20 pages covering the six things that matter most in your first year: where to live, what it costs, how relationships work, your visa options, healthcare, and what daily life feels like once the vacation phase wears off.
Written by John Smulo. Based on years of living, building businesses, and running community in the Philippines.
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6 Chapters
BGC, Makati, Cebu, Dumaguete, Davao, Bohol, Iloilo — honest breakdowns of every major expat hub, plus the places most guides skip.
Real monthly budgets at four tiers, from survival to BGC lifestyle. What people consistently underestimate and what actually adds up.
How dating and family dynamics actually work here. Financial expectations, communication differences, and what most foreigners misread.
Tourist extensions, SRRV, 13(a), the new Digital Nomad Visa, SIRV, SVEG — which path fits your situation and what to research first.
Hospital quality by city, insurance options, the pay-before-treatment culture, and why local HMOs beat international insurance for most expats.
What happens after the honeymoon phase. Identity shifts, loneliness, the informal economy, and what the expats who stay long-term actually do differently.
From the Guide
"The Philippines" is not one place. The lifestyle in BGC is nothing like the lifestyle in Dumaguete, and both are nothing like Bohol. The guide covers every major expat hub honestly — not just the highlight reel.
BGC, Metro Manila
Most options for things to do. Walkable. Best hospital in the country. Condo rent per square meter is roughly the same as Makati, Cebu, and Davao — the misconception that BGC is more expensive isn't accurate.
Cebu City
Main alternative to Metro Manila. But the "beach access" advantage? The nice Mactan beaches are resort day-passes at ₱1,200+. Real beaches are 3–4 hours away — same as Manila to Batangas.
Dumaguete
Default "retirement city." But the city itself is small with limited healthcare. What makes it work is the surrounding area — Siquijor, Apo Island, the mountains inland.
The full guide covers 12 locations with honest pros, cons, healthcare quality, and who each place actually fits.
From the Guide
The Philippines is cheaper than the US, Canada, the UK, or Australia. But it is not as cheap as the internet tells you. The "$1,000/month paradise" content is either outdated, based on a lifestyle most Western expats wouldn't enjoy, or leaving out major categories of spending.
Survival
$800–1,200
Small condo, local food, limited social life
Comfortable (single)
$1,500–2,500
Decent condo, eating out regularly, some travel
Comfortable (family)
$2,500–4,000
Good condo, family expenses, healthcare
BGC / Makati lifestyle
$3,500–5,000+
Nice condo, regular dining, gym, travel
What people underestimate: lifestyle creep, family financial expectations, healthcare costs, and the difference between surviving and actually enjoying your life.
The guide breaks down each one with real numbers.
From the Guide
This is where most expat guides either sell fantasies or avoid the topic entirely. Neither is useful.
Family involvement is structural, not optional
When you enter a relationship with a Filipina, you're entering a relationship with her family's economic situation. There's no robust government welfare system. The person in the family with access to resources is expected to share them. This is not manipulation. It's how survival works in a country where most people don't have the safety nets Westerners take for granted.
A useful framework
Think about Maslow's hierarchy. Many Filipinas are operating at the security level — stable housing, reliable income, making sure family is okay. Many foreigners are at the belonging or self-actualization level — connection, adventure, personal growth. Neither is wrong. But if you don't recognize you might be standing on different steps of the pyramid, you'll misread almost everything.
From the Guide
The first three to six months feel like vacation. Then around month four or five, the vacation filter drops. You notice the traffic, the bureaucracy, the heat at 2pm in April. This is normal.
Filipino warmth is real, but it's not the same as friendship. Building genuine relationships takes time, consistency, and showing up in ways that go beyond being the foreigner at the bar.
Most expat men experience something that feels like an upgrade at first. But that status is based on what you are, not who you are. The ones who do best find something to build here.
Loneliness is real and underreported. A lot of expats here are lonely. The ones who do best build community intentionally.
The guide covers all of this — plus visas, healthcare, and the practical details of setting up your life.
Everything above is a preview. The full guide goes deeper on all six topics with specific numbers, locations, visa details, healthcare recommendations, and the daily life realities that take most people a year to figure out on their own.
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About the Author
I moved to the Philippines in January 2020. Since then I've started multiple businesses, built teams across offices in Cebu and Davao, and created Bridgehouse — a weekly community dinner where 40 to 70 expats show up every week.
This guide isn't based on a vacation or a YouTube research binge. It's based on years of actually living here, making mistakes, building things, and helping other expats figure out the same decisions I had to figure out.
20 pages. Six chapters. The starting point most expats wish they had before they moved.
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Also Free
The companion guide covering airports, SIM cards, money, transportation, daily logistics, the unwritten cultural rules, and basic Tagalog.
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