Talk about Investments...

Are you interested with investments? All of us wants to have a better and well-off life in the future with our own family and that starts with ourselves. We have to be financially educated. I grew up in a family whose aware and always into investments and business and i thank them for that but to be honest, im still uneducated when it comes to financial education.

I grew up being a spoiled brat, tantrums kung tantrums ang drama just to get what i want. But as i grow older, my grandmother and parents taught me how to save and earn money to buy what i want. "Paghirapan ko kung anong gusto kong bilhin". So kahit spoiled ako that time, tinuruan nman akong kumain ng tuyo, tinapa etc, kung anong nasa lamesa yun ang kakainin ko. To sum it all, i am spoiled and at the same time i know how to work my ass off just to get what i want.

Back to investment. When i was in college, i read a lot about investment books to have an idea and what is it all about because i have one goal in my life. TO RETIRE EARLY. I saw some oldies (average of 60 years old) who still work just to earn money for their everyday life. Ayokong maging ganon. I am afraid if it happens to me because i dont know what will i do. Kaya bata pa lang ako, lahat ng pwedeng pagkakitaan go lang..

When i graduated and have work for the first time. Thats when i started to act to reach my goals in life. Step by step according to some financial gurus.. And ill share what i have and learn from them... AGAIN, THIS IS FROM MY OWN EXPERIENCE ONLY. It is up to you if youre going to follow or not. Ill just share what i am doing to reach my financial goals.


                                                         MY FIRST STEP : SAVINGS

photo credits here.

I save a lot. Sakin lang naman kasi napupunta sweldo ko when im working, all our travels are from my family's expense (thanks to them, nakarating ako kung saan-saan since i was a kid). I just gave some money to my brother kasi nag-school pa sila that time, if they need something, i gave them money to buy what they need. Sometimes i treat my lola and others just to share what i have.

Now that i have my own family, mas lumaki ang gastos kasi tatlo na kami. I can say that even if we travel or buy anything, i make it a point to save pa rin. We're trying to live on a single income family para mas malaki ang ma-save nmen pero mahirap din kasi nagagastos talaga minsan yung iba..

According to financial gurus. Save a lot for some emergency needs. Before jump to another step, make sure you have at least 6 months emergency fund.

SECOND STEP : INSURANCE

My tita is one of insurance agent under Sunlife Financial. When i got my very first job, my first plan is to get an insurance for myself because according to the guru's, you have to protect yourself first before engaging to other investment. And i guess they're right. I got a life insurance that is 10yrs to pay because that time im thinking of pension or education plan for my future family and kids. But i was too young then (21 years old) to get an education plan so instead my aunt offer a good plan that will benefit me and my family. And now i am happy kasi 1yr and 2 quarters na lang ako magbabayad ng insurance ko and then tapos na... And not only that, the premiums i paid to Sunlife is now earning dividends... Woo Hoo! Thanks to my tita..

MY THIRD STEP : PROPERTY

@ Ponticelli Subdivision in Daang-Hari

Since i am married now, my hubby has participation now to my goal. He knows what im doing and he's aware that im into investments. Recently we acquired a property in Daang-Hari.

LAST STEP: My Final Investment (MUTUAL FUND)

pic stolen here.

This is my on-going investment. You don't need big bucks just to have an investment. To some and not aware of investment, they think of it as gamble because it has risk, you can lose all your money in a day but if you leave it for long-term, in the end you will reap the benefit of it. Before i engaged in mutual fund 2 years ago, i research, read and ask some relative about this. In the end i decided to enter the world of mutual fund or uitf. And soon will open a Dollar Bond and stocks... this is the only way i can reach my goal aside from our savings. Kasi hindi ko nman makukuha ang goal ko if im just a regular employee, right?

That's it. Ive shared the steps i made in reaching my goal. Im so overwhelmed from the fact that all my plans since i was on my teenage years goes well. Its just a matter of planning and discipline. Now that hubby and i work, we can save, invest and at the same time enjoy our life... Saya dba?

Hope that in 20 yrs from now (im 50 yrs old then), i can retire from corporate life and enjoy life with my family. Ayokong sabihin na super relax n lang ako nun, cguro pa-sideline-sideline n lang to earn extra. Mahirap magsalita ng tapos pero sana ma-achieve ko ang goals ko.... *Sana*

Do you have goals in life? Share yours by leaving a comment below. Everyone are welcome :)

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Things to Consider when Purchasing a Property

Every couple is dreaming of their own house and we are one of them. We got married 5 years ago and one of the reason why we save a lot is because of the plan of purchasing our own house and lot. Like what ive said with my previous posts, hindi kami umasa sa in-laws ko since before. Even they offered their house to us since hubby is the youngest and the only boy in their siblings, we chose to have our own house from our own money, thats why his parents are so proud of him.

