My Digital Corner

FOREX Trading Tips for Beginning Traders

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Dumaraos) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 04:59:00 +0000

A few months back, something sparked my interest on getting into spot (Foreign Exchange) trading and so I started practicing on demo accounts, enrolling on online courses, attending webinars until finally I openned a live account - a microlot account.

The real trading practice is significantly different from the demo and yes, as expected, I burned some good money away the instant I started placing my trade. It was disheartening at first but I surely got something more valuable to my future as a beginning trader than the money I lost at startup. I gained practical knowledge on the best practices on how to and how not to trade going forward.

For those newbies like me considering on getting into spot trading, here are some practical and no non-sense advice you would definitely find it handy:

1. Expect to lose. Even the most well thought out trading plan provides no guarantee of winning. Not even the most sophisticated tools, softwares and charting indicators can give a trader full protection against losses. Losing is very much a part of a daily life of a trader. What sets a good trader from the rest is how they manage risk which I will talk about later.

2. Always start with a clear plan before entering a trade. This is the most important step. Study the currency pair you wish to trade and lay-out a clear plan on entry and exits. Take time to take a longer look at the charts, make scribbles and use whatever tools or indicators that suits your fancy and draw-up a plan. A good starting point is to identify the trend where the market is heading and knowing where the support and resistance levels are.

3. Be patient. Patience is a common virtue among professional traders. One of the many mistakes I made as a beginning trader is to "chase-the-market" and hoping to get into the trend. Though there are times I made some profitable trades with it, but most often than not, I lost a good deal of money with such a strategy. Another mistake I made was to get into short-term trading like "scalping" thinking I could reap some profits quickly in just a matter of minutes - wrong again. While it might be true to intermediate and veteran traders, it's definitely not the case for beginners.

4. Do not panic. Yes. This is what happened to me when I had my first loss - I panicked like crazy! I remembered putting a one-lot, long entry order then a few short minutes later the maket started moving against my direction and dipping to 100 pips on the short direction! Thinking that it will go further down, I immediately closed my trade to prevent further losses until it went back up again 20 minutes later to what had amost been a profitable trade. Never be hasty to close any losing trades. There are strategies where you can regain them and one of them is hedging.

5. Keep your strategies as simple as possible. It's so easy to get lost and be overwhelmed with a host of tools, indicators, and trading strategies available but the best plan is ALWAYS the simplest ones. Technical indicators such as Fibonacci's, Elliot Wave, Bollinger Bands etc only help to improve the probability of winning but it's no guarantee. To keep my trade simple I only observe and use the following: a) Identify the trend b) know the support and resistance levels, and c) use Slow Stochastics. I am not saying to limit yourselves to that, however use a few tools and strategies that works best for you.

6. Know your risk and manage them well. Since the possibility of losing is inevitable, managing risk should part of every trading plan. A good risk-reward ratio should be 2:1. This simply mean that for every dollar that you risk, your profit placement should be atleast two dollars. Another way to manage risk is to put in only a maximum of five percent of your total equity into trading. Do not risk more than what you can actually sustain.

7. Journalize past trades and study them. This is something that many traders does not do - journalize their trades. Keep a record of all trades such as: your entry position, lot size, stop loss, limits, risk-reward ratio, currency pairs traded, strategies and so on and so forth. This will give you an idea where you traded wrong and what you can do in the future to correct them. There are available commercial software applications (in MS Excel format) to help you properly journalize your past trades and it's always a good habit to keep one.

8. Trade on mid to longer timeframes. I do not specially recommend 'scalping' or any trading strategies to that matter with very short timeframes. Short time frames ranges from minutes to a few hours. Although, that is where the market action is, shorter timeframes are usually very unpredicatable and no technical indicators will prove very useful in these scenarios. I advise trading on a timeframe from three(3) days to two(2) weeks for they provide more information and outcomes are significantly predicatable.

9. Do not open too many trades all at once. Sometimes, we get giddy and get ahead of ourselves thinking that every chart we see is an opportunity that we cannot just let it pass. So we open up too many trades all at the same time. Openning a trade requires an ample amount of equity to sustain it. Openning too many all at once will definitely require more money and, if it cannot be sustained, you might get a margin call. Openning fewer trades, on the other hand, gives you more focus on a given trade and frees-up more time for you to do other things like: taking out your wife for a dinner.

10. Never place stop losses too close to your entry level. Because I wanted to limit my losses, I always make a mistake on placing my stop losses very near my entry level - like 30 pips. Since stop losses are to 'shallow', I end up getting stomped-out by normal market oscillations. Until you are very sure that the market will move towards your expected direction, do not place stop losses until you've earned enough pips.

11. Never put in too many lots on a single trade (over leveraging). This is one of the result of being impatient. Over leveraging, as they say, is a double edged sword. It may give us more profits only when the market is moving toward the expected direction but, it may not if it isn't. For beginners on a microlots like me, stick to 1 to 2 lots even if we feels we are very sure.

12. Focus on the pips, not on the profits. This advice was taken from a book somewhere. It changed my mindset on how I look into trading. It simply means that our success and failures should be measured on the number of pips we gained or lost instead of seeing it in the financial point of view. This is helpful for a couple of reasons: 1) we focus more on strategies and learning from them, and 2) we do not over-leverage our trades for a quick fix.

Trading Log: CHF/JPY on 02/06/2010

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Dumaraos) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 04:12:00 +0000

Currency Pair : CHF/JPY

Time Frame : Daily
Strategy : Range Trade
Support Level : 84.17
Resistance Level : 91.052
Entry : Buy @ 84.217
Limit : 87.863 (646 pips)

Notes: Conservatively lowering my entry limit @ 87.863 to close and planning to go LONG on the same entry limit up to to resistance level @ 91.052. The total pips when it reaches the limit level is 646.

I Struck Gold!

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Dumaraos) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:37:00 +0000

There's an old proverb that always ring a bell everytime I think of investing - "Do not put all one's eggs in a single basket". As my income grows almost on a regular basis, finding a safe place to hide and nurture my 'eggs' can be time consuming at times. Factors such as risks, stability and interest rates are just some of things that need careful consideration before putting my money in.

Very recently, I looked at gold as an investment and I must admit I am very convinced why everyone has to have some of it. Since Gold prices are steadily going up from the time it was traded, I considered buying some for my own however, a few things must always be considered like where to keep it and if it can easily be sold to current market prices.

I stumbled on this website (www.bullionvault.com) where you can easily buy gold and trade them anytime when cash is needed. I listed some commentaries regarding this service as I tried my hands on them:

WHY IT IS A GOOD DEAL.

