My other blog

If you don't find me active here, it may be because I'm posting at my other blog, Ramp Up To Riches. I've decided to put up another blog so that I can create a site for my finance-related entries entries. See you there!

Ready-ing to Retire

I am so excited! I'll be making the last payment on my condo next month and after that I can start processing the papers for the transfer of title. Of course there are still turnover fees to pay but I think I'll be able to manage that. Just this month, I was able to pay the property taxes which had already accumulated since 2008. Now I know I have to take care of it yearly to avoid the penalties.

Now that I've already made my first property investment, this got me thinking that I should start building the rest of my investment portfolio and start thinking about my retirement. I've read dozens of books and magazines about personal finance already and now I think it's time to start applying what I've learned from them. I have always wanted to take advantage of the power of compounding but it is only now that I'm taking steps towards it. I know that I should have started earlier and there are a dozen excuses I tell myself why I didn't, but at least now I know that I am ready and willing and that it's not yet too late. This is why I signed up for Bo Sanchez' Truly Rich Club so that I could be properly guided as I go along my financial journey. It's only been two weeks since I signed up but I am already reaping the benefits. Reading the e-books and hearing Bo's power talks reminded me why I wanted to be financially independent in the first place. His newsletters and inspirational emails encourages me not only dream my big dreams but also to take concrete actions to realize them.

For those of you who knew Bo Sanchez as a Catholic lay preacher, don't worry, he still is. But what business does he have, teaching about personal finance? Sounds weird right? I know! I was a bit turned off myself when I first learned about it. I thought he turned into one of those fanatical evangelists who masquerade as messengers of God but only really want to con people into shelling out money for "miraculous healing items". But when I heard his reasons for doing something about his financial life and deciding to teach others how to save and invest, it actually made sense to me. After all, most of the things people have problems about and pray about is money. And hey, I believe in God and I think about money, so why shouldn't he? So having said that, I am now a convert. I am ready to be wealthy and I want others to be the same :)

My personal finance journey

Back when I was experiencing quarter-life crisis, I started to become interested in personal finance management. It all began, as most stories like this goes, with "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki. Reading this book woke me up from the zombie-like state I've accustomed my self to just to able to survive the daily grind of going to work. It made me realize that I owe it to myself to do something about my situation because I'll never be able to afford to do all the things I want to do, just by being employed. From RDPD, I moved on to "Pwede na! The Complete Pinoy Guide to Personal Finance" by Efren Ll. Cruz. Since this book was written by a Filipino for Filipinos, the content was more relevant to my case and I learned quite a lot more. It taught me how to assess my current financial situation, encouraged me to think about my financial goals, and prompted me to map out a plan on how to go about achieving them. I've read a couple of personal finance books since then and to update myself with money trends and to further supplement my financial IQ, I subscribed to MoneySense, a local personal finance magazine.

Based on what I've learned so far, I was able to start building my investment portfolio. I've recently acquired a new condo together with my boyfriend and I've also started buying old pension plans. I still have lots of debts but I'm proud to say that these are not consumer debts. Let's just say I'm using them for leverage and as soon as I get my bonus/merit increase this year, I'll be able to pay off a significant part of it. Also, I'm still thinking of other ways to increase my income. Hopefully more opportunities to earn will come my way before the year ends :)

Health is truly wealth

There were 2 winners in last night's lotto draw so they will have to divide between them the jackpot prize of 347M, the highest pot amount reached ever since PCSO started the national lottery. I bought a ticket for that draw but I didn't win. Even so, I find myself feeling very grateful because my sister has undergone a successful cataract surgery. Just an update on my post last week, it was really fortunate that her thyroid tests did not reveal any problem so she was cleared for operation by her endocrinologist and was admitted last Thursday. She had her operation last Friday and she was discharged from the hospital last Saturday. Now she still has to wear goggles to protect her eyes from dirt and prevent her from rubbing her eyes, but she can already see clearly. She walks even faster now because she can already see where she's going and she doesn't have to worry about bumping into furniture and other things. I also noticed that her posture has improved, she walks more upright and now looks directly at the person talking to her. Another good news revealed by the ophthalmologist was that her retinas are still intact and does not seem to be affected yet by her diabetes. Tomorrow she will have a follow-up checkup and by next week she probably won't need her goggles anymore.

