take control of your F (2)

In my first article, I told you that your current living standard is dictated by the money that you earn every month from your job or other sources – your INCOME. So, if you want to change your current living standard, you have to apply practical solutions to boost your income. In other words, how you control your finances is your gauge on how well you can live at present.

Now, let’s talk about your other F – your FUTURE.

If you’re not looking ahead on how you will live your life in the future, think again (and think about it very carefully).

One day, going to work, I rode jeepney and seated at the passenger seat beside the driver. The driver, I quickly noticed that he was way past granted dual citizenship status. If you’re thinking he’s a foreigner, no, that’s not what I mean. The driver is already a SENIOR CITIZEN. My wild guess would be that he is at his 60’s. My instant reaction was: When I grow old, do I still have to work this hard to earn for a living?

The answer just hit me like a speeding bullet train. BLAM! It hit me so hard that right there and then, I decided that I have to ACT NOW to avoid that vision of working way past my retirement age.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t ridicule the mamang driver. In fact, I admire him that even in that age; he still struggles to make a living for his family. But, it is just unacceptable. Why?

 We are working today because we have to earn and make a living, right? We have to earn so that we can buy our needs and our wants. But, sometimes we become shortsighted. We are only living TODAY and not building for TOMORROW, which is as important as today.

I earlier said that the mamang driver still working hard today is acceptable because he’s been working all his life but not enjoying the fruits of his labor in full.

If you’re working today and also spend everything today, I can tell you right now that you will still be working or looking for a job when you reach the age when you should be enjoying your retirement.

And we can see it each day. We know people who are dear to us or even just our kapitbahay or an acquaintance or just like that mamang driver that I told you who failed to prepare for their retirement. The picture is the same – THEY KEEP ON WORKING.

So, how can you avoid and prepare for your retirement? Build your ASSET! And START it NOW!

You may ask, HOW?

I told you in my past articles that you have expand your income now. When you finally made it, you have to invest that income into various investment vehicles available that suits you. Then again, be forewarned that when you invest, money is not that matters but you’re knowledge on what you are doing. Investing does not guarantee you riches beyond imagination and in fact, you may also lose some or all of your money if bad decisions (and mostly are uneducated decisions) are made.

So you MUST acquire knowledge and skills to minimize the risk which a certain investment tool poses.

Your BEST ASSET is what YOU KNOW and NOT YOUR MONEY. If you know how to increase your income potential and earning ability you can build your wealth from zero to millions in time.

That’s why successful people are not afraid of losing all of their money and assets because they build it again from scratch.

So ACT NOW! And be wary of your FUTURE!

In summary, if your INCOME DICTATES your LIFE TODAY, your ASSET shall DECIDE your FUTURE.

take control of your F (1)

By now you should have had a little understanding or even become amazed when you saw your own finances in writing; that is if you took your assignment seriously.  But if you aren’t going to do your assignment which I advise you to do the opposite, well, it won’t hurt me because it’s your finances anyway.

But, I tell you, if you are a person whose earning income is not enough for a month’s expenses; if you are mired in debt and rising expenses; if you are the previous me who felt insecure of his family’s future because of his financial predicament… Well, my friend, YOU REALLY SHOULD DO THIS ACTIVITY.

Again, if you don’t do this exercise and don’t mind taking a look at your finances right now and CHANGE your MINDSET, it will certainly hurt you in the near future.

The exercise is no more less of budgeting your finances. Wait! I know what’s running through that mind of yours. Perhaps what your mind is saying: ‘if it’s just like budgeting, I’m already doing it regularly whenever I receive my paycheck….” Here’s another one: “I have been doing it but my debt still keep piling up every month, so why bother?”

Hmmmm…. Let me ask you, How do you make your budget? Maybe it’s like this: you look at your money and lists all the expenses that you have to pay and after that, you keep in your pocket/wallet/ATM of what’s left. I know because I used to do that before. That’s why no matter how I budget my money, I always fall short and I have to use my credit card to cover other expenses. Then, something happened and started to write down my monthly budget in a piece of paper to manage whatever I have.

After reading books, and did this prepaid retailing, something struck me. I finally made my expenses into SAVINGS in business people terms, PROFIT!

Yes, profit! Amazing isn’t it? What we are doing, prepaid retailing, because we have our full time job, is already our profit! Isn’t that great? Even you’re doing that PART-TIME, no matter how much you gain is already your PROFIT.

Ha! You’ve just experienced first-hand how the rich turn their expenses into profits!

You see, the rich always look for ways to minimize their expenses, including taxes, and gain more profit. That explains why your boss doesn’t give you a pay raise because they only consider you as expenses!

