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Different Online Channels to Pay PAG-IBIG Housing Loan

2021-10-09T20:20:00.004+08:00

Gone were the days that one needs to visit a PAG-IBIG branch in order to pay one's housing loan. Of course, one could still pay over the counter in any PAG-IBIG branch, partner channels like SM bills payment, LBC's Bayad Center, and more; but these days, paying your housing loan—even monthly membership contribution (if you're self-employed or voluntary member) and MP2 (modified PAG-IBIG 2)—is made more convenient through different online channels.

1. PAG-IBIG Fund Services or Virtual PAG-IBIG

Simply visit their website, and fill out the necessary details, and you're done. The online payment facility is very easy to use as well. Upon clicking on the Housing Loan option, you'll be required to fill in details such as membership category (local or overseas), payment method (credit or debit card or PayMaya or GCASH), housing account number, and the amortization amount. All these are mandatory fields that need to be filled out. Then input the borrower's name, the amount due, convenience fee, and total amount due. Upon inputting the amortization amount, the system automatically fills out last two fields—the amount due, the convenience fee (PhP5) and the total amount due. You will then need to fill out your billing address and contact information. After which, you just need to verify the inputted details with the provided merchant reference number, and then click on Proceed to continue with the payment process and follow succeeding prompts.

2. Metrobank Online or Metrobank Mobile

This is my go-to online payment channel as there is no convenience fee; bills payment is free. You can either go online through Metrobank Online, formerly called Metrobankdirect, or you can use Metrobank's mobile app. This one's much more easy to do as you don't have to input as many information as you're required to do unlike in the PAG-IBIG's own online payment facility. You simply need to look for PAG-IBIG in the biller's list, input your reference number (which you can find in your billing statement), and the amount, and you're done. It's also safe as you will be required to input a one-time password (OTP) that will be sent to your mobile number for security reasons. For a step-by-step procedure on how to use this online facility, simply visit an earlier post entitled Pay PAGIBIG Housing Loan via Metrobankdirect. The post is a bit dated (2018 last update), but it still works the same way, so it should be a fine guide to refer to still.

3. GCASH App

True to an app's promise of convenience, paying your housing loan through GCASH is truly easy. You simply need to look for the Pay Bills section in the GCASH app and the Government. Then just scroll through the menu until you find PAG-IBIG.

Once you find PAG-IBIG, then you only need to input the required fields: type (select Housing Loan), account number (Enter the 12-20 digit MID or Housing Loan ID number), amount, period covered from, period covered to, and email address. Email address is optional, but I suggest you fill that out as well so you will have a copy of your bills payment. Press Next and then Confirm the details, and Pay. You will be charged PhP5 convenience fee for using this channel. You should receive an SMS notification that your payment has been successful. Your payment will be posted within 3 banking days.

I tell you, it's that simple. If you don't have a GCASH app yet, register an account one now and enjoy the convenience of paying in just a few steps.

4. Coins.ph App

Coins.ph works just like GCASH. They just vary in their user interface. Upon opening your Coins.ph app, simply go to Pay Bills. Scroll through the menu until you find Government. Then select Pag-IBIG Housing Loan Amortizations.

Once in, you'll be asked to enter the amount you wish to pay. Click on Next. Then just input your phone number and your Payment Reference No. (PRN).

You can find your PRN from your monthly billing statement—the 20-digit number—like so in the image below.

Once you input the PRN. Just follow the next prompts. You will be charged PhP7 convenience fee. But with Coins.ph, they have a PhP5 rebate every time you pay a bill, so technically, you'll only be charged PhP2 pesos for using this facility in paying your PAG-IBIG housing loan amortization. An email notification will be sent to your registered email account once payment is successful. Oh bonus, if you pay 5 distinct bills using Coins.ph within the same week, you'll get a rebate of PhP100 (as of current writing).

With the pandemic going on, these 4 different channels of online payment are truly a blessing as you can do your cashless transaction at the convenience of your home, at any time, for as long as you have internet connection.

The GCASH Convenience

2021-10-09T02:17:00.006+08:00

The country has now embraced e-wallets or mobile wallets, and there are many flooding the market today like Coins.ph, PayMaya, BDO Pay, and so on. Its popularity is understandable as apps like this allows you to pay bills, buy load, send money, shop, and more—with just a tap of your fingers and at your convenience for as long as you are connected to the internet. Among the widely used one is no other than GCASH. It's not surprising as it's easy to open an account. One simply needs to have an active mobile number—it doesn't even matter if it is postpaid or prepaid, and it's even open to all networks—and one can easily link the mobile number to the GCASH app, which can be downloaded through Google Play store. Simply download the GCASH app, follow the registration process to start enjoying cashless transactions.

GCASH, as a mobile wallet, is governed by the regulations of BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas). So just like any other financial institutions in the country, it requires user to perform a few simple steps to protect against financial crime and to ensure user's account security. In other words, GCASH will ask you to verify your account. Verifying your account will unlock GCASH features that's only available to fully verified accounts. At the basic level, it only means you have successfully registered with GCASH. To be fully verified, you will need to take ID photo, take a selfie, fill out information (similar to one you do when you open a bank account as part of the KYC, or know your customer, process), and then send application. GCASH may take up to 72 hours to approve your application, and they will notify you via SMS notification of the status of your application.

Verification Levels Determine Account Features and Account Limits

At the basic level, you can only buy a load, do offline cash-in, pay bills, pay through QR, and use AMEX virtual pay. Your wallet size can only be up to PhP50,000 and a monthly limit of PhP10,000 for both incoming and outgoing. On the other hand, if your account is fully verified, you can make use of all the features available to basic level and more—such as sending money, online cash-ins, bank transfer, open a savings account through GSave, take out loan through GCredit, transact international remittance, invest through GInvest, and so on. Your wallet size is also bigger up to PhP100,000 with the same amount for both monthly incoming and outgoing limits. If your account is fully verified with linked bank / GSave / GInvest and Enterprise, limit is much higher at PhP500,000.

Features

Below are some of the features that GCASH have. Regardless of your network (Globe, Smart, TM, Dito, etc.), you can buy regular loads for your mobile; Globe broadband, Smart Bro & PLDT internet, game credits; KUMU; PayTV like Cignal; Tinder; even buy prepaid insurance like Maxicare EReady products, dengue coverage from Cebuana Lhuillier for only Ph450 and get PhP10,000 cash assistance benefit. These are just few of the things under the Buy Load feature of GCASH. Paying bills is made convenient also as you can pay practically anything from your electric utilities (Meralco, VECO, MECO, etc.) to water utilities, cable/internet, telecoms, credit cards, government like SSS contribution, PAGIBIG membership contributions, MP2, or housing loan, and to practically anything. It's also convenient when you're out shopping or dining with the use of the Pay QR feature. With GCASH, opening a bank account and starting your investing journey is also made easy through GSave and GInvest feature. GCASH also has partnered with Singlife for term insurance at affordable price through the GInsure feature. You definitely need to check it out.

GCASH has been truly a blessing especially in these difficult times. You can practically save a lot of time as you no longer need to go to your suking sari-sari store to buy load or sustain long queues just to pay up your bill. It has truly made the lives of Filipinos convenient. Funding your GCASH account is also very convenient if you have an online banking account. Using your bank, simply transfer funds through InstaPay and your GCASH will receive the sent money real time. Your bank may charge you for this fund transfer though. BDO and Metrobank, for example, will charge 25 pesos while UnionBank charges 10 pesos. That's a cheap price to pay for not having to go outside of your home, taking transportation that may set you back a hundred pesos at least if you take the taxi, and spending time away, not to mention getting tempted to eat out in restaurants if you stay out. More importantly, you minimize the risk of getting exposed to the coronavirus as you don't need to leave your house for your needed transactions.

If you are convinced of the efficiency and practicality of using the GCASH app, why don't you try it out? Download the GCASH app now. At no cost to you, I may even earn PhP50 if you click on the referral link. Thank you for the snacks, hehe :) Once you have your own account, you can also refer your friends and start earning yourself. It's a win-win. :)

How to Insert and Modify Line Numbers in Word 2019

2021-09-30T00:30:00.003+08:00

Disclaimer: This article is not in anyway personal finance related, but just thought of writing it as it might help someone who uses word processing at lot and could pick up something from this, especially if that someone is an editor who works at home and with no one to ask little things like this.

A lot of us use MS Word, and while it is true that many of us have been using this word processing software for a long time, not many of us are familiar with some of the easiest Word functions. For editors who need to keep track on their changes, one of the helpful tools that not many use is the line numbers. If you are an editor who needs to communicate with your author about errors in the document, line numbers will truly help you navigate through these countless errors easily if the document you both are working on have them. Haha, shameless confession, I didn’t know about line numbers in the first four years I worked as a copy editor. The first company I worked with didn’t find the need for it, and I have never encountered any documents that had line numbers on it before until I changed company that required those in their documents. So yeah, I had to google my way through it too.

With line numbers, editors can easily direct authors to where the error occur or which line needs changing by simply pointing to the affected line number. So yeah, below is a helpful guide of the very easy steps of inserting line numbers and modifying them to the font style and size that you prefer.

Inserting Line Numbers

1. Go to Layout tab. Find the Line Numbers option. Tick on the option you prefer. There are four options:

Continuous
Restart Each Page
Restart Each Section
Suppress for Current Paragraph

And just like that, your document will now have the line numbers. If you want to remove the line numbers, just revert to None.

So you have the line numbers, but the default font is different from your main texts, like in the above (Verdana line numbers, Garamond texts). Cringe. Kaway-kaway, fellow OCs. “Can the two fonts be uniform?” you ask. Word replies a resounding of course. Simply go to Styles and locate the Line Number option.

Where’s that? I don’t see Line Number in the list.

Modifying Line Numbers

2. In the Home tab, you’ll find Styles in the ribbon. Click the little arrow right beside it to open the Style menu and look for the Line Number (that portion [picture above] where you see Subtle Reference, Intense Reference, Book Title, List Paragraph, and so on). If you don’t find Line Number on the list, modify first the Style list to make it appear in the menu. Click on Options (labeled 2 in the picture above).

3. Once you click the Options, the Style Pane Options window will pop up. Change (1) Select styles to show to All Styles and (2) Select how list is sorted to Alphabetical for easier navigation later. Then click OK.

(Side bit. Place a comma after Style Pane Options in the picture above, haha.)

