You are currently browsing the monthly archive for August, 2008.
It’s the last day of August and time for the anticipated wrap up.
I just started this blog late August and so I didn’t really setup any official goals for the month. Basically I needed to fund my CC debt due this September and with the August 29 paycheck, I have everything in order. Here goes:
1. Fund credit card debt due September 8 (P10,989.44) – Done!
2. Cancel Manulife Affluence Builder fund with insurance – Done!
3. Max out Parents Fund for August (21 days x P50) – Done!
4. Handover P1,000 to sis for her check I used to pay for dentist bills – Done!
Don’t you just love it when everything’s in green?
Now for my September Goals:
1. Renew my CPA license through LBC, this will cost me roughly P1,000 for delivery and ID pictures.
2. Apply for Social Security ID.
3. Shop around some more for a good, solid disability insurance.
4. Max out September Parents fund to P1,500 (P50 x 30 days).
5. Fund credit card debt due October 6 (P4,225.73)
6. Pay P3,000 to sis as full payment for my dentist bills.
7. Bring my various funds to these balances:
| Fund | Savings | Should be balance |
| Emergency Fund | 500.00 | 7,686.32 |
| Personal Improvement | 600.00 | 960.00 |
| Insurance | 1,008.13 | 2,000.00 |
| Travel | 0.00 | 619.92 |
| Entertainment | 1,000.00 | 1,139.58 |
| Clothing | 500.00 | 1,367.88 |
| Tithe | 200.00 | 819.92 |
| TOTAL | 3,808.13 | 14,593.61 |
You see my Travel fund has 0.00 in it? That’s because money will be tight for me all through out September and October due to the CC debt and loan from sister that I need to fund. Until then, Travel fund will get 0.00 from me. Anyways, that fund will not be used for several months if it will ever be used so I guess it’s safe to neglect it a bit until my financial belt’s a little loose.
Come Oct. 31 I should be able to turbo charge my savings for eFund and personal improvement to the tune of P1,500 & P4,500, respectively. It will come directly from the P6K monthly allowance and it’s tax free. I am fully aware that eFund should take precedence over any other fund, BUT in my case, I will need the P17,500 for the fixed bridge on my teeth on December. That was the price my dentist quoted me and though he said he will give me further discounts, I want to stay on the safe side and fund the full amount.
Insurance and Entertainment gets the huge chunk of planned savings because I simply can’t afford to neglect any of them. Insurance will be paid in May ‘09 (annual premium) and Entertainment fund will be used for 2 major events: my friend Z’s despedida and my friend K’s homecoming and wedding. Z will be leaving the country for several years this September to work in the Middle East and our group is planning for several nightouts or parties. And Z’s birthday is on Sept. 12 so maybe I could cough up a few bucks for a token before she leaves. K has migrated to Canada about 4 years ago and will come back this December for her wedding. Of course, some get-together parties and dinners will come about, Christmas and wedding gift will be bought. And there’s the dress I will need to wear to her wedding. Crap. I love her, though.
These goals, lined up like this, is enough to make me eager for September to start!
It’s Saturday and office hours ended 6 hours ago. Spent about 2 hours in a second hand bookshop and almost bought Suze Orman’s hardbound copy of The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom: Practical and Spiritual Steps So You Can Stop Worrying. It cost P80.00 only but as I browsed it, I decided that the stuff written were stuff I have read about over the internet and other financial books I already own. So why spend P80.00 for something that says exactly what my favorite blogs and books say? Went out the shop empty-handed but with my wallet intact.
The trip home was okay, if not too hot. This is a hot, humid, tropical country that gets about 20 typhoons in a year with a scorching hot summer during March to mid-June. The van took its sweet time waiting on people as always.
Reached home and received a very nice wagging of tail from my half breed lab, snatched up my leftover Cheetos Twisted Puffs last night and carried the mail from Banco de Oro for me upstairs. What do you know, it’s a CREDIT CARD!
I didn’t apply for one as I already have two active HSBC CCs. This is just one of their tricks to lure me into spending and charging and using their services so they can earn merchant fees. The card is already activated as stated in the letter, with P20K line of credit and P6K in cash advance limit. Statement dates are every 16th of the month and due 26 days after.
Now the HSBC Supplementary CC I am currently using is very convenient in that it runs through 3 paydays. This BDO card will run through roughly 4 paydays which is very, very neat. Not that I am a heavy user of credit cards. I have never paid a single cent to them for interest and I have no plans of marring my credit rating anytime soon. But this CC that runs through 4 paydays? Sweet!
My other HSBC card with me as the principal holder runs through 2 paydays only and has a P29K credit limit. A little low compared with my supplementary card’s (c/o my sister who has lots of money) P75K++, though I have NO plans of maxing it out. The other nagging thoughts I have about these CCs are the annual fees. Oh well, I can just call them up and have it waived. If I receive a NO, then they’ll receive a GOODBYE.
