A few months back, I received a message that one of the entries I entered for Sun Life's Sinag Financial Literacy Awards made it as a finalist. Of course I was very, very thrilled! Sun Life is a game changer in the life insurance landscape and probably the biggest supporter of financial literacy in the country. It was such a big honor to become a finalist.
Unfortunately, I didn't win any of the prizes (sniff!) but I did come home with Sun Life's Prosperity Card worth Php5,000.
The last quarter of 2015 has been rough on my equity investments, while the next few months show no sign of easing up as well. Forget Pantone's colors of the year, it looks as if screaming red is going to be this year's hue. Despite the lackluster and pathetic performance of my stocks and mutual funds, my net worth still managed to post a 3% increase from the third quarter. I'm still way below my goal of a double digit increase though, so there's a serious need to work it.
Last year was all about changes on almost all fronts of my life. I moved jobs, leaving the judiciary after almost 5 years to try my hand in the legislative department. With the job change came the requisite 2 month wait, although in my case it became 3 months, for my first salary. The moment I started receiving my pay and backpay, we pushed forward with condo constructions, in effect doubling our home space from 30sqm to a more palatial 60sqm. Two nieces were born a few months apart from each other, giving my parents a total of 10 grandkids to spoil and fuss over.
For the financial side, I was disappointed to see that my networth increase wasn't substantial and I attribute this to condo constructions, my cavalier attitude about money and helping out some family members deal with debt. I always thought that I was careful with money, but ever since I began tracking my spending for the past few months, I was shocked to discover where our money was going. It was humbling to see that I was the reason why we could never complete our target emergency funds, or why our credit card bills always make me do a double-take every month. For someone who writes about personal finance and dishes advice like she knows what she's doing, I sure didn't know sh*t.