1. You don't need huge cash deposits to buy gold. A regular middle income dad like me can start saving by buying gold with a minimum of $US36 (that's P1,660+ pesos) deposit. That is the price of 1 gram of gold at the time of this writing and you already have an account which you can deposit on any of the three bank locations (New York, London or Zurich) available and at any of the three donominations - US dollar, Euro or Swiss Francs.

2. Real Gold: The gold that you will buy is a real physical gold, kept in an allocated storage with your name. The gold is kept and secured in your behalf by ViaMat - a BullionVault partner of some sort. Likewise the money earned from trading gold is kept in an international bank and on any of the three currencies of your choice.

3. Real-time monitoring: Depending on the market trends of gold, you can actually see the up-to-the-minute changes in valuation of your gold investment on the Account Balance Page. When the value of gold in the market goes up, the valuation of the amount of gold you keep in BullionVault goes up as well. You can actually see how much your investment grows even over a period a few days.

4. More control: Control is important most specially when your hard earned money is at stake. Should you want to maximize profits by trading gold, you can easily do it in BullionVault's easy to understand trading platform. Since the value of gold remains steadily up over the years, you may not need to trade at all - just keep on buying. If (just if) the value of gold dips to record lows, you can then sell it to other BullionVault members which may be programmed to do it automatically for you. All one has to do is determine the tolerance level of price 'dips' one can take.

5. Easily converted to cash: In times where cash is badly needed, your gold investment may be sold to a much higher price from the original price you bought it - ofcourse. For gold, fortunately, your money invested will definitely yield a much higher return than putting it in a time deposit.

6. Easy to understand. The user interface of BullionVault is very easy to understand and operate on that even a highschool student can start trading with basic knowledge - I think.

SOME INCONVENIENCES:

1. You cannot use your credit/debit card if you're thinking of buying a few grams of gold. You have to Bill Pay or wire

transfer your payment in cases you wish to buy gold. These things take time and it's more convenient for me to use my credit/debit card instead.

2. Member page keeps on logging-out. I know it's for security purposes but I hope they will have an option where the user decides to keep logged-in the entire day.

3. Some video tutorials for beginners who wanted to go into gold trading at BullionVault.

Over all I would recommend BullionVault as part of your savings and investment portfolio. The key advantages that made me

go into this is: Control, stability and profit.

Optimizing PostgreSQL for Production ...

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Dumaraos) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 06:55:00 +0000

Optimizing PostgreSQL for Production Use.

This is a reference list of things that need to be changed to PostgreSql Server prior to production use. This material is a collection from other resources but outlined in a while to simplify configuration settings for regular database administrators like me.

STEP 1 [Configurations]: Go to PostgreSql config at: file /etc/postgresql/8.*/main/postgresql.conf to change the settings.

STEP 2 [Available Memory]: Know how much memory you need to allocate for your database. If your server is solely dedicated for database use, then your physical memory shall be your available memory. If it is shared with other services such as Apache2 Web Server then, leave an ample memory for others. Generally, allocate a very liberal amount of memory for PostgreSql since databases are naturally resource hogs. My rule of thumb for this is:

75% of Physical Memory (RAM) = 'Available Memory'

Example: .75 * 2G RAM = [1.5 G RAM]

STEP 3 [Change th config file]:

Parameter	shared_buffers
Description	Sets the number of shared memory buffers used by the database server. Settings significantly higher than the minimum are usually needed for good performance.
Units	8kb
Recommended	*.25 [Available Memory]**
Special Note	You need to change the kernel parameter [SHMMAX] to twice the amount of memory allocated for shared_buffers.

Parameter	work_mem
Description	Specifies the amount of memory to be used by internal sort operations and hash tables before switching to temporary disk files.
Units	kb Default: 1024kb
Recommended	[Available Memory/max_connections] / 2

Parameter	maintenance_work_mem
Description	Specifies the maximum amount of memory to be used in maintenance operations, such as VACUUM, CREATE INDEX, and ALTER TABLE ADD FOREIGN KEY. The value is specified in kilobytes, and defaults to 16384 kilobytes (16 MB).
Units	kb
Recommended	[Available Memory] / 8

Parameter	wal_buffers
Description	Number of disk-page buffers allocated in shared memory for Write-Ahead Log (WAL) data.
Units	kb
Recommended	8MB

Parameter	checkpoint_segments
Description	Maximum distance between automatic WAL checkpoints, in log file segments (each segment is normally 16 megabytes).
Units
Recommended	(([Disk Space Allocation for WAL] / 8) -1 ) / 2
Special Note	must be between 16 to 128 depending on how much disk space are you willing to allocate for WAL.

Parameter	effective_cache_size
Description	Sets the planner's assumption about the effective size of the disk cache that is available to a single index scan.
Units	kb
Recommended	*[Available Memory] .75**

CPU Operation Costs:

cpu_tuple_cost	0.0030
cpu_index_tuple_cost	0.0010
cpu_operator_cost	0.0005

Life Insurance: Permanent vs. Term

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Dumaraos) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 07:39:00 +0000

The whole idea of getting a life insurance is purely for protection however, there are now a wide variety of life insurances, bundled with some form investments,promising better returns (cash value) and boasts wider coverage. But, before you pull your wallet and get excited please ALWAYS take time to know what you want, how much you can spare, and for how long you wish to keep the policy. Carefully selecting the right life insurance can spare you from disappoitments and save you huge sums of money in the future.

After careful deliberation, you'll surely be faced with the million dollar question - should you buy a permanent life insurance or term insurance? Here are some useful facts and tips you should consider first before buying.

1. Buy Life Insurance for Protection ONLY

Life insurance is NOT an investment vehicle and should never be considered as such. Many life insurance policies nowadays are bundled with some form of investment component that primarily makes your premium very expensive. To give you an idea, Term Life Insurance will only cost you around 10% of the actual cost you'll get from Permanent Life Insurance having the same coverage. Also, another reason worth mentioning is that investment component in permanent life insurance policies generally yields very low returns because it does not earn cash value in the first two years from your policy application.

2. Term Life: More value for less

If your young or a middle-aged dad like me, getting a term life insurance policy make alot more sense. A term life coverage at a younger age makes your premium very affordable and the likelihood of you cancelling your policy is less because it's cheap and sustainable. Fact is, many permanent life insurance policies are cancelled in the first 10 years for the very same reason.

3. Keep it lean and simple.

Do not buy some additional riders you wouldn't really need and most probably will not use. Insurance riders contain a lot of exclusions that is usually written in fine prints for very obvious reasons - they don't want you to know. Riders also drive your premium payments up and put more money into your agents pockets. The rule of thumb when getting a policy is, keep it simple and lean. The only exclusion to this rule, in my opinion, is the Waiver of Premium Rider (WoPR). This rider suspends premium payment but keeps your policy active when you become disabled.

