Personal Finance for the Self-Employed: Brighter Life Finance PlanningSeries

Financial Planning Series by Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf together with Sunlife Financial

Next sessions are scheduled as follows

September 12 - Money & Career 

7 pm - 9 pm, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Burgos Circle 

September 21 - Money Matter for Mommies

10 am - 12 nn, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Net Lima

September 28 - Marriage & Money 

10 am - 12 nn, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Net Lima 

All sessions are held in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.  You can register for this FREE Seminar via brighterlife.eventbrite.com

Personal Finance for the Self-Employed

I am an advocate of personal finance because I believe that we need all the help that we can get about managing our money. Just as we were helped and taught how to earn money, it is also fitting that we get help and learn how to manage our money.

If you are not convinced then asked yourself this question: between keeping and earning money, which one is easier? Earning requires you work for someone else and that someone will pay you. Action from two individual is involved. Keeping money requires action only from you. Boom!

Keeping money is easier than earning it right? Yes or Yes?

So just like you, I am still learning about personal finance. Pouring myself on books and blogs. When I received an email from Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf about a free personal finance seminar, I immediately signed up. I also forced my wife to sign-up. Only after signing up did I realize that seminar title is “Personal Finance for the Self-Employed”

Too late to back down!

While being self-employed is one of my future goals, I am someone who will not fall under that category just yet. I just made a mental note to pretend to be self-employed in case someone asks during the seminar. I pictured attending a seminar with rich business owners with only me and wife there who are employees.

The Seminar

We live near Bonifacio Global City so we got in the venue thirty minutes before the scheduled seminar. The location of Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf 26th Bistro is easy to find and a parking lot is just across the cafe. Upon entering, we got ourselves registered and chose a table with a good view of the projector.

I was planning to order a brewed coffee and a bagel while waiting for the seminar to start when one of the ushers told me that they are serving breakfast. I was not really hungry that time but who says no to a free breakfast. (Side Note: At that point, I was worried that the sponsor might do a hard selling at the end of the seminar but I was glad they didn’t. We attended a hotel opening in Boracay before with a free lunch but the organizers were rude. They made a hard sell leaving us disgusted with the brand Astoria until now. I cringe just hearing the name.)

Going back to the seminar, it was a really good experience hearing from Mr. Randell Tiongson himself. I knew him on his blog and I occasionally see people I am following in twitter tweet about him. He is one of the directors of the Registered Financial Planner Institute Philippines and a strong advocate of financial education for OFWs.

He is a good speaker peppering his speech with jokes, stories and anecdotes. He made the topic very interesting though in reality personal finance is really a boring topic. My wife already made a post in her blog about her take in the seminar which you may want to read here

My TakeAways

Applying Knowledge

“Most people say they know about personal finance but if you take a look at their bank account, it says otherwise” This statement hit a nerve. I am totally guilty. This hurt since I am an accountant. I encountered budgeting way back in college and dealt with it extensively in the first few years of my ten year career. Sadly though, while I have my personal budget, reviewing it regularly and acting upon unnecessary expenses is an activity I usually miss.

Money and Life

“Money is not important in life. However, important things are life requires money”

How does this statement come across to you? For me it is a reminder to balance everything out. We all work in order to provide for our family. We need money to bring food to the dining table, send kids to school and shelter. However, we should always remind ourselves that our family also needs us. We should not let our family define us as provider and only that. We are more than that.

This reminds me of a quote from the book “The Secret of Millionaire’s Mind by T. Harv Eker “Money is extremely important in the areas in which it works and extremely unimportant in the areas in which it doesn’t.

Free Gift Certificates!

Hahaha. I now appear as a cheapskate but we were also given P100 gift certificate. Free breakfast, free coffee, free seminar and free gift certificate, how can I say something wrong about the seminar? There’s really none and the people from Sunlife did not hold people for a sales talk after the seminar. While I and my wife stayed a little bit because we wanted to ask about variable life insurance, some other guests left immediately after the seminar.


