Nothing just happens!

In our life, a lot of event happens. Sad, happy, dull, awkward, you name it, and I believe we all have experienced it and guess what, none of these just happens!

Many have heard of the phrase "everything happens for a reason" which in my opinion, is very true.

Let me tell you a short story.

One day, a king and his servant was out hunting. This king's name was Juan and the servant was Pedro. Juan and Pedro, despite of status, are really good friends.

Juan was having so much fun hunting in the jungle and Juan asked Pedro to reload the gun. While Pedro was reloading the gun, accidentally Pedro dropped the gun and shot Juan's index finger off!

"OUCH!" screamed Juan!
"I am so sorry, I did not mean to. The gun accidentally dropped and shot off by itself" cried Pedro.
"For that, you are going to jail and never coming out!" shouted Juan.

And it happened, Pedro was sent to jail for shooting off the kings finger.

The king however continued with his hunting, as he goes deeper in the jungle, he was not aware that he entered a land full of cannibals!

He was captured! Put into a net, hanged to a tree and he was ready to be cooked inside a big pot full of boiling water!

He shouted "HELP!" but no one would hear.

Juan thought that it was his time to go. One of the cannibals noticed that Juan was missing his index finger, this cannibal then reported this to the tribe leader and when the tribe leader heard of this, he was outrageous!

He quickly ordered that Juan be freed and be left alone! Fortunately this tribe of cannibals believe that if you have lost a body part, you are not worthy as it would mean that somebody already tried to eat you and was not good!

Juan quickly ran back to his castle to thank Pedro! Pedro was stunned on why Juan was thanking him.

"I was captured by a group of cannibals, if you haven't shot my finger on accident, I would have been dead by now!" said Juan.

"Oh I see, so I thank you too!" said Pedro.

"Why?" asked Juan.

"If you have not put me in jail, then I would have been left alone in the jungle, captured by the cannibals, dead and eaten by those cannibals."

Friends, whatever you are going through right now, it did not just happen. Right now you may not understand why this is happening but later you will.

All the hardships, problems, struggles that we are into right now is not a coincidence, it is a temporary setback for a great comeback! Trust God in this!

God bless you!

Cheers!

I do not own the picture. Credit goes to McSnazzaer for the picture found at http://www.deviantart.com/?q=nature.

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What is a Mutual Fund?

What exactly is a mutual fund? Many have heard about this but what exactly is it? I too had this question long ago so let me share what I learned.

A mutual fund, is a pool of funds from different investors. Investor X invest 100,000, investor Y invest 50,000, investor Z invest 5,000. This is combined and now we have a pool of funds otherwise called as the mutual fund.

With this pool of funds, these will be invested. (stock market, bonds, etc.)

Mutual fund investing are done through mutual fund companies and these mutual fund companies have money being invested as well. Individuals can invest in the mutual funds with 5000 Pesos as starting. (This is the usual opening of a mutual fund account.)

So for example, Company X has 1 million pesos being invested in the stock market, now you, a saver and an aspiring investor would like to join in, how, through the mutual fund. You now invest 5000 Pesos with Company X, Company X then will add your money to their 1 million Pesos. So it’s now 1 million and 5 thousand pesos being invested.

If Company X earns 20%, they earn 20% from their 1 million and you will get 20% from your 5000! That’s it!

Whatever they earn, you will earn too! The good thing about this is that you do not need to do anything, in the mutual fund company, there are tons of expert managing your money, so they will do all the complicated things, the result, this turn to passive income for you. In exchange, a little fee is applied when you invest in the mutual fund, this is around 2% to 3.5%. (e.g 5000 Pesos x 2%)

Sounds good? Remember, this is an investment so returns may vary, if the market does good, you will earn good, if market is not good, you will receive the same.

Scary? No, unless you have proper Financial Education.

You can learn more about this through the IMG-Wealth Academy and not only you will learn about mutual funds and investments, you will learn how to manage your money!

Series 1 is absolutely free! If you are in Cebu, you can catch Wealth Academy in 2nd floor, JY Square, Lahug. Every Wednesday and Saturday, 6:30PM.