4. Once you’ve done step 3, Line Number should now appear in the list the next time you click on the little arrow opening up the Styles menu pop-up. As the list is now alphabetical, just simply scroll through to find Line Number in the menu (as shown above).

5. When you find Line Number in the Styles list, there should be a drop-down arrow beside it. Click on that down arrow to open the pop-up window where you’ll find Modify and click on that. The Modify Style window will then pop. Locate Formatting and then indicate your preferred font style (Garamond, Courier, etc.) and font size (8, 10, etc.) .

After setting the preferred font style and size, click OK, and you’re done. It’s that simple.

Pay SSS Contributions via UnionBank Online

2021-02-02T01:20:00.073+08:00

COVID-19 definitely did a number to many of us. Several companies had to lay off key personnel to cut costs. So yeah, some of us lost jobs because of it. As employed personnel, our employers took care of payments to governmental obligations such as SSS, PAG-IBIG, and PhilHealth. We need not worry about when to pay our contributions or where to pay and such as everything were automatically deducted from our salaries come payroll time.

Now being no longer part of the formally employed sector, we either have the option to temporarily discontinue paying for those three. After all, we don't the income. In the short-term, there is no significant blow if you choose not to pay for contributions for the time being. However, in the long-term, it might prove disadvantageous to you. Not paying might affect your benefits if something happens to you (for example, perhaps lowered monetary claim in case of sickness).

If you have savings or find yourself having a part-time job, consider continuing paying for your SSS, PAG-IBIG, and PhilHealth contributions. Except for PhilHealth, there are many ways you can pay SSS and PAGIBIG without having to go to the branch and run the risk of contracting the virus. There's GCash, Coin.ph, or the online facility of some banks. My favorite platform to use when paying my own SSS contributions as a voluntary member is through UnionBank's online platform. It's not only easy to do so, but contributions are poste real-time. That's right. As soon as you are done paying SSS contributions via UnionBank, you can readily check your member's contribution posted in the SSS member's portal.

Without further ado, below are the steps on how to pay your SSS monthly contribution through UnionBank online.

First, before logging in to your UBP account, you need to prepare the payment reference number (PRN). You will be needing this number when you make the payment. Simply log-in to your SSS account. Find the tab Payment Reference Number to generate PRN. You generally, just have to do it once. Every first of the month, you'll find the generated PRN like below to appear on your SSS online account. The same contribution will be set there monthly. However, if you wish to change the amount of contribution, you'll need to generate a new one in order to nominate a different amount of contribution. As soon, as you've paid, the statement of account will be removed from your list. The one below still shows my December 2020 statement of account because I opted to pay a lesser amount, not the 2,400 indicated in the PRN. So I generated a new one for that month.

You can find the payment reference number (PRN) printed on the statement of account like below. Either open the PDF by clicking the PDF icon to view the full statement or copy directly the PRN shown. The encircled numbers on the image below is your PRN:

1. Log in to your UnionBank account. Make sure you have your phone with you to receive the OTP (one-time password). From the Dashboard on the left panel, click on PAY BILLS

2. Once you've clicked PAY BILLS, select the biller. Simply type SSS, so Social Security System (SSS) pops up like below. Click on that.

3. Upon clicking SSS as biller, you'll be prompted to enter the PRN. From the PRN you've copied from the SSS website, paste PRN on the box provided (or you can type it). Click on NEXT.

4. Select the Funding Account. It's the account you want to pay from.

Note that if you have applied for the new PAG-IBIG Loyalty Card Plus, you can use that as your funding account. The new Loyalty Card Plus is actually a savings account. Just check if the one you got is from UBP. We are not certain, but we believe the other issuing bank is Asia United Bank (AUB).

5. With the use of PRN, details are system-generated. Details will automatically appear bearing the PRN, the member's name, the member's SSS number, the applicable month (s), and the amount. Check the details, edit if necessary, and if everything is correct, click the PAY button.

6. Upon hitting PAY, the One-Time Password window pops up. Check your phone for the OTP sent by the bank and input the six-digit number within the next five minutes.

7. Upon inputting your OTP, you'll be directed to a page showing that your payment was successful. The payment-success notification will bear the biller details and the amount paid from the specified funding account.

And you're done.

Depending on your notification setting specified in your online account, you'll receive notification of the transaction either by SMS or via email.

By then, you may go back to SSS' member's portal to check if your contribution is successfully posted. As mentioned earlier, posting of the contribution is real-time. Thus, you should see the contribution reflected like so:

In this example, I paid for my February 2021 premium contribution. In the SSS's website, you can view all your contributions from the month you started paying for it to present. Simply go to the INQUIRY tab and click on CONTRIBUTIONS to see the table like above. The columns with zeroes are obviously the months either the employer failed to submit the contributions or you as a voluntary member failed to pay.

Since the retrenchment due to COVID-19 pandemic (from May), I only remembered to continue paying in October as a voluntary member. See the December 2020 contribution? I previously nominated 2,400 as monthly contribution but changed it to a lower premium (1,980). As a voluntary member, you can decide the amount of contribution. It need not be fixed.

Anyhow, I hope this little step-by-step guide helps you.

NEW SSS Contribution 2021

2021-01-07T13:45:00.010+08:00

This greeted me when I went to the SSS member's portal: New Schedule of Contributions to start this year.

What a bang! What a way to greet the new year. Anyhow, as I've no idea what this meant, I immediately went to the agency's official Facebook page (@SSSPh), and yeah, it's true. Their FB page made the same announcement (pic screenshot from the FB page):

Along with this announcement is the news bit explaining the amended contribution schedule that is to be effective this month, January 2021. I thought I'd share it here as well as it might help shed light to this news. Texts below are copy-pasted from their FB page.

SSS’ scheduled contribution rate increase to ensure continuous delivery of social security protection
The Social Security System (SSS) on Monday said that the scheduled increase in its contribution rate and minimum and maximum monthly salary credits (MSCs) is to ensure the continuous delivery of social security protection to its members and their beneficiaries.
SSS President and CEO Aurora C. Ignacio said that the SSS has been listening to the clamor of various labor groups and members to defer the said mandated increases; however, the move is designed to protect the fund life of the SSS.
“We understand the plight of our covered employers and members, but, at the same time, it is our duty to secure the long-term viability of the SSS fund entrusted to us for the continuous delivery of SSS benefits to our current and future members, as well as their beneficiaries," Ignacio said.
“Moreover, these scheduled reforms are pursuant to Republic Act No. 11199 or the Social Security Act of 2018. Thus, we are bound by law to implement it,” she added.
This January 2021, the SSS contribution rate was increased to 13 percent from the previous 12 percent. On the other hand, the minimum monthly salary credit (MSC) has been raised to P3,000 from P2,000 (except for Kasambahay and OFW members whose minimum MSC will remain at P1,000 and P8,000, respectively), while the maximum MSC is set at P25,000 from P20,000.
For employed members, land-based OFW members in countries with Bilateral Labor Agreements (BLAs) with the Philippines, and sea-based OFW members, the additional one percent will be divided between them and their employers, bringing the contribution rate breakdown to 8.5 percent for employers and 4.5 percent for them.
To illustrate, a member paying under the P10,000 MSC will now pay a monthly contribution of P1,300, which is P100 higher than the P1,200 in 2020.
Suppose the member is employed, a land-based OFW in a country with a BLA with the Philippines or a sea-based OFW. In that case, the P100 additional contribution will be divided as P50 from their employers for a total employer share of P850 and P50 from them for a total member share of P450.
While the MSC to be considered for the computation of benefits under the regular social security program is capped at P20,000, contributions pertaining to the MSC in excess of P20,000 will go to the Workers' Investment and Savings Program (WISP), a provident fund that will yield additional pension income for members contributing under it.
For example, a member will be paying under the P25,000 MSC. Based on the 13 percent contribution rate, his/her monthly contribution will be P3,250, of which P2,600 will go to the regular social security fund, while the remaining P650 will go to the WISP.
The SSS emphasized that the said reforms will allow members to save more for their retirement.
The SSS remains the cheapest pension and most accessible pension scheme in the country that offers seven kinds of benefit programs and various loan privileges.
Ignacio said that any delay in implementing the said reforms could endanger the fund life of the SSS and its ability to provide its members and their beneficiaries with benefits and loan privileges, especially in this time of the pandemic.
From January to October 2020, the SSS disbursed a total of P159.47 billion in social security and employees’ compensation benefits to 3.56 million members and beneficiaries.
SSS member loan releases from January to November 2020 totaled P58.03 billion for 3.20 million members, while pension loan releases for the said period reached P3.17 billion combined for 69,813 retiree-pensioners.
On the other hand, SSS contribution collections from January to October 2020 totaled only P169.73 billion, or a decrease of 5.4 percent from the P179.34 billion collected in the same period last year.
However, SSS’ investments were well-managed and have allowed the pension fund to respond to members' needs despite the drop in collections during the pandemic.

For further information on the SSS’ new contribution schedule, view its corresponding circulars at https://bit.ly/3pwIJyL, https://bit.ly/33RXdRn, and https://bit.ly/3rA8Ypw.

Generally, the significant features from the above article is summarized by SSS through these images:

As my job did not survive COVID-19's repercussions, I readily looked at the new contribution table for voluntary-paying members. Last year, I paid the maximum amount at PhP2,400 but reduced it to 1,980 as my freelance work might not sustain me. But looking at this new table---oh, my heart! The new max is now PhP3,250. Just wow!

I guess the new brackets beginning at the PhP20,250 salary bracket will have a corresponding savings component to it. At least, that's what I understand about the column on provident fund. Dang, I don't know if I can afford the new max of PhP3,250 (monthly salary credit of PhP24,750 and over) just to have the savings component of PhP650 per month. On the upside, paying for the provident fund will be an additional benefit to have upon retirement. But man, PhP3,250!

Apologies for the images; they're the same as in the FB page though; they're not too clear there as well. For the voluntary-paying member, monthly salary credit starts at PhP3,250 and below with a corresponding contribution of PhP390 and ends with PhP24,750 and over with the corresponding contribution of PhP3,250. The same salary brackets apply to all the types of SSS member. Only the contributions will vary among the different SSS members.

