Opinions Please

[Cyclones]

Okay, as most know, I took a job in the Philippines in the summer of 2007. At the time, I signed a contract to remain in the PI for a minumum of 1 year. My year is up in July and I have the following options:

 

1) Stay here for an open ended term. I would not have to sign an additional minumum term.

 

2) Return to live in the US but keep the job with a hefty travel schedule (3 weeks in Manila, 4 weeks home, etc)

 

3) Decide to return home and start looking for a new job now, but don't go back until I have one locked up.

 

Obviously many things factor into the decision. My wife misses home and her friends more than I do, but I'd say as a whole we are fairly content here - she would be happier at home for sure. My company pays for my housing and my son's private schooling while here, so by going home I forfeit that and start paying for my own accomodations.

 

Other things to consider;

 

Taking a job at home will involve a 50 percent pay hit in all likelihood. Additionally, I'm in a stock plan at my current company and I get 3-5000 RSUs annually which vest a third at a time. I will continue to receive these whether I stay here or keep the job and travel.

 

Right now we have absolutely no idea which option to take.

 

I'd especially like to hear from anyone who has traveled extensively with a job for their experiences.

[Kid Cid]

Okay, as most know, I took a job in the Philippines in the summer of 2007. At the time, I signed a contract to remain in the PI for a minumum of 1 year. My year is up in July and I have the following options:

 

1) Stay here for an open ended term. I would not have to sign an additional minumum term.

 

2) Return to live in the US but keep the job with a hefty travel schedule (3 weeks in Manila, 4 weeks home, etc)

 

3) Decide to return home and start looking for a new job now, but don't go back until I have one locked up.

 

Obviously many things factor into the decision. My wife misses home and her friends more than I do, but I'd say as a whole we are fairly content here - she would be happier at home for sure. My company pays for my housing and my son's private schooling while here, so by going home I forfeit that and start paying for my own accomodations.

 

Other things to consider;

 

Taking a job at home will involve a 50 percent pay hit in all likelihood. Additionally, I'm in a stock plan at my current company and I get 3-5000 RSUs annually which vest a third at a time. I will continue to receive these whether I stay here or keep the job and travel.

 

Right now we have absolutely no idea which option to take.

 

I'd especially like to hear from anyone who has traveled extensively with a job for their experiences.

 

I was a consultant on the road evey week for a year and a half with only occasional breaks. Unless you REALLY enjoy your time in airports, existing in a surrealistic state because you're never in synch with the local time, and totally out of synch with your family, I would suggest not going the travel route. That gets real old, real fast.

 

ONe thing a wise man once told me is that you have to make hay while the sun shines. If you have an opportunity to make and more importantly SAVE, good money while in the Phillapines, then I think you should seriously consider the open ended option if your family is willing. Obviously, there a lot to go into this and your family's opinions should count for a lot, but I'd seriously consider staying.

[tonorator]

it's a tough call, but i agree with cid. the traveling is hell and just not worth it. sounds like your situation there is sweet and i would look to milk it for awhile longer if possible. of course, this is only possible if the full family is behind the decision and is OK to stay. kids mostly can adjust to where they are so i'm guessing the discussion with the wife is critical.

[KevinL]

The traveling would suck. If you decide to stay on the open-ended deal, I think your wife would appreciate it if you set a time limit. Whether that's another 1 year or 3 years or whatever.

[untateve]

my business partner lived in greece for about a year in 2004-2005 (long story). He would be in Greece for 3 weeks and would come back here to florida for a week. He kept this up for about 10 months. He thought it would be wonderful. He hated it. He was always tired. Real tired. He missed his family. His daughter (around 4-5 during this time) got to the point where she would go into hysterics when he would leave. As Kid said, he was never in synch anywhere. That's one man's experience.

[wiegie]

I think the main thing that matters here now is what your wife thinks. If she is not happy, then the extra money isn't worth it. However, it's not obviously clear that she would be a lot happier back in the US with you having to be away all of the time or having to get a new (and potentially not as good) job.

