Investing Pinoy

4 Steps to Genuine Change

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan "bravy" Uy) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:08:00 +0000

Except when I was a baby and about a span of 3 years from 4th year high school to 2nd year College, I been overweight most of my life. My worse was 215 pounds when I was in 3rd year high school.

However, something happened. I fell in love with a pretty girl (Oops, past is past. I'm sure my lovely wife won't mind, would she?). And that changed everything. From a high of 215 pounds, my weight went down to 155 pounds within a period of 1 year.

During this time, I never ate rice. Somehow, and funnily, I was exempted from all other carbohydrates like instant pancit canton, bread, bread and more bread).

I went on 1 to 1.5 kilometer laps in an Olympic-sized swimming pool two to three times a week and I did 200 sit-ups everyday.

Because of these activities, I kept a pretty good weight for three more years. What happened next is another story (more on this later).

But what really happened? Why did I lose 60 pounds of water and fat after I've been fat since I was a kid? I never realized it until I learned the clear steps from Tony Robbins which I'd like to share with everyone today. I just shortened it from 7 to 4 steps.

4 steps to genuine change

There are 4 steps which a person should go through to experience genuine change in his life. Whatever it it on wants to change: financial, health, relationships with others or his Creator, career, or intelligence. Without all the 4 clear steps (IN ORDER), one can't really achieve genuine change.

Here they are in correct sequence.

Step 1: Get disturbed

Yes, you read it right. Get disturbed.

Remember my reason why I told myself "enough is enough!"? It was because of a girl. No, I didn't get disturbed because she's attractive. I got disturbed because I wanted her to take notice me as a macho alpha male and I thought it was almost impossible because of my weight. Hehe. Besides, my confidence wasn't that great, with all that bulges on the front and sides.

Three things happened to me.

First, I was honest enough to tell myself I was indeed fat. As the old reliable saying goes, "Honesty is still the best policy."

Second, I got angry at my condition. I started hating being fat.

Third, I was hungry. Not for food, of course. I was hungry enough to do something to change my situation.

Step 2: Know what you want

In my example, I knew what I wanted. It was not dieting or losing weight that I wanted. More than anything else, I wanted her to check me out and hang out with me. Heck, if I could take the girl for myself without sacrificing my eating habits, I'd never go through the diet and those grueling hours of exercise. Would you?

Step 3: Come up with a plan (strategy)

Once I knew that I wanted her to take notice of me, I thought the one thing that hindered this was my overweight body. So, I decided to do three things to achieve this:

One, I stopped eating rice.

Second, I did sit ups daily.

Third, I jumped into the Amoranto Pool and did my laps regularly.

Step 4: Take massive action

I believe that in every new thing that you want to do in your life, you have to take massive action in order for it to be successful. And this is exactly what I did. For one year, I religiously followed my strategy and I got the results I wanted.

Fortunately, I failed at getting the girl. Otherwise, I wouldn't have met my very beautiful ex-girlfriend. My ex took my breath away. (What are your thinking? Of course, I'm referring to my wife. She's not my girlfriend anymore, right?)

A daily struggle

Let me confess to you. I'm 195 pounds today and I feel it's taking a toll on me. I know I can get sick faster with the extra weight. My ideal weight should only be 155-162 pounds.

I can't even jump high enough anymore to reach the board of a basketball ring (I used to do tap boards quite easily back in my high school days).

Finding great pain

I believe I can achieve my ideal weight once again. All I have to do is go through the 4 steps to genuine change. And the first step is getting disturbed. Finding the pain. Finding the discomfort.

First, I am disturbed with the fact that with my weight, I'm sure I can't live at least a hundred years old which is one of my life goals.

Second, I know I can enjoy my life more with a leaner body. I can play with my kids more. Wake up early in the morning to take my walks. Date my wife. Do ministry work for the advancement of God's kingdom here on earth.

If I don't do these things, the hurt inside me will just grow bigger. And I know that this is how change starts.

I gotta be disturbed. I know I am on my way. I know it's very near.

More pain when more people know

And to force myself to commit to this, I will tell all of you what happens to my weight at the end of this year. My target is to reduce 1 pound every month for the next 10 months. That's a total of 10 pounds. So at the end of this year, I should only be 185 pounds.

My action plan is to take my daily 30 to 60 minute walks, reduce my carbohydrate intake into half and play more with my kids (and wife, of course, ahem).

Please pray with me that I can achieve this. I believe it's not that difficult. But I want lasting change. Something I can do for the rest of my life. Consistency is the real key to true success.

How about you? What changes do you want in your life? Is it in the area of your finances? Do you want to start saving or investing? Do you want to have regular romantic dates with your spouse and commit to improve your relationship? Do you want to be a better father or mother? Do you want to get higher grades in school?

What disturbs you today? If you are disturbed, then this means you're about to start your journey to change.

Keep on keeping on.

I hope to hear from you by sharing your experiences here.

May you achieve true success!

Bryan

Do you want to receive regular updates about investing from InvestingPinoy?Don't be the last to know how to earn from different investment strategies. Subscribe below and start learning about investing for f.ree!

PS. My mentor in stock market investing and business is Bo Sanchez. He has an online coaching club where he teaches one to be truly rich. You can try it out for free and enjoy the same benefits I have enjoyed. Go to Bo Sanchez's TrulyRichClub.

PS. If you want to invest in real estate properties, visit www.houseforsalephilippineswithphoto.blogspot.com.

Where to Invest an Extra PhP300,000.00 and How to Get Passive Income

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan "bravy" Uy) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 09:41:00 +0000

I received a comment from an anonymous reader of InvestingPinoy about where to invest extra income of PhP300,000.00. Since I could not respond to him without his or her email address, I decided to post the question and my answer here for everyone's benefit. Below is his email and my response.

Let me know if this has helped you or kindly leave a comment and share your thoughts and ideas on where to invest extra income.

Hi Sir Bryan,

Your blog has been very helpful to a lot of noob in investing, including me. At this point of time, a friend of mine has received Php 300,000 cash from different income streams and he would like to invest this money in real estate, UITFs and Stocks. He has a 5-10 year time horizon and his risk appetite is in between aversion and aggressiveness. He is now 22 and he was asking my opinion regarding the percentage allocation of the capital. Can you help me answer his question?
Also, what would can I do to have a passive income of Php100K to Php 200K in real estate given that I don't have a big cash on hand. I really feel the need to learn this because I believe this is one God's way for me to get out of the race and provide for my family and those who are in need. Thank you very much and more power!

Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

Thank you for leaving a comment in investingpinoy. I am also glad that at a young age of 22, your friend is already earning well from different income streams.

Young people have a lot of potential to be very wealthy fast because of technology and the opportunities of these times.

To your 1st question on what to suggest to your friend about where to invest and how much to allocate, I can’t really specifically give you an answer.

I would first ask what his investing interests are and among these interests, which ranks highest, second highest, third and so on.

Where Can You Invest Your Money

I believe you learn fastest of your studying what you love to do. Is it real estate, stock market, businesses?

I personally am into the stock market, investing monthly equal amounts of money with a time horizon of at least 20 years. To someone who has a time horizon of 5-10 years, my stock marketing investing method might be too slow and downright boring.

If he is interested in money cost averaging, kindly read my post about Money Cost Averaging.

Stock Market Trading

Trading the stock market on a short term horizon (1 months to 6 months) is much faster but requires in depth trading skills, i.e., reading charts and patterns and this will also require a lot of time from the person.

I have also studied trading but I decided to do this when I retire, since by then, I have a lot of time to do it.

Real Estate Investing

Real estate is a really good and fairly simple way of getting good income but is also dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing.

The most popular ways of earning in real estate if one is a beginner is to sell other people’s property for a referral fee, much like brokering minus the brokering work (title transfer, etc). Parang referral lang talaga.

The other one is to buy, fix and sell or what we call flipping of properties.

For example, you can try to find a cheap old house in a great neighbourhood (always think good location) and buy it at 50-60% of its market value, repair it and sell it at 90% if it’s market value. Let’s put numbers.

If the market value is PhP1M you can try buying it from a desperate seller at PhP500k to PhP600k, repair it for P100k more and sell it at PhP900k. This way, you stand to earn PhP200k to PhP300k.

Business
One can of course put money in business. Pwedeng own business.

But i strongly advise you to choose the business that is in line with your passion so that you can get past any hurdle that comes along the way.

I am into different business today but the most successful are those that are in line with my passion. One passion is helping others through my environmental engineering and consultancy firm.

UITFs

I don’t usually encourage people to invest in UITFs because the company just invests it in the same investment vehicles (e.g. stocks, bonds).

You can do this yourself.

Of course, for those who do not even want to bother to learn or don't have the time to, UITFs are a good alternative.

But I always tell people that if you want your money to grow, you have to manage it yourself.

Of course, you can ask for expert advise, and I do ask. Just make sure it’s expert advice and not advise from a broker or agent unless they got wealthy also because of their own advise.

If they got wealthy because of selling you the UITFs, then they’re wealthy salesmen and not investors.

I remember a friend complaining to me why his business are not prospering.

When I asked her if she has a mentor in business, she said, "None."

When I asked her where she gets her business advise from, she replied,

"From my mom (who's a house wife and has never been successful in any of her businesses.)."

Hmm, no wonder.

Ask advise only from experts who've been there. Who've done that.

How to Acheive Passive Income

About your second question on what kind of activity would bring you passive incomeof PhP100k – PhP200k, there are a lot but everything takes time and a lot of effort of course.

The options are limitless.

Passive Income from Real Estate, Stocks or Business

It can come from real estate if you have rental properties.

For example, if you have a 20-unit apartment building that generates P200k of monthly rental income (i.e. 20 units x PhP10,000.00 per unit equals PhP200,00.00 per month).

You can also get it from the stock market.

For example, if you earn 5% dividend income per year from your PhP48M worth of stocks, this will be equivalent to PhP2.4M/year.

Another way is to earn 1% per month from trading the stocks if you have PhP20M or 2% per month if you have PhP10M in the stock market.

This is what I intend to do when I retire.

I imagine I'm in Belize with my entire family (yes, including grandchildren) and trading the stock market.

Another way to have passive income is to set up a business which allows you to do what you want, where you want and whenever you want.

This means you have people to manage your business so you can do your own thing.

Remember, only go into a business which you are passionate about and where you think people will be blessed. The Great Teacher, Jesus, said,

"The greatest among you will be your servant." - Matthew 23:11 (NIV)

Everything Takes (Has Its) Time

Everything takes time but one will eventually get there if he persists and continues to learn.

Let me give you an analogy.

It takes days to make a kanal (kanal natin sa Pinas), takes months to make a street drainage, takes years to finish city-wide drainage and takes decades or even centuries to create the path of a river.

So the bigger your dreams are, the longer it will take to achieve them. But once you’re ready, you will just soar.

Think Henry Sy, John Gokongwei and Jollibee. Or even Edgar Sia II who owns the very famous Mang Inasal.

It took time for each of these companies to be the leading companies in their industry.

So, it’s really your choice of how you want passive income to come to you. What’s important is that you need to choose businesses that fits your talents and lifestyle.

So, where do you want to put your extra income? In the stock market? Real estate? Businesses?

Where do you want passive income to come from?

Let me know and share your thoughts in the comments.

God bless your dreams.

May you achieve true success!

Bryan

Do you want to receive regular updates about investing from InvestingPinoy? Don't be the last to know how to earn from different investment strategies. Subscribe below and start learning about investing for f.ree!

PS. My mentor in stock market investing and business is Bo Sanchez. He has an online coaching club where he teaches one to be truly rich. You can try it out for free and enjoy the same benefits I have enjoyed. Go to Bo Sanchez's TrulyRichClub.

PS. If you want to invest in real estate properties, visit www.houseforsalephilippineswithphoto.blogspot.com.

Wow! You should buy Energy Development Corporation (EDC) and First Philippine Holdings (FPH)

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan "bravy" Uy) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:45:00 +0000

It's amazing how fast traders sell their stock position when bad news or, in this case, seemingly bad news occurs. Yesterday, Energy Development Corporation (EDC) and First Philippine Holdings (FPH) had a big drop in price due to negative sentiments. EDC actually dropped 8% because of this.

This means, we have a chance to get in and buy at very cheap prices. Remember, if we are long-term investors, we should buy EDC and FPH as this price is a steal.
So what are you waiting for?

