Guide to Financial Investing

Photo credit: https://pixabay.com "You become what you repeatedly do." Do you exercise regular and eat healthy foods daily? You become a healthy person. We become what we repeatedly do. Let's now apply this in our topic.. You don't get overweight overnight. You don't eat a gallon of ice cream tonight and then get obese tomorrow. You get obese by eating lots of ice cream over a period of time. Same thing if you want to get rich, you don't get rich overnight. Unless you do illegal thing or win in a lottery. You get rich by doing a rich man habits, you save, you invest, you avoid bad debts.You study how money works. Success doesn't happen overnight it happens bit by bit. If you do the right things consistently over time.

Photo credit: https://pixabay.com Do you know that your money loses its purchasing power? How much? Around 7 percent a year. How? Because of inflation. Inflation is the reason why a bottle of an 8oz coke is now P8 compared to its price P4 a bottle years ago. When you put your hard earned money in the bank's savings account they'll give you 2% interest or put it in a time deposit and they'll give you an 3-5% interest. Still below the 7% inflation. And when you'll withdraw your money savings you wont get it full 100% because of tax deductions.That's the reason saving won't make you rich. Why? Because the banks interest is not enough to fight the inflation. Savings is the foundation of wealth. But, savings is not enough. What should you do now? 1. You can put your money in mutual funds (average 12% interest a year) or the stock market where your money can earn an average of 12% and up interest a year. 2. Another is you need to do is to learn...

Have you met a “Know-It-All”?  I met one the other day. He said he was a businessman for 14 years.  Photo credit: https://pixabay.com But through our 15-minute conversation, I learned that his business was going through hard times.  I asked him, “Do you have a business mentor?” He didn’t even know what the word meant.  So I explained to him, “You need to look for a businessman who is 20 times more successful than you are in your particular business.”  His next statement floored me. He said, “There’s really nothing else I need to know. I’ve been doing this business for 14 years now. It’s just a bad economy, that’s all. That’s why we’re going through a rough time.”  I didn’t tell him what I learned from MY mentors: That great businesses are like surfers who ride whatever economic wave comes to them. The bigger the wave, the higher the surfer goes!  Great businesses can become more profitable during recessions.  I...

My friend Larry is a speaker for corporate seminars. Many years ago, He earned P5,000 for every seminar he gave. Over time, He became more well known. His network expanded and his skills improved. Today, he earns P25,000 per seminar. Pretty good, right?  Photo credit: https://pixabay.com In a month, he can give eight seminars. That’s P200,000 a month. Minus taxes of 30 percent, that’s P140,000. Minus the salary of his full-time secretary and part-time accountant, plus other office expenses, his take home pay is P110,000. Still very nice. But last month, He visited me and asked me how he can earn more. “How much more?” I asked my friend. “I want to earn P500,000 a month,” he said. “That’s a pretty big leap,” I chuckled. “I’ve got big dreams,” he said, “because I’ve been listening to your talks. I really want to give big to God.  I’m sure you’ve thought of some ways you can earn more,” I said. “Can you tell me your ideas?” “Well, I ...

Because salesman don’t have a very good image. Photo credit: https://pixabay.com When you say “salesmen” to people, their minds automatically pull out other words such as “sleazy” and “pushy” and “sneaky” and “devious” and “lying”. Which is sad. Because selling is a wonderful, honorable, and beautiful service you give to humanity. Here’s the truth: People don’t know what to buy. People NEED someone more knowledgeable to guide them on what to buy. Once upon a time, I used to be ashamed of selling. Every time I sell, I feel awful. I’d cringe, because asking money from people is the last thing I want to do on earth. “Gosh, what will people think of me? I’m a money-grabber!” I want to be honest with you. I still struggle with those thoughts once in awhile. But whenever these feelings of shame come over me, I ask myself the question, “Bo, how much do you love these people?” That question hits me like a slap on my face. It stings. It jolts me. I answer,...

Photo credit: https://pixabay.com Many of us have experienced having low salary or earning minimum wage as employees at a certain point in our career. We looked for “sidelines” to augment our income to help pay the bills.  Some sold beauty products or apparel to officemates on a hulugan (installment) payment mode. Others sold cold cuts or merienda to co-workers on a “sa sweldo mo na bayaran” (pay on salary date) agreement. I’m pretty sure each of you has a lot of good stories to tell and experiences to share.  But since many Filipinos have become more internet and social media-savvy, it’s about time to look for more sidelines and work-from-home rakets. Here are the new hit rakets that you can try on weekends or during your free time (not during your official working hours please).  1. Freelance Work  The Philippines has been on top of the call center and BPO industries globally in the past few years. If you have an experience as a call center age...

Once upon a time, I was an employee. My first salary was P800 a month. As the years went by, it continued to grow. From P1000 to P3000 to P8000 to P20,000… It kept growing and growing and growing. I was happy. But for some reason, it was never enough! It was crazy. Don’t get me wrong. My salary was enough for my basic needs. We ate three meals a day (many times five!), had clothes to wear, and was able to pay for our Meralco and water bills. With my salary, I was able to bring out my wife on our weekly dates. You may not think that Jollibee is romantic, but that’s what I could afford, so that’s where we went.  Photo credit: https://pixabay.com And where we went was romantic! Yes, we could go to the movie houses once in awhile, but more likely, we rented VCDs at P15 per movie and watched it at home we would cook popcorn for the kids. We were happy. We were very happy. We may not have been rich, but we were okay.  But I still had pain inside me. What caused my pain...