Get rid of your debt!

Debt is one of the biggest termites in our financial foundation! But before we go deeper into that, debt is neutral, it is not all bad. There are 2 types of debt, simply a bad debt and a good debt.

Good debt is a type of debt when it will be used for business and in return, profit! You gain more money because you borrowed money to do business.

A bad debt is completely the opposite, you borrow money, use it for something that will not earn you money and in return, you are unable to pay it because you do not have enough money to pay for it.

This is what we should get rid of, bad debt! Now we can talk about a lot of types of debt but I want to focus on credit card debt.

Credit card debt in the Philippines can turn into a nightmare! Compared to the US and Canada, interest on credit cards may go as high as 19% a year, In the Philippines, it may go as high as 42% a year!

Many drown in debt here in the Philippines and when that happens, collection agents starts calling and harasses the debtor, these collection agencies go as far as sending you an "attorneys" letter and scarring you that you will get sued if you do not pay this and that and it goes on until the debt is paid.

Talk about inconvenience! I personally know someone who had so much debt, 6 digits, all from credit cards and if someone get this kind of problem, most of them would just give up but not this person, this person paid all the debt and right now, this person is out of debt and is in the green, this person have investments and it is growing! Right now, she is one of the speakers in Wealth Academy for debt management. How did she do it?

Number 1, one must be determined to pay off debt! Discipline is a must when paying off debt, cutting expenses and making extra sacrifices to make more money and pay off debt. This is the first step and most important step, with it, nothing would happen.

It is also recommended by financial experts to pay of your debt first before investing, the reason for this is because, usually, debt interest in higher than the growth of investments. It's a case of steady interest (debt) vs. fluctuating gains (investment).

If you have investments and bad debt and the same time, a good call would be to withdraw your investments and pay off the debt! That way you get rid of termites and build you financial foundation right!

Remember, control your debt or debt will control you!

Truly there are a lot of ways to get rid of debt, if you want to get more information about this, we have a dedicated series in Wealth Academy on how to get rid of debt!

On my next articles, I may divulge into detail on how to get rid of debt. Keep an eye for that.

You can get more details here about Wealth Academy:

https://www.facebook.com/WealthAcademyProgramCebu

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.

Cheers!

Picture is not mine, it belongs to http://boilingfrog.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/180.jpg.

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The 2 types of Health Insurance

There are 2 types of health Insurance:

1. Short term health insurance
2. Long term health insurance

Short term health Insurance - This is the common insurance that we have when we are working, usually the company provides us this or you can buy 1 if you wish too. Short term health insurance usually covers only up to 60 years old, beyond that, no more more coverage.

The known short term health insurance are; Intellicare, Maxicare, Medicard and it does not stop there.

Long term health Insurance - Now this is the type of insurance that may cover more than 60 years old. Basically, long term health insurance is the ideal insurance for retirement. When the short term health Insurance cannot cover you because of age, this is where long term health insurance comes in.

A known long term health insurance here would be Kaiser. It's 4 way type of insurance, that mean it has 4 ways of protecting you with this product. I could not explain the specifications for this because it may cause confusion.

If you want further explanation, you may visit the IMG office.

So which type of insurance is best? Both of them! They both have different purposes. While we still can work, take advantage of the short term health care and once we retire, take the long term health care. Preparation is what we need.

You can get more details here about Wealth Academy:

https://www.facebook.com/WealthAcademyProgramCebu

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.

Cheers!

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Healthcare for your health needs!

Health care! I guess we only hear these terms much when we are in the office. "Are you sick? You better get yourself checked with your health care, it will be free!."

These are standard conversations in the office when we talk about getting our self checked by the doctor. Health Insurance, by the term itself is a type of insurance to protect your health! If life insurance is for INCOME REPLACEMENT, health insurance is for INCOME PROTECTION.

For example, person X gets sick, person X does not have health insurance, where would this person get the money? This person have 2 choices.