May you achieve true success!

Bryan

Do you want to receive regular updates about investing from InvestingPinoy? Don't be the last to know how to earn from different investment strategies. Subscribe below and start learning about investing for f.ree!
PS. My mentor in stock market investing and business is Bo Sanchez. He has an online coaching club where he teaches one to be truly rich. You can try it out for free and enjoy the same benefits I have enjoyed. Go to Bo Sanchez's TrulyRichClub

PS. If you want to invest in real estate properties, visit www.houseforsalephilippineswithphoto.blogspot.com.

Get wealthy with money cost averaging buying giant companies

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan "bravy" Uy) — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 16:37:00 +0000

Hello guys,

How are your investments in the stock market? I hope you are smiling and having fun.

In this post, I will share with you why you need to start investing in the stock market using the simplest way to make your money grow in the stock market: the money cost averaging method. Using money cost averaging, your PhP5,000.00 invested in the stock market every month for the next 20 years will grow it from PhP1,200,000.00 to about PhP10,000,000.00 at about 13.5% compounded growth per year. That's the power of money cost averaging.

If your goal is to have PhP10,000,000.00 20 years from now, you should start investing PhP5,000.00 per month in the stock market buying a giant company. If you need PhP20,000,000.00 for your retirement 20 years from now, you should start investing P10,000.00 per month in the stock market buying giant companies. If you need PhP100,000,000.00, you need to invest PhP50,000.00 per month for the next 20 years. I believe some of you are capable of saving and investing a huge amount of money per month. How do I know? Tell me what kind of gadgets you have? How many do you have? Do you really need them all? How about the kind of hand or shoulder bags you have? Do you really need a designer bag worth PhP100,000.00? How about your night outs and dates? How many do you have every week? Now, before you say "Well I deserve it!", which I'm very sure you do, allow me to say that I also believe you deserve to have a good and abundant life in the future by saving and investing for it today.

So, are you ready to invest in good companies for the next 20 years? If you are, congratulations. Now, the next thing we need to know is what companies to invest in. Let me share to you a list of companies which experts and analysts believe to provide a significant boost to your money. These companies have been chosen based on the following criteria:

It should be in a Growing Industry
It should have Earnings Visibility
and Management Credibility
The company should have Superior Products or Services
and a Strong balance sheet

These companies are GEMSS which is the acronym for the above criteria. Below is a list of the companies that you and I should choose to invest into for the long-term, that is using money cost averaging.

Sym	Company Name	Industry
AC	Ayala Corp.	Holdings Company of Ayala
ALI	Ayala Land, Inc.	Real Estate
AP	Aboitiz Power Corp.	Power Generation
BDO	Banco De Oro	Universal Bank
BPI	Bank of Philippine Islands	Universal Bank
DMC	DMCI Holdings, Inc.	Holdings company of Consunji
EDC	Energy Development Corp.	Renewable Energy
ICT	Intl. Container Terminal Services	Container Terminal Services
JFC	Jollibee foods Corp.	Quick Service Restaurants
MBT	Metropolitan Bank and Trust	Banking
MPI	Metro Pacific Investments	Holdings company of MV Pangilinan
MWC	Manila Water Company	Water Supply and Sanitation
SM	SM Investments Corp.	Holdings Company of SM Group
SMPH	SM Prime Holdings	Shopping Centers and Malls
TEL	Philippine Long Distance Tel. Co.	Telecommunications
URC	Universal Robina Corp.	Food and Beverage

So, what companies are you going to invest in? What is your target 20 years from now?

Remember, big things start small. As the Bible says,

"...whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow." - Proverbs 13:11b (NIV)

Dream Big! Start Small!

May you achieve true success!

Bryan

Do you want to receive regular updates about investing from InvestingPinoy? Don't be the last to know how to earn from different investment strategies. Subscribe below and start learning about investing for f.ree!
PS. My mentor in stock market investing and business is Bo Sanchez. He has an online coaching club where he teaches one to be truly rich. You can try it out for free and enjoy the same benefits I have enjoyed. Go to BoSanchez's TrulyRichClub.

PS. If you want to invest in real estate properties, visit www.houseforsalephilippineswithphoto.blogspot.com.

Are you bullish this 2011 despite the stock market downtrend?

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan "bravy" Uy) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 12:24:00 +0000

Hello again everyone! It's been quite some time since my last blog post. I have to apologize for this as I was so busy with a new business I was putting up late last year. Meanwhile, I've been keeping up with what's happening in the stock market today.

PSEi is on a Downtrend

As it is, the Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi) has been on a downtrend since November 2010 and may continue on the same pattern for the next few months. If this is to be, are you afraid of putting your money in the Philippine Stock Market? Let me help you answer that question by what the richest investor said,

"A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful." - Warren Buffet, Richest Investor in the World

Are you fearful of buying now? Maybe you are part of the majority who are fearful in investing in the stock market today? If you are, take courage in Warren Buffet's buying/selling rule. To encourage you even more, a Filipino who is my mentor became a multi-millionaire because he bought great companies when the Philippines experienced crises. While many were selling their shares when the prices went down because of the coup d'état, he was there buying shares of solid companies at very cheap prices. Every time there was a crisis, he was excited because he knew he could buy shares of great companies at bargain prices. Today, he is a multi-millionaire and continues to do the same investment strategy.. What strategy? Just in case you didn't get it the first time, it is this: Buy shares of great companies at bargain prices when many are selling because of fear of the unknown.

So, are you ready to buy and get rich?

Which Companies to Buy in the Philippine Stock Market 2011

The biggest online broker which happens to be my online broker, CitisecOnline, released a report sometime February 2011 which presents several companies that we need to keep a watch on. More importantly, these are the companies that we need to start buying using the money cost averaging method. If you are not familiar with money cost averaging, you may want to read my previous post about it HERE. Meanwhile, here is a list of companies you need to start buying. The list includes Alliance Global (AGI), Ayala Land (ALI), Banco de Oro (BDO), Bank of Philippine Islands (BPI), PNOC Energy Development Corp. (EDC), Intl. Container Terminal Services (ICT), Metropolitan Bank and Trust (MBT), Megaworld Corp. (MEG) and Nickel Asia, Corp. (NIKL). For as long as the price is below the "Strong BUY at" range, you consistently buy a fixed amount every month until you hit the "target price". The potential gains are also presented below so you have a better idea how much you stand to earn.

	Name	Current Price	Strong BUY at	Target Price	Potential Gain
AGI	Alliance Global	11.50	14.70	17.25	50%
ALI	Ayala Land	15.12	16.02	19.75	31%
BDO	Banco de Oro	51.00	47.90	60.00	18%
BPI	Bank of Philippine Islands	55.05	51.20	60.00	9%
EDC	PNOC Energy Development Corp.	6.00	6.93	7.78	30%
ICT	Intl. Container Terminal Services	41.55	38.20	50.00	20%
MBT	Metropolitan bank and Trust	63.90	65.10	84.50	32%
MEG	Megaworld Corp.	2.04	2.37	3.12	53%
NIKL	Nickel Asia, Corp.	20.20	18.40	22.50	11%

Note: A "strong buy" is a value considered to be fundamentally cheap given the prospects of the industry and of the company.

So, what are you waiting for? Make a decision on how much you are going to invest every month in the stock market. Have you already decided what company to buy?

May you achieve true success!

Bryan Uy
Investing Pinoy

Do you want to receive regular updates about investing from InvestingPinoy? Don't be the last to know how to earn from different investment strategies. Subscribe below and start learning about investing for f.ree!

PS. My mentor in stock market investing and business is Bo Sanchez. He has an online coaching club where he teaches one to be truly rich. You can try it out for free and enjoy the same benefits I have enjoyed. Go to Bo Sanchez's TrulyRichClub.

PS. If you want to invest in real estate properties, visit www.houseforsalephilippineswithphoto.blogspot.com.

Pride hurts but lessons are learned: A bittersweet story of an OFW investing in the Philippine stock market

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan "bravy" Uy) — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 08:47:00 +0000

When I wrote about my losses in the stock market on the second week of November (read Yikes! I lost a lot! I'm panicking because of the stock market pullback), one of my readers immediately emailed me about his experiences during the same time. His story was very similar, showing how our pride can eventually harm our (financial) lives. But I'd like you to focus not on the losses (he didn't actually loss money, rather 'lost' the opportunity to have higher gains if he sold earlier), but the experience and lessons he has gained. Indeed, a victorious warrior doesn't usually come back from a war unscathed. These wounds make us stronger and wiser in making the right decisions.

I also like to share this story because here is an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) based in the Middle East, which is thousands of miles away from us, and he's able to invest/trade the Philippine Stock Market through a Philippine online broker. This only means that if you are an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW), you can follow his model and start investing for your future by investing in the stock market.

DISCLAIMER: The suggestions about which companies to buy in the letter below has nothing to do with what I want to say. The story is presented here bare and unedited so that readers may understand the OFW's emotions during the time of writing.

Hi. Bry,

Musta na. kakatuwa naman tong blog mo Bry (patungkol talaga sa tulad ko). Tumpak ka talaga dahil sa pride (& greediness na rin sa part ko) ayon bagsak pero nakabangon konti kc binenta ko lahat except MPI & Fgen para makakuha ng DMC at AGI. Bakit kc mahirap bitawan ang stocks lalo na umaasa ka pa rin na tataas pa lalo't mga big caps nman. Alam mo ang Fgen ko umabot pa 20+% dati at ang MPI nman mga 12% ata. Ngayon 12.63% & 1.67% na lang.hehehe (kainis).

Sa nangyari ngayong week na-realise ko na dapat mag-stick talaga sa strategy – pag medyo naabot na yong TP benta na. Nagdesisyon ako knina na magsimula ako uli sa lahat kaya apat na lang stocks ko ngayon (+ NKL kung mabigyan kc thru raffle lang daw at 1T lang – nagsubscribe ako ng 5T).

Simula bukas i-monitor ko na at babangon na talaga ako ng maaga (tulog ng maaga para d mapuyat – baka dito pa ako magkakasakit.hehehe). From 25% overall profit ko ngayon 19% na lang.

Eto na ba yong CORRECTION na sinasabi nila? Dapat pala tandaan ko to kc kung di ka pala handa talo talaga. Sa totoo lang akala ko sa ganitong panahon (post-crisis) d na talaga bababa pa ng mga 10+% (in 2-3 days) ang mga blue chips. Nangyayari din pala.

Kung d ako mabigyan ng Nkl or 1T lang URC ang kapalit (wow ha ang galing mo 55% ka na sa URC dati). Yan ang nangyari sa akin sa Fgen at MPI kkaasa ko na aabot ako ng mga 30% bago ang release ng quarterly reports nila kc hinahambing ko performance nila sa ibang stocks ayon…. toinkkkkk

Stock Code

Market Price

Ave. Price

% Gain/Loss

% Portfolio

AGI

11.0000

10.7917

1.93%

16.74%

DMC

34.9500

33.8718

3.18%

31.91%

FGEN

12.6400

11.2225

12.63%

19.23%

MPI

3.8000

3.7375

1.67%

32.12%

Overall, magandang experience to sa mga baguhan tulad ko….dapat talaga extra lang yong pondo na nasa stock market.

Hayy ang daming pwding bilhin pero stick to the plan muna ako ngayon. Try ko till end of this year na pag me profit na 5-7% benta ko na agad (yong Fgen ko +3% pa para mabenta ko na.hehehe- bias pa rin)

Good luck….

Best regards sa lahat.

So, what have you learned from that letter from an OFW based in the Middle East? Did you also experience the same 'losses' during the November stock market correction? Did any of you actually sold before the correction? Do share you thoughts.

May you achieve true success!

Bryan

Do you want to receive regular updates about investing from InvestingPinoy? Don't be the last to know how to earn from different investment strategies. Subscribe below and start learning about investing for f.ree!
PS. If you want to invest in real estate properties, visit www.houseforsalephilippineswithphoto.blogspot.com. Investing Pinoy

Here's is my stock watch list. Get ready to BUY when the signal says so!

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan "bravy" Uy) — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 16:56:00 +0000

In my previous post, I shared my strategy on how to select which stocks to buy. If you haven't read it yet, I encourage you to read the post entitled "Market correction? So what! It's time to be on the lookout!".

