Questions to Ask Yourself Before Investing

A few weeks ago, my brother was asking me about Ayala life Home Starter Bond. We emailed back and forth and got into the Mutual Fund discussion. I have explained to him the basics about mutual fund (click here if you want to learn too). He's an engineer and an Overseas Filipino Worker. I was trying to convince him to invest as i believe that Mutual Fund works in the long run. Besides, i read somewhere that majority of OFWs don't know where to put their money. Instead, they spend it in vacations and sight seeing. I don't mind that. I think they deserve that for all the hard work that they do. I just want to suggest that they save and invest too so that they still have money after they have decided to return to the Philippines. If you are an OFW and stumbled on this blog, i meant no offense. If you are saving and investing, i admire you. You earn better than me and that is something i want to do too. If you don't have investments yet, feel free to browse my blog and i hope i can help you in my small way.

Anyway, we sent email back and forth and I realized that to convince someone to invest, basic questions must be answered

What is your purpose for saving/investing?

How much of the savings do you plan to spend and when?

What is your risk tolerance?

Why do you want to save/invest? 

Most single individuals would say they are saving to buy a car. Others for their wedding. For married individuals, it could be for down payment on a house or for future education expenses of their children.

Others will say that they are looking for investments that will generate income as well as long-term capital growth. There are more than hundred reasons why save and invest. The important thing is to know your reason. Your reason will be the basis for deciding where to invest.

How much of the savings do you plan to spend and when?

After determining your reasons for saving/investing, you should also know when you are planning to spend that money. Answer to this question will guide you on where to put your money. For example, if you are saving so that you have money to spend in case of emergencies but also looking to grow that money then your best bet might be the savings deposits offered by banks. They offer small interest but you can pull out your money anytime.

If, on the other hand, you are saving so that you'll have money ten years from now to pay for your child's education, then investing in long term suits you. You may consider investing in stocks or mutual fund. 

The trick is knowing why you are saving, when you need the money and sticking with it. If you are saving for retirement which you foresee happening ten years from now, it would not make sense to just put your money in the bank. Your money will not earn that much interest and you don't need the ability to pull out the money fast. You are better off putting your money in long term investments since you don't expect using the money in the near term anyways.

Same goes for people who expect to use the money within five years. It will not make sense putting your money in long term investments if you might use the money anytime from now. Sure, long-term investments offer higher earning opportunity but the chargers are high as well if you will pull them in the short term.

What is your risk tolerance?

All investments have risk. Bank deposits offer lower interest rate but your investment is safer. For stocks, the returns may be higher and the same can be said for potential loss. The rule is the higher the risk, the higher the returns. Lower the risk, lower the returns. Most Filipinos are comfortable in just putting it in the bank. Nothing wrong with that. However, the growth of money in bank is very minimal. 

If you have the money or time, consult a financial planner.  If you are clueless on where to find registered financial planners, visit www.rfp.ph

(Note: I am not a financial planner and I'm not earning anything if i convinced my brother to invest. I am a CPA, who enjoys blogging and searching for best ways to invest. I have stocks investments and mutual fund but not yet a millionaire. By year-end, I'll share with you my earnings (and losses) in my stocks and mutual funds)

If you want to learn more about stocks and mutual fund, click the links below

Mutual Fund

Investing in Philippine Stock Market

The KEG Deal at DealGrocer

I was one of the 250 people who bought the Keg Deal at DealGrocer. As i have mentioned in my previous post where i listed Philippine Group Buying Sites that i know, I'll be blogging my experience using the vouchers.

Here's the deal's ad 

"There are nights where you just want to be unpretentiously comfy in a casual setting with good friends and over great food and drinks. For nights like those, there's a spot called KEG at The Fort Strip that's actually been named by spot.ph as home to the #2 and #5 Top 10 Bar drinks in the country."

That's why these summer nights, KEG is offering half-off on all items on their menu, exclusively for Deal Grocer members! Bring as many friends over and order anything up to P1,000 worth of food and drinks for just P500."

Reservation

The voucher says reservations are recommended. Walk-in customers are allowed but subject to seat availability. When i bought the voucher, i don't have specific date when to use the voucher. That day, around 5pm in the afternoon and one hour after end of working hours, i called up my wife and decided that I'll use the voucher. The voucher has the terms (which is good) but i am somewhat disappointed not to see the merchant's numbers in the voucher. If i am expected to reserve, it would be a great customer experience if i can immediately see the Merchant's contact details as well. 

Having that number in the voucher would be a great customer experience as it facilitates reservation. Besides, it serves as an advertisement platform. The group buying site can charge the merchant for this free advertising because for sure, some people would be showing their printed vouchers to officemates and friends just to tell them they got a good deal.

Nevertheless, i was able to google the merchant's number and called them up. I just told them i am a voucher holder of Deal Grocer and i'm booking a reservation. The other line confirmed and that was it. An easy breezy.

