Since a kid, I’d been a fan of budgeting. Every time I received my allowance when I was a still a student, I always write a budget so that I can save some money from it. Until I graduated in college, I keep doing a budget guideline that I planned to do if ever I find a job. Could you imagine that I even plan a budget for a specific salary even without being employed yet? It’s funny but those things really helped me to get on where I am right now. The plans that I made before became my guide to choose the right decision in life. Now that I’m in the age that I need to settle down, I started investing on things that will help me in the future. In this blog that I started this year, it tells my journey on how I will achieve the goals that I set for myself. By doing this, it will help me to easily looked back on what I’d been through and at the same time inspire the people around me to do the same.

Like how I did it in my first finance review, this blog will be short, specific and concise which will be comprises of the following parts:

1. Savings. Are the amount I saved for each fund (Business, Insurance, Investment, Retirement, Emergency, Joint Account and Local Bank)
2. Expenses. Consist of the list of my expenses incurred for this month (Grocery, Leisure & family support)
3. Financial Plans for the Next Month. This part will be the financial targets for the next month that will serve as a guide for me to choose what I need to prioritize.
4. Ideal Budget for the month of February. This will be the ideal budget which undergo adjustment to meet the financial goals for the next month.
5. Summary. This will be the conclusion of my finances this month and the things I need to work on to meet my financial goals.

There’s a lot of blessings happened in this particular month, from the realizations that God gave to me, the good news that the people closed to my heart received, and experiences that I surely learned a lot. As I carefully sort out my finances every month, it always reminds me on how I started. I just feel so proud of every investment that I did in these six years of my career. Everything is really worth of the sacrifices. From starting with a P19,000.00 salary and then it double through time, the two-years level up strategy granted me all of the success that I have right now. I’m still clouded with a lot of plans in mind, I know in the right time I can work on each of those. Now, I just need to focus on building my foundation so that I can venture in new plans.

In my previous financial blogs, I stated the means on how I increase my Income. Through these steps, I can easily allocate more money in different funds that I prioritized in this year. As I assess the two, I realized that the other one is not in my control. The only way for me to achieve is to look for another job or just keep doing my best. The catch is that, there’s no definite time for it to happen since like I mentioned it’s not in my control. Now here’s my assessment in these option on how I can increase my income:

1.Salary Increase through promotion/change of job.

This option is not in my control. The only thing I can do to make this happen is to do great or to look for another opportunity that will offer me growth. I concluded that this is not in my control since the decision will not be on me but the people whom I’m reporting to. Since I have a two-year level up strategy that I’d been implementing since before, all I need to do now is to wait until I complete my two years and if I can’t sense any growth at all, then that’s the time I’ll work on applying somewhere.

2. Make another stream of income that can provide me the means for my existing insurance/investment.

This option is the one that is attainable in the moment. It is in my control and it can be achieved through proper savings. After I achieved my first rental income target his year, I already got the information and ideas I need for my next target. The experienced provided me the needed amount that I need to secure in order to get another property under my name. After this year, I will start to invest in my own property to have more sources of passive income.

To remind me of my plans that I need to work on, here below are the things I must do before I retire:

1. LONG-TERM INVESTMENT: Secure Payment for Insurance, Investment and Retirement Fund. (Source of income will be from 2 House Rental Total Amount: P7,900.00)
2. PASSIVE INCOME INVESTMENT: Minimum of five rental house under my name which provides a P6000 monthly rental for each. Target monthly income before retirement is minimum P40,000.00
3. MEDIUM TERM INVESTEMENT: Pag-ibig Fund MP2 initial investment of P250,000.00
4. FAMILY SECURITY: Secure insurance of Kids when they reached five years old. The target amount is P200,000.00- P250,000.00 (Source will be from medium-term investment)
5. OWN VACATION HOUSE IN BACOLOD: 150sqm-300sqm mountain house.

“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day-in, and day-out.” – Robert Collier.

For a recap of my financial goals this year, here are the illustration that will serves as your guide which is also mentioned in my blog “My 2022 Goals”.

Now, let’s see the status of my finances for the month of April 2022.

APRIL 2022 SAVINGS UPDATE

In the report above, it shows where most of my funds goes. Now that I finished the first renovation, the next months will be entirely for the rest of my targets. To be able to track my savings progress, my monthly financial review that I’m doing became my way to easily see the things that I need to prioritize. In this way as well, it helped me to come up with a monthly budget to address those priorities. In this month of April, I was able to saved 75% of my income from salary. That percentage will be divided based on my other priorities. For you to be able to have a brief idea for my savings fund, this will be a summary of what I did for this month. Let’s now carefully review each funds progress for the month of April:

1. Business Fund. Now that I used all of the amount in this fund, I decided to restart my savings again next month. This is for the reason that I need to settle first the existing three obligations that I have which are my long-term investment. Based on the projected cash flow that I made, I can start saving it on May until July. To be able to come up with my target amount which is P125,000.00, I need to save for these three months so we can renovate it by the start of August.

2. Insurance Fund. Last February, I already settled the first payment in this fund. The next due date will be on August, and that’s why I prioritized this fund first. After I gained a total amount of P10,000.00 from debt collection, I just need to saved up P2,500.00 in order to complete my payment. In this month, I successfully secured it and I planned to forward it to my sister next month together with my retirement fund payment.