Review of How to Select Stocks to Buy

Now, based on the technique that I have shared with you, I have come up with several stocks that are on an uptrend or about to breakout, which are two signals that you should anticipate to buy when the numbers and indicators are right. Let me summarize how to select stocks to buy as follows:

Check the general trend (Should be uptrend or at least sideways)
Look for stocks that are on an uptrend or about to breakout
Check th target price of the selected stocks (Should have room for gain)
Check the 16-, 32- and 65-day moving averages (Stock should be at least above the 32-d and 65-d MA)
Check the volume of shares (Should be increasing or at least not decreasing)
Check the MACD (Should be positive to indicate market is gaining momentum)
Check the RSI (Should be 55% or below indicating the stock is not overbought)

So, Which Stocks Should I Really Buy

So, now that all the indicators that we've mentioned above are met, when do I actually buy? Well, you buy an uptrend or a breakout so let me explain the two scenarios.

If it is an uptrend, you should enter ONLY when the stock bounces off the uptrend line. Some people make the mistake of buying when it is approaching the trend line going down. If you buy a stock approaching a trend line and the trend line is actually breached (it means, it's not an uptrend anymore), you'll end up losing money. Buying at the bounce off a trend line will lessen the risk of buying a stock that is losing momentum or starting to change trend.

If it's a breakout, you buy the moment it breaks out of the area pattern and as close to it as possible (I will write another post to explain the different break out patterns in the future).

That's it!

My Stocks Watch List (only for this coming week of Nov 12-19, 2010)

DRUM ROLL........... Tatatataaan! Here's My Stocks Watch list and I'd like to share it with you so I can spare you the time to check those numerous stocks graphs. Now before you buy, please please check your numbers first! Check the target price, MAs, Volume, MACD and RSI and if all number indicate a go, then buy at the right time which I just described in the last paragraph. So, here is My Stocks Watch List which is only for this coming week of November 12-19, 2010. It might change altogether in a week's time.

Stocks on an Uptrend

Ayala Land Inc. (ALI)
Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI)
Jollibee Foods Corporation (JFC)
JG Summit (JGS)
Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company (MBT)
Manila Water Company (MWC)
Robinson's Land Corporation (RLC)
SM (SM)

Stocks About to Breakout

Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) - 14% potential gain
Engineering Equipment Inc. (EEI) - 12% potential gain
Empire East Land Holdings (ELI) - 16% potential gain
Filinvest Land Inc. (FLI) - 11% potential gain
GMA News Network (GMA7) - 16% potential gain
Philex Mining (PX) - 17% potential gain
SM Prime Holdings (SMPH) - 11% potential gain

BONUS: Cheap (I have a good feeling) Stocks

I don't know why I'm doing this but I guess I want you to know how I feel about these "special stocks of mine" which I believe will amount to something (big win or loss. Hehe). You check the numbers and buy at your own risk because I don't have any basis at all! Haha. (Joke time...) But really, they look very cheap after they fell very deep! So here goes.

Energy Development Corporation (EDC)
DM Consunji (DMC)
FirstGen Corporation (FGEN)
Intenational Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICT)
Megaworld Corporation (MEG)
Meralco (MER)
Metro Pacific Investments (MPI)

So, are you ready to buy when the signals are right? Which ones do you intend to buy if ever? Do share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

May you achieve true success!

Bryan

Do you want to receive regular updates about investing from InvestingPinoy? Don't be the last to know how to earn from different investment strategies. Subscribe below and start learning about investing for f.ree!
PS. If you want to invest in real estate properties, visit www.houseforsalephilippineswithphoto.blogspot.com.

Investing Pinoy

Market correction? So what! It's time to be on the lookout!

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan "bravy" Uy) — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 16:18:00 +0000

Still in Pain? Move On! There's Money to Make.

Are you hearing yourself crying lately, "Huhuhu! I lost my money!" or "I can't sleep!" or "I was so dumb!" or "I can't forgive myself for being foolish!"? If you are, this could be because you lost your job, or failed in a business, or getting rejected by a woman (oops!) or maybe this is just because of the recent stock market correction. Whether the blood bath is finished or not, I can't really tell. But, we shouldn't be much concerned about the downfall anymore because most likely you're already out by this time, either to protect your gains or simply to accept a loss to protect your capital. What we should be focused on, however, is the many opportunities this correction has paved way for us. This is the time to be on the look out for value stocks to buy. I see a lot of opportunities and I'd like you to be on the lookout. Do you know which stocks to look out for?
First Things First: Basics in Selecting Stocks to Buy

First things first! Here are the steps that I do:

Check the general trend of the market (downtrend, uptrend, sideways)
When uptrend or sideways, I look out for stocks that are on an uptrend or about to breakout
Check the target price of the stock (Is the target price reached already or is there room for gain?)
Check the 16- 32- 65-day Moving Averages (16-MA, 32-MA and 65-MA)
Check the Volume (shares exchanged during the day: increasing or decreasing)
Check the MACD readings (Is it positive or negative?)
Check the RSI (Is it under bought or overbought ?)
Buy those that are at least (1) uptrend and/or break out, (2) above the 32- and 65-day moving averages, (3) generally increasing and not decreasing volume, (4) positive MACD readings and (6) RSI that is 55% and below.

Uptrend, Downtrend or Sideways Market?

When buying a stock, I look first at the general market trend. Is it going up, down or sideways? If it's going down, mostly likely I won't go into the market altogether. If it's sideways, I'll try to range trade. But if it's an uptrend, then it's a wonderful day to shop.

Buy Only Uptrends and Breakouts

The next thing I'll do is be on the look out for stocks taht are on an uptrend or about to breakout. The rest that are not either of the two, I forget for that particular time (week or days). For those stocks that are either in an uptrend or a breakout, I then check the 16-day, 32-day and 65-day moving averages. If the stock is above these numbers, then it's a good sign.

Is There Room for Gain Based on Target Price?

The next thing I do is check the target price of the stock. Usually, your online broker will provide you with regular updates on the target prices of certain stocks they monitor. Only select those stocks that have current prices that are below the target price. For example, if the current price of a certain stock is PhP1.00 and the target price is PhP1.50, this means the stock is selling at a discount and the potential gain is a whopping 50% (or 50 cents for every peso invested).

NOTE: I believe CitisecOnline has the best reports there is for online brokers. I may be biased because I haven't tried other online brokers yet, but I read about CitisecOnline's excellent service from a lot of traders who blog or leave a comment on the internet. No negative comments yet.

(Interested in learning about stock market investing and trading in-depth? Or opening an account with CitisecOnline? Contact Ms. Jackie Basbas at jacqueline.basbas@citiseconline.com, landline 026365411 or mobile number 09279616237 and tell her that I advised you to sign up for their free classes or open an account with them.)

Volume: Are There A Lot of Buying Activity?

The next thing I'll do is check the volume, or the amount of shares that is being transferred (sold and bought) during the period. If it is increasing, this is a really good sign because it means people are interested in buying it (since this is an uptrend). So far so good. We have so far selected stocks that are on an uptrend, above the MAs and have an increasing (or at least not decreasing) volume.

Is There Momentum?

The next thing I would do is check on the market momentum by looking at the MACD or the Moving Average Convergence-Divergence. Don't ask me what it means. If you really want to ask, then attend one of the free seminars of CitisecOnline (Contact Ms. Jackie Basbas at jacqueline.basbas@citiseconline.com, landline 026365411 or mobile number 09279616237 and tell her that I advised you to sign up for their free classes). Now back to MACD. What's important is that the MACD is positive and not negative. A positive MACD means that the stock is gaining interest from buyers and this is good for you since the more people that are buying the more likely the stock price will go up, by virtue of the Law of Supply and Demand.

Is the Stock Overbought or Not?

The last one that I'm going to check is the RSI or the Relative Strength Index. Alright Call Ms. Jackie Basbas of CitisecOnline to schedule for the free stock market seminar if you really want to know. Or google it.:) You should look at an RSI of 55% and below. This means that the stock is not overbought. The lower the RSI the more it is under owned. This means that when the stock gains buying interest, there is a lot of shares available to buy and not just because people want to sell there shares to you (which can lead to price stagnation).

So, there you go! Now you know how to select a stock to buy. The question is do you know when to buy it and at what price? Do you know when to sell it for a profit and at what price? Do you know when you need to accept the fact that you lost? This is also what they call a stop-loss price? I'll do a future post to discuss this. Meanwhile, wait for my next post, where I will share to you which stocks I am looking at and that you should be looking at, too. Have you learned from this lesson? Let me know if you have questions and don't forget to post your questions here in the comments section so other readers can benefit from it.

May you achieve true success!

Bryan

Do you want to receive regular updates about investing from InvestingPinoy? Don't be the last to know how to earn from different investment strategies. Subscribe below and start learning about investing for f.ree!

PS. If you want to invest in real estate properties, visit www.houseforsalephilippineswithphoto.blogspot.com.

Investing Pinoy

Yikes! I lost a lot! I'm panicking because of the stock market pullback.

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan "bravy" Uy) — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 03:50:00 +0000

Huhu! The Stock Market is Plummeting Down!

I'm sure everyone who has money in the stock market is glued in from of their computer screens right now and wondering "Is this blood bath going to continue?". They are most likely asking the question that's very difficult to answer, "Am I going to sell now? But I'm losing! Maybe it's going to bounce back. Right?!"

If you find yourself in this position, well that's normal. The question is, "Are you going to be a big loser or are you going to follow your system and just lose a little?" In stock market trading, battles (or trades) are either won or lost, but the idea of wise stock market trading is to win the war. Are you losing the battle? If you sold days ago because your stop loss price has been triggered, that you lost the battle, but I'm pretty sure you're very happy that you sold, right? RIGHT!

But, most of us probably thought this blood bath is not going to continue. It's impossible! The Philippine economy is doing good. Real estate is wonderful. Remittances are soaring. So, the stock market won't really go down! WRONG!

The Market Will Decide What It Wants to Do

The market will decide what it wants to do. Although it is true that direction will depend on "signals" like economic indicators but the market will make it's own path whether we like it or not. Obviously, this past few days has been terrible for traders. If you were able to keep you poise and sell when your stop loss was breached, then you are very happy! But if you did not sell because you thought that the stock market would go up and reverse to its winning ways, then I'm sure you are crying!

Discipline and Belief in a System is the Key to Success

I was very busy these past few days and I was focused on my business. So, I almost didn't have time to check on the stock market. Guess what? I wasn't able to sell my positions even when my stop loss prices were already violated. I had RFM, RLC, URC and EEI. Before this week's bloody mess, I was up on all companies: +7.5% with RFM, +5.5% with RLC, +55% with URC and +1.5% with EEI. But because of my pride and because of my lack of discipline, I didn't sell even if my stop loss prices were already breached. I actually thought that the market would bounce back two days ago. So, I had to learn the lesson the hard way. In short, I sold all my positions today with only two in the positive side: RLC at +1.5% and URC at +48%. Sadly, because of my lack of discipline and belief in the system that I know, I had to suffer the consequences of losing heavily on my two other stocks. I sold RFM at -8.5% and EEI at -4.5%! OUCH!!! The Bible aptly talks about this in the Book of Proverbs and I'd like to quote it below:

For lack of discipline they (fools) will die, led astray by their own great folly. - Proverbs 5:23 (NIV)

Pride Kills... Always

I mentioned that I didn't sell right away because of pride. Pride that I didn't want to lose any of my stock positions (I rarely lose whatever I bought until now.). I was proud that I've been winning all the stocks that I bought so far and that was what killed me. This reminds me of what the Bible says about the opposite of pride which is humility and I'd like to quote it here:

The fear of the LORD teaches a man wisdom, and humility comes before honor. - Proverbs 15:33 (NIV)

If I was humble enough to accept the fact that I would win some and lose some (which was what I mentioned in my previous posts), I would have been spared the very big loss and would still come out a very big winner (net 25% for the past 3 months). But because of my foolish pride, I had to settle for a 20% net profit.

Mistakes and Failures are There to Teach Us

Mistakes and temporary failures are there to teach us the important lessons in life. If we learn from it, then we are spared from destruction. But if we refuse to learn from it because of our pride or our ignorance, we will surely reap from our foolishness. It's like going through the different levels in education. Before one can graduate from Grade 1 to Grade 2, one had to pass all the requirements of Grade 1 first. If the student continues to fail his exams because he has not learned his lessons, he will continue to be in Grade 1 and all the lessons, the same old lessons, will continue to be taught to him. It's terrible being in Grade 1 for three years, don't you think?

