Financial Flip-Flop
Financially, the last couple of years of living in the Philippines has been a very interesting time. As an American, I primarily follow the exchange between the Dollar and the Peso. However, my expat friends from many other countries have gone on a roller coaster ride over the past two years or so. Over the last couple of years, the financial situation has been pretty bad for Americans with the Dollar taking a beating, but things have turned around. Over the last few weeks, I have interacted with a number of expats, and the conversations we have had have kind of made me think the whole financial situation over a little more deeply. Over the past couple of years, our friends from other parts of the world have been riding high with their currencies, but recently, many of them have been turning around, and have fallen drastically. All in all, it seems that in recent months there has been a financial flip-flop.
A few weeks ago, I got a note from a fellow in Australia. He was very, very interested in moving to the Philippines right away. He had lots and lots of questions to ask me, and I gladly answered all of them. Soon, the talk turned to the possibility that he would purchase a piece of land here, he was primarily interested in living on Samal Island, since he really enjoyed a peaceful area with plenty of quiet, beautiful scenery and a lifestyle filled with nature. He inquired through Feyma about the possibility of helping him find a place to live on Samal. After a number of communications, my new friend wrote to me and said that he had decided that the timing was not right for such a move. He lamented the current sinking of the Australian Dollar against the Peso. I went and did some looking into this, and here is what I found. Two years ago, the Australian Dollar was at a rate of about P38:AUD1. Roughly, the AUD stayed in a range of 38 to 40 until January 2008 when it dipped to just about 35. A few months ago, the AUD had climbed all the way up to 44, but recenly took a real crash. Currently, the AUD is trading at about P32. It dropped from 44 to 32 in a matter of only around 4 months or so! Not good for the Aussies!
A few days ago, I went out for coffee with John Grant, and we discussed this matter. John was feeling down because the British Pound has also been taking quite a beating lately. Two years ago, the GBP was about P104, and had even hit P110 before that! However, from the P104 level, it took a slide down to about P79 in the first quarter of this year, before climbing it’s way back to around P90 in July/August of this year. From that point, though, the Pound has fallen like a rock (a pound of rocks?) and is now trading at around P73, it’s lowest exchange in the last 2 years that I investigated. Our British expat friends are hurting right now.
What about the Euro, the relatively new currency that our friends in much of Europe are using these days? Well, over the last few years the Euro has kind of been the “King of the Currencies” with it strengthening against almost every World Currency during this time. Two years ago, the Euro was worth 63 Pesos. It climbed from there, all the way up to 73 Pesos! But, 73 was the top of the exchange rate for the Euro. since that time, it has dropped against the Peso and today it is trading in the range of P61. That is quite a slide for our European friends.
What about our Canadian friends? I remember it was not long ago when the Canadian Dollar (CAD) was on parity, even a little higher than the USD. Times have changed a bit since then, though. Two years ago, the CAD was trading at P44, and over the past two years it climbed as high as P47. Lately, though, the CAD has been taking quite a hit and has been pretty volatile. Over the past week or two, the CAD has traded as low as P38. In the past week or so, it has gotten back up to about P41, though.
What about the United States Dollar? Well, as an American, I am happy to report that most American Expats that I know are very happy these days. Two years ago, the USD was trading at around P52, and it dropped like a rock from there. By January of this year (2008) the dollar was at P40, and the word the we were hearing and reading in the papers was that the dollar would be down to about P30 by 2010. Frankly, I was pretty worried about that, because at the P40 level, life was getting a little rough, given that the USD was at P56 just about 3 years ago. If the Dollar has slid down to P30, I would have had to figure out how to make more money, changed my lifestyle considerably, or left the Philippines. None of these were things I really wanted to do. Today, though, we are nearly back where we were 2 years ago, with the Dollar trading right around the p50 level again, in fact yesterday it broke P50:$1 for the first time during this cycle. Speculation is that the Peso will continue to slide against the Dollar for the forseeable future.
