My Journey
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The Condo I Never Planned to Retire In
Why I chose Quezon City over BGC—and how an unexpected purchase became part of my retirement plan. Every time someone finds out I own a condo in the Philippines, they usually ask me the same question. “Why didn’t you buy in BGC?” The answer is actually pretty simple. I couldn’t afford it. Back in 2016,…
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Dual Citizenship vs. Retirement Visas: The Two Paths to Living Abroad
Most of us dream about retiring abroad. But before you start researching countries, you need to know which path is actually available to you. In my previous article, How I Obtained My Philippine Dual Citizenship, I shared how I was able to obtain a Philippine passport because I was born to a Filipino parent. While I…
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Why I Chose the Philippines: The Trip, The Citizenship, and the Decision That Took Longer Than I Thought
Dual citizenship didn’t change my retirement plan. It just sat there quietly until I was ready to use it. In 2023, I took a trip to the Philippines that I didn’t think much of at the time. I remember thinking, somewhere in the back of my head, “I wouldn’t mind living here.” Not as a…
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Turns Out I’m Not Behind on Retirement After All
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ A Fidelity simulation scared me. But when I looked at the full picture, the story changed completely. What You’ll Learn In my last post I talked about the emotional side of feeling behind — the comparison trap, the Bay Area tech workers, the social media envy, the Korea work culture I carried with me…
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Why Turning 39 Changed Everything (For My Retirement)
I sat down at 39 and asked a question that scared me. Here’s what I found on the other side of it. What You’ll Learn Let me tell you about the question that sent me into a bit of a spiral. I had just turned 39. Nothing dramatic happened that day — no big event,…