think rich quickA “Think Rich Pinoy” with a tagline Creating One Million Pinoy Millionaires by 2020 event flashed on my facebook. Clicking the link, I discover it is a Think Rich Pinoy Seminar to be hosted by Larry Gamboa (best selling author of “Think Rich, Pinoy”) at Philamlife, Manila on February 16 and 17. I reserve my judgement on the seminar since I’ve never attended it. The thing is the fee is only Php1,450 pesos which is more affordable than the Make Money Online Seminar that has an entrance fee of Php6000 pesos.

One never can never go wrong in real estate investment. It is a hedge against inflation and a source of passive income. My father, a self-made man, was orphaned during his teens. He survived because his parents left a few coconut lands which gave his five siblings some passive income. More important than acquiring wealth, I learned from my dad the importance of risk-taking, investment and managing personal finances at a young age.

Whether or not one becomes a millionaire has very little to do with the amount of money you make, whether one attends this real estate or the Make Money Online Seminar.

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Ever since I could remember, dad often brought me and my siblings to any [tag]real estate investment[/tag] he acquired. Trudging by the tall weeds and mud, I wrinkled my nose and retort “But there is nothing here. No houses. ” Dad would often chuckle and remind me “Think of the future. what will it be like in 30 years?”. Twirling around the grasses and looking up at the sky, I could not think far ahead to the future. After all, I was just 8 years old. God bless my dad. His [tag]investment[/tag] paved the way for my own [tag]real estate[/tag] investments together with the rest of my siblings. I felt my girls should know how to prioritize their paycheck. Lauren even as a fresh graduate seems to be earning quite well. I thought I’d show her to invest her money wisely. So off we went for a brief stop in our country home somewhere in Sta. Rosa before heading off to Ayala Land’s latest development, the Nuvali.
poke_your_eyes.jpgOn the way to Nuvali, we got so engrossed with the landscape that we missed the turn to the entrance. The sign “Poke Your Eyes” alerted us that Hey you are lost. We had a good laugh as we made a u-turn back to Nuvali.

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country homeThe green landscape just took my breath away as we drove on to the countryside. The gust of wind sent a shiver down my spine. I love this place, I thought as we inspected the Sta. Rosa property in Laguna. The fresh countryside air is the best gift that I can ever give my family. Three family members are asthma prone and this is the ideal family home for us, as I hugged my husband. The year was January 2000. While my husband and I poured over the layout of the house, Luijoe was a bit distressed to see that he had his own room which I labeled “Luijoe”. He took my pencil and wrote Luijoe in OUR bedroom. “That’s where I am going to sleep”, he showed an impish grin.

Oh well, he is not ready to move to his own room. I looked at my husband.

Luijoe ran to the cul-de sac and romped on the greenery beside the house as it was slowly being constructed. The move to our country home was scheduled for April 2001.

The plan was simple enough. Lauren and M will finish high school somewhere in the south of Manila while Luijoe would study in Don Bosco at Sta. Rosa. When the girls are in college, they will live in dormitories and drive home for a weekend stay in our country home.

Destiny had other plans for us.

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Do you believe in luck and chance especially in financial success? When our only son was born in 1993, our life changed dramatically. My husband and I believed that our son was our lucky charm which brought us good fortune and lots of happiness. In fact, among all the kids, Luijoe had the grandest Baptismal celebration and even birthday parties. Our family was indeed blessed. We could not ask for more. When we dabbled in stock trading, I had no knowledge on how the financial markets worked. My husband got a hold of Initial Public Offering (IPO) of large companies in the early 90’s. The booming stock market and rising price indexes drove me to sell when it was high. It was bullish period in the stock market trading.

And how did I determine the time to sell?

I rubbed Luijoe’s hair like one would rub Aladdin’s magical lamp and I’d whisper to Luijoe ” do you think mama should sell?”

If Luijoe smiled to his right that meant “yes” and the opposite is “No”. What a silly way to sell?

