Archive for the ‘Budgeting’ Category
A truly inspiring story
A truly inspiring story
First published in Business Mirror June 28, 2010 http://businessmirror.com.ph/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=27005:a-truly-inspiring-story&catid=28:opinion&Itemid=64
Last week I was having a conversation with an acquaintance when she broached the topic of investing. Having heard from another friend that I am into it, she asked how I was doing.
I answered that my portfolio was doing quite well and couldn’t be happier with it. Impressed, she said that she’d like to start investing but only when she’ll have a bigger capital. Being a financial advisor and faced with an “excuse” like that, I had the urge to lecture about the fallacy that had since prevented people like her from investing. I resisted. There is a proper time for that. But I couldn’t help but be disappointed that despite all efforts to kill the myth, it is still very much alive today.
That’s why when I heard about the unique story of Editha Comoda from my associate, Carmela Catapang, I immediately sought an interview because I couldn’t pass up writing such a story and let readers be encouraged by her. (more…)
Checking the Small Stuffs
Checking the Small Stuffs
by: Kendrick Chua, CIS, The Wealth Warrior
Spending habits spell a lot of difference between financial success and failure. A client of mine residing in the province, a self-made millionaire, once asked if it was possible to just email the mutual fund form she signed instead of faxing it. The reason: Email is free while fax transmission cost 30.00 pesos each page.
Rich people became rich because they also looked at the small stuffs. The discipline to check the littlest of expenses did wonders on their financial characters. It doesn’t mean they are stingy. They are just wary on how they spend their money. They save whatever they can save and spend on things they need to spend.
On the other hand, the average ones focus too much on the big picture. They’d cry for higher income or a hotter investment or both to get to their goal sooner. Higher income won’t happen overnight unless you’re due for raise the next day while a hotter investment may just burst the bubble. Review your Physics 101. Molecules when heated expand and too much expansion results to an explosion. Pray it’s not your money exploding.
It is wise to check the small expenses you are spending on.
10 Money Mistakes Every One Should Avoid
10 Money Mistakes Everyone should avoid
by: Kendrick Chua, CIS, The Wealth Warrior
We all make money mistakes once in a while and in my years of financial planning practice, I have come to realize the 10 Money Mistakes people often commit.
1.) Spending all income. I know of people who spend their income down to the last peso the day before their payday. It’s as if they can’t stand having the money carried over to the next payday. As a result, when a glitch in accounting system delayed the pay, the solution: cash advance or buy on credit.
2.) Spending more than you earn. What is worse than spending all your income? It’s spending more than what you earn. So if the cash runs out days before the next batch of funds come in, the result is incurring debt. You can always be a free-loader but then you won’t have any friends left.
The One-Day Rich Phenomenon
The One-Day Rich Phenomenon
by: Kendrick Chua, CIS, The Wealth Warrior
In one Pugad Baboy’s strip, the characters Bab and Igno were dining in an expensive restaurant. Bab had just won a bet in cock-fighting and they were celebrating. When Igno expressed doubts over their capability to pay for their orders, Bab explained that his prize money was P300,000.00 and they are entitled to splurge everything (note: everything).
The strip reflects the sentiment of the creator Pol Medina and I thought he captured the idea very well. Majority of the Filipinos love to do a one-day splurging and the strip was this representation. Not all will be fortunate to win in gambling but those who do usually spend everything rather quickly; treating the whole barangay to a drinking spree to celebrate his good fortune. After that, he goes back to either bumming around or doing his dreadful work and relishes on the good time he had the night before and hoping and praying he wins again.
Super Single Moms
Super Single Moms
by: Kendrick Chua, the Wealth Warrior
Single moms are definitely of different breed. The strength and resilience in being both a father and mother to their children is something that has continued to amaze others, myself included. Faced with motivations that are larger than their life, they find themselves digging to where others have never dug before.
Single moms provide more than just inspirational stories. As a matter of fact, they have the most well-thought and executed financial plan that I have ever witness prompting me to believe that all of us can learn more than just a thing or two from them.
Tags: Budgeting, financial planning, Insurance
Collegiate Financial Planning
Collegiate Financial Planning
by: Kendrick Chua, the Wealth Warrior
College was meant to prepare us for the real world, as what we were told. Well, I’d like to believe the schools did their work and the education we had was, in one way or another, did wonders for our chosen career.
But somewhere along the system, there is a gap. It is not exactly a flaw but a hole that needs to be plugged, an issue that needs to be addressed. The school taught us how to make money. There are even career counseling courses offered to graduating students to train them on how to “sell” themselves to their employers and climb the corporate ladder. Ammunitions for successful corporate stints are in no way lacking.
But the school never taught us how to manage that money.
Tags: financial planning
Surviving Self-employment as published in Business Mirror
Surviving Self-employment
Three years of being self-employed as a life underwriter and I still cannot quite fully fathom the oohs and aahs of people when they learn I work on flexible hours. It is fun, no doubt about that. I get to wake up later than usual and can go on vacation whenever I feel like it. For the others, especially employed individuals, working on their own time is a luxury their companies cannot afford to provide.
Although this is just one of the perks of self-employment, a lot of people do not realize that with the flexible hours comes irregular income, earning mainly through commissions or professional fees. While other industries are fortunate to be shielded from the crisis, those in the financial services are feeling the pinch and the crisis has wreaked havoc in our earnings. This has caused a great deal of stress for us and I’m quite certain this will not turn any heads green with envy.
Tags: published article, self-employment