For voluntary members like me, the monthly salary credits are in the increments of PhP500 and the contribution at the increments of PhP65. Generally, the contributions for voluntary members starts at 390, then 455, 520, 585, 650, 715, 780, 845, 910, 975, 1040, 1105, 1170, 1235, 1300, 1365, 1430, 1495, 1560, 1625, 1690, 1755, 1820, 1885, 1950, 2015, 2080, 2145, 2210, 2275, 2340, 2405, 2470, 2535, 2600, 2665, 2730, 2795, 2860, 2925, 2990, 3055, 3120, 3185, and 3250. Figures in orange are the contributions with a savings component.

If your monthly salary is between 10,250 to 10,749.99, you'll pay 1,365; if 15,250 to 15,749.99, you'll pay 2,015. The monthly salary with the savings component starts at 20,250 to 20,749.99, and you'll pay 2,665; 2,600 of which goes to regular social security while the 65 goes to the mandatory provident fund. The savings component is also at increments of 65 until the maximum amount of 650.

Anyhow, below are the other tables for Employer-Employees, Household Employer/Kasambahay, OFW, and Self-Employed.

Generally, the contributions for employees (excluding the employer's component) will start at PhP135 with increments of PhP22.5. So generally, expected SSS salary deductions will be 135, 157.50, 180, 202.50, 225, 247.50, 270, 292.5, 315, 337.50, 360, 382.50, 405, 427.5, 450, 472.5, 495, 517.5, 540, 562.5, 585, 607.5, 630, 652.5, 675, 697.5, 720, 742.5, 765, 787.5, 810, 832.5, 855, 877.5, 900, 922.5, 945, 967.5, 990, 1012.5, 1035, 1057.5, 1080, 1102.5, and 1,125.

Man, this makes one consider entering the workforce again. PhP3,250 as a voluntary member compared to 1,125 SSS salary deduction as an employed member yields a difference of 2,215 as said difference is covered by the employer

Photo Credit: SSSPh Facebook page. You might want to directly check it there.

How to Send Money Through BDO Online to Another Local Bank

2020-08-14T22:51:00.015+08:00

COVID-19 has definitely brought many changes to how we do things. With people staying at home and business establishments operating on limited capacity, we sure have to do things differently. While online banking is nothing new before COVID-19, it's quite a shock that there are some who still haven't embraced the convenience that online banking affords. One such convenience is not having to physically visit a branch just to send or deposit money. It is definitely useful especially now when mobility is very limited for people, like me, who do not have their own vehicle because of the suspension of public transportation.

Sending money via online banking has remedied the problem of needing to go to a physical branch. With just a click of a few buttons, one can readily finish the transaction in minutes at the convenience of one's home. Wherever you are, for as long as you have internet connection, you won't have to experience the hassle of commuting to and from the bank and suffering through a long queue just to finish your transaction.

Sending money via online banking is not only time-efficient but also quite easy to do. For this post, I'll share how to send money to another local bank via BDO's online banking feature.

Check out below for the quick rundown on how to send money to another local bank via BDO online. For illustration purposes, I'll be sending from a BDO account to a Metrobank account.

Click on Send Money from the NAVIGATE Menu. A drop-down menu will open, and from there, you can select the option To Another Local Bank, if this is your first-time transaction.

Check "Proceed without a template" and click Next.

In this case, I checked "Select from saved requests" as I have done this transaction previously. You can actually save a template of this transfer so that the next time you send money, you only have to select the saved template and you won't have to input details all over again.

After clicking Next, you will be directed to this page where you input the required details such as the Sender Details (Amount, Destination Bank, and Destination Account Number) and Receiver Details (Receiver Name, Mobile Number, and Purpose of Transaction). Under Destination Bank, a pop-up will appear listing the different local banks in the country. Select the bank you will be sending money to.

Once done, a Transaction Confirmation window will appear.

Check the details you have inputted, and if everything is correct, click Continue. Click Cancel if you need to make corrections on your entry.

Upon hitting Continue, the One-Time Password (OTP) window will appear.

Once you are in this step of the process, you will receive a Security-Alert text to your registered mobile number. As mentioned in the text, you have TWO minutes to reply SEND MONEY to the Security-Alert message.

I believe this is an added security feature applied by the bank recently. In my previous transactions, the OTP was sent directly to my mobile without the Security-Alert text. Once you reply to the Security-Alert text, you will then receive the six-digit OTP to your mobile. Input the received OTP within the next five minutes.

After inputting the OTP, a Confirmation Message window will pop telling you that you have successfully sent money via InstaPay through BDO.

And you're done.

If you are the sigurista kind, you can check your registered email for confirmation as well. BDO will send you email of your successful transaction. You can forward this to your recipient informing them of your successful transfer.

The money you sent will be credited to your recipient bank real-time. For this transaction, no service fee was collected as the local bank I sent the money to is also an InstaPay-member bank. InstaPay service charge is waived until August 31, 2020. Since ECQ, I have not paid any fees. So am not sure how much the fee will be after August 31.

For non-InstaPay bank, PhP100 will be charged against your account.

The money sent is really credited real-time as seen from this recipient bank's transaction history.

The whole transaction, without internet-speed problem, will not take ten minutes of your time. I hope this helps and will make you reconsider the use of online banking. Think about the time you can save from lining up. :)

PAG-IBIG Online Housing Loan Verification

2018-02-24T00:47:00.001+08:00

Updated: February 24, 2018

Did you know that you can actually view your Account Information online?

For someone who rely heavily on the Internet for anything and everything, this bit of information came to me late. I honestly don't know when this government portal came to exist. Well, I do know that PAG-IBIG has a website, just not this feature. So if you have a PAG-IBIG housing loan, you can check your account balance and payment history for the last 12 months by visiting the PAG-IBIG website.

How to Access the Site
Simply input your housing loan account number, your first and last names, and the captcha to signify that you are not a robot, shown above. That's it!

Once in, you can check your account information such as loan value, term, interest rate, take out date, outstanding balance, and monthly amortization.

It also has a Billing Statement Email Facility feature where you can opt to receive your monthly billing statement through email. There, you are advised to add the email address billingandcollection@pagibigfund.gov.ph to your address book. This will ensure that you will get your billing statement in your inbox.

Its other online services include viewing of Billing Statement and Payment History. Here, you may also opt to download or print.

Do note that HDMF posted a disclaimer that the information found in their website may be slightly delayed.

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Finding this site is both a boon and a bane. It's a boon because now I can view my account anytime I want to as long as there's Internet. On the other hand, it's a bane because now I have another figure to think about. Recently my mind is super preoccupied about retirement savings, and now this—the loan amount I still owe the government. Darn.

Yeah, I'm still PhP647,771.39 pesos or nineteen years away from legitimately calling my pethouse my own. A lot could still happen in between now and 2032. Donation, anyone? Hehe... kidding! But if you're serious, who am I to refuse a generous offer, haha!

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Wow! Almost five years have passed since I last wrote this article. Well, I'm still paying my monthly amortization with the agency (14 more years to go)! Sadly, I only managed to slash PpP114,107.75 from my loan. Yes, the bulk of your monthly amortization goes to interest payment and insurance. Only a very small portion of your amortization goes to the payment of the loan principal. Sad life. So if you can afford to buy cash, go for it. I can't, so yeah—live with the consequence and truth that is interest payment!

The upside is my monthly amortization has gone down from PhP5,743.09 to just PhP5,608.09. A slash of PhP135 is not much, but still, it's a slash, which you can actually use to buy coffee, if you're into that kind of thing. Generally, HDMF recomputes every five years. They may also offer you to avail of current interest rate. The last time I went there, interest rate was only 6%. However, I opted to stick with my 7% loan interest rather than take a chance at a volatile interest rate. I was afraid that there might be a year where it can go as high as 10–12%. Yeah, I took the safer route. ================================
Oh yeah, to those who has a Metrobank account, you can pay your monthly amortization online. Metrobankdirect is an accredited payment channel. See, beginning July 1, 2018, HDMF branches will no longer accept loan payments over the counter. See my post on How to Pay PAG-IBIG Online through Metrobankdirect. I personally tried paying my monthly amortization using this channel, and it seems to work fine. My payment is actually reflected in my Payment History as below:

If you haven't enrolled your Metrobank account online, here's how: 5 Steps to Enroll Your Metrobank Account Online.

How to Fund Your COL via Metrobankdirect

2018-02-20T16:52:00.000+08:00

If you have a COL stock account, there are many ways to fund your account. One of the easy ways I fund my own account is through Metrobankdirect. This is Metrobank's online portal. While BDO and BPI have their own online portals, my preference is to fund my account using Metrobankdirect. My prime reason is its convenience. This is because my payroll account is with Metrobank. Having enrolled said account online, I can now easily fund my COL using this channel. Online funding via this channel is also okay for me because not only do I save time but I also save on fees. Funding online is free.
Check out below for the quick rundown on how to fund your COL online account via Metrobankdirect:

Log in to your Metrobankdirect account.

Click on PAY BILLS under Deposit Accounts tab.

For registered account, simply look for COL Financial Group Inc. from your list of registered billers. Then input the amount you intend to deposit to your COL as below:

Don't forget to also select the Account from which the money will come from (debit account) to fund the account. This applies only if you have more than one Metrobank account registered.
If you wish to use this channel each time you fund your COL, it is best to Register your COL account first. This way, you need not input your account details each time you fund the account.

However, for unregistered account, select Special Biller. Under Category, choose Investments and COL Financial Group Inc. as Biller, from the pop-up menu. Then enter your 8-digit account number, and enter amount. Press Continue.

Once done, you will be directed to the Transaction Confirmation page.

Check the details you have inputted, and if everything is correct, click Confirm. Click Back if you need to make corrections on your entry.

Upon hitting Confirm, you will be directed to the Transaction Acknowledgment page.

This confirms your bill payment transaction. After this, you will then receive an email notification sent to your registered email to acknowledge officially your payment transaction.

Check your registered email for confirmation of your bill payment transaction.

The next day, you will also receive an email confirmation from COL acknowledging your deposit transaction.