1. If this person have investments, then the money will be withdrawn from the investment, whether this is a business or in stocks. Withdrawing investments would always hinder it from growth.

2. Worst case scenario - borrow money. Aside from getting sick, the interest from the borrowed money grows everyday. So after getting well, we have another problem. Debt.

"What about if someone donates to person X?" That's good! Question is, will the donation be there all the time?

How do we prevent from number 1 and number 2 from happening? Get a HEALTH INSURANCE!

For a certain amount of money that we pay for this, we are protected at a bigger amount, for example:

A certain Health Insurance is priced at 30, 000 Pesos a year, in return we are protected 150, 000 a year per illness! That's a good value! Let's say person Z gets sick and person Z has health insurance, guess what, person Z do not have to borrow money nor withdraw any investments! The health insurance will cover it. In effect and in real life, this protects our income!

Now I am not saying that health insurances will cover all the sickness, there are Terms and Conditions that applies, to know more about these, you can ask any Insurance company about this. I am merely showing the purpose of a health insurance.

And here is an interesting thing about health insurance, you can only buy it if you do not need it, by the time you need it, it will not be for sale.

Meaning if sickness happens, no health care company would ever sell just to get the person covered. Only when you don't need it, this is available, meaning only if you are healthy.

On my next article, I will talk about the 2 types of Health Insurance, yes, there are 2 types! Please do keep posted or you can subscribe if you wish too. :)

Happy investing!

Picture is not mine, this is taken from http://www.distance-education.org/pics/userpics/Image/health_insurance.jpg.

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Protect yourself with Insurance!

Insurance! I understand that when people hear this, they shy away and ignore this. It seems that many people are allergic to the word insurance. I would not blame you, there are factors why the word insurance in our country drove people away.

But let me tell you something, insurance is not something that we should ignore, insurance is truly important in our financial planning. No, I am not going to sell you any insurance so it is safe to read on. :)

I am going to talk about Life Insurance. Currently, we are offered different kind of life insurances generally these are Insurance with savings - sounds familiar? These are not bad, they are still there to protect you but if you are going to buy insurance, let us maximize the protection.

Firstly, what is the use of life insurance? Life insurance is for INCOME REPLACEMENT, meaning if the breadwinner goes to the other life, the family will be left with money and life still goes on for them.

There are 2 type of insurance:

1. Bundled Insurance
2. Term Insurance

Bundled Insurance - Simply this is an insurance bundled with savings/investment etc., so you are paying a part for Life insurance and a part for your savings/investment etc.

Term Insurance - is an insurance where you just pay the insurance value itself, nothing added, just the insurance itself.

What is the difference? The cost. The cheaper Insurance is the Term Insurance and just because it is cheap, it does not mean it will undercut you.

Let me give you an example, I purchased life insurance, I was 24 years old, for me to be covered 1 million pesos, I needed to pay at least 10, 000 Pesos a year with term insurance. If I purchased a bundled insurance, it would cost me twice, the price would be around at least 22, 000 Pesos a year!

I was also taught to buy term insurance and invest the difference, this is a strategy to maximize our money, our protection and our investments. You would be amazed by the results of buying term and investing the difference!

Once again, If I discuss it here, it will be like writing a book so I highly encourage you to join the IMG - Wealth Academy Program! Here you will learn all the financial strategies that you will need.

You can get more details here about Wealth Academy:

https://www.facebook.com/WealthAcademyProgramCebu

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.

Cheers!

Picture is not mine, all credit goes to Sephiroth-Art from http://sephiroth-art.deviantart.com/art/Knight-275211602.

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Increase your cash flow

Increasing your cash flow is the base of our financial foundation. How do we increase our cash flow? You can do business, have investments, have 2 jobs, 1 full time then after a part time job, make a Youtube Video, write a blog, sell load etc..