In life, it's the same. Whether we are talking about health, spirituality and finances. if we continue to refuse to learn the lessons we are taught in life, if we continue to do the same things day in and day out, we should not expect our days to be all the different. We'll eventually come up with the same results. Unless we learn the lesson, we'll continue to be in that same level.

BONUS TIP: If Everyone is Scared, You Should be Excited!

The greatest and wealthiest investor, Warren Buffet once said "Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful." I believe people in the stock market today are fearful and this my friends is our time to understand that there is gold up ahead. This is the time to be on the look out for cheap stocks or stocks that are on an uptrend and breaking out soon. This is no time to cry over spilled milk. This is the time to be ready to win big.

So, what happened to you during this gruesome week in the stock market? Were you able to sell in time to cut your losses or did you refuse to sell your positions because you thought the market would bounce up? If you are the big loser, forget about it. Accept it. There's always time to earn money. As Bob Proctor said, "Money is just an idea." Do you think it is your time to make money?

May you achieve true success!

Bryan

PS1. What does the Bible say about wealth? Is money the root of all evil? Visit http://www.beyondprofit.blogspot.com/.

PS2. If you want to invest in real estate properties, visit www.houseforsalephilippineswithphoto.blogspot.com.

PS3. If you want to get financial literacy training for free, go to www.wealthacademy-philippines.blogspot.com.

Investing Pinoy

Is it safe to invest now (November 2010)? Or will the stock market crash anytime?

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan "bravy" Uy) — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 18:44:00 +0000

If you ask stock market investors and traders nowadays about investing in the stock market, you'll most likely see them smiling and saying "It's awesome!" And this is indeed true!

Most often in the past, the reaction of an ordinary person to this reply from a happy investor is to quickly withdraw his entire savings and buy the same stock as his friend's. Then tragedy strikes. The stock market crashes (or goes into a major pull back) a few days later. The poor investor feels cheated (not by his friend but by the stock market) and sells his position despite the very big loss and ends up cursing the market.

80% of People in the Stock Market Loss Money

This typical scenario is also very true. Again, the Pareto Principle of 80-20 applies here. As I mentioned in my previous post entitled "Are you still afraid to invest in the stock market? Do you want guaranteed earnings?", 80-85% of the people who put money in the stock market loss their money. So, these people actually say the stock market is too complicated! Or they might even say "The stock market is manipulated by the very wealthy." Although this last statement might be true in some way, I believe this is not entirely true because the very wealthy people will invest their money not only on stock market speculations but on real economic growth like legit and large sustainable companies . I am pretty sure they don't lie the stock market to crash either because this would affect the economy and if this happens, their investing prospects are also negatively affected.

So, is investing now (November 2010) still safe or will it crash anytime?

I recently received an email from one of this blogs readers asking the question whether it is still safe to invest in the stock market (mutual funds) at this point even if the market has gone up very high already. The person also asked if it would be wise to invest all her savings in a mutual fund company. I'd like to share to you the person's email to me (I will not mention the person's name for confidentiality reasons) and I'd like to also post my reply in this post for everyone's benefit.

Hi, I saw your website (http://investingpinoy.blogspot.com) and I was hoping you could give me some advice. I’m thinking about investing all my savings this week in the ING Dollar Income Fund and Philippine High Conviction Equity Fund. It’s my first time to invest so I know pretty much nilch about the market. Since it’s been doing so well lately I’m afraid that I’ll be buying at a too high price and that it’ll crash. Do you think now is a good time to start investing or should I wait?

Here's my reply to the email:

Invest Your Savings Only When You Have ENOUGH Savings

First of all, congratulations on deciding to invest!

My suggestion is DONT invest all your savings unless you have another fund that can be used for emergencies. One needs to have savings used solely for emergencies (like getting sick, accidents and other unexpected expenses). At the least, leave 3 months worth of savings. Say, your living allowance is P20,000.00 per month, you need to have at least P60,000.00 in your savings. Some financial advisers even say it should be 6 months. Personally, I’m building my savings for one year and the reason is so that I can spend a one year vacation without having to work.:)

If this is already done, then the rest of your money can be invested in high yielding instruments. I noticed you are looking at investing in mutual funds. Mutual funds are alright. It is indirectly investing in the stock market since the fund manager of these mutual funds invest your money in the stock market. And, when you invest in the stock market, it can go up or down, so there is no guarantee. You can only hope your mutual fund manager is good at what he’s doing.

I am not familiar with both ING Dollar Income Fund and Philippine High Conviction Equity Fund. What you can do is do your own research on their previous performance and if you are happy with the returns, then go for it. Again, I’d like to warn you that past performance is just that...PAST. It means they can’t guarantee that this year and the next ones will still be the same. It’s just an indication that they have grown their funds very well in the past. There are a lot of mutual fund companies out there and you can check their performance in the website http://www.icap.com.ph/. Choose from the list and start investing.

Money Cost Averaging is the Way for Beginners

By the way, in investing, you can either put a lump sum and let it grow or what’s better is do a money cost averaging (see my previous post about money cost averaging) where you invest equal amounts of money every year. Say, if you have P100,000 to invest, you can decide to invest P10,000 per month for the next ten months. Or decide to invest P5,000.00 per month for the next 20 months... and so on. Money cost averaging is a safer way to invest your money and a faster way to grow your money.

Again, is investing now (November 2010) still safe or will it crash anytime?

Regarding your last question whether this is the right time to buy because you are concerned that you might be buying at a high price, my answer is two-fold. At this point, most companies listed in the stock market are already fairly priced, meaning they are neither overpriced or undervalued. So, if you are the investor, this means you are buying at the fair market price and may mean you have reached the peak price already. But, the market indicators are positive moving forward to the year 2011 and beyond. Company prices will most likely be re-priced by January 2011 (see Citiseconline's new target prices in my previous blog post entitled "Are you ready for the Bull Market this year 2011?") and would give us an opportunity to invest with the hope of market prices following this price adjustment. In other words, if a company’s book value is P10.00 and the market price is also P10.00, it is fairly valued. If the market price is P8.00 it is undervalued which means you can expect the price to still go up. But if the market price is 12.00, it is overpriced, which means anytime it could (or could not) go back down to its book value. So, you are looking at buying companies that are undervalued. At this point, my suggestion is to choose the right mutual fund company with a good track record since you are not investing directly in the stock market. As of today, I think the market will continue to go up with a few corrections (pull backs).

I hope this helps. Just let me know if you have any other questions.

Many thanks again for asking you question.

So, can you comment on the post? What do you think about investing your entire savings in the stock market or other aggressive investment vehicles? Do you agree that it is still good to invest in the stock market today because the market will continue to rise? Or do you think the stock market will crash?

May you achieve true success!

Bryan

PS1. What does the Bible say about wealth? Is money the root of all evil? Visit http://www.beyondprofit.blogspot.com/.

PS2. If you want to invest in real estate properties, visit www.houseforsalephilippineswithphoto.blogspot.com.

PS3. If you want to get financial literacy training for free, go to www.wealthacademy-philippines.blogspot.com.

Investing Pinoy

It's Your Problem!:A story about caring for others

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan "bravy" Uy) — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 04:40:00 +0000

Are you concerned about other people's problems or are you only concerned about your own problems? I got this story from a recent post of Bo Sanchez and I'd like to share it with you today because it talks about how things and events are interconnected and how helping or not helping can eventually affect you.

I often ask myself if I am truly concerned about the lives of people I know. It's a daily challenge for me to be sincere in my helping and I'd like to encourage you to ask yourselves as well. here's the story and I hope that you enjoy and most importantly learn from it.

One day, a mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package. “What food might this contain?” The mouse wondered. He was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed this warning: “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!”

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, “Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it.”

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!”

The pig sympathized, but said, “I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers.”

The mouse turned to the cow and said, “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!”

The cow said, “Wow, Mr. Mouse. I’m sorry for you, but it’s no skin off my nose.”

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer’s mousetrap. Alone. . .

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house – the sound Of a mousetrap catching its prey.

The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it. It was a venomous snake whose tail was caught in the trap. The snake bit the farmer’s wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital. When she returned home she still had a fever. Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup. So the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup’s main ingredient: Chicken!

But his wife’s sickness continued. Friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered (who else?) the pig.

But, alas, the farmer’s wife did not get well… She died.

So many people came for her funeral that the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them for the funeral luncheon.

And the mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

So, I hope this story will make an impact in our life and allow us to help others who might need our help. Do you think not helping can really impact you negatively or is this story just fiction? Can you share your story?

May you achieve true success!

Bryan

PS1. What does the Bible say about wealth? Is money the root of all evil? Visit http://www.beyondprofit.blogspot.com/.

PS2. If you want to invest in real estate properties, visit www.houseforsalephilippineswithphoto.blogspot.com.

PS3. If you want to get financial literacy training for free, go to www.wealthacademy-philippines.blogspot.com.

Investing Pinoy

What is your wealth thermostat? Get Hardwired for Success by T Harv Eker: F.ree downloadable ebook

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan "bravy" Uy) — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 14:15:00 +0000

Give me five minutes, and I can predict your financial future for the rest of your life. How? In a short conversation, I can identify what’s called your Money Blueprint. Each of us has a personal Money Blueprint already ingrained in our subconscious mind, and it is this blueprint that will determine your entire financial life. - T Harv Eker

Do you want to know if your current mental programming allows you to become wealthy and successful in everything that you do?

In this 30-page mini ebook entitled Get Hardwired for Success by T Harv Eker that you can download for f.ree, you will find out what your money blueprint is. This could be the first and most important step to your financial journey, that is, finding out what you money programs are. Simply put, an uneducated man who earns one million pesos a month has a different money blueprint than an educated man with a PhD who earns the same amount of money in one year. This ebook will show you what programs you have regarding money. T Harv Eker calls this your Money Blueprint or Financial Thermostat. In order for you to change your mind, you have to know that you need to change something by identifying what's wrong. The Bible says that genuine transformation can occur through the renewing of one's mind (Romans 12:2).

To download go top the DOWNLOADS section of this blog and click on Get Hardwired for Success by T Harv Eker.

May you achieve true success!

Bryan

PS1. What does the Bible say about wealth? Is money the root of all evil? Visit http://www.beyondprofit.blogspot.com/.

PS2. If you want to invest in real estate properties, visit www.houseforsalephilippineswithphoto.blogspot.com.

PS3. If you want to get financial literacy training for free, go to www.wealthacademy-philippines.blogspot.com.

Investing Pinoy

I got healed from flu in 36 hours WITHOUT medicine

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan "bravy" Uy) — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 00:50:00 +0000

Last week, I found myself in a very busy schedule involving two trips outside of Manila to do safety audits for one of my clients. I was in Dumaguete on Monday and Tuesday and in Bohol on Wednesday and Thursday. The trip was not really that bad as I traveled by air. My official schedule gave me enough time to rest and recover from a tiring day. But what's not good about traveling is that I tend to stay up very late at night studying the stock market, reading e-books on investing or listening to an audio tape on motivation or success. In other words, on those days, I slept around 1 or 2 in the morning and had to wake up as early as 6AM the next day. You, might say 4 hours is enough sleeping time but for me, I need about 6-8 hours of sleep.:) Hehe

Sickness is a Message from Your Body

So, when I got to Manila, I was already drained. In the evening of Thursday, I was already feeling bad and flu already set in around 10PM. Then I remembered, what if I followed the instructions of one of my mentors (Bo Sanchez) about how to get well from a common cold or influenza. So, I just did it.

The next day, I took in only fresh fruit juices (pineapple and banana shake without sugar) and lots of water. I just stayed in bed thinking about how I loved my wife and daughters and how much they loved me. I thanked God for allowing me to get sick to rest my tired body, too. At the end of the day, I think a had 2.5 liters (4 large glasses) of pineapple-banana shake and more than 5 liters of (10 large glasses) of water. I also decided to sleep early without air conditioning, inhaling only fresh air that naturally came into the sala (yes, I slept in the sofa on the living room since fresh air was most abundant there).

Your Body Can Heal Itself!