If you are in Manila, you can catch this at 3rd Floor King's Court 1 Building, Pasong Tamo cor Dela Rosa St. Makati. Every Wednesday and Saturday, 6:30PM.

I hope I have simplified this for you and I hope this will help you in your investing!

Cheers!

Picture is not mine. All credit goes to http://www.topnews.in/files/AUM-MF-Industry.jpg.

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Out of the Blue #4: Japanese Dramas

I do not really watch so much dramas either in TV nor download them but there is 1 type of drama that really caught me, the Japanese dramas!

Believe it or not I started watching these during my 2nd year in college. My economics teacher even suggested this and take note, my teacher is a guy!

Did it sound weird to us? YES! Who would think that a manly teacher, tall with a mustache would recommend such drama? It did sound weird to me. He recommended this certain J-drama (Japansese Drama), It was called "Proposal Daisakusen". We did not know what it was but this guy recommended it, it might be truly nice to watch!

There was a time that I scheduled to watch it but due to activities in school and homework, I was not able to but month after month, I finally found the time to watch!

Since he recommended  "Proposal Daisakusen", it was the first J-drama I have ever watched. I downloaded those files just to have a great resolution. 1st episode, believe it or not, I was amazed! The story line, characters, plot, everything was so amazing!

Now I'm not the guy who likes to watch drama but this was something else. It took me a week to finish all episodes and after that, I was recommending this to my classmates and yes, my guy classmates.

At first, they would not want to watch this, but when they started to watch it, they could not stop! During our break, we would head to the internet cafe, not to play but to watch  Proposal Daisakusen.

Believe or not, 1 of my classmate got teary eyed watching this! Another classmate of mine will get angry if he is bothered while watching.

Since it got so interesting, most of my male classmates would watch this in the internet cafe with a group! Truly interesting!

If you have some time to spare, go ahead, try watching  Proposal Daisakusen, you would not be disappointed. You can also download this in www.d-addicts.com.

Happy watching!

Cheers!

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Prepare for your big success!

How many times in life did we fail? Could you still remember? Do you also remember the feeling at the time you have failed?

It does not feel good, it is like when we fail, we feel that it is all over! The life that we know would cease to exist! Then after all the failures, we quit, we quit on our dreams, our goals and we begin to tell ourselves "This is not for me.".

Do you have dreams in life? Let me tell you something, our journey in achieving our dreams is not an easy road, along the way we meet obstacles and some bumps. It is never easy for someone to reach our dreams but here is my recommendation, DO NOT QUIT!

Let me tell you a story of a man, it happened a long time ago, this man is an example of not giving up to reach his dream:

1816 His family was forced out of their home. He had to work to support them.

1818 His mother died.

1831 Failed in business.

1832 Ran for state legislature – lost.

l832 Also lost his job – wanted to go to law school but couldn’t get in.

1833 Borrowed some money from a friend to begin a business and by the end of the year he was bankrupt.

He spent the next 17 years of his life paying off this debt.

1834 Ran for state legislature again – won.

1835 Was engaged to be married, sweetheart died and his heart was broken.

1836 Had a total nervous breakdown and was in bed for six months.

1838 Sought to become speaker of the state legislature – defeated.

1840 Sought to become elector – defeated.

1843 Ran for Congress – lost.

1846 Ran for Congress again – this time he won – went to Washington and did a good job.

1848 Ran for re-election to Congress – lost.

1849 Sought the job of land officer in his home state – rejected.

1854 Ran for Senate of the United States – lost.

1856 Sought the Vice-Presidential nomination at his party’s national convention – get less than 100 votes.

1858 Ran for U.S. Senate again – again he lost.

1860 Elected president of the United States.

Do you know this man? His name was Abraham Lincoln. His story made me realize not to quit on my dreams. If you observe, he has more failures than success. He ran for a position in government and multiple times he lost.

Ran for senate - he lost. Ran for VP - he lost. Could you imagine what Mr. Lincoln could have felt? He might have been so frustrated, so disappointed, he might have felt that he could not do anything right. But he still moved forward.

