When a friend or a cousin you haven’t heard from for so long suddenly calls you at the office and invites you to a “business opportunity” meeting, do you:

a) bump off your scheduled meeting in her favor?
b) think of an excuse not to go?
c) tell her to bug off?

Our personal finance feature today from MoneySense says there are around two million Filipinos currently in the network marketing business, based on figures from the Direct Selling Association of the Philippines.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

Get all your accessories and put them in a pile. Think you could have spent all that money on more important things?

Here’s a discovery that will give you your kikay fix but won’t put a dent in your wallet. For guys, pay attention. This is a sure way to serious pogi points from your sweetheart. For balikbayans, here’s where you get unique pasalubongs and trinkets that will not cost a fortune.

Still in Quiapo, walk down Villalobos street from Plaza Miranda and look for a shop called Wellmanson on your right side. Hobbyists and jewelry-makers get their materials from this place. When you get in, make sure you have a shopping list or else our frugal tip will be suspect because believe me, you won’t be able to resist buying the eye candies in this store.

(Headbands for P55.)
[Read the rest of this entry »]

If this is any indication how many Filipinos in their forties or thereabouts are just starting to save, holy macaroni! ☺

The article’s number one spot on Business Most-Read is particularly telling. But hey! I’m glad people are starting to realize saving for the future is one of those things in life we must NOT take for granted. Better late than later, and better late than never

To read the article on Donna, who was smart enough to ask for help on how to start saving even at age 40, click here.
[Read the rest of this entry »]

It was an ordinary Saturday for me last March 22, except for the mangled P500 bill I took out of the BDO automated teller machine. Nope, it definitely doesn’t look like something the girl at SM would take from a customer. After a dismayed sigh, I shrugged it off. A few moments after, I was already contemplating my wet market list and forgot about it.

This morning, I saw the mangled bill again. I must admit I was tempted to forget about it but I could smell a MoneySmart moment, so off I went to the BDO branch near the ATM machine to ask if they can replace the bill.

“I have a sort of weird request,” I told the lady in blue behind a desk. “This is one of the bills I got out of the ATM machine near this branch…” I let my voice trail into a sweet silence.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

We all get that itch periodically to chuck our day jobs and do something crazy and fun and risky with our lives. That “something crazy” can often be interpreted as going into entrepreneurship.

Our personal finance article today gives good advice on a to-do list for people who have taken concrete steps to follow this entrepreneurial craving.

1. Assess how much savings you have. Since most business owners source most of their capital from their personal savings, we assume that you will do the same. Sit down and write how much savings you have. Look not just at your bank accounts, but holdings in mutual funds or unit investment trust funds, or even equities. Are these enough for your share in the starting capital of your business. If not, then you may be thinking that you will earn through the business anyway and will be able to put in additional capital. We caution you against this thinking, as the business may or may not grow as expected in the timeline projected. It would be better to ensure that you personally have enough in your savings to meet capital needs even before you start your business operations [Read the rest of this entry »]

I bought my Canon G6 in SM’s Cyberzone in 2005. Since I was drooling over the EOS 350D at that time, I thought the G6 for P45,000 was already a money-smart compromise. It has video capability too, the rationalizing part of me said. When we took our new digital baby home, we took pictures of even the most ordinary things like doorknobs, light fixtures and fingernails ☺. My 10-year old kid, especially. It felt like a really good buy.

Boy, was I dead wrong. I learned last week that this camera shop called 24K on Hidalgo sold the little rugrat for P17,000 that same year! Original. With warranties and all. I wanted to weep! Rod, the friendly attendant who was referred to me by Edwin Redrino, a really talented professional photographer, was actually concerned for me.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

(Photo from Agence France-Presse)

No self-flagellation here in MoneySmarts this Holy Week break! Let’s list down all our favorite painless ways to increase savings. I’ll go first:

1. Take advantage of SM Advantage (and other store cards). They hardly cost any money and carrying them in your wallet won’t give you even a slight kink in your shoulder. The other week, I bought several grocery items and replacement parts for toilet flush and paid for them with my SM Advantage card. Not bad at all.
2. Don’t forget your rebates and freebies. I learned this the hard way. I forgot all about my expiring Mabuhay Miles and found out I was eligible for a free trip to a Visayas destination only when it was too late. Be careful, though. Rebates, rewards and freebies need to be managed carefully. For example, if Casa Armas is giving you 20% discount on a meal, don’t go just for the discount but go because you would have eaten out anyway. If you went out because “hey, we have a discount, cool!” you wouldn’t have enjoyed 20%, you would have spent 80% of the cost of the meal. [Read the rest of this entry »]

People who are in debt are either in denial, overly anxious or somewhere in between. How do you tell if you are in debt trouble?

Financial planner, author and banker Efren Ll. Cruz recommends keeping debt below 36 percent of gross monthly pay. (Watch a video of this interview here.)

This is a rule of thumb of financial planners, he says. We all know there’s good debt and bad debt, but both of them must be kept low to keep us from “debt trouble.”

[Read the rest of this entry »]

(Traders shout out their orders at the Hong Kong Financial Exchange. File photo from Agence Franc-Presse)

There’s a never-ending oscillation between fear and greed in financial markets, and these days, if you believe the commodities markets, people are very, very scared.

Faced with the plummeting dollar and skyrocketing oil prices, investors are scrambling for safe havens, which include gold and precious metals.

GoldMoney.com founder James Turk, was quoted by Bloomberg as saying:

Gold is not only an inflation hedge, it’s a catastrophe hedge. Gold is becoming increasingly important as the credit crunch continues to spiral out of control.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

*Squirming in my seat*

I have a confession to make. More than 10 years ago, my husband and I won P20,000 when the lotto ticket we bought had five (I think) winning numbers. We received only P19,000 because we didn’t want to go through the whole process of having to claim the winnings, but since then I haven’t seen P19,000 disappear so quickly!

We haven’t bought any ticket since that day, believing that statistical probability will be against another win. But hey, the jackpot has gone up to P158 million! That can fund the retirement and set up a business. Imagine how many kikay shoes I can buy with that kind of money.

Probably, the worst thing that can happen to me is win! How DOES one write about personal finance after buying a lotto ticket? Hehe.

[Read the rest of this entry »]