Quote: (04-13-2019 02:28 AM)66Scorpio Wrote:
Quote: (04-12-2019 05:39 PM)JayJuanGee Wrote:
Quote: (04-12-2019 04:53 PM)66Scorpio Wrote:
I am a Canadian expat living in China. My wife is a Filipina who I met here through online dating. So far we have visited PH once, and I was not impressed. In general, China is a far better envrions. However, I am looking at the long game. The thing about PH, especially if you have a spouse, is that you can build your castle. If you get away from Manila then land and labour are dirt cheap. My wife is very industrious and is building a house.But I want to build my castle.
I thought that a rule of thumb is that you do not want to build up too much more luxurious than the surrounding real estate, otherwise you become a target....
Within reason, I suppose you could build a bit more luxurious than surrounding properties, but always need to consider if you might be causing yourself to become more of a target than you would otherwise wish to be.
It depends on what you mean by "target". My wife is totally pissing off the locals with her house because of its upscale style. My plan, such as it is, is to build an executive retreat. That might indeed draw more ire, but WTF? I need to make a living.
Looks like you are already going down the wrong path, and now out of stubborness, you want to double down. That sounds smart.
Ultimately, you do what you want, but it sounds as if you are already building up to a text book scenario in which you are fighting the wave of the community, and discounting their power or importance. And, yeah, you may be correct that they are a bunch of petty and nosey people, and maybe it will even take them a few years to snuff the two of you out.
If you want to live in drama, that is your right, and maybe you will get lucky and win several of the battles. I prefer a kind of security through obscurity myself, and sure, maybe flaunting once in a while, but not flaunting on an ongoing and in-your-face basis.
Don't get me wrong, I have had a lot of battles in my life, and sometimes, I battled way beyond my own good. I understand that once a guy is in the battle, then sometimes it is difficult to modify his already decided direction, even when it is for his own good... still sometimes graceful exit options should be taken into account.