wow, this is a very inspiring post. thanks for sharing your thoughts on really living.

thanks

Hi Salve!

I’ve been faithfully reading your blog for a few months now. The turning point in the personal finance aspect of my life was in the beginning of 2008 when my family’s finances finally became stable after a year of emergencies, and I plucked up the courage to look at my financial situation. It was scary to look at all the numbers add up and realize that even if I sold my soul that wouldn’t be enough to pay for what I owed.

Now after almost a year of much personal sacrifice (no gimiks! no taxis! no new clothes! no new makeup!) my debt will be at zero in a few months and I actually have the beginnings of a real savings account. I’ve also taken a course in investing and am carefully planning my initial foray into that scary world. Needless to say owing that much and not having anything to show after seven years of working was a very good motivation.

I love reading your blog because you provide very comprehensive and easy to understand explanations of financial concepts, and once in a while post something like this entry which reminds me that I am not alone in this journey. I know exactly what you mean when you say you “quell the urge” even when you know you have money in the bank.

There are many of us finding our way towards our individual goals and posts like this one give me courage and hope that we will reach it!

Teresa, you must realize you’re wonderfully inspiring as well I love what you said about the comforting thought that we are not alone in our oftentimes very slow journey towards financial security. At times, it can take all our patience and our determination to stick to our goals. So keep sharing and know that we are all cheering you on!

Life is abound with inexpensive and simple pleasures. For me eating “totung” soak in percolated barakong kape with fried “sapsap” is heavenly. Though I doubt if Anthony Bourdain and those of you who were born with silver spoons would agree with me on the tastes of sapsap.

I grow up with sapsap. Al.tang.hap sapsap. After all these years living here in the land of milk and honey, bacon, ham and egg… still the pleasure of sapsap and champorado is my number one favorito.

So, folks forget about the Preneed scams or debacles. I too have had foolish mistake of investing large chunk of money at Mindoro Resources Ltd., I am loosing 95% my initial investment of more than million pesos. In spite of my ‘katangahan”, put another way, excessive wanting for more, a.k.a., greediness, the grieving is waning.

Family bonding, health and unwavering faith to the Almighty are more important than money. Yes, money is necessary but let not lords it over you.

I had proven the saying “if there’s a will, there’s a way” is true in so many endeavors I have had accomplished out of mere guts and determination. The Filipino resourcefulness is one among the good characters that make them thrive financially and professionally wherever they are.

Live simply with the heart and mind of a good king or queen. Wise as a serpent, tender like a dove. Keep the faith.

i wish you were my wife, Salve…. hehehe. How i wish ALL the women of the world (ok…fine, women of the Philippines) would think twice or thrice before spending that money meant for something more important….

very inspiring to see a post like this. i’ve been working for about a decade and feel i am so behind my financial goal. now i feel i am not alone. thanks to you salve (and teresa too :o) )

i grew up in a family who just live with the basic necessitiesof life. so i had the discipline that i can postpone my purchase specially if it is a want. my mother’s voice would always pop in my mind, “do you really need that”? “buying on credit is costly - why dont you save and buy it when you can”. “do you really need a new pair of shoes?”

now, a mother myself i am glad that my my mom instilled in me this kind of value for money. but the challenge is tough with my children now. i am torn between not letting them experience the bad times i had when my mom.

but the financial condition now affirms that i have to stick with my mother’s money values.

living less is a way of life. no big deal.

Ako rin, I’m a more outdoorsy type of person, so I’m planning on getting a vegetable garden started. I also have carpentry as a hobby, and even if I want to start on these projects ASAP, I have to be realistic that I have to plan for these things one step at a time instead of doing all of them in one go. I have a 6-month emergency fund stashed, but I’m still saving up for a year’s worth, since I have some dependents (not including my pets!)

It’s tempting to use it, but the idea that I might not have money to spend on financial emergencies is more terrifying.

hope to drop by and visit your garden home someday

My wife and I were in the same situation where we just bought a house 3 months ago. The house is a foreclosure from the bank so we got a very good price and the inside was miraculously well kept and we did nothing on the house except to paint the walls to our liking as it was painted all white as if it’s like a blank canvas. The yard outside was bare and most of the plants and grass died because it was vacant for about 5 months before we bought it. I was planning to do some gardening when we were just in the buying process and it’s been 3 months now since we move in and I have not planted a single plant yet thinking that the economy might get worse and I will need all the savings I got to pay for the mortgage and our day to day living expenses so I’m not doing anything at this time to do any improvement. It’s kinda wait and see attitude I think for most of us who are planning to do some improvements in our home. Regards to everybody in this post and Mabuhay!

Leo, sarap ng sapsap!

robert, oh i have my moments too

mayeni, oh no you are definitely not alone!

Letty, Ilocanos trump Bicolanos when it comes to being stingy, but we fire-eating people also have our own cheapness factor, right?

frugal pinoy, which vegetables are you thinking of raising? In my old house, we used to have a banana tree, okra, and eggplants. It’s cool to see them grow and to cook the produce!

paetechie, here’s hoping that the funds for the garden will soon come!

ronald, congratulations on keeping that perspective. I know how it can be so tempting to do everything all at once.

@ Salve: The vegetables I tend to use a lot, such as tomatoes, lettuce, eggplant, bell peppers.

I also want to plant more herbs. Right now I just have parsley and oregano.

Kung makahanap nga lang ako ng source ng spores, harvest na rin ako ng sarili kong mushrooms!

hi salve,

i just read your comment to my post. Ur Bicolana too? :-).

lada. sili. maharang. bicol express. pinangat…

letty

@Ms Salve,

Hirap ma-emulate ang disiplina mo. There’s indeed so much inspiration from this posting, and I can only wish I possessed the same discipline to keep my hands off my pocket.

@Teresa
“…owing that much and not having anything to show after seven years of working was a very good motivation.” I had the same look at my situation months ago. and it feels good to know you can actually start on a clean slate again.

@Ms Salve,
Sarap din mag-imagine, or mag-visualize ng financial goal lalo na pag bahay. That’s mostly what I do these days, kaya dinadaan ko na ring sa blogging. It encourages me to visualize the future that I want and zoom in on what I’m doing now and how it affects my goals. Minsan boring so I allow myself some ‘bad behavior’ every now and then.