Pay PAG-IBIG Housing Loan Via Metrobankdirect

2018-02-13T02:26:00.001+08:00

A few days back, I went to PAG-IBIG Ayala Cebu Branch to submit the receipt of my realty tax payment for the years 2017 and 2018. While one can actually send the scanned receipt online, I opted to submit mine in person. Good thing I did so because then I learned about the following announcement:

Apparently, effective July 2018, all housing loan borrowers are advised to pay their housing loans through different payment channels (as indicated in the announcement). Rather than wait for the July 1 start date, I thought I'd give paying via Metrobankdirect--Metrobank's online channel--a try. Actually, the reason I opened a Metrobank account was primarily for this purpose. However, I didn't use the account as I initially intended because paying over the counter gives my mother a chance to drop by Ayala Center. She normally does not go to the mall, but paying my HDMF housing loan gives her a reason to do so. But with this new policy, I guess I have no other choice but to comply and pay through the fund's payment-collecting partners. So yeah, for my February 2018 due, I'm going to pay through Metrobankdirect. Luckily, my employer's payroll account is also with Metrobank. Thus, it would definitely be hassle-free for me.
Without further ado, below are the steps on how to pay your housing loan through Metrobankdirect online.
First, before logging in to your Metrobank account, you need to prepare your 20-digit payment reference number. You will be needing this number when you make the payment. You can find the payment reference number printed on the monthly statement that PAG-IBIG sends you via traditional mail or through the electronic statement sent to you via email. The encircled numbers on the image below is your payment reference number:

Log in to your Metrobankdirect account.

Click on PAY BILLS under Deposit Accounts tab.

Select Special Biller. Under Category, choose Government from the pop-up menu.

Note that PAG-IBIG will generate a different payment reference number each month. Thus, you have to select Special Biller each time you make a payment.

After selecting Government, choose PAG-IBIG Fund (Individual) as Biller.
Input the 20-digit payment reference number found in your bill under the Subscriber/Account No. field.
Leave the next two fields (Reference No. and Phone No.) blank.
Lastly, enter your monthly amortization (or any amount).
Select the Payment Type.
Under Remark, you can add a note or opt to leave it blank.

Once done, you will be directed to the Transaction Confirmation page.
Please disregard the erroneous label on the image (10-digit). Label should have read 20, not 10, as it's derived from the payment reference no. found in your bill.

Check the details you have inputted, and if everything is correct, click Confirm. Click Back if you need to make corrections on your entry.

Upon hitting Confirm, you will be directed to the Transaction Acknowledgment page.

This confirms your bill payment transaction. After this, you will then receive an email notification sent to your registered email to acknowledge officially your payment transaction.

Check your registered email for confirmation of your bill payment transaction.

And you're done. If you have an existing Metrobank account, but has not registered the account online yet, check out this post on 5 Steps to Enroll Your Metrobank Account Online. You can use your Metrobankdirect account to pay your MBT credit card bills, fund your COL stock account, FAMI mutual funds, among other things. Note: Made corrections on item 4, which caused a bit of confusion as mentioned in the comments. Anyhoo, clarified the wrongfully labeled image used in item 4 (not the image itself, but the texts that came with the image). [modified May 29, 2020]

5 Steps to Enroll Your Metrobank Account Online

2018-02-06T02:58:00.000+08:00

Below is a quick run-through of how to enroll your Metrobank account online:

The steps enumerated are from the perspective of those who have a Metrobank ATM savings account. Thus, the form in step no. 3 asks for details of your ATM Card number (not your bank account) and your PIN number---the same PIN number you key in when transacting with an ATM machine. Note that your ATM card only has sixteen (16) digits. The form will require you to input 19 digits. Thus, don't forget to add three zeroes after the card number to complete the 19-digit requirement.

If you don't have an ATM account, but have a Metrobank credit card instead, you simply select Credit Card from the drop-down menu. The form that you will fill out then will include your credit card number, the embossed name (the one shown on your credit card), the CVC/CVV number (the 3-digit number at the back of your card), and the expiry date.

The rest of the required fields are the same for both cards. Once you successfully fill out the form, you'll receive a Metrobank User Activation e-mail from the banks e-banking division.

In that e-mail, you'll be given a link where you can activate your enrollment. The link is unique to you and is good only for three days. If you fail to activate your account within three days, the link in the e-mail will no longer work, and you will have to do the whole process again. So once you enroll online, make sure to check your e-mail.

Generally, the User Activation e-mail will guide you through the whole process as follows:

1. Click on the Activation Link provided in the e-mail.
2. Key in the temporary password supplied in the e-mail.
3. Read the terms and conditions, click on AGREE.
4. Provide at least two challenge questions and answers, then SAVE.
5. Enter the One Time Password (OTP) sent to your registered mobile number.
6. Change your temporary password.

After successfully doing the steps above, you will receive a Welcome to Metrobankdirect e-mail. You may then go back to Metrobank's website to log in and enjoy the convenience of online banking. Through Metrobankdirect, you can pay bills, transfer funds to other accounts, fund your FAMI (mutual fund) account, check your balances and transactions, among other things.

IMPORTANT:If the information you supplied on the online form is not exactly the sameas the information you supplied when you opened your account at the branch, you may receive an Error Message. Discrepancy may include different mobile number, e-mail address, name, etc. If after following the steps above, and you still get the error message, then you are advised to visit your branch of account. Enrollment to Metrobankdirect is only done once. If you have another Metrobank deposit account, you can simply enroll the account by going to Manage Account option. From there you can choose to enroll your own account or a third-party account for when you need to transfer funds. The same can be done with your credit card account.

All right, folks! That's how easy it is to register your Metrobank account online.

Medical Assistance for Dengue

2018-01-23T00:20:00.000+08:00

Earlier in the day, a youngling in the office asked me about some personal finance (pf) topics particularly on insurance. As a sucker for anything pf, I gladly obliged and answered some of her queries. I'm no financial advisor, but I would like to think that I know enough (or maybe just a little) to share some information with her. With the very short and quick discussion during afternoon break fresh from my mind, I found myself googling about insurance products when I arrived home. Well, I'm happy to learn that we do have a booming insurance industry. Big companies such as PhilAm Life, Insular, AXA, PruLife, etc. have a lot of products that will cater specifically to your needs. At whatever stage in life you might be, these companies have a product just right for you.

I will not discuss what these insurance products are here. Instead, I'll focus on a very specific insurance product--medical assistance for dengue. Medical-assistance-for-dengue products caught my intention not only because I often hear of dengue cases being reported in the news but also because I found the price of these products very reasonable. Apart from that, I just find the concept of an insurance product for a very specific disease at a very low price very novel. Look!

For as low as PhP350, the insured can get PhP10,000 medical assistance if one is diagnosed with dengue even without confinement. This MediCash Dengue Insurance product from Pioneer is good for one year, people aged 1 to 70 years old can be covered. Dengue Assist by PhilCare, on the other hand, will only set you back PhP599, and you will get up to PhP30,000 coverage on actual hospitalization expense incurred due to dengue disease. This product covers clients aged 18 years old to 64 years old. It is also good for one year upon date of activation.

For more information about these two products, simply head to their respective websites: Dengue Assist and MediCash.

Disclaimer: I'm not a paid agent of PhilCare and Pioneer. Just a Googler, hehe :)

Text SSS

2018-01-10T03:09:00.001+08:00

The government agency mandated to provide social security services to Filipinos working in the private sector is SSS, or Social Security System. It being a government office, the agency is often associated with long queues and whatnot. Like many other government agencies, having said reputation is not without reason. As someone who once served as HR practitioner dealing with statutory benefits, I know how tedious and patience-testing the experience of transacting at SSS can be. Thus, it is a great relief to me as a private employee to be able to transact with SSS via the online platform. Their website can be accessed through www.sss.gov.ph. For optimal user experience, the website runs best with Internet Explorer.

Now for those with no online access, the good news is you can do the same via the Text SSS facility.

Dubbed mabilis (fast), simple, and sigurado (sure), this SMS platform allows members to inquire and get information on SSS' basic services. By sending a message to 2600, a member may inquire about their contributions, loan balances, and benefits; and get replies real time. True to its claim, availing this service is rather quick and easy. Member may start off by registering. Upon successful registration, member will receive a system-generated 4-digit PIN code. Remember this PIN code as it will be used each time you send a message. Standard rates of 2 pesos apply if you are a SUN Cellular user and 2.50 pesos for Globe, Smart, and other networks.
Register first to avail of this SMS facility. Here's how:

You may also text the following keywords to get a list of requirements:

SS ID for ID application requirements
SSS OFW for OFW membership requirements
SSS VOL for voluntary membership requirements
SSS SELF for self-employed membership requirements
SSS CHANGE for membership data amendment requirements

To inquire about list of document requirements for benefit claim, use the following keywords:

SSS DOC SICKNESS
SSS DOC MATERNITY
SSS DOC ECMED
SSS DOC DISABILITY
SSS DOC DEATH
SSS DOC FUNERAL
SSS DOC RETIREMENT For retirement less than 60 years old
SSS DOC RETIREMENT MINOR For retirement with minor dependents

You may also use the Text SSS facility to inquire on the status of your claims.

SSS STATUS SICKNESS 10-digit SS number 4-digit PIN
SSS STATUS MATERNITY 10-digit SS number 4-digit PIN
SSS STATUS ECMED 10-digit SS number 4-digit PIN
SSS STATUS DISABILITY 10-digit SS number 4-digit PIN
SSS STATUS DEATH 10-digit SS number 4-digit PIN
SSS STATUS FUNERAL 10-digit SS number 4-digit PIN

Lastly, you may send your feedback to the agency as well. Simply key in SSS FEEDBACK 10-digit SS number concerns, inquiries, or complaints. Please take care to remember that there should be a SPACE between each keyword.
All right, I hope this helps unburden some of your SSS issues. Pieces of information provided here were taken from a video posted on the agency's official Facebook page--Philippine Social Security System.

How To Buy Shares Through COL Outside Trading Hours

2016-12-20T23:32:00.000+08:00

Just like a regular market, the stock market is open only at certain times of the day. In the Philippines, the market is open between 9 a.m. to 12 noon, Mondays to Fridays. It closes for an hour and half for lunch. Then it reopens at 1:30 p.m. and closes for the day at 3:30 p.m. Given these trading hours, it would seem that those who are at work or somewhere else during said hours won't have the chance to participate in the market. That is, they won't be able to buy or sell shares. Well, thanks to COL's online platform, those of us who are not available during said hours can still place our buy or sell orders. Simply use its O-H Order feature under the Trade tab.

