Femaad’s experience on accidentally stumbling upon a townhouse on rush sale is a perfect opportunity to start a discussion on home-buying tips, especially now that Filipinos are buying houses both for investment and for old age.

(Photo courtesy of Michelle Morelos).

It also illustrates how liquidity is the twin of opportunity. This is what she shared:

My husband and I have been renting since we got married in 2000. Medyo mahal rent namin - P30,000 a month. Before reading on financial independence, okay kami with that rent. Afterwards, we decided to downgrade and look for a cheaper place na comfortable, nice-looking naman, and secure. In the process of looking for a place to rent, we came across a townhouse for sale. Wala pa sanang planong bumili, but the corner unit’s price was a good deal, considering it was within town (hindi outskirts), about 500 meters from a jeepney line, with adequate water, good neighbors. It had three toilets and baths, four bedrooms, and a two-car garage. Nearby units were selling at P1 million to P2 million more. Cash kasi gusto ng nagbebenta kaya mas mura. Even my brother who’s a realtor and his friend, the head of chamber of commerce in our place, said we might not come across such a deal again.

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Our bestest buddy Bill Gates is no longer the world’s richest man, says Fortune magazine.

NEW YORK — Microsoft founder Bill Gates has lost his claim as the world’s richest person, ceding the title to Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim Helu, according to Fortune magazine. By most calculations, Gates has been considered for at least the past decade to be the wealthiest person alive, but strong performance by Slim’s holdings on the Mexican stock exchange in recent months had pushed Gates into second place. “By our calculations, the 67-year-old Slim has amassed a 59 billion-dollar fortune, based on the value of his public holdings at the end of July,” Fortune magazine reported in its latest edition, due to hit newsstands this week. “This number puts him just ahead of perennial number one, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, whose net worth is estimated to be at least 58 billion dollars.”

So, what would you do if you were Slim and you had a $59-billion fortune? Would it solve problems? How would this amount of money change the way you live?

Microsoft executive Bill Gates and Mexican telecommunications tycoon Carlos Slim Helu. Photo from AFP.

I’m almost always in a rush when I’m at the grocery store, so I hardly listen to hurried invitations from cashiers to get my raffle coupons. Supposedly, these raffle coupons will give me the chance to enter the rank of millionaires.

“What kind of marketing gimmick is that anyway?” I asked with disdain over the weekend, during yet another foray into the consumer haven that is SM Hypermarket. I was trying to follow my own personal finance advice after all, and that is to get in, buy the stuff I need, and get out as quickly as I can :-).

Apparently, however, this marketing gimmick is more popular than I thought. Have you noticed how many raffle gimmicks are out there?
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1. Do you have experience in providing advice on the topics below? If yes, indicate the number of years.

• Retirement planning
• Investment planning
• Tax planning
• Estate planning
• Insurance planning
• Integrated planning
• Other

2. What are your areas of specialization? What qualifies you in this field?

3. How long have you been offering financial planning advice to clients?

• Less than one year
• One to four years
• Five to 10 years
• More than 10 years
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More tips from the Live Green Movement.

Keep your car tuned up.
Keeping your air filter clean saves 800 pounds of carbon dioxide, and P1,500 a year. Make sure your tires are adequately inflated, and save 250 pounds of carbon dioxide, and up to P40,000 in fuel costs each year.

Avoid idling: turn off your car engine in heavy traffic.
If your car will idle for more than 45 seconds, it’s more fuel-efficient to turn off the engine and restart the car when you’re ready to go.

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You don’t have to save the cheerleader to save the world :-). You can even save money while doing it, so says the Live Green Movement.

So here are some more tips on reducing energy and water consumption that’s also easy on the checkbook, in addition to the very informative links from qwerty.

Living green at home.
A sizeable 46 percent of energy use is energy loss. That’s electricity being consumed for no productive use, such as when you keep your cellphone charger permanently plugged into a wall outlet. By keeping unused electronic appliances truly switched off, you save more than 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide and around P12,500 a year.

Ortigas skyline last July 14. Photo from PDI.

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As a starry-eyed bride back in 19-something, I told my husband: “When we make our first million, what do you think about putting up a school for street children?”

The world was unraveling before us. I felt like I could conquer the world. You know the feeling :-). I admit there are still fleeting moments now when I still feel that I could.

Unfortunately, no one quite explained to me then exactly how I could make my first million. An article to be posted today (already posted. Click here to read the article) in INQUIRER.net’s Personal Finance section puts the strategy down pat. It details how much you need to save, with a few return-on-investment scenarios in mind. It talks about the science and art that is needed in making your first million.

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Did I just say the “D” word? *looks over my shoulder like a paranoid scam artist (haha, sorry I couldn’t resist!)*

During the Registered Financial Planning course that I took last year, the lawyer who lectured about estate planning kept on using euphemisms like kicked the bucket, passed on, met his maker, gone under, crossed over. He just couldn’t say the word “death” and it was amusing to see his face contortions whenever he had to talk about it.

I’m not a linguist, but it’s obvious that language is a mirror image of culture and human behavior. Filipinos don’t like to talk of death – especially when someone’s on his deathbed. A financial planner that I know had to be hired by a family just to tell the old man that he was going to die soon and he had to figure out how to divide his estate for everyone’s sake.

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Reader mike posted a stinging reaction to my post on putting a price tag on friendships and family:

“So why do we have to believe what Powdthavee wrote? I think the question about people leaving their families to work abroad is a bit judgmental. You will never understand their predicament because you are not in their position.”

I apologize. It was not my intention to sound like I was sitting in judgment over decisions that clearly were not easy and took many things in consideration…things that I absolutely knew nothing about.

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Many mansions house sad people, and yet there are shanties that often ring with real laughter. One of my happiest memories happened at a time when my husband and I were just about to have our first baby, when we were living in cramped quarters, did not have a car, and when our paychecks were very small. Thinking about it now, truly the future looked bleak at that time! But I still remember how simple it was back then to laugh heartily at a simple joke.

On the other hand, lack of money can also cause unhappiness, discontent, failed marriages and frustration. Thus the question in my mind is: how do you measure happiness? What is the value to us of friends, relatives, neighbors and other relationships?

Nattavudh Powdthavee, a social economist at the University of London, released an intriguing study early last month that used shadow pricing method to measure happiness when people talk more often to friends, relatives and neighbors.
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