Monitor My Funds

In order to track the performance of my mutual funds, I have an email in draft mode where I write down the date I bought in, the number of shares and the NAVPS at that time. I would then check out the current NAVPS over at Sun Life or FAMI and then compute the value of my shares. It's a very low-tech system but it gets the job done. However, The Thrifty Chick showed me a much better and more efficient way to monitor my funds, through a website aptly named: Monitor My Funds.

Unloading Stocks

I'm almost ashamed to admit that after all my talk of hanging in there and staying loyal to CEB, I eventually sold my shares last week at a 15% loss. Admittedly, with my 100 shares, that 15% loss only amounts to Php1,000 so it really won't wipe me out.

This experience taught me though that I know sh*t about trading/ investing in stocks, because both stocks I struck out with on my own (CEB and MWIDE) ended up with less than stellar results. For me this means that I am still a baby and should not venture far from Bo Sanchez's reassuring recommendations. From now on, whatever Bro. Bo says I will follow. Promise.

Interestingly enough, while I'm down by about Php500 in my stock investing, my mutual funds are performing very well. Could this be a sign that I'm better off letting others manage my money for me and to stop being mamars (nagmamarunong)?

Hmmmm.....

One for all and all for one!

*Originally posted in Kikay Exchange.

I rarely get tapped to write a sponsored post, so when I was asked to write about Sun Life Financial's latest short film Sun Dance, on a topic that was very close to my heart (personal finance), all I could think of was: "This is great! Thank you Sun Life for subsidizing my next Maxi Prime premium payment!":p

Investing in Luxury

An investment is simply defined as putting in money or capital in order to gain profitable returns, as interest, income, or appreciation in value. That's why I always wondered about women who buy expensive bags and shoes and declare them as "investments". Do these really appreciate in value? 

A Good Day!

Yesterday was an amazing day for the Philippine Stock Exchange, the stock index went up an astounding 81.97 points to close at 5,322. And to think the goal was just to reach 5,200 and stay there. Talk about overachieving:p

Meralco bill update

I wrote about getting an inverter aircon in this past post, and after much soul and wallet searching, we finally bought a Koppel 1 HP unit from SM Appliances.

The unit cost Php27,495, but we made use of SM's deferred payment plan, staggering the price to 6 monthly installments of Php4,582.50. I honestly thought the unit would run up to Php40,000, so paying "only" Php27,495 was a very pleasant surprise. What really hurt though was the Php7,500 installation fee that we had to pay upfront. Ouch.

Thank goodness for emergency funds!

My husband's PC suddenly gave up on him a few days ago, giving off an ominous and high pitched "eeeeeeeeeeeeee" sound, and no amount of whacking or coaxing could get it to work again. That's the PC where he spends hours hunting and shooting down German soldiers and zombies, but it's also where he works on his projects and websites. In short, it was time to dip into our emergency funds to get a new motherboard and other what-have-yous for his down and out PC.

Lending Money to Friends and Relatives: More Harm than Good

This article from Learnvest brought back a barrage memories of the first and last time I acted as guarantor for my friends.