My Rent Was $2,400 in America. In the Philippines, I Found a House for $350

At 67, retirement wasn't going the way I expected. My apartment in America had reached $2,400 a month—more than the roughly $2,200 I had coming in each month from retirement. Rent, groceries, insurance, transportation and everyday expenses meant I was slowly pulling more and more money from my savings. That's when I started looking outside the United States. Eventually, I found myself in the Philippines, renting a simple house for around $350 a month. But living in a $350 house wasn't the same as living in my old American apartment. There were brownouts, roosters, heat, insects, a basic kitchen and plenty of things I had to get used to. For a while, I wondered whether I had gone too far trying to save money. Then I almost made the opposite mistake. In this story, I share how I went from a $2,400 apartment in America to a much simpler life in the Philippines, what my retirement budget actually looked like, and why I eventually realized that retirement wasn't about finding the cheapest possible place to live. It was about finding a life I could actually afford to keep living. If you're thinking about retirement, moving abroad, or living in the Philippines, I hope my experience gives you something to think about. Subscribe to PH Life Unfiltered for more first-person stories about retirement, relationships, money and starting over in the Philippines. #Philippines #Retirement #RetireInThePhilippines Chapters 00:00 My $2,400 apartment 05:27 Looking for a house in the Philippines 10:15 My first full month 14:07 I started wanting something nicer 19:04 Finding the middle ground 21:01 Should I buy a car? 25:33 What about going back to America? 31:33 Cheap rent isn't everything 33:19 Did the Philippines make me rich? 37:17 I was paying for comfort with stress