When I woke up the next day, some 36 hours after I got flu, I was already healed. No fever, no running nose and no involuntary sneezes. Amazing! What's even more amazing is that all these healing came without the aid of any kind of medicine (although I took my usual dose of natural, not synthetic, vitamin and mineral supplements). Truly amazing!

Prescription Drugs or Laughter and Plants?

I remembered reading from Bo Sanchez's article that our body was designed to heal itself. Our body can manufacture all kinds of medicines needed to heal any kind of disease. This knowledge, when understood well, is very powerful. It is powerful enough to shut down the biggest pharmaceuticals in the world. No wonder pharmaceutical companies spend a lot of money in TV commercials, print ads, billboards, med reps and sponsoring the bi-monthly trips of doctors to conferences all over the world. Oops! Did I say too much? Shhhh... I have nothing against ads, med reps and doctors. These are important. What I am concerned about is the kind of education the large pharmacies and our doctors-of-late have been teaching us about healing ourselves from diseases. They forget to tell us or intentionally hide from us the fact that our bodies have the capacity to heal itself through good diet, enough rest and having a cheerful heart. In fact, the Bible speaks about that in the Book of Proverbs,

A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. - Proverbs 17:22 (NIV)

So, what is your first medicine when you get sick? Is your first reaction popping a pill with those synthetic medicines (that causes upset stomach, headache or even high blood)? Or will you go back to the basics of having a cheerful heart and eating right as outlined in the Bible which says,

I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food... - I give every green plant for food. - Genesis 1:29-30 (NIV)

Can you share your stories of how you healed yourself using natural means?

May you achieve true success!

Bryan

PS1. What does the Bible say about wealth? Is money the root of all evil? Visit http://www.beyondprofit.blogspot.com/.

PS2. If you want to invest in real estate properties, visit www.houseforsalephilippineswithphoto.blogspot.com.

PS3. If you want to get financial literacy training for free, go to www.wealthacademy-philippines.blogspot.com.

Investing Pinoy

F.ree e-book to d0wnl0ad n0w: Attracting Money Now by Dr. Joe Vitale

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan "bravy" Uy) — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 05:45:00 +0000

Hello guys,

I'm posting here another f.ree e-book by bestselling author Dr. Joe Vitale of the hit movie The Secret. In Dr. Joe Vitale's new book entitled "Attracting Money Now", he talks about seven simple steps to attract money now. These seven steps are as follows:

Step 1 - Alter How You Think
Step 2 - Give Without Expectation
Step 3 - Prosperous Spending
Step 4 - Ask for Help
Step 5 - Nevillize Your Goals
Step 6 - Think Like an Entrepreneur
Step 7 - Help Your Community and Your World

Go to the DOWNLOADS page if this site and click on Attracting Money Now by Dr. Joe Vitale to start downloading your f.ree e-book.

May you achieve true success!

Bryan

PS1. What does the Bible say about wealth? Is money the root of all evil? Visit http://www.beyondprofit.blogspot.com/.

PS2. If you want to invest in real estate properties, visit www.houseforsalephilippineswithphoto.blogspot.com.

PS3. If you want to get financial literacy training for free, go to www.wealthacademy-philippines.blogspot.com.

Investing Pinoy

Preparing for the Bull Market: 2010 CitisecOnline October Market Brief

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan "bravy" Uy) — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 01:47:00 +0000

Hello guys,

Are you ready for the upcoming Philippine bull market? If you are, wonderful. If you are not, then this is the time to be ready. One wise mentor said that, "Success comes to those who are prepared.", and I can't overemphasize this basic truth. Now, here's our chance to be ready for the raging bull.

My favorite broker, CitisecOnline, will have its 2010 October Market Briefing entitled "Riding the Bull with Growth Companies" where some of the top growth corporations discuss the continuing prospects of their prime businesses and industries. Some companies who will be there include Metro Pacific Investments (MPI), Alliance Global (AGI), International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ITCSI) and DM Consunji, Inc. (DMCI). The market briefing will be on October 27, 2010, 230-520PM at the Newport Performing Arts Theater, Resorts World Manila, Newport City.

This market briefing is open exclusively to CitisecOnline clients but they have given us the opportunity to invite guests who are seeking to grow their money through the stock market. I can invite up to eight (8) people to be on guest list and I'd like to extend this invitation to those of you who are interested. This would be an opportunity for us to meet and finally introduce ourselves to each other in person.

So, are you interested to be on this guest list to attend CitisecOnline's 2010 October Market Briefing entitled "Riding the Bull with Growth Companies"? If you are, just leave a comment below and I will submit your names to CitisecOnline for your free pass. Unfortunately, I can only accommodate 8 people so I will need to only give the slots on a FIRST COME FIRST SERVED basis. My apologies in advance for those who I cannot accommodate any longer.

Again, leave a comment and inform me that you are interested. The event will already be next Wednesday.

May you achieve true success!

Bryan

PS1. What does the Bible say about wealth? Is money the root of all evil? Visit http://www.beyondprofit.blogspot.com/.

PS2. If you want to invest in real estate properties, visit www.houseforsalephilippineswithphoto.blogspot.com.

PS3. If you want to get financial literacy training for free, go to www.wealthacademy-philippines.blogspot.com.

Investing Pinoy

The richest Filipinos are NOT the highest tax payers? Are they crooks and liars?

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan "bravy" Uy) — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 14:54:00 +0000

I recently received an email circulation from a cousin that was entitled "The Richest Filipinos and the Biggest Taxpayers are Not the Same" written by a Mr. Tony Lopez of the Manila Times which bothered me. The article concludes that;

'...people who you think are among the country’s richest are not in the Top 500 Taxpayers list. So, too, are prominent and fabulously rich people who often rant about the need for good governance and having good corporate social responsibility'.

I am not bothered so much about the fact that the Philippine's richest people are not the highest tax payers but rather I am bothered by the idea that most of us think that this actually means that the Philippine's richest persons are crooks, liars and tax evaders. Although, the article did not specifically say that the Philippine's richest are tax evaders, the article mentions GMA 7 TV Network Senior Anchor Mike Enriquez and let me quote (emphasis added);

'...Enriquez (is) the country’s highest paid media-man. He finds it funny, if not ridiculous, that he paid more taxes than the owners of the two largest TV stations. “That means I pay the correct taxes,” he notes. His channel 7 colleague, Mel Tiangco, is No. 45 with P8.9 million in income taxes paid. That makes her the highest paid female broadcaster.

With that statement, I tend to believe that since they (Mr. Mike Enriquez, maybe?) think they "pay the correct taxes", this only means that the owners of the two largest TV stations in the Philippines are not paying the right taxes. But is this really true? Is this the real score? Or is there something else that we don't see that only those who understand it just a little bit more can?

With my limited knowledge, let me try to explain why I believe this article was only able to paint half of the picture. Only one side of the coin, as they say.

The Richest Filipinos are NOT the Highest Tax Payers

It IS TRUE that the richest Filipinos are not the highest tax payers. That is not contestable since Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is the one who released the data, according to Mr. Tony Lopez. However, let me suggest that this does not mean that they are the biggest crooks and liars or that they are tax evaders. In fact, it is far from it and let me explain using an example.

Henry Sy owns SM and all the names under it such as SM Prime Holdings, SM Development Corporation, SM Investments, etc. If you look at these names alone, you see that all of them pay taxes, whether one is a corporation or an individual. BIR requires corporations, partnerships and individuals to pay the right taxes. Since Henry Sy is both an individual and THE OWNER of all SM companies, he is in fact paying taxes both as an individual and through his corporations. I believe the list that BIR released was just the top individual taxpayers in the Philippines. But the article did not mention about the top corporate tax payers in the Philippines. I don’t have this information as well but I would be almost sure we will be surprised that you’ll see a lot of Henry Sy’s companies in the top 100 or so.

Let me give another example. Say Mr. Juan Dela Cruz owns JDLC Company (both are fictitious names). For a certain year, let’s say his company earned a NET income of P100M. BIR requires the company to pay 30% of its net, so the company should have remitted a total tax of P30M. If you look at it at this point, you can safely say that Mr. Dela Cruz has already given a good share of HIS (company’s) income to the government. I could say he has already contributed well to his country. But did Mr. Dela Cruz already pay his individual taxes? At this point, not yet. Let me give you two scenarios on how Mr. Dela Cruz could pay his individual tax.

Taxed as an Employee

In the first scenario, let’s assume that Mr. Dela Cruz is also an employee of his own company wherein he receives an annual income of P10M. In this case, BIR requires Mr. Dela Cruz to pay also 30% of his annual income, which is a measly P3M, and all this time he owns a company that is worth P100M. It looks small, right? But in reality, through his company, he has already paid P30M an another P3M as an individual tax payer to the government coffers.

Taxed as a Non-Working Board Member

The second scenario is if Mr. Dela Cruz does not even work in the company but only owns it. This time, he only gets dividends and director’s allowances. Since he does not get his compensation as an employee, he is taxed very differently. Whereas employees are taxed a heavy 30%, dividends are only taxed a measly 10%. Now that’s a very big difference! So let’s say he receives annual dividends of P10M (example only), he actually just needs to pay P1M in taxes, even if he is actually not working. That seems to be unfair but this is the reality of our tax laws. I can’t help but be reminded of the very famous saying which goes, “The rich get richer and the poor get even poorer.”, and this is absolutely true in this case.

Who Then is The Biggest Taxpayer

Say for example, another employee of Mr. Dela Cruz (Mr. Celebrido, another fictitious name to represent the high-earning celebrities? Hehe) is earning an annual income of P20M. As an employee, therefore, he has to pay a total of P6M to BIR which is double that of Mr. Dela Cruz’s individual tax payment for the year as an employee. Now let’s put all figures into one place to get a clear picture.

-    Mr Celebrido, the employee, paid a total of P6M for his individual tax
-    Mr. Dela Cruz, the very wealthy employer and employee, paid only P3M for his individual tax
-    But also paid an additional P1M for his final tax from dividends received
-    And, more importantly, also paid another P30M for his corporate tax (as owner of the company)

With the figures above, who do you think paid more taxes and therefore contributed more to the Philippine economy? Mathematically speaking, I would say the richer of the two paid more and therefore contributed more.

Corporations vs. Employees

This is the biggest difference between an employee and an owner of a corporation. Employees are the heaviest taxed among all citizens in any country. Whereas corporations, owners and investors are given a lot more room to create tax savings. That’s the reason why big corporations and the wealthy hire top accounting firms that charge them millions of pesos... that is, to keep their taxes very low... LEGALLY!

Employee to Business Owner

It is painful to know this fact that employees are really carrying the greatest burden in paying taxes but this is the reality we are in. This does not mean however that we can remain default ‘victims’ of the government tax system. There are ways to save on taxes but it is almost impossible to do it as an employee.

I would like to end by asking everyone to give thought about how much more you can earn as a company owner (mostly corporation or even a consultant) compared to being an employee. Is it time for you to consider putting up a business that will grow, using your salary, instead of just remaining as an employee and spending what you receive on expenses and monthly amortizations? Or would it be good to start investing in investment vehicles that are taxed much lower and that can grow your money in time? Interest earned in banks from deposits are taxed a whopping 20% while one can actually get 0% tax on other kinds of investments).

Let me leave you with this idea. I believe that in order to help our country, we need to be excellent employees, and I know we all agree to this. But I also believe that to help our country even more, we need to become excellent entrepreneurs and investors.

Choosing to be one today is the first step. Then let your hunger guide you to where you need to go next.

Do you agree or disagree with what I said? What is your opinion about the richest people and their taxes? What about being an employee as against owning your own business? I'd really love to hear from you. Can you share your thoughts?

Reference: "The Richest Filipinos and the Biggest Taxpayers are Not the Same"

May you achieve true success!

Bryan

PS1. What does the Bible say about wealth? Is money the root of all evil? Visit http://www.beyondprofit.blogspot.com/.

PS2. If you want to invest in real estate properties, visit www.houseforsalephilippineswithphoto.blogspot.com.

PS3. If you want to get financial literacy training for free, go to www.wealthacademy-philippines.blogspot.com.

Investing Pinoy

Do you want guaranteed profits? Is there such a thing?