There are a lot of ways to increase our cash flow but the question is, is it easy? Is it easy to manage a business? Are you able to start investing strictly? Can we manage 2 jobs? What do we need to make a good Youtube Video? A blog? Sell load?

It is easy if we do it, just add discipline and it will be easy. All it takes is discipline. Now these are ways we can increase cash flow, another question would be when do we do these?

Answer: SPARE TIME! Do you have spare time? While we are working and we own a small business, use your spare time to grow your business. 8 hours in the office and after, manage your business, make it grow using your spare time.

Spare time can be used in 2 ways:

1. Make spare time a productive time. When you have spare time, use this time to create more money for you. Do things where it would create you money.

2. Waste spare time. How? By doing the opposite. Do something that kills time and not make money for you. Normally, doing this makes you spend money. Now I understand that we need rest, yes, we need it but for a reasonable time.

We cannot rest always during our spare time if we wish to increase our cash flow. I know of someone who works full time in a call center but after work, he works from home, runs a small business and serves his clients and he also knows when to rest.

In result, he is making more money for himself, increasing his sources of income. Spare time can be a productive time or a waste time. Make more money or spend more? The choice is yours.

Cheers!

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The foundation of building wealth

What is the foundation of building wealth? Many people think that it is just plainly investment. Many think that once you have invested, that's it, it's gonna grow and I will become rich. Let me shock you, investment is not the ultimate solution. Investment is just the tip of the iceberg. 

This was my mistake before too, I thought that once I have invested, that's it! Nothing else to do but to put more and more. I was wrong.

Investing is good but it should have a foundation, just like any building, you cannot establish a 100-storey building without a foundation. Everything that you build must have a foundation, that includes wealth because creating wealth is building wealth.

Here is the Ideal financial foundation:

Increase cash flow - to make money work for us, we have to have money first, earn as much as you can while you still can.

Protection - We need healthcare when we get sick and if we are the breadwinner of the family, we need life insurance for income replacement in case something happens.

Debt elimination - Usually the interest of debt is bigger that the growth of investment, why bother investing if our debt eats all our money up.

Emergency fund - If small emergency rises, this is where the emergency fund should come in, this pays up for the small emergencies. (Not parties or going to the mall, but REAL emergencies)

Investments - Finally, after having established these, it is time to invest, we let our money make more money for us.

Why do all these? For example, we get sick and we have no insurance, where would we get the money? If you have investments, for sure, it will be taken from the investments, this will stop our investment from growing. Same thing with small emergencies, if these event arises, it will all be taken from the investment, worse, have a big debt!

The purpose for this foundation is to protect our investment, we let it grow. If I explain it here, it would like be writing a book! 

I learned all of these in IMG-Wealth Academy, such an amazing venue for learning! So if you have time and want to learn more about this, please do visit the office. 

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.

Happy investing!

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Out of the blue # 5: Nodame Cantabile

Yes! Another J-drama! I actually watched this last week and finished the whole series and the movie in about a week.

What can I say about this? AMAZING! This drama is about music and love altogether! Nodame Cantabile is actually from a manga and now, they have a live action series.

I am not going to spoil you here, just sharing the love! XD

Alright, the story begins with Chiaki-senpai and Nodame-chan. Chiaki is a very talented musician but his passion is in conducting. Chiaki is self-centered, perfectionist and perhaps, a jerk? :D

Chiaki meets Nodame-chan, a very loving, care-free woman who is very talented in playing the Piano! Actually the opposite of Chiaki when in comes to character.

When Chiaki met Nodame, this is where our story begins! How do you think this would fare? The series is a vacuum, once you start watching it, you will never want to stop, it just sucks you in to watch more. If as is you want to finish the whose series.

Mind you, each series is about an average of 50 minutes, the show is good for 11 series and 2 movies which is nearly 2 hours each!

But you won't regret it. The series will give you the laughter, the excitement and perhaps you might feel the love in the air with this series.

If you got time, I recommend watching this series.

Enjoy!

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