Last quarter of 2010, we decided to purchase a property as part of our investment and here are the things we consider and this will also help you in owning a property.

LOCATION

Location is the first thing to consider. We scout and look for some place that is accessible to all like school, mall, hospital and also the way to our work. Our decision has been made after we see the place and the subdivision. We purchased a property in a subdivision along Daang-hari road in Alabang. Daang-hari road is now fully developed and very accessible to all.

Hubby's eldest sister also purchased a house and lot in the subdivision where we got our property. Ngaun wala ng kasama ang parents-in-law ko sa house nila kundi maid.. minsan naaawa ako kasi nman tatlo lang sila eh ang laki nung bahay, 5 bedrooms ba nman and very spacious pa.. When my sis-in-law ask my parents-in-law if kaya ba nilang mag-solo, Mama just told her na ok nman sila dun sa house kahit sila lang at pag namatay daw sila, bahala na silang tatlong magkakapatid dun sa bahay kung ano ang balak nilang gawin dun :(  They will just go to our house anytime to visit us or vice-versa..

Grabe.. minsan iniisip ko dun n lang kaya kami tumira ulit? Kaso sayang nman yung binili nmen na bahay kung walang titira ska its part of our plan to live on our own. Ayaw nga namin umasa dba?

source

TRANSPORTATION

Hubby wants there because it is near to his office in Alabang and also to my way going to work in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.

Since we dont have a car now because its not our priority now (maybe we will consider having one after 3 to 4 years, we'll see...) Transportation in our chosen subdivision is also good, i mean when you go outside the main road, there are lots of van, jeepneys and buses. And what i like most is were near ATC and SnR.. :)

source

 

VALUE / PRICE

We all know that owning a property is very expensive nowadays thats why most families are still renting because they cant afford to own one. In our case, we tried renting because of the plan of re-constructing my parents-in-laws house but we decided to buy our own house kaya hindi n lang gagalawin yung house nila.

Yesterday, i was on the shop of my uncle and my cousin said "Naks, ang mahal naman ng bahay mo.. Grabe, 2.7M". That is his words. Ang nasabi ko n lang is "Ganun talaga, wala ng mura ngaun" . See? wala na talagang mura ngaun. PhP 2,736,000 plus the downpayment of P367,000 that we made last January, it would sum up a total of PhP 3,103,000 excluding gate and furnitures. Kaloka dba?

What we did is hubby availed of Pag-ibig housing loan amounting to 1M and the rest is cash. Im targetting of paying the Pagibig housing loan in 15 years..**cross-finger** Kaya as for now, purita mirasol kami.. huhu..

Wala bang gustong mag-donate jan? You can send it to my BDO Peso or Dollar account. Just tell me if you want to give.. hehe

Im happy! Proud of hubby and myself for acquiring property from our own money... Fruits of Labor ",)

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Proposed Floor Plan

Last week, i received the proposed floor plan from the developer...Here it is:

Initially, 2 bedrooms are ok but with the plan of having another kid, we decided to change it to 3 bedrooms. I will send the floor plan to my uncle whose Engineer so he can take a look and ask his colleagues for a new design of house.

i look for some designs in the internet and found this:

I like the facade of this house. Taken from Sulit.com...

Hubby liked the idea of having a balcony linking to master's bedroom. As you can see from the pics, its almost the same design, having balcony and car garage under is what hubby prefers...

I think this house is from Carmona Estates or Lancaster...

This is the floor plan of one of the pictures..

I copied this pictures from Sulit.com so i can show it to my uncle and give him the idea of what we want. This coming February will be the start of the construction of our future abode...

Nervous with the upcoming expenses but excited for our own house and lot :)

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H.A.P.P.Y

HAPPY.. It's so nice to be HAPPY!!!

Photo stolen here.

HOUSE VERY SOON!

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Future Abode

Every couple is dreaming of their own house and i have to admit that i am one of them but since my husband was the youngest and the only boy, its a decision on both part that were going to stay at my in-laws house.  I was scared at first because what i heard from others is that its so hard to live with in-laws but i proved them wrong because i was thankful and happy that i have the kind, generous and lovable parents-in-law. For almost 12 years of being with my husband, i never felt that i was taken for granted and they also treated me as one of their own.

