Live life agelessly, purposefully, mindfully, happily…
Frankly, I came to this Sun Life event thinking it was one where we would listen to financial planners give a short talk on personal finance and maybe learn about new product offerings. I never expected this event to be about ME!!! And about all of us – you and I.
Continue reading “Sun Life #Money4Life: Helping Filipinos plan for financial independence”
The biggest annual investment conference is back and is now on its 4th year with a brand new roster of speakers known in the Philippine financial industry. Among them are my good friends Randell Tiongson (the organizer of iCON) and Marvin Germo, an expert in stock investing.
Last year, I was able to bring two of my kids and a friend’s kids to the conference. Usually kids get impatient with long conferences but my kids listened till the end. Now, they are more confident and manage their own savings with increased knowledge.
Let me start this post with a true story.
One of the biggest mistakes I have made in my working life was to approve the hiring of someone who came from one of the top 3 desired schools by employers and who graduated Cum Laude. One red flag during the interview which I noticed (but mistakenly ignored) was the fact that this person kept asking what the salary would be. Rather than be mindful of possible implications of that kind of work attitude, I went ahead and recommended the person for hiring, thinking that grades reflected a higher level of intelligence that would compensate for a self-interest attitude.
WRONG!!! Not only was the person totally wrong for the job required but I found myself either re-doing or completing tasks assigned. What my instincts told me about a self-interest attitude became even more evident as time went on. I was actually relieved when the person eventually resigned.
What does that story have to do with you, my dear college graduates? There used to be a saying: “It’s one thing to GET a job; it’s another thing to be able to KEEP it“. But if I were to go by a recent Jobstreet.com survey, you probably won’t even get hired, in the first place, unless you bear the right kind of work attitude that employers are looking for.
A total of 550 companies that used Jobstreet.com to select interviewees submitted their responses to a survey. Read carefully what the survey reveals.
Continue reading “Dear fresh college graduates, your work attitude matters more to employers”
After over a quarter of a century of marriage and four kids, I have seen how stuff in the house has accumulated, piled up and taken up precious real estate space at home. It was not so bad when it was just the two of us back then. But as the kids started coming, we had to make room again and again and again for new furniture, their clothes, toys, books, etc. And, as they grew older and more fashion-conscious, their stuff also added up.
I have been looking around the house and I have come to the conclusion that I do not need all these stuff. In fact, I still have wedding gifts (yes, MY wedding gifts!) still unused in one closet. So I’ve set myself on a path to minimalism (as best I could) by getting rid of things I may never ever use or have more sets than I need.
Continue reading “The Art of Minimalism and Creating Liquidity”
I know I have written already about pyramid scams and cited one case of Emgoldex, which is now under investigation, but since then, so many other clones of pyramid schemes have cropped up.
The latest one being investigated is OneDream Marketing headed by a certain Arnel Gacer who, as of this writing, could not be located by the authorities. Similar to previous pyramid schemes that SEC had warned about, One Dream people allegedly offered investment slots of PhP 888 with an exit or pay-out promise of PhP 1,300 after 4 days. A PhP 1,776 investment slot would result in a pay-out of PhP 2,517.60 and so on. Investors were also promised PhP 44 per investment slot for each recruit or direct referral they bring in.
Continue reading “Investment Scams are Proliferating. Be Careful!”
Yes, I am beginning this article with that statement. I don’t believe that the paluwagan system is a good mode of saving. Have you ever been invited to join one? Been tempted to try? I did – a long, long time ago. And that is the reason for writing this. Read on and I’ll tell you why.
How does ‘paluwagan’ work?
* A group of friends or work colleagues agree to contribute a specific amount on a specific day. A collector is designated from among the group members to collect from everyone and the money goes into a pool of funds. To illustrate, let’s say there are 4 friends, each one putting P100 into the pool each month.
Continue reading “Why I don’t believe in the ‘paluwagan’ system as a mode of saving”