60s are the new 40s - Flores thread tangent

Updating how my projects are going...

My plans have changed, mainly because of the changes in the economy although my goals remain the same. When I first bought my two lots (on time payments), my long term goal was to build an upscale house on one which if disaster struck could be sold for enough for my family to buy a smaller middle class house and have enough left over to survive for an extended period of time. On the second lot, I wanted to build a smaller house that could be sold to finance my kids education. I'm doing this 100% on my social security with no mortgage so those were very long term goals.

Over the past couple of years the economy has been booming with shifts in tax burdens from the lower and middle classes to upper classes and large corporations. That has caused somewhat of a rise in land values as more and more middle class are purchasing real estate for investments. I purchased the properties about 12 years ago and there was very little rise in values, maybe 20% total over the first 10 years but, two years ago the values began to rise and I experienced about a 50% gain over a year. About a year ago, financing and building plans were approved for a bridge from the 3rd largest city in The Philippines (Davao) to our island which is less than 1 km at the closest point. That started a buying frenzy and my lot values have increased about 300% over the past year. Housing has also been rising but not as fast, maybe 30%.

The result is that now my second lot which doesn't have a house on it, is now worth about 15 years of private university tuition and books. I only have 2 kids so without building anything, goal 2 has been met. For my main house, I've now completed the entire structure and we are now doing finish work. Within the next month or so, we will have the use of the living room and garage. As far as the goals go, right now, it's value is conservatively about a modest middle class house plus 100 months of living expenses for my family. I'm guessing the house will at least double or triple as we continue to upgrade the finish work and over time then will skyrocket when the bridge is complete about 3 years from now.

As far as life is concerned, this project has been a bit of a godsend. I was a career engineer but not a civil engineer. I designed the house completely in a CadCam system that wasn't meant for house design (Mastercam) then enlisted the help of an excellent civil engineer to do the blue prints and technical specifications. I've basically been the site engineer but have an experienced contractor that does his own electrical, plumbing, welding and has excellent carpentry and foreman skills. It's been interesting and an education in itself. The house is about 1830 sq feet under roof with 3 bedrooms and 3 full baths. We still have a ton of carpentry work to do but the entire interior is painted. About 80% of the tile work is also done. For the most part, we have plywood cabinets but those will be replaced one at a time over the next year or so.

A fun project, we built a small fish pond/fountain and have about 40 small koi. I'm enjoying it so, I might make a small Koi farm on the second lot. If it just broke even, I'd be happy. I did discover that the koi like the leaves from a local tree well known for nutrition and medicinal value in the Philippines, Malunggay (aka Camunggay). These trees are strange in that if you break off a branch and stick it in the ground it will grow into a tree in a very few months. I've planted about 15 trees.

We've decided to also make a small veggie garden. Not for market, just family and neighbors. We'll have bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, okra, chili peppers, calamansi (small lemons cousins), eggplant & green beans. We've already planted 2 coconut trees and started several papaya tree. We plan to add mangoes (our island is famous for it's variety of mangoes), some jack fruit trees, a fruit that I don't remember the name of and maybe a few banana trees. Rambutan and lanzones are also likely. A couple of trees of a large variety.

For future projects, 2021 or so, we'll invest in more lots and build a small pool with water jets, a waterfall and a water slide. I've already made provisions for that in the utility room and evacuation plumbing.

My situation is a bit different than the country in general so I'll start with the big picture. On the supply side, we've had a massive tax shift to higher incomes and strict tightening on the employee contracting game. On the demand side we probably have the most infrastructure projects in the world right now in what is locally known as the Build! Build!Build! program, foreign investments are at all time highs with overseas (mostly Asian) investments in the private sector and massive agrarian reform intended to improve the productivity of the small farmers. We've gone from an over educated, under employed economy to an economy where employers are having to train employees. Our unemployment rates are at all time lows. The changes were initially very inflationary but now GDP growth has brought our inflation rates to near zero. Construction company housing contracts locally have gone up about 50% over the past 2 years.

On an international scope relative to Americans, in general, fiscal policies are different for USA Republican or Democratic Presidents. Not a political statement, it's just the way it is. Republicans favor a strong dollar, Democrats favor a weak dollar. (Don't be fooled by the expressions, just rhetoric). My Social Security now brings me an average of about 51 pesos/$ under Trump, whereas under Obama it was about 41 pesos/$. Parity is 50 pesos/$. In effect, I've had close to a 25% raise which has more than offset my rising prices.

