As I look back from 2002 to 2009, I was struck by the fact that it was indeed a Seven Years of Famine so far.
In Exodus, Joseph the Dreamer , son of Jacob, was asked by the Pharaoh what his dream meant. It was about a forthcoming 7 years of famine. And he advised the Pharaoh to issue an order in the whole of Egypt to make sure that 1/5 of the harvest are saved. And this is what Egypt did and they survived till the next good harvest finally resumed. They did not just survived, they even made a big growth in their economy as the countries and kingdoms around them purchased their goods from them.
Relating it to what is currently happening to our country and the world, it is a stark reality of the same thing that happened in Joseph's time. And it's a vicious cycle. It happens every so often though varying in depth and expanse. Only lately has this economic famine hit its greatest devastation of the world economy that even the economic giants folded on its knees.
What's the lesson behind this bible story in relation to Steps to Riches? Very much relevant and apparent. But let me spell it out to those who still don't get it. Those that had saved and invested their hard earned money in the last seven years will have the sure chance for survival no matter what happens in the next coming years.
Let me show you why? If you had been receiving a salary of 50K/month and you had save 20% of it or 10k/month and invested it wisely on an instrument that earns 12% (note some Mutual Funds even performed better than 12 % in the last 7 years) for seven consecutive years, by this time, you should have more than a Million Pesos and you can survive for more than 20 months even without working. And you can invest your 1M and it will earn more than 120K per month sufficient for your needs.
Now check your own savings if you have any. Is it within 5%, or 2%? You wont survive specially if you are suddenly retrenched from your work. You are a month away from bankruptcy.
So where and when do you start. Start now. Pay yourself first. Save and Invest. Reduce your Expense and Increase your income by using your spare time. You may not be able to achieve what you could have if you started earlier but at least you'll be away from being in a debt hole. Start to teach your kids as well.
Look for financial mentors who will show you the way on correct and safe investing and saving. Be careful in choosing your mentors. Ensure it is your benefit they are really after and not your meager income or your few remaining savings. Increase your financial intelligence. Go with people with the same discipline and advocacy. Go and find an IMG Associate nearest you. Or better yet...contact me.
I'll share to you my secret of surviving and thriving in this economic crisis, and you will also have the opportunity to earn additional income for your family too.
God bless.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Saturday, December 26, 2009
The Tired, the Retired, and the Re-Tired
The Tired, the Retired, and the Re-Tired
Randell Tiongson
Here is a nice blog written by my good friend Edmund Lao. Edmund is a Registered Financial Planner and and advocate of financial literacy for Pinoys. Excellent piece, a must read. — Randell
————————————-
GUEST BLOG
The Tired, the Retired, and the Re-Tired
By Edmund Lao
Have you ever heard employees say that they feel sick and tired of being sick and tired? The reason they feel this way is because they have been doing the same thing over and over for years and they are still the in the same situation the day they entered the corporate world. This situation is analogous to a person running on a treadmill. No matter how long the distance shown in the odometer, he is still on the same spot. Such is the predicament of the present day employees. Sadly but with truth, Robert Kiyosaki said that all employees are in a rat race. In a rat race, employees never get rich no matter how much they tire themselves. It is because all they know is to earn income that is directly proportional to the effort they exert. They did not learn and put into practice the methodology to increase their income passively after earning it actively. If they were able to build their wealth during their productive years, they would be able to enjoy the fruit of their labor during their golden years. In any thing that we do, we always feel relieved and indefatigable after we had achieved our target. With building our finances, for sure we would have felt the same. The only time we feel tired and frustrated is when we realize that all our effort were all spent in vain. That is how employees feel today, No matter how hard they strive, they could not make both ends meet and are always deep in debt. They always look for loan and then they work hard to be able to pay their balance due, then get a new loan again, and the cycle repeats. That is the life of the tired employees.
The Retired
For majority, retirement means the end of their corporate life. There are some who felt a sense of insecurity. On the other hand, there are some who felt they are finally granted independence from their voluntary prison cell of twenty to thirty years. They also see this as opportunity to build their own business.
