Mutual funds are sold as the investment for the masses, allowing ordinary Filipinos with as little as P5,000 to get their feet wet in an instantly diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds, or both.

It was a little bit of a surprise to find out that the average mutual fund investor as of June 30, 2008 has a placement of roughly P483,820 in mutual funds — not your average Filipino, obviously. That’s an impressive little factoid.

Based on official figures from the Investment Company Association of the Philippines (ICAP), this figure is lower than the average investment size of P580,843 in December 2007, which is again lower than P622,079 in June 30, 2007.
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We’ve been talking about money, money, money and how we must make more and lose less. Why we should dig deep to know our money personality. Use that to create a strategy for saving more and saving smart. Count our change and use them. How we must agonize over how to grow our nest egg well enough to fund kids’ education and retirement.

I don’t know why but sometimes, being broke and happy sounds like a mystical, deserted, paradise beach where the wind and waves can sound as sweet as Pachelbel’s Canon in D.

Pinoy Penman, who confessed to an addiction to eBay, says he is broke but happy.

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At the press briefing for the 2nd Philippine International Motor Show held last Tuesday, automotive manufacturers promised to tell car buyers what they really need to know to “get all that jazz with less gas” and what they need to do to squeeze more mileage for every liter of gas or diesel.

Homer Maranan, executive director of The Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines (CAMPI) shared the following tips:

1. Buy smaller engine vehicles if your family is small
2. Go for diesel-powered cars. He says it is a misnomer to say that diesel is dirtier than gas (although some “insiders” swear by that.)
3. Avoid stop-and-go driving and sudden acceleration as much as possible as this uses more gas
4. Paying for proper and regular maintenance is more frugal in the long-term

Watch my video interview with Maranan with reporter Izah Morales.

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A reader once asked me if it is possible for a financial planner to grow her portfolio for her, but pay her for any losses if her money shrinks for any reason. It was a jaw-dropping email.

People are attracted to the idea of having a financial planner, but the expectations have to be clear from the very beginning. This video should give you an idea what financial planners should and cannot do for you.

Couple Diego and Bianca have finished their one-year life experiment with Money Makeover and the main events of that story is published today in page B2 of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. They have decided to continue having a financial planner and asked Nannette Ferreria, wife of Augustus J.V. Ferreria, to take that role. (This is their personal choice.)

In this video, the Ferrerias give a brief summary of what happened during the one-year experiment and how the couple should move forward. Enjoy.

This email from a reader spoke of desperation:

I’ve seen your blog in Inquirer.net. And I am one of those people who is trying to fix my life. I’m an accountant, but seems like I am terrible in handling my finances. Last year was the worst year of my life. I incurred huge debt, credit cards & personal loans, due to wrong decisions that I made.

I am now haunted by my creditors. I defaulted in payments, but I am starting now to pay them one by one. Since I incurred loans in different banks and credit card companies, they are charging me huge interest and some are already threatening to sue me in court. I’m willing to pay them all, but I can’t give it in one payment. I want to go on with my life. I have a happy family and I don’t want them to be affected with my problem.

The only solution that I know is to get a single loan to repay all of my debt. But how? I already have a bad credit history. No bank would trust me again. – David (not his real name)

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a) Naïve college freshie –- all of 16 years
b) Cool college senior –- all of 20 years
c) When she gets her first job – maybe 21?
d) When she gets the ripe old age of 25 and beyond

I tried, but wasn’t able to find any formal regulation against giving credit cards to young people. (Even at 25, I will still probably think of my daughter as young!). But as some of you who commented in this blog pointed out, the very young can easily burn that credit card and end up with bad credit at a very young age. It wasn’t too long ago when we all felt immortal…

But we all know why misusing credit cards is a nightmare waiting to happen. Thoughts?

(Photo courtesy of Aladdin Cordero)

Many of us choose schools for our children based on proximity to our houses. Bad idea.

I wasted more than P10,000 after I enrolled my son in a “Montessori” school on Visayas Ave. But that’s not even my biggest regret. The school had horrible teaching staff, hidden fees and they forced 6-year-olds to do cursive writing and count up to one million –- in summer class before the actual school year. I checked with Education Secretary Jesli Lapuz and he said that was not the prescribed curriculum for this age group because they are not yet pedagogically prepared for such tasks.

After three days, my son became depressed. Can you imagine a depressed 6-year-old child? After the second day, he told me he didn’t understand why he was shaking in school when the Grade One teacher forced him to finish the writing drills. I remember thinking then that I could kick myself for not investigating the school before enrolling him.

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(Photo from Agence France-Presse)

Two of my girl friends and I went on a different kind of bonding trip recently. Off went our strappy sandals and on came our boots and sturdy walking shoes to check out fruits and vegetables in the Balintawak market in Quezon City.

Both Jenny Angoluan and Analy Pinaroc are busy moms with husbands and children who love vegetables and fruits, and with prices skyrocketing, the three of us thought it would be fun to see how the prices differ. Jenny’s husband waited two hours in the car for us, but loved the veggies.

Here’s the price list. Feast your eyes!
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Time flies by so fast. MoneySmarts quietly turned one last summer. To make the celebration really special, we are giving loyal readers first crack at limited seats for an interactive personal finance seminar.

Together with Citibank, which is celebrating its 100th Take Charge Of Your Money column for INQUIRER.net, and MoneySense magazine, we hope that this personal finance seminar will bring our discussions to a new level.

The promotions for this seminar is officially going to start Monday next week, but MoneySmarts readers who want to be there can email register (at) iluvlearning (dot) com beginning today.

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