SEMI-RETIREMENT IN 2017?

HAPPY NEW YEAR and HAPPY NEW STATUS!!! After working since 1980 as a behavior specialist, behavior analyst, behavioral health worker, substance abuse technician, mental health worker, caregiver, and now a relief intake coordinator/behavioral health worker, I have decided to cut down on my work hours and try my hand at semi-retirement. Prior to that, I was a physical fitness instructor in the Philippines for 2 years. If anyone is counting, that would be 38 years of working full time except for a brief 6 month stint of being unemployed after being laid off in 2013.

Why just semi-retirement and not full retirement? Well, there's this thing called medical, dental, and vision insurance that I still need from something called a job, and I am reducing my work hours to the most minimum required to still obtain the insurance benefits, although I have to pay more for them. By the way, if it at all matters, I'm 59 and a half years old and 5 and a half years away from qualifying for Medicare.

Since November 2016, I had been considering cutting back on my work hours. Our full time schedule calls for three 12 hour shifts a week, and in the past 5 months, I particularly, had been assigned to work 2 nights a week on the psych units as a behavioral health worker with the patients, and 1 night a week as a relief intake coordinator in an office (which pays slightly more). I had been waiting to see how much of a pay increase I would get which I found out at the end of November. It was decent enough so I started calculating my monthly expenses against my possible income based on the lesser working hours, taking into account the taxes which would be taken out automatically from my paycheck. Based on this, I figured I might be able to survive with still a little leeway for unforeseen expenses, without dipping into my retirement nest egg.

Finally, a month ago, I emailed my Nurse Manager with a request to change my status from full time to part time, effective New Year's Day 2017. My last shift working full time was New Year's Eve.

I haven't figured out what to do with my free time between nights off yet and that's something I'll have to ponder. I've been having insomnia lately so maybe I'll be able to maintain better sleep patterns. Whatever happens in semi-retirement, it's going to be a new journey.

New Year's Eve at work

Second Thoughts About Retiring in the Philippines

A few years ago, with hopes of retiring early, I started to explore the possibilities of doing so in the Philippines due to the lower cost of living in that country. There were townhomes with two bedrooms in good areas that were selling for as little as $15,000, with three bedrooms costing not too much more. Fast forward about five years later and those same townhomes are now selling at more than double the original prices.

One of the places I considered was Zamboanga City to be close to my mother, however she has passed away since. I also wanted to live there to have closer access to SATTI, hahaha! I still have plenty of relatives and friends in that city but there are problems with electricity and an ongoing turmoil with certain groups trying to take over the area.

Another place I checked out was Cagayan de Oro city, but I hardly know anyone there other than a cousin and an elementary school classmate who said that area was much more peaceful than Zamboanga. Other property values I’ve looked into were in Davao and Cebu.

Currently, a main consideration is to live close to my brother in Quezon City since he is my only immediate family left. Checking properties for sale near his location showed prices ranging from 1.4 million Philippine pesos for a tiny bachelor’s pad condominium all the way to 3 million to combine 2 bachelor’s pads into one, or a one bedroom place. There’s no way I could afford those prices if I wanted to pay for the whole amount all at once. I just paid off my mortgage in the U.S. and I’m not ready to start another one in another country. The only way I could afford to buy a decent home in the Philippines is if I sell my condo here in the U.S., then move to the Philippines. Mentally and financially, I’m not ready to do that. By the way, I am qualified to buy property in the Philippines because I have dual citizenship.

It has often been suggested that before packing everything up and moving, one should try living in the area you want to move to for a couple of months or more to see if you would like it. It would not be possible for me to be off work for a couple of months but it may be possible to visit a week or two every couple of years. In fact instead of retiring in the Philippines as a backup plan, staying where I am now will be the backup plan since my mortgage is already paid off. That takes early retirement off the table though since I won’t qualify for Medicare until I’m 65 (I’m currently 58). If medical insurance was not a consideration, I would be able to retire when I’m 60 and use my retirement plans until I need to collect from Social Security. Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California) could be a possibility except when I die, California has to be reimbursed for whatever expenses they used on me from my assets, before any heirs get to collect their share.

There remain other options or sacrifices if I still want to retire in the Philippines, and that is to buy a home in the suburbs, if you can call it that. Two to three bedroom townhomes in Bulacan and some parts of Cavite remain affordable but they are much farther away from my relatives in the Metro Manila area. However, I may have to buy it now or else they may no longer be affordable in a couple of years.

Another consideration with moving is having to buy a vehicle and getting a driver’s license. It would also be a major adjustment in learning how to drive in the Philippines which I hear has a lot more traffic jams nowadays and driving techniques are way more different than what I’m used to in California.

Let’s also not forget that if I buy a home there, there are start up costs of new furniture, appliances, and utilities.

