 |
| Photo Credits |
Have you ever always felt broke
no money in your pocket and tired on how to make both ends meet?
You are not alone in this dilemma
in which I have experienced it on first hand when I was starting out as a young
professional just out of college and no career plans and experience of personal
finance and handling my own money in the early 2000s. Just had one thing on
mind, to spend cash on things I can own or boast around.
Smart spending has not have touch
ground in the Philippines, most kids would rather spend on the latest toys,
gadgets and other non-essential to play and boasts around. Even adult would
spend lavishly on anything without thinking the repercussion of it by feeling
the hard pains when the time that bills on your credit card and the utility or
the creditors also known as the 5-6 guys are banging your front door of your
home asking to repay as soon as possible.
It seems a lot of Filipinos
hadn’t catch up with our neighbors in Southeast Asia in terms of saving and
investing according to the Philippine Stock Exchange survey in 2008 says that
there are only less than one percent ( less than 1%) of Filipinos are invested
in stocks. It seems it so tragic that our educational system has not progress
and the need for basic personal finance should be taught at home and then
followed up at school with aim of providing the basics of financial literacy.
Set
goals and time frame – you should deadlines on what you should be doing.
Take down notes on where you are going to start out and when you will end.
Picture out what you will be doing in the next 5, 10, 15 years and so on. Those
dreams or goals should be concrete and realistic. It is free to dream but you
act now in order to fulfill your dreams to reality.
Track
down on your spending – you can use a lot of web applications or a simple
notebook to track your expenses. Better to do this on a daily to weekly basis
in order to project your budget in the coming weeks.
Change
on how you perceive on money – for most people, money is just used for
spending from anything you want to buy but for a wise spender or frugal but
business-minded person money is a God-given tools to make more money in
creating their dreams of building a start-up businesses into a multi-million
peso companies in the future.
Make
a Budget Plan – What is this plan? Most trained personal finance coach or
professional financial advisor would be giving you advise on 10-20-70 budgeting
and this is effective. 10% should be put on your savings account, 20% for your
personal spending and 70% will be used for paying utilities, credit cards
bills, daily transport cost and others.
Be
Frugal – with too much consumerism and materialism. A propaganda brought
about by enterprising businesses around the world. Individuals must learn how
to spend wisely on essentially important things. Veer away from those things
that could make you have guilty feeling in the end from the latest gadgets to
fashion. You do not really need those things all the time or not? Ask that
question? Be simplistic and “Don’t keep up with the Kardashians” or you might
end up being a shopaholic.
Create
an Emergency Fund – You may never know when the rainy day comes, so be
ready to have cash on hand or on your bank account to spend on if time comes.
At least you should have at least a minimum of 3 to a maximum 6 months of your living
expenses saved somewhere in your trusty safe, in a bank or invested in a money
market fund.
Pay off
Credit Card Debts – Pay off as soon as possible, never pays the minimum
amount stated on your credit card just pay the maximum in order to prevent them
from piling up or recur and unwanted expenses. Better to leave your credit card
at home than bring all the time to stop you from purchasing unnecessary items
or things you will regret.
Get
another job – Online work has become the trend for most Pinoys working to
meet both ends. They become so called independent contractors or freelancers
for companies looking for outsourcing work from abroad to the Philippines. It
only requires a few hours of work. Applying for such work requires patience,
hard-work and good internet connection and a personal computer to do the job.
The kind of jobs includes the basic data-entry / transcription, designing and
up to technical writing of a product etc. A good source of can be found on
Odesk.com, Freelance.com and many more.
Read
books, magazine and learn more on how to invest – there are a lot of books
and magazine you can buy and read on about investments from Mutual Funds, UITF,
and Real Estate and so on. Sometimes they may look a bit technical but they are
helpful in terms explaining things in a very plain language. So better to stop
reading much of those fashion magazines and start reading these useful and very knowledgeable magazine
you can buy Philippine Editions of Entrepreneur Magazine for those budding
entrepreneurs or who want to engage in
business or this Money Sense Magazine (Philippine Edition) which is about the
latest trends in personal finance and investments available in most bookstores.
Need
help with these – If you are still
having problems and understanding the intricacies of the personal finance a financial advisor or financial planner
could help you on where and how to invest. A lot these guys have the experience
and background that could help you ease and educate you on the technicalities
of investing into a mutual funds or setting up your contingency fund.
Last year, Senator-elect Juan
Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, an outgoing congressman of the province of Aurora,
passed a house bill called HB 490: Financial Literacy Act with the aims of
improving the lives of Filipinos by starting them young through grassroots
financial planning and literacy which has been his advocacy in the past I have high hopes that will that bill will push through
in lessening poverty and enhancing the mindset of people on saving, investing
and smart spending.
Related Post:
Tips to PSP and GMs: Why Create An Emergency Fund
________________________________________________________________________________
Silent Operator Dan, is 30
something heterosexual male. A part-time blogger, adult scene observer / patron
and a frustated writer of some sort although he was a former editor-in-chief of
his college newspaper. He currently resides somewhere out of the realm of the
city limits and dabbles in high finance and business. You can catch him at http://theconfessionsofayoungman.blogspot.com.
Copyright 2011. Confessions of Young Man. All Rights Reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment