Are You SMART?

Scared! Insecure! Inadequate!

These are the things that might be running to your head when deciding if you will plunge into investing or not.

You are not alone. These are the feelings of all the big investors when they started.  Even the most confident investors go through these every once in awhile. Yes, even the multi-millionaires, They too in their secret heart, they self-doubt themselves.

So let me tell you straight forward.

Are you smart enough to start investing.

Let’s make it simple. You are smart if you can
       S - Set Your Goals
       M - Manage Your Time
       A - Action Taker
       R - Reader and Resourceful
       T - Thoughtful of your Future

If you can do these, I can tell you that you can be successful in investing.

I know where your brain is heading. You are making excuses. You are telling yourself again “Yes But…”     

• Yes, I can read but only a little.
• Yes, I can follow instruction but just a little

Okay, so you are not good enough just a little, like everyone else.
And that is why the first question is – can you read?

Because if you can read, you can learn. And not just a little, you can learn anything and everything you want to learn.

Even if means you are listening audio books or watch videos to acquire knowledge and information, you can still be successful.

This is the age of information.

Anything you want to learn is one click away.

The quantity of information that exists makes it impossible for any single person to know it all.

With the internet on your fingertips, all you have to do is to know where to find information.

This is not the time to play ignorant.  Ignorance cost a lot of money.  Don't wait until you don't have time to correct your mistakes.

Start today. Check this OUT

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The Crazy Rich Asians

The Asian economy is one of the biggest and strongest economies in the world.  No wonder we see a lot of Asian tourists travelling here and there.  Gone are the days when the greener pasture is in the other side of the world.  The greener pasture is here in Asia, where we all are. Even the world's richest people on Earth are Asians but ever wonder why you stay poor when others are getting rich. Just like you, everyone is asking HOW???

Sit, take a moment and read to ponder these 5 things that rich people do that poor never realize.

1. The rich do not watch TV, instead they read books that will improve themselves. Whatever your eyes are staring at will have a huge effect on your beliefs, your principles, your reactions, and your thinking. You are what you watch. So, minimize watching melodramatic 'teleserye', instead get and read the 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris and see how your perspective on life, working and becoming financially independent will change.

2. The rich people surround themselves with people that inspire them to be rich. Birds with the same feather flocks together saying is true. If you surround yourself with pessimists, sooner than later you’ll absorb the way they think, the way they react and the way they handle their lives. If you want to be a good photographer, a good network of photographers is your best bet.  If you want to be rich, be with people who has the same goal.

3. The rich people wake up early. The more time you spend with your pillows, the less opportunities you have. Simple but true.

4. The rich spend time to improve themselves and their skills. Rich people find opportunities to develop what they currently have. May it be workshops, courses, podcast, book, as long as it will satisfy their need to expand their skills that will definitely impact their status in life, they are on board. 

5. The rich take responsible of their actions. Rich people do not find people to blame for things that happened to their lives. If their decision fail, they re evaluate, re-plan, and take action.

We have one life to live, might as well live it to the fullest but in a more thoughtful way. After all, you don’t want to spend working all your lifetime.

If you haven’t read my ebook “How To Grow Your Own Money Tree”, don’t waste your time. Download it now, it's free anyway. It has illustration guides of different investment tools that makes it easy to understand. Start growing your own money tree this year. 

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3 Budget Tips For Working Mothers

A career woman, you fell in love, got married and then little bundle of joys are now running around.  It would have been a blissful life if not for the budgeting of the family income.  It would be exciting if the family money is continuously overflowing.  But what if not. 

Here are some ways that I can share with you from my own experience that can keep your sanity intact.

1. Write it Down

(Photo credit: TeeRico)

Don’t keep the budgeting all in your head.  Even you have the greatest memory in the world, you can’t trust that you can remember everything. In this digital age, we are flooded with tons of apps for budgeting. There are simple, basic, complicated, colorful. If you are a traditional like me, then writing is the best policy. You buy a small notebook where you record your monthly budget. 