A lot of people mistakenly correlate retirement with age when in fact, retirement has something to do with personal net worth and cash flow. The sooner a person reaches his financial goals, the sooner he can retire and enjoy life. Normally, employees are retired by age 55 or 60, and assuming they have served quite a number of years, say 25 years, some enjoy the benefit of a big amount of retirement pay.
I have heard of a company that paid almost five million pesos retirement benefit to an employee after 30 years of qualified service. So to those people who regularly transfer from one company to another, it is advisable for them to do the math first before making a decision. The problem that is often encountered come retirement day is that the retiree was not qualified to the retirement pay due to limited tenure of service. Then the only source of retirement income he will receive is from SSS. Jokingly, it can be termed as Living On SSS or LOSSS (rhymes with loss).
On the other hand, the retiree who received a huge amount may want to reward himself after working hard for so long that he carelessly spent or invested all his retirement funds. His has the risk of outliving his fund and when that happens, he will be in the same shoe with that of the one who retired broke. It is not a bad idea to reward one’s self, but he has to be very careful in controlling his emotion specially the excitement of a spending spree.
The Re-tired
What if the retiree became broke after retirement? The usual thing to do is to go to his favorite orphanage institution, his children. He will now experience reality. The time he has abundance, he was the asset and favorite “visitor” of his loved ones. With his present situation, he is now an overstaying liability especially to his sons/daughters- in law. If he has wealthy children, then luck is on his side. Otherwise, he can be compared to a basketball since he will be passed on from one son to another. The former good provider to his children is now a burden to them. The children become “sandwiched” since they have to support their own children and now, their aged parents.
With this kind of scenario, the once happily retired person, out of shame, has no other option but to return to the corporate world to get rehired again (if ever he succeeds considering the competition in job hunting nowadays) and do the things a tired employee does. He is what we can call the re-tired employee because he will just duplicate what he has done as a tired employee.
Solution
From being tired to being re-tired, we can see there is a common denominator, money. Out of desperation, some opt to doing part time work other than the regular job. There are those who voluntarily work overtime as needed. Worse, there are some who resort to theft of time and money from their company. This is a common problem in the workplace.
Employees complain of inadequate pay but they do not realize that it is their lifestyle that has a bearing on their personal finance. Their lifestyle reflects a “living beyond their means” and “keeping up with the Joneses” principle.
The key is to be frugal, budget by reducing unwanted expenses, and most importantly, pay forward so that later, the retired no longer needs to be re-tired.
In order to achieve that, a correct money attitude is a must. Money is just a tool and we are the ones who should manipulate it. Early on, acquire a good habit of disciplined savings regardless of the amount.
That way, there will be a possibility that your accumulated fund may outlive you. In that case, you have the opportunity to leave a legacy to your family.
Allow me to end this article by quoting the Proverbs:
Proverbs 13:11 “Dishonest money will dwindle, but money gathered little by little will surely grow.”
Proverbs 13:22. ”A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children”
Special thanks to my very good friend, Engr Rudy Calingo of Metrobank Head Office, General Service Groups, for coming up with the title of this article.
Randell Tiongson
Here is a nice blog written by my good friend Edmund Lao. Edmund is a Registered Financial Planner and and advocate of financial literacy for Pinoys. Excellent piece, a must read. — Randell
————————————-
GUEST BLOG
The Tired, the Retired, and the Re-Tired
By Edmund Lao
Have you ever heard employees say that they feel sick and tired of being sick and tired? The reason they feel this way is because they have been doing the same thing over and over for years and they are still the in the same situation the day they entered the corporate world. This situation is analogous to a person running on a treadmill. No matter how long the distance shown in the odometer, he is still on the same spot. Such is the predicament of the present day employees. Sadly but with truth, Robert Kiyosaki said that all employees are in a rat race. In a rat race, employees never get rich no matter how much they tire themselves. It is because all they know is to earn income that is directly proportional to the effort they exert. They did not learn and put into practice the methodology to increase their income passively after earning it actively. If they were able to build their wealth during their productive years, they would be able to enjoy the fruit of their labor during their golden years. In any thing that we do, we always feel relieved and indefatigable after we had achieved our target. With building our finances, for sure we would have felt the same. The only time we feel tired and frustrated is when we realize that all our effort were all spent in vain. That is how employees feel today, No matter how hard they strive, they could not make both ends meet and are always deep in debt. They always look for loan and then they work hard to be able to pay their balance due, then get a new loan again, and the cycle repeats. That is the life of the tired employees.