So even if I still have to look for money to pay for the debts we incurred for the operation, seeing the smile on my sister's face makes it all worth it. Of course, a little help from winning in the lottery wouldn't have hurt. ;-)

Dreaming of Europe

My Kongregate check arrived last week and I was already able to deposit it to my Landbank Dollar Savings Account. It nearly got rejected by Landbank because they said they don't accept personal foreign checks. I said that before opening my account, I specifically asked if I can deposit foreign checks and they said that I could so they have to honor that. So they accepted the check and said that there would be a 45-day clearing period after the originating bank of the check (Wells Fargo) responds to them. If the originating bank does not cash the check (bogus account, no funds, etc), I will be charged $10; otherwise, I will just be charged $1 processing fee. So assuming I am able to cash the check, I would have $174 in my account by next month. Minimum amount to earn interest is $500 so unless I add to my savings, my money will just be sitting there. I don't want to close my account just yet so I decided I will just keep adding to my account whenever I have the money. Then I thought of a brilliant idea. Why not use this account to save up for that European tour I've been dreaming of?

Landbank it is

To prevent another check from going to waste because I was not able to cash it, I decided to open a dollar savings account with Landbank. I looked at other banks' websites and even went to the banks' branches but all of them require a minimum initial deposit of $200. It was only Landbank which required $100 minimum initial deposit so I went with this one. Now with my Landbank Dollar Savings Account, I'll be able to deposit my Kongregate Weekly Loot Challenge winner's check of $75 when it arrives in the mail 3-4 weeks from now. Sweet :)

My New Life

I bet you've been wondering what I've been up to these past two weeks. You won't believe it but I got my self coded as a Manulife agent. What does this mean? This means that after training for two weeks and passing my licensure exams from the Insurance Commission, I can now offer financial planning services to anyone who might be interested in planning a secure financial future for themselves and their loved ones on the areas of family protection, savings, education and retirement. I'm really excited about this new development in my life because I've always been interested in personal finance and investing and by being a Financial Security Adviser, I can now share this passion to every one who is willing to meet with me for a financial planning interview. In fact, I met with my former classmate from elementary last night and I was able to enlighten her on the benefits of having insurance protection. Imagine, she already has an insurance policy but she didn't realize its importance until last night (her agent must not have been good, I dare say)! Tonight, I'm meeting again with a former colleague and tomorrow, with a former classmate from high school. Right now, I have a lot of prospects but once my contact list runs out, I'll be doomed. That's why I must not forget to ask for referrals from the people I meet. And also, a little self-promotion does not hurt.

Please hold

Looks like I forgot to put a payment hold order on another one of my online revenue accounts, Google Adsense. They sent me an email the other day with the following excerpt:

"We've recently sent you a Personal Identification Number (PIN) via standard mail. You should expect to receive it within about 2-4 weeks. Once you receive your PIN, you will need to enter it into your account in order to become eligible to receive AdSense payments. To enter your PIN, simply follow the instructions included with your PIN mailer."

Got check. Now what?

I received my Clixsense check yesterday! I set my ClixSense account to send me the check once I reach minimum payout, just so I can make sure that they really do pay out. Minimum amount is $10, and I did reach that. Maybe they just had to deduct a processing fee that's why the amount on the check is only $7.33. So there I was, so excited to have received my payment until I realized I don't know how I'm going to encash this. I went to my bank to find out if I can deposit it in my savings account. The bank representative told me that unfortunately, they only accept a minimum of $150 check for it to be deposited to a Peso account. Now if only I had a Dollar account then I won't have any problem depositing this check even if it's just a small amount. So I thought, why don't I open a Dollar account? I asked the bank rep how much I need to open a Dollar account. "$500, that's also the minimum maintaining balance", was her reply. Sadly, I didn't have that kind of money so I just left.