4. Buy only from reliable source.

Always do your homework by knowing the financial standing of the insurance company you're buying a policy from. Don't be deceived by nice looking brochures or verbal promises made by your agent. Know their financial standing and get opinions from others. You have to know and make sure the company will still be there when you need them.

5. Select a professional insurance agent.

Surely, the first people who will approach you to buy their insurance are either some very close friends of yours or your relatives. My brother bought his from his mother-in-law which he eventually cancelled. My advice is stay away from them and get someone not related to you that can equally be trusted. This will make it easier for you to say no on offers you don't need or not be ashamed should you want to settle for a low-premium policy. This is one good reason why I find it difficult to cancel my policy which I bought from a close friend.

Healthcare Reform: Things they should teach our doctors in med school.

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Dumaraos) — Sun, 17 May 2009 08:44:00 +0000

Foreword: This article was kept back for quite some time until today for the reason that it might cause a stir among many of our business partners, affiliates and a handful of close friends. I do not intend to discredit the medical profession in general nor embarrass anyone. My sole intention is to let them know that they should put people first above all before themselves.

Quality healthcare is one of the very basic benefit every Filipino should and always have. Yet, even those who have and can afford, cannot truly appreciate health care in its true sense of the word. I'd say, much of the problems in service delivery lies entirely not our government or the system but from the principal drivers of health care - the doctors.

I have listed some common and very annoying habits that doctors do or doesn't do in the practice of their profession and what med schools should teach to our young graduates.

1. Respect other people's time.

Have you ever seen a doctor who came in for work on time? Probably there are but in my experience 9 out of 10 doctors never make it on time. What's even more disheartening is the fact that people graciously accept doctors' tardiness. No one expresses anger or disappointment whenever the doctor come in late for work. Instead, they are greeted with respect and reverence much like greeting a priest in a confessional. Also, our chronically tardy doctors were given 'safe passes' or 'blanket' acceptance for such socially unacceptable behavior. It's high time that we should express to our doctors that our time is equally important as their time and that there are no excuse good enough for disrespecting our covenant of properly keeping time.

2. Always consider patient's financial capacity.

The cost of health care including diagnostic tests and medicines are steep these days most specially with the advancement of very modern medical technology. Ever wonder why doctors prescribe too many lab tests and not even ask if we can afford to pay for it? In retrospect, doctors should always qualify the financial capacity of the patient to pay for medical bills and that procedures should be conservative and given in accordance to patients' economic status. In other words, before an expensive procedure is to be given to a patient, a low cost alternative must first be considered unless extremely necessary.

If it may help to understand, doctors get as much as 15% to 30% percent (commission) for every laboratory referrals they make to private laboratories. The more referrals they make, the more income they generate - that is how the 'game' is played. Sad but true, there are no prevailing health care standards placed by our Government to better monitor and manage medical practice, much like an ISO for the manufacturing industry, and so doctors are left to do basically anything they want without being accountable for anything.

3. Give what is due to the Government.

Doctors make poor businessmen. A dishonest businessmen at that. In fact, they don't consider their practice a business at all; probably another excuse not to give official receipts and being chronically tardy. Doctors don't declare how much patients and money they earn for medical consultations. Doctors don't declare their commissions or referral fees they get from private laboratories and hospitals. Doctors don't declare cash gifts and bonuses. And, doctor's refuse to deduct taxes from services rendered to insurance holders. Well, if there is anything these doctors want to deduct from, it probably is their obligation of service and charity to their countrymen.

4. Stop asking favors.

We are in the business of health care and, part from being that, we hire doctors to manage our clinics. If there is truth to what our medical director once said that: "doctors need medical reps for conference sponsorships". Is it really a need or just merely a want? I pity the medical reps these days for they are reduced by these doctors to become their personal sponsors for conferences and even their dinner parties. This is one major reason why our medicines are among the most expensive in Asia because of the representation costs incurred by drug companies to these doctors. Yes, your doctor is the reason why they are expensive.

5. Work with the system.

Many doctors always seems to feel that they are always a cut above the rest. This probably stemmed from long and expensive education that they feel they should be given special treatment. Thus, being socially placed above the pedestal, they feel that they can work their best if there are less rules to follow. Rules that particularly govern their professional practice.

I can vividly remember when we first installed our first medical director to our chain of medical clinics and discussed on house rules and policies, they (the doctors) started feeling very uncomfortable.

The practice of medicine has changed dramatically over the years most specially with the advent of modern medical technology. We were able to probe deeper and understand primary causes of diseases and how we can protect ourselves from them. But, despite all the advancements, some basic yet very important things hasn't changed and that is how our modern shamans (doctors) practice their profession for the sake of science?

Creative ideas to force yourself into saving 'automatically'.

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Dumaraos) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 12:22:00 +0000

I must admit, I am not really big on saving money much less on investing. However, we all need to save and make money one way or the other; if we atleast care about securing our future or our children's future.

The only way I know then on saving money is the same way how most people still do now - apportion an income and place it in a bank. Very crude and ineffective. No wonder saving money takes so much discipline and effort to make it work.

But before we jump in, allow me to say that there are two key elements that must always be considered when saving money. Elements needed to make saving money to work for you, every time. First is doing it 'automatically' and second, protecting it from yourself .

1) Saving 'Automatically'. This means having someone apportion your money for savings on your behalf with no conscious effort. A common example may be automatic deduction by your payroll officer or automatic fund transfers by your bank.

2) Protect from yourself. These may be processes or programs that limits you from touching your nest eggs from unnecessary withdrawals for a specific period of time.

So what are other ways to save and how do we start it? Here it is:

1. Increase your monthly HDMF (Home Development Mutual Fund) contributions.

I am pretty sure that right now, you are paying only the minimum required by the government for your HDMF or PAG-IBIG. And, what still many of you do not know is that, PAG-IBIG also functions like a bank (a provident saving bank).

Increasing your PAG-IBIG contributions doubles or triples your money since this will be matched equally by your employer. So, say for example, your monthly contribution of 50 bucks is matched equally by your employer with another 50 bucks. That's easy money! Also, since it is a savings deducted together with your other obligations like your SSS; it is non-tax deductible and earns dividends overtime.

This means the more you contribute the more you earn overtime and without you even knowing it.