The Retired
For majority, retirement means the end of their corporate life. There are some who felt a sense of insecurity. On the other hand, there are some who felt they are finally granted independence from their voluntary prison cell of twenty to thirty years. They also see this as opportunity to build their own business.
A lot of people mistakenly correlate retirement with age when in fact, retirement has something to do with personal net worth and cash flow. The sooner a person reaches his financial goals, the sooner he can retire and enjoy life. Normally, employees are retired by age 55 or 60, and assuming they have served quite a number of years, say 25 years, some enjoy the benefit of a big amount of retirement pay.
I have heard of a company that paid almost five million pesos retirement benefit to an employee after 30 years of qualified service. So to those people who regularly transfer from one company to another, it is advisable for them to do the math first before making a decision. The problem that is often encountered come retirement day is that the retiree was not qualified to the retirement pay due to limited tenure of service. Then the only source of retirement income he will receive is from SSS. Jokingly, it can be termed as Living On SSS or LOSSS (rhymes with loss).
On the other hand, the retiree who received a huge amount may want to reward himself after working hard for so long that he carelessly spent or invested all his retirement funds. His has the risk of outliving his fund and when that happens, he will be in the same shoe with that of the one who retired broke. It is not a bad idea to reward one’s self, but he has to be very careful in controlling his emotion specially the excitement of a spending spree.
The Re-tired
What if the retiree became broke after retirement? The usual thing to do is to go to his favorite orphanage institution, his children. He will now experience reality. The time he has abundance, he was the asset and favorite “visitor” of his loved ones. With his present situation, he is now an overstaying liability especially to his sons/daughters- in law. If he has wealthy children, then luck is on his side. Otherwise, he can be compared to a basketball since he will be passed on from one son to another. The former good provider to his children is now a burden to them. The children become “sandwiched” since they have to support their own children and now, their aged parents.
With this kind of scenario, the once happily retired person, out of shame, has no other option but to return to the corporate world to get rehired again (if ever he succeeds considering the competition in job hunting nowadays) and do the things a tired employee does. He is what we can call the re-tired employee because he will just duplicate what he has done as a tired employee.
Solution
From being tired to being re-tired, we can see there is a common denominator, money. Out of desperation, some opt to doing part time work other than the regular job. There are those who voluntarily work overtime as needed. Worse, there are some who resort to theft of time and money from their company. This is a common problem in the workplace.
Employees complain of inadequate pay but they do not realize that it is their lifestyle that has a bearing on their personal finance. Their lifestyle reflects a “living beyond their means” and “keeping up with the Joneses” principle.
The key is to be frugal, budget by reducing unwanted expenses, and most importantly, pay forward so that later, the retired no longer needs to be re-tired.
In order to achieve that, a correct money attitude is a must. Money is just a tool and we are the ones who should manipulate it. Early on, acquire a good habit of disciplined savings regardless of the amount.
That way, there will be a possibility that your accumulated fund may outlive you. In that case, you have the opportunity to leave a legacy to your family.
Allow me to end this article by quoting the Proverbs:
Proverbs 13:11 “Dishonest money will dwindle, but money gathered little by little will surely grow.”
Proverbs 13:22. ”A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children”
Special thanks to my very good friend, Engr Rudy Calingo of Metrobank Head Office, General Service Groups, for coming up with the title of this article.
Financial Literacy is Equal to Building Assets
From Robert Kiyosaki:
It is possible to become wealthy without money…
People often ask Robert and Kim how they can get started investing with little or no money. Their answer: invest in your financial education. This is because, after years of experience, they’ve learned that you and your financial intelligence are your most important assets. There are always opportunities to do deals and make money, but only someone with financial education can see and capitalize on the best opportunities.
It is possible to become wealthy without money…
People often ask Robert and Kim how they can get started investing with little or no money. Their answer: invest in your financial education. This is because, after years of experience, they’ve learned that you and your financial intelligence are your most important assets. There are always opportunities to do deals and make money, but only someone with financial education can see and capitalize on the best opportunities.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Practical Gift!