Last month, i learned that my parents-in-law decided to renovate the house. From the 200++ square meter house and lot, they decided to divide it to three and build a house for each of their children. It means that we are going to have our own house. *Yey*

I asked my civil engineer cousin and he told me that if a 200+ square meter will be divided into three, say its 250 sq. mtr divide to 3, each of us will be having a 83 sq. meter house and lot. Wow, its not that small because according to them, those developer that are selling townhouses has a lot of at least 50-60 sq. mtrs only. I am so happy with the news. I can design my own house, invest on furnitures etc.. the only problem is i dont know how to cook.

As i was looking on the net,  a 70 square meter lot area can have a 3 bedrooms.. I am so excited while i was looking at the designs of the house. No wonder our present house has a 5 bedrooms, ngaun ko lang nalaman na malaki pla yung lot area nmen.

I tried looking at Camella site and i want to share what i found:

This Amethyst design house and lot from Camella has a floor area of 50. sq. mtr and a lot area of 76 sq. meters.

Now that the decision has been made, we need to look for an apartment or house for rent that we can live in for the meantime. I dont know how long will it take to build the house, whats important is we are going to have our own house.

Hubby and I started to look for a house to be our home in the next few months. We want to rent a house or an apartment within the vicinity only because were thinking of our daughter who goes to school everyday.

Do you know any house for rent? I prefer a 1 or 2 bedroom only. I think its enough for the 3 of us plus a maid.

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Genuine South Sea Pearls

Since my cousin resigned from his work, he concentrated on his business: event coordination, jewelry business and now negotiating with Technomarine Hongkong so he can distribute or sell here in the Philippines.

I am proud to be part of his jewelry business. We are selling Genuine South Sea Pearls, Gold and diamonds. And this makes me busy this past few days, meeting some people because of the pearls. South Sea Pearls are the saleable items from us because were selling it cheaper from others. We know how to determine if the pearl is fake or genuine.

Here are some samples of what we are selling:

Earrings - Stud earrings are available in different color : white, champagne, bluish-white, black, charcoal black etc. Price depends on the size of the pearls.

Stud earrings

14mm size South sea pearls in chanel design

Drop design with 3 real diamonds

loop design with 10mm size South sea pearls

Necklace with 2 white south sea pearls

Necklace with 2 different pearls (champagne and bluish-white)

Set Pearls (this is mine, its just a sample hehe)

I thought to myself before that i will not go back into sales because all my life im into selling business/company. With my current job, im not selling anything and im happy about it but selling business always come my way. I love jewelries and when my cousin thought of selling jewelry, i immediately grab the opportunity because sales is my forte and at the sametime i love jewelries.

And now im back to sales...

I am going to have full-time business with jewelries (with my cousins partnership), continue our small lending business (with my officemate partnership, and soon will put-up our own lending company....haha...) and my online business selling branded and authentic goods. Well im not resigning from work because im not stressed with my position, its just that i need to divide my time with my family and business.

Sorry peeps im not able to update my blog, facebook and multiply.

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MoneySense - a guide to investing

After eating at Brooklyn Pizza, we drop by at National Bookstore to look for something to read and i saw this magazine on the shelf. Im a beginner on investing and i always read any book or articles online about investments. Like what ive said on my previous post, i started investing last year and were planning to invest again this year. I want to try investing on stocks thats why im on the research stage on the flow of stock investing.

It is a high-risk investment so before you go into it, better searched and understand the risk involved here.

MoneySense magazine is really informative, i only read the first few pages and it really helps.

If you plan to invest dont forget to read and read until you understand the flow and risk of investment. There are so many articles online and there are also lots of book about it.. It will really help you a lot..

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...talk about dreams and future...

When im on my way to office, i saw the New Suzuki Celerio on the road and i was like "OMG! i want to have that car!" but then again its just a dream for me now..

Talk about dreams and future...

Ever since I got married, my life has totally changed, partying with friends has stopped, travelling with relatives and friends lessen and most of all is shopping, i have to think of being a practical married woman. It's not that easy to adjust especially if your doing things like that since youre a kid, i know that hubby feels the same way but after some time, we realize that as a married couple, we have to think and decide as one for our family and for our future. All married couples or every individual has their own dreams and i/we have a lot actually. 

HOUSE AND LOT

Every married couple is dreaming of their own house and lot and i am one of them. I also think of buying a condo unit as an investment. Hehe. Of course, i want to have my own place, that is, if we were only blessed with financial wealth. With this case, im the only one dreaming of having our own place because hubby told me not to think of it because he has their hiouse, he's the youngest of three and the only boy and he assume that their house that his parents built will become his own in the future. I dont want to rely on that because even if he is the only boy, its still the decision of his parents on where to give the property.

