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Sep 30

Is the move worth it?

Hello expats, I need your help with a decision that's been wrecking my head for the past few days.

I have the option to move to Manila with my current employer, and it looks like we've hit a wall in negotiations. The work location would be Eastwood. All figures below are pre-tax.

I'm being offered about 6.4M PHP plus my child's education up to 600,000 PHP per academic year. That only covers tuition, school bus, stationery and uniform; anything else is on us. And it covers up to 75%, with the other 25% paid by us.

My current situation in Gurgaon, India:
I earn about 6M INR (60 lakh) a year and my wife earns 1.6M INR (16 lakh). We own a four-bedroom house, and our one child, who is 5, goes to a good, popular school (not international, but probably one of the top 5 private schools in the city). We live a decent life, nothing extravagant but good, and no complaints apart from the ones everyone in India has: stray dogs, flooding, lack of civic sense, road rage, general aggression, lack of cleanliness, general safety, staring and so on. I'd love to experience another country and way of life, and I generally like the Philippines and its people.

I originally asked the company for 8M PHP plus my child's education (capped by policy at 600,000 PHP and up to 75%), then was ready to settle for 7M PHP plus education. But they won't offer anything beyond 6.4M PHP plus education. Ideally I'd like to upgrade our lifestyle a bit with this move while keeping my current savings rate in India (the stock market here is strong compared to the Philippines). If we move, my wife won't have a job at first, and we'd have to find an employer willing to sponsor her work permit; she hates the idea of staying on a dependent visa for long. We'd also need a nanny/maid. We've never left our child in anyone else's care, so the thought of both of us being at work when our child gets home from school, or of our child being alone with a nanny (sorry, I've heard horror stories in India, not sure what it's like in the Philippines), may not work for us. The alternative is one of us taking a shift that doesn't overlap, at the risk of wrecking our body clocks. Not sure how long we could keep that up in our early 40s.

I know Manila fairly well. I usually visit once every 4-6 months for work, but I always stay in Salcedo, Makati and go to the office in McKinley and Uptown. Honestly, the per diem covers everything on those short trips, so I've never worried about expenses.

Can someone please advise whether I should settle for 6.4M PHP plus education or hold out for my 7M PHP ask? Please tell me about quality of life, expenses, private medical insurance (the company will provide one, but it looks like it may not be enough or include everything, like being able to see a doctor at any hour in an emergency the way we can in India), extracurricular activities, rent for a home with a decent-sized kitchen (my wife was on MasterChef a decade ago and loves to cook), fun money and so on, while still being able to save. How expensive are vegetables, groceries and so on? We eat meat, but maybe just once or twice a week.

Is this move worth it?

1
Reactions18 original comments
Take-home payGo or stay?Finding a homeMonthly budgetCar, house & maid costs
Take-home pay
phrozen13

I work out your net take-home pay at about 386k pesos. Does the package include a housing allowance? A car allowance? Those two could eat up half your take-home pay. Overall it's a solid mid-tier expat package, but you won't get rich off it.

Go or stay?
MabutiNamanPo3

Personally, I wouldn't move to Manila with a family for that kind of money, especially given your current setup in India and the fact that your wife won't be able to work here.

Finding a home
Mobile-Peanut48882

It's expensive to keep up your standard of living here

Monthly budget
TL3222

Probably not, unless you're really eager to leave. I ran it through a tax calculator (your mileage may vary) and it says you'd net a bit under 400k pesos a month. You'd be plenty comfortable, but I'm not sure it would add up to life-changing savings compared with your current situation. A nice 2-bedroom condo will be 100k-150k. Transport depends on exactly where you live, but daily Grab rides for yourself alone could easily be another 10-20k a month. Maybe 10k a month for utilities, 20k a month for school expenses, 50k a month for food and household stuff, 15k a month for a nanny, and you're at least in the low 200k range for a decent standard of living (but likely more). And of course that's before doing anything that would actually feel like a lifestyle 'upgrade.' It should go without saying that these are ballpark numbers and there's plenty of room to save *or* to spend way more. But my point is that it's plenty of income to be comfortable, yet pretty far from a baller lifestyle with a family.

Car, house & maid costs
phrozen11

Renting a Toyota Vios is around 30k a month. A Fortuner is 55k a month. You won't find a MasterChef kitchen in an Eastwood condo; it simply doesn't exist. A house in a gated subdivision reasonably close to work will run you anywhere from 75,000 to 150,000+ depending on fit and finish. Every house I've moved into needed a lot of investment, like aircons, water heaters and furniture, but that depends on your personal standards. A live-in maid is probably 12-15k. The electric bill for a house is 20k and up, depending on how much you use the aircon. Like I said, with nearly 400k free and clear you won't be hurting, but if you're trying to maintain a certain standard of living, the money goes out as fast as it comes in.

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