The sad thing is that while he was able to earn $1,500 per month, he apparently didn't invest into anything. No financial planning as if he can do this job forever. Sure he must have known stories what's going on and could prepare for this possibility. I don't understand why he didn't.
"Financial planning", in the western sense of the phrase (saving currency, investing in stocks, mutual funds, life insurance, 401(k), and various other pieces of paper that require trust and courts to be worth anything) isn't actually a rational thing to do in emerging Asia (or, to the extent that it is now, that's very recent). We're talking about a country that was governed by a prolific kleptocrat (Ferdinand Marco…
They don't exist in most of the western world (e.g. Europe).
Please don't call that "western financial planning"