In 1860, it was for the big one, amid all the failures, he did not give up, he kept on going until he became the President of the United States of America.

Friends, reaching our dreams is a journey. It will take time but do not ever quit on it if this is your hearts desire. Failures are preparatory events for your success and be prepared because your success is a big one!

Whenever you fail, pick yourself up, shake off the dust and keep moving forward!

God bless you!

Cheers!

 I do not own the picture. All credit goes to http://frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/victory.jpg.

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Mutual Funds or buy Stocks directly? Try Financial Education!

It’s not an argument which is best, after all, these 2 instruments will help us increase our wealth. Where does the difference come? Pretty simple, if you are the type of person who have all the time in the world to monitor the stocks movement, that’s from 9am to 3pm, Monday to Friday, have all the experience in the stock market, has the right information which company is good to buy or not, have all the needed skills, then by all means, go right ahead and invest directly in the stock market.

Now you ask yourself, should I invest in the Mutual Fund? If you are the type of person who is busy doing something else like work, has no experience in the stock market and do not have the right information on which company to buy or not, then go with the mutual fund. In the Mutual Fund, there is an expert who handles your money, this expert knows very well what to do with the money, has the right skills and is dedicated to let the money grow.

Simply put it this way, these 2 instruments will help you achieve your financial goal. Think of it as an Airplane. Investing in the stock market directly makes you the pilot of the airplane, you must know how to fly it, you must lift off and safely land to reach your goal, you’re driving it by yourself. Now the Mutual Fund makes you the passenger in the Airplane, you just sit tight and relax until you reach your destination while the pilot flies the plane for you. Still both of you reaches the same destination.

So which is best? Both of them, it really depends on your investing style but the most important thing before investing is being financially educated. I have friends who just invest without knowing how it works, the result, money was not growing, worse, they lost their money.

There are some basic questions that investors should know like,  do you know what to do when the market soars high? What about when the market crashes and charts go red? When is a good time to buy or sell? How long should I keep my investments? These question will arise for sure and it is always good to prepare yourself by looking for a venue where you could be taught this.

There are venues which offers this but please be careful as scams are not far from this. On my end, I learned this in Wealth Academy. Wealth Academy taught me everything that an investor should know, it taught me so much, it made me an Associate Financial Planner. (My certification has just expired, it’s just a matter of renewing it now.)

Wealth Academy is the educational arm of International Marketing Group or IMG and here is a plus, the first series is free!

Just like going to war, you need to be equipped, trained and disciplined. Investing is the same way, with proper training and education, you can’t lose!

Cheers!

All credit goes to LeniProduction for the picture above from http://browse.deviantart.com/art/Question-mark-174773523. I do not own the picture.

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Out of the Blue #3: Bro. Bo Sanchez

What can I say? When someone mentions Bro. Bo, it's like a household name. Who is Bro. Bo?

I cannot detail to you his life but what I can tell you this man changed my life. Bro. Bo is one of the reasons I got into the Financial industry. It was one of the post of his blog that made me go for it.

Bro. Bo is a preacher, an author and a business man. Reading his post on his blog really changed my life. Aside from that, I have been attending the Kerygma Conference every year here in Cebu and also have been attending the weekly prayer meeting called The Feast.

How did Bro. Bo change my life? It was one faithful day that I was browsing through the internet and I found Bro. Bo's blog. I was graduating that time and since I was going to have a job soon, I thought of investing. With a good timing, the post that I read was about investing!

Bro. Bo was writing about why we should invest and and why we should save money and at the end, he had some person to contact to if ever you are interested on saving and investing.

I contacted Mr. Lyndon, he is from Manila and with another great timing, he dropped by in Cebu because he had something to do here too!

We met, talked and finally introduced me to Wealth Academy, this is where I got all the information/training on how to save and invest. Through this, I became a saver, investor and an Associate Financial Planner. The rest is history.

I became who I am because of 1 post. Amazing how 1 post can bless us! Coincidence? No, I believe it was all part of  God's plan.

I too hope that somehow this blog would help people start saving and investing, that way we could reach our dreams together!