2. Get a savings-linked annuities.

Annuities are premium payments made on regular intervals like monthly, quarterly or annually. There are some non-traditional investment vehicles that are now linked to savings. A very good example is a whole life insurance where you pay annuities until the age when you plan to retire and a portion of these premium payments goes to your savings. This way, one is compelled to pay and save at the same time to get covered by an insurance.

I got mine at PruLife UK with a no-frill life insurance plan. Scout for a plan that fits your needs and make sure its linked to savings. To do this 'automatically', ask your payroll officer to do an automatic salary deduction and directly deposit the premium payments to the insurance company's bank account.

3. Save windfalls and extra incomes to savings-linked annuities or other investments.

Yes we do have windfalls once in a while and these may be in a form of bonuses or successful business deals. Windfalls or extra incomes provide for us an opportunity to advance our payments on mortgages, savings-linked annuities, or to buy more investments. The whole idea of advancing payment on savings-linked annuities other than increasing your savings is to protect you from difficult times such as unemployment.

But do not advance your savings-linked annuities too much as you might be putting all your nest eggs in one basket. An 18 to 24 advance payment will do the job and give you enough protection during hard times.

4. Simplify investment. Get a Managed Fund.

I've written in my previous blog article that I am completely opposed to putting my savings in a bank since it only earns very little interest plus other deductions. So it's really not a wise move if you do and it's only the banks that earns from your hard earned money.

So where do you put your money? Put it in a managed fund. I prefer managed fund because its simple, balanced yet yields higher returns, and less time consuming. This way, my money is diversified across different investments thus making it more secure in the long run.

5. Pretend that you didn't get a raise.

If you do get a raise, I highly advise you NOT to tell your wife or else... you know I mean. Since you and your family has adjusted to the lifestyle prior to your salary raise, keep your mouth shut and save the extra to any investment vehicles that you may have. Again, you may pay in advance your annuities or make another investments.

You can the again negotiate with your payroll officer to direct deposit the raise to annuities of your choice.

6. Buy Certificate of Deposits (CDs).

A certificate of deposit is a promissory note issued by a bank. It is a time deposit that restricts holders from withdrawing funds on demand. Although it is still possible to withdraw the money, this action will often incur a penalty.

CDs only offers a small annual rate of return, usually around 5%-6% per year but the good part is it prevents you from touching your money unnecessarily. It also provides another good option to place your windfalls or extra income since it only requires a minimum of five thousand (Php 5,000.00) pesos per certificate.

As you can see, there are ways to force yourself to save and there are still some more out there. So far, I only included those that works for me and still slowly increases my savings contribution every so often.

--End--

That Crazy Horse

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Dumaraos) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:49:00 +0000

That crazy horse! I think about it a lot these days.
Missing the sulky and misguided adventures, that
brought me in countless pits of dangers and mindful follies.
She was a foolish ride no doubt, but fun nonetheless.

Since that dusky hour of our depart,
immediately I felt the weight around my waist.
Dragged and lost into lands unfamiliar;
land of virtual peace and love. So they say.

That crazy horse may be truly crazy.
yet brings the warm glow of youth and,
the liberating but wondrous joy of unpretentious mind.
With this I say, I want to break lose and find my crazy horse.

5 Simple Rules to Saving Money

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Dumaraos) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 07:40:00 +0000

Many of us would agree that saving money is an essentially important part of our daily activities yet, don't know exactly how to start and sustain it.

When I was a young kid, I was taught the value of saving money and the very traditional way of doing it - saving a few amount and putting it in a bank. That's it! There were no specific instructions or rules given on how to achieve this task and how I will manage to sustain it.

These 5 simple rules is what works for me and surely may work for you too. I wrote them here so I can always remember on how I did it and to help others who wishes to get themselves on track to saving wisely.

1. Set your purpose for saving money.

Just like with any other things you wish to do, you've got to have a roadmap on where you plan to go. Saving money is no exception and you should know where to put your money on and for what purpose.Knowing your goal and purpose for saving money also serve as an inspiration. It is an index to your faithfulness to save.

Some examples of purposes for saving money are: Retirement Plan, Children's College Education, Buying a house, and Emergency Funds.

2. Start now and just do it!

Just with any natural laws of Physics, it takes more energy to move an idle object. It is the same thing with habits, the hardest part is always to get something started.

The best time to get your savings habit (if you haven't done so), is to start NOW! One of the best advise I got on getting things done was from a Nike commercial that says: "Just do it!". When I strongly believe on something that I know is right for me, I just do it , take it head on and not ask too many questions- period.

So, instead of being critical about things while you waste time thinking, getting it started NOW and think as you move along is the best way to make things done.

3. Pay yourself first.

This is nothing new but rarely done. This means that before you pay the government (for taxes), your utilities or mortgage; you have to pay yourself first.

Most often than not, I hear families do it the other way around - pay the bills first then what ever is left will be for savings. This is a HUGE, HUGE mistake that is why many unsurprisingly, never save enough for their future.

How much should you be saving? A rule of thumb is to save between 10% to 15% of your gross monthly income - I save 17%. If your in your middle thirties and haven't really saved much, I suggest you to save as much as possible including some windfalls like bonuses or cash gifts. Catch up on the lost years that you haven't.

4. Do it automatically.

One thing I don't and never plan to do is budgeting. So you ask how I manage my savings without budgeting? I do it automatically!

Doing it automatically means 'automatically' deducting my income (be it for my insurance or managed funds) before it even reaches my hands. This way, I don't get tempted to use my money from other purposes I don't intend to buy. Discipline is something I don't have and so I work only with whatever income is left after deducting 'automatically' for my savings.

5. Do not keep it in a bank!

For many of us, we put all our savings in a bank where it only grows 1% per year. This is precisely the reason why I never put my nest eggs in them because you virtually inhibit your money from growing.

Be wise and put your money on managed funds or other investments where you have complete control on how your money is invested on. Many managed funds have at least an annual compound interest rate of 10% per annum.

Would you still keep it in a bank?

The SPIDER Rules: A Middle-Aged Dad's Guide to Personal Finance.

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Dumaraos) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 07:18:00 +0000

I am neither an accountant nor I claim to be a financial guru but I can certainly tell what makes sense if you're a middle-aged dad like me raising a family and securing our financial future. I have learned that there are only six simple rules (aka S.P.I.D.ER. Rules) for one to ensure future financial security. These rules spans time, income class or educational attainment. The degree of financial success depends on how much effort you give into all of these.

Rule 1: Save

The act of saving is the first basic step toward future financial security. As a rule, one should save 10-15% of one's gross monthly income - I save 17% monthly and I still live quite comfortably. Man's appetite for personal conveniences (lifestyle) is insatiable yet can only be controlled by one limited resource - money. To limit and simplify my lifestyle, my savings get automatically deducted from my paycheck and I live with what i have left. Simple yet effective.