Dining In

Arriving at the merchant, me and my wife are too early. hehehe. I know it is a bar and it is Friday but nevertheless, people are still not there. I guess 7pm is too early for the single people out there. My wife and I laughed at the fact that we seldom go out and in case we do, we try to be home as early as possible like 9pm. When we were still single and unmarried, 9pm is just like the meeting time whenever we go out and do some Friday night activities.

For the food and drinks, we ordered buffalo chicken, seafood linguine pasta and two mango mojitos. My bill totaled P1078 so i shelled out less than a hundred since my voucher entitles me up to P1,000 worth of food.

The food was good. The buffalo wings is lovely and so was the pasta. I was just so happy that i got the deal. I know that from that point, i'll be purchasing more deals. Whenever we dine out and eat in something fancy ( i call any resto that you don't have to line up to the cashier to pay as fancy) i usually spend P700 - P800 range. With the voucher, i just paid P500, saving myself P200 but adding P200 to the total worth of food that i am buying. Great deal. Thank you Deal Grocer!

Summary 

I enjoyed it. Not only because i saved but also i had dinner with my wife. She enjoyed it too! I'd like to share some of the photos of the food.

List of Philippine Group Buying Sites

The craze has begun in the Philippines. I believe this started mid year last year and finally took off the first quarter of 2011. What it is? Group Buying Phenomena.

So what is group buying? These are sites that encourages group buying and once certain number of purchasers are met, the deal will be on and everybody who purchased receives vouchers that is basically 80 - 40% of an item.

Here are the sites that i know so far. If you know more, feel free to add

1. Buyanihan
2. Pakyaw
3. Deal Grocer
4. MetroDeal
5. Kuponan
6. Groupon (Beeconomic)
7. CashCashPinoy
8. Salamat
9. Plejee
10. AtCrazy
11. Tipidto
12. Ensogo

Among all the sites, i like Deal Grocer's interface. The site is clean, formal and classy. Among the group buying sites, Deal Grocer's website is formal while the others are crowded. It feels like the site is a mall while the other's are divisoria stalls peddling their coupons. Anyhow, for the actual deals, all deals looks good and inviting. I haven't tried all sites but i already had previous transactions with Ensogo, CashCashPinoy and Deal Grocer. I'll write up my experience once i used up the voucher.

What are the Charges in Mutual Funds

This is an update on my ongoing posts about mutual fund. 

You might be interested to read my previous posts on the series

• Why You Should Invest in Mutual Fund
• How to Get Started in Mutual Funds
• Different Types of Mutual Funds

Now that i have explained how to get started investing in mutual funds and the different type of mutual funds, the next question to answer is how to get out? Meaning, what are the charges if i want to get back the money i invested in the mutual fund.

To answer the question, you should know about front-end load sales and back end load sales.

Front End Load Sales

With front end load sales, sales commission are deducted to the amount the investor will invest in the mutual fund. For example, if you invest P5,000, that amount will be reduced by the amount of sales commission and the remaining balance will be used to purchase shares in the mutual fund based on the net asset value. The advantage of this is that you can pull out your funds free of charge any time. 

Back End Load Sales
With back end load sales no initial commission is deducted from the amount you invest. So for the P5,000 example that we have, all of that amount will be used to purchase shares in the mutual fund. You will only be charged sales commission when you decide to pull out your investment. The sales charge rate decreases over time. So if you put funds in year one then pull it out on year 3, the sales commission charge is lower compared if you have pulled it out in year 2. After five years, the sales commission rate is 0% or free.

In Numbers

So, let's set an example. You have P5,000 and you invested it in January 1, 2011 and the net asset value assumptions are as follows

Jan 1, 2011 - 1.5

Jan 1, 2012 - 1.6

Jan 1, 2013 - 1.7

Jan 1, 2014 - 1.8

Jan 1, 2015 - 1.9

Jan 1, 2016 - 2.0

In Summary

Investing in Mutual Fund entails costs. Same with other time of investment, you should begin your decision on your investment objective. Choosing between front end sales load or back end sales load should be based on whether you might need to pull out the investment or not. If you are in for the long term (which you should be) aim for the back end sales load so after five years, you benefit from free sales commission charge.

So that's it for now, if you have questions let me know.

Different Types of Philippine Mutual Funds

In my past entries, i have been talking why investing in mutual fund might be good for you as an investment strategy. In addition, to those new in the mutual funds, i have explained here how to get started in mutual funds. In this post, i'll be discussing three types of mutual funds.

If you are new to this site, please visit my welcome page as a guide or feel free to select one of the most read posts in the side bar.

To continue, mutual fund companies normally invest your money in either debt securities or equity securities. Bonds fall under debt securities while stocks fall under equity securities. Depending on your goal, you should weigh and determine what type of mutual fund is good for you.

Bond Fund

This type of mutual fund invests your money in government and high quality corporate debt securities. A bond is a debt investment in which an investor loans a certain amount of money, for a certain amount of time, with a certain interest rate, to a company or country. In simpler words, bonds are promise to pay made by governments or corporations. In exchange for a loan, they promise to pay the holder of the bond fixed interest rate plus return of capital over a period of time.