God bless you!

Cheers!

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Create a positive mindset

Could you tell me what you observed below?:

1 + 1 = 2 2 + 2 = 4 4 + 4 = 7 5 + 5 = 10

So what did you observe? Normally, people would say that the 3rd mathematical equation is wrong because 4 + 4 is 8. True, but what about the rest? Only 1 is wrong and the 3 are correct, there are more correct than mistakes. I learned this from Bro. Bo and amazingly this slowly changed my mindset.

It is natural that a person would notice first the wrong before the right, it is so easy for us to point at the mistakes but we should not forget that there are also things that are correct.

Just like anything else, having a positive mindset takes practice. I’ve heard this 1 person saying “No, let’s not continue with this venue, it cost too much, we don’t have enough money.”. Why not just say “You know, I like this venue, it’s comfortable and I know we lack money for it but hey, let’s work for this money so we can get this venue.”.

Becoming a positive person involves changing how you speak. There was this story that I really love.

There was this 2 kids and kid # 1 was very negative, he would complain at anything, despise anything. And there was this kid # 2, now this kid was very positive, anything he sees, he compliments, he appreciates.

The parents were worried because these 2 kids were not balanced, one is too positive and the other too negative. So the parents consulted a psychiatrist.

The parents explained the whole situation and the psychiatrist suggested “This Christmas, you gotta separate the 2 boys, 1 room for each kid. Now, give the negative boy the most wonderful gift ever, new toys, hi-tech toys and gadgets and give the positive boy just...MANURE!”.

“Isn’t that too much?” asked the dad.

“No, no, it’s fine, it will balance both boys.” said the psychiatrist.

So that Christmas, the parents did it. They led the negative boy to a room filled with toys, beautiful and most advanced toys and gadgets ever.

But the boy complained, “I do not like this color, this is ugly, this is made in China, this is too big for me.”.

Now they brought the positive boy to a room full of manure and when the boy entered he was laughing!

He said “With all these manure, there must be a horse somewhere! Now where’s my horse? I know you’re hiding it!”.

In life, it’s a choice whether we should have a positive or negative mindset. How do we see problems? Is it an obstacle or an event in your life where you could become stronger? Would it pull you down or would it make you a better person?

If you ask me, problems are opportunities where we could become a better person.

Do you think you need a shift in mindset? Do you always see what’s wrong and not what is right?

Change the way you think and it will change your life. Be positive!

Cheers!

I do not own the picture. All credit goes to ~FlamingBravery for the picture above on http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=be+positive&offset=168.

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A changing world requires changing solutions

Before, our parents keeps on telling us to save money. “Son, you better save money and put it in the bank.” I heard that line too and sank in my mind as I grew older plus having an ATM card before looked so cool! (haha, see how colorful the inside of our wallet will be!)

The banks before actually had a very high interest rate, interest rate that could reach up to 12% a year! Imagine depositing 1 million Pesos, in a year you will have automatically 120,000 Pesos as interest. No wonder our parents would tell us to save in the bank.

As the years go by, interest rates in the bank has gone smaller, from 8% a year to what it is now, .50%!

.50%! How would money grow so much on that? Not to mention that taxes would still be applied for the earning that you will get from .50%! What about time deposits? Sure, deposit around 10 thousand and each year it will earn 1%. When we reach 99 years old, this 10 thousand will still be far away from 1 million!

These were the solutions before, things have changed a lot! For example:

Before we had the Walkman (yes the portable cassette player), now we have the ipod, hi tech mp3 players.

Before we had Betamax, VHS, Laser Disc, now we have DVD and Blu Ray Disc which amazingly holds 25 GB of memory.

Before we had those big cellphones where you can’t even put in your pocket, now we have the IPhone, Sony Xperia, Samsung Galaxy, HTC, Cherry mobile, Myphone (whew, what else?).

And remember these? The Family Computer, Sega Genesis, Nintendo 64, these were the pioneer in console gaming, now we have Wii U, Xbox One, PS4. Amazing how technology changed!