Christmas is time for giving and loving. Giving something material and yet practical is our current challenge this season of giving. Especially if you are attuned to the financial situations of people around you.
Many Christmases passed and I'm sure you have received one of these gifts: Fruit Cake, Towels (all sizes) , Photo Album, Bottle of Wine... (I see you nodding your head in agreement), Diary, Book, and many more. These are beautiful gifts as they are given with love. And I too received or had given such gifts.
Many of us received so much of these gifts that we even have to pass it on as gift to our family and friends. Recycled gifts, that is what we can call them , right?
But in our assessment of today's situation, we find the best gift would simply be Cash Gifts or Gift Checks. This way, you eliminate the added cost of wrappings, eliminating also so much thrash, and we also eliminate cost of transportation from going to and from a mall to buy our gifts. Some of us even go to Divisoria to buy inexpensive gifts, not considering the cost of going there plus the hassle of squeezing your way to multitudes of people.
Give something practical, something the people you'll give it can use, something from the heart, and Cash or Gift Checks are my recommendation this Christmas!
God bless!
Many Christmases passed and I'm sure you have received one of these gifts: Fruit Cake, Towels (all sizes) , Photo Album, Bottle of Wine... (I see you nodding your head in agreement), Diary, Book, and many more. These are beautiful gifts as they are given with love. And I too received or had given such gifts.
Many of us received so much of these gifts that we even have to pass it on as gift to our family and friends. Recycled gifts, that is what we can call them , right?
But in our assessment of today's situation, we find the best gift would simply be Cash Gifts or Gift Checks. This way, you eliminate the added cost of wrappings, eliminating also so much thrash, and we also eliminate cost of transportation from going to and from a mall to buy our gifts. Some of us even go to Divisoria to buy inexpensive gifts, not considering the cost of going there plus the hassle of squeezing your way to multitudes of people.
Give something practical, something the people you'll give it can use, something from the heart, and Cash or Gift Checks are my recommendation this Christmas!
God bless!
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
You Need A Coach & a Community
Being Happy, Healthy, Wealthy and Holy is easier said than done.
In the four aspects of life: Faith, Family, Fortune, and Health , there is a need for us to have continuing education and guidance. And, the best guidance we can have is by having a coach. A coach you have direct access and have continuing contact like that of Freddie Roach to a Manny Pacquiao.
You can learn almost anything, but it will take a great amount of energy and time to be good at anything unless you have mentor or coach to speed up your learning process. Somebody who can show you the way to do it and what improvements you have to do.
Furthermore, your skills and capabilities are honed further if you have a support community, that has the same directions and aspirations in life.
Let's focus on the aspect of True Riches. You can surely achieve true riches , if you are mentored by someone like Bro Bo Sanchez, or those who have applied what he preaches. You will have a sure way of building your solid financial future if you are mentored by people who knows the way. You have to get into an environment and be with people with the same goals so you get refreshed, supported and do not get stray. Much like that of going to church every Sunday.
I can show you the way. I can be your mentor. I can lead you to a community of people who really really want to be Truly Rich ( God's New Breed of Millionaires)... Call me, text me or see me in my office...
GOd bless!
In the four aspects of life: Faith, Family, Fortune, and Health , there is a need for us to have continuing education and guidance. And, the best guidance we can have is by having a coach. A coach you have direct access and have continuing contact like that of Freddie Roach to a Manny Pacquiao.
You can learn almost anything, but it will take a great amount of energy and time to be good at anything unless you have mentor or coach to speed up your learning process. Somebody who can show you the way to do it and what improvements you have to do.
Furthermore, your skills and capabilities are honed further if you have a support community, that has the same directions and aspirations in life.
Let's focus on the aspect of True Riches. You can surely achieve true riches , if you are mentored by someone like Bro Bo Sanchez, or those who have applied what he preaches. You will have a sure way of building your solid financial future if you are mentored by people who knows the way. You have to get into an environment and be with people with the same goals so you get refreshed, supported and do not get stray. Much like that of going to church every Sunday.
I can show you the way. I can be your mentor. I can lead you to a community of people who really really want to be Truly Rich ( God's New Breed of Millionaires)... Call me, text me or see me in my office...