Now about lunch…
I did it! Look at my sidebar, it’s now sporting my NetworthIQ chart!
Want one of your own? Forget about the Javascript NetworthIQ provides when you click the Generate Code button if you are not paying for your WordPress blog. Free WordPress.com blogs are strictly HTML only.
How to Add NetworthIQ Chart On Your Sidebar
1. On your dashboard, click on Design, then Widgets.
2. Select Text widget. You may or may not save changes after this.
3. Click Edit, then paste the html below inside the box. Be sure to replace urname with your networthIQ username; $ with whatever the symbol for your currency is (in my case, it’s P for Philippine peso. Php is too long.); and putyournetworthinnumbers with your own networth (in my case, I replaced it with 24,652).
</style>
<div class=”badge” style=”width: 160px;” align=”center”>
<a href=”http://www.networthiq.com/people/urname“><strong>urname</strong></a><br/>
<a href=”http://www.networthiq.com/people/urname“>
<img src=”http://www.networthiq.com/charts/chart.ashx?u=urname&h=150&w=160&c=FFFFFF” border=”0″>
</a>
<br/>
<div class=”nwiqNetWorth”>Net Worth $[putyournetworthinnumbers]</div>
<a href=”http://www.networthiq.com/”><img src=”http://www.networthiq.com/images/poweredBy.gif” alt=”Powered By NetworthIQ” border=”0″></a>
</div>
<!– End NetworthIQ Badge –>
4. Sit back and watch that chart soar!
Now, if only someone will send my way the script for those nifty bar graphs to show how much my efund and other funds are doing…
What’s your take on credit cards?
Do you consider it the devil in plastic? Or your very best friend?
Devil in plastic is a very apt description of credit cards if you are one of those lured by its extreme convenience. Who cares about how far the next payday is when you only have to reach for your wallet and have the card swiped in those teeny, cutesy machines sitting on the checkout counter?
Very best friend….hmmm…in a teeny weensy way, yes. Why? Because I can use it anytime there is an emergency. Emergency in my book is something that involves life and death situations. I can also use the card to delay payment to something for a maximum of a month. As they say in business finance, stretch your liability. In personal finance, you can only stretch your CC debt for a maximum of 1 month otherwise you will fatten up the devil in plastic.
How do I ensure that everything that will fall due will be paid on time?
1. I call the card company’s customer service for at least twice a month. Here are the things I ask the person who answers my call (and writes down on my little blue notebook):
- My outstanding balance and the amount due for the coming due date. Outstanding balance may or may not include the amount I need to pay for the next due date, so I make it a point to know both figures.
- Breakdown of the charges made on my card. You can never be too careful with your card. Plus, any erroneous charges can be discussed immediately with the customer service rep. and (hopefully) be promptly corrected.
- My card’s cutoff and corresponding due dates up to the farthest month available. Most card companies have these dates available up to a quarter and the customer service rep will readily give it to you.
2. Before I flash out my card for any purchases, I peep into my little notebook first for the due date that purchase will fall on. This way, I know how long I have to fund the purchase and therefore pay it in full and on time.
3. I work on my budget immediately when I receive the payslip and before I whip out my ATM and withdraw anything. The very first thing I deduct from the amount in the payslip is the allocation for CC payment. My CC cutoffs run through 3 pay periods, which is good because I have 3 paydays to spread my CC due over.
So you see why I don’t regard the plastic as evil? I am able to outsmart, outwit and outlast the CC company up to now! I get what I want on their money, I earn interest from my money, and they don’t, hopefully never, earn from mine! (Of course they earn something off me! But the merchants are the one paying them through merchant fee.)
I am not very sure about the outlast part, though. CC companies were here even before I was born!
As I’ve mentioned, my sisters and I are still living with our parents (age range: 34-28). We are 4 kids, and they financed our education all throughout college.
My parents are no hotshot; my dad had a vocational course in dressmaking and my mom reached highschool. They had a shop way back ’70s but closed it when RTWs boomed. Then came what we call sari-sari store (a neighborhood variety store).
Out of this store came 4 college graduates, one being a Certified Public Accountant (ehem).
Now that my father has retired from his regular job (garment factory), the store keeps them busy all the live long day.
Since my parents are not fond of stashing away money for future use, I decided to do it for them, thus, the PARENTS FUND!
It started last August 11, 2008 and I take 50.00 each day from their store sales, put it in a makeshift coin bank (made out of microwavable, transparent circular container) and draw a line on it to represent 1 day. As of today the coin bank has 17 lines on it, (I haven’t put the 50 for today) multiply by 50.00 per line = 850.00!!!
If I keep this up till December, my Parents Fund will have a little over 7,000.00 for them to use!