Rule 2: Protect

Since I am a family man of two children, I have to protect my savings and family from unforeseen circumstances of death or debilitating diseases. I chose a no-frill permanent life insurance just enough to cover me for these unexpected events. My life insurance serve also as a savings plan with a 10% per annum interest.

Rule 3: Invest

Investing is an act of contributing money to make money. Savings alone is not enough to secure one's future - you have to multiply it.I started mine in mutual funds then, when I accumulated enough, it will be invested on businesses that provide a much greater return.

Rule 4: Debt Management

It is moronic for me to say that debt is bad because it never is. It turns bad only when it becomes unmanaged to a point where one can no longer pay for it. Here is my rule when getting a loan: only borrow money to make money. Buying a car for family use will not put money in your pocket and buying your dream house won't either. Manage your debt and put it in a controllable level.

Rule 5: Educate

As with any activity like a camping trip or a basketball game, it needs careful planning. Good planning starts when we are financially educated and really doing what we learned. I started by reading books from R. Kiyosaki and D. Bach and browse for more on the web. Learn as much as you can. Let education be your map to your future.

Rule 6: Revenue Streams

Even though I'm a part business owner of our health care company, I am salaried just like any employee in the office, but the pay is much higher. Having learned not to be complacent, I find creative and new ways to make money. And, Whatever I earn goes to the bank or some other investments. Everyone has special skills and anyone can profit from them. Be it in cooking, web design, and writing; you can turn them into profit and who knows, any of these special skills may become a huge income generating business for you and your family.

Physician House Calls : Reviving an Old Practice to Modern Communities.

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Dumaraos) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 04:03:00 +0000

When was the last time you remembered a doctor visiting you in your home and see how you are doing? I was fortunate enough to have such personal care when I was still a young lad, that kind doctor was our neighbor. From that time forward, going to the doctor's office was really somewhat a luxury. It is since I don't have much time to spend and wait in line for doctors that always come in late for work .

In cases of medical conditions where you need to urgently see a doctor at wee hours of the night, where do you go? I cannot go to OPD section since they close at night. So I am left with no choice but to endure the steep cost of medical care in the Emergency Room, even if my case isn't an emergency.

We in the health care insurance business recognize the this serious flaw in the delivery of health care services to our countrymen. More often than not, the HMOs shoulder most of these unnecessary expenses incurred thereby increasing their utilization.

Being fully aware of this situation, KAINOS Health Management, Inc (our company) has come up with a simple plan that isn't really new at all; but a long gone practice - physician house call.

Yes, we believe that genuine health care should be patient centric and that, a personal and convenient approach is necessary at all times - even at night. Providing house calls is a very welcome convenience most specially for parents who have not enough resources to visit the nearest hospital or can't wait until morning to consult a very tardy doctor.

Visit our new program on our company website at www.kainoshealth.net to learn more.

Google Mail Going Offline!

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Dumaraos) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 02:17:00 +0000

I don't mean to cause panic to everyone who uses Google for their mails but yes, Google has pulled the plug from it's mail service.

Google has released from their Labs, Google Offline Mail service which means you can now view, search and compose Google Emails even when no Internet connection is available. Isn't that exciting?

How Google does this? If you're using IE7 or Firefox, they will prompt you to install a small background service called Google Gears in your computer. Google Gears will be the one responsible for caching and synchronizing all your email data with their remote servers. It does this automatically without you having to notice it after your first sync process.

What I like about GMail over outlook is that it is:

simple and straightforward,
full feature and very fast searching capability,
huge storage space for mails - 7Gb, and
very portable.

Now, I have every reason to tell my two brothers to dump their old, clunky and highly inefficient M$ Outlook and move in to Google Mail service instead.

Enjoy your offline email browsing with Google Mail

The Folly Of Action Group Meetings

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Dumaraos) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 03:06:00 +0000

I was the host tonight of a BCBP Action Group Meeting which we hold once every week to different households of each member couple. It is a fellowship community where my wife and I recently joined to worship Christ and commune with other members as well. Yes we had the usual stuff of studying the Bible and of course the personal sharing.

When the sharing started based on the reflections we had on a verse from the Bible, my wife and I had only a little over five minutes to say our part because the other couple took almost an hour to say their piece!

After the session, the host will normally serve food for the guest and we did. Since I am the host, I thought I will have the opportunity to share more and run the group's conversation. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. I was almost quiet that evening because their 'chit-chats' never seem to cut and it's difficult getting in between their conversations. I however tried to manage my way twice to get through and start to say my piece. Yes, they stopped and listened for a few seconds then they just smiled back. Immediately after that, they shot back and continued on as if I did not talk at all or I wasn't there. I was not even asked for my opinion.

Sensing that it was hopeless for me to join their conversation, I just retracted and kept silent the whole night. Now, how is that for a group sharing?!

My advice:

I have only few advices to give to these people and I know it's not that difficult...

that they should listen more than they talk,
give time for others to talk,
and, be kind to the host to run the show - it's their house anyway!

I'd say that this is complete disregard and therefore disrespectful to my authority as a host. I felt that my house was turned into a cheap restaurant and I am the waiter!

With this, I am very,very disappointed. Sorry guys.

Half Past Eleven

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Dumaraos) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 02:46:00 +0000

One day got infuriated by something and someone who isn't worth mentioning about now. These words just came spewing out like a dormant volcano rumbling and throwing rocks of angry words. Nope that volcano hasn't erupted yet, it will soon be and pressure is building up fast.

These I write ...

A self-righteous man is a self-centered one who

thinks of himself as all knowing and blameless in all his

hideous acts.

He who does not accept personal shortcomings

has a very short memory and lives a life as short

as what he can only remember

An agitated man never seeks the

company of peace, but rather digs

himself in the graveyard of loneliness.

A man who claims perfection is

himself living a less-idyllic life.

Anger only reaps resentment. It's perilous

path leads to unfathomable depths of destruction,

loneliness and regret.

A leader with a broken moral compass,

leads a pack of sheep into a rocky cliff of

what he claims a promise land.

A well guarded thought and tongue is more

respectable than one who speaks

folly and vile words.

When do you say it's over?

When do you say it's enough?

When do you say you can't?

A quiet man never speaks a word about it,

nor moves a hair but

shows when he disappears.

A true man's value can be appreciated

only abundantly when there is

less of him available.

Great destruction can only come from

the least of them all.

A proud man never learns to accept defeat

but when defeat is inevitable, he in turn blames the

world for his miseries.

In the eyes of a proud man, he is blameless

and remains that way until all sight is lost.

