Last month, when I was about to pay my credit card bill with the combination of a check and cash I had in my wallet, I found that I was P2,000 short. Since I still had a few days before the actual due date, I made a mental note to pay the rest the following day.

And promptly forgot about it.

The following week, I went shopping with my kids. I had some guilt-free money to spend. After buying stuff for my kids, I bought hubby some management books. I’ve had my eye on those titles since last year and wanted to surprise him. Bought myself some stuff, too, of course hehe. I was actually proud of myself. This was programmed spending. This was good.
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This is the kind of tip you can’t find through Google and you can’t read on MarketWatch and CNN.

Paying off debt is always a good idea, but you have to be smart in doing it. If you are caught between the devil (say, resorting to one meal a day) and paying off debt completely, there has to be a place somewhere in between that will allow you to breathe easier and yet escape a pauper’s life.

One way is to do credit substitution. That simply means retire your debt with the highest interest rate by borrowing with a lower interest rate.

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My hubby, who allowed himself to be absorbed by the rate race after years of consultant work, got promoted the other week after only two years in the company. Initial reaction: whoppeee! Lets go out to dinner to celebrate…We can buy that second car after all…Should I arrange for a vacation out of the country next year?

Earth to Salve…earth to Salve. Financial planning bibles out there say my husband and I are still in the accumulation stage because of our age. I can’t afford yet another misstep in financial planning, like splurging on vacations and baby gear. We are still paying for our children’s education, good insurance policies and other stuff. I have to discipline myself to ignore promotions and bonuses (especially if they are my husband’s haha), keep them immediately tucked in our savings and investment portfolio, so I can turbo-charge our retirement kitty.

This one’s a no-brainer Money Myth Buster. It’s easy to see how a mindset of not counting chicks even if the eggs are hatched can help us get totally out of the rate race. But can the additional scrimping and saving really turbo-charge my savings or am I merely looking at a slow, painful growth in savings despite the sacrifices I am preparing to make?

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INQUIRER.net receives hundreds of emails a day, many of them on whether certain financial products are any good. Our columnist, Johnny Noet Ravalo opted to write about certain generic rules in creating a portfolio people can live with, rather than just do the math.

This led to a discussion on the dangers of copycat portfolios.

You need to be comfortable with your portfolio because it is your savings that we are talking about. Copycat portfolios may be the fastest way to earn your first million … or lose everything you own. Since you will not know in advance which one it is, then live with the consequences if you take this chance.

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Would you frequent a restaurant more if you knew that it separates its biodegradable waste from the rest of its garbage? Would you shift to a different oil company because it invests in biofuels?

Would you stop buying a product if you knew that it is made in factories that are polluting the environment? Does it make more sense to buy Ayala stocks because the company donates huge chunks of cash to provide public schools with computers and Internet connection?

These questions were tumbling in my mind as I observed around six corporate chiefs preaching their green projects to reporters at the Good News Kapihan last Wednesday. The League of Corporate Foundations, the organization that effectively coaxed these CEOs to traipse across clogged Makati streets to show that they care about the environment, prides itself in bringing competing companies such as Shell Pilipinas and Petron, Globe and Smart, and other unheard-of tandems, in the name of corporate social responsibility.

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