Do you still use an old fashioned coin bank?
I had a very unfrugal week last week. =c
August 21 was my mom’s 57th birthday, and as a treat/gift, I brought home a low fat blueberry cheesecake from Cheesecake, Etc. It cost me 899.00 and I used my allowance for the week.
Last Saturday, I went to the mall with my friend, Z, who will be leaving the country by September. I treated her to lunch which cost me 620.00, everything from my savings.
Sunday, I had a hair treatment and hair cut for P2.6k. My hair is very long, beyond bra line, and on the frizzy side so I had to iron it every single morning to make sure I don’t resemble the Wicked Witch of the West. The treatment I availed was hair rebonding to make it very straight and shiny. I am happy with the results, but my bank account isn’t.
Whooohoo!
It’s pay day AND Friday, and my bank account is again happy. Got P4,600.00 in my payroll account and I will receive my check for P6K tomorrow. It’s like a tax shield given by our company and I am extremely grateful.
Pay day Friday is like a double whammy. I seldom go out on Fridays (or during weekdays, for that matter) because I absolutely loathe Metro Manila traffic. Traffic jams are as common in Manila as air in your lungs; add the fact that people have money in their wallets. If I don’t make a beeline towards home by 5:30PM, I can be sure to spend a minimum of two hours sitting in a cramped taxi. Can you even begin to imagine that?
Oh, and the ticket for Eheads’ reunion concert tomorrow? I decided to skip it. Not without a heavy heart, though. But I need to get down to the business of building my emergency stash and other (almost) equally important funds. Time is not really on my side and the goals I have set for myself are pretty high, therefore, dillydallying is NOT an option. I am not debt-ridden (thank heavens for that!) but I am no longer as young as I once was. If I want to take over caring for my parents when they can no longer do it, and still have enough for a comfortable retirement for myself, I have to SAVE.
Now, where are my Eheads CDs?
*Insert the most vile sounding, eardrum-splitting scream here*
The Eraserheads (Eheads) will push through with their most awaited reunion concert! *scream again*
Eheads was a band formed in Manila by a group of college guys way back early ‘90s and spearheaded the rebirth of pinoy rock. The group ‘disbanded’ in 2001 (?) when its lead vocals Ely Buendia decided ‘it’s graduation time’. It was a very sad moment for pinoy music scene.
Some bad blood flowed between former bandmates and even refuse to talk about the breakup or each other.
But NOW, they are back for a reunion concert. When? August 30. Where? Bonifacio Open Field. How much? P1,300.00 for patron & P800.00 for back part.
*scream again, sounding like a wailing kid this time*
MY ENTERTAINMENT FUND IS STILL BUSTED!
Sure, I have cash right here, right now, but everything is allocated for something else. My Efund is dismal, travel fund, personal improvement, EVERYTHING FUND, is in unrespectable level. Unfortunately there is very little time left to think about it. Tomorrow is 29th, payday for most of us. If I dillydally until about 5PM tomorrow and decide that I will buy the ticket, I may be too late. The concert is in two, friggin’ days!
Way to go, promoters! Grrr.
Knowing I am 28 years old and have nothing in my name can be totally unnerving. A bit understandable but to stay that way by the time I am 30 is unforgivable!
Sure, I have a few thousand pesos in the bank and couple of stocks which are losing money right now, but that’s not a valid reason to go on and spend and not think about it.
How much cash do I have?
As of this very minute, I have:
| BDO ATM | PHP 8,192.58 |
| BDO Savings | 8,485.58 |
| UBP Payroll | 25.30 |
| Total | 16,703.46 |
How much investment do I have?
I own two individual stocks, bought from a brokerage in Manila. Here’s what they’re worth now:
| MEG (2K shares) | 2,880.00 |
| GEO (12K shares) | 10,320.00 |
| Total | 13,200.00 |
I also have minimal amount in US dollar which have lost significant amount during peso’s rally against it.
| US Dollar ($160 @ 45) | 7,200.00 |
How much do I owe?
| Credit cards | 12,578.39 |
| Other loans | 4,500.00 |
| Total | 17,078.39 |
About 11k of credit card debts is for insurance premiums and the rest are the month’s groceries. Other loans were the dentist’s bills when I had my teeth fixed. These debts have different due dates and my fund for its repayment is on track (boy, am I glad for personal finance!).
How much am I worth (financially, that is)?
| Cash | 16,703.46 |
| Investments | 20,400.00 |
| Liabilities | (17,078.39) |
| Net Worth | 20,025.07 |
DEPRESSING!
I have signed up to NetWorthIQ, and below is the chart they provide. I have no knowledge of putting it in my sidebar like other bloggers do, so until then, I will show it as new post.
Beware! The networth is in US dollars, but really, it is in Philippine Peso.
They sent me some lovin'