Author: Reekay V.
Since 2012 I’ve been traveling through various islands of the Philippines as a full-time Expat and spent 1999 living in Vietnam.
Share with me my ongoing adventures of life in the Philippines. Hopefully you find my observations helpful in your own adventures.
— Reekay
Too sad for me to watch, child support will take half of his SSI when he is eligible. He can apply for SSD now, if he is unable to work and child support will be taken from that too.
That guy needs a reset button.
I saw the video. I hope it’s a wake up call for all the guys going over there. Too many guys are going over there and letting themselves get taken advantage of. And that screws it up for the rest of us because it encourages the scammers to proliferate. A fool and his money…
Rent, don’t buy, EVERYTHING. As a smart mom once advised her son: “Why buy the cow when they sell milk by the pint.”
With a woman like that, I would be questioning if I was the father. Bad enough none in the family wants him around. But, the saying is proven no money no honey. Sad but true. I hope he learned a lesson not to be so generous to people he doesn’t truly know. After watching the video, I personally believe he is to gullible to be living in the Philippines. A person who has such a desire to be loved by another person without looking after himself first will always end up in a situation like this. He needs to put himself first, and know he is enough. Hope he can learned a valuable lesson from this. A fool and his money depart quickly.
Hey Reekay, I’m willing to send money to help him and his daughters out, but I don’t trust this guy to spend the money responsibly. Do you think Paul or Baby Mae would take the responsibility to buy him groceries. I’ll send $100 a month to Paul for the next 17 months till his retirement kicks in. I have no idea how to reach Paul and the video has 1300 comments already, so I doubt he will see a comment like this. What do you think? Hate to see this guy and his kids go hungry.
I feel bad for this guy as well but Holy shit. I mean this guy has to get a grip. It’s unfortunate that he didn’t take advantage of all the information available on the internet regarding life as an expat. Hopefully he gets his shit together.
I watch that videos he made some mistakes but he has kids there it’s sad video.
Good nature man but he’s weak in areas that he should put his foot down so sorry for what he’s going through hope he gets help until he gets his social security
People forget that there is a social contract in most relationships that that involve a Filipina and expat. The expat is expected to provide, love, food, shelter, and clothing as a foundation. The Filipina will take care of her man, love him, show respect, and stay with him until he dies. They both broke the contract.
This is yet another example of the profound culture clash that exists between lonely western men and Asian women (and their extended families) who exploit their naive gullibility. So before you guys sell up, burn your bridges and go looking for your fantasy in the happy ever after, do your research and then do some more. The info and warnings are out there if you choose to listen and learn from them.
She may not be a bad person, just greedy.
Everyone thinking of moving to the Philippines (or any other country) should watch the interview with Paul and John and should also watch all of Reekay’s videos. Keep all of your dating low-investment. Don’t build people houses. Don’t buy people cars. And never go to the Philippines without a consistent retirement income. These are the rules Reekay has taught me.
As non pinoy you dont have rights just because you might think yoou hsve
99% of all expats no matter how intelligent they think they are made mistakes or misjudgements, including myself and all the youtube bloggers giving advise based on their own mistakes in a foreign country
Maybe if u too tempted then stay away from PI ESPECIALLY IF UR A SOFT TOUCH
This guy had no business coming to or staying in the Philippines, not saying the Filipino people are bad people but most of them will take advantage of a anybody that don’t have the common sense to say no. According to him his filipina won’t even let him touch her bc he’s broke, and they treat him like shit, I would get my ass back to America asap and leave them for good, he isent doing himself are his kids any goodbye staying there getting treated like that, Huskies will lose all respect for him eventually if he keeps putting up with it.go back to America, make some money, and come back and see your kids when your financially able, I wouldn’t give that family nothing else, as for the kids I would send enough to feed them only, but they probebly wouldn’t even get that this whole family sounds like a bunch of free loaders unappreciative mfrs, I’d leave them like I found them.
Hi Reekay, I just watched the video and here’s the comment I left for Paul; This is such a sad and heartbreaking story I don’t know where to start. But, first I want to say Paul did an excellent job Interviewing John. I went back and watched the first interview with John as well. I see a noticeable difference in John between his first and second interview. Not to be too critical, I don’t think john has ever been the sharpest tool in the box. However, since his stroke, I feel he’s taken a very noticeable decline. I can’t help but wonder if a lot of this mess has to do with his stroke. The stroke may have had a detrimental effect on his cognitive decision making ability. No man in his right mind (with such a limited budget) would have agreed to build a shack for his girl and her family on squatter’s land, and spent his last few dollars on some wacky animal transport truck for her brother. If John were in the US he could be evaluated and may qualify for some sort of assistance like SSI.
I saw this last night…He seems to be cogniscent of the mistakes he’s made, yet he’s shown no ‘remorse’ in terms of if given the chance all over again he’d more than likely repeat it (despite him saying that he wouldn’t i found i didn’t believe him) Paul (the interviewer) was asking him questions (in the kindest way possible) but the guy seemed on a different wavelength…he’s definitely a life lesson though, one that I took away was “Don’t move into the baranguay, she should live with you on your terms”
Do not goto the Philippines to live if you have no adequate pension to sustain you. My brother who is a Filipino whom migrated to the US for 40 years and decided to go back to the Philippines with his savings of $50K. His plan was to live if his saving and wait for his social security retirement check. He also fell in the same trap
I saw the video. It was difficult to watch at first I felt that John was a very nice guy and later I realized he was in denial and he did not want to accept the situation that he was in. He also did not want to do what it needed to get him out of this situation. I’ve always enjoyed your videos they were critical for when I went to the Philippines and if you actually follow your rules things can work out okay
I just retired last month and am now in Manila. I am still very frugal. Spending only what I really or must have needs. I work, think and do things better by myself with no partner. So far, I was able to reach my savings goal on target. I did not changed my habits from US to Philippines. It is the same old me, watching my spending, separating my wants from my needs, prioritizing my to do list at the same time comparing buying local goods or the imported goods (usually goods made outside the Philippines). Local goods are cheaper, though not as great but I can tolerate it… I HAVE TO, anyway, just to save money.