3. Investment Fund. In this month, I successfully secured almost ¾ of the amount that I need to save. The total amount is P43,000.00 and based on the projected cash flow that I did, I can finally settle it on the month of June after I secured the payments for insurance and retirement fund on May. Once I secured this amount, I can be at ease that there’s enough fund to pay this investment until October 2023. By doing this strategy, it will help me to secure a one-year advance payment that may assist me if there will be challenges on my finances. Once my source of income will increase, and I can invest another house rental entirely for me, I’ll be able to pay- up this obligation without compromising my salary. The target year for me to achieve is on the year 2024, and I hope I can make it happen.

4. Retirement Fund. My SSS or retirement fund payment which is P23,400/year will be source from the rental income of the first house that we renovated. Now that we found a tenant in our first house rental, I was able to secured a half of this amount. The only balance amount is P11,400.00 which can be settled once we received the first monthly rent and from the amount I’ll send in this month of May.

5. Emergency Fund. As of this month, I used up all of my emergency fund for the first house rental renovation. Due to this, I need to save up again for this year in order to be secured for any emergency that may happen. Based on the cash flow computations for this year, I can start saving up on November and December if ever I’ll go for vacation on October.

6. Joint Account Fund. Like I mentioned in my previous financial review, one thing that I will give up this year is my savings for our joint account. I tried to adjust my budget to at least give way for this but sadly, I can’t really push through with it given the projects that I have for this year. Despite of that, I can assure that by the start of the year 2023, I can secure an amount intended for this since I can’t neglect it anymore given the plan that me and my partner have for our wedding.

Looking now in my current progress, I feel so proud of myself that I was able to start my passive income business which is House Rental. I was just dreaming of this scenario before and now, I am slowly making it happen. I realized during this time that the income doesn’t really define what kind of goals you want to achieve. It’s all about your determination and will to make it happen by sacrificing things in order to make that certain goal happened. In my six years working overseas, I met a lot of people with higher salaries but still failed in investing. I observe that they have a common mindset which is to level up their lifestyle according to their means and invest on things that depreciates over time.

As I realized it, I applied it in my life and consider all the scenarios of the people I met in every decision I make. By doing this, I will be more cautious in my spending habits and prioritized the things that I must do in the present. These sacrifices that I’m doing in the present will soon be worth it in the end. Everything will make sense and I will never give up in making my goals possible.

“Long-range planning does not deal with future decisions, but with the future of present decisions.”

— Peter F. Drucker.

APRIL 2022 EXPENSES UPDATE

In this month of April, most of my expenses is due to the gift that I bought for my partner. The rest are the usual expenses I have every month which is groceries and leisure expense. As I assess my spendings in this month of April, I can say that it went pretty well since I was able to follow the intended amount for it. For me to be able to secure the amount, I gave my leisure expense to my partner first thing in the month for safe keeping. Since we also planned to used it on the last week of April (for his birthday celebration), It’s more ideal if I’ll just secure it to prevent myself to use it in unnecessary things.

Starting next month, I’ll be having more expense due to the payments of my insurances, SSS and 2^nd house renovation. These coming three months will be one of the challenging periods for my finances since most of my cash are all out due to these things. In order not to compromise things, I need to strictly follow the budget that I’ll set for each month. I just need to successfully surpass these three months and I can ready my funds for the next year. Based on the projected cash flow that I’m updating every now and then, I can achieve all of my financial goals by the end of this year. At the same time, I can also clear out some of my financial obligations next year such as our Joint Account and 2^nd Insurance Payment.   

“The habit of saving is itself an education; it fosters every virtue, teaches self-denial, cultivates the sense of order, trains to forethought, and so broadens the mind.”

-T.T. Munger

After I successfully finished my first project, I am now ready to venture for my next target goals. It will be another month of sacrifices and discipline in order for me to come out successful in the end. Through this journey, I know it will help me in a lot of ways in the future. The beginning will always be hard but as long as I’m determined to do it, everything will eventually go well. I am grateful that I have a nice support system that cheers me up in my chosen journey. Without them, for sure I won’t be able to surpass the challenges along the way. To give you a glimpse on where my money went this month, here are some pictures that I took:

STAYCATION

“By definition, saving – for anything – requires us to not get things now so that we can get bigger ones later.” — Jean Chatzky

During this time, one thing I learned is to enjoy the present moment once in a while. Not because I’m all piled up with a lot of financial goals in this year, it doesn’t mean that I will deprive myself in something that I enjoy. That is why every month, I allocate a certain amount that I can spend for myself. I realized that there’s a lot of simple ways to achieve happiness and in my case, it is “to travel and discover”. Not only I’ll be able to relax and unwind but at the same time have a short break from my goals. It is very fulfilling and I really enjoy every moment of it. I also realized how I became more inspired and motivated to stick to my goals. By doing this blog as well, I wanted to share my own experiences and enlighten the people around me in addressing their financial goals. The perfect time is to do whatever you plan right now, no excuses and just start today!

FINANCIAL PLANS FOR MAY

Now that the month of April already ended, I will now start to build my funds again and slowly settle my financial obligations such as my insurance, SSS payments, second house rental renovation and my vacation on October. Like what I always mentioned in my blogs, my finances are all out in this year due to my passive income investment. That’s the reason why I have limited amount for spending since almost 85% of it is allocated in my long term and business investment. Even though it’s hard to be very disciplined in my spending habits, I just think that, one day I’ll be more financially free knowing I have another stream of income other than my job. As long as I successfully achieved my financial targets this 2022the next years will be more relax and I can somehow enjoy a little.

For this month of May, I’ll settle the remaining balance for my 1^st Insurance and SSS which cost P8,400. After I send this amount, it will be followed with my next payment on June for my 2^nd insurance. Once I settle my existing payment dues, I’ll be done with these payments for the whