Category: Personal Finance

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A Money Saving Failure

On the first week of January 2014, the hubby and I have decided to take on a money saving challenge. You may be familiar with it or may have been doing it also. It’s popularly known as the 52-Week Saving Challenge. I am sad to report that we FAILED the challenge.

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We only made it until the 18th week (April 30 to May 6, 2014). After that time, we gave up. We accepted our failure and just charged everything to experience. I can’t believe I’m blogging about this just now! I’ve gotten so busy in the past months, you know. (Naghanap pa talaga ako ng excuse!) Haha.

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Do You Have a Budget for Dining Out?

One random day, I bumped into an old friend at the mall and we got to chat for a few minutes. She mentioned how she gets updated on my married life thru Facebook. She also made a remark on how the hubby and I get to dine out twice, and sometimes even thrice a week. It sounded like she was amazed with our love for food, and at the same time, how easy we get to finance those food trips. I replied to her with a smile, “Paminsan minsan lang yun, pag may extra money.” That conversation made me think about our budget for dining out. Do I even have a separate budget for that purpose in the first place?

dining out
Image Source: http://money.cnn.com

To be honest, we love to try out new restaurants but we don’t set aside money for it. A dining out fund? No, nada, zilch. The money we spend for eating out comes from our weekly budget. (The hubby and I both receive our salary on a weekly basis so a weekly budget is a must for us.) It covers our daily needs: food, toiletries and other miscellaneous expenses. So if sometimes, we don’t have extra bath soap or toothpaste in our Bacoor home or we’re eating canned goods on a weekend, that’s because we’ve already spent our money on a nice dinner at some inexpensive restaurant. Funny, but true. Haha.

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Road to Financial Freedom: A Constant Practice in Patience

When I’m committed to doing something, I can get very impatient. In my quest for financial freedom, for instance, I can’t wait to achieve my financial goals. I think I’ve had an overdose of personal finance articles and blogs online because I suddenly had this urge to open new investment accounts right away. But of course, it’s impossible for me to do so due to insufficient funds at present.

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I’ve never been good at this! (Image Source: http://avidinvestorgroup.com)

Talking to self: Slow down, Edel! Breathe. Inhale, exhale. You can’t do everything at the same time. You have to wait for your money to arrive, unless you can make money appear by magic. Remember, patience is key here. And a lot of thinking and re-thinking. You don’t just invest your money in one instrument just because you learned from somebody it’s a good investment. You have to do your own research, decide based on your needs and future plans, prepare your money and invest at the right time.

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My First Selling Transaction in the Stock Market

While some investors wait for a gain of as high as 15% to 30% before selling a stock, I thought I’d settle for a lower percentage in my first selling transaction in the stock market. (It was my first, kaya medyo kinikilig at kinakabahan ako habang pinoprocess ko yan, hehe!) I believe that as long as it’s higher than the inflation rate in the country which is at around 4% to 5% annually, it’s a wise move. Okay, maybe next time, I’ll go for 10% or higher. Haha.

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proof of my trade as sent to me by COL Financial via email

On August 27th (just the other day!), I sold my 40 shares of First Philippine Holdings Corp. (FPH) at P81. I kept them for a total of 36 days before selling. I bought them at an average price of P73.89 per share. I’m using “average price” here because I bought the shares in staggered amount at different prices. For this transaction, my net gain/profit was P222.47 or 7.47% as indicated in the stock computation tool I downloaded from SmartPinoyInvestor.com. A small amount, yes, but it was certainly very meaningful to me. And hindi ko rin naman basta mapupulot ang halagang ‘yan, diba?
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Planning for Our Financial Future

I’m turning 31 years old in October. Still young, I guess, but not so young when it comes to investing. As they say, the earlier you invest, the better. I don’t regret it, though. I may have not invested early when it comes to assets of various kinds, but I have other “investments” in my life that are now bearing fruits.

You see, I used to be the breadwinner in our family. That was after my father lost his job in 1999. Actually, I fully became the breadwinner after landing my first job after college. I sent my three siblings to school and luckily for me, they were able to finish their studies one by one. They are my other “investments” that are now bearing fruits. And so today, we are working together to give our parents the good life that they deserve. But that’s another story for another time.

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COL Financial’s Mobile App is Now Here!

I have recently opened an account with COL Financial and so far, my experience with this online broker has been pretty good. I don’t have any gains from my stocks yet (hopefully my money will start growing soon!) but I try to keep calm and steady. I now see myself as a risk-taker kind of investor so I believe everything’s gonna be okay sooner or later. But anyway, the good news I want to share is that they finally launched their mobile app!

col mobile app

I actually learned about this development from my college friend who posted about it on Facebook. Being an iPhone user, I immediately followed the instructions and downloaded the app. (As per the poster above, Android and tablet versions are not yet available.) The information you can find inside are almost complete: stocks portfolio, stock codes, buy and sell orders, trading info, stock market updates, etc. It’s not user-friendly at the moment and the interface is not so good, either. But let’s give COL Financial the time to improve/upgrade it in the coming days or months.

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