Contentment is being satisfied with what you have

Contentment is not getting what you have but being satisfied with what you have

Do you own a laptop? I have one and uses it to write on this blog and that laptop has story about contentment.

You see, when i started taking up my MBA studies, i realized that i will need to own one. My company issued me a laptop but i felt that bringing it at school will not be a good idea so i planned on purchasing my own. My criteria was simple. I need a laptop that has a word processor and powerpoint program. I googled and browsed laptops and i end up owning a macbook. I know that purchase was not well thought of. I was in Las Vegas at that time and tax rates were cheaper compared to California. I bought one for the mere reason of tax savings forgetting that my main consideration was the word processor and powerpoint program.

The story did not end there but rather begins from that purchase. You know how more expensive macbook is compared to other laptops. So along with the expensive laptop, my desire to purchase accessories followed suit. I bought a keyboard protector and a screenshield. My reasoning was since i bought an expensive laptop i might as well protect it. After buying the keyboard protector and screenshield, i realized i will need a laptop bag. So i bought one. Then when i used my macbook, i realized how good the pictures organizing program and i thought i would need a camera so that i can take pictures and maximize the laptop.  Then one day, i realized i have bought too much to fulfill a single need: to have a word processor and powerpoint program.

The lesson is most often we have this want and to justify the purchase, we add our needs to this want. We add our wants to our needs to justify and make it appear that we are making a wise decision. We are never contented to what we have. Most of the time, we want this thing that we think of this thing too much. So much that it has become an internal struggle whether to purchase that item or not. Then the rationalization comes in saying that we need to purchase that item because we have been working so hard and we need to reward ourselves. Then once we get that item, we get tired. Yes, we'll be happy and satisfied days or weeks after the purchase but soon after we'll have another want to satisfy. The cycle never ends unless we decide to.

Looking back, i still have the macbook but have stopped deciding over this macbook. I no longer buy accessories. I've made a firm decision that i'll focus on my need and not on my wants. I try to observe the life of less crap less stress. If you are interested you might read this post about minimalism

Share Buy Back

Share Buy Back means the company is purchasing its own stock thus reducing the number of outstanding shares in the market. Reducing the outstanding shares results to higher earnings per share because earnings per share is computed by dividing net income over the number of shares outstanding.

What does this mean for the investors? Share buy back is a signaling technique by companies. This sends a message "our shares are worth more than the market values it".  Why? Because, if you take a look at it, the company is spending investor's money to purchase shares in the market. And before the company can do this, this has to be approved by the board of directors. Just to make it short, share buy back are authorized by current investors because they believe that the company is worth more than what the stocks are currently selling thus they are willing to buy it now while it is cheaper.

This has the same impact when CEO/CFO or any other top executive deals with the company stocks. If the CEO pitches to the investors how good the company is then you'll see in the SEC report that the CEO is dumping stocks then you'll have a second thought. The CEO must know something that's why he's unloading himself of the stocks. Because if not, why will he unload himself of the stocks if he knew the company will perform.

On the other hand, if CEO buys stocks in the market, this sends a signal to the public how confident the CEO is about the future performance of the company.

Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all time thing. You don't win once in a while, you don't do things right once in a while you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. - Vince Lombardi

3 Reasons to Start an Emergency Fund Before Saving for Retirement

From Yahoo Finance: Phil Taylor

Phil Taylor, On Monday October 25, 2010, 10:38 am ED

We talk a lot about saving for retirement and rightfully so. But many people get started with retirement savings without establishing a baseline of financial security for themselves: an emergency fund. A sound financial practice is to have 3 to 6 month's worth of living expenses in an easily accessible account to help you in case of an emergency. Here are three reasons to set up an emergency fund prior to investing for retirement.


1. You'll be ready when life happens. There are certain situations in life that require a larger amount of cash than the typical monthly budget allows, such as job loss, a major car or home repair, or a large out-of-pocket medical expense. As a way to self-insure for these instances, you need enough cash on hand to get you through the tough time.

2. You won't have to rely on credit. As we've seen during the recent credit crunch and housing crash, credit isn't always going to be available to tap for emergencies. It's better to have cash on hand. And even if you do have the credit, resorting to credit cards during a crisis could do even more harm. If you can't afford to pay off the balance by the end of the month, then you'll be forced to carry a balance and incur ridiculous interest charges. Plus, you might come close to maxing out your credit card limit, which could negatively affect your credit score. An emergency fund helps you avoid this situation all together.


