After nearly a decade living in the Philippines, one expat says the cost of living in America has become impossible for him

After nine years living in the Philippines, YouTuber Paul McGill says he has reached a conclusion that many long-term expats may understand but rarely say out loud: going back to the United States is no longer realistic for him.

In a video on his channel Paul in the Philippines Old Dog New Tricks, McGill said plainly that he cannot return home to America, not because he has lost affection for his country, but because the math, the social reality, and the stage of life he is in no longer make sense there.

“I can’t go back home to America,” McGill said. “Not won’t. Can’t.”

The comment was not made as a dramatic rejection of the United States. Instead, it came as a practical admission from a 71-year-old man who says his life in the Philippines, while imperfect, is far more workable than the life he believes would be waiting for him if he tried to rebuild from scratch in America.

A Temporary Move Became A Permanent Life

McGill said he did not move to the Philippines nine years ago with a firm plan to immigrate or start over permanently. At first, he said, he was simply testing the waters.

He described it as putting his “toe in the water” to see whether he liked life there. Then one year passed, and before long, that year became three.

At some point, McGill said, he realized that he had “burned the boat” that brought him over. The life he once had in America had not been put on pause, waiting for him to return. It had dissolved over time.

That is one of the quieter truths about moving abroad, especially later in life. Even when a person does not intend to make a final decision, time has a way of making it for them. Housing disappears, friendships drift, credit histories thin out, and the old routine back home becomes less like a home base and more like a memory.

McGill’s point was not that he had made a mistake by staying in the Philippines. If anything, he described a life that gives him companionship, activity, and enough financial breathing room to live with some dignity. But he also made clear that remaining abroad has changed his options.

The Numbers No Longer Work

The biggest reason McGill gave for not returning to America was financial.

He said his Social Security check is currently $2,233 per month after Medicare Part B is deducted. He supplements that income through his YouTube channel, and in the Philippines, that combination allows him to cover rent, groceries, utilities, gasoline, nights out, and extras for his wife, May.

“At the end of the month, I’ve got a little something stacked up or saved to tuck away for a rainy day,” McGill said.

In America, he said, that same income would likely disappear into basic survival costs almost immediately.

McGill said he has no condo waiting for him, no car, and no easy way to restart from where he left off. He would be beginning again at “ground zero,” except this time he would be doing it as a man in his early 70s who has spent nearly a decade outside the country.

He said he researched the cost of an average apartment in an average U.S. city and found rents around $1,400 to $1,600 per month. Splitting the difference at $1,500, he noted, would take a large share of his Social Security check before he paid for transportation, insurance, groceries, medical costs, or anything else.

That is the part of McGill’s video that will likely hit hardest for many older Americans. Retirement is often discussed as if it is only a matter of planning better, saving longer, or downsizing more carefully. But for people living on fixed incomes, the margin can become so thin that a normal rent payment can swallow most of a month’s income before life has even started.

Starting Over At 71

McGill said the challenge would not stop with rent. He would also need a car because he does not expect that wherever he could afford to live would be truly walkable.

That car would need insurance, and McGill said he has heard car insurance costs have risen sharply. By the time he added rent, transportation, and insurance together, he said he would have already exhausted much of his income without yet buying groceries or paying for everyday needs.

He did allow that there may be some place in America where he could make the numbers work if he rented a cheap room, bought an old beater car, and carried only liability insurance. But then he asked a deeper question: what exactly would he be returning to?

McGill said he does not expect employers to be excited about hiring a 70-year-old man who has been out of the country for almost 10 years. He also questioned whether landlords would rent to him, especially because he believes his credit history may have faded after so many years away.

He said he still has one active credit card, but he does not know whether that would be enough to help him qualify for an apartment.

The tone was not self-pitying so much as blunt. McGill was walking through the steps of return and finding that every step came with a barrier. Employment, housing, transportation, credit, and community all looked uncertain.

What He Would Leave Behind

The other side of the equation is what McGill already has in the Philippines.

He said he has a “lovely wife,” friends, activities, and a daily rhythm that still gives him enjoyment. Sometimes, he said, the best days are the quiet ones, when he and May stay home and do nothing much at all.

That may sound modest, but it is not small. For many retirees, the real measure of a workable life is not luxury. It is whether a person can afford shelter, eat properly, stay socially connected, and wake up without feeling that every ordinary expense is a new emergency.

McGill said that back in America, he does not know where he would go to build a new social life. Old friends have moved away, passed away, or fallen out of touch. He described the idea of returning as though there were no slot with his name on it anymore.

“That slot closed the day I got on the plane,” he said.

This may be the most honest part of his reflection. Returning home after years abroad is often imagined as a simple reversal, but life does not rewind that neatly. The place remains, but the person has changed, and so has everyone else.

A Man Between Two Countries

McGill also said he does not fully belong in the Philippines in the way a citizen does.

He cannot vote, does not have the full rights and privileges of citizenship, and described himself as “a little bit like a man without a country.” He said he loves America and remains proud to be an American, but he also feels there is “no America” for him to go home to.

At the same time, while he loves the Philippines, he said he knows he does not fully fit there either.

That kind of in-between life is rarely discussed in polished retirement-abroad stories. Many videos about moving overseas focus on cheap rent, warm weather, and better buying power. Those things matter, but McGill’s reflection shows the emotional tradeoff that can come after the move becomes permanent.

He has found a life that works, but it comes with a strange kind of exile. He is not rejecting America, and he is not claiming the Philippines is perfect. He is saying that, at this point in his life, one country is financially impossible and the other is socially and legally incomplete.

The Hard Reality For Long-Term Expats

McGill said he believes many other long-term expats in the Philippines may be in similar situations, even if they are reluctant to admit it.

That sounds believable. A move abroad can begin as an adventure, a retirement plan, a relationship decision, or simply a way to stretch a fixed income. Over time, however, it can become less of a choice and more of a dependency, especially when the cost of returning rises faster than a retiree’s income.

For McGill, the conclusion is clear. His plan is to make the most of the years he has left, rather than spend them trying to restart in a country where he believes he would struggle financially and socially.

At 71, he said, he has to ask how much future he has in front of him and whether he wants to spend those years fighting to survive in a place that no longer seems to have room for him.

His video was not a complaint as much as a confession. The Philippines gave him a life he can afford, a wife he loves, and a community that keeps him active. America remains his country, but in his view, it has become too expensive to return to.

For many viewers, that may be the most unsettling part of McGill’s story. He did not leave because he hated home. He stayed away because going home stopped making sense.