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cheap fares onlineWhat does being broke mean? Does it mean being down to the last million peso? or down to the last 100,000 pesos or the last 1,000 pesos? There was a time, we only had 1,000 pesos in our savings/checking account way below the minimum bank requirement. We even had a negative balance due to a service fee charge for dropping below the minimum. Our saving grace was Lauren who had savings which we borrowed to keep us afloat. In the strictest sense of the word, our financial situation was not entirely hopeless. We were not bankrupt but we were not liquid either. Though we had other assets, it took time to convert them to cash. Though in the red, we didn’t incur credit card debts, renege on our mortagage or borrowed from the bank. These financial challenges a few years ago inspired me to be more responsive to income opportunities. I grew up in financially secure family because my father was hardworking with an astute sense of financial responsibility. We were blessed with a family bakery business and a father who invested his earnings wisely . Despite his illness,and unable to work since his stroke at the age of 55 years old, dad had enough money to last him till his death at age 71.

Not that my husband and I were financially incompetent. With a thriving law office , the financial future looked great. Butch brought in most of the income while I stayed at home and puttered on my hobbies. I felt like a queen being pampered by my King. In the past, I often turned down a lot of projects or refused commissions because I wanted the other party to benefit more than I did. I felt guilty over my earnings. Then the financial crisis hit us like a rock. Stress and hopelessness in our life drove us to be a bit more complacent. We lost focus on our financial affairs. Too bad my king faltered. I had to wake up from my queenly slumber and grab opportunities as they came before we went totally bankrupt.

The past certainly brought me lessons:

  • It was okay to profit.
  • It was alright to make an honest living.
  • It was good to save up enough for a rainy day.
  • I need not feel guilty if I earn.
  • It’s great to offer quality services at affordable prices.
  • It is wise to diversify sources of income.
  • Set Goals.
  • Do my best ,today, to take responsibility for my finances.
  • Believe you deserve the best, financially.
  • Believe God cares about your finances.
  • Let go of your fear and TRUST.
  • Let go of money and concentrate on Living.

So what does my entry “[tag]Cheap Travel Fares Online[/tag]” have to do with all these? I sound like one of those crazy spam words.

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housing loanBuying our new home was a little off our budget . I wasn’t too confident in getting another [tag]housing loan[/tag] as we had an existing housing loan for 6 years now. I have no idea how the banking sector works or how credit scores are attained. All I know is we have an excellent credit history as we never missed payments. Maybe , I thought, we might get a second housing loan. Who knows?

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credit cardsFinancial institutions seem to be very liquid these days. They are giving out credit cards as if it is a bank brochure. The other day, BPI Express Credit sent me two [tag]credit cards[/tag]. I don’t understand why they have to send me a credit card when I already have a BPI Express Credit card since 1989. *snip* *snip* The lady at the Express Phone protested when I told her that I had no need for additional credit cards. A few weeks ago, Banco de Oro (BDO) also sent us credit cards. *snip* *snip* I believe in having a credit card but two are enough, thank you. I used to have a VISA card but I snipped that a year ago . It’s just so much easier to balance my budget. My husband has three credit cards and he plans to snip one card as soon as he pays off a “zero lite” plan.

Why would anyone need so many credit cards? It causes anyone to go into debt much faster, thinking of the additional cards as a standby.

The first credit card I ever had was Diner’s Club in the early 80’s. During those days, credit cards were very limited in the Philippines and often offered to businessmen or the “rich”. As a struggling career woman, I didn’t qualify for a credit card. Anyway, I got mine as supplementary card from my dad. After a few years of wise use, it paved the way for me to get a credit card on my own. Then credit cards became an “in thing” in the late eighties that more bank started on credit card operations.

Through the years, the advantages of credit cards outweighed the disadvantages.

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deal.jpgMy husband’s text message cracked me up:

The buyer offered ______ pesos for the land. Is it a deal or no deal?

Haha, we were deciding on whether to accept a buyer’s offer on my husband’s property in Baguio. The proceeds will be used as equity to our new home.

Almost every night when my husband is home, we tune in to entertainment shows to just free our minds from a hard day’s work. Mindless shows like the lucky game show “Deal or No deal?” with Kris Aquino lightens my husband’s mood. While the game show is progressing, my husband and I decide if it’s a deal or no deal. Oftentimes, my husband place the banker role. Most often I take the conservative role and scream “DEAL!” or “How stupid!”.