Now, if you have the time, I suggest you sign-up in one of their seminars. You will learn a lot. If you don’t have the time, then I suggest go check Sunlife’s Brighter Life website. It is fun learning and reading. Lastly, I especially liked one of their video ads. I felt like it was custom made just for my wife



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Sharing some pics during the seminar

What's in it for me?

Hi! How are you doing?

I've been busy lately helping my wife get our household compliant with the Kasambahay Law. Funny thing because i was a compliance officer before. I spend my day reviewing people activities and i am that person who points out that a department is non-compliant with a policy or a regulation. I was that guy who tells you that you need to comply. Now, my wife is the compliance officer in the house and she tells me we need to get this done for us (the household) to be compliant.

Really weird to be that someone who has to take action to be compliant. I am used to be on the other side of the coin. Someone who informs people about non-compliance rather being that someone who is taking action to be compliant.

Nevertheless, this is a good feeling. To take action. Taking action always bring good feelings.

Anyhow, do drop by at my wife's blog here if you want to learn more about the Kasamabahay Law and how to get your household compliant.

Book Series

Next is the book series. One of my goals for the year is to complete reading 12 books. I am on track. (Thankfully!) I am reposting the links below in case you want to read my posts before buying the books and reading them yourself.

1.       The Happiness Project

2.       The Secrets of the Millionaire Mind

3.       The Winning Attitude

4.       How to Work a Room

5.       The Coffee House Investor

6.       Eat That Frog!

7.       Awaken the Giant Within

8.       Fish! Omnibus

Going back to the Kasambahay law, my wife has been pushing me to be compliant. She’s been telling me about the Kasambahay law in more detail. Before, the only thing I knew about it was employers have to pay and contribute SSS, PhilHealth and PAG-IBIG to our househelp. Other than that, I know nothing else.

She’s becoming like my mom. Even before the kasambahay law was passed into a bill, my mom has been telling me to enroll our househelps in all of these government institutions. She even volunteered to pay for the contributions like what she is doing for my sister’s kasambahay. Sadly though, I never found time to help them register until recently.

I acted not because my wife nor my mother nagged told me but more so because I got to understand the importance of being compliant and helping the people who help maintain my family.

Since lianne and I both work, my family will not really progressed without our kasambahays. They take care of our kids while we are away and maintain the cleanliness of our house. Sure, they are being paid for that but they are both responsible and show genuine interest in the well-being of our kids. These two are something not included in the monetary benefit that they are getting.

Going back to taking action, my wife got me to act on it not because she wants it done but because she was able to phrase the need to act using my point of view.

And that is one of the few pointers I got from reading the book “How to win Friends and Influence People”.  All of us are interested in our own individual desires. Admit it or not but most people will act if the action will give them what they desire.  

“What’s in it for me?” will be the ever present question for everyone before someone will act on something. And that’s how you will influence people. Talk them in their point of view.

This pointer is very relevant to me being an auditor and being one of the change agents in the company. Most of the time, I talk to people about gaps or errors in the processes that requires them to do something about it. I realized that I am most effective when I share my findings and observations to them by telling them what’s in it for them if they do what I am suggesting them they do.

And that’s my quick post about my book for the month of September. I am about quarter done with the book and I am loving all the reminders and the nuggets of wisdom I am picking.

 How about you? What are you doing this month of September? Whatever it is, just do it and don’t tell me that “Wake me up when September ends” quote that’s been trending since the beginning of the month.

Fish! Omnibus

August is not yet over but i am done with my August book! Yey!

The book for the month is Fish Omnibus by Stephen C. Lundin, Harry Paul and John Christensen. This book is actually three books in one. The original Fish! followed by its sequels Fish Tales and Fish Sticks.

The book Fish! introduces the Fish! Philosophy while Fish Tales is about sample stories applying Fish! Philosophy. The last book is how to continue applying the Fish! Philosophy.

After reading several self-help books for the year, the stories starts to become a touchy-feelly Rah! Rah! Rah! kind of a thing. You know the idea. Same feeling you get when you join a team building and you get all hyped up a few days after attending it. Nevertheless, the first book is a good read. It talks about how to make work a fun thing to do.