Another thing that rich people does, is that, they don’t mix their money for business with their money meant for their household! They strictly use their money in business for business and the same goes for their household budget. That’s why the business of the rich continues to grow because they put their profit back into their business.

So, now, are you still going to say that the exercise is nonsense? And, we’re just only talking about the two columns (income and expenses) which tell your living standard today. The Asset and Liabilities, on the other hand, shall determine how you will live tomorrow. And we’ll discuss it later.

Now, grab that pen and fill that paper up. Unless we put into writing our budget, look at it, analyze it, and read it aloud so that we can hear it for our self, our budget will remain to be a mental note which we tend to easily forget. Doing the exercise makes us realize what we have and increase our self-discipline not to spend more in the budget.

I am not telling you to live a miserable life. I am only telling you to strengthen your conviction in implementing your planned budget. With this, you’ve taken control of your F – FINANCES.

budgeting 101 (2)

I’d like to share these budgeting tips that I do when I receive my allowance. I hope this article can help you in managing your hard earned income from your job.

PAY YOURSELF FIRST. I think you are like the previous me, or may be not (I may be too assuming if you are not like me before…). Before, when I receive my allowance, I would subtract all of my expenses first and after that was savings. HOWEVER, it is wrong. IT IS JUST WRONG. Why? Because YOU WORKED HARD for it but you will PAY YOURSELF LAST?! Come on, where’s the logic behind? It’s just not right. So next time you receive your salary, be KINDER to YOURSELF.

INVEST YOUR SAVINGS. Whatever you put aside for yourself is your savings. Now, majority of us will put that savings in the most safest and conservative place – in the bank! Having a savings account is not bad – not bad at all. Having some amount of money that you could pull something out is better than nothing during times of financial trouble. But, did you ever consider that that money in your account will lose its value in time? Yes? No? YES!

Let’s say you’ve managed to save a hundred thousand or even a million pesos it will never be the same after some period. Why? Have you heard of the term INFLATION? Inflation is the increase of prices of commodities and services that eventually decrease your money’s buying power. Now that you know this, think where you can invest your hard earned money for it to grow. Invest it in a vehicle which suits you. It may be in stocks, funds, or even find your part-time business. But before you invest, you have to study and learn everything you can before you make that choice.

PAY YOUR DEBTS. Nowadays, it is not strange that people are mired in debts due to increasing living standards but shrinking economy. But, a debt is debt that we have to pay. But don’t be too hasty in trying to pay all of them at once or else… Instead, program your payments. Try to negotiate with your loan and pay it regularly. Try to pay the one which has the highest interest first and pay everything else the minimum. Then, after you’ve paid that debt in full, add that to your next payment on another loan. This way, you’ll wipe out your debt. But, you have to be painstakingly patient and disciplined if you want to be debt-free in no time. Prioritize your loan payments, thru this you can sleep with less worries at night.

EXPAND YOUR INCOME. I don’t recommend that you find another part-time job. If you do that, you’ll just dig your grave faster than ever. Plus, you’ll be taking away more of your precious time to spend with your family, friends, and even for yourself. People need to rest as machines and gadgets also take a time out. Just what I said (written) why don’t you find a part-time business? Start one until you can now while we are still young. You should seriously start owning one today while you can still infuse capital in it little by little thru your salary. Run that business without quitting your daytime job. Remember, what you earn in that business is already your profit which will make up your fortune in the future.

BUDGETING 101

Gusto kong i-share sa inyo ang mga artikulo na naisulat ko noong nakaraang taon. Nai-share ko ito sa maliit na grupo pero ngayon ay ibinubukas ko sa lahat. Pasensiya na lamang at nakasulat sa english, paki tiyaga na lang. Apat (4) na magkakasunod na artikulo ito na sana ay makatulong sa inyo.

How do we make our budget? Or more correctly, what kind of budget are we making every month?

You might be asking: what? Is there any other kind of budgeting other than what we do every month? Am I kidding? No. I’m dead serious.

The usual budget that we do every moth usually leaves us in indebt or need to ask a loan from someone or somewhere. This is called DEFICIT BUDGETING.

It describes that we move heaven and earth to minimize our expenses and try to leave below what we have every month because our INCOME is SMALL that it is just NOT QUITE ENOUGH.

And this is what we do and even governments do.

s goes up and always hear time and again that we have huge budget deficits. The reason why budget cuts on social services such as health, education, and housing - are increasing due to the prioritization debt payments which is very unacceptable.