Initiating an Almost 'Paper-less' Office

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Dumaraos) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 01:37:00 +0000

I work in a health care insurance industry and in this business, paper works are undeniably enormous and quite unsightly too. Though the initiative of doing 'paper-less' has been floated before, no real plans were laid out and no real participation by the management has been committed.

We all clearly say that doing 'paper-less' provides many potential benefits, and cost is one of them. Whenever people encounters challenges on implementing this program, all of a sudden they withdraw and not talk about it. True enough, it is very challenging - so this is where the fun and excitement begins!

When we talk about a 'paper-less' program, it is synonymous to using a special software to manage all paper works for distribution and storage. There are many softwares (aka Document Management Softwares - DMS) available in the market but many of which are insanely expensive and will surely make you lock-in to their service - that is something we do not want of course.

For several years, I have had the opportunity to work on several different DMS's and I would say there are many good ones out there as there are many bad ones too. One thing to consider as well is the company that makes these software and we wanted to make sure that they will still be there even after two decades of use.

What are the qualities of a good DMS?

A good DMS must atleast have the following properties:

Easily accessible: All employees must have a ready access the uploaded documents for retrieval and review so there will be no physical distribution of documents that will eat up their desktops.
Sharing: Uploaded documents must have the capability to share it with others based on the privileges provided by the owner of the document.
Accountability: This is done in two ways: 1) version control to monitor all changes made by every single user and, 2) document permission to set security restrictions to every document.

GoogleDocs & Spreadsheet - A good way to start.

To give you an idea on how our office is setup, we have 60 plus employees both in our insurance business and medical clinics which are located in other parts of the city. Yes, papers are used a lot so my challenge here is to significantly minimize paper usage as much as possible if it cannot be remove at all. Since we are using GoogleApps platform anyway (thank goodness for that), for our email, calendar and instant messaging service; we might as well maximize all other services like using GoogleDocs & Spreadsheets as our Document Management System (DMS).

Implementation Plan

Sometimes, the only best option to make a plan like this successful is not to give your employees any other option. ;) Really! Believe me it works all the time. Below is my way of implementing an almost 'paper-less' office:

Make a memo to everyone concerned telling them about your plan and when it will be effective. The schedules of training, transition and implementation must be clearly stated to avoid potential conflicts in the future.
Create a simplified guideline and policy regarding this initiative. This will help the transition to paper-less easy for everyone to follow.
Provide training sessions and learning resources. Since most of the things they need to know can be found on the Internet. I provided our employees links to videos and interactive tutorials for them to study. training sessions are provided only if there are some advanced questions to be asked. Doing this saves time and effort on my part.
Remove all MS Office or Open Office applications installed on every desktop. This will ensure that all employees will be forced to use Google Docs and Spreadsheets and that these documents will be saved in Google servers.
Disallow document saving in any local hard drives or USB drives. This ensures better security and protection in cases of theft, calamity or virus attacks.
Provide regular review and feedback sessions to measure success of the project plan.

I have given my staff relatively three(3) weeks for the transition. With that, I think that is ample time for them to adopt to the new system.

How are you implementing yours?

Me, My beer and the Sinulog Festival.

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Dumaraos) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 17:27:00 +0000

Oh yes, it's that time of the year once again where people flock and stroll around the City 'til early morning the following day - the Sinulog Festival. Quite honestly, I have outgrown this event and wanted to stay as far as possible from loud noises and heavy traffic. However, I've got two 'jumpy' kids who are very excited to get a tattoo and watch the street dancing.

So in preparation, we got all our things packed for a sleep over at our office (Jones Avenue) so we won't need to worry about waking-up very early in the morning for the Sinulog. We also went out for a dinner with a couple who has been my long time buddy since high school and shared a nice chat and laugh with his wife this evening.

I guess, I would probably enjoy Sinulog more if my wife isn't with me all the time. If given the chance, I would probably sit on some small bar and drink, get to know people and have a good and nice chat. Or probably sit on one corner and just watch the parade pass by and enjoy my quite time alone. But then again, it's just me wanting some time off alone sometime.

;)

The Troubled Global Economy: "In Greed We Trust"

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Dumaraos) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 01:14:00 +0000

The year 2008 as many of us are aware, unless you are living in some remote timbuktu, that we are in a very serious global economic crisis. Banks failing and closing down, unprecedented job losses, and fear of uncertain future is slowly becoming a reality. Many says, it stemmed from too many bad loans from the housing and banking industry thus, the credit crunch. To add more insult to injury, Bernie Madof (once called an investment guru) has successfully built the largest Ponzie scheme probably in the entire history of humankind. He made people believe that their money was safe and growing but, wasn't really there.

Fifty billion dollars, all gone by just ONE man!

With this we asked ourselves, how can a very strong economy like the US, likened to titanic in pride, strength and might; be sinking in deep, cold and lonely waters of debt? Haven't they learned from their 1929 experience or do they just have a very short memory? Complex as their economy may be to balance their worksheet, their economy will even become more sour unless people start changing their mindset about themselves - that the world does not revolve around them!

The American economy is built on the capitalist principles of buying and wanting more. For them, the seed of economic growth is not providing the needs, but feeding every individual's urge of wanting more. You wake up everyday and you see endless ads and commercials on the roads, radio, TV, internet and virtually everywhere. Capitalism has successfully found and capitalized one resource that is virtually unlimited in supply, and that is GREED!

And also because of greed, the capitalists invented a tool to suffice their endless wants - credit. People started buying on credit more than what they can pay for and splurging to their hearts desire until more credit is needed. This went on for years until the bubble has finally bursts.

Such misfortune is very embarrassing to many Americans, it simply blows their PRIDE and cannot accept the fact that they are in deep, deep trouble. To save face, they are minting more money out than ever before in the hopes it will stimulate their economy once again. The sad reality is, they are just passing the buck to their children and their grand children so they don't have to worry about it now.

If I am to put a mathematical formula on how we all got into this mess, I would simply expound it into this very simple notation:

(Capitalism + Greed) * Pride = Trouble

From this point forward we ask ourselves, where will it stop and when will it end? Is Capitalism the culprit of all these? Is it all the fault of Allan Greenspan? I say, this is all a case of GREED and PRIDE. Since we are all in it together, I guess it is but prudent to "grab the bull by its horns" , accept the consequences and not pass the buck to their children.

This is where I leave my message for you to reflect and understand how we can fix the problem and prevent it in the future. There is no quick and easy fix to this. So we all better brace ourselves for the very rough road ahead and pray to God for forgiveness and comfort.

