Todd is a director level professional from Washington State.

Good career. Good income. $10,000 a month in expenses covering his mortgage, vehicles, insurance, utilities, cell phone, and the long list of bills that accumulate when you are a successful American living a successful American life.

He was also going through a divorce. Selling a house. Processing the end of a chapter and trying to figure out what the next one looked like.

He called us three weeks before he got on the plane.

Three weeks later he was standing on the 39th floor of a BGC penthouse looking out at an unobstructed view of the entire city, watching his phone calculate how much he was about to save every single month for the rest of his life.

Watch Todd's full story here

Todd was spending $10,000 a month in Washington. He was direct about what that actually bought him.

Electricity. Mortgage. Vehicles. Insurance. Cell phone. The standard American overhead that most people just accept as the price of having a life.

His BGC penthouse on the 39th floor costs $1,900 a month.

The equivalent in Seattle — a penthouse with unobstructed city views — would run between $7,500 and $10,000 a month. Todd has been there. He knows exactly what that market looks like.

He is paying $1,900.

His total cost of living reduction compared to Washington State — 75 percent. He did that math himself on the scouting trip sitting across from me. He said he could not quantify what it would do for his mental health to know that number. That he had not experienced it yet so he could not fully describe it.

But he was smiling when he said it.

Our team viewed nine properties in a single day for Todd.

His two favorites fell through. Most people would be discouraged. Todd took it in stride. A friend had told him everything happens for a reason and he held onto that.

Then our team found the last unit of the day.

39th floor. BGC. Unobstructed skyline view in every direction. 20-foot ceilings in the master bedroom. The kind of space that makes you stop talking mid-sentence when you walk in because the view does the talking for you.

Todd had not even seen it in person yet when he made the decision.

He said let's sign the papers. Let's do it now before it disappears.

He told me that when people found out the monthly cost they were going to be very surprised. He was right. Because $1,900 a month for a penthouse on the 39th floor of BGC with views stretching across the entire city is not a number most Americans think is possible until they see it with their own eyes.

Todd is a disabled veteran. He has been carrying the weight of a demanding career, a major life transition, and a body that needs attention for longer than he wants to admit.

He wants a year. One year to slow down, work on his health, figure out what he needs, and make decisions from a place of clarity rather than pressure.

In Washington that is not possible. There is no program, no structure, no permission slip for a successful professional to take a year and focus on himself. The system is not set up for that. The bills keep coming. The expectations keep coming. The pace keeps coming.

BGC removes all of that.

A gym in the building. A pool downstairs. A city you can walk around at 2am feeling safer than you would in Seattle at 7pm — Todd said that specifically and he was not exaggerating. Security guards are posted at every entrance and on every major street. The infrastructure of safety here is unlike anything he had experienced in any American city.

He also mentioned golf. We are setting that up for him.

At $1,900 a month for the penthouse and a total cost of living 75 percent lower than Washington he also has the financial breathing room to focus on what actually matters during that year. His health. His peace of mind. The version of himself that the last decade of work and stress had not left much room for.

Todd is a director. He has managed people, processes, and complex operations for years. He knows what good service looks like and he knows what it is not.

His words about working with us were the most direct of any client we have featured on this newsletter.

There is no company in the States I can think of that has reached the level of service you guys have provided me. That is straight up no BS.

He said the biggest thing the service gave him was not the penthouse or the SRRV visa or the airport pickup. It was that he got to be excited instead of stressed. He got to show up to the Philippines and experience it rather than spend every day solving a logistical puzzle that had nothing to do with the life he came here to build.

Nine viewings in one day. Visa documentation. Insurance. Banking. Lease negotiations. Every piece of that process has a way of going wrong if you do not know what you are doing. Todd did not want to find out the hard way.

He said knowing the team had it covered made the whole thing feel exciting rather than stressful. He was not worried about getting scammed or overcharged or finding cockroaches where the photos showed a pristine unit.

He was just looking forward to what came next.

Click here to start your move to the Philippines the right way.

Travel Well,
Evan Lorezca
The Savvy Expat