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan "bravy" Uy) — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 17:02:00 +0000

As promise, today I'm going to share to you two ways of guaranteed gains or earnings. I'd like to tickle your brains on the two ways (there are much more) of growing your money 'safely':

Private lending
Buying solid gold at a discount

But before you read through the whole stuff below, have you read my previous post entitled "Are you still afraid to invest in the stock market? Do you want guaranteed earnings?"? I suggest you read it first as I discussed why people are still afraid of the stock market and the thus the reason to learn other ways of investing.
Private Lending

Private lending is the method of the rich to grow there money without much difficulty. It has been around for centuries, long before banks have surfaced. So how does private lending work?

Simple. Businessmen with growing businesses sometimes need capital to realize their growth potentials. And the typical place they get the needed capital is through the commercial banks. Most of the times, however, the banks disapprove the loans when your financial statements are not pretty or if your business proposal is not that impressive. Thus, the business idea does not materialize anymore. But not anymore, because of private lending. Unlike the banks where they as you for financial documents to approve or disapprove your loan, you can borrow money from private lenders simply by getting the lender's trust and agreeing to their terms and conditions. So, instead of borrowing from the bank at 12% interest per year. one can borrow from a private lender with the same interest rate but now without the hassle of getting for a loan approval.

Thus, private lending is one way that you can earn passive income with virtually no risk. One downside of private lending if you arte the private lender is that you need to have a lot of liquidity. Another risk is when you lend your money to a scoundrel or a lousy businessman. Therefore, in private lending, you make sure that there is a "collateral" or a certain guarantee. Let me explain.

In real estate investing, private lenders lend their money to real estate investors to buy a property at an interest rate of 12% per year but the money is also guaranteed such that the lender gets the property should the investor defaults on the investment or could not sell the property fast enough.

Some private lenders lend their money at 2% per month (24% per year), 3% per month (36% per year) or even 4% per month (48% per year). These rates really depend on the kind of business that your lendee is into. Just make sure that you lend your money to a legal business activity and not the kind that runs away with your precious money. I personally plan to invest in the business of my uncle in Cebu City with a guaranteed income of 5% every 45 days (40% per year). Not bad, don't you think?

So, is private lending interesting?

Buying Solid Gold at a Discount

The second way to earn guaranteed income is similar to lending where the collateral is a precious metal. Income can come from this form of investing by buying solid (real) gold at a discount. This is not gold trading that is represented by a paper or a certificate but real gold that you can hold on your hand. So, how does this work?

If you are interested in this kind of investing, you will buy gold from a registered solid gold seller at the current market price and hold on to your solid gold for six months. During this time, the issuing company gives you a monthly discount of 1.5% in the form of vouchers for the next six months which equates to a total discount of 9%. This 9% is in fact your actual gain. After the end of the six months, you can either keep the gold (and sell it in the future at a higher price), return the gold and get your original money back (remember you already earned 9% in this six-month stretch) or roll it over by buying it back (retain the money with them) for the next six months for another 9% gain. In one year, you would have already grown your money 18%. Let me give you a sample computation.

If you buy solid gold worth PhP100,000.00 and keep it for six months, you will get a monthly gain (in the form of a discount) of P1,500.00 for the next six months for a total of P9,000.00. If you roll it for another six months, you gain another P9,000.00 for a total annual gain of P18,000.00. Quite small, don't you think? But what if you have a million pesos to spare? You will get PhP180,000.00 per year or a monthly passive income of PhP15,000.00. Now, that can be significant money you can pay for your monthly bills or other needs.

How I Do It Personally?

Today, my cash is mostly into stocks but I am currently studying how to invest money in the forex (foreign exchange) which I will share to you in a future post. I also intend to invest part of my savings account (money for emergencies) in solid gold which will earn me 18% per year instead of a measly 0.5% in the bank. At least money is tied up only for six months at every point in time. As I also mentioned above, I will invest some of my investment account (another bank account where I put my investments) into my uncle's business, which will earn me a good 40% per year.

As you can see, there are a lot of options for you to grow your money. Now that you know these little ways, which investment method have you decided to go for? Is it stock market investing, private lending or buying gold at a discount? Can you share your thoughts with me here?

May you achieve true success!

Bryan

PS1. What does the Bible say about wealth? Is money the root of all evil? Visit http://www.beyondprofit.blogspot.com/.

PS2. If you want to invest in real estate properties, visit www.houseforsalephilippineswithphoto.blogspot.com.

PS3. If you want to get financial literacy training for free, go to www.wealthacademy-philippines.blogspot.com.

Investing Pinoy

Are you still afraid to invest in the stock market? Do you want guaranteed earnings?

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan "bravy" Uy) — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 10:02:00 +0000

A lot of people are afraid to invest in the stock market because they have heard tons of horror stories about people losing their savings and retirement money in the stock market. TRUE!

Most People Loss Money in the Stock Market

So what's the real score? How many people actually earn money in the stock market? How many poor people lose money in stocks? Well, to answer that, let me tell you about the Pareto Principle or the 80-20 Rule first.

The Pareto Principle states that 80% of what we do account to 20% of our results and inversely, 20% of what we do accounts to 80% of our results. This principle can be amazingly be applied in every area of our lives, the only difference is that the number can become very lopsided such as 90-10 or even 95-5. Some examples of the effect of Pareto Principle are as follows:

20% of your customers give you 80% of your sales volume
20% of the people you know give you 80% of you headaches or happiness
80% of your products are giving you 20% of your sale

Now, how will this relate to putting money in the stock market? This could mean that 20% of the people in the stock market earn 80% of the entire money available in the stocks, which means that 80% of the people actually lose money in the stock market. Now, to test this principle, we need straight facts, right?

So, what is the losing statistics in putting oney in the stock market today? The answer... 80-85%. Wow, that was pretty accurate, isn't it? And this, my friends, is the reason why people are still afraid of putting money in the stock market.

Are You Afraid to Invest in the Stock Market?

However, as I have mentioned in my previous article entitled "Are you ready for the BULL MARKET this year 2011?", you can put money in the stock market either as an investor or as a trader. Most of the people who lose their money are investors who don't know about money cost averaging or are risky traders (i.e beginners or neophytes). I talked about how to do money cost averaging in my previous post which you can read by clicking here.

So, if you want to invest in the stock market, you need to educate yourself by reading investing books or attending stock market seminars. There are a lot of free seminars and paid seminars out there. CitisecOnline offers free trainings to people who have an account with them. Let me know if you need help contacting them. Or if you are really interested, call Ms. Jackie Basbas at +6326365411, +639279616237 or email her at jacqueline.basbas@citiseconline.com. Just tell her I was the one who gave you her contact details because she might be surprised by your call to her mobile number.

I Want Something that is Guaranteed

So, do you want to begin growing your money in the stock market? Or are you still scared of losing your money? If you are still scared, then there are "safer" ways of earning guaranteed money which I will share with you tomorrow. Do you like to know about these?

May you achieve true success!

Bryan

PS1. What does the Bible say about wealth? Is money the root of all evil? Visit http://www.beyondprofit.blogspot.com/.

PS2. If you want to invest in real estate properties, visit www.houseforsalephilippineswithphoto.blogspot.com.

PS3. If you want to get financial literacy training for free, go to www.wealthacademy-philippines.blogspot.com.

Investing Pinoy

Are you ready for the BULL MARKET this year 2011?

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan "bravy" Uy) — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 12:05:00 +0000

The Philippine Stock Market is expected to enter the BULL MARKET this year 2011. This, according to analysts and market experts from my favorite online stock market broker, CitisecOnline (COL). The PSEi is expected to end at 5,300, or 33% from its level today. This is a result of several factors such as increased consumer spending and investments as well as optimism in the leadership of the newly-elected President Noynoy Aquino or PNoy. Further, stocks are currently under-owned which means there is a lot of room for everyone to ride this financial journey. Finally, there are a lot of stocks that are undervalued which means one can buy these at a very cheap price.

Are You Already Into the Stock Market?
CitisecOnline, in its Market Insight Alert released on September 17, 2010, came up with a list of best buys or what they call best ideas and I want to share it with you in this post.

Before that, let me strongly encourage you now to start investing in the stock market if you haven't done so yet. If you are already in the stocvk market, I encourage you to check you current portfolio and find out if your positions are right or need to be changed. Let me reiterate that now is the best time to invest.

If you are a trader like me, we need to wait for the 'right time' to enter and sometimes this could mean we can entirely miss the ride while an investor can sleep and will still end up in the winning side. However, KNOWLEDGEABLE and EXPERIENCED traders generally earn much higher than investors.

So traders, keep your eyes opened every time. Gees, that's difficult you know. I love what my mentor Bo Sanchez teaches in the TrulyRichClub on stock market investing, because investors don't time the market but rather consistently buy great value stocks.

The Philippine Stock Market Best Buys
Now, on to our list of great value stocks. The list below are stocks that will be re-rated come year 2011. That means the re-rating price is the price of the stock at the start of 2011. I also listed the current price of each stock, the current fair value and of course, the potential upside or potential gain, which is what we are really interested in. I have arrange the list in order of potential gain with the highest listed first. The list includes Engineering Equipment Inc. (EEI), Filinvest Land Inc. (FLI), Megaworld (MEG), Robinson's Land (RLC) , Manila Water (MWC), International Container Terminal Services (ICT), Ayala Land (ALI), FirstGen Corporation (FGEN), First Pacific Holdings (FPH), Security Bank (SECB), Metrobank (MBT), Metro Pacific Investments (MPI), Energy Development Corporation (EDC) amd Meralco (MER). So, here they are:

Just remember, in investing, it doesn't matter how many stocks you buy, what's important is you choose a stock or stocks to buy and make sure you buy it / them consistently, that is, every month.

So, have you decided which stock/s to buy? Let me know which ones so we can compare notes in the future. Is that alright? :)

Download the full report of CitisecOnline here.

May you achieve true success!

Bryan

PS1. What does the Bible say about wealth? Is money the root of all evil? Visit http://www.beyondprofit.blogspot.com/.

PS2. If you want to invest in real estate properties, visit www.houseforsalephilippineswithphoto.blogspot.com.

PS3. If you want to get financial literacy training for free, go to www.wealthacademy-philippines.blogspot.com.

Investing Pinoy

First Gen Corporation (FGEN) Break Out Signalling a BUY

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan "bravy" Uy) — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 01:44:00 +0000

First Gen Corporation (FGEN) is attempting to break out of an area pattern which could signal a BUY anytime. The current price of FGEN is PhP14.04. I suggest you buy FGEN when it hits the price of 14.10 at the close because by then it looks like a good breakout signal. It has attempted to breakout several times during intraday but eventually loses steam at the close.

There are two target prices, the first one is PhP15.74 for an 11.64% target gain and PhP18.25 for a target gain of 29.43%. In other words, you BUY FGEN at PhP14.10 and sell when it hits either PhP15.74 which is the conservative target or if your appetite for risk is higher, you can sell it at the second target price of PhP18.25. Now, what about the downside. What if I BUY FGEN at PhP14.10 and all of a sudden it goes back to the area pattern? Then you sell it at PhP13.90. The risk is PhP0.20 for a reward to risk ratio of 7.7 times for the first target price (PhP15.74) and 20.25 times for the second target price (PhP18.25).

So, will it try to breakout today? Hmm.. Are you buying FGEN when it breaks out?:)

May you achieve true success!

Bryan

PS1. What does the Bible say about wealth? Is money the root of all evil? Visit http://www.beyondprofit.blogspot.com/.

PS2. If you want to invest in real estate properties, visit www.houseforsalephilippineswithphoto.blogspot.com.

PS3. If you want to get financial literacy training for free, go to www.wealthacademy-philippines.blogspot.com.

Investing Pinoy

Investing in Real Estate Lecture Series by The Urban Institute of Real Estate and Construction

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan "bravy" Uy) — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 07:35:00 +0000

I just got an email update from The Urban Institute of Real Estate and Construction regarding their latest seminar offer entitled "Investing in Real Estate Lecture Series" headed by the very able Engr. Enrico S. Cruz, who has 40 years of experience in the Philippine real estate business. Engr. Enrico S. Cruz is also one of the mentors of my dear friend and www.foreclosurephilippines.com owner Jay Castillo, who is also an engineer himself.

Below are the details of the Investing in Real Estate Lecture Series.

