My new year’s resolutions for this year are closely related to my personal finance values and my career. Last year has been very eventful. We’ve encountered tragedies. We’ve also encountered a state wherein I was near zero in terms of my finance. Although, I couldn’t have done anything with regards to the typhoon, I’m not allowing any of the finance problem part happen again this year.

• Invest more regularly. That means every month. Not only at times that I think I have enough money.
• Blog more often. On this blog that is.
• Learn to drive. This is a real nice skill to have especially in our line of business (car rental)
• Learn Stock Photography. I just bought a Canon EOS 1000D and I intend to learn using it and earn money doing stock photograhy
I intend to open a savings account. In this account I will put in money for traveling purposes. I always liked traveling(by land) and I intend to go out more often this year

Married individuals’s costs are paid by two individuals. For example, the house rent or mortgage is paid off by two individuals thus making it cheaper than if only one individual does all the payments.

Married individuals are much more motivated. The married individual
could be working better gor the family, or working better for the children.

Married individuals don’t eat out often. Instead of going out on dates, they spend more time at home.

Two earners mean more income. This is basic math.

Married individuals can check up on one another. One could remind the other when overspending. It’s much more common to make mistakes when you’re single because of this.

Do you believe that married couples are much richer than single individuals? If yes, why?

People never read the introductions anyway.

100 ways to save money

1. Shop after the holidays
2. Conserve Water
3. Grow your own vegetables
4. Ask your bank for a debt repayment plan
5. Stop playing the lottery
6. Buy in bulk
7. automate bills payment
8. Try home remedies
9. Quit Drinking often
10. Quit smoking
11. Avoid convenience stores
12. Make your own detergent
13. Use a clothesline for drying
14. Read
15. Buy with quality in mind
16. Buy less clothes
17. Do it Yourself
18. Don’t watch television
19. Wash your hands
20. Open the windows
21. Use Coupons
22. Buy Generic
23. Have a grocery list
24. use power surge protectors
25. Quit the video arcade
26. Vaccinate your dog
27. Have a budget
28. Clean your surroundings
29. Exercise
30. Pay yourself first
31. Use Natural Light
32. Open a savings account
33. Eat less meat
34. Drink a lot of water before meals
35. Get a postpaid internet plan
36. Shop for supplies months before the school season
37. Marry who has the same financial values
38. Unplug appliances not in use
39. Live closer to work
40. Use the public transportation
41. Stop dining out
42. Brush your teeth
43. Have a checkup
44. Eat natural foods
45. use free software
46. Cut your own hair
47. Use a normal razor
48. Pack your Lunch
49. Use Compact Fluorescent Lamps(CFLs)
50. Pay your Debts

Where are you going?

Most people have goals. It’s entirely natural for someone to want to achieve something he or she likes. For example, I would like to be a general manager or a business owner someday. A friend of mine likes to be a game-developer someday. So how do you go about your goals? What should you do?

Define.

If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.

~ Dr. Laurence J. Peter

Know what you want. Its very clear that a person who doesn’t know what he or she wants would not achieve anything he or she wants. If you want to achieve something, you need to be clear on what you want. Write on one small paper what you want. For example if I would like to be promoted to being a general manager I would write, “I want to be promoted to the general manager position”. It’s as simple as that.

Visualize.

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.

~ Frank Outlaw

Visualization is the next key to achieving your goal. Visualizing yourself succeeding at achieving your goal helps you build confidence and vice versa. Allow yourself to see only one image which is achieving your goal. Believe you can do it. Confidence and belief makes us perform at our best and thus resulting in goal achievement.

Become

Your future is created by what you do today

~ Rich Dad

In Retire Young, Retire Rich, Robert continues with, “What you are doing today is your future”. Robert Kiyosaki is a famous financial educator. He and his wife wanted to build businesses in the future. So, even though they had no money, everyday they practiced building businesses and they eventually became owners of multiple companies.