Fish Philosophy

Here are the four principles as defined in the book

Be There: When people need you, they need all of you. Setting aside distractions and judgments to be mentally and emotionally present is a sign of respect. It improves communication and strengthens relationships.

Play: You can be serious about your work without taking yourself so seriously. Play is a mindset more than a specific activity. It allows you to throw yourself with enthusiasm and creativity into whatever you are doing, in a way that is natural, not forced. "Playing” with ideas helps you find solutions to everyday challenges.

Make Their Day: Simple gestures of thoughtfulness, thanks and recognition make people feel appreciated and valued. When you make someone else feel good, you feel good too.

Choose Your Attitude: To actually choose how you respond to life, not just react, you must be intentional. When you get up, decide who you want to "be" today. Moment-to-moment awareness is key. Ask yourself throughout the day, "What is my attitude right now? Is it helping the people who depend on me? Is it helping me to be most effective?"

All the principles are true and doable. Among the principles, i want to work on Make Their Day! attitude. Looking back on my current activity, i have not put so much effort in attending to my clients that they will be in a position to say that i made their day. Sure, i deliver a quality work. However, i need to push more in the level of delivering beyond expectations.

So that's it. This will be a short post as the book is short as well. Technically, i am done with my September and October book since the book is really 3 in 1. Nevertheless, i want to read more so will search for books for the Ber months.

"Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out" - Anonymous

Eat that Frog! Quotes

I love quotes! I love the feeling they generate especially the good ones. 

Yeah! I know all of us relate to this comic

Nevertheless, here i am sharing the quotable quotes i got from the book

One of the simplest and yet most powerful ways to get yourself started is to repeat the words, "Do it now! Do it now! Do it now! over and over to yourself

You concentrate on the things you can do right now to get the results you want and achieve the goals you desire

“Do not wait; the time will never be ‘just right.’ Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along”

You take action rather than talking continually about what you are going to do.

It is not what happens to you but the way that you interpret the things that are happening to you that determines how you feel.

Optimists

• First, optimists look for the good in every situation.
• Second, optimists always seek the valuable lesson in every setback or difficulty.
• Third, optimists always look for the solution to every problem.

Successful people continually put the pressure on themselves to perform at high levels. Unsuccessful people have to be instructed and supervised and pressured by others.

The first requisite for success is to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem incessantly without growing weary.

One of the great ways for you to overcome procrastination is by working as though you only had one day to get all your most important jobs done before you left for a month or went on vacation.

A great life, a great career is built by performing one task at a time…

…"By the yard it's hard; but inch by inch, anything's a cinch!"

One of your great responsibilities in life is for you to decide what it is that you really love to do and then to throw your whole heart into doing that special thing very, very well.

…Do your work. Not just your work and no more, but a little more for the lavishings sake – that little more that is worth all the rest.”

The sad fact is that "almost done" probably meant "not yet started."

Time and Money

One of the profound nugget of wisdom I heard from my professor back in graduate school "whoever has the budget is the priority". He is talking about corporate world on the area of how management allocates the company's resources to meet its goals and objectives. He adds that wherever the resources goes, thatnis the company's priority without the need of words. A good example is on training. Even if a manager consistentlty talks about how he values the importance of training and development for his employees yet no budget is being made for this expenditure, then it is all crap.

This time, I wanted to extend the concept in our daily life. In the concept of time. All of us are in equal footing. All of us are given 24 hours in a given day. No distinction. Whether you are rich or you are poor, we all have 24 hours to spend in a day.

Now, go back and see where you are spending your time. If you constantly say you will get healthy, how much time did you spend yesterday in ways that will make you healthy? If not much then I am telling you that getting healthy was not your priority. If you say, getting this project in front of you is your topmost priority but you end up spending more time updating your facebook status or checking your twitter timeline then that project was never really your priority.

