(Photo from AFP)
Johnny Noe Ravalo continues his online bestseller last week on preparing for retirement in the Philippines. This made me wonder whether retirees are ready for rising medical and travel costs:
Food and utility bills will be the baseline but they will not figure prominently in the total cost scheme. What you need to be very realistic about is medical expenses. Maintenance medicine and periodic check ups are never cheap.
If diabetes runs in the family, for example, you will have to dish out over P5,000 in monthly medicines plus the annual check up which can run up to P10,000 if all the laboratory tests are included. That’s P70,000 per year — minimum — for an ailment that has no cure and has to be paid when you are no longer enjoying both a regular salary or your company’s medical plan. Complications also add to the expenses. Any hospitalization will set you back in the tens of thousands for as short as a day or two of confinement. You need to estimate a portion for monthly medical maintenance plus set aside a lump sum for the “just in case” part.
Some of MoneySmart’s regular readers are in their 30s but are already planning for their retirement. A lot of you are working and living abroad and are planning to come home for your golden years. It’s relatively easy to figure out the lifestyle part for me, personally, but medical cost is very much a puzzle. How do you know what medical problems you will have to prepare for, huh? (trying out a sultry, vampy voice) Can’t I just be young forevah?
Noet brings me back to earth. Okay, okay, the medical cost fund should be extra, extra fat. And since every Pinoy is a tireless “lakwatsera”, the travel fund should be, too. We’re all dreaming of visiting every beach in our 7,000 plus islands so we gotta raise the travel fund too what with the rising cost of oil and all. Sigh. There goes the upgrade to Macbook Air.
April 13th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
ria, don’t think of the cigarette…think of how much money is spent on cigarettes, and be amazed how much money you have “burned”
April 13th, 2008 at 9:14 am
hi femaad. thanks a lot for the checklist. sounds like i’ve got lots of work left to do healthwise.
April 12th, 2008 at 11:26 am
qwerty, i was kinda hoping to go back to school when the kids are not so high-maintenance anymore…
April 12th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Ria, you know what they say. Quitting is easy if you want to!
If you could do it with rice, how much more difficult would it be to stop drinking alcohol hehehe.
April 11th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
femaad, much appreciated. it changed the lens i put on cancer. i had previously declared that if i were diagnosed with it, i would choose NOT to get treatment and just die in peace. i realize i just have to live healthy and perhaps everything will be ok