That’s why the government debt alway 

And it mirrors our practice in budgeting. We cut on expenses such as buying new clothes or eating out with the family. The result is detrimental to each member of the family which could result in frustration if not despair of our current living standard. The only saving grace of our race, we Filipinos do not sulk in depression just like other countries. And they are amazed that we can manage to smile even in the direst of situation.

So, let’s go back to budgeting.

As I said, the other kind of budgeting – as Robert Kiyosaki calls it – is SURPLUS BUDGETING.

In SURPLUS BUDGETING, we are not just programming our expenses but we are also PLANNING on how we can EXPAND our INCOME. Say it again, EXPANDING INCOME not just programming to spend.

And, again, I do sincerely congratulate you that what we have done which is the exercise that we did, is our first step in learning on how to do surplus budgeting. It’s still not that much but if we still want to grow it bigger, we should go on with the other phase of the business (not just prepaid retailing) which is NETWORK MARKETING.

We’ll provide detailed discussion on NETWORK MARKETING in the weeks to come plus training on how to be a successful network marketer for you to GAIN what for us now an UNIMAGINABLE INCOME. Thus, would surely PREVENT the SQUEEZE or STRESS that we suffer every now and then from MANAGING our MEAGER INCOME.

ACHIEVING SUCH WILL TAKE TIME BUT CAN BE REALIZED EARLIER AS WE TAKE ACTION NOW.

And remember just as the popular ad says: Plan, You Only Live Once (PYOLO)!

PERA (2)

Pera pa rin ang paksa natin ngayon. Hindi naman dahil sa mga mukhang pera tayo, pero malaki kasi ang epekto nito sa buhay sa kabuuan. Kahit na dapat tayong mamuhay ng simple, may mga bagay na idinudulot ang pagkakaroon nito na nagbibigay sa atin ng isang antas ng saya at seguridad.

Ready na ba kayo? Hindi pa? Errr... isang buwan nga ako nawala.... Ready or not... Heto na...!

Marami sa atin, gaya ko ay mga manggagawa o empleyado. Kahit ba bise presidente ka ng isang kumpanya at hindi mo naman ito pag-aari, empleyado ka pa rin. Sinasahuran o sinuswelduhan para gawin ang isang gawaing mahalaga sa pinapasukang negosyo.

Pero sa tantiya ko naman, alam na natin kung paano ibadyet ang kung magkano man ang natatanggap natin sa araw ng payday. Tama ba? Ngunit, tama ba ang pamamaraan ng pagbabadyet na ginagawa natin? Mahalagang punto ito, maliit man o malaki ang sahod natin, DAPAT, uulitin ko: D-A-P-A-T TAMA ang paraan ng pagbabadyet natin sa pera natin. Bakit?

Una sa lahat, ang perang naitabi at naipundar natin sa buong panahon na tayo ay nagtatrabaho ang magsasabi kung ano ang magiging buhay natin sa panahon na wala nang tumatanggap sa atin para magtrabaho. Sa madaling salita kapag retirado na tayo.

Ikalawa, kung tama ang pagbabadyet ng pera, magkakaroon tayo ng batayan kung kulang o sobra (mas madalas kulang) ang kinikita natin. Kapag ganito, mas madalas sa hindi gumagawa tayo ng paraan kung paano natin madaragdagan ang perang hawak natin.

Ikatlo, kung episyente nating nababadyet ang perang hawak natin, magagawa natin ang mga bagay na gusto natin dahil naipaplano natin ito.

Ikaapat, nagkakaroon tayo ng proteksyon sa mga hindi inaasahang paggasta o emergency kung napapamahalaan nang tumpak ang perang hawak natin.

At panghuli, sa tamang paraan ng pagbabadyet, kaya nating itakda kung kailan natin gustong magretiro sa pagtatrabaho.

Ang limang bagay na ito ang magiging paksa natin sa buong buwan ng Hunyo. Binata/dalaga ka man na nagtatrabaho para lamang sa sarili; breadwinner ng pamilya; o may sarili nang pamilya, importante na hindi lamang tayong humawak ng pera kundi episyente rin dapat natin itong napamamahalaan. Dahil, una sa lahat, pinaghirapan natin ang perang ito kaya bawat sentimong nasasayang ay pambabalewala sa pagod at sakripisyo natin para kitain ito.

Kaya, isa itong paanyaya sa lahat ng mga interesadong matuto at guminhawa ang buhay. Sama-sama nating pag-aralan ang mga batas kung paano lumago ang pera natin na siyang ginagamit ng mga mayayamang tao para lalo pa silang yumaman. Walang pilitan ito.  Kaya, ngayon pa lang, salamat sa pag-antabay at pagsubaybay.