Investing in Real Estate Lecture SeriesBrought to you by the Urban Institute of Real Estate and Construction

Yulo Caseroom
Asian Institute of Management (AIM-ACCEED)
Benavides corner Trasierra sts., Makati City

SCHEDULE OF TOPICS
TIME: 1:30 to 6:00 PM

( All topics are stand alone and can be attended separately )

Day 1, October 4
INVESTING IN REAL ESTATE: OPPORTUNITIES, TECHNIQUES & WHAT YOU NEED TO LEARN BEFORE INVESTING

Day 2, October 11
LEGAL ASPECTS OFREAL ESTATE SALES AND LEASES

Day 3, October 18
HOW TO'S OF PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT WITH HLURB RULES

Day 4, October 26 (Tuesday)
JOINT VENTURES FOR REAL ESTATE PROJECTS

Day 5, November 9 (Tuesday)
HOW TO MAXIMIZE INCOME OF RENTAL PROPERTIES

Day 6, November 16 (Tuesday)
TAXATION OFREAL ESTATE SALES AND LEASES

Day 7, November 23 (Tuesday)
PROPERTY VALUATION: HOW TO DO IT YOURSELF

Day 8, November 30 (Tuesday)
MAKING BIG MONEY IN DISTRESSED PROPERTIES

For more details and inquiries,
Urban Institute of Real Estate may be reached at
Tel. No. 509-7402 or 796-8019 or
CP 0927-868-9705 or 0939-137-9242 or at email: urbanet.ph@gmail.com

PLEASE FORWARD TO YOUR FRIENDS AND ASSOCIATES IN REAL ESTATE
THANK YOU

URBAN INSTITUTE OF REAL ESTATE
SEMINAR FEES, DISCOUNTS AND HOW TO REGISTER

SEMINAR FEE : Seminar fee is P1,600.00 per day per participant, inclusive of venue (no snacks), handouts, and certificate of attendance.

DISCOUNTS
Early bird discount of P200.00. (If paid 15 days before start and as explained below)

Another discount of P100.00 per day for those registering in at least 4 seminar days or have previously taken 4 or more seminar days

HOW TO REGISTER

PRE-PAID REGISTRATION

ADVANTAGES:
You can avail of the early bird discount
You are assured of your seat
You don’t have to come too early

To be registered for any seminar day, deposit to BPI Account No. 4520-0002-38, account name of Urban Institute of Real Estate; Sta. Elena, Marikina Branch, as follows:

1. If made before 12:00 noon, or or before September 20, the discounted amount is P1,400.00 per day.
2. If made thereafter, no more early bird discount, deposit P1,600.00 per day less any other discounts. Last day for making pre-paid registration is two (2) banking days before the seminar day. Deposits made thereafter will be considered simply as a first-come-first serve basis and not as pre-paid registrations.

Before making the deposit, you must first verify availability of slots by calling 509-7402 or inquire by text CP No. 0927-868-9705 or 0939-137-9242.

After making the deposit, please immediately text us your name, date deposited and the code number of the machine validation in the deposit slip.

URBAN Institute will confirm your registration and reservation by sending you a CONFIRMATION NOTICE by text message, which you have to bring together with the original deposit slip on the seminar day. Deposits without CONFIRMATION NOTICE will not be considered as pre-paid registration.

ON-THE-DAY REGISTRATION
On-the-day registration is also acceptable but on a first-come-first-serve basis only.
To avoid any inconvenience, it is advisable to call us on the day of the seminar or preferably, a day before, to verify the number of remaining slots.
URBAN INSTUTE POLICY ON CANCELLATION OF SEMINAR

1.) Your right to cancel. Once you have made a reservation to attend a seminar, you may still cancel your reservation seven (7) days before the seminar takes place and this will entitle you to a full refund of your payments. No refund shall be made if cancellation is made within seven (7) days of the seminar date.
2.) How to cancel. To cancel a reservation, you must inform us in writing. You can do this by emailing us at . Notice made by mail is considered receive only on the actual date of receipt.
3.) Changes and cancellation. We reserve the right to cancel or alter the date(s), change the venue or change the speakers for any seminar or topic. In the event that we need to cancel or change a scheduled seminar due to severe weather condition, illness, political/social unrest and whatever other reasons, we will inform you by texting or email through the cell phone number or email address that you have supplied us during your inquiries. We will give you as much time as is reasonably practicable in all the circumstances.
4.) Refund of Seminar Fees. If entitled to refund, this shall be deposited, within thirty (30) days from the day we receive your cancellation, to your bank account which you have to give us by email and providing the following information: account number, account name, name of bank, and what branch.
5.) If we make changes to or cancel a seminar we will make every effort to reschedule the seminar for a later date. If we do reschedule the seminar we will notify you in writing of the new dates, times and venues using your email address. On receipt of this update email you have the right to cancel your booking and receive a full refund. The time condition for cancellation above-mentioned will apply as if a new reservation had been made.

DETAILS OF TOPICS

Day 1

INVESTING IN REAL ESTATE: OPPORTUNITIES, TECHNIQUES
and
WHAT YOU NEED TO LEARN BEFORE INVESTING
Whether we are in economic slowdown and looming recession or economic recovery or boom, real estate is always the better investment alternative for the moneyed investors, and as such, there is a strong need to guide incoming beginners and prospective real estate investors, dealers and developers away from the sad misfortunes of loss-making investments. Although real estate investing is one investment area that yields many opportunities and long financial security, this is realized only with knowledgeable investors. Because of the broad, diverse and changing intricacies and techniques of real estate, many newcomers may suffer business failure instead.

The 4-hour lecture will provide helpful guidelines to the benefits of beginning and prospective real estate owners, investors, dealers, developers and realty professionals. It will cover the following: review of the different investment motivations; why invest in real estate; pitfalls and traps in real estate investments; why real estate appreciates; pros and cons of investing in vacant land; different areas of opportunities, techniques and how to’s in real estate investment such as buy and sell or lease; build and sell; rehabilitation of foreclosed and damaged properties; master leasing; converting apartments to townhouses or condominiums; and developing vacant/raw lands.

Also included is a general orientation to all the basic knowledge that is essential to a profitable and successful real estate investment such as real estate economics, legal aspects and contract documents, financing and analyzing investments, property appraisal, property development, development rules and regulations, property management, real estate taxation, property valuation or appraisal and others.

Day 2

LEGAL ASPECTS OF REAL ESTATE SALES & LEASES
with related contracts and documentation

Lecturer: Atty. Rex Enrico V. Cruz III
Anyone who intends to acquire or lease a peace of real estate or who intends to go into any real estate business should be aware of the importance of knowing the different legal aspects of a real estate transaction. This will prevent being swindled or victimized by unscrupulous operators and in other cases avoid misunderstandings that may result to expensive and time consuming judicial court proceedings.
This lecture will cover Contract of sale, options, earnest money, assignment of lease and sublease, issues on improvements introduced by the lessee, sale of leased properties, contract registration and documentations and many other legal questions..

Day 3
INTRODUCTION TO PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT and
HOUSING & LAND USE REGULATORY BOARD (HLURB) RULES

Going into the business of property development involves a series of critical decision-making stages that requires methodical studies and analysis without which, success becomes a hit or miss game of chance. Prospective developers should watch out for pitfall and traps and be aware of the governing rules covering, among others, plans, standards, permits, licenses and reportorial requirements. As an example, it becomes a very expensive learning experience on the part of the developer if later on it would be found out that the plans prepared do not conform to the standards prescribed by the government rules and regulations.

This lecture will provide the needed learning and updates for upcoming and current developers, professionals and property owners and will include the following: property development as a business; why not everybody are property developers; phases of property development; evaluating land potential; when you should not invest in vacant land; feasibility criteria; evaluating economic feasibility; needed government permits and licenses; notes on land development and housing construction; development costs; marketing and subdivision management; notes on industrial, commercial and condominium developments and others.

In addition are the latest updates on the minimum standards and important provisions of PD 957, BP 220, RA 6552 (Maceda Law), implementing rules of RA 7279 (Lina Law) and related issues on subdivision development such as transactions exempt from license to sell, non-completion of developments, turnover or donation of roads and parks & playground, organization of homeowners associations, registration of real estate dealers and others.

Day 4

JOINT VENTURES and SYNDICATION FOR REAL ESTATE PROJECTS
There are three major sectors that can enter into a Joint venture for real estate development. One is the developer who has the experience and knowledge but may or may not have the capital needed. Another is the one with the financial resources and capacity, interested in real estate business but lacks the knowledge or experience. The third is the one with the land who may lack either financial resources or knowledge to develop his land.
It would be a big economic contribution if the three resources can be joined and made productive. However, before a joint venture could be concluded, many questions and other important aspects should be learned, clarified and answered for the protection of all the parties.
The topics to be taken up are Concepts and Types of Joint Venture and Project Syndication; Reasons for Joint Ventures; Obligations of Landowner; Undertakings of the Developer; Role of the Syndicator; Financier’s Role; Packaging a JV Proposal; The Syndication Agreement; Sharing Schemes; Safety Nets For Developer; Safeguards For Landowner; Important provisions in a Joint Venture Agreement; Participation Mortgages and others.

Day 5

HOW TO MANAGE AND MAXIMIZE INCOMES OF RENTAL PROPERTIES
The common mounting problem of property lessors, who are sometimes forced to sell their properties because of mounting and numerous problems are, among others, high vacancy, defaulting and problematic tenants, increasing cost of repair and maintenance, increasing property taxes and harsh zoning ordinances and others.
While these situations provide good business opportunities to other real estate investors who have management skills and know-how to overcome such problems, present owners should also aim to gain more skills and knowledge to avoid such unwarranted liquidation of their properties.
The seminar will cover the following topics: reasons for property management; the property management functions, objectives, organization and designations; important and must-include provisions in the lease contract; advertising; correct tenant selection; how to retain good tenants; how to solve common problems with tenants; rent escalation clauses; collection techniques; property maintenance; how to avoid unnecessary repair expenses; insurance; budgeting and recording; hiring professional property managers; management contracts; and other related subjects.

Day 6

TAXATION OF REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS
In any real estate investment or project, all the revenues and expenses were estimated and pre-determined at its very start or conception, serving as the basis for the acceptance or rejection of the proposed investment. The realization of the projected revenues and expenses can negatively be affected by unforeseen events. One of such is tax penalties and surcharges that can be brought about by neglect, ignorance or incapacity to pay on the part of the investor.
Considering that there are frequent changes and issuances of new revenue regulations, new and would be investors and even experienced ones should be knowledgeable and updated on the changes in the taxation rules in order to pay the correct taxes at the right time, thus avoiding penalties.
Topics to be taken are Taxes on Sales and Lease; Value Added Tax, Donor’s Tax and Estate Tax. This will include what taxes to pay in any real estate transaction, basis and how to compute taxes, when and where to pay, BIR forms, exemptions from taxes, latest Revenue regulations and other updates.

Day 7

PROPERTY VALUATION: HOW TO DO IT YOURSELF
What is the Market Value of a certain property? Do you need to hire an appraiser or can you do it yourself? How would appraisal be done? How reliable is appraisal for making investment decision in real estate? How do you become a licensed real estate appraiser? These are only some of the many questions that would be answered in the seminar on “The How To’s of Property Valuation” that URBAN Institute will conduct.
The seminar covers the topics: needs for appraisal; principles of real estate values; factors that influence real estate values; how appraisals are done and methodologies; data collection and verification; appraisal methods for valuation of lots only, lot with improvements and properties with income; what price to pay for raw lands intended for subdivision development; how to scrutinize appraisal works & accuracy of values; how yo can do it yourself and many others.

Day 8

MAKING BIG MONEY IN DISTRESSED PROPERTIES
Properties-in-distress offers of lot of opportunities to real estate investors not only in terms of good profit but also the opportunity and challenge of saving the owner’s credit standing and remaining equity in the property. In addition, the good image of the neighborhood is restored after rehabilitating dilapidated properties. It also saves the distressed owner from more sleepless nights and gives him a new start with the money saved from the avoided foreclosure.

The four-hour lecture includes the overall strategies; keys to success; how to find distressed properties/sellers; how to make your offer; important provisions for your protection; negotiating strategies with owner and lender; common mistakes that should be avoided; valuing properties by do-it-yourself appraisal; many tips on inspecting properties, financing, rehabilitating the property, selling the property, documentation and registration, taxation; and other important related topics.

