USA.

I have an idea, from Kay's stable of movie extras, just how many foreign students (not all Asian either - many from eastern Europe) and in the Philippines learning English. Bob Couttie's stepdaughter works as a TOEFL teacher in Manila - her pukka English accent is the great attraction!