A week before your payday, jot down all expected bills to pay – rental, electricity, water, internet, school fees, etc.  Keep your notebook in a place where you can always see it or remember, like your bag.  You can even recycle a few pieces of receipts that you can use the back side. If you have those fancy free journals from coffee shop, make it useful.  The goal here is to keep track of your expenses regularly.

2. Plan Ahead

(Photo credit: Design Pirate Ph)

Too many people keep track of their household budget too late that they wait for the ‘petsa de peligro’.  People worry the week-by-week expenses, worse day-by-day budgeting style. What happens then is that they run out of time to handle unexpected spending.  

Here are some tips in planning ahead, list down the grocery items you need for your next trip as soon as you finished your current trip.  This will help you see if there are price increase and can adjust the selection in your next trip. Another tip, if you cook at home, it is wise to list down the monthly menu so you know exact ingredients you need to buy and cut the unnecessary spending that normally goes to waste.

You should not only have a monthly schedule of the bills, but a yearly one so that you can plan for what’s needed.

3. Staying Smart to Stay Ahead

(Photo credit: Money Crashers)

The most important question is, what to do if you have extra money after all is paid and done.  Many of us mothers will think, it’s ‘ME Time’, me time to go to the salon, me time to go to shopping, me time to enjoy feasting with friends.  There's nothing wrong with the Me Time but the budget for this should come from your fun fund.

The best plan for your extra money is to save it for rainy days. If you have your emergency fund covered, then the best next option is to invest that could create additional income.  Here are some investment tools you can consider CLICK HERE.

The ability to manage the budget is something which most working mothers learn over time until it is running in your veins automatically.  It is a skill that we can learn and develop.  The best way to learn it is now.

Budgeting could not be more importantly especially if finances are tight.

If you haven’t read my ebook “How To Grow Your Own Money Tree”, don’t waste your time. Download it now, it's free anyway. It has illustration guides of different investment tools that makes it easy to understand. Start growing your own money tree this year. 

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3 Tips To Not Going Broke This Season of Spending

Holiday. It is that time of the year again. But when you hear the word “holiday,” what does it come to mind?

For many people, holiday connotes to a festive season where feasting and gift-giving is a norm. Young and old alike are simply looking forward to this once-a-year occasion.

While foods are abundant and that gifts are burgeoning everywhere, these expenses do not necessarily come free. Like most household, this celebration calls for expenditures that can surely hurt the wallet, even if you are the type who is deep in the pocket.

Yet, when spending has become the norm due to the occasion, it is also a time of the year when many people go for broke—don’t be.

Here are some tips you should follow in order to go through holiday with a healthy pocket:

Tip #1: Be Frugal

When most hard-earners are wasting their precious money on stuffs for gifts, there are people who chose the more creative route by making their supposed present with their own hands. Call it adding a more personal touch to the endowment, but having to personally make your own present is not just creative, it’s also practical and resourceful.

Some people may consider you “cheap” for not wanting to spend some cash for gifts in this time of the year. But, depending on your creativity and skills, some hand-made present could actually be worth more than what you could buy in the store.

It may sound like an overused cliché, but remember, it is always the thought that counts when it comes to giving gifts and not the cost of the item you’re imparting.

Tip #2: Set Limits

At a time when people are spending luxuriously in celebration of an event, it is sometimes hard not to go along and have your fair share of the expenses. It is, after all, just a one-a-year celebration, right?

Wrong.

While it is true that holiday is a time when most people splurge, the idea is not necessarily part of the celebration but an option to those could afford it. When others are getting ahead of themselves and are spending more than what they could have afforded, be the wiser one and set limits with your expenses.

In fact, the best way to do this is to make plans beforehand. From the foods you are going to prepare to the gifts you are willing to give, these stuffs require careful planning for you to not go broke.

So, do yourself a favor and have a well-laid out plan about your holiday and not compromise on your finances by not trying to prep.

Tip #3: Don’t Be in Debt

You know what’s worse than having insufficient budget for the coming holiday? Not having any budget at all.

You might be living from paycheck to paycheck or finding it hard to make ends meet to come off without wads of cash for the holiday. While this is fine for the most part, what is not is when you think of borrowing money to compensate, especially if you intend to go deep about it.