GOd bless!
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Dreams have Deadlines
Taken from article of: J. Randell Tiongson,RFP®
Sometime ago, I had lunch with a mentor of mine, Rex Mendoza (of the giant real-estate conglomerate Ayala Land). Rex was one of my mentors in financial planning; there are many things I learned from him that pretty much influenced my career as a personal-finance coach and educator.
Financial planners are not known for extravagance and flamboyance—in fact, people have always looked at us as misers. Financial planners are very prudent people; they are not the kind that will spend money on a whim and will really take a lot of time trying to ascertain needs from wants. My friend Rex was very much a financial planner in all sense, highly knowledgeable in the aspect of personal finance and one who really practices what he preaches. However, the Rex I was having lunch with seemed to be a different person, a changed man singing a different tune. What happened to my old mentor? Has he gone to the dark side? I was trying to figure out who I was having lunch with. Years ago, this was the guy who was telling me that every peso counts, that Starbucks coffee was evil (because of the cost) and that investing was the only activity we should engage in...get the drift? The “new” guy I was having lunch with was talking about expensive LED lighting, koi pond and exquisite veneers for his house renovation, playing golf every weekend, traveling all over...and I almost choked on what I was eating when he mentioned driving a Porsche. That’s it, I am certain that my old mentor and friend has been possessed, cloned or just plain, well, lost his marbles. I was just about to gag this guy to ask him what he did with my friend when he uttered something that pretty much left me speechless for a few moments: “Randell, after all these years, I finally realized that ‘dreams have deadlines.’” Er, what—say that again?
My lunch encounter with a former mentor got me into thinking, and the words “dreams have deadlines” seemed to me like experiencing LSS (last-song syndrome). Financial planners have been preaching about living a life of extremes while the real world has a totally different view with regard to the use of money. Filipinos and financial stability are two words you don’t normally see in one sentence. Just look around you—how many of your acquaintances do you know need a spanking with the way they handle their finances? Our country remains to have the lowest savings rate even in Asia, yet we see a steady increase in consumer debt among our population—a definite recipe for disaster. The solution: financial literacy. If our brothers and sisters become financially literate and have a better mindset with regard to the way they use their money, we would definitely see a lot more happier people. The solution is simple—or is it?
As financial planners, are we getting our message across? Are Pinoys any closer to financial freedom? I am elated to see more and more financial planners, more books and articles and a gazillion blogs on personal finance. I’ve seen, heard, read a lot about personal finance of late—some are great messages; while others are really rubbish, but at least the message to do something about one’s personal finance is being mentioned. Let me repeat my earlier question, are we getting our message across? From my perspective, it seems that whatever we are doing is a mere drop in the bucket, and my colleagues in this field need to realize that we are not as effective as we believe we are (apologies to bruising the egos of my colleagues). There’s definitely nothing wrong with what we are advocating, and our message is extremely relevant. I believe that there is something wrong with the manner we convey our message. To the real world out there, we sound like condescending self-righteous bigots telling everyone they are wrong and we are right. Have you heard personal-finance speakers? They will tell you not to drink Starbucks coffee and stick to 3-in-1 or not to buy a flat TV or a new car. They will tell you that gratification is evil and will burn you. Let me use an analogy here: It’s like hearing a preacher tell you that ogling a beautiful woman will cost you eternal damnation. Yes, they are probably right, but they may not look at things from the right perspective. It’s not just about the message, it’s also about the delivery of the message.
I think it’s about time people like us realize that folks have dreams and they must enjoy these while they can. Dreams do have a deadline, as my mentor aptly phrased it. Are you going to have that dream family house when all your children are grown up and have moved out of the house? Will you buy that nice flat TV when your eyesight has become so weak? Our life has a timeline and we must act according to the set time we have. I like how the Bible puts it—“Man’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed” (Job 14:5, NIV). Knowing what we want in life is critical and the way we live should be reflective of our goals. It’s not all about accumulation of wealth that we should be concerned about but also the purpose for accumulating wealth.
It’s about time we really know what our dreams are and that our “dreams have deadlines”; it’s about time we know the purpose of our dreams. Oh, it’s also about time for financial planners to change the way they sing their song. “The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor” (1 Corinthians 3:8)..