For my case, I've had no labor issues but I've always had only 2 to 4 workers, mostly three. I don't have turnover, my supervisor and foreman have been with me from the start and I pay about 15% higher than the going rates. They are good skilled workers and I have no issues with their productivity. Some of the day laborers I've hired, I wouldn't hire again and some I've had to fire but, the one I have now is very good and we are taking the time to train him in construction for his future. The wages I pay have about doubled over the past 5 years and building materials costs for non imported goods has gone up maybe 25% over that time. It's difficult to understand this but when you hear something like Indian garment workers only make $2 a day, it might be true but it gives you absolutely no information. Using an example, my supervisor is experienced and is a licensed contractor, electrician, plumber and welder. His specialty is carpentry. He makes 700 pesos a day which is less than $14 a day. He lives an upper lower class lifestyle but that's by choice, while here he's also bought 2 motorcycles and a 200 square meter lot which he's building a small house on in his spare time.

For the non large construction company work, things are very labor intensive. People don't clear a lot with a bulldozer, they hire a bunch of people with Bolo knives and shovels. When we cut the two septic tanks out of solid limestone, it took 2 workers 16 weeks with chisels, sledge hammers and buckets. Lol, I bought a used Hilti jack hammer last week for the future for $400, I wish I had it then. Back then, the cost of a new jackhammer was greater than the 16 weeks wages.

As far as moving to a 3rd world economy goes. I knew for a long time before I moved that I'd do so but I pretty much thought it would be Baja Mexico. When you live near a 3rd world country and can visit regularly (I lived in Southern California for about 20 years), the reasons are obvious, dollar exchange rates. For me, here in the Philippines it takes about $1800 a month for a family of four to live an upper middle class lifestyle including things like private schools. For $1800 I'd be living in a box under a bridge in the USA. I visited Thailand about 5 years ago and found the prices to be about 50% higher relative to the dollar. One way to get a feel is to look at equivalent cities in various countries and compare hotel and food rates via the internet. You need to look at locally produced items, not things like cars or gasoline. You can also looky-loo house shop for equivalent communities.

For me, I knew for about 2 years that my wife was going to pass and that a medical bankruptcy was inevitable from a step grandson's medical care. I'm a country boy and Mexico doesn't have much green nature so I narrowed it down to 4 countries to research, The Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia in that order. I took a month long trip and planned to go country to country with no particular agenda until I found what suited me best. I landed in Manila, didn't like it, flew to Cebu, didn't like it then Davao. I knew from the view in the airplane that Davao was going to be it. In land mass, it's the 8th largest city in the world so, plenty of open space. A lot would depend on what your friend is looking for. Chances are if his ideal vacation is a high rise hotel in Cancun, The Philippines is not likely where he would want to settle.

ADD: As far as the growing season, I'm pretty much of a novice farmer. Some trees bear fruit year around, some once a year. The prices, quality and supply of fruit at the market seems pretty constant so, I'm assuming that or year around constant climate makes for different harvesting times. Definite seasonal fruits I can think of are rambutan and mangosteen There's only a 2 degree centigrade difference in mean temperatures from the hottest to the coldest months. We've started the veggies construction, about 100 sq. feet, with an angle bar frame. I'll add plant mesh around the bottom to keep out the chickens and pigs. I'm leaving most of the top open because some of the veggies like cucumbers need the bees. Like I said, I'm a novice. The soil here isn't the greatest so I dug down about a foot, put a bunch of live and dead leaves at the bottom, mixed in a bunch of ground up eggshells and dirt from under our fire pit for calcium and carbon and a bunch of shavings from the woodwork to keep the soil from getting too hard. I'll plant some seeds and they will either grow or they won't. I'm getting the seeds from good samples. My bell peppers are already growing in a box and are about 3 inches high. We'll grow chili (we found some major hot ones), bell peppers, okra, egg plant,tomatoes and cucumbers. We also bought 2 small avocado trees and have a bunch of papaya seeds started, they don't take much room and grow and bear fruit fast.

I'm guessing the mangoes and avocados won't do well on my lot. I only have about 2 feet of dirt above the limestone where I plan to plant them. Worst case, I'll be cutting up trees that fell over.

ADD2: If you friend wants to open a bar in Thailand, I'm guessing but don't know for sure, that's a tall order for a foreigner. If Thailand, he's likely thinking Bangkok. I've been to Bangkok and it's a rough city, drawing an analogy what the general perception of Philadelphia is. Very few people in Bangkok speak English, a bar licence is probably very expensive there and likely a good old boy network situation. I could also easily be wrong. Prostitution is legal (and encouraged as an industry) in Thailand and I'm also guessing that to have any customers there he'd also need girls.