Back to that text message “Deal or no deal?”

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sulong negosyonegosyoMy purpose for attending the Sulong Negosyo at Market! Market! was to meet Lynn, the owner of Crazy Choco. She sells Chocolate Fountain and fondue set and I’ve been meaning to buy the latter. See, I took photos of her Crazy Choco booth in Fil-Negosyo Expo 2006 last month. Fortunately for her, two customers surfed my photo gallery and saw the chocolate fountain photo flowing with Belgian Chocolate. Yum. The good news was these gallery visitors bought from her. I was hoping she’d give me a discount on the fondue set which is priced at 1,200 pesos. So anyway, armed with my digital camera and fresh from my gym workout, I headed towards the exhibits.

sme centerpear2.netThe Sulong Negosyo at Trade Hall A, Bonifacio Global City is sponsored by the Department of Trade and Industry. Over 100 exhibitors showed various products from all over the Philippines. When I saw the expo, I totally forgot about my purpose there . I was fascinated with the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME ) EXPO’s barangay/village fiesta concept that simulated a small community with a barangay hall where business name registration, business counseling and advisory services were undertaken. Even supportive banks. There was also a town plaza concept where video programs promoting the services offered by various institutions to SMEs can be viewed. There’s a seminar rooms where skills and managerial briefings useful to would-be and existing entrepreneurs are conducted . And lastly a commercial area (Pamilihan) was setup for participating SMEs to retail their products and/or promote their franchise businesses.

Today, the government is actively supporting our micro entrepreneurs with their One Town One Product (OTOP) .This was merely a concept when I worked for the Small Scale industry in the early 1980s. If you’re interested to start a business one day, one should attend Guide to RA 9178 Barangay Micro Business Enterprises Act of 2002 to be held on Friday , at 5:00 to 6:00 PM. This is a remake of previous laws in the past but the classification of a micro business’ asset has now been raised to 3 million pesos.

Research on small and medium scale enterprises development was my pet project before I settled down to become a mother and home maker in 1987. I can see that there is indeed some progress through the years. We can’t rely solely on overseas employment income to sustain our economy. Together with the development of Information technology sector, agro-industries, and our small and medium and micro-enterprises, our country’s economy will surely boom.

View the photo gallery of the Sulong Negosyo-SME EXPO at Market! Market!

J. Angelo Racoma entry on PayPal: One Great Way to Improve the Philippine Economy makes sense.

If only we had PayPal in the Philippines, then I think we would be able to open to the world better means to access to our pool of talent.

Having PayPal in the country would greatly benefit the following people:

  • Web developers,
  • Designers,
  • Photographers,
  • Writers,
  • Pro-bloggers,
  • and virtually anyone else who can render services remotely while corresponding via the Internet. Their correspondents can pay simply by clicking a few buttons, and that’s it.

    This would be a great opportunity for both sides, as it will open up access to the supply of good talent, and as well as open up access to those who are on the demand-side.

    Some possible reasons that Paypal won’t deal with us are the following :

    1. With regards to anti-Money Laundering, the Philippines is still in the list of non-cooperative countries.
    2. Security issues in our banking system.
    3. Banks asking for a big share in Paypal transactions.

    Having an online business for global markets require a payment gateway. Paypal is known to have the lowest sales transaction but it’s not available in the Philippines. I can’t even get hold of a credit card merchant account in the Philippines’ financial institutions what with the exhorbitant rates and restrictions required. I availed 2checkout.com to resell my services . One can be a vendor with a $49 signup fee.

    Technically, one can get a Paypal account if you have an accomodating relative in a paypal enabled country like the USA to do the paypal transactions for you. The problem is Paypal recognizes the Philippine IP address if you intend to login their Paypal website. This is not a long term soluution to having a paypal account.

    What we can do is :

    lobby for inclusion as a PayPal enabled country with our senators, congressmen or politicians.

    Support Paypal for the Philippines

    Read other related blogs on the Paypal inclusion of the Philippines