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BeIt94_BnzRepostReddit
Oct 1

Planning a move in 2 years

I'm 32, my wife is 35, and our daughter is 2. We're planning to move in about 2 years, so she'd be around 4 by then.
We're Americans and expect about $5,300 a month in stable household income without needing to work locally.

Our #1 priority is our daughter. Good, safe schooling, ideally a solid private school or preschool. It doesn't have to be a pricey international school.

We don't need to be in a big city. We're pretty simple people.

Neither of us will be working, so daily rush-hour commuting isn't really an issue apart from getting our daughter to school.

Is $5,300 a month comfortable for a family of three living like this?

At our age and in our situation, would you pick Cebu or Thailand?

Right now we're looking hard at Cebu, especially Talamban/Banilad.

1
Reactions30 of 35 original comments
Worried about schoolDon't comeThailand is betterVisit firstCosts & tuitionWhy not Europe or the US?
Worried about school
joeyblacky99995

Why the Philippines? Why not stay in the US? Private school in the Philippines is expensive and on par with ordinary public school in the US. No reason to pick the Philippines on $5k a month.

Don't come
Mobile-Peanut488810

Don't do it.

Thailand is better
LifeExperimentNo711

Life is so much fuller in Thailand. Safety: Thailand is very safe Healthcare: better in Thailand and much faster. Under an hour in and out of an ER there vs 5–7 hours in Philippine ERs Food: I don't even need to say it Transportation: Bangkok, exceptional. Philippines, practically nonexistent Thailand is better set up, and everything is customer-service oriented with a focus on quality and speed With the MRT and BTS, you can go somewhere new with your spouse and kid every weekend without fighting traffic or dealing with taxis I love the Philippines, and I find Filipinos friendly and easier to communicate with. Thailand feels like a properly growing modern country, while the Philippines sadly lacks transport and access to parks, and cultural experiences are limited. Spending hours in traffic every day to go anywhere gets old. The province is beautiful, but the power cuts suck, the limited food options kill me, and the healthcare in the provinces scares me.

Visit first
8percentinflation13

Visit first...

Costs & tuition
phrozen16

Hard to say where this place will be economically in two years. Prices are up 30% since COVID and over 100% in the past decade. We make almost nothing here, so even rice is imported. The weak peso doesn't help. My kid is the same age as yours, and I pray I'm out of here before she starts school. You're looking at roughly P500,000 for a top-tier education at an IB school. Once you hit high school, well over P1M a year. International schools here lack the quality and diversity you'd find in, say, Bangkok. Your $5k a month will go as far as your lifestyle lets it. A 100 m² condo in BGC runs about P120k a month, maybe with some furniture. Want to rent a car? A Vios starts at P30k a month. If you're fine living in the province and sending your kid to a mid-tier school, you'll be okay.

Why not Europe or the US?
Yougetwhat9

Just move to Europe. Your family would have a much better quality of life in, say, Spain 🤷🏻‍♂️

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