What's the O-H Order feature?
As earlier said, with this feature you can buy or sell shares of stock even when the market is out. Generally, you can place your order anytime between 1 p.m. of the current trading day to 8:55 a.m. of the next trading day. As soon as the clock hits 9:01 a.m. on the next trading day, your order is sent to the Exchange. Just like when you place your order during trading hours, you'll have to wait for a match. If your buy or sell order is matched, then the number of shares in your portfolio will be updated (shares added if you placed a buy order or deducted if you placed a sell order). If your order is not matched, then nothing happens and you get to do the same thing the next day at your next free time outside trading hours. The money in your Cash Balance will remain as it was before you made your placements.
Check the images below to get idea on how to buy shares when the market is closed: Step 1 of 3

Click on the image to enlarge the picture. Step 2 of 3

Step 3 of 3

The above steps are exactly the same steps you take when you place a sell order. The header will be red for sell orders.

Update: The buy order I made last night via the O-H Order feature of COL was matched! Thus, when I opened my account tonight, I got this Acknowledge Transaction Confirmation:

Well, that's how simple it is to make your placements outside the regular trading hours. It won't take you five minutes to do this. I hope people who are contemplating on opening a stock trading account will be encouraged that they can still do so even if they're not available during the day. Happy investing, folks!

How to Withdraw Funds from COL

2016-08-19T12:59:00.001+08:00

One of the concerns of those wanting to open a stock market trading account is the instrument's liquidity. Are stocks liquid assets? To someone who's contemplating on getting into the stock market, the question that readily comes to mind is will they be able to get their money back should they need it? Can they easily withdraw their funds should they decide that the stock market is not the instrument they'd wish to use to grow their money?

What are LIQUID ASSETS?

Collins' dictionary defines LIQUID ASSETS as things that one owns which can be quickly turned into CASH if necessary. Given this definition, I'm quite certain that stocks are very liquid. That is, you can easily sell your shares and get the cash. Compared to owning real estate, or a rare book collection, the chance of you being able to find a buyer easily (ex. within the day) for your shares is higher compared to finding a buyer to purchase your house and lot or that rare book collection. In the stock market, all one has to do to convert the asset to CASH is TO MATCH a BID PRICE.

As in the picture above, if you wish to sell IMMEDIATELY and ensure that your transaction gets matched readily, all you have to do is check the BID column, and set your ASK price TO MATCH the BID price. In the BID column shown, some buyers are willing to pay PhP17.08 for a CNPF share. IF you are willing to SELL your CNPF shares for that amount, then simply type in the said price when you make your SELL ORDER. Of course, as we are here to make a profit, we all wish to SELL at a much higher price. NOW, selling for a much higher price is an entirely different matter if your concern is disposing of your stocks immediately. It is when you need the cash badly that you will probably end up selling at a loss. While you don't want that, it still covers your concern on the ease of turning back your stocks to cash. When your SELL order becomes successful, then the amount from that sale will go directly to your Cash Balance.

So, you want to withdraw your COL Funds?

Withdrawal of your COL funds is relatively easy. All you have to check first is availability of amount in your CASH BALANCE. If you have funds available, and you make your withdrawal request before 12 noon of a trading day, you'll likely get your cash the next day. HOWEVER, if you don't have available cash in your CASH BALANCE, then you need to SELL your position/s. Upon your sale, amount is credited to your CASH BALANCE the same day, but you have to wait for 3 days to get your cash from the proceeds of your stock sale.

To process fund withdrawal, simply fill out a Withdrawal Request Form.

You can download the form by simply going to "Forms" under the HOME page.

Completely fill out the needed details and send form via fax at (632) 634-6958, or e-mail to withdrawals@colfinancial.com addressed to COL's Accounting Department. If you prefer to pick up the check in COL's business center, simply submit the original filled out form. As for me, my preference is via e-mail. As soon as you send the request via e-mail, you'll receive a Notice of Receipt of Withdrawal Request e-mail from COL.

In the e-mail, you will be notified when your Payout Date will be. You'll get the cash the next day if you have readily available Cash Balance, or 3 days after a stock sale. Once payout is made, you'll receive another e-mail from COL informing you that CASH has been debited(deducted) from your COL account.

That same day you received the Debit Adjustment Notice e-mail from COL, you should see the same amount of cash credited to your bank account of choice (the one you enrolled with COL usually).

See, how simple it is? I hope that this put you at ease regarding access to your hard-earned money, and hopefully you can now decide to finally open a stock market trading account with COL Financial Inc. From the same link given above, you can download the required application forms for account opening. Initial funding can be as small as PhP5,000.

Note that there are other online stock trading platforms that you can use, such as Philstocks or the trading platforms of BPI and Metrobank. I'm only presenting COL as because it's the one I'm currently using and NO, I'm not getting paid to endorse COL.

Anyway, HAPPY STOCK INVESTING FOLKS!

my stock market journey with COL Financial Inc

2016-08-19T02:02:00.000+08:00

I first entered the Philippine stock market when I opened an online stock trading account with COL Financial Inc. sometime May of 2011. My siblings opened theirs a year or two before me. My sister mentioned several times of the need to save. I didn't heed this immediately as I was convinced there was no need for it. Back then, I was consumed with the idea that I'm going to leave this Earth young, and so I wasn't compelled to prepare for my old age.

Contrary to what many believe, entering the stock market doesn't require that much funding. In the past, the stock market is a playground only for the rich. But with advancement in technology and the country's growing well-informed population, financial institutions now have created products that allow ordinary Filipino citizens to enter it at minimal cost. For as low as five thousand pesos, anyone can now open an online stock market trading account with companies such as Philstocks and COL Financial. Those with deposit accounts with BPI and Metrobank can also open a stock trading account through BPI Trade and First Metro Securities. There is NO minimum amount needed to open an account with either BPI and First Metro for as long as your settlement account (i.e., deposit account) has enough funds to buy shares. Depositors of these two banks wanting to open an online trading account only have to link their deposit account with the trading account. Their deposit account will serve as their settlement account for trading stocks.

As earlier mentioned, I chose to open an account with then citiseconline, now COL Financial Inc. I first heard of this company when I got hold of Bro. Bo Sanchez' popular e-book called My Maid Invests in the Stock Market. Though I heard of stock market trading before, I instead opted to join Francisco Colayco's KSK Coop instead and with MUCH REGRET. Anyhow, like I mentioned, one need not have a big amount of money to start trading online. Of course, you have more room to experiment if you have more money in your account. But if you're like me who doesn't have much, that's OK; the playground for the rich is still OPEN to us. Even with little amounts, we can still get exposure to the stock market. Below are the actual amounts I have placed in this wealth vehicle. As you can see, they aren't much, and my funding of the COL account wasn't even consistent.
Lesson: If you have extra money, develop the discipline to save or top-up your COL account even for as little as 1,000 a month. The idea is to make it a habit. Admittedly, this is a lesson I still have to fervently remind myself. Oh, notice the amount every December? Well folks, you might want to divert a portion of your 13th month to your COL account.

As I'm NO saver, opening a COL account has been a blessing to me. Disciplining myself to save takes much effort as I love to eat out and in 2007, I discovered the beauty of traveling (check out my other blog: vetlongwalks wanders. After each trip, I don't mind going home broke. Thus, this amount I have accumulated in COL in the span of five years is the biggest I have ever kept on my own.

[Shameful Confession: I withdrew PhP15,000 sometime last year when our salary situation got bad. Then, I will be withdrawing some of it, to fund my HK travel next month (God-willing!) See what I mean with NO discipline to save and the love for travel? This is financial suicide for me knowing I'm currently unemployed, haha! I rationalize by telling myself "Experience OVER Money". I'll figure out the money after, hehe! Plus, the amount I'll be taking out comes from the gains, and not from my original funding. :)]

How was my stock market experience like in the last 5 years?
Clearly, I'm far from earning my FIRST million, ha ha! Anyway, every blog or financial book that you'll come across will tell you to STUDY FIRST before entering the stock market. Entering into this venture without much knowledge is entering at your own risk. As I've been reading many personal finance-related materials, I'm aware that TIME is very important when investing. At my age of 31 then, I was already late as far as starting an investment portfolio goes. Thus, I opened an account even though I only know very little about this vehicle (read: Psychology background po, little to NO finance classes in UP) In my mind and as suggested in the e-book I read, I'll be OK if I'll just stick to BLUE CHIP companies and stay invested for a long time.

My Portfolio on my First Year (May 2011)

With only 5,000 as initial investment, I could only buy 200 shares of ALI (Ayala Land Inc.) on the first month. An additional 4,000 pesos in June and July allowed me to buy 4,000 shares of LC (Lepanto Construction and Mining Corp.) and 200 shares of EDC (Energy Development Corporation). My next top-up was only in the amount of 1,500 pesos each for the month of September and November. This enabled me to buy additional 100 share of ALI and an additional 1,000 shares of LC. As you can see from the chart above, my first year in the stock market was purely BUY transactions. If my memory serves me, as soon as I bought my stocks the prices just went down. Thus, my portfolio was showing REDS in the first few months. It made me question if I know what I was doing. Obviously, seeing the value of my money go down, I got a bit scared of putting in additional money. Early on, I made a decision to NEVER SELL at a LOSS. I kept reminding myself that I'm in this for the long term. Thus, I can afford to wait for prices to go up again.
Lesson: BE comfortable with money. By that I mean, be ready when the amount of your investment goes down. It's normal to fear, and it's pretty understandable if you feel a bit nervous. Trust me, seeing your 5,000 become 3,000 in just a few days can be disheartening and will make you question if you were sane to enter the market you know nothing about (ergo, study first makes sense now). Manage your emotions well as it can be the end of your journey if you don't. Don't panic. In the same way, manage GREED. When the market is in the UP swing, the tendency is to wait for the price to go higher. That's OK, but sometimes in the waiting---you end up missing the opportunity to get the gain in the bag. As for me, especially that my portfolio is small, even if it's just a 200-peso gain, for as long as it's an equivalent 10% gain or higher, I sell to pocket the profit. These two---fear and greed--- are the two emotions to watch out for. Experiment on how much you can tolerate. Really, there's no formula. What will work for me, won't necessarily work for you.
Luckily, the price of LC shot up in January 2012. I was giddy with excitement because I earned my first PhP2,800++ without breaking a sweat. I gained as much as 50.63% from LC. My next SELL transaction was in March of 2012, where I earned PhP1600++ or about 35.14% gain from ALI. Unfortunately, my 3rd POS (position), EDC wasn't doing as great. I first bought shares of EDC in June 2011, but after almost a year, the stock price remained down. Although I was ready to wait for a long time, my mind kept arguing that I can't afford to hold the position longer else I risk keeping my portfolio stagnant. The only chance I can see movement in my portfolio without adding funds is if I engage in active buying and selling with my available Cash Balance. Thus, I set my mind to sell EDC the moment it turned green. The amount I could get from the sale can be used to buy another POS that I think will do well. Haha, I only earned 30.82 pesos from the sale of EDC. Funny, had I waited to hold it for another week, I could have earned a thousand more instead of the measly 30.82 pesos. But that's just the nature of the market, it can go up or down when it wants to. So, no looking back when you clinched a sale transaction.