In our example, I defined my objective or goal, “I would like to be a general manager”. I visualized it. Now, I would act and talk like a general manager. I will practice being a general manager by doing what a general manager does and eventually I will become one.

Don’t instantly become. Remember that to become needs a change of habits, thoughts and actions. Make gradual progressions on changes you need to do in order to become.

I would like to hear what you can say about my method of goal achievement.

Photo by zaraki.kenpachi

Why eliminate the shampoo
First of all, shampoo is does the job of cleaning our hair. It leaves our hair smelling good and feeling soft. A lot of shampoos contain aloe vera, vitamins, minerals and fruit extracts.

So there’s actually no reason to eliminate the shampoo, right?

Introducing some Hidden stuff
A big concern for unnatural or man-made products is that they don’t do as much good as they say they do. Some resources have claimed shampoos may be actually be harmful.

Shampoos are also detergents. The chemical mechanisms that underlie hair cleansing are similar to those of traditional soap. This means that it strips off our hair with the essential oils that it needs to shine naturally.

Expensive
You can just imagine the cost of shampoo for an average person. As of this writing, the average cost of a shampoo sachet is about 5 PHP. This means that an average person would be spending around 150 PHP for a month or about 1,800 PHP a year. You could open up a savings account with that money. Did you know that a lot of Filipinos don’t have a savings account?

Here’s the Healthier and Cheaper Alternative
Vinegar and Baking Soda. Yes, I actually use baking soda to clean up my hair now. I find it easier to find. If you want to try it out. You’d better read on.

First, get a bowl and fill it up with some baking soda and water. Mix it up until it becomes as thick as traditional shampoo. Experiment a little on the amount of baking soda for the mixture. This baking soda-shampoo could last a full week.

I’ve honestly haven’t tried vinegar but I’m quite sure you’ll find these a lot more helpful.

• The No Shampoo Alternative – No Poo
• Baking soda/vinegar shampoo recipe
• Homemade Hair Conditioner: Vinegar Rinse Is Awesome! – This one goes further and replaces her conditioner

There’s always a good feeling after you’ve tried something out of the ordinary to change routine. The best part is when breaking up your routine benefits you in so many ways.

I should probably try baking soda as a toothpaste…hmm… nah!

Photo by jilldoughtie

200 Peso Bill

• The guy who just got off from the Lexus.
• The woman who’s just gone shopping in New York for her clothes.
• The young man who’s flashing his rolex watch.

Extensive research was done for Stanley and Danko to prove that most millionaires don’t do most of those things. Most millionaires:

• live well below their means.
• allocate their time, energy, and money efficiently, in ways conducive to building wealth.
• believe that financial independence is more important than displaying high social status.
• had parents did not provide economic outpatient care.
• have adult children are economically self-sufficient.
• are proficient in targeting market opportunities.
• chose the right occupation

From the way I see it, luck didn’t play a part in making most millionaires millionaires.

Here’s a pretty trivial article I wrote a few weeks ago about how to become a millionaire in 10 years.

Photo by Stephen Angelo

How are your investments doing?

Are they earning money?
Are you receiving dividends?
Are you receiving additional shares?

If yes, then that’s good. If not, then probably you can still invest in other things — like yourself.

Investing money in mutual funds, buying retail bonds and buying a franchise are very common. But how many people you know invest in themselves?

You can imagine how investing in oneself can be beneficial to one below the age of thirty. I, myself, can see how investing in myself has proven to be beneficial. I work as a web developer with a rate increasing every year.; And I will tell you now that none of the things I know now was taught in my school. Regular investing in myself has increased my value many times over. But investing in oneself isn’t just limited to learning new stuff. There are a lot of things you can invest in yourself directly and more indirectly.

Education
Cost of investment: minimal time
Returns: nice income
This is the obvious one of the crowd. Investing in yourself through learning new skills can make you indespensible in your career. Learning a new skill could also mean you can offer your services with your new skill or even develop a business out of it.