Having the Dollar trading at these levels again is a great feeling for Feyma and I, and for our American expat friends too. I must say, though, that I feel for my expat friends from other contries. I know how they feel, because, as Americans, we lost almost 1/3 of the value of our money against the Peso not too long ago, and I know that life became more difficult. I am lucky, because I make a pretty good income, so I know that if life was uncomfortable for me when the Dollar was so far down, some of my friends are really in bad shape with their currency down, because some of them also have very limited incomes in their home currency. I hope that their currencies stabilize and even gain some value soon.
In today’s trying times, we just don’t know what the financial markets will do in the coming months and years. Anything could happen, in my opinion. It’s a good time to put a nestegg aside, to cover your needs during trying times that we may see. It’s not a time to spend money wildly, that is for sure.
Good luck to everybody, I hope that your finances serve your needs.
Welcome to the new LiP Site!
Yes, as I promised on Friday of last week, I am delivering today on the change that I was talking about! Change to the LiP (Live in the Philippines) site, that is! I didn’t really let anybody know that I was planning a redesign until just a few days ago, so it was kind of a surprise to everybody, I think. However, this has indeed been in the plans for some time now. As I said on Friday, it’s been a year (more than a year, actually) since I have updated the looks of the site, so I think the time has come.
The site is not yet 100% complete, but the remaining touches are not too major, so you should be able to enjoy the site, and have a good idea of the final look. Actually, you won’t see many differences in the look as I make a few more changes over the next few days, as they are mostly functionality type things.
Be sure to visit the Home Page by clicking “Home” in the menu bar at the top of the site to see the biggest changes! Give the Image Gallery time to load so that you can see a rotation of our latest featured stories anytim you visit the site. It should load pretty quickly anyway.
In addition to the new looks of the site, we also have a new author! Rusty Ferguson has joined us, and I think he will be a great addition to the site. Rusty is an American expat living on the Island of Cebu, up north in Bogo City, which is up at the norther tip of Cebu Island. I met Rusty just a few weeks ago when I found his site, and I think that he will make a real nice new contributor for LiP! Welcome aboard, Rusty! I hope that you will enjoy your stay at LiP and stay with us for a long time so that we can all learn about your experiences in Cebu!
Again, welcome everybody to the new LiP site! Be patient while I work out any kinks that pop up along the way, and enjoy!
Change you can believe in!
No, no… this is not going to be about the current Presidential campaign in the United States! Yes, I know, one (sometimes both) of the candidates is always touting change. I have chosen not to comment on where I stand on the campaign, though. I did make some indications a few months ago that I might be supporting one of the candidates, but to be honest, I have hopped the fence several times now, and it is a topic that really is not related to what this site is about, so I have decided to stay away from the topic. I guess the title of this column, though, was just sort of a teaser, although it is really the right title for what I am going to focus on today.
Yes, change is coming. It is coming to the Live in the Philippines Web Magazine! Very soon, you will see an entirely new layout here, and some changes in the way that the site works. It has been a little more than a year since we have taken the look that we have right now, so it is time for a little shake up. In addition, we have a lot more contributors to the site now, so the new site layout will help feature the writers in a more even way than the current site. Right now, when you go to the homepage of the site, it is Feyma and I featured up on the top all the time. Under the new layout, each one of the authors will have his latest post featured up on the top of the site, and will rotate with other recent entries. This will give more exposure to writers that are newer to the site (new authors go to the bottom of the page now, with more experienced authors at the top). I think this will make for a nice addition to the site.
Because of the major renovation, I am having to make some changes in the way that the site structure will be, so URL’s may be slightly different than they are now. I am hoping to have the new site up and online no later than Monday (October 13, 2008) (Philippine time), so if you find that you cannot access the site in the way you normally do on Monday, just go directly to the Homepage (www.LiveInThePhilippines.com) and you should find everything working there. Of course, there may be some downtime over the weekend as I make changes, but I think that I can keep that to a bare minimum.
I hope that you will all like the new layout and find it user friendly. I have shown the new layout to a few people, and so far all of the feedback I have gotten has been extremely positive, so I think that there will be overwelming support for it! If you see something you don’t like, be sure to let me know, and I’ll consider possible changes.