In mid 2013 until 2014, I made a decision to funnel most of my extra funds to COL. Unfortunately, by 2015 I faced employment uncertainty---which included a salary cut, undetermined salary release, leading to my resignation by mid-December 2015 and with no prospect of immediate employment. Thus, my funding of COL has temporarily stopped. My recourse to increase my portfolio is to trade actively. I managed to earn during the first half of 2015, but by the second half all my POS went back to reds. Thus, I was unable to sell. Only by end of the May 9, 2016 elections did I see movement in my portfolio. The gain wasn't that big, but at least there's movement now. Below shows the amounts I have gained in the course of five years:

My biggest GAIN so far was when I followed the advice of my brother to limit my position to just two. Prior to 2014, I'll hold as many as five positions. Since my portfolio is still small, I can't afford to diversify yet. Well, I could but I'll be limiting my possible gain. The biggest that I gained since limiting my POS was PhP5,500++ from a MER (Meralco) SELL transaction back in July 2015. Overall, I have gained as much as PhP39,836.01 in my five years of trading. This isn't much, but it's definitely more than the interest I could have gotten had I decided to save the money in the bank. Plus, NO hard-core, face-to-face selling is involved here, which suits my introvert personality. Stress isn't as great since selling only involves a click of the mouse! It is for this reason that I highly recommend investing in the stock market (with great caution!). Sure, there is the risk of losing. But as they say, only when you take a risk, will you have the chance to gain more. Aside from price appreciation, another way to earn from stock is through DIVIDENDS. If companies do well, they sometimes give their investors a portion of their profit through dividends. Below are the dividend amounts I have received in the last five years. Again, they're not much. But I appreciate receiving PhP5,175.90 as it's money I didn't break sweat to earn.

Currently, my portfolio looks like the chart below. This goes to show that while one can actually earn money from this, the possibility of losing is also there. With this portfolio, I can't see any movement of positions any time soon, UNLESS the market goes UP again. My EEI has been with me since October 2014. I don't know how long I will have to wait for this to bounce back. Still, I'm thankful as there was a time that the paper loss of EEI reached as high as 51%. Seeing that it has gone down to 23.43% paper loss is a kind of relief. Funny, this always happens every time I disobey the rule of just limiting my positions to two. Haha, this is the price of being stubborn.

All right, folks! This long account sums up my experience of trading in the stock market using COL Financial's online trading platform. I'm showing the figures to encourage anyone who may chance upon this little corner of the web to think about engaging in this particular wealth instrument. This isn't a get-rich quick scheme. You can LOSE money here! Thus, I urge that if you are still hesitant, but still want to try it out, shell out at least PhP10,000. This amount can give you enough room to play with one stock. Just put in the PhP10,000 that you can afford to lose. Actually, ditch the idea that you'll lose here. Enter with the mindset that you will earn a little amount at a time. Stick with blue chip stocks, and don't panic when the figure turns red. It's only paper loss. You'll only lose, if you actually sell the position at a price lower than your buying price (oh, don't forget to factor in the charges when computing gain/loss).

Anyway, I'm NO expert here and I certainly haven't studied formally and still don't know how to read charts or do technical and fundamental analysis, BUT if you are ever interested to try this out and knows no one to help you out, shoot me an e-mail at vetlongwalks@gmail.com. I'll be glad to help in anyway I can, FREE of charge. But if you insist, I don't mind being treated to a McDonald's Hot Fudge Sundae, hehe!

HAPPY STOCK MARKET INVESTING, FOLKS!

Stock Market Investing - Never Too Late to Start

2016-08-18T02:30:00.000+08:00

I bumped into a childhood friend yesterday at SM City. After a quick his and hellos, the talk veered towards COL Financial and stock market investing. I'm one with few delights in life, and knowing friends becoming interested in personal finance, specifically on wanting to dip their hands in the stock market is sure to bring happiness in me (much more delight if they express wanting to know Jesus of the Bible, hehe). Anyway, I was just delighted to learn that some couple friends of hers are encouraging her and her husband to open a stock trading account with COL [Thank you very much her LG friends :)]. She and her husband, in fact, have submitted their application but are yet to successfully open a trading account pending submission of a missing requirement. Naturally, I found myself volunteering to help her should she have questions later on. Haha, even though I'm on my 6th year with COL, I still must confess not knowing much about the technical aspect of stock trading. I still haven't spent time to learn technical and fundamental analysis, and I might never will. What I confess to knowing is just basic reds and greens. If my portfolio is green, then I'm happy to lock in the gain and buy another position. If it's red, I either wait it out or sell at a loss.

I know, I know. I once said here before that I would never sell at a loss. I guess I got so impatient with one of my positions (EEI) that I actually sold some units a few months back---going against my very own rule not to sell at a loss. I rationalized that since I have no money for top-up, being currently unemployed, I could have more chance of possibly increasing my numbers if I play around with the positions I have. Of course since I still have little, I can't do much. [Thus, the encouragement, to top-up as much as possible.].

Anyway, the past few months were a mix of regrets and delights. I regretted selling at a loss some units of EEI. But then again I would not have had the chance to buy new positions and gain a little. My thought process back then was just to earn a bit of profit, instead of watching my port for another month without movement. That decision to sell in early June cost me PhP3,173.76 around 22% loss . Hehe, yes---they're not BIG, but to someone with little in her port, any loss however small is still big enough. In fairness to EEI, however, the story was not all loss. See, on May 19, I managed to bag in PhP1,114.16 or almost 18% gain as there was a time in November last year that I bought 1,000 units of EEI for only PhP6.20 a piece. That's a huge discount as my average price then was around 9.65. Since October of 2014 to November 2015, I've accumulated 7,000 shares making up for more than half of my port.

My EEI Story
I first bought at PhP11.20 a piece, and with top-up in the course of a few months brought down the average price to PhP9.65. The last purchase in November 2015 for PhP6.20 a piece, and with the price even going down made me think about finally cutting loss. Additionally, the Fair Value (FV) at that time by COL was just PhP9.50. I reasoned that the current FV (or target price) is still much lower than my average price. SO, even if the FV is reached, I'll still be staring at a paper loss. Thus, time to LET GO. BUT I couldn't actually sell at a loss entirely. So, much like when I purchased them, I sold on staggered basis too, hoping that prices will go up. The prices in June was around the range of 7.30 to 7.45. So against my own rule, I sold some units at a loss from original price of 9.26, sold at 7.30, and from 9.51 sold at 7.45 and 7.52, respectively. NOW, in just a couple of months---the price of EEI has bounced back to the 9-peso level. It closed today at 9.22---still much lower than my average price of 9.65 or 5.24% loss. EEI's price bouncing back is the reason for the little regret! Imagine, I held the shares for 10 months, and had I waited for another two---my loss wouldn't have been as high as 22%! Currently, COL has changed their estimate of EEI's price and has set the new FV to PhP12.70. Although, I just read earlier that they are currently doing another review of EEI. Anyway, I now only have 4,500 units, and decided to keep them much longer, until I change my mind. I'm hoping share price will go up again just like it did one day when it actually turned green for a couple of days. Moreover, there's an upcoming cash dividend of .10/share with ex-date on August 26, and payable on September 26. Four hundred pesos of cash dividend, while not big, is still an earning!

EEI turning green! 1.13% GAIN
As you can see from the above picture, when you have a stock trading account your portfolio can either turn green (indicating GAIN) or turn red (indicating LOSS). All these are paper gain or paper loss. You bag in the gain or suffer the loss IF and ONLY IF you do a sale transaction.

Drat, I veered away from my initial goal in writing this post, which is to actually encourage my friend and others out there to NOT wait out and get around to submitting the missing requirement/application. That way, she and her husband could start their own stock market investing journey. During that quick chat, she mentioned something about being late in the game as we're already 37! My encouragement to people my age, that in this case---it's BETTER LATE than NEVER. Think of it this way, if you DON'T START NOW---the guarantee is you have ZERO investment. But if you DO, even if you are on your way to your 40s---at least you are moving towards having your own investment portfolio. Opening of account starts with a 5,000-peso funding, and if you religiously top-up even for as little as 1,000 a month. Then, by the end of your first year you'll have more or less PhP16,000 investment money. It may not be BIG ENOUGH and far from the million you wish to have someday, it's still way better than having ZERO after 12 months. As to the argument that it's late if you start in your mid-thirties, well, our life expectancy now has increased. Who knows we might get to live up to the very ripe age of 80 years old---that my friends means you have more than forty years of investment horizon! Still thinking that it's too late for us, over mid-thirties people? I hope not.

If you are just starting out, let me tell you that it will be scary at first, especially choosing your first position. But as you gain experience, you'll soon realize that your fears regarding the stock market are unfounded. Sometimes the only way to get around fear is to dive right in and be surprised that all those preconceived ideas have NO basis at all. Reading blogs and books might also help ease your fears. If you're not the reader type, there are many videos on YouTube that you can actually watch to jump start your stock market journey. Check out the channels of Pesos and Sense, J3 Patino (not-related, hehe) on YouTube, or Fitz Villafuerte's blog: ReadyToBeRich for more guides in stock market investing.

P.S. If you are ever interested to try this out and knows no one to help you out, shoot me an e-mail at vetlongwalks@gmail.com. I'll be glad to help in anyway I can, FREE of charge. But if you insist, I don't mind being treated to a McDonald Hot Fudge Sundae, hehe!

HAPPY STOCK MARKET INVESTING, FOLKS!

Stock Investing, Anyone?

2016-08-17T15:32:00.000+08:00

A few years ago, one of my former bosses introduced to a friend and I the idea of stock investing. For us Filipinos, stock investing isn't very common. But thanks to advancement in technology, aka the rise of the internet, stock investing is slowly gaining popularity in the country. At the time that my former boss introduced it to us, online platform for stock investing wasn't that available yet. Or at least, it was unheard of to me. Stock investing was reintroduced to me in 2011 through COL Financial.com. This online platform allows ordinary people with not much money to get into stock investing. With an initial amount of 5,000 pesos, any one can open an account with COL.