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LECTURERS’ PROFILES

ENGR. ENRICO S. CRUZ has almost 40 years of working experience in the field of engineering, construction, real estate and education. As a Civil Engineer, he taught after graduation for five years in his alma mater, Central Colleges of the Philippines and at the same time, he manages his own construction company, Enrico Engineering and Management Services. He was the Vice-Dean for Engineering for two years.

He placed 1st in the real estate appraisal board examination in 1994 and 8th in the real estate broker’s board examination in 1988. He is also a licensed real estate consultant and a real estate fellow.

His past membership in real estate organizations includes the Chamber of Real Estate and Builders Associations, Inc. (CREBA), Real Estate Brokers Association of the Philippines (REBAP), where he was past president of the Marikina Chapter and Philippine Council of Real Estate Educators (PHILCORE).

At present, he is the President of URBAN Institute of Real Estate engaged in real estate education; United Realty Brokers and Appraisers Network, engaged in realty brokerage, appraisal and consultancy. He is also the former Chief Operating Officer of First Amson Realty Development Corp. that was involved in housing and land development.

Author of “Comprehensive Notes and Reviewer for Real Estate Brokers” and “Mastering the Real Estate Broker’s Exam” and handouts/study materials for various real estate seminars.

So, are you attending any of the series topics? If you are, which one? I might attend also.:)

May you achieve true success!

Bryan PS1. What does the Bible say about wealth? Is money the root of all evil? Visit http://www.beyondprofit.blogspot.com/.

PS2. If you want to invest in real estate properties, visit www.houseforsalephilippineswithphoto.blogspot.com.

PS3. If you want to get financial literacy training for free, go to www.wealthacademy-philippines.blogspot.com.

Investing Pinoy

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) is Too Fast, Too Furious

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan "bravy" Uy) — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 03:47:00 +0000

Megaworld (MEG) and the rest of the stock market is going up too fast, in my opinion. There's now a greater risk of it pulling back for a correction. Today, just after 12 days, my MEG portfolio is already 21% from 12.97% last Friday, an 8% gain in one day. Hmm... I might need to sell 30% of my position in MEG to lock in my profits.

If you are a trader, you might need to sell your trading position (about 25-30% of your position in one stock) to secure your profits. If you are an investor, you don't need to do anything. Jusdt continue investing a fixed amount of money every month or every quarter.

How about you? Are you a trader or an investor? Are you selling you trading position?

May you achieve true success!

Bryan PS1. What does the Bible say about wealth? Is money the root of all evil? Visit http://www.beyondprofit.blogspot.com/.

PS2. If you want to invest in real estate properties, visit www.houseforsalephilippineswithphoto.blogspot.com.

PS3. If you want to get financial literacy training for free, go to www.wealthacademy-philippines.blogspot.com.

Investing Pinoy

Cheating: Is integrity and honesty important in investing in your future?

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan "bravy" Uy) — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 16:08:00 +0000

I'm gonna make a confession to all of you that only my wife and my spiritual counselors know. It's about cheating my way to avoid being put to shame... and what's worse is the kind lady I cheated trusted me as a result of my cheating her. Sounds weird? Let me tell you my story so you'll understand what I mean.

A Consistent Cheater

When I was in 3rd year high school, I flunked my chemistry class because my barkada (friends) were caught cheating by our Chemistry teacher during our quarterly exam. It was humiliating. This was the first time I got caught cheating. But there's another story after this.

During my summer classes with the same chemistry teacher, we had another exam. (Yes, I flunked my Chemistry class). And guess what, all of my classmates cheated. What's worse is I also peeped and I remember getting at least one answer right because I cheated...again! While everyone was cheating, our teacher barged into the room like a lighting strike and everyone was caught looking at their notes... except me. At this point, our Chemistry teacher, screamed in anger "Who cheated among you? Raise your hands or I'll flunk everyone in this room. No exceptions." Everyone raised their hands, about 5 or 6 of them. Except me. I knew I cheated. But I was too scared to admit it. I felt my life will crumble if people outside that room will learn about my cheating sprees. What would my mom and dad say? What would my lola (grandmother) say? How about my church friends? So I was the only one who didn't raise my hand. My classmates didn't really know that I cheated. They really thought I was clean. And because of that, I found favor with my Chemistry teacher. Since that time, she looked at me as an honest student. (Oh no! What have i done? What a lie!)

A Miraculous U-Turn

But something magical happened because of that incident. Before this, I always had a hard time studying. Almost every subject was below average except for Physical Education (Come on guys, you have the same high grades in PE as I did, didn't you?). Oh, I was also exempted in Citizen's Army Training (Does this subject still exist today?) because I was part of the high school band.

After that incident however, thing changed. When I entered 4th year high school, I started to become conscious about studying. I felt guilty that I passed the Chemistry class with high grades. I think I got 85. Hey, that was already very high for me. I felt I needed to prove I deserved that grade.

I started to study harder and slowly by slowly studying became easier to do. In fact, I started to love studying and excelling in class. My Chemistry teacher, now my teacher in higher math, trusted me to check all the math test papers of the entire 4th year students, including mine. Haha... I could have cheated again by being lenient with my test paper answers and tough on my 'competitors' but I felt a heavy responsibility to be honest because of the trust she gave me. I was in the top three in her subjects. I also excelled in my other subjects like Filipino and computer where I also was among the top three students in the entire 4th year class. In fact, I was exempted to take the finals for both subjects. By graduation time, my computer teacher (who was another person in my life who inspired me to excel) told me I was supposed to be a candidate for 1st honorable mention but my grades in third year disqualified me for the honor. At that time, I told myself I didn't really care because I knew my study life had drastically changed because of my third year boo-boo.

The rest was history.

From a so-so student in most of my high school life, I went on to graduate with cum laude honors in college and was a consistent dean's lister in my graduate studies. Now, studying is an integral part of me. But what's important is I have learned to value honesty and integrity very high in my life. As King Solomon puts it,

"A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold." - Proverbs 22:1 (NIV)

A Grateful Heart

I wish I could say I didn't cheat in my life. But I couldn't. But, today, I'm gratefully indebted to my high school Chemistry teacher who trusted me. I couldn't over-emphasize how she has helped changed my life. And, she doesn't even know it. (If my Chemistry teacher is reading this post now, I want to tell her, "Thank you very much and i owe my success in academics to you." and "I'm so sorry I lied and didn't have the guts to tell you the truth.")

Train Up a Child the Way He Should Go

Let me end with another story which I got from someone and it talks about how valuable teaching integrity and honesty is to our children when they are still young. Here it is:

Stu Weber, who pastors a church in Portland, Oregon, and is the author of such best-selling books as: Tender Warrior: God’s Intention for a Man, remembers an evening he spent many years ago as a seven-year-old boy playing Parcheesi with his grandparents. (Now there’s a game you don’t hear much about anymore.)

Well, the last thing Stu wanted to do that night was lose to his grandma. So, sensing the tide swinging in her direction, he scanned the board, looking for options, and found only one that offered him much hope of winning.

Cheating.

Not everyone, however, has the poker face to pull this off. Stu didn’t. And not everyone has parents or grandparents who are courageous enough to take character seriously—enough to hand it down at every opportunity. Stu did.

Stu still remembers his grandfather—seeing what was going on—peering over his glasses at his grandson and saying, “You’re a Weber, boy; and Weber boys don’t lie, cheat or steal.” This grandfather was a wise man; not only was he calling his grandson to obey the Scriptures, but he also wanted Stu to realize he was part of a family of character.

There would be times later in life—as a Green Beret in the military, as a father, as a pastor—when Stu would be faced again with the chance to cheat his way out of a bad situation. But he would always hear these words in the back of his head: “You’re a Weber, boy; and Weber boys don’t lie, cheat or steal.”

A family legacy is powerful. Your children (or grandchildren) need to hear those kinds of memorable words from you.

I had to learn about integrity and honesty the hard way. I just thank the Lord He was gracious to me. He gave me the strength and wisdom to eventually choose what was right. Today, I teach my child tnd will continue to teach my children the importance of integrity and honesty. As the wise King Solomon aptly puts it,

"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." - Proverbs 22:6 (NIV)

So, how valuable is honesty and integrity to you? How about for your kids? Care to share your thoughts and stories with me? Share them in the comments section below.

May you achieve true success!

Bryan

PS1. What does the Bible say about wealth? Is money the root of all evil? Visit http://www.beyondprofit.blogspot.com/.

PS2. If you want to invest in real estate properties, visit www.houseforsalephilippineswithphoto.blogspot.com.

PS3. If you want to get financial literacy training for free, go to www.wealthacademy-philippines.blogspot.com.

Investing Pinoy

Megaworld (MEG) bounces off trend line on September 01, 2010. I bought MEG at PhP1.88.

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan "bravy" Uy) — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 07:13:00 +0000

Megaworld Corporation (MEG) bounced off its upward trend line on September 01, 2010. I decided to buy it. The price was P1.88.

On the day I bought Megaworld Corporation shares, I wanted to tell you right away so you can also decide to buy it but eventually decided not to because I was not ready to receive angry comments from you if you bought it with me and lose your precious money if ever it went down. But now, only nine days after I bought it, I want to tell you that the price of Megaworld (MEG) has increased 12.97% at P2.13. What I want to say is that the trending analysis I did was right. Of course, the risk of losing is always there but I always make sure my reward to risk ratio is three is to one (3:1).

Today, my portfolio is up 28.89% since July 2010. You can see what I have bought so far, at what price I bought it, the current price and more importantly, the % gain so far.

Company	Code	Bought	Current	% Gain
First Pacific	FPH	59.3245	64.2000	8.22%
Metrobank	MBT	62.8348	74.0000	17.77%
RFM Corp	RFM	1.3051	1.9400	48.65%
Universal Robina	URC	28.6057	38.7500	35.46%
Megaworld	MEG	1.88	2.13	12.97%

Do you want to get an update from me if I spot something that's worth buying? I am fully load at this point with already 5 companies on my portfolio. So I won't buy anymore. i want to follow my own rules. Hehe.

So, do you want to receive updates from me? Appreciate it if you drop a comment so I know if someone is interested.

May you achieve true success!

Bryan PS1. What does the Bible say about wealth? Is money the root of all evil? Visit http://www.beyondprofit.blogspot.com/.

PS2. If you want to invest in real estate properties, visit www.houseforsalephilippineswithphoto.blogspot.com.

PS3. If you want to get financial literacy training for free, go to www.wealthacademy-philippines.blogspot.com.

Investing Pinoy

"This is good!": The Power of Positive Thinking

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan "bravy" Uy) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 02:06:00 +0000

I read a story I got from the internet about how positive thinking can help us get "what we want" from life. The Bible tells us something about this in that we should be thankful in everything, whether good or particularly during bad times. The Bible says, "In everything, give thanks." - 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NASB).

Today, I'd like to share to you that short story. I hope you enjoy it.

An old story is told of a king in Africa who had a close friend with whom he grew up. The friend had a habit of looking at every situation that ever occurred in his life (positive or negative) and remarking, "This is good!"

One day the king and his friend were out on a hunting expedition. The friend would load and prepare the guns for the king. The friend had apparently done something wrong in preparing one of the guns, for after taking the gun from his friend, the king fired it and his thumb was blown off. Examining the situation the friend remarked as usual, "This is good!" To which the king replied, "No, this is NOT good!" and proceeded to send his friend to jail.

About a year later, the king was hunting in an area that he should have known to stay clear of. Cannibals captured him and took him to their village. They tied his hands, stacked some wood, set up a stake and bound him to the stake. As they came near to set fire to the wood, they noticed that the king was missing a thumb. Being superstitious, they never ate anyone that was less than whole. So untying the king, they sent him on his way.

As he returned home, he was reminded of the event that had taken his thumb and felt remorse for his treatment of his friend. He went immediately to the jail to speak with his friend. "You were right," he said, "it was good that my thumb was blown off." And he proceeded to tell the friend all that had just happened. "And so I am very sorry for sending you to jail for so long. It was bad for me to do this."

"No," his friend replied, "This is good!" "What do you mean,'This is good'? How could it be good that I sent my friend to jail for a year?" "If I had NOT been in jail, I would have been with you."

Stock Code	Market Price	Ave. Price	% Gain/Loss	% Portfolio
AGI	11.0000	10.7917	1.93%	16.74%
DMC	34.9500	33.8718	3.18%	31.91%
FGEN	12.6400	11.2225	12.63%	19.23%
MPI	3.8000	3.7375	1.67%	32.12%