 

It's nice that you have the open-ended option so that she always knows that you guys can go back home whenever you want. Would using some of your additional pay to let her fly back to visit the US on a regular basis be enough to make her not quite miss her friends and family so much? (Alternatively or additionally, could some of your extra pay be used to pay for the flights for some of her relative and/or friends to come visit you guys?)

 

Just my two cents. (We are coming back home to the US from Germany in mid-June and we don't have the option of staying and I'm already starting to think that I will miss it here. (One difference though is that my wife's family lives near us here and when we go back to the US we won't be living near any of my family or any of our really long-term friends--so there isn't as much pulling back towards our US home as there seems to be for you guys.)

[fingfootball]

Man, the flight from the Midwest to PI is what 16 or 18 hours, not including waiting on connecting flights. That flight was killing me when I was in Guam.

[yo mama]

I agree with Kid Cid. Stay if you can stack up some meaningful coin for your family, and they're on board with the idea of sacrificing a few years in exchange for what you'll be building for them. But if you're just going to end up spending the difference while you're over there you might as well just move back. The communting idea is horrible if you have a wife and kids. I have a client that does that to PI, and he likes it; but he's a widower and his kids are grown.

Edited February 29, 2008 by yo mama

[Azazello1313]

travelling halfway around the world every few weeks would be brutal. i'd toss that one. as far as staying or going, only you and your wife can answer that one. i'm sure you both understand the costs and benefits, it's just a question of how you weigh them. if it were me, i'd probably think hey, i went through everything to move out here, now i'm gonna head back a year later and leave all that dough on the table? pretty sure i'd be inclined to stick it out a couple more years at least if my family could be persuaded it was the best thing to do.

[rajncajn]

Lump me in with the Kid Cid Party. As long as your wife is ok with it then milk it while it lasts. The home & friends will still be there when the cow runs dry.

[Yukon Cornelius]

once you go south of the equator you can not come back

Edited February 29, 2008 by Yukon Cornelius

[Jimmy Neutron]

I agree with what others have said. Keep the gig you have now and send the Mrs. home for frequent visits.

[yo mama]

once you go south of the equator you can not come back

There may be 12 million or so undocumented folks here in the US that aren't abiding by that particular law of physics.

[Cyclones]

That's funny, last time I checked Manila was about 1000 miles north of the equator.

[Ursa Majoris]

Lump me in with the Kid Cid Party. As long as your wife is ok with it then milk it while it lasts. The home & friends will still be there when the cow runs dry.

Yep, I'm voting with Kid Cid too.

 

There may be 12 million or so undocumented folks here in the US that aren't abiding by that particular law of physics.

Um.....Mexico is north of the Equator. A long way north.

[yo mama]

Yep, I'm voting with Kid Cid too.

Um.....Mexico is north of the Equator. A long way north.

Wait: the guys in the Home Depot parking lot aren't from southern Chile? Did I mention that I sucked at today's geography quiz?

Edited March 1, 2008 by yo mama

[isleseeya]

america ..come back home , get a job that hopefully will not pay too much less and maybe not less at all , and try stay away from all that travelling

 

thats my two cents ...quite different than most huddlers opinions in this thread but i believe at being home , in your own back yard and spending as much time with the family as possible , if possible

Edited March 1, 2008 by isleseeya

[polksalet]

Speaking of Dave Ramsey, I would stay in the PI for a few more years and live like a pauper while banking as much as possible. You could always send the wife back to the US a couple of times of year but that could seriously eat into your profit margin. After all I do not know if you are making 150k or 850k. Anyhow, if it doesn't eat into your funding very much you could send her back from time to time.

 

I used to travel extensively doing fiber optic network construction but TN, West Texas, and Denver are a lot closer together than the flippin Phillipines. I dunno, if you guys are content and getting rich I would say stay for as long as you can.

[Cyclones]

Speaking of Dave Ramsey, I would stay in the PI for a few more years and live like a pauper while banking as much as possible. You could always send the wife back to the US a couple of times of year but that could seriously eat into your profit margin. After all I do not know if you are making 150k or 850k. Anyhow, if it doesn't eat into your funding very much you could send her back from time to time.