Although most common intuition in this scenario is to borrow some money in order to compensate for the lack of it, do not. There are in fact other ways you could come up with some decent so long as you have the willpower for it.

Instead of putting yourself into debt just to level with everybody else for feasting, seek alternatives in making money even on the very day of the celebration. After all, there is 24 hours in a day which is more enough for you to come up with cash.

Doing the aforementioned will not only put your finances from the negatives, it will also allow a breathing space from future money problems.

And if you are looking for solutions for your maxed out credit card problem, find the Secrets to a debt-free credit card after the season of spending.

Credits to Daily Mind for the image.

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How To Seduce

At some point in your life, you must have desired something but you were left

heartbroken because you failed to attract that thing you’ve been dreaming to have.

(image source: http://saidadesilets.com/proceptivity/)

The reason is you are not seductive enough. You lack the charisma to let that thing be

attracted to you. You don’t have the magnet to attract that job, that position, that

money, that wealth you’ve been wanting all these years. Or you might have the magnet

but you’re probably positioning it in a wrong direction. Remember that the same poles

repel and that opposite poles attract.

So, if your dreams keep repelling from you, how can you seduce them back and finally

get them?

How can you be seductive to them to make you irresistible?

The answer is simple and that is, you have to give.

Remember the old saying, “The more you give, the more you receive”? It might sound

old school or corny, but you know what? It works. There must be something that you

can give to attract your dreams until they’re yours.

Let me give you a simple example. When I visited the Great Wall few weeks ago, there

is this souvenir shop that sells Great Wall key chains. Well, there were many shops

there that sells key chains but this particular souvenir shop that my friends and I went

to gives something that makes her more seductive to the tourists than the other shop

owners-and that is-free engraving when you buy a key chain from her.

So, when the other tourists saw what she was doing with the key chains that my friends

bought, they were attracted then suddenly swarm around and started buying, too.

But how about if you’re not a key chain seller. What is that, which you can give to

finally make you enticing?

1. Give time

The number 1 issue why you are not succeeding is you make yourself believe that you

are too busy and that you don’t have enough time. And this mindset keeps circling over

and over again around your brain until you are convinced that the only free time you

have within 24 hours is when you have to use the bathroom.

Give time to yourself to learn something new one step at a time about that business or

investment you’ve been planning to start. Give time to improve yourself and learn new

skills that will further qualify you on that job you’ve been aiming for a long time.

2. Give effort

This reminds me of that popular Juan Tamad story who lied down under the guava tree

and waited for the guava fruit to fall on his widely opened mouth. Yes, he had made

effort to open his mouth, but the effort is not enough.

Why do other people fail? The effort they give is not enough. You want to prosper, to

be wealthy for instance, but when an opportunity to learn is there in front of you, you

don’t effort enough to grab it.

Let me give you another simple example.

I give free ebooks and one of the ebooks is about investing in the stock market and the

title includes the phrase, step by step guide.

Yet, people who have seen the ebook ask me questions like, how should I start? What

do I need to do? How much money do I need? And sometimes, just the word HOW?

Then I ask, have you read the ebook? And the answer is, “Not yet, but can you tell me

about it”. Hehe

Sometimes, the opportunity is already there but you don’t give more effort to get it.

The old saying, “If there’s a will, there’s a way” says it all.

3. Give patience

What we want is the shortcut. One of the reasons why many don’t succeed in investing,

like investing in stocks, is they don’t want to give patience. They want quick money.

So what do they do? They settle on penny stocks even though they don’t have any

knowledge of the market’s technical analysis.

For a teacher like you or an employee like you who have no any idea of timing the

market, don’t even think about trading, yet. Give more patience to learn first before you

do it.

Give more patience on your blue chips – the big, stable, reputable and established

companies. They may move slowly compared to other companies but like what Bo

Sanchez said, the turtle always wins.

4. Give money

Finally, you have to give some cash away.

If you want to seduce success, you must be willing to give some money away in

exchange of books, seminars, trainings that will empower you, that will build you up

to be a better version of you to enable you to be alluring to success.

