Its now well into year three of living in Cebu and looking back as an Expat in Cebu how things have changed pretty rapidly over the last few years. I remember first arriving here in Cebu when it was all shiny and new wanting to explore Cebu island as well as visit the rest of the Philippines. As time has gone on I find myself still working away at home in Minglanilla rather than getting out as much as I would like. What happened is things changed upon arrival thoughts of this and that suddenly changed to family and organising the nest egg to support us long-term. The positive side of that is we have managed to stay here and can continue to do so indefinitely and its not supported by an overseas pension. What has happened is a development of several business ventures that keep us afloat and steadily our options increase year on year. The only thing I can say though as an Expat in Cebu is if you can avoid doing business locally do it.. I wasted a lot of time on ventures that relied on locals who simply lack interest even though there is millions of pesos to be made on the businesses we looked at. All in all the most successful businesses are those managed hands on rather than having others involved. Commitment is lacking on many things and even some ventures I have “assisted” for free I found that many people expect to be carried through rather than pull their weight.
Now its not all locals that do it but when your committing large parts of your time to get things going to find they simply can’t be bothered or often just disappear reappearing months later as if nothings happened expecting things to take off where they left them. What does happen is you find the majority of people seem to do it, we do have many other people that are reliable and constructive on business but it takes a lot of wading through until you start hitting gold. But as a newly arrived Expat in Cebu you may think you can hit the ground running with XYZ all going your way and quickly find money gets drained as people start to let you down which is why I say at least temporary concentrate initially offshore and things you can do yourself.
Life as an Expat in Cebu can be good if you plan ahead and take the initial setup easy, many people go through the champagne Charlie stage when they first get here encouraged by a new girlfriend splashing out on things not needed and a bit of show for her family. Find your footings as the saying goes walk before you run and you will find life can be enjoyable here the word of warning is that the majority of people don’t make it here in the initial transition phase due to being burned financially by partners, businesses and so called friends. In reality keep your money tight and just have fun. Get familiar before you get spending.
Originally posted 2011-02-16 09:56:59. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