Anyway, going back. At the time that this platform was introduced to me, I only opened an account, without actually being serious about the whole thing. A big part of it was because of fear. I didn't know much about the world of stocks, so it was a bit intimidating to me. But beginning in 2013, I saw the potential as a means to grow ones money. For newbies like me at that time, with practically no knowledge of stocks, market analysis, and other jargons, the advice is to just keep on investing. That is, put in as low as 1,000 a month to the account and buy only solid companies. But as one who normally doesn't follow advice, I not only did not top up monthly but decided to trade instead. By trade, I mean to buy and sell when there's an opportunity. Since I opened the account back in 2011, with very minimal activity during the first two years, my small amount has given me 59.75% gain then. Since the amount is very miniscule, the almost 60% gain is also miniscule. But on the second thought, had I decided to put in that small amount in the bank, it would only have yielded me less than 1 (ONE) percent. So putting the very little amount in an investment instrument, it was not a bad call, right? It was because of this gain that I actually saw the potential for it being a money-growing instrument.

Anyway, if you are curious about stock investing, read on Bo Sanchez' e-book, My Maid Invests in the Stock Market. It basically gives you an idea what the stock market is and how you can earn from it in a language that is easy to understand. Click on the link to get a FREE copy of the e-book.

Picture Source: The Truly Rich Club

While the possibility to EARN BIG in the stock market is there, there is also the equal risk to LOSE BIG. Let me leave you with this status reminder from a friend:

The stock market is NOT for the faint-hearted. CHEER UP! It's not the end of the world...

She leaves the above message because most of our portfolio at that time looks like this---ALL RED!

(See how eons ago that was? Yahoo Messenger, y'all)

credit card annual fee reversal

2016-08-17T04:17:00.002+08:00

Credit card use is both a boon and a bane. With unguided use, this convenient financial tool can ruin your financial life. To make the most of your credit card, it's best that you pay the balance in full on or before the due date. Otherwise, you'll carry the burden that is finance charge (FC) and additional payment of late fee if you pay after your due date has lapsed. Even if you religiously pay on time and in full, there's another charge that holders incur just for maintaining credit cards---the Annual Fee. Some banks refer to this as "Membership Fee" as in the case of Citibank. Generally, this is one way banks earn money, from people for using credit cards issued by them.

To keep track of my spending, I usually use plastic. Every time I use it, I logged it to an excel file I keep. While there are many apps you can download for this, my preference is still the old school spreadsheet. Anyway, when I logged into my online account, I noticed an amount that I couldn't remember ever "swiping". My excel file also showed no indication that I spent said amount to purchase something. As it turned out, it's the Annual Fee in the amount of PhP2,800. As it wasn't part of my budget for the month, I tried e-mailing the credit card company's customer service to request if there's a way that they could cancel the membership fee. After all, some credit card companies---Citibank including---now offer "No Annual Fee" promos to lure more customers into consumer credit. Also being a religious payer, I figured they'll give consideration. Normally, I just pay the AF without questions. But since I'm without a job and sticking to a budget is important, I tried to follow what I often read and hear about and request for Annual Fee reversal. From what I heard, you simply have to call the card company's hotline number and request for Annual Fee reversal. Some companies would readily grant the request for reversal, while others ask user to purchase a certain amount or avail of whatever is an on-going promo. As I'm NOT much of a phone person, I just opted to write an e-mail to make my request. Ha ha, as you can see I wrote at least five e-mail in a day to make the request. Unfortunately, all the requests where denied. Thus, I had no choice but to pay the billed Membership Fee the following month. I hate paying for financial charges, but as the MF wasn't in my budget for that month I was left with no choice but to underpay.

When requesting for annual fee reversal, many advised to keep calling the hotline until one gets an agent who would process the request. In my case, I just opted for e-mail to no avail. However, with Citibank, at the end of a log-in session, one is redirected to a page for an online survey. As a Psych student who was once had many papers requiring subjects/participants for surveys, I know how hard it is to get respondents to answer surveys. Thus, every time I see one, I normally would answer. Haha, I think it was a great move on my part. As it was a Customer Satisfaction survey, I mentioned that I was fully satisfied with the bank's services except for the AF request being turned down. I don't know whether it's pure coincidence or it's Citibank's way of trying to change my user experience---I was surprised to see that even after almost three months since I first made the request (March 2016), my Membership Fee was reversed soon after I replied to that survey!

True that it took awhile, and I had already incurred a Finance Charge for failure to pay the MF in March, I was still ecstatic when I realized that Citibank actually reversed the Membership Fee in June. This was truly a case of "better late than never". If this was because of the Survey, I'm just happy that I answered it. I guess they don't want to get poor scores on certain metrics. But whatever the case, there's really no harm in putting in a request or answering surveys. You just don't know how the company would respond.

How Impatience and Convenience Cost Money

2016-07-16T00:54:00.001+08:00

How patient are you?

How much do you value your convenience?

If I were to answer these questions, I am ashamed to admit that I'm not the most patient person. I discovered while I was in high school that I don't have much patience, particularly in waiting for a jeepney ride. As I'm a student with limited allowance, I learned to walk to certain destinations just to keep me from waiting for the elusive jeepney ride. I would rather walk than wait. Additionally, on rare occasions where I do wait, I would often look for a jeepney that has more empty seats. I find it very inconvenient to be squeezing myself in when the jeepney is almost full.

As a student with not much money, I learned to walk as a result of my impatient nature and my preference for convenience. Soon after school, my money situation improved as I have my own job and ergo, disposable income. I learned to hail taxis for convenience sake. Then, there was one day some years ago that I humored myself and calculated the cost of riding taxis. I was floored at the wastage of money. I went back to riding the jeepneys to save cost, despite the inconvenience and the waiting time. Walking to certain destinations is no longer an option for me as I now live outside the city. I still could, but it's just too far. Moreover, the route from my home to work, has its roads in major overhaul mode. Road constructions or repairs are being done left and right. With much road constructions, taking the taxis would surely burn my wallet as heavy traffic in Cebu, especially in the Mandaue area coming from Lapu-Lapu, is becoming the norm. The city's traffic situation has introduced me to the convenience of riding motorcycles, locally called "habal-habal."

Now this won't be an issue for me if and only if I'm getting my salary on time. But recently, our company's situation has gone bonkers to the extent that I literally don't know when I'm going to be paid next. Thus, here I am - thinking again of the cost of my impatience and preference for convenience! So, I'm humoring myself again and calculating my recent transportation costs if I were to follow one of the three.

Column 2 minus Column 1 = 25,200 // Column 3 minus Column 1 = 30,480 // Column 3 minus Column 2 = 5,280

For easier calculation, the premise is I report to work every day for 5 days, for the whole year. Recently, I've taken more of column 2 and 3, depending if there's a habal-habal available at the subdivision's gate. Do you see the difference in amount? If I were just to wake up earlier and be patient enough to line up at the Tamiya terminal, instead of calling out for a habal-habal, I could have saved myself A LOT! The cost of my impatience and putting value on convenience is a whooping PhP 25,200 annually!! Do you see now how impatience and convenience can cost money? I know for some, this amount may not be much - but this could have been money saved for retirement or for whatever purpose!

Hah! These figures are making me rethink again about riding habal-habal! I haven't even included the transportation cost on weekends when I'm out of the house. Also, on occasions where I get lazy and hail the taxi when getting home from work (especially during a rainy evening)! Drat, even if my salary situation reverts back to normal, I really should seriously think about taking the jeepney all the way from home to work and vice versa!

What about you? Have you thought about your own transportation cost? Are you paying much for it?

How much are you worth?

2016-07-09T20:06:00.000+08:00

In quite a few number of financial blogs and books I've read, one of the things often discussed is Net Worth. According to these literature, in order to properly plan out your financial future it is essential to get a base point. That is, determine where you are financially. Once you know where you stand financially, you can easily take steps towards setting financial goals.

As someone who did not imagine herself living long, I didn't take personal finance seriously. I thought to myself there really was no point preparing for a future because in my mind I believe my health will turn on me and take life away anytime. At age 23, I gathered enough courage to see doctors again and learned that I have a condition called adenomyosis. Several doctors I consulted told me that this condition was NOT life threatening and this was confirmed by my own readings. Despite this assurance, the idea that I will die young remained in my head. Immediately soon after, I took out two insurance policies for myself.

Alas, God has some other plans for me! I'm still not dead at 33! That realization hit me two years ago - exactly 10 years since I was diagnosed. If death were out of my hands, then what if God allows me to live until I'm 50, 65, or horror of horrors at age 85!?! That's 15, 30, 50 years from now!

What will an old single woman do when the income stops?

It is when I had those realizations that I humored myself into doing the activity that every personal finance seminars I've attended advised; examine your finances and make your own Statement of Assets and Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN). Your Net Worth is essentially your Assets minus your Liabilities.

To create my SALN, I downloaded a Net Worth Tracking sheet from MillionaireMindIntensive.com two years ago. I filled out the sheet and created my first ever SALN. Haha, my SALN was not pretty. It was pure HORROR!

As you can see, my Net Worth isn't pretty.

But the beauty of it all is even if my NW is in the negative, seeing the RED spurred me to action. True, the figures were disheartening but it gave me the motivation to re.adjust my priorities. I made the conscious decision to limit my travel plans. Any money that I set aside for future travels, I re.directed to building my savings (or starting it, hehe..) The NEGATIVE figure also emboldened me to get serious with investing in the stock market. I joined COL in 2011, but didn't actually top-up. It was only two years later that I added to my account little by little. Moreover, thanks to my preoccupation that I will die young, and I wouldn't want my very nuclear family to have to worry about disposing my dead body, the policies now have cash values that I can easily cash in if something bad happens. All these helped oh so slowly increased my assets.