This is also true for projects that require collaboration. For a month of so, I had some trouble finding a common time for several executives to be in the same room at yhe same time to address an issue that on my end is a priority. I struggled coz every now and then, one of them will have an excuse about going to another important meeting. That's when i realized that while it is a priority on my end, itnever was on their end. So i have to find something that will make the issue a priority on their plate. Make them realize that this tadpole is a priority. And i did. I escalated and true enough, i was able to find a common time and get them to discuss and plan an action.

I want to close this by asking you to go back and see where you are spending your time. I am now making this a habit in addition to reviewing where my money goes. What do you think?

Your time is your life. Period. How you spend it ends up being what your life is.

Decisions

Are you fond of making decisions? I was not.

The beginning of our life was never our decision. Somebody has to make that decisions for us. Our parents. I am into the impression that we are not designed to decide.

No one was born with decision making skill. It is something learned. As we grow up and gain knowledge, we start learning how to make decisions.

I spent my formative years in a seminary where everything is structured. We have time for everything. There is a set time for wakingup. Time to hear mass. Time for prayer. Time for eating. Time for resting. From an outside perspective, it was not freedom. At that time, i also felt it restrictive. Only after getting out that i realized how much  i miss that structured organized life.

On the book awaken the giant within by Anthony Robbins, the author encourages us to make more decisions to master the skill of decision making. And since i am also still on my mental diet, this was an exciting but challenging task for me.

If you are following me in facebook, you know that I had some problems with my son not wanting to go to school. We solved it by having a heart to heart talk to him and givng him structure. A step by step schedule from the waking up to getting to school. It worked! It was easier for him to follow that structure and we are all happy. Somehow, i inferred that until we master the skill of making decisions, we always long for someone making the decisions for us.

It was effective as long as the steps are followed. Hoever, it is a team effort. Part of the step is his mom giving him a bath. It was a non-negotiable for my son. If mommy is not giving him a bath then it is a no school day for him. The routine worked for awhile but it is not fail proof. More often than not, my wife has to render long hours of officework and she made the decision to wait for my 1pm - 10pm shift before going home rather than taking the long tiring commute.

At times, she really need to catch more sleep since our second son cries for milk at dawn. During that times, she is unable to wake up early. She will get cranky if she is forced to wake up. And if she does not wake up and does not help my son,  He too gets cranky and decides not to go to school. I will get frustrated too. I will feel bad. I am dissappointed with my wife and with my son. i will give in to the fact that my son ends up not going to school yet the feeling of frustration will haunt for me for the rest of the day.

Then came the mental diet. The challenge is to be positive all the time and to focus on the solutions. It is a very difficult but it somehow helps me to cope up. I have been waking up early since Tuesday despite my midshift schedule to be in LTO by 8 am. I have to work on renewing our car's registration and transferring the car title under my wife's name. 

I would not go into detail how it went but for sure you know the feeling of transacting with a government institutuion. Again, it helped that i am forcing myself to think positivie.

Now, going back to my son. His mom has to work longer hours this week. You know the drill. She needs to recharge and it would not be nice forcing her to wake up early. I changed my perspective and instead of nagging her and nagging my son, i decided to just go through the process as calmly as i can.

While his mom did not give him a bath, i diverted my son's attention into talking about our plans for the weekend and talking about school. It worked from tuesday to thursday but was not so effective today. What changed? My decision.

He woke up as scheduled. Earlier in fact. He's up 6:30. For the past three days, i forced myself to talk to him while he eat and prepare. Today,  i just let him be. And that was a bad decision on my part. By 7:30 i can hear his wailing and the mood has changed. My son is cranky and does not want to go to school anymore. His pattern was interrupted. Old me would immediately put the blame to my wife but this time i decided to take control. I  ignored the negative feeling knowing that what i focus on expands. One cry will ruin my day and it is unfair to myself. Took a heavy sigh and tried the whispering technique. Whispered the Saturday plan to my son and it worked. Told him that Saturday is a transportation day. (I'm visitng my dentist tomorrow and i am planning to commute.) He stopped  crying. I am sure he got excited about the prospect of riding the jeepney, bus tricycle and mrt all on the same day. 

I have completed my seventh book and would like to share pointers about decison making.