Thank you to all the readers of this site for your regular support. I always appreciate hearing from you, and getting your feedback. It’s like having a big family or group of friends online, and I enjoy that!
Yes, there will be change on LiP, and it’s coming soon! That, friends, is something you indeed can believe in! This is not just a slogan, but something I intend to deliver!
Exchange rate update
It has been over three months since I’ve written about the exchange rates between the Dollar and the Peso, and there have been significant movements since that article. Because of this, it’s time that we take another look at the topic, I think. In these days of financial crisis, it can be hard to figure out what will happen with exchange rates. Sometimes the movements in the exchange rate are the opposite of what would seem logical.
I took a screenshot from a website that I use to check the currency rates on Tuesday, when the exchange rate was P47.77 for $1.00. That is an intra-day rate, and I am not sure what the closing will be for the Peso today, as I type this. But, it is clear that the Peso continues falling rapidly against the Dollar. The last article that I wrote was a little over 3 months ago, and at that time the exchange was P44.5:$1. Basically, the exchange has gone against the Peso by about P1 per month since then. At that time I wrote about HSBC bank predicting that the exchange would be at P52:$1 by mid-2009. At that time I said that I thought we’d be looking at more like P48:$1 by mid next year, but it looks like we are already nearly at the rate that I had predicted, and that is only in 3 months! I believe it is now possible that we could breach the P50:$1 mark by year end.
I find it quite surprising that the dollar is strengthening so much during a time when the United States is in severe financial crisis, logically it would seem that it should be the other way around. You would think that a time of great uncertainty in the US Financial Markets would tend to cause a flight away from the Dollar, but the practice has actually gone the other way around, with even the Euro and the Pound losing strength against the Dollar.
With the extreme financial swings that are happening in these troubling times, I am not going to make any predictions on the exchange rates this time around. It certainly seems, though, that the trend is toward a weaker Peso. It’s good news for expats living here, and also for many Filipino families, since so many of them rely on money sent into the country by OFW’s (Overseas Filipino Workers).
Luz Kinilaw, Davao City
The longest running restaurant in Davao City is a place called Luz Kinilaw. It is probably the most famous restaurant in Davao as well. Luz is located in Salmonan, Davao City, right on the waterfront. When I say it is on the waterfront, many of you surely have idealic thoughts of a pure and beautiful beach area, girls clad in bikinis running through the sand and such. Wipe those thoughts from your mind. That’s not Luz, and that is not the kind of waterfront that I am talking about!
Luz sits right next to the highway, with the Davao Gulf right behind it. This waterfront area is a squatters area, dirty, dingy, it even stinks a little bit. But, Luz is quintessential Davao. Luz is famous all across the country! Television commercials have been filmed at Luz. When major politicians visit Davao and want to eat the foods that Davao is famous for, they go to Luz. When you go to eat at Luz you never know who will be at the next table… it could be a poor, common “Juan dela Cruz” or it could be the President or a well known Senator. The place is that diverse!
My friend, Rick Bowden and I went to Luz for lunch on Wednesday, and shot a little video of the experience so that you could come along for the meal. Sorry, I haven’t figured out how to actually send food through the Internet, so you can only watch!
For lunch, we had Panga, which is Tuna Jaw. Rick also enjoyed the dish that Luz is famous for, Kinilaw! Kinilaw is raw fish with vinegar and vegetables. I’m not a fan of Kinilaw. It’s not the raw fish, I love raw fish, but when I choose to eat my fish raw, I prefer sashimi. We also had rice, and soup. We even enjoyed a few live ants with our tuna, since they were crawling on the plate! You get used to things like that when you live in the tropics for any length of time! I know that it didn’t bother me, and Rick didn’t seem too upset about the ants either!
Anyway, it was a great meal, and a place like Luz really shows you the “real” Philippines, and how the common people live! I hope that you enjoy the video!
By the way, how much was the lunch? Two people - one medium sized tuna jaw, rice, kinilaw, drinks…. P350 total. Not bad!
It happened in the Philippines?
