House Battle Plan

When I first wrote about our housing goal last year, we had no idea what the average price was in our desired neighbourhood. But now that we've been looking at houses for sale, I realized that our Php2M-Php3M budget will just not cut it. 

Hmmm....

Every time the Truly Rich Club recommends a stock, I usually buy the minimum or twice the boardlot. Now I have shares with 5 different companies, and with my monthly budget, I can only afford to buy the minimum boardlot for, at most, 3 stocks. All recommended companies are still under the buy below category, so it really pains me not to be able to buy shares every month for each of my stocks.

There are two things that I can do with this situation:

1. I can increase my monthly budget so that I can buy the minimum boardlot for all of my stocks, thus using the peso cost averaging method; or

2. I can choose to focus on 3 stocks, and sell the other two, to fit my monthly budget.

If I go with option number 2, what stocks will I retain and what will I sell?

Hmmm...what to do...what to do....

Precious Lessons

There's this horrible radio commercial that basically goes like this:

"Graduates! Now that you're out in the real world, it's time to reward yourself by investing in high tech gadgets!"

My eyebrows shot through the roof when I heard that insipid piece and was all set to tear it apart with a stinging blogpost and lecture on the importance of financial responsibility at a young age, when I suddenly remembered how I was at that age.

Unsexy is the New Sexy

I'm sad to say that investing in stocks and mutual funds don't excite me that much anymore. Which is not to say that I've earned heaps and buckets of cash since I started investing last year, and the thought of stockpiling cash leaves me sleepy. It's just that everything now runs right on schedule, with monthly investments sent in with machine-like precision, so much so that it's no longer as exciting as it used to be.

Although when you think about it, as a long-term investor, this is exactly how it's supposed to be. Allotting money to my different investment vehicles on a monthly basis regardless of what happens to the market, and no quick sells or pouncing on tips. Just straightforward accumulation of boring, ho-hum stocks from well-established and conservative companies. Nothing sexy about that.

Guest Post: Think You Can't Afford to Stay Home with Your Baby? Here Are a Few Reasons You Can't Afford NOT To

Although this post may not be on all fours with our Philippine experience, I find that it still brings up similar questions just the same, such as: Can I afford to stay home and take care of my child?

I myself am facing the same dilemma at present, wanting to be a full-time, stay at home mom, but at the same, not yet knowing how we'll pull it off. The original plan was for me to stay at home for the rest of the year once the baby was born, but we never got around to crunching the numbers so I never knew if that was really feasible, although I wished with all my heart that it was.

Anyway, that dream is still very much alive and now I know that instead of just wishing and hoping it to be so, we actually have to take concrete steps towards it. The first step being owning up to our monthly expenses and armed with the knowledge of where our money goes, to eventually plug the leaks with a monthly budget.

And after that long introduction, here's today's guest post from Bridget Sandorford.

Many new parents face the same conundrum: Should I go back to work or stay home to take care baby? Mothers are usually the ones facing the decision to go back to work or not, but the choice has an impact on the whole family. The biggest reason that many moms decide that they can't stay home with their babies is financial. They have become used to a living in a two-income family -- with enough debts and monthly bills for two incomes -- and the loss of a whole income would be devastating.

Or would it? When many parents look at their budget and start making the needed cuts and changes, they find that more is possible than they would have thought. Many even find that once they consider the additional costs after they have the baby, they can't afford NOT to stay home. Here are a few reasons why:

January and February Cash Expense Report

 

For this series, I tracked down our cash expenses using a printable from IHeart Organizing to see exactly what we were spending our money on, with the ultimate goal being to minimize our expenses. Since I forgot to account for January's expenses, let's lump it together with February shall we?

Retooling and Tweaking

When 2012 ended, I pretty much had my plan worked out. I was to save as much as I could and go on extended maternity leave to tend to Bean. But then a couple of curveballs were thrown my way which derailed those plans. First, I received a lot of hand me downs from my sisters in law and friends, so I didn't have to spend as much for baby stuff, and then I got promoted at work, which meant more disposable income, but at the same time, I would have to say goodbye to my prolonged maternity leave.

Takeaways from the Truly Rich Club's Wealth Summit

Truth be told, I can't remember any particular moment that stood out for me during last week's Wealth Summit. However, I do remember feeling all warm and fuzzy inside because I was surrounded by like minded people who were clearly enjoying the festivities.

More than a workshop or seminar, the Wealth Summit actually took on a fiesta atmosphere, and became a celebration of camaraderie, hard won successes and faith.

And I'm Back!

Things have been a little quiet in these parts of the woods because we didn't have internet access for almost a week. For some bizaare reason, our PLDT DSL just suddenly decided to die on us and despite daily calls to the 172 DSL hotline, no technician from the PLDT business center was deployed to check on the remote box thingy or our DSL. 

The irony of it all though was that the PLDT business center was just across the street from our condominium compound, and yet there we were, begging and pleading on the phone for some magical technician to materialize and fix our DSL woes.