erynaught

I travel to Manila a couple of times a year and my US-based flight usually gets in very late. The Marriott Hotel is very close - there is a free shuttle at the top of the hour every hour; otherwise the taxi is about 10minutes and approximately 250pesos. The US Embassy is just under 5 miles from the hotel too, so all very convenient and very comfortable.

Detained by a law enforcement officer? Seriously?

Many years ago I was coming home from college and was pulled over by a cop pulling his gun yelling at me to get out of the car with my hands in the air and lay prostrate in the freakin' highway ... took him about 5m to figure out I wasn't the guy they were looking for, but my car had matched the description of the suspect of an armed convenience store robbery. While I've had some great bar stories out of that incident, I don't think I'd like to put down "detained by police for suspected armed robbery" on any sort of official document. The officer let me go and I did ask him if this meant I had any kind of police record of the incident and he told me 'no, only a record of the radio chatter back and forth confirming my identity and tag number.'

Okay to borrow for a vehicle? Unless the loan rates are less than what I can earn in a cash investment, such as a 0% loan, then I'm never okay borrowing for a car.

However, it may be necessary considering the circumstances.

I'm a hugger and that is one of the things my wife told me attracted her - that I hug my daughter every day she is with me and tell her that I love her every single day. She tells me that she wished she had this affection when she was growing up. She has become quite the hugger and we have family groups hugs with the kids every night.

My wife's family has gotten used to me hugging them when I greet them and leave them - they just chalk it up to me being a crazy american. Funny though, with my wife right behind me they with shrug her off - I think it bothers her a bit.

I wouldn't put any reliance in a prenuptial agreement. They are not always recognized by Courts and there is little consistency throughout the US on how this is handled. Even IF you were to divorce in a Court where they typically upheld prenupts, it would be relatively trivial for a good attorney to persuade the Court that your foreign-born wife had little understand as to what she was signing at the time. I wouldn't even waste the time/money involved.

Rather, if you're concerned about assets you ALREADY have then take steps to keep them totally separate from assets you will co-mingle after marriage that will be considered marital assets in the event that a divorce comes your way. Pay a decent attorney to set up a trust for those assets you currently own and want to preserve for children from a previous marriage. If you have cash/investments, place them in a separate account. Be careful to never 'hide' this information from your new wife, but to be careful to never comingle or give access to her as this will then make these accounts marital property to which she may make a valid claim.

I was in a similar situation and created a blind trust for those assets which would eventually go my existing children ... and realized some favorable tax benefits as well which was unexpected. Also, college fund is set up to benefit current children and any future issue, but controlled and disbursed by the trustee (the bank) according to my wishes, with any remaining funds being given to my alma mater.

Hope this helps.

I have been flying Delta internationally 10-12 times per year for the past 8yrs and have NEVER had to present my credit card. I've purchased tickets for my mum and sister and they have NEVER had an issue either. At times I've also flown with KL/AF/CZ/KE with no issue. Every single time I have only been asked my Last Name and Passport for issuance of a boarding pass.

Also, consider flying into an Asian hub like Seoul, Hong Kong or Shanghai and then booking a flight from there to PI on cebupacific or zest air, if they offer the routes - these airlines often do not show up in the web-based airfare search engines, but if you piece together the different itineraries you can save good money.

I use the web-based search engines to gather info on the airlines schedules & fares, but usually book directly with the airline. The last time I went I booked the outbound with Korean/Cebu Pacific and the Inbound with China Southern/Cebu Pacific by purchasing one-way fares on KE and CZ because the timing of the flights and the layovers was important to me. KVS is a great service for searching schedules, fare buckets available, etc.