Something unthinkable happened yesterday. I went swimming with a friend in the morning, and after we left the pool I was driving home. As I drove down J. P. Laurel Avenue, somebody started slapping on my side window of my car. I looked, and it was a traffic police. He motioned for me to pull over to the side, which I did, and rolled down my window. He informed me that I was getting a citation. What? A citation for what?
I wasn’t wearing my seatbelt.
Yes, here in Davao they are now giving citations for people not wearing their seatbelts in their cars. I had heard a few weeks ago that this was happening, and I’ve been trying very hard to wear my seatbelt all the time. However, it’s something I’ve never been in the habit of, and I forgot. When I picked up my friend to go swimming yesterday morning, I was wearing my seatbelt, and I told him that he should wear his because they were giving tickets for that now. So, we headed down to the swimming pool, had a nice time, and headed home. We just forgot to put our seatbelts on again.
This whole enforcement action started in Davao a few months ago. They’re particularly strict on enforcing laws on motorcycle riders now. A certain type of helmet must be worn, certain clothing, motorcycles must put their lights on, a lot of these laws are very similar to what’s found in other developed countries. And yes, seatbelt wearing is enforced now! So, I have to get into the habit. Yes, it’s something I should have always been doing, but I’ve never been a wearer of my seatbelt before, at least not regularly. That’s going to have to change now.
The fine for not wearing a seatbelt is only about 350 pesos, so it’s not the money that bothers me. I just don’t like getting a ticket.
The Journey is complete
Zosima Rodriguez Bayoy, born December 26, 1928 died on October 5, 2008 at 12:30pm in Patag, Sarangani Province on the Island of Mindanao in the Philippines. She is survived by seven children, five girls and two boys. Yes, Feyma’s mother passed away yesterday, and we were all relieved to know that her suffering had ended. It was something that we had expected would happen for quite a long time now, but you just never know when the exact time is until it happens.
As I wrote last week, Feyma had gone to Patag to see her mother, as the end was nearing. She stayed only one day and then came home to Davao. It was hard for her to see her mother in such condition, so she didn’t stay long. This weekend, on Saturday, Feyma went back for another visit, and was with her mother when she passed on Sunday at 12:30 p.m.. I haven’t seen Feyma yet since the incident occurred, and she is still in Patag as I write this. I’m not yet sure when she will return home, but I suspect that it will be tomorrow maybe, and she will make at least one or two more trips back during the mourning period.
What I do know is that when I just talked to Feyma on the phone, she was really broken up, crying a lot. Of course, how could she be blamed? She just lost her last parent a few minutes ago. While she is in a state of high emotion, and grief, I know that she is also relieved that her mother is no longer suffering, and she had suffered for a long time now.
I had known mama for 18 years plus, and she and I had a close relationship. We never really were able to communicate on a language level, but somehow we made a connection. She could not speak any English, for many of those years I could not speak any Bisaya. By the time I started learning Bisaya, she was already in bad shape and unable to communicate anyway. But still, we loved each other a lot, and we both knew it. I’m happy for her that she is now with Papa.
There’s not much more to say, except that I know that Feyma would appreciate your thoughts and prayers as she goes through this hard time. Of course her grief will pass, and fond memories of her mother will take the place of the grief in her heart. Feyma’s childhood was not always easy, and her mother could be quite a disciplinarian at times, but I know that Feyma has forgiven her mother for those days, and holds nothing but love in her heart for her mother. I’m very happy that Feyma was able to resolve that situation before her mother passed on. No matter what, I think all of us have certain issues with our parents from our childhood, and it’s always good to resolve those and put them behind us. If we’re unable to resolve those, it could be something that we will regret forever.
Mama, I’m happy you have finished your journey and have rejoined Papa. I’m particularly happy that I got to be a small part of that journey, and shared some life experience is with you. I will never forget you.
Take care of yourself!
Last night, while I was sleeping, I got a text from a friend. I won’t name this person, but he is a regular visitor to the Philippines, and generally spends a few months here whenever he comes. I guess he has only been here about 3 times or so, but since he stays for quite a long length of time, he could not be considered a newcomer, but rather a regular.