1 Harness the power of decidion making.

2 Remember the true power of making decisions

3 Realize that the hardest step in achieving anything is making a true commitment - a true decision

4 Make decisions often

5 Learn from your decisions

6 Stay committed to your decisions but stay flexible in your approach

7 Enjoy making decisions

Power of making decisions

If you look and assess oyour emotions, events and those that stresses you, do realize that it all happens because you made a decision.  An approaching deadline might be stressing you now and looking back, it might be stressing you now because you made a decision back then to procrastinate on it.

You might be feeling dissappointed  right now because the result you are expecting is not happening. Someone you expect to do something failed to deliver results. The author emphasizes that whatever happens, we have a control. We decide. We decide whether these events or things will stress us or not. We decide whether we are going to on panic mode or just calmly tackle the task at hand with the best of our abilities given the limited time. Awareness to decision making helps us remind ourselves that we are in control. It may be true that we do not control how people around us will act or the events that will happen but at the end of the day, we are in control of how we are going to react.

Make decisions often.

This is a learning for me. I hate decision making. Thismust be the reason why i hate grocery shopping. It entails a lot of decision making. :D Seriosuly though, i am one of those who rants "why do i have to make all these decisions" when i am so busy and bombarded by smaller tasks.

The author suggest to master the skill of decision making. Not just letting it flow but conscious decision making. How many of us make a decision just for the sake of making a decision? Cge yan na lang is a scary decision making skill. Take charge! That is what the author suggests.

Lastly, enjoy the processs of decision making. It is one of the greatest gift we have. Freedom to decide. Use it.

"Decide to build your own dreams or others will hire you to build theirs"

Mental Diet Challenge

Have you heard about the 10-Day Mental Diet? I am currently on my 7^th book and came across this topic. “A mental diet is an opportunity to eliminate the negative and destructive patterns of thinking and feeling that inevitably come from living life in an emotionally reactionary and mentally undisciplined fashion”  . In my understanding, the idea of mental diet is to take control of our thoughts focusing on positive thoughts and solutions on our problems instead of thinking about the problem and worrying. I am starting this mental diet today and I invite you to join me. This is especially for those who struggles sticking to the usual diet (like me!)

Here is the challenge as written down in Anthony Robbin’s Awaken the Giant Within Book

For the next ten days, beginning immediately, commit to taking full control of all your mental and emotional faculties by deciding right now that you will not indulge in or dwell on any unresourceful thoughts or emotions for ten consecutive days.

Rules of the Game

Rule 1. In the next ten consecutive days, refuse to dwell on any unresourceful thoughts or feelings. Refuse to indulge in any disempowering questions or devitalizing vocabulary or metaphors.

Rule 2. When you catch yourself beginning to focus on the negative – and you certainly will – you are to immediately use the techniques you’ve learned to redirect your focus toward a better emotional state. Specifically, use the Problem-Solving Questions as your first line of attack; for example: "What's great about this? What's not perfect yet?," you're presupposing that things will be perfect. This will change your state while you identify what needs to be changed.

In addition, set yourself up for success each morning for the next ten days by asking yourself the Morning Power Questions. You can do them before you get out of bed or while you're in the shower, but make sure you do them right away. This will focus you in the direction of establishing empowering mental and emotional patterns each day as you awake. In the evening, use the Evening Power Questions, or any questions you believe will put you in a great state before you drop off to sleep.

Rule 3. For the next ten consecutive days, make certain that your whole focus in life is on solutions and not on problems. The minute you see a possible challenge, immediately focus on what the solution could be.

Rule 4. If you backslide, that is, if you catch yourself indulging in or dwelling on an unresourceful thought or feeling - don't beat yourself up. There's no problem with this as long as you change immediately. However, if you continue to dwell on unresourceful thoughts or feelings for any measurable length of time, you must wait until the following morning and start the ten days over. The goal of this program is ten consecutive days without holding or dwelling on a negative thought. This starting-over process must happen no matter how many days in a row you've already accomplished the task

I am beginning this diet today after completing the Morning Power Questions.  Do share your success story once you complete the ten day challenge.