 

I used to travel extensively doing fiber optic network construction but TN, West Texas, and Denver are a lot closer together than the flippin Phillipines. I dunno, if you guys are content and getting rich I would say stay for as long as you can.

 

Living like a pauper isnt really an option in Makati City, everything here is as expensive as in any big US City.

 

When I originally posed the question about whether or not I should move over here, I got a mixed response from the Huddle. I can say I'm glad we tried it out - we've managed to save a good load of cash so far and I get about 34k worth of stock on July 30th (at today's stock price) so that will just go in the stack. One other thing I neglected to mention is that my son has asthma and the air quality here is..well...bad. He has fairly regular episodes that require nebulization and always seems to have some wheezing/coughing/hacking going on. I have to be concerned with his health as well.

 

Seems that we have a pretty unanimous response base here, or at least close. We'll make a decision in the next few weeks and I'll let you guys know - thanks alot for the feedback.

[polksalet]

Living like a pauper isnt really an option in Makati City, everything here is as expensive as in any big US City.

 

When I originally posed the question about whether or not I should move over here, I got a mixed response from the Huddle. I can say I'm glad we tried it out - we've managed to save a good load of cash so far and I get about 34k worth of stock on July 30th (at today's stock price) so that will just go in the stack. One other thing I neglected to mention is that my son has asthma and the air quality here is..well...bad. He has fairly regular episodes that require nebulization and always seems to have some wheezing/coughing/hacking going on. I have to be concerned with his health as well.

 

Seems that we have a pretty unanimous response base here, or at least close. We'll make a decision in the next few weeks and I'll let you guys know - thanks alot for the feedback.

 

K, with the air quality/asthma issue it pushes strongly the other way for me. To me there is NOTHING in this world more important than the health of my children. If the place is making him sick I say move now.

[KevinL]

K, with the air quality/asthma issue it pushes strongly the other way for me. To me there is NOTHING in this world more important than the health of my children. If the place is making him sick I say move now.

 

Good answer!

[rajncajn]

K, with the air quality/asthma issue it pushes strongly the other way for me. To me there is NOTHING in this world more important than the health of my children. If the place is making him sick I say move now.

Yep, same here. Nothing is worth affecting your kids health over. If living there causes him breathing problems and there is nothing otherwise that you can do about it then it's probably a good idea to move.

[Cyclones]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. We've decided to head home in the summer, and I was able to negotiate my boss down to 4 four week trips a year to Manila, one per quarter. I think that will be easier to handle than running back and forth every few weeks.

[wiegie]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. We've decided to head home in the summer, and I was able to negotiate my boss down to 4 four week trips a year to Manila, one per quarter. I think that will be easier to handle than running back and forth every few weeks.

That sounds like a very reasonable outcome. Congrats!

[keggerz]

I was a consultant on the road evey week for a year and a half with only occasional breaks. Unless you REALLY enjoy your time in airports, existing in a surrealistic state because you're never in synch with the local time, and totally out of synch with your family, I would suggest not going the travel route. That gets real old, real fast.

 

ONe thing a wise man once told me is that you have to make hay while the sun shines. If you have an opportunity to make and more importantly SAVE, good money while in the Phillapines, then I think you should seriously consider the open ended option if your family is willing. Obviously, there a lot to go into this and your family's opinions should count for a lot, but I'd seriously consider staying.

Cid was right on about the traveling deal...many think its glamorous to travel the country/world(evidently they never had to travel extensively for work).

 

K, with the air quality/asthma issue it pushes strongly the other way for me. To me there is NOTHING in this world more important than the health of my children. If the place is making him sick I say move now.

not sure where you will call home in the US but there are MANY parts of the US that are horrible for asthma sufferers too(speaking from personal experience...lived in NJ, PA, CAR, VA)

 

Thanks for the feedback everyone. We've decided to head home in the summer, and I was able to negotiate my boss down to 4 four week trips a year to Manila, one per quarter. I think that will be easier to handle than running back and forth every few weeks.

1 week every 3 months is a much better scenario then you first described...congrats and good luck