Everything around us changed, the way we lived before is no longer the same now, technology now was not the same as before. Only change is constant in this world.

My point is, if everything changed or changes, our financial strategy should change too.

We need to look for a venue or an instrument that would give us more that 1% a year for our savings.

The answer: Mutual Funds. Going directly in stocks are good but I personally recommend mutual funds.

The mutual funds may earn 12% or more a year depending on how the market runs. Remember, these are investments so losses and gains happen, there is no guarantee of a total earning.

The higher the risk, the higher the earnings as well. The mutual funds provide higher interest rates. Back in 2009, Philequity, one of the strong Mutual Fund company in the Philippines ended with a 65.05% return. In 2010, the same company ended with a 54.18% return.

Sounds good? Yes! But again, these do not guarantee positive returns all the time, it may go down too just like in 2008, the Global Financial Crisis, Philequity ended the year with -40.71%.

Many people stick with the old way of saving because not many are financially educated, meaning not many knows how to invest. With proper knowledge on how to invest, when the market goes down, there is nothing to fear, we should actually be rejoicing! Why? This will be discussed further in my other articles. :)

Let’s move forward, invest in the mutual funds!

Happy investing!

Cheers!

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Out of the Blue # 2: Billiards!

On my 1st Out of the Blue post, I talked about my favorite console, now let me talk about my favorite sport, billiards!

I've been playing billiards since I was grade 6! I'm now working and I still play this sport. Though I can't finish the ball still at 1 setting, I need more practice.

What inspired me to play billiards? One name, Efren Bata Reyes, this guys is an icon, a legend, his name is synonyms to billiards!

Ronnie Alcano, another professional pool player loves Efren so much that he tried to copy him, in what way? Well, he just let the dentist pull all his teeth out. As much as I idolize Efren, I'm not going that far. lol

As any pool player, we just got to have our own weapon of choice, that is the cue stick.

My cue stick is locally made by Steve Urate, a beautiful plane jane, Ebony (kamagong) forearm and butt and a cocobolo handle, 20oz, ivorine ferrule and phenolic butt cap and joint and to add, a radial pin.

Steve Urate's creation is beautiful and also very affordable, you can get a customized cue for 3000 PHP.

The tip that I'm using is an elk master but I'm soon going to switch to a laminated tip, could be Tiger Emerald or Tiger Everest, really depends.

What I love about billiards is that it makes you think, the preparation, how to come up with a good defense, how to shoot the next ball and all those stuff, it is so strategical.

I truly wish I could put my play to another level like in a tournament. Hopefully, soon.

Cheers!

Picture is not mine. All credit goes to zakzak008 from http://zakzak008.deviantart.com/art/Billiards-2-292137880.

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The 2 pains in Life

While I was joining a seminar in Wealth Academy (this is where I got my training in preparation for becoming an Associate Financial Planner and it's open to all too!), in the first talk, it talked about the basics of savings, why we should save and values needed to save. One very important slide hit me, I still could remember if as if I just listened to the seminar again.

It talked about 2 pains in life, I thought "it must be pain from broken hardheartedness, or pain of failure, rejection, or even a physical wound." Well, it's not, let me talk about it a little about it here:

In life, there are actually 2 pains:

1. Pain of Discipline

2. Pain of Regrets

What are the similarities? For one, taking both ways will still cause pain but in the long run, one pain is only temporary and the other is permanent.

The Pain of Discipline

This pain is something we get our from a sacrifice that we make because it is only right. For example, you know that we should save money for retirement and to do that, sacrifices are made, we cut expenses, we save money, we don’t party that often anymore, we limit our wants, in other words, our life style changes. When someone invites us to have fun and party, we decline because we should not spend so much anymore.

The pain that we get from this are pain of discipline, we sacrifice a certain action for the betterment of the future. This pain only last for a few minutes then after that, it would be gone.

After all, when it is time that we can’t work anymore and we saved so much. We will live our rest of our life with no regrets.

Pain of Regrets

Pain of regrets is exactly the opposite of the pain of discipline. When we do not do something about securing our future or you have done something that would have a negative impact in our life, we then would regret it. As the saying goes “nasa huli ang pagsisisi” which means regret is at the end.

