This just out on Forbes’ Rich List in the Philippines:

Factory worker’s son joins Philippine billionaires

Agence France-Presse
Last updated 03:36pm (Mla time) 10/18/2007

MANILA, Philippines — Andrew Tan, the son of a poor immigrant factory worker from China, has reportedly become the newest addition in more than a decade to the ranks of billionaires in the Philippines.

After restructuring his holding company Alliance Global, Tan’s net worth more than doubled to $1.1 billion from $480 million, Forbes Asia magazine said in its 2007 Philippine Rich List published Thursday.

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How many electronic gadgets do you have in your bag? At home? On your desk at the office? In your car? Not counting of course the electronic thingamajigs that are part of your car?

The way we “consume” technology dictates that we find a way to get the best deals on gadgets. Time was when we scramble to get bargains overseas to shave off high import costs. So my eyes widened a little bit when Augustus J.V. Ferreria, executive vice-president of Generali Pilipinas and a financial planning educator gave this tip: stop buying gadgets overseas.

He has a point. Several, in fact. It’s complicated, not to mention expensive, to return an item in case it’s defective. You’ll also find yourself in a bind if the gadget conks out a few weeks after, and you don’t have an international warranty. Sometimes, even if the manufacturer has local dealers who provide services here, it has to ship the gadgets abroad for fixing.

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Noet Ravalo answered a reader’s question on pre-need plans today in INQUIRER.net:

I have heard so much about pre-need plans — some good but a lot more of what I hear seem scary — and would like to know more without hearing a sales pitch. I have a very young family and I was wondering if it is time to consider an educational plan for the kids and perhaps a memorial plan for my wife and myself. If you think they useful, what should I look out for? — Ronald

Pre-need plans, especially for education, pension and funeral expenses, are financial planning instruments in “tingi”. They break down the costs of children’s education, retirement and funeral expenses. Buying in sachets, of course, is always more expensive than buying in bulk.

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Insurance for children are cheap, sure but in this case, “cheap” doesn’t equate to “good buy.”

The reason is simple. Children don’t need insurance. Our personal finance feature for today says:

Children do not need life insurance. You are not dependent on your child for your income. If your child passes away, you can still continue to work and earn, and life will still go on for you.

Read the entire article here.

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From MoneySense magazine:

Buy term, invest the difference?

Buy when you’re young
Jerry Miraflor, Cocolife first vice president, gives this warning about this strategy: “I’d say, ‘be very careful’. There are a lot of very big ‘ifs’ for that statement to work. You must be young enough and healthy enough to qualify for term insurance.” Once you hit middle age, premiums for term insurance can be expensive.

Have the discipline
Saying “invest the difference” is easy; actually doing it regularly is another matter altogether.

Invest smartly
Jerry says, “You’ve got [to have] the expertise and the time to manage and generally oversee your investments. I’d venture to say that 90% of the general public does not have that expertise.” Of course, you can invest in mutual funds and trust funds that are managed by professional investment managers. You can even automate the process of setting aside money to invest. Nevertheless, you still shouldn’t neglect insurance, adds Jerry.

Read the rest of the article here.

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How do you measure happiness? Let me count the ways… Satisfaction, contentment, spiritual connection, wellness, and closeness to family and friends are just some of the emotions we usually relate to being happy.

I keep asking myself whether I’m happy, probably a sign of getting old. How about you? Have you asked yourself that question lately?

The National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) has tried to remove the guesswork in determining when Filipinos are most happy. The Happiness Index unveiled last Wednesday shows we are most happy when our family life is going well, when we are not sick, when spiritual connections are not rusty, when we have good relationships with friends and, in fifth place, when we have income and financial security.

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How difficult is it to get personal information from the owners of 5 million Philippine-issued credit cards currently out there? It just takes a name, a credit card number, the bank’s name, an ID with a signature and anyone can have a shopping spree charged to your sanity.

It’s not just the Internet that made this all too easy for anyone with a fraudster’s gene in his system. The urge to have everything at the snap of the finger has made a lot of us too lazy, too lax and too careless with our personal information. And don’t think that you’re free of high tech scammers just because we are in the backwaters of the Philippines. The best hackers were born here :-/

Sometimes, even those that are uber careful get victimized. I know a finance professional who almost fell off his seat when he got a call from his credit card company confirming several hundred thousands of purchases in SM Bicutan. He doesn’t even know how to get there. Good thing the credit card company flagged the transaction and called him immediately. The scammer in the gasoline station must have made an extra swipe and got all his credit card information, transferred them into a new credit card and presto – the gas boy’s wallet just got bigger.

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Dan Magallanes, CEO of Headhunter Manila, says your salary should be four times your age. Meaning if you are 30 years old, you should be getting P120,000 monthly – at least.

Bink, blink, blink.

I make a mental roll call of my acquaintances and close friend and find that I can pull out only 10 percent of the names in my roster that meet this rough rule of thumb. CEOs, senior management in a multinational firm or entrepreneurs who have already made it big in their chosen businesses are what their calling cards say.

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Movements in currency markets — whether of the peso versus the dollar, dollar versus the euro, yen, or other currencies — have tremendous impact in our lives. From debt servicing to import costs and, closer to home, the value of 8 million Filipino workers’ earnings as well as other dollar earners like call centers. As a result, millions of eyes follow each little blip and hiccup in the forex markets every day.

Much as financial journalists would like to meet the daily challenge of making each article understandable to grade six students, sometimes that task becomes extremely difficult due to limitations of time, space and, well, ability. As a result, reading currency news can be so confusing.

So here are small tips for beginners who want to understand forex articles, and more to the point, turn this understanding to better money management.

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The peso has been hugging the headlines lately since our little peso-dollar forecast game, so I thought I’d show how your fearless forecasts stacked up with institutional players in the foreign exchange market. 

Some financial investment analysts initially thought the equities, bonds and forex markets will go haywire over the ZTE hearings. What do you know, trading hardly skipped a beat! Stock analysts said the whole thing was just entertainment for them. Where are the tantrums, the excuses to sell, the overreactions and highly dramatic one liners that market players normally reserve for times like these? Is this a sign the local markets are finally maturing? I await with bated breath for more signs. At least, it eliminated volatility and made our guessing game easier.

We had 28 bloggers who gave their fearless forecast for the peso-dollar yearend exchange rates! Here they are:

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