7 Ways to make your employees stay without salary increase.

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Dumaraos) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:46:00 +0000

Often I have asked myself before why people leave their work for another and how we (as a company) can help curb this exodus without unnecessarily giving pay increases right away.
While some people I asked about the reason for leaving their old jobs says it's their low salaries many, I believe, would have rather stayed longer if only the following will be provided for them even without salary increase.

1. Additional healthcare coverage.

Though they already have their existing medicare plan, it still is insufficient and would require members to contribute a certain percentage of the total healthcare cost. Getting an add-on healthcare plan to supplement medicare provides flexibility and convenience to your employees. Providing healthcare plans shows that the company is serious about the health and well-being of their employees and their respective families as well. Many will cling-on to a company because of excellent healthcare plans.

2. Establish a compelling reason for them to stay longer.

Good employees always looks to staying to a company until they retire. One of the many things they always consider aside from healthcare privileges are: nature of business, longevity of business, its profitability and of course their boss' character. As an employer, one must give a very compelling reason for them to stay and really stick with it. This could be job security or other employee benefits. This must be clearly conveyed early and the company must not lose focus on achieving this for their employees.

3. Allocate enough 'leg room' for fun at work.

Many companies disregard this single yet most important aspect in work - fun. For many, employees must always focus and be serious at work to achieve its productivity goals. While it might be true to manufacturing companies, it is quite the opposite to the service and technology industry where I work. In my experience, providing 'leg room' for fun even promotes creativity and increased employee camaraderie. Don't be afraid to experiment and find your niche that works.

4. Give milestone perks.

Everyone wants to be recognized by the efforts and hard work they put in to their company. It is just but appropriate to give small rewards of their efforts as one form of recognition. They may not necessarily be in cash but in forms that the employee will appreciate. This may be movie tickets or a good book to name a few. This way, they will surely feel important and that they will strive to their best and stay loyal whenever possible.

5. Provide a Savings and Loan Program.

There will surely be times where your employees need to borrow some money from the company for emergency or other immediate purposes. Protect those employees from loan sharks and provide a program where they can benefit in the long run. It is particularly helpful if a company can setup or guide the employee to enroll in a cooperative or any other form of savings and loan program. This will help employees to save and earn at the same time while at work within the company.

6. Create outdoor activities for employees (and their families).

Fun should not only involve employees but all their family members as well. Provide fellowship activities among family members within the company like an outing at the park, a children's day, a family city tour and other things that everyone can get involved. This provide a very good avenue for closer camaraderie among employees and their family members.

7. Be a good leader to your employees.

Of course what a good working environment does not only involve a comfortable work place or having wonderful co-employees but also having a leader that knows how to tap the potentials of his employees and leading them to success. There are lots of qualities what a good leader should be but in my opinion, I will just include what I feel are the most important ones: 1) cool tempered, 2)understanding 3) and a model.

A message to all Americans around the globe.

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Dumaraos) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 23:02:00 +0000

Today, November 5 2008, mark a very historic day not only to Americans but to humanity as well. A moment where all of us join hands to celebrate the triumph not only of one person but to all who to fought for a real change in American politics and governance. People who fought that every single individual is important no matter what family, racial or economic background one came from - every single individual can make a difference.

I am not an American but this is what President Obama , for me, came to represent - hope, patience and equality. This changes my views on the Americans in general and the Americans of the future.

Congratulations to President Barack Obama. Congratulations to all the Americans around the globe!.

From Cebu, Philipines - we care!

10 good reasons why you should go for Google Sites.

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Dumaraos) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 04:42:00 +0000

I have been developing countless websites for over a decade now and I must admit it takes a lot of skills to make one considering the diverse languages and artistic ability a developer must have; but that is just half of the effort. The real challenge is collecting and maintaining the content of the company website.

I chose Google Sites (an application built into Google Apps) website builder for our intranet website and company website for several good reasons.

1. Very easy to setup and deploy.

If your already a Google Apps user, all you have to do is just create a new site and it will guide you to the entire process of setting up one. It will only take a few minutes to do this.

2. No programming skill is required.

Google Sites made it possible for ordinary users to make their own websites without the need for programming. All one need to do is click, drag and select their configurations of their choice. You save company resources by not hiring another developer top your your website.

3. Delegation of work.

This is probably the best feature of them all. You can assign a piece of a page to someone on your work group to develop and maintain. Say for example, a Product Catalogue page may be given permission and assigned exclusively to a staff in Marketing Department. This way, everyone in your company can collaborate online and jointly develop and maintain your website.

4. Integrates well with other Google services (such as Google Apps).

This is a welcome application for us Google Apps users. This means that we all need a single sign-on account to manage all other services including Google Sites web page builder.

5. Multi-purpose.

Google Sites is not only limited to creating company websites. We use this also for our company intranet that is not made publicly available to internet users. This may also be used for departmental intranets for bulletin boards for a specific purpose.

6. Focus on content.

Since no programming is required, users can now focus on making and maintaining content which is above all, more important than design.

7. Easy maintenance.

All Google Apps , Google Sites included, are hosted on Google's server farms. Therefore, no extra manpower is needed or time required for you to manage these service. Everything is managed by Google.

8. Has just the right features.

Google Sites web page builder come with features that you will most likely need and not flood you with others that you seldom use. The simplistic design allows users to easily manage applications without all the useless clutter.

9. Secured.

Google Apps Pro version has built in Postini security service to add another layer of extra security to its already very secured environment.

10. Low cost - US$10

Yes, if you register your new domain on Google Sites, it will just require US$10 for one year subscription of the domain name. Google Service is free.

Note: See some example of the sites I made in Google Sites: www.kainoshealth.net & sites.google.com/a/kainosmedical.com/intranet/Home

How Technology Can Help Your Church

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Dumaraos) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 04:47:00 +0000

Many churches rely heavily on developing their membership bases so that they provide a solid foundation of support for general operating expenses and funds to help deliver on their missions. But developing and nurturing memberships can be a labor-intensive and time-consuming undertaking — from building relationships and demonstrating stewardship to overseeing staff operations — it all comes back to effective management. That’s where technology can help.

Technology has the potential to improve every aspect of your church operations. With limited resources – time and money alike – you should use technology strategically and where it will have the most impact. Although the challenges may be numerous, there are a few key areas in which technology can really make a difference:

1. Single, holistic view of members

How many different ways can members interact with your church? It’s very likely that various interactions fall into more than one category. It is vital for staff and volunteers at your church to be able to see a holistic view of your members. The proper technology will allow you to carefully manage all the day-to-day details and interactions with your members. An integrated financial, membership, and website management solution will allow you to easily view many types of information in one place, rather than in disparate applications.

