Would you rant and rave? Have sleepless nights? Jump off a cliff?

I can imagine some of you saying, if I had $40 billion more and still ended up as the world’s richest man despite having lost that $18 billion in my bank balance because of the market downturn just as Bill Gates did, it wouldn’t hurt as much.

Warren Buffett came in second with $37 billion, after having lost $25 billion this year. Carlos Slim also managed to get third spot after having lost $25 billion too. Yeah, yeah, poor guys, right? Heh.
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Here’s a little plug for a personal finance seminar that’s totally recommended by MoneySmarts

Do you want a better life for yourself and your family? Are you tired of having too little and not enough? Do you want to achieve a more prosperous life? Then it’s time for a change!

What does it take to become a millionaire? To become a millionaire, you have to think like one! This is the premise of the upcoming seminar entitled “Developing a Millionaire’s Mindset” featuring two of the country’s most inspiring speakers – Francis Kong and Chinkee Tan.

This seminar is aimed at professionals and entrepreneurs who want to take their finances to the next level – the multi-millionaire level. The seminar has been moved to October 16, 2008, 1:30-5:30pm.

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One million is not so much these days. As many of those who commented on my previous article “Are you a millionaire in the making” said, P1 million can hardly buy you an SUV.

But that P1 million figure remains a psychological milestone, one that gives status and encourages a person to do more. Certainly, someone who has hit a net worth of P1 million will not stop there.

I found myself going through online groups reading how people have made their first million –- and it’s pretty addictive! Heh.
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A few hours after it was uploaded, the article “Hidden, self-made millionaires around us” has reached the top slot in the business section’s Most Read list and 9th for the entire INQUIRER.net site. People are either in a hurry to know if people are catching up with them, or leaving them behind.

While writing the article, I was particularly happy to find that there are many millionaires around us who did not inherit their money. I lived in the province during my growing up years, and it seemed that the only way you could get rich is by being born in a wealthy family or marrying into one.

That’s not true anymore.
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I am a martial law baby and have shouted my share of chants at rallies and demonstrations as a student, but what I know of Crispin Beltran are only what I read in the papers.

Today I find myself deep in thought at the life of the lawmaker who fell yesterday to his death while repairing his roof, with merely P50,000 to his name and two barong tagalog, a pair of eyeglasses, cabinet shelves and t-shirts listed as personal assets.

Was Crispin Beltran poor? What does it mean to be poor?

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Business columnist Margie Grey fired off a very interesting question at bestselling personal finance author Efren Cruz during a radio interview last Monday at DZAR Sonshine Radio (1026). She asked

“Is it really possible for a minimum wage earner or someone who makes just enough for a living to become a millionaire?”

I’ve been thinking a lot about that lately. Someone who takes home P382 per day (which includes the P20 scheduled minimum wage hike in the National Capital Region announced last week) gets P7,640 on a monthly basis on a 5-day week, gross. I can’t even imagine what that paycheck looks like after social security deductions.
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What do you give to someone who has everything?A few Christmases ago, Synergeia Foundation president Milwida Guevara found herself worrying what to give to Washington Sycip for Christmas.

Apart from being a well-known figure in the business sector, Wash is one of the reasons Synergeia can do so much work in the education sector, Milwida says. (If you are interested in reading more about this very interesting man, read my favorite professor’s blog post on him here. Butch Dalisay finished his biography on Wash Sycip just this year.) After agonizing about her problem, Milwida bought Wash a toy train that moves on its tracks. You know the type, either your son wants one or your husband does.

“He was so happy with it, he played with it in his office and called his staff to look at the train,” Milwida told me, laughing.

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The urge to splurge and miserly behavior are on opposite sides of the spending habit spectrum, but it’s not too hard to imagine most of us swinging from one side to the other at any given time.

That’s because everyone has weaknesses. I’m not very particular with electronic gadgets, for example, so I lived with a Nokia 3310 when everybody was taking snappy pictures with their latest model mobile phones. My friends told me that was super miserly behavior.

Get me into a kitchen showroom, however, and I will be hard-pressed to don my frugal hat. I “NEED” everything that comes with a nice kitchen, although I don’t know how to cook well! I thought I was moneysmart and was in my safety zone until the kitchen showroom came along. Then boom, sorry spending plan for 2006!

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They tell me it’s hard to be grateful when you’re dead broke. As in zero moolah in your bank account and loads of debt. A good friend told me of a time he was sunk to the tune of millions and it was all he could do to face himself in the mirror in the morning.

I wouldn’t presume to know better what people should feel in those times. But perhaps it would be a good idea to be grateful while I can. After all, it’s Thanksgiving in the US, one of the holidays there that I like and want to import here in the Philippines even if there’s a lot of skepticism about it. Get Rich Slowly has a neat video and post on why Thanksgiving can be good even without turkey circa 1951!

Another reason is that I write about money every day and while I know I should be thankful for what those little coins and bills bring, it’s important to focus on the real reason why we want to fix our finances. Not for money’s sake or the things that go ka-ching, but for things like security, family, health, service to God and community, helping others and so on.

Digerati said it well:

… money is a replaceable asset, a distant second to many other things that we all wish we could permanently have and forever keep, but which we only end up receiving in what seemingly feels like short, sporadic periods throughout our lives.

So, I’m grateful for:

(Photo from AFP)

- time. Time to heal, to make amends, to start over, to think of things celestial, to ponder on light and truth, to laugh aloud
- little grubby fingers that grab you and children who hug you and make you feel you’re 10 feet tall at the end of a crazy busy day
- last week’s momentary misunderstandings, because that means hubby and I are still together after 15 years
- mom’s health and sense of humor
- two home angels who have served my family for years and keep my kalamansi juice fresh
- more than 20 articles waiting to be written, because that means I am doing what I love to do
- friends who text “ei, musta? Wala lang.”
- the feel of fresh sheets
- blogging, which makes me jump up from bed every morning. (I kid you not)
- email and the Internet, for making it possible to work at home

**turns to you, and gives you my full attention**

It’s your turn.

If you haven’t received your Christmas bonus yet, you probably will in the next weeks. You’ll probably be getting anywhere from P50,000 to P100,000. How are you going to spend it? Do you have a good tip on where to put that kind of money?

We gotta plan, or else even P100,000 can vanish without a trace.