Our personal finance article for today has been long awaited by many INQUIRER.net readers.

Credit card debt is a common problem. Being mired in debt does not mean a person is evil – it only means that person has not managed money well in the past. That’s all…

So, what to do when you’re already in the clutches of a debt collector? Being badgered by someone to pay credit card debt is depressing and demeaning especially when they start talking to your officemates, your relatives and even your boss! This article lists down ways to deal with it, but my favorite tip is to call them first before they call you.

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She died. Just last month…

Our trusted 15-year old Samsung television, who wept with the whole family as we watched Schindler’s List, gasped with the children when they thought Experiment 626 aka Stitch will die in the second movie, cheered for R2D2 in all six movies of the Star Wars saga, finally couldn’t be resuscitated.

For two weeks, we had been prowling across Abenson, SM Appliance and other stores to look for a replacement. The Duplitos had been resistant to temptation so far. The object we are trying to resist – a P199,900 Samsung plasma television set with Ultra FilterBright, deeper black and dark images and clearer vision 18 bit color processing.

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I’m almost always in a rush when I’m at the grocery store, so I hardly listen to hurried invitations from cashiers to get my raffle coupons. Supposedly, these raffle coupons will give me the chance to enter the rank of millionaires.

“What kind of marketing gimmick is that anyway?” I asked with disdain over the weekend, during yet another foray into the consumer haven that is SM Hypermarket. I was trying to follow my own personal finance advice after all, and that is to get in, buy the stuff I need, and get out as quickly as I can :-).

Apparently, however, this marketing gimmick is more popular than I thought. Have you noticed how many raffle gimmicks are out there?
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This article didn’t make much of a splash in the news as it looked like a simple product PR blah, but for most people who follow personal finance developments, it’s a sign banks are (finally) admitting Filipinos are tired of plain-vanilla deposit products and are looking for better returns on their money.

The article talks about AIG Philam Savings’ 5-year long-term negotiable certificates of deposit launched Wednesday.

Pulitika, Kalakalan, ATBP. pointed out that UITFs are declining in volume because of LTNCDs. There must be a huge volume of cash being shifted, because as of now, only two universal banks and one thrift bank has issued LTNCDs – BDO, BPI and AIG Philam Savings Bank.

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1. Do you have experience in providing advice on the topics below? If yes, indicate the number of years.

• Retirement planning
• Investment planning
• Tax planning
• Estate planning
• Insurance planning
• Integrated planning
• Other

2. What are your areas of specialization? What qualifies you in this field?

3. How long have you been offering financial planning advice to clients?

• Less than one year
• One to four years
• Five to 10 years
• More than 10 years
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All the doomsayers of recent years who have warned about the energy crisis probably feel so vindicated today.
What now? I’m pretty sure the finger pointing and the “if-only” arguments will appear in newspaper columns and editorials shortly. People can talk about whose fault the energy crisis is; I would rather discuss what the people could do now to prepare.

After super-typhoon Milenyo in 2006, I wrote about how to prepare from for disaster. Blackouts and power shortages are not as scary as a super typhoon, but they can disrupt businesses, put homes in danger, and can be very inconvenient for journalists trying to make a living, hehe.

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Pinoy Investor asked a very incisive question:

We used to have funds for education, retirement and cost of living. But I used them up for our businesses. They became fixed assets, inventories and working capital. Our personal and business assets got mixed. Good or bad?

In one of my interviews with a financial planner, I learned that a common problem among Filipino entrepreneurs is a tendency to mix business and personal finances. Meaning, once a business takes off, the owner dips into the business moneybag to spend for personal stuff. By this time, his lifestyle has of course changed and he needs more grease to fuel his spending and for a time, he will feel like everything is going okay.

It’s like putting a parasite inside the business, and pretty soon the business will suffer but the parasite grows. In extreme situations, when he needs to scale down or close shop, his lifestyle no longer adjusts.

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For me, it’s the law of supply and demand – the fraternal twins that move markets all over the world, the yin and yang of economics, the muggles and wizards of Potterian fantasies, the Optimus Prime and Megatron of financial markets (ok, ok…I stretched that a little bit too far. Let’s not turn one of them into the evil one). I would even go as far as to say you have no business investing your money if you haven’t conquered this idea.

Yeah, ‘conquer’ as in know it like the back of your hand. As in navigate through the concept with your eyes closed. Investors who have intimate knowledge of the tugs and pulls of consumer and producer surpluses can harness that knowledge so they don’t get whipped silly by bear markets and irrational exuberance in financial markets.

Harvard economics professor Greg Mankiw explains here how this concept is at the heart of the workings of market economies. If you crave for more readings (because you are blessedly nerd-ic), read the lecture notes from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management on this concept. As you read, you will see why supply and demand affects prices, market dynamics, and why its related to the Invisible Hand of Adam Smith, that long-dead white man who is, until now, still called the Father of Economics.

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More tips from the Live Green Movement.

Keep your car tuned up.
Keeping your air filter clean saves 800 pounds of carbon dioxide, and P1,500 a year. Make sure your tires are adequately inflated, and save 250 pounds of carbon dioxide, and up to P40,000 in fuel costs each year.

Avoid idling: turn off your car engine in heavy traffic.
If your car will idle for more than 45 seconds, it’s more fuel-efficient to turn off the engine and restart the car when you’re ready to go.

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Finally, I found the most laymanized definition of this financial market term called “mark-to-market”. From Noet Ravalo’s article today, mark-to-market or M2M means:

If the market price of a traded security goes up today, a gain is duly recognized today. If today’s market price is lower than yesterday, the investor takes a loss today.

Why is it important to understand M2M? Because it can tip the scales in the way you look at your investments. Wiki’s simple example illustrates this point:

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