Network
Cost of investment: minimal time
Returns: friends and opportunities
It’s who you know… not what you know. Malcom Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, makes a smart analogy how weak ties come in handy. If you want to know more about real networking and making friends, read How to Win Friends and Influence People and Never Eat Alone.

Be healthy
Cost of investment: minimal time
Returns: unlimited
Health is wealth. I think we can all agree that health is trully wealth.

• If you exercise daily, you reduce the chance of osteoporosis and heart problems
• If you eat a healthy diet, you reduce the chance of strokes and nutritional defiency that results in sickness
• If you sleep 8 hours a day, you reduce the effects of sleep deprivation(depression, anxiety and cardiovascular problems)

Invest in yourself. Do not limit yourself to financial investing. Investing in your Self National Bank could be the best investment choice you made in your life. Do it now.

photo credit

Medieval freelancer

Freelancing is defined as selling a service to clients without an employment contract. Most of the jobs are short term arrangements.

Freelancing has recently boomed in cyberspace giving birth to blogs and sites namely, freelanceswitch and freelancefolder. Both teach and guide freelancers on pricing, attitude, and everything about the business that is freelancing.

It has been so popular recently that almost everyone I know is doing freelancing on the side. I, myself, started freelancing while in college, developing websites and applications for a few companies.

Doing freelancer on the side is easy. With just a little time management you could easily put it off. But what if you want to live the freelance life. No full-time job and no ‘boss’.

You’ll need a lot more than time management to pull this off.

Technical Skills – You should be skilled in the area you want to specialize in. It’s a requirement if you want to be a freelancer.

Negotiation Skills – You should learn to negotiate your price. Pricing is very important. Since you’re trading your skills and time for money and your livelihood could depend on it, you’d better have the guts to say what your time is worth.

Time Management Skills – You can choose to work when you want as long as you meet deadlines. Just beware of Murphy.

Communication Skills – You should be able to get the right information from your client no matter what. Remember that you want to deliver what they want.

Freelancing is a really good alternative to office work but there’s much to be considered. You may find that you like the so-called financial security that an 9-6 job gives.You may also find that you miss your company’s health benefits and a lot more.

Freelancing is not for everyone. If you ever think of working freelance, test the waters first by doing it as a side business instead of doing it full-time.

Photo by redshift27

First Prize

I am a very proactive guy and have tried out Steve Pavlina’s intention manifestation approach to goal achievement and I believe me, it works. I have also tried other approaches like causality wherein you create a cause and you receive an effect. But after listening to this audio file, it made me think about how doing things in a certain way will make you not only rich but also successful.

I have come up with a list of things that I have gathered from listening to great leaders and friends who have been successful in life.

Successful people have successful friends. It’s not uncommon to see people you associate with become friends. It is said that you are who your friends are. I have found out that successful people have friends who are also successful. Most of the times, alike people attract each other. Deciding who to be friends or who to spend more time with will greatly affect your perspective on things.

Have you ever changed jobs? Have you ever changed classes at school? Have you ever been transferred to another department? Have you ever moved to a different neighborhood? These situations subconsciously required you to change in a certain way. It’s an adaptation of yourself to its environment. I can guarantee you that the people who are and were present in your environment greatly affected who you are now.

Successful people are confident. Confidence is a characteristic of a positive attitude. A lot people without much confidence live life not knowing what they can do because they do not believe that they can. When most people would have negative attitude in difficult situations, confident people will persevere because they believe in themselves that they can do it do it. They are confident regardless of circumstances. Confidence empowers.

Successful people have self-discipline. Wikipedia defines Self-discipline as training that one gives one’s self to accomplish a certain task or to adopt a particular pattern of behaviour, even though one would really rather be doing something else.