3. You won't have to dip into retirement accounts. If you have the cash on hand, you won't need to dip into or borrow from the retirement savings you already have. Your retirement accounts are meant for your retirement. Pulling money from these accounts early to fund an emergency has several negative consequences. You'll be forced to realize any gain or loss that you're currently experiencing. If the market is down, you'll be pulling money out of the market at a bad time. When the market rises again, you'll miss those gains because you pulled the money out. If the retirement account was funded with tax-deferred dollars (as traditional 401(k)s and IRAs are), you will be required to pay taxes on that money. This can mean a big cash outlay right at the time you need every penny you can get. And you might even face a 10 percent early withdrawal penalty from the IRS if you can't prove that this withdrawal is for a qualifying hardship. Who wants to pay a penalty when they are scraping up dollars to fund an emergency situation?


Setting up an emergency fund is easy. Open a simple savings account. I like using an online savings account because they help you keep the funds separate from your other accounts and they even pay you a small percentage of interest on your balance. The typical advice is to have around 3 to 6 month's worth of expenses in a savings account. If you're more conservative or work in an unstable field, aim for more than that. Start saving every extra dollar you get into that fund until it's built up. Then you can switch back to worrying about retirement savings, knowing that your short-term needs will be met.

Be in Charge of Your Life and Your Goals

Not Making A Decision is a Decision

I heard this from one of my sales management professor. During that time, the class is deciding when to hold the next class session. He asked those interested to choose Friday to raise their hands and counted the number of hands raised. He then asked those who wanted to have it on Saturday and counted them again. As we were only given to either choose Friday or Saturday, he was surprised that his tally did not equal to the number of students. There are those who chose not to select Friday or Saturday thus his quote.


If we look at it, there's a big truth to his statement. We are the only one is responsible for our actions. No one else.
Those who were given a choice and did not respond allowed others to decide for them and unfortunately these people will choose what is beneficial for them and not what is beneficial to those who did not raise their hands.


I've read in one of the Sid Savara's blog

I am 100% responsible for my actions

* I am 100% responsible for my inaction
* I am 100% responsible for my distraction
* I am 100% responsible for my reactions
* I am 100% responsible for my proaction

Now, knowing that we are responsible for our actions and inactions, we should make a conscious efforts to act towards our goals. This means that whatever it is that you are going through today and if you think life sucks, change your mindset. Be responsible.

If Life throws you a lemon, you are given a choice. You can either do nothing or you can sulk and whine how miserable your life is or DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT and make a lemonade.

What do you think?

You Are The Something You’ve Been Waiting For (from SidSavara.com by Sid Savara)

"One of the illusions of life is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive hour.
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. 
No man has learned anything rightly, until he knows that every day is Doomsday."
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

For the article click here 

Of Aircons and Jackets

Don't think you're on the right road just because it's a well-beaten path.  ~Author Unknown

Our daily lives are guided by the majority because it is so easy to conform to the public.

Let me tell you a story. 

The climate here in the Philippines is humid and most offices rely on airconditioners to make workplaces cool. As it is humid, most people feel hot and tired from the commute so the first thing that they want once they got inside the office is turn the air conditioner on in full blast. In our office, people working on the day shift start coming in at 7am until 9am. And as people come in, they usually turn on the airconditioners in full blast to make the work area coller faster. This is of benefit especially for people who are just coming in from the hot temperature outside.

This system posts a problem, however, to the early people who come in. Imagine, you are one of those who arrived at 7am. By 8am or 7:30 am, your body would have adjusted to the cool room temperature and will be chilly by that time. But for those who are still coming in from 8am to 9am, they still feel that hot temperature. So what do people do? They start wearing jackets.

By lunch time, most of the table's conversation revolves around how cold it is in the work area and how hot it is in the pantry. The reason was because when people come into the office, it is so hot outside and they want to feel comfortable once they get inside the office. So most people will turn the aircon full blast. On the other hand, people only go to the pantry during lunch. and most often, they are so cold from the full blast aircon, they won't turn on the airconditioner in the pantry. Once the pantry becomes filled up, the room becomes warm and people start comparing the temperature in the work area with the temperature in the pantry.

What's weird though is that most people will just share what they feel instead of acting on it. Nobody turns off the aircon in the work area and nobody turns on the aircon in the pantry. It is so easy to complain rather than act on it.

I tried to determine why people don't turn off the aircon in the work area. My best guess was they don't want to be the person to do it in fear that someone will complain about turning it off. Weird as it may sound but my guess was this is part of our culture as Filipinos. We never want to offend the other party. We are that hospitable. In fact, we are not even sure that we will offend the other person but for the sake of not offending anyone, we just bear the inconvenience ourselves. Is this good or bad? I don't know. I'm sure that there are instances that this culture of us works best.