Sometime ago, I had lunch with a mentor of mine, Rex Mendoza (of the giant real-estate conglomerate Ayala Land). Rex was one of my mentors in financial planning; there are many things I learned from him that pretty much influenced my career as a personal-finance coach and educator.
Financial planners are not known for extravagance and flamboyance—in fact, people have always looked at us as misers. Financial planners are very prudent people; they are not the kind that will spend money on a whim and will really take a lot of time trying to ascertain needs from wants. My friend Rex was very much a financial planner in all sense, highly knowledgeable in the aspect of personal finance and one who really practices what he preaches. However, the Rex I was having lunch with seemed to be a different person, a changed man singing a different tune. What happened to my old mentor? Has he gone to the dark side? I was trying to figure out who I was having lunch with. Years ago, this was the guy who was telling me that every peso counts, that Starbucks coffee was evil (because of the cost) and that investing was the only activity we should engage in...get the drift? The “new” guy I was having lunch with was talking about expensive LED lighting, koi pond and exquisite veneers for his house renovation, playing golf every weekend, traveling all over...and I almost choked on what I was eating when he mentioned driving a Porsche. That’s it, I am certain that my old mentor and friend has been possessed, cloned or just plain, well, lost his marbles. I was just about to gag this guy to ask him what he did with my friend when he uttered something that pretty much left me speechless for a few moments: “Randell, after all these years, I finally realized that ‘dreams have deadlines.’” Er, what—say that again?
My lunch encounter with a former mentor got me into thinking, and the words “dreams have deadlines” seemed to me like experiencing LSS (last-song syndrome). Financial planners have been preaching about living a life of extremes while the real world has a totally different view with regard to the use of money. Filipinos and financial stability are two words you don’t normally see in one sentence. Just look around you—how many of your acquaintances do you know need a spanking with the way they handle their finances? Our country remains to have the lowest savings rate even in Asia, yet we see a steady increase in consumer debt among our population—a definite recipe for disaster. The solution: financial literacy. If our brothers and sisters become financially literate and have a better mindset with regard to the way they use their money, we would definitely see a lot more happier people. The solution is simple—or is it?
As financial planners, are we getting our message across? Are Pinoys any closer to financial freedom? I am elated to see more and more financial planners, more books and articles and a gazillion blogs on personal finance. I’ve seen, heard, read a lot about personal finance of late—some are great messages; while others are really rubbish, but at least the message to do something about one’s personal finance is being mentioned. Let me repeat my earlier question, are we getting our message across? From my perspective, it seems that whatever we are doing is a mere drop in the bucket, and my colleagues in this field need to realize that we are not as effective as we believe we are (apologies to bruising the egos of my colleagues). There’s definitely nothing wrong with what we are advocating, and our message is extremely relevant. I believe that there is something wrong with the manner we convey our message. To the real world out there, we sound like condescending self-righteous bigots telling everyone they are wrong and we are right. Have you heard personal-finance speakers? They will tell you not to drink Starbucks coffee and stick to 3-in-1 or not to buy a flat TV or a new car. They will tell you that gratification is evil and will burn you. Let me use an analogy here: It’s like hearing a preacher tell you that ogling a beautiful woman will cost you eternal damnation. Yes, they are probably right, but they may not look at things from the right perspective. It’s not just about the message, it’s also about the delivery of the message.
I think it’s about time people like us realize that folks have dreams and they must enjoy these while they can. Dreams do have a deadline, as my mentor aptly phrased it. Are you going to have that dream family house when all your children are grown up and have moved out of the house? Will you buy that nice flat TV when your eyesight has become so weak? Our life has a timeline and we must act according to the set time we have. I like how the Bible puts it—“Man’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed” (Job 14:5, NIV). Knowing what we want in life is critical and the way we live should be reflective of our goals. It’s not all about accumulation of wealth that we should be concerned about but also the purpose for accumulating wealth.
It’s about time we really know what our dreams are and that our “dreams have deadlines”; it’s about time we know the purpose of our dreams. Oh, it’s also about time for financial planners to change the way they sing their song. “The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor” (1 Corinthians 3:8)..
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