Most of us just stop doing things just because we don’t feel like it. Successful people do things even if they aren’t in the mood for it. Successful people do things even if they don’t like what they are doing. They do it to achieve a goal. In the end, they achieve what they have wanted in the beginning.

Successful people are open-minded. We see a lot of people who do not adapt to change. The world is being filled up with more information and better technology is introduced everyday. But a lot of people do not want to adapt to change insisting that their beliefs and knowledge is much better than anything out there even before they see or try things out.

Remember that you see what you want to see and successful people grab and absorb any information they can learn and use. They are open to thoughts and suggestions. They do not think that they know everything.

Successful people try and try again.Most people are planners. They plan for the future. They plan for everything. But a lot of people also plan too much. They will be afraid of mistakes. They have fear that they will make mistakes. They never make the necessary action which is normally composed of just getting started. Not getting started is what keeps some people from achieving their goals.

A successful person would not fear mistakes. They will try doing something until they succeed. As Dale Carnegie said:

The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way

Remember that as long as you keep trying, you should realized everything that doesn’t work is just making you better, smarter and stronger.

Successful people prioritize. Prioritization is the key to most time management system. I have read several books and they all focus on prioritizing the most important and possible thing to do for the moment.

Successful people do not get caught up doing the least important things first but instead do the most important ones first. They know how to balance urgency and importance. Without prioritization, I believe it would cause very poor production on anyone’s part.

What are your keys to success? Write your own list and leave a comment below telling us about it.

Photo by kevinthoule

Last month, we had an emergency.

Financial emergencies happen. It doesn’t matter who you are, how old you are or where you are. They happen when we least expect them. And, they usually cost money.

In this post, we will outline why and how to start an emergency fund.

What is an emergency fund?

An emergency fund is an accessible amount stashed away for emergency use. It will only be used in case of emergencies like job loss, medical emergencies, etc.

Why build an emergency fund?

There are just too many unexpected emergencies that can and will happen in everyone’s life. You do not want to be caught in the middle of it without cash. Here are a few real-life emergencies that have occurred to me and people I know:

• A few weeks ago, Typhoon Ondoy flooded our house and lost almost everything. We had to scurry around looking for food, safe drinking water, and supplies.
• My friend’s grandmother was hospitalized and confined for a few days due to kidney complications
• Another friend had go to surgery for meningitis, quickly followed by surgery for hydrocephalus

These are all emergencies. Unfortunately, many have made the conscious decision not to have rainy day savings. People think they’re pretty safe until they are laid off. Bottomline is, we all need emergency funds.

How much is enough?

One cannot say how much a person would need. Depending on the situation, you may never have enough. However, a good rule of thumb is to have 3-6 months worth of income in the fund. If that is not very realistic in your situation, you may apply these rules:

• If you are an employee with a regular income, you should have 10% of your annual income in savings.
• If you are self-employed or your income fluctuates (through commissions, for example), you should have 20% of your annual income in savings.
• If you are retired, you should have 30% of your annual income in savings. (I’m assuming this means retirement income since if you’re retired you don’t have employment income.)
• If you’re in danger of losing your job, you should have 40% of your annual income in savings.

– How Much Should You Have in Savings?

How to Get Started?

For most people, building an emergency fund is very hard. Simply saving money is hard. Now, we need to save 3-6 months of worth of income? Actually, it is easier than it seems.

• Sell something. Check everything at home. Do you really need all those stuff? If not, sell them!
• Offer services. What are you good at? Do you love cooking? Offer to cook lunch for office mates. Are you good a web design? Check out Sulit and offer your services.
• Lower your expenses. Think of it as a spending transfer. Limit buying and deposit all the savings in an emergency fund.

A few recommendations

• Use it for real emergencies. Christmas and birthdays don’t count as emergencies.
• Don’t touch it. It’s better to put your emergency fund where you cannot easily access it.
• Don’t put it in any investments. You probably know this. Investments can lose money. It’s better to keep it safe in a savings account.

photo credit