Here is the text message that he sent to me:
I am very worried now. My leg very big, swollen. Black mark on my foot. Bad infection. Doctors here stupid. I may need to go home b4 I die here. What 2 do now?
Well, firstly let me say that I don’t agree that the doctors here are stupid. But, what I will say is that as a foreigner we may present a situation to a doctor that he has not seen before. For example, if we get an infection from something, it may not be something that infects Filipinos. I mean, certain germs here are alien to our foreign bodies, while they are the normal germs that Filipinos are used to. The Filipino body has already developed immunity to certain common germs here, whereas our foreign bodies may be encountering this particular germ for the first time, thus having no defenses in store.
What did I advise my friend to do? Well, he is in a somewhat remote area. I advised him to start taking a strong antibiotic, and get himself to a good hospital. I recommended Davao Doctor’s Hospital, although it’s a little far from where he is. He is closer to Cagayan de Oro, but I don’t know the hospitals there, so I advised him to check those out too.
Back in the early 1990’s I had a similar incident happen to me. I was in General Santos City, and I slid and took a fall. In the process of falling, I scraped my leg on a piece of broken concrete. It was a very minor little scrape on the side of my calf, and I was not worried about it. I did wash it off, and although Feyma and her family suggested that I go to the doctor for a closer look at it, I shrugged it off. About 3 days later, my leg was a dark purple color from the knee down to the foot. I was in extreme pain too. I couldn’t even get out of bed.
The hotel where I was staying was right next door to a hospital, and a doctor from the hospital came to have a look at me. He was very concerned, and wanted me to go to the hospital, but I refused. He agreed to let me stay in my hotel room, and he would come and visit me regularly. He prescribed two drugs for me. One was for the pain, and the other was for the infection. When I took the drug for the pain, I would go into a very strange state! I had hallucinations and such, imagining all kinds of strange things! I saw dragons in my room, and such. The medication for the infection was not helping me either. I had to cancel my return flight to the States and reschedule it because I was too sick to fly.
After more than a week, I saw no improvement in my condition. I decided that I needed to fly back home to the USA for treatment. Remember, this happened in the early 90’s, before I lived here. I was only here for vacation at the time. When I flew back, it was a most uncomfortable journey, and I could barely walk at all. Upon landing in the USA, I went straight to the hospital. The doctor’s in the Emergency Room were stunned at the condition of my leg. I showed them the medication that I had been taking, and they never heard of it. Upon research in medical books, they still could not say what the medication was.
The doctors put me on an experimental antibiotic through an IV. I had to take that for 2 months, as I recall. They said that it was the strongest antibiotic that they had. Another thing that they told me was that if I had waited much longer before returning home, I probably would have lost my leg. To this day, even from that small scrape, I have a scar on my leg, and also some discoloration on my leg from that.
These days, I feel that the drugs and medical care here are much better, and they have my full confidence. Also, I am less susceptible to such infections, having lived here for over 8 years. My advice to you, though, if traveling, is to take good care of yourself. Don’t ignore any type of sore that you get. Seek medical attention early, don’t let it fester!
Psst… Don’t tell anybody…
I’m going to tell you something, but keep it quiet, OK? This is just between you and I, and I want it to stay that way. I found gold! That’s right, you read it correctly, I’M RICH! Well, maybe I’m not, but you can’t imagine how many times I have heard this before. If you are not aware, treasure hunting is sort of a Philippine national pasttime, and especially here in Mindanao.
The king of the treasures is Yamashita’s Gold, and legend is that Yamashita’s Gold was hidden here in the Philippines back during World War II. Some people say that President Marcos got Yamashita’s Gold during his time as President. Others believe that the treasure is still hiding somewhere in the Philippines. For me, I really don’t care one way or another.
Do you know what the real treasure is that is being hunted? The money in the bank accounts of gullible foreigners. You see, there are lots of Filipinos who try to get foreigners to fund hunts for treasure, or try to scam foreigners by selling them fake treasure. It is very common, and it is something that you should look out for, in almost every case I have ever heard of, this is nothing but a scam.