Thanks for giving some clarity to the recent Paul video. I sort of caught it most of the way through and didn’t know what was going on. So I am now in a better position to watch it from the start and have a better context of what was going on. All of what you said in your overview is totally correct. That first year, give yourself some time to get your feet wet and the lay of the land. There are scammers behind every trike and jeepney…..thanks again for giving some context of the video.
Guys must have mindset SE Asia’s mindset is vastly different than yur own country & family ties here are very strong….
Good video good advice
Thanks for the link. Good video but as you said he maked too many mistakes. 1 no long term commitments 2 no baby’s. Big mistake
Opposite of Nike. Just say NO
You can’t get scammed by someone in a 3rd world country PERIOD. You have to be grade A- SIMP!!!!!!!!!!!
He has not learned anything, I say the video and I can only shake my head, he is so blind and naive. If someone help him, don’t give him a big amount of money, they will be lost fast to his gf and family, the guy can’t say no. The help should be a small amount every week to food. It’s a sad situation he is in, but listen to him is crazy and he has not learned anything and will continue to be used. Hope he wakes up, but I’m not optimistic about that
As far as I’m concerned the teenager the 58 year old was “dating ” did nothing wrong. The guy was thinking with the little head the whole time and still is imo he got what he deserves.
The best thing that could be done for this guy is to buy him dinner once a week, if all this guy is currently eating is a bowl of rice a day. But he is clueless about money and budgets, so giving him money will just be a waste.
It’s so sad really…I hope he gets back on his feet.
This dude is clueless!!!
You know how they do rookies in NBA. They taken under the wing of veterans to train. same thing s for rookies that come here. they need a mentor.
How to survive?
Make good choices.
That’s all there is to it.
Avoid going broke? Don’t marry my wife!
His biggest mistake was not having other sources of income and moving to the Philippines on a too small of a safety nest and not separating that safety nest into assets outside of the Philippines. Sure he made dumb mistakes but I won’t judge him for that, many of us have made dumb mistakes like bad marriages in the USA. Now with no money he can’t even get back to the USA to regroup and look at it from a different perspective which is what he really needs to do, get out of the current situation.
The guy is in denial. He ignores the red flags of the toxic situation. I don’t think giving him any funds would be a sound decision. Best to get him back to the states where he could get help cause the Phillipines doesn’t provide any.
I’ve known multiple people that went broke here in America from American women. That’s what gets me is everyone saying well he should have known and bashing the Philippines or whatever American women get more in a separation than anybody on this planet probably and they can cheat they can do whatever they want and still get half of everything
This guy is in a very bad situation. I would only help him financially if he agreed to go back to the States. He’s only 60 years old. He can still find employment.
He needs to keep his money separate from her, or she will eat the rest of him.
The part of the video that almost made me swell up with tears is when John said when his partner found out she was pregnant, not ONE person in her family, herself included was happy about her having a set of twins. He was the only one happy about bringing precious life into this world; imagine being those twins and one day watching this on YouTube that your entire family except for your dad was unhappy about you being born. Also, the disdain her family has for him trying to get him deported (as if they can do that in the first place) after he built them a house and leaving the twin girls to be raised up without a father should he get deported. Just so unbelievable and I really feel for that man despite the mistakes he made, he doesn’t seem like a bad gentleman.
Haven’t watched Paul’s video yet but I would imagine plane ticket home?
Wow! I watched the entire video earlier. We all make mistakes, but to continually make them.over and over. Sure, we can help, but to what end? If we help financially he still has the ability to screw the funds up. Not sure how much help “Financially” that would do if he repeats the same behaviors. SMH! Good luck to this guy, because at nearly 60 yrs old he should know better.
The one thing I noticed the large lump on his back neck area looks like some kind of cancer .
Hello Ricky as I saw Paul’s video post I made the point to go to the link of his first video meeting this guy . I wanted too watch in sequence so heard the story from the beginning right away I saw the giddenous in his eyes and the way he talked . You knew it was a trainwreck from the start Paul knew from the start not going be a happy ending. Sad story but many more like his poor planning and gulable.
I wonder if he is up to date on his Visa? That could be another problem for this man.
Like my Dad always says, “I never learned a whole lot doing everything right the first time” 😉
I saw the video. It’s very sad. It also seems as if the woman he’s with doesn’t love him. She’s still on dating sites! Even if he survives until he can collect his retirement, it’s a toxic situation. He broke nearly every rule.
I watched this video earlier and it broke my heart. Im flying to the Philippines in exactly 33 days and im glad guys like you and Paul are taking the time to help rookies like myself to avoid pitfalls such as these.
LINKS:
Paul’s Interview Video… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lneBEwPIbtI
My Philippines Survival Rules video.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPTDiyoKT_c
Paul’s first interview with him… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M8fNkYK-lE&t=0s
My New Late Night Podcast Channel.. https://www.youtube.com/c/LATENIGHTWithReekay
My Free Crypto Daily Investor’s Group.. http://www.facebook.com/groups/cryptodaily.withreekay
My FB group for Expats abroad.. https://www.facebook.com/groups/expats.on.lockdown
View My Videos by Category here.. http://bit.ly/reekays-video-playlists
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Everything-Asia.. http://www.everything-asia.com
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