Only a few months to go before the wedding season begins to heat up. By this time, I can imagine a lot of prospective brides and grooms starting to feel that white-hot feeling of panic as expenses start coming in and as the reality of the entire things sinks in.
A lot of marriages are destroyed by poor financial management, so this is not the time to enter that holy agreement all wide-eyed and unprepared. Love can do a lot of things to finances – both good and bad.
Reader Jay, for example, emailed us asking for advice on how to make his money grow more. He intends to get married and settle down in the Philippines in two years. Jay says he understands the concept of high risk/high return, and wonders what options are available after deposits, stocks and mutual funds.
Let me pick up this portion of Noet Ravalo’s advice:
The cash flow requirements of a single person and a married person are worlds apart. This is not just a minor tweak here and there of your portfolio. In my view, providing for yourself, your wife and your children not only changes the pressures on your finances, but also changes the priorities and the dynamics of your investments.
Read the rest here:
I think this is one of those things that we all know, but somehow cannot wrap our minds around unless someone really drums it into us. You know, those moments when something so obvious only becomes clear at a certain defining moment.
Once you put that ring on her finger, boy your life is surely going to change and finances had better be one of the first things couples should adjust.
Noet advised Jay, who has a P5 million portfolio in deposits, stocks and mutual funds to consider lending his existing securities to other parties over short periods – although he stresses out that Jay should completely understand first the risks and returns of this option and get a professional to advise him.
Noet also recommended bonds and structured notes. I notice that these days, people are hardly looking at bonds – stocks are the current darling of the market. However, no run-up in the stock market will continue forever. If you are talking about long-term finance, definitely, well-picked bonds should be part of a good portfolio.
Buy bonds through banks, but don’t ask your average teller. Get in touch with private banking groups, asset management departments, and trust departments. The government claims that its small-denominated bonds should allow small investors to put in a minimum of P5,000 in bonds, but sorry to say that this has not really happened. So be prepared to plunk in much, much more than P5,000.
April 30th, 2007 at 8:52 am
hi hachiko, just a note. Dream marriages don’t exist =). Realistic marriages — especially finance-wise — are better than “dream marriages” hehe.
April 27th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
@don2x
Exactly! That is also my comment in the other post about having last will. Pre-nup is important. Some people do not appreciate it and even get offended by the idea.
April 26th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
some do not take any chances by having pre-nuptial agreement. till debt do us part?!?
April 26th, 2007 at 8:44 pm
My only advise to those who plan to get married: Do not splurge on your wedding, set a budget and stay within the budget. Wedding can be very very expensive!
April 26th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
If you are going to buy bonds, there are two general classes of government bonds: 1) T-bills/T-notes 2) Retail Treasury Bonds.
You can buy RTBs at 5,000. The problem is, there isn’t much supply of it. I remember that there was an issue of an RTB that wasn’t very well subscribed last year. You might want to check your bank if they are still available.
The more regular T-bill or T-notes are more plentiful although they pay very low interest rates now.
If you are purchasing peso-denominated bonds, then I suggest going with the shorter maturities such as the 90 and 180-day bonds. Interest rates have nowhere to go but up in the current low-interest environment. When you are invested in short term bonds, it will allow you to shift to higher interest bearing bonds once interest rates move up.
The right department to contact is the Securities Department of your bank. Banks will usually require a purchase of at least PhP100,000 for T-bills/T-bonds.