In 2013, I had 3 credit cards. I closed one and closely monitored my two accounts; paying off in full the due amounts for each card. Sadly, some situation happened which continues on; and some poor decisions in reaction to the bad situation late last year forced me to use my card unnecessarily again as my little savings have dwindled. The bad situation appears to persist and looking at my SALN now, I am a bit disheartened. All the progress I made since 2013 to lower my liabilities seems to have cancelled out due to events of late last year. Anyhow, true to the spirit of what knowing your Net Worh can accomplish, I am now back to studying things and finding out ways on how I can get back on track. This is the beauty of personal finance. Since most of the things are within your control, you can easily make tweaks here and there. The key is to NOT LOSE HOPE. The RED will soon turn GREEN . Obviously, I'm VERY FAR from hitting it, but rather than feel sad about it, I tell myself that I can still make things happen someday soon and remind myself of the following:

Bad things happen. Get over it. Stop complaining. Do things that are within your control and act on those. Keep on learning and learning.

Again. DO NOT LOSE HOPE if you find out your net worth is in the negative. We all have to start somewhere. Lucky for those who have zero liabilities and positive net worth. Somewhere, somehow, they too started from something.

I'll end this post with this quote from T. Harv Eker

Read the NEXT POST to know the items that can be listed as either an ASSET or a LIABILITY.

What's a SALN?

2016-07-02T03:02:00.000+08:00

When a politician is accused of corruption here in the country, one of the things that come into question is that public official's Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth, or SALN.

So, what's a SALN?

Photo Credit: this website.

As the image illustrates; your SALN is that document that indicates everything that you own and owe. Calculating one against the other will help determine your Net Worth.

Generally, your Net Worth is the value of everything you have [ASSETS] minus the amount of everything you owe [LIABILITIES].

ASSETS - things you own - Under this you can list the following:

Cash and Liquid Assets	Marketable Assets	Long-Term Assets	Personal Assets
Cash & Bank Accounts	Mutual Funds	Registered Retirement Savings Plan	Personal Residence
Bonds, Term Deposits, and Investment Certificates	Stocks	Cash Value of Life Insurance	Vehicles
Money owed to you	Real Estate Investments	Pension plans & Profit sharing	Recreational Property
Others	Business Interests	Others(Offshore Accounts	Household Furnishings/Equipment
			Collectibles (Art, Jewelry, etc.)

LIABILITIES - what you owe - Under this you can list the following:

SHORT-TERM DEBT

Charge Accounts & Credit Cards
Line of Credit/Overdraft
Loans (Car Loans, Personal Loans)
Taxes ((roperty Tax)
Other(Charitable Pledges, Family Obligations)

LONG-TERM DEBT

Home Mortgage
Other Mortgage Loan
Others)

Add up the value of all your Assets. Do the same thing with your Liabilities. Once you have the total amount of each, subtract the Total Amount of Liabilities from the Total Amount of Assets. If the value of your Assets is greater than your Liabilities, then you have a POSITIVE Net Worth. The reverse is true (NEGATIVE NET WORTH) if your Total Liabilities is greater than your Total Assets.

Computing for Amount of Insurance to Get

2016-06-25T00:39:00.000+08:00

A friend of mine once asked me how one computes for the amount of insurance to get. Off the top of my head, I just replied, "Suppose you die tomorrow. How much do you think will your family need from the time of your death to until your youngest child's eviction age?" By eviction age, I meant the year when your child is able to support herself/himself. I can't recall exactly where I got this idea, but that's what came to mind. Then I also added to factor in yearly inflation rate.

Anyway, as I am trying (haha, as I'm still learning..) to be an advocate of becoming financially prepared, I thought sharing this blog post that i've read can give those who are interested in getting insurance a clearer idea.
The post was written by Elvin Peria of journeytomillions.com.
This is what he wrote on the topic on how much and why you need insurance.

I hope you learn more from the article than the vague explanation I gave my friend.

PS. I hope Mr. Peria doesn't mind my sharing the link.

photo source: ingenuityfp.com

Financial Blogs I Read

2016-06-18T15:34:00.000+08:00

my whole education was primarily funded by the people of the philippines. i went to a public school from elementary all the way to college. studying at punta princesa elementary school wasn't expensive at all. primarily because the school is just walking distance to our home, and it being a public school, tuition wasn't much. the same goes for my high school and college education. as i was fortunate enough to study at u.p., tuition wasn't also much of a problem. [truth be told, my parents mentioned something like we have to study in u.p. else it would take a miracle for us to finish school due to high tuition costs in private schools. so, u.p. it was and all 3 of us (my siblings) were glad we had parents who insisted u.p. is the only high school and university for us.] tuition in u.p. is subsidized by the government. [although, i heard that tuition in u.p. now is around 16K per semester compared to my 5K or for some, zero + allowance, during my time] plus, during second and third year college, i worked as a student assistant. unlike other schools, u.p. working students are paid monetarily. so, i've extra money during those two school years for being part of the government payroll.

why am i mentioning that i'm a product of public education?

well, no brilliant explanation here, except that i owe much of my schooling to people who paid taxes. yes, it's unfortunate that news today abound with stories of how tax money of filipinos have fallen into the wrong hands. it's sad because a lot of these monies could have been spent on improving our education and health care systems as well as building more infrastructures to benefit the filipino people and foreign investors alike. a lot of those money could also have been spent on spreading financial literacy amongst filipinos. actually, there's a long list of where those stolen money could have been appropriated to rightful places.

if we can't rely much in our government, i guess we only have ourselves to rely on and what better way to do than to start educating ourselves. let's just say i'm hopeful that with the rise of technology a lot of us will start to become financial literates. yes, we are a poor country - but it doesn't have to be so some years into the future. let's strive to make this happen by increasing our knowledge in everything finance.
let's get ourselves informed about personal finance, and read - read - read , read - and read .
you may start with these blogs as they are full of brilliant resources.

or you may join a club like the The Truly Rich for the wealth of financial information they provide their members. Learn more about the club now.

Disclaimer: I don't know the blog owners personally. I visit their blogs from time to time to get me grounded, hehe. Unfortunately, my discipline isn't as strong as theirs. Thus, I need these resources to keep me focused. I'm 34 now, and it's only now that I truly want to be serious about everything finance. I hope the blogs I listed will also help you in one way or another.

Happy reading!!

Money Quotes

2016-06-11T11:09:00.000+08:00

Are you one of those who still keep notebooks to jot down things?
Well, before apps became a thing to help one in practically anything, I used to keep good old traditional notebook to remind me about expenses and whatnot involving money. I also use that notebook to jot down some quotes I read somewhere.
One of the notebooks I used to keep had these money quotes. Before I lose it, I figure I'll just transfer them here. Hopefully, anyone who may happen to chance upon this little place in the web might find it helpful, the way they were and are helpful to me.

"Bring the whole tithe, into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it" (Malachi 3:10).
---->Give back a portion of what you have to bring glory to the name of the One who made you were you are!
Even if you tithed, housing should never cost more than 40% of your spendable income after tithing.
"Prepare your work outside & make it ready for yourself in the field; afterwards, then build your house," (Proverbs 24:27).

Hmmm, I can't remember the reason why I wrote this down, but it's probably something to do with the timing on when you should build your house (in my case, taking out a housing loan). I interpret this as something about preparing your finances; thinking about your income, expenses, etc. before taking the plunge of committing what could be your life's biggest expense. I read this after I took out my housing loan. If i were to go back, I would have wanted to save 200K or 300K before taking out a loan.

Allocate money for non-monthly expenses such as clothes, car maintenance, and annual insurance

The message here is to allocate something for those little expenses that will come sometime. Those little expenses will eventually arise, and you don't want to be taking out the money for this from the funds that's been 'labeled' already. Yes, easier said than done, but try anyway.

Don't commit yourselves to monthly expenses based on two incomes.

I probably was thinking then that marriage will be in my picture. Something I could tell the future husband that this is a non-negotiable for me. Maybe, we can tweak, but definitely not to put both incomes as spendable. LOL! But seriously, think about it, married people. It's a sound advice. We don't know what the future holds. One could lose a job, business, or whatever. What will happen then if all your expenses are based on the two incomes?

Avoid---too much, too soon problem.

I think this has something to do with lifestyle inflation and delayed gratification. Don't rush too soon about buying everything in sight. Inflation, which is the rise in prices, can also apply to one's lifestyle. Ponder: how is it that with increased income, one still doesn't feel any richer?

Be self-disciplined today!

Just two words: compound interest. If you make yourself save consistently, and you have time as your ally, coupled it with the right financial instrument, then wow, you have something going here.

"The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage, but everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty," (Proverbs 21:5).

"Stay with what you know best, and you'll lose a lot less money in the long run."

"A faithful man will abound with blessings; but he who makes haste to be rich will not go unpunished," (Proverbs 28:20). (Weird, but Janet Lim Napoles just popped in my head relating to this, hehe).

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God. And God shall supply all your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus," (Philippians 4:16-19).

"Let every person be in subjection to governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God for because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them; tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor," (Romans 13:1, 6-7).

I hope there are bits that you'll find helpful in your quest for financial independence. Let's help in promoting financial literacy to fellow Filipinos.

Bro. Bo's The Truly Rich Club Caravan Comes to Cebu City and Zamboanga City!

2016-05-17T18:16:00.000+08:00

Just a week after the Philippine election was held, the stock market saw a surge of activity. The PSEI rose back to 7,400++ level. On my FB feed, I see people posting and sharing news of a positive market outlook. If you know zilch about the stock market, you can easily hit YouTube and find videos explaining what the stock market is all about. You may also crawl the web and search for stock market related posts. However, if you are the type who wants to attend live seminars to fully grasp concepts such as the stock market, perhaps you should check out Bro. Bo Sanchez' The Truly Rich Club (TRC) seminars. If you're from my hometown of Cebu or you're in Zamboanga City, you're in luck as the TRC is bringing their caravan to Zamboanga City and Cebu City on May 21 and May 28, respectively:

Screen grabbed from TRC e-mail Should you part with your hard-earned PhP497 to attend this seminar?

Well, only you can determine if it's worth the price. If you're someone who's seriously interested in venturing into the world of stock market investing, I think PhP497 is just a penny. This price is actually negligible and something you can easily get back once you start earning from your stocks. The seminar might just be what you need if the thought of opening an online stock trading account has crossed your mind, and all you need is a PUSH. This seminar just might be what you've been waiting for to start your journey on stock market investing. Check out the infographic to get an idea what your PhP497 is worth.

If you are interested to attend this seminar, simply go to the link provided above to register a seat.
Disclaimer: Information used here were taken from the TRC mailer forwarded to me. I used to be a member of TRC, but stopped my subscription for financial reason. I won't be earning anything if you click the link above. I'm only disseminating the information in case there are fellow Cebuanos who are interested to get into stock market investing.