2. Relationship management

Long-term support is achieved from engaging your members and cultivating and managing relationships. An effective member management system is more than just a technology — it is an enterprise-wide approach to managing information and enriching relationships. Technology can help you with everything from tracking valuable biographical information to ensuring that each member receives personalized treatment.

3. Accountability and stewardship

There’s no hotter topic in the church community than accountability. As churches are increasingly scrutinized, your ability to ensure that designated funds are managed correctly is critically important. Being able to easily share information between your financial and member management systems and then present it to members and stakeholders will help you demonstrate the impact of all funds that you receive. Your technology solution should allow you to share timely, accurate information, and provide a high level of stewardship.

4. Engaging members online

Building and fostering relationships with members can be difficult when your church has a small staff and a large congregation. It is nearly impossible to create a meaningful, personalized experience for each person. By creating an online community for your congregation, you can keep your members connected. Your website is an extension of your organization, so it should convey the same image and level of attention that you give members in person. A good technology solution can tightly integrate your website with data from your member management system; you can greet each member by name, target messages for upcoming events, and share news about groups or programs that a member is involved in right on your home page. Members can also update their profiles so information is always up-to-date.

5. Analysis reporting

What makes your church successful? Which areas can be improved? Capturing and accessing the information you need to demonstrate the effectiveness of your church is critical. You will enter a lot of important information into your database, and getting it back out should be a breeze. The right reports can help you take a flood of data and turn it into insight and action. Beyond the right reports, technology can also ensure that “real time” reports are effectively published online.

6. Direct mail

Add up all the invitations, newsletters, receipts, and thank-you letters that your church is sending out every year. Chances are, the sum will amount to a whole lot of mail, time, and postage. Managing your mailings doesn’t have to be as challenging, costly, and time-consuming if your technology solution allows you to automate the process. And with applications such as National Change of Address (NCOA) updates, address validation, and duplicate removal, you can be on your way to using your time and money as efficiently as possible. An integrated solution also allows you to enter member information in one place, which minimizes the likelihood of errors and saves time.

7. Saving time

As a nonprofit, everyone at your church must be committed to working in the most effective manner possible. The efficient use of time, money, and staff allows you to better deliver on your mission. Take a look at the technology solution you are using. Can you automate repetitive tasks? Can you access frequent operations from one place? Are you able to integrate with other frequently used applications, such as word processing, spreadsheets, email, and calendars? Do you have fast access to the reports and information you need on a daily basis to make strategic decisions?

Conclusion

The previous sections of this paper describe ways that technology can help your organization boost your membership program. But none of them really makes a difference if it takes an eternity to make them happen. Technology should improve your daily processes and drive efficiency within your organization. Everyone at your organization must be committed to working in the most effective manner possible. The efficient use of time, money, and staff allows you to better deliver on your mission.

Technology is an investment that can help ensure your nonprofit is operating efficiently. Clearly, success requires more than technology, but if your technology doesn’t allow for process automation and easy management of data, you can expect more work in the long run. In the end, the most important thing technology can do for you is to help your staff, processes, and the people you serve all work together seamlessly, providing the best experience for everyone involved.

Reference:

BlackBaud(r) http://www.blackbaud.com

Renewal of faith

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Dumaraos) — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:32:00 +0000

Today, I am a new man! I have turned over and left my old vicious ways of leading my life. I denounce the habits of the dark side and have renewed my faith with Jesus Christ. This is a new beginning and a new morning as Christ's servant whom shall be my guiding light.

I asked the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ to grant me the gifts of wisdom, understanding, judgement, knowledge and teaching so I may also inspire others who lost their hope in their earthly ways. Though the path to my complete healing may take a while, I prayed to be steadfast and focus only to His direction.

Evil may always lurk behind me wherever I go and may guise itself in different forms, but Christ has given me wisdom and discernment to keep me away and make me safe from them.

Jesus Christ is my king of kings, the Lord of lords, the Christ, the Messiah, my salvation, my rock and my eternal hope and Savior. Let him be yours and experience the true Christian life.

My Amazing Singapore Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Dumaraos) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 10:16:00 +0000

Now I am back from a very grand party at Singapore - the 2008 Grand Prix! Here are some of the beautiful photos I took.

We're off to Singapore F1 Night Race!

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Dumaraos) — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 02:24:00 +0000

This is the weekend I have been looking forward to and making advance booking for plane tickets and hotel reservation. Me and my three other brothers will be with me to watch this huge, huge event.

As to what I have heard, this race will be the first of its kind - a night race. That is an even more challenging race than most of its previous F1 street races we see in the past.

When I come back, I will be posting more interesting pictures of the race, the cars, Singapore and the beautiful race car models - hehehe!

How do you recover after being fired?

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Dumaraos) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 04:54:00 +0000

When do you pull the plug and say it's over in a nice way? Hard as it may seem but sometimes when you have stretched your limit to give an employee several chances to shape-up, there are not much option left but ask the staff to leave.

I mentioned in my previous blog post that one very critical factor for a successful leadership is having a very very good members in your team. A team is as strong only as its weakest link. Of course we do not only stop there, it takes nurturing your employees to make them stronger and competitive.

I have been fired several times by my former employers for various reasons and I know exactly how it feels like to be rejected - really! But looking back, it has taught me life's valuable lessons and how I was able to pick myself up and learned from those adversities. Here are some very useful advice to those who has been laid off from work and hot to deal with them.

Change your outlook. Rejection is never easy but blaming yourself, your boss or the company won't help either. View it as a crossroad to new opportunities. Opportunities to learn and make new things. Seize this opportunity!
Start refocusing on things you should have done but can't while employed. If writing or consulting is a hobby that you do on the side, now is the time to go full time on them. Most successful business start up as a hobby and surely this is something you wanted to do all along.
Leave the bitterness behind. Who can't feel some bitterness after being laid-off? Every body does, but leave this negative feeling behind as you walk out the door and embrace a new life. Dwelling more more about it certainly will make your days ahead even more bitter and may put you in depression.
Keep busy. The only way to fight bad thoughts from coming back is to keep yourself busy. Do something healthy and fun like taking out the kids to a park, play basketball, a date with you girlfriend or wife. Just keep busy.
Avoid being alone. Ask for peer support. Be with your friends and ask them to accompany you during these hard times. Being alone will only increase the chances of you feeling sorry and blaming others or yourself.
Read the Bible. I guarantee you, this is the ultimate medicine. All concerns, fears and questions are answered in this sacred book! Just pick it up, open and read any page that opens up in front of you and behold - the answer is there. It's no coincidence God is speaking to you.