INVESTMENTS, SAVINGS and INSURANCE

Investment. I started having investment last year and now i am contemplating on where to get another one. There are lots of offers from insurance companies and banks and im still reviewing each plan of every company. Im still on the process of learning the flow of investments and were planning to put another one on my hubby's name before 2010 ends. **cross-finger**

Savings. This is one important thing if youre talking about building a family. Before we got married, hubby and I started our savings and we made sure that it will grow. When i gave birth, we put up a computer shop business and i became a stay-at-home-wife/mom but after 2 years we got bored and decided to sell the shop. Proceeds of the shop goes to our savings and now that we are working, we make sure that our savings will grow from time to time. We've been married for 4 years and our plans happen the way we want it.

Insurance. When i got my first job (i was 22 years old), first thing that i did was to get a life insurance and 2 more years, the insurance im paying will be fully-paid (yipee!). Thanks to my tita for encouraging me to get one. After my life insurance, we plan of getting another one and this time for hubby or maybe pension plan. Let's see.

CAR

Nowadays, its like every household has their own vehicle. My parents and sister-in-law's also has their own vehicle. In our case, we dont have one because of two reasons:

First and major reason is my hubby don't want to drive. He's comfortable of being a passenger. His license got expired 3 years ago and he never renewed it because of the same reason. He always told me that we dont need a new one because we can use my in-laws van if we want to and my father-in-law is so kind that if we need to go somewhere, he always drive for us. If you'll ask me, i study driving when i was in college but i never learned because i am scared of driving and i really got nervous. Its not my thing...pang-shopping lang talaga ko! haha

Second is we want to retire early. We can buy and afford a new car anytime if we want to but the thing is we want to secure our future first. We want to take advantage of our age, i want to save and invest as early as now so we can achieve more in the future. Hubby and I talk sometimes on when to buy our own car and were planning of 3 more years to save then we will buy our own car. Keeping my hopes up **cross-finger**.

If we were going to buy our own car, i only have 2 brands in my mind, Nissan and Suzuki. Most of our family carry the Nissan brand because my Uncle was one of the manager of Nissan before and they take advantage of the discounts and perks and what we love about the nissan is the aircon because its really cool. With the suzuki, i like it because its from Japan and we all know that japan-made is proven of quality.

Our future is our priority right now aside from the fact that we are saving for our daughter's schooling thats why we save as much as we can but we make sure that we also enjoy and indulge on some luxuries like travelling and buying what we want. Right now, i only think of two words: SAVE and ENJOY :)

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Easel n Canvas Art Center

Im here at the office doing nothing so im thinking of blogging but i cant think of any topic. Since im still waiting for the pictures with our family's christmas party. I decided to promote my cousins business. I researched online about their company and found some information. I want to share this so if you need their service you can email them or text me..

Here's their company profile:

Company description:


Established in 1999, Easel and Canvas has built a credible reputation as a creative print and design company which successfully target both business and leisure markets.

Located on A. Regidor St. Sta. Cruz, Laguna, we became a ideal 'drop-in' print/copy center that caters for all students at discount prices.

One of the most important aspects of promoting/advertising any product is the customer initial impression. This is done through the medium of design. Our in-house graphic department will never fail to exhibit your product or company's full potential and value, whether it's a simple logo or a company billboard and signage.

In addition to design, we also offer indoor/outdoor printing facilities which characteristically reflect our professional approach to good quality production.

Indoor/Outdoor Signage, Posters, Banners, Billboards, Decals, Vehicle Sticker, Corporate Giveaways (Button pins, Keychains, Mugs, and T-shirt) all compliment the varied capabilities of our graphics facility.

At Easel and Canvas, it is our mission to provide the most friendly service, great value for money and a product quality that is second to none.
 
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I witness how they've started way back 1999 and now they have 2 branches of their business. Recently they acquire 2 more machines for their printing business and i am happy for them because the business was really successful. Also i want to thank them because if we need something like designs for tshirts, invitations, tarpaulins and designs for give-aways, they give it to us for free.

Truly they have brilliant ideas.. Kudos to both of you Ate janiz and Kuya Rommel!

Easel n' Canvas
Address: A. Regidor Street, Sta. Cruz Laguna 4009
Contact Person: Janice or Rommel Reyes
Email: encartcenter@gmail.com
 

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