[ GALAXY ARBITRAGE WEEKLY ]
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Earning in USD · Living in ₱
Building from Cebu 🇺🇸🇵🇭
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Hey,
I've left the Philippines twice.
First time I told myself the timing wasn't right. Second time I told myself I'd come back when things were more stable. The timing was never right. Things were never stable. It was just easier to leave than to figure out the hard thing.
This is my third time here.
I'm not leaving.
Not because I can't. Because I already know what going home costs — and it's not just the plane ticket.
This issue isn't about the math. It's about what the math doesn't tell you.
◆ // THE PLAY
The Poverty Trap Nobody Talks About
When you first get here you feel it immediately.
Dollar goes 56x in peso. Your $800 feels like $3,200. Four bedrooms. Two bathrooms. Brand new motorbike. Philippine number and US number both active my total phone bill under $30. I dropped the T-Mobile plan that was running me $120-$180 a month. That alone paid for groceries.
On paper you're winning.
But here's the trap nobody warned me about.
The poverty around you is real. And it's contagious, not in the way you think. It doesn't make you poor. It makes you slow.
You start moving at the pace of people who have nowhere to be. You start thinking in pesos when you should be thinking in dollars. You stop operating like a builder and start operating like someone just trying to get through the week.
I watched it happen to other guys here. I felt it starting to happen to me.
The Philippines is the cheapest island life launchpad on earth for building an international income. But if you let the noise get to you, the distractions, the relatives who think your dollar is their dollar, the social pressure to slow down you will not be able to afford to go home even if you wanted to.
I had to get ruthless about staying focused in a place designed to distract you.
That ruthlessness is the real arbitrage skill. Not the math. The discipline to keep operating at dollar speed in a peso environment.
◆ // THE NUMBER
56x
That's how far the dollar stretches against the peso right now.
But here's what that number actually means in real life:
In America I was stressing about money and watching my daughter grow up through a phone screen. Sending money back. Missing everything. Comforting myself with whatever made the distance feel smaller for a few hours.
Here I'm stressing about the same money problems — and my daughter is running across the room and I'm the one chasing her.
Same stress. Completely different life.
That's the real number. Not 56x. The fact that I'm in the same room as her.
No arbitrage calculator captures that.
◆ // THE TOOL
The thing I didn't expect, my body changed without trying.
I didn't come here to get healthy. I came here stressed and trying to figure out how to build something before I ran out of runway.
But my wife cooks kimchi, chicken, and vegetables. There's no Buffalo Wild Wings, no Cane’s Chicken, or Five Guys in Cebu. The meat isn't hormone-injected. The fruit actually tastes like fruit and has lots of nutrients. I'm hauling water every few days. Riding the motorbike for groceries. Chasing my daughter around the house.
I wasn't trying to lose weight. I just lost it.
The environment changed so the behavior changed automatically. No willpower required. No gym membership. No meal plan. The inputs were different so the outputs were different.
That's geographic arbitrage applied to your own body. Same principle. Different variable.
In America I was fighting my environment every single day just to stay even, going on 2 mile walks daily. Here the environment is doing the work for me even though there aren’t many sidewalks to go on walks.
If you're thinking about making the move to the Philippines specifically — I put together everything I wish I had when I landed.
The Philippines Arbitrage Playbook covers:
→ Banking setup that actually works for Americans here
→ Which neighborhoods in Cebu and Manila are worth it (and which ones aren't)
→ Visa options broken down simply tourist, SRRV, digital nomad
→ Real cost breakdowns rent, food, transport, healthcare, school
→ The 47 pitfalls that almost broke me in year one
It's free. I built it because I wish someone had handed me this before I landed here with no plan.
If you want the full system after that every tool, every template, the whole build that's the Expat Arbitrage Starter Kit, and it's $47. I only sell kits for places I've actually lived. I live here. I'm still here. This one I can stand behind completely.
If you're not ready for either that's fine. Keep reading every Tuesday. The free content never stops.
// TOGETHER WITH SAFETYWING
One thing I actually pay for without thinking twice is health insurance.
I'm healthier here than I've been in years. But I'm not stupid about it. Medical care in the Philippines is cheap. An ER visit won't bankrupt you. But if something serious happens and you need real care or need to get home you need coverage.
SafetyWing's Nomad Insurance covers you in 185+ countries starting around $56/month depending on your age. I pay less for international health coverage than I used to pay for my phone bill in America.
If you're living abroad without coverage right now fix that before you fix anything else.
→ Get covered with SafetyWing Insurance
(affiliate link — I use this, I believe in it)
◆ // THE MOVE
One honest question this week.
What's the real thing keeping you from making the move?
Not the visa. Not the money. Not the job situation. Those are solvable problems and you know it.
The real thing.
Reply and tell me. I read every one. No judgment I stayed away from my own daughter for four years because I kept waiting for the right moment too.
The right moment doesn't come. You make the moment right.
→ Hit reply and tell me what's actually holding you back.
◆ // FROM THE COMMUNITY
Last issue I asked you a question.
Four options. You can never leave whichever you pick.
🇺🇸 USA — $4,000/month
🇵🇭 Southeast Asia — $2,500/month
🇵🇹 Portugal — $3,000/month
🇵🇦 Panama — $2,800/month
The math says Panama wins. Dollar economy. Same timezone as the US. Lowest cost of the four. No currency risk.
But I'm not in Panama.
I'm in the Philippines because my daughter is here.
Sometimes the best financial decision and the best life decision aren't the same thing. The people who actually stay long term aren't always the ones who ran the best numbers. They're the ones who found a reason bigger than the numbers.
That's the variable the calculator can't measure.
Issue 4 is about the financial systems that make staying sustainable. Not the dream version. The real version how to structure your income so you're never one bad month away from booking a flight home.
Don't miss it.
— Galaxy (Tony Long II) 🇺🇸🇵🇭
Building from Cebu. My daughter is asleep in the next room. This is why.
P.S. — Galaxy Arbitrage Weekly is free. Always will be. If someone forwarded this to you → newsletter.galaxyarbitrage.com/subscribe
P.P.S. — If you're seriously considering the Philippines move, grab my free Philippines Arbitrage Playbook here → Link (it'll auto-download and take you straight to the Expat Arbitrage Starter Kit if you want the full system after)