money talks Archives - Page 4 of 10

July 21, 2015

Lessons on Stock Market Investing, Vol. III

One year ago today, I opened an account with COL Financial and never looked back. I put money into my account whenever possible. It wasn’t on a regular basis, but I made sure to reach a certain amount before I celebrate my first year as a direct stock market investor. What do you know, I did it!

Somehow, I feel quite accomplished and empowered knowing that I have started taking the journey to financial freedom. I am still far from it, perhaps several years far, but my inner self tells me I’ll get there one day. And so I continue to believe in and work to realize my goal.

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June 4, 2015

Dealing with Windfalls

This year is getting to be very good in terms of financial blessings. The first quarter alone saw the hubby and I receiving some unexpected incentives at work. Then, during the second quarter, our mid-year bonus arrived and a few more monetary benefits came after that.

Receiving windfalls (in our case, it’s usually from work and nothing else) is always a pleasure and a reason to give thanks. By giving thanks, I mean saying a short prayer of gratitude to the guy above and sharing the blessing (in whatever form or way we like) with our loved ones.

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May 8, 2015

Teaching Financial Literacy at Home

I grew up in a family where money is a taboo subject and financial education is never taught. I actually learned about such important concepts as personal finance and financial freedom through self-study. My mother, who was in-charge of budgeting in our one-income household when I was little, wasn’t really a good example when it came to managing our limited financial resources.

Image Source: http://connexcu.wordpress.com/2013/09/03/connecticut-gets-an-f-in-financial-literacy/

Back then, we were living from paycheck to paycheck and we were acquiring liabilities instead of assets. While my parents certainly did their best to provide for our needs, the idea of financial freedom was non-existent to them. Or maybe they knew about it, but it was just not among their top priorities.

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April 23, 2015

Lessons on Stock Market Investing, Vol. II

At present, my stocks portfolio with COL Financial is experiencing a low. (Even my BDO UITF is on the negative side right now.) I’d like to believe the market is down or having some sort of a correction. It’s been like that since the month started. Brenda, a newbie stock market investor like me, shares the same sentiment here. The last time I checked (which was this morning), one of my stocks even had a loss of -18.50%. Should I be worried? My heart says yes while my mind says no. I choose to listen to the latter. I try to be positive about this because I have faith in my stock picks.

To continue with my Lessons on Stock Market Investing series (you may read Vol. I here), below are some of the things I learned from my nine months (as of April 21st) of investing directly in the stock market:

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April 1, 2015

Insured!

After weighing our options and preparing our payment, the hubby and I have recently gotten ourselves a term insurance from Sun Life Financial. It’s called Sun LifeAssure. As what’s standard, our annual premiums were based on our age. Mine was P5,160 while the hubby’s was a bit higher at P5,585. This is for a coverage of P500,000 with critical illness benefit. For add-ons, we got accidental death and total disability benefits.

Sun LifeAssure is renewed after five years. This means that the annual premiums to be paid for the five-year period (that we signed up for) are fixed. After that, should we decide to sign up again, our premiums will be higher as they will be based on our age again.

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March 26, 2015

Spending Vs. Saving

Recently, I’ve been obsessed about saving. Instead of spending my entire weekly allowance, I’d make it a point to save each week. Like last week, for instance, I saved a total of P565. Funny but I felt very accomplished as I counted the money left in my wallet one by one. Haha.

Spending and saving are broad topics. They have always been a part of discussions on money management and personal finance in general. We spend mindfully and sometimes, mindlessly. We, however, tend to forget about saving.

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