Crunching Numbers

I've been doing some calculations to see if my 6 month hiatus is financially feasible. My income is composed of my takehome salary and freelance writing gigs. Of my monthly income, 65.79% comes from my salary while 34.21% comes from freelancing. As for expenses vis-a-vis my income, the breakdown is as follows:

Planning and Plotting

My due date is around middle of May next year and I'm seriously toying with the idea of taking a prolonged maternity leave, as in to take the rest of the year off and just tend to the baby.

Stocks Update: Getting There

This week's stock market performance may have been generally meh, but my personal portfolio was pretty exciting as 2 stocks inched closer towards their buy below price.

Guest Post on The Wise Living

Last week, I published Lianne's post on a ridiculously simple way to curb spending, now it's my turn to guest post on Lianne blog. Read about the book that set me on the path towards financial independence and hopefully it will inspire you as well.

How to Start a FAMI Individual Account (and some thoughts on the Colayco Foundation)

I first learned about First Metro Asset Management Inc. (FAMI) when I attended a half-day seminar conducted by the Colayco Foundation. The speaker said that FAMI-SALEF (Save and Learn Equity Fund) was his mutual funds of choice and we would all do very well to open accounts there as well and take advantage of the high returns. However, he also emphasized how inconvenient it was to open a FAMI-SALEF account. How you'll have to go to the FAMI office in Makati to fill out forms and the same goes if you want to make additional investments. According to him, you'll have to take a day off from work and go to Makati, while you also have to factor in your commuting expenses and how much you will spend for your lunch or dinner during the day, double or triple this if you're bringing someone else with you.

Whew! He almost sold me on joining the Colayco cooperative, since the cooperative will do everything for you, and all you need to do is pay their yearly membership fee. However, a quick check with the FAMI website showed that it was very easy to open an account and make additional investments. It was so easy and the information was available in the website for everyone to access, that I had to wonder how the speaker could lie with impunity. Seriously, if you're going to lie about something, you better make sure that you won't get caught with a quick Google search. And that's why I don't trust the Colayco group anymore.

Anyway, without any BS, here's how to open a FAMI account

Spend Less: Calculate Your Salary per Hour

 This steak is worth 10 working hours of my salary?!

How often were you plagued with the urge to do impulse shopping?

Or with the sudden call to order for impulse delivery?

How about impulse flight-booking? Have you done this?

Impulse spending is nothing more but a trick done by marketers to trigger your subconscious need for instant gratification. These marketers place signs like “Buy NOW and get one free!”, “Limited offer ONLY!” and the ever-famous “Sale for today ONLY!”

Do you see what these signs have in common? They urge you to buy NOW. Pay TODAY. Pull out your hard-earned cash and give it to them WITHOUT THINKING.

My friend, I understand your woe. I know how you feel! I’ve been a victim of these deceptive tactics before. But those days of playing victim are over. We can stop our impulse spending. We can tame the lion within. We can be the masters of our own souls.

Growing Up Rich

My two grandmothers and grandfather were public school teachers, while my other grandfather was a fiscal (or public prosecutor as we call them now). For the life of me, although they never went on lavish vacations abroad or carried around designer items, I was always under the impression that my grandparents were rich. Money was never an issue with them, except for my Lola Teresa who was an amazing spendthrift and who would seriously consider every purchase she made, from bulbs of onion to ship fares, although I later on found out that this was partly due to her OCD.

Frugal Honey on ANC On the Money

When Salve Duplito tweeted a question about lending money to friends or family, I responded by saying that it was usually a big mistake and look, I even wrote about it here and sent her a link to this post (epal much?). A few hours later, ANC On the Money asked if they could quote portions of my post in their show. I asked for the terms of the exposure and my talent fee, oh what the heck, I said yes in a heartbeat!