A number of years ago when I first moved to the Philippines, I met a nice fellow from the USA. We originally met online, and we met in person when he came to the Philippines. This fellow worked in the International Shipping business, specifically shipping personal good for people who moved to other countries. This guy, I’ll call him Tony, was an intelligent guy, but he was taken in this scam, and it cost him a great deal. Not only did Tony lose a lot of money, he lost his job, he lost his wife, and a lot of other important things in his life.
You see, some of these scam artists came to Tony and told him that they had found treasure, and it included a lot of precious metals. They needed Tony to help them smuggle it out of the country, and he would get a percentage, of course, for his efforts. Tony’s connections to the shipping industry would give him all that was needed to become a multi-millionaire! Well Tony fell for the scam, and later his company found out. They fired him because he was using his company connections to dip into illegal activities. Tony wasn’t even worried about losing his job, though, because he was about to get a share of this huge precious metals find! Well, Tony had to put money into the deal to pull it off, and lo and behold, he later found out that the metals that were being shipped were nothing but scrap metals. He lost almost every important thing in his life, and a lot of cash too, and it was for nothing. I haven’t heard from Tony in the years since that happened. I think that he is too embarrassed to talk to me anymore.
What if you meet a fellow foreigner and he offers to let you in on a treasure find? Well, he is probably trying to rip you off too. Just because somebody is from the same country that you are from, it doesn’t mean that he is looking out for your best interests, you can bet on that. A number of years ago, I met an American guy at a local restaurant. He seemed to be a very nice guy, and I invited him and his wife to come to my house for dinner later in the week. He accepted my invitation. A day later, he sent me a text message and told me that he had come into some gold bars, and offered to sell some to me at half of the market price of gold. I told him that I wasn’t interested. Never heard from him again after that, and they didn’t show up for dinner either. I was a mark, and since he found out he couldn’t score from me, he moved on.
If you get approached about treasure, gold, other precious metals or anything of the sort, don’t just turn around and walk away - instead, you should RUN. It isn’t going to happen.
Are you ready for some football?
One thing that kind of surprises me is how many people actually base their decision about whether to move to the Philippines on how much (or little) American Football they can catch on TV here. Two or three times per month, I get e-mails from people asking me how many games per week they can catch on TV. Usually, people ask about NFL football, but recently I’ve also gotten several inquiries regarding College Football too.
I used to be a big football fan back in the 1980’s and before, but around 1990 or so I kind of lost interest in the game. As I recall, the players went on strike one year around that time, and after that I just couldn’t get back into the game, I guess. Oh, from time to time I will watch a game on TV, if it is on, but I am not like I was when I was a rabid fan. Back in those days, I knew all the players, and would look forward to games with great anticipation. Now, I might watch one or two games per year, and sometimes I have to force myself to pay attention.
For those of you who are big football fans, though, I have some good news. This year, the new football season is much more widely covered on Philippine TV, at least on Cable TV here. Starting on January 1, 2008, we got a new sports channel called Balls TV and they have a fair amount of football coverage. Currently, while typing this article (I am writing it on Monay morning, Philippine time, but it will be published on Wednesday) I am watching NFL Sunday Night Football on Balls (NBC coverage). One thing that kind of excites me is that one of the announcers is somebody that I have always liked, John Madden. In the past, we never got the “real” announcers that you would hear on US TV coverage, we always got announcers that you had never heard of.
Over the past weeks since the new football season got underway, I have noticed that we are getting 3 or 4 NFL games and 3 or 4 College games every week! Some games are covered live (Sunday Night and Monday Night NFL games), and others are on tape delay. Sometimes it is Wednesday or Thursday before we see games from last weekend (except the live games), but at least the games can be seen. The game that I am watching now (Monday morning, 9am Philippine time) is Chicago Bears vs. Philadelphia Eagles, and it is currently tied at 7 in the 2nd quarter (this is the Sunday Night NFL game, so I am watching it live).
So, anyway, I just thought that I would let you guys know that the situation as far as seeing football games on TV is improving in the Philippines. I know that this is important to some of you guys!
What could be better than watching the NFL with a cold San Miguel on the table next to you? Well, maybe we could add some balut for a snack during the game!