As far as health insurance, since I’m a dual citizen, I will be able to avail of Philhealth, the universal health insurance of the country, although I will have to pay a certain amount up front to catch up since I have never contributed to the system.

Yet another possibility would be to rent out my condo if I decide to move to the Philippines, become a remote landlord, and use the money to pay for the new mortgage, but that would entail hiring a property management company to maintain the condo, which would decrease my proceeds.

It is due to the recent economic successes in the Philippines that property values and the cost of living have spiked, even though the poorer Filipinos have not seemed to have fared better due to this.

And then there's the politics of the country…

Oh my goodness, how can I neglect to say that one of the most positive things I can say about possibly retiring in the Philippines is the hospitality of the people. 

Ruminations While Being Unemployed

As our final paycheck day approaches at a rather glacier-like pace, what has occurred in the past three weeks of mostly sitting around?

Is it a good idea to go to employers' place of business when you can fill out applications online at home? Most employers direct you to their computers to fill them out anyway. There are some positions that are not posted online though, and employees usually hear about them first or are posted in human resources offices.

Herein is the power and convenience of the internet - questions like: do I qualify for unemployment insurance, how much will I expect to receive?, is it taxable income?, how many weeks can I collect?, etc. These may be questions that you might forget to ask the human resources department when they issue your last paycheck. These things pop up in my mind at random times of the day.

After a call from a coworker asking about severance pay, I told him I don't remember seeing it in the personnel handbook which was last revised in 2009. So after his call, I dug out the Human Resources handbook from my filing cabinet and I was surprised that there was a section about severance pay, although it wasn't fully explained but rather just referred to an obscure line mentioning a policy and procedure number. So off to the portal I go (and I'm glad this is still accessible). The search function didn't reveal anything but with further exploration, I found the policy and procedure manual with the aforementioned obscure number. Basically what it says is that the company does indeed a policy for severance pay but it's up to them to decide whether to pay it or not. The policy doesn't even have a calculator which shows how many weeks of severance pay to be given based on how many years of service to the company.

Here's an idea: since it's been chaotic at our former workplace and if we really want to help our former PHLB co-workers, we can sign up with the registry College Hospital uses and tell them we are available to work at College Medical Center. Provided of course we are not in their do-not-return list.

My excuse used to be I didn't have time to go places because I was working a lot. Now that I have the time to go places, my excuse is that I don't have the money to do so.

Time to compile my duties and responsibilities as a Behavioral Health Worker by copying and pasting from my blog and adding it to my resume.

Also time to consolidate bank accounts to lower the monthly balance requirements so I can avoid monthly maintenance fees. That's because I'm losing direct deposit of paychecks which the bank requires in waiving the monthly maintenance fee. Better still if I move my account to a credit union since their balance requirements are much lower.

Should I sign up for the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare so I can have health insurance next year? I've blogged about this earlier this year: An Obamacare Loophole For Early Retirees?

And lastly, should I pay off my mortgage with whatever savings I have left to decrease my monthly overhead drastically? How many months will the leftovers last? I won't know till I receive my final paycheck. Unemployment is so darn inconvenient! Let's just call it forced retirement without money to spend.

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Virgin Mobile, Dentist Visit, & Christmas Clothes

Would you believe that Virgin Mobile gave me the shaft again several weeks ago? When I tried to add some load or minutes through their website before Christmas, it wouldn’t go through. I called customer service and the woman tried to do it from their side but their system wouldn’t do it either. I suspected that it might be a credit card issue because as I mentioned in November, I had to withhold payment for something I was billed that I didn’t order intentionally (insert link here). In turn, Virgin Mobile blocked future payments using that credit card. When I gave customer service a different credit card, their system finally allowed me to buy more minutes. I hope that will be the last of my problems with that company.

A couple of days before Christmas, I had to go to the dentist for a drill and a fill of the grille. No, I don’t have teeth jewelry like some rappers have been displaying in their mouths lately. My dentist just had some end of the year fillings they had to complete before my insurance renews in the New Year. The following week I had to go back for an emergency check up. My lower right side gums were hurting so much that I had difficulty chewing and eating. It seems like I irritated the gum while flossing. The dentist prescribed antibiotics as a precaution. You would think that since it was difficult to chew, I would have lost some weight, but I didn’t. In fact I gained a little because of the lack of chewing ability. Chewing releases digestive enzymes that break down food better for digestion. My theory is that I didn’t digest well and stored the calories instead. Well, that’s just really a guess.

Other than a few exercise gear, I don’t really shop for clothes anymore. Know why? Because my relatives keep me current in fashion and style. My new clothing needs get taken cared of during Christmas. I show my appreciation to them by wearing those clothes during our family gatherings. That way they know that I like what they’ve given me and that the items were not regifted.

                And a final thought that occurred to me after talking to my mom during the holidays. What if I decide to retire in the Philippines but when I get off the plane the sudden blast of hot air hits me. Will I think I made a mistake?

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