Update: Project: University Tower Condo Unit For Rent

Here's an update to my condo posting. I was able to finalize my condo turnover just last week so I immediately set about to fixing up my unit. I only had to buy the light bulbs and bathroom mirror because I found out that we already had extra curtain and shower rods. My sister who used to stay in a dorm had an easy-to-assemble closet so I didn't have to have a cabinet built, that's a huge savings on my budget. My boyfriend and I brought the bed frame to the unit and assembled it. He says they also have an extra airconditioning unit which he can donate to me (yay! thanks again babe!), but I'll have to see first if the future tenant would need it.

Good Tidings

Today I am going to count my blessings just because finally, I feel that my prayers are being heard. The first quarter of the year has passed by so quickly and as I reflect back, I realize that I have so much to be thankful for already in the past three months.

1. Career. Take a look at the update I've made at this post (striked through items 1 & 2) and you'll know what I'm thankful about with regards to my career. Yes, I've been promoted, and although I don't have my own parking space, it's as good as having one already coz I can now reimburse my parking fees. After 8 years in the IT industry, I am finally at the senior level. I could have reached this level sooner but by jumping companies almost every year for several years, I missed out on my promotions. Well no regrets; I have learned from all the companies I have been to and I'm happy where I am now. It's just too bad that my promotion didn't translate to a substantial increase (last year's merit increase was even higher in terms of percentage, compared to what I got now) because upper management changed (thus budget policies also changed). But I did get an additional benefit of insurance coverage so that's still something to be thankful about. Also, our bonuses will be given out next payday so that gives me peace of mind about my upcoming condo annual payment. It's still short of what I need but I'm sure I'll be able to find ways to procure the remaining amount.

The Curse of the Black Pearls

After all those penny-pinching and trying to earn money from the Internet, I went ahead and bought myself a set of South Sea pearl earrings and necklace. I chose black pearls because they suit me better than the white ones. I bought them on installment (in my country, the term used is gives: two-gives, three-gives, etc., you get the drift) so I was able to get my jewelry immediately after I issued four post-dated checks to my boss' alahera (jeweller). I already completed the first two payments and I only have two more months to go. The problem is I've run out of funds so I decided that I will pull out my mutual fund investments. They're dollar bond funds and euro bond funds and I've held on to them for two years now. Although their NAVPS increased, I would still get negative profit because of the country's presently strong currency. Two years ago, the exchange rate was P54 to $1 and now it's P45 to a $1. This would translate to a net loss of a couple of thousand pesos so I think it would be wiser to just pull my investments out.

Is it worth it?

I'm on a roll here. Found a tool on Steve's site which tells how much a blog is worth. I followed the link and tested for my blog's worth. The result, as you can see on the left bar, is $3,951.78! Converted to our currency, that's equivalent to a whopping amount! Not bad for a blog that's roughly 3 months old.

Now, if only there's a way this can translate into real money so that I can quit my job and just blog and blog-hop all day. How I wish! :)

We want to get out of the rat race!

If you take a peek at our cubicles here in the office, you won't see a single technical or programming book. Instead, you'll find newspapers, magazines and books about business and finance. It's funny because we are all programmers yet we're more interested in reading about personal finance management and how-to's in starting and running a business. I guess this is because most of us have been in IT too long; or if not too long, burned out too early. We want to try something else, but we can't afford to let go of our current earnings just for the sake of a radical career shift. And so we see business and finance management as our ticket to the other real world out there.

I subscribe to MoneySense and my colleague regularly buys Entrepreneur Philippines. I also have Pwede Na! The Complete Pinoy Guide to Personal Finance and another colleague has Wealth Within Your Reach: Pera Mo, Palaguin Mo! These books and magazines are in constant borrowing-lending rotation and we're delighted when we are able to convert an officemate into a believer. Our latest "victim" is our junior programmer who just graduated this April and is enjoying and celebrating her new-found purchasing power with clothes/shoes shopping at Greenhills and even on the Internet! Mind you, we didn't force her to read on personal finance management, she just realized on her own that she needs to get a hold of her expenses, before it gets too late and she becomes one of us (did anyone say disgruntled? hehe). This is good because no amount of preaching can force anyone to change one's ways. It has to come from within and that's exactly what she experienced - the realization that she needs to change and the desire to be helped.

Now, if only I can charge a rental rate for those resource materials I lend out ;-)