Since interests are paid regularly, bonds are suited for individuals whose goals are capital preservation and regular income. Bonds are usually considered safe (especially Government Issued Bonds) because they are paid first before stockholders in case the company goes bankrupt and undergoes liquidation. 

Equity Fund

This type of mutual fund invests your money in Philippine equity securities which may include common stock, preferred stock and other securities exchangeable for common/preferred stock. Unlike bonds, you will increase your money if the prices of the stock goes up. Similarly, you will lose if the prices of stocks goes down. Equity fund is more risky compared to bond fund but the rewards are also higher. 

Balanced Fund

This type of mutual fund is a mix of bond and equity fund. The mutual fund company invests certain portion in bonds and certain portion in stocks. This fund offers less volatility due to investment in bonds but provides avenue of long-term capital appreciation through equities.

In addition, there are also other type of funds such as dollar fund or funds that invests in other currency. To sum it up, the important thing to consider is your goal in investing and your risk strategy. If you want to risk it, go for equities. If you want to be safe but still earn money, go for bonds. If you want the average, go for balanced fund.

That's it. If you still have questions, it is to call any mutual fund companies and their agent are more willing to help you. In fact, they will even visit you to discuss more about investment opportunities.

If you want to learn more, you can follow me in twitter and send me a message. http://www.twitter.com/accabiao

Happy managing your money!

How To Get Started in Mutual Fund

In my previous post, i have explained that a Mutual Fund is an investment company that pools the funds of many individual and institutional investors to form a massive asset base.  Think of mutual fund similar to group buying sites. A fund manager pools or collects money from different individual and invests them in various companies. In group buying sites, the site gathers individual buyers to form a group and have to power to bargain for lower cost. Similarly, investing mutual fund allows you to have exposure in various companies and industries otherwise you cannot purchase by your own.

Let's take for example Sunlife's Balanced Fund. As of February 28, 2011, the fund has the following companies as part of its Top 5 Equity Holdings. If you want to buy all of these companies on your own, you'll have to have P23,518 on the minimum.

However, with Mutual Fund, you can gain exposure for the same set of companies for just P5,000 pesos.

How does Mutual Fund work? 

Assuming you are interested to invest your P5,000 in Sunlife Mutual Fund, you'll get 1,986 shares based on the fund's Net Asset Value Per Share (NAVPS) of 2.5165 as of March 23, 2011. This means you own that number of shares of the Mutual Fund Company. Remember, you will not directly own the five companies listed above. Instead, you'll get shares of the Mutual Fund Company who in turns owns the shares of the listed companies.

How will you earn or (lose) in Mutual Fund?

NAVPS fluctuate daily depending on the performance of the Mutual Fund which is related to the performance of the companies that the Mutual Fund Owns. You will earn when NAVPS increase and you will lose when NAVPS decrease. For example, if you joined MF last February 3, 2011, the NAVPS was 2.4845. Using the March 23, 2011 NAVPS, you could have earned P64.40 or 1%. 

On the other hand, if you joined last January, you will lose P226.13 or 5%. 

The numbers might not appear to interesting but if you think longer horizon, the numbers are more attractive. Back in January 4, 2010, the NAVPS was 1.9888 so you could have earned 27% return in one year.

One advice that i got was peso cost averaging. Read it here

Summary

Mutual Fund's is a good way to have investment tool because your money will be managed by fund managers (who does that as a career) and will not require too much money.

Track Your Expenses, Discover A Story

Back in August 2010, i said i started tracking my daily expenses. It was difficult but fun. 

Tracking daily expenses and summarizing them told me stories about who i am and what my priorities are.

By tracking expenses and summarizing them, i realized that i was spending too much on unplanned expenses such as gifts, dine outs and unscheduled vacation. In my mind, my priority was saving money and investing but my actual actions tells me that my priority was destressing and relaxation.

The information i got from tracking me expenses, opened my eyes to the reality so i took action. Beginning that time, i started monitoring and watching where i spend my money. I followed money making tips and think of ways how to save money.

If you are interested in tracking your expenses, there are various ways you can do it. 

1. Manual paper listing
2. Phone Apps
3. Excel Trackers

I never really did manual tracking but based on other materials that i have read you can list down at the end of your day all your expenses in a notebook and summarize it. 

What really got me going was using Handy Expense. Since i carry my phone everywhere, i can easily record expenses as soon as i made the purchase. The application also allows me to export the file in CSV format which i then use to import in excel.

Another tool that i have tried is the iphone app Money Journal. The iphone app costs $2.99 but that cost is compensating with ready made charts and budget comparison tool. The added bonus is that you can upload the data inputted in the app directly to Google Docs. The only hassle is that the apps takes so much key presses that i really sticked to Handy Expense. Less key presses works better for me.

Lastly, you may use excel. The spreadsheet is a great tracking tool. Also, if you are interested, there are seven free excel budget/expense tracking tool here