Let’s try this one more saying. “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance”.

Remember: To be seductive, you must give.

An article by Violeta Depalog

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Are You SMART Enough To Invest?

(Image Credit: Dare To be better. wordpress.com)

Scared! Insecure! Inadequate!

These are the things that might be running to your head when deciding if you will plunge into investing or not.
You are not alone. These are the feelings of all the big investors when they started.  Even the most confident investors go through these every once in awhile. Yes, even the multi-millionaires, They too in their secret heart, they self-doubt themselves.

So let me tell you straight forward.

You are smart enough to start investing.

Let’s make it simple. Answer to these questions

• Can you read?
• Can you follow instruction?

If you can answer yes to all, I can tell you that you can be successful in investing.

I know where your brain is headed. You are making excuses. You are telling yourself again “Yes But…”     

• Yes, I can read but only a little.
• Yes, I can follow instruction but just a little

Okay, so you are not good enough just a little, like everyone else.
And that is why the first question is – can you read?

Because if you can read, you can learn. And not just a little, you can learn anything and everything you want to learn.

Even if means you are listening to audio books or watch videos to acquire knowledge and information, you can still be successful.

This is the age of information. Anything you want to learn is one click away.

The quantity of information that exists makes it impossible for any single person to know it all.  With the internet on your fingertips, all you have to do is to know where to find information.

Read More

3 Mindsets that Make Filipinos Poor

When you look around the region or even the world, the Filipinos are favored by different countries to work for them to help build their nation. We export more skills than products because we cannot deny that Filipino’s resilience, resourcefulness, work ethics and don’t forget our English proficiency are undeniably impressive. But that makes me think, despite our skills and intelligence, the Philippines is still one of the poorest countries in the world.

Here’s what I discovered from my family, friends and colleagues.

The Bigger Pay, the Better

When a Filipino finds a job with a better pay, they pack their things, submit a resignation and move to the next job. Who would not, right? But if we will stop and analyze closer, a P1,000 or P2,000 pay increase would not go a long way. Many times, that increase of pay will sadly just go to income tax. 

Have you heard of “it’s not how much you earn, it’s how much you save”? If you spend all your earning, it doesn’t matter if you earn 10,000 or 100,000 a month, you will still end up poor. Instead of never-ending search for the higher pay job, maximize what you receive. Okay, I hear you saying, "how can I save if the income is short"? That brings us to the next mindset…

Spend then Save

Many of the Filipinos I met know how to budget, that’s a good start. However, when they start listing the items, they prioritize to spend rather than save.  They pay the bills, pay children’s school, food, transportation and everything else, except paying yourself a.k.a Saving. Filipinos must understand that to become rich, the perfect formula is Income minus Saving equals Spend [IN – SA = SP], and not the vice versa. The sooner they realize the importance of this mindset, the sooner they can escape the poverty. It may not be easy at first but remember that it’s harder to be poor forever than start changing your life.

Good Job, Good Money, Good Life

Many Filipinos look at employment like gold mine. For us, with hard-work we can beat the life of financial stress. We embed in the core of our soul that one day hard-work will pay off and we can retire with fat account. Little did we realize that our active(main) job do not make us rich but  it’s the passive ones that makes the difference.  Why…because the income that we receive from our job is limited. It will never increase as much as we want, there will always be deductions that give us barely enough to pay our bills. The job of your second income is purely for keeping, and if you know how to manage it properly, this could be the key to your becoming rich.  Multiple streams of income is the secret to an abundant life.

Conclusion

Filipinos are intelligent, hard-working, skilled, organized, persistent are just some of our best traits known worldwide. But look around and see if all our elders who worked all their lives. Many are still struggling to meet the ends at the later part of their journey.  Are they enjoying the life that they deserve? Are they living comfortably after retirement? Being wise and smart about your money is the turning point. If we only open our eyes and learn from the mistakes of others and improve it in our own lives, the Philippines will be one of the great economies in the world. 

Credits to Pinoy Biznes for the image.

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