Remember the last time you had a regret? It sucks right? I had regrets too and In life, I do not like to have regrets. The worst kind of regret is the regret the you will bring throughout your lifetime.

Avoid regrets, do what is right, live life to the fullest! Do what you can do today, do not delay!

Cheers!

All credit goes to ~JonathanTheSmex for the picture above from http://browse.deviantart.com/art/discipline-317705581.

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Why is it important to save for retirement?

Not so many people save for their own retirement. Usually people save for the next 6 months or even for the year then it stops. In other words, a lot save for short term and not for the long term.

In the Philippines, when you are 60 years old and not able to work, money would stop flowing in most cases. Who would take care of you? Your children financially. Trust me, when I was not financially educated this was my plan, that to spend money as much as I can, buy this and that and when I get old, I’ll let my children support me.

I realized that this was not the right thing, why? My future children will have their own life, own family, own plans and children. Envisioning this in the future, I would love to see my children enjoy their life to the fullest, I would not like them to get worried about me specially financially, I would not like to ruin any budget they would prepare.

There was this joke I heard that normally, when you have grandparents they would be shared to your family members, maybe, and there are 2 type on how to share:

1. If grandma and grandpa have no retirement money, the family members would offer grandma and grandpa to another relative. “Hey sister, mama said she misses you, don’t you miss mama? Wanna take her?”.

Unfortunately, this kind of situation actually happens.

2. If grandma and grandpa are rich and has so much retirement money, relatives would call and offer their homes! “Hey sister, I miss mama and papa, do they miss me? I have a bedroom with 1 big bed, maybe they can have a vacation here?”.

And truly, this actually happens too!

I am not saying that we should save for retirement so that situation # 2 will happen to us. My point is that we should be aware that we are not getting any younger each day, we grow older each day. In life, we are forced to grow old and retire.

My friend told me a story once that he knows of a retiree who has a pension with SSS, I was told that every month, this retiree would only receive 2000 Pesos! Oh my, this is not enough.

As Financial Planners, we also hold seminars (Wealth Academy) to people who wants to start investing and saving, one time, there was this 60 year old guy listening to our seminar. After the talk, he cried, the speaker approached him and asked why he was crying. “If only I knew this when I was still young.” he said.

Right now, while we still have the energy to work, energy to earn money, let’s work hard and save wisely. Earn as much as you can and save as much as you can while you still can! We are not meant to last forever, every minute, every hour, every day counts.

Let's prepare for our future together!

Happy saving!

Cheers!

All credit goes to *StarSweep for the Old Couple picture on http://browse.deviantart.com/art/Old-Couple-254084689

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Out of the Blue # 1

Every now and then, we get bored of what we talk or write about and financial talks or articles can really be boring. (I can even bore myself! LOL) So I thought, why not write something out of the blue just to get the blood running.

In this article, you will get to know my "other" side a little bit, and that "other" side is the gamer in me.

Yes, I am a gamer! I love to play video games! I love console gaming and that console is the Playstation!

I've owned PS1

I've owned the PS2

The PS3

And finally, soon to be the owner of a PS4!

The PS4 budget is now on the works, I'm already saving up for this machine! Of course, even if I am saving for the PS4, I still have money going to my investments, it's all about budgeting.

On a financial standpoint, the PS4 is $100 cheaper than the Xbox One. Slightly much powerful that the Xbox one according to some techie guys. Many exclusive games coming up and PSN has a very great value.

Here are the main specs of the PS4:
AMD x86-based 8-core CPU and an enhanced GPU
Blu-ray, DVD and HDMI output
8GB of GDDR5 RAM

I really do not understand tech terms so much but I think this is powerful.

I may be bias on this but I guess I just love the PS4! But by all means, buy the machine you want. Either Xbox One or PS4, go to where you will be happy. For me, it will be the PS4. I can't wait for Kingdom Hearts 3!

As I always say, no matter how long you have stopped playing video games, it will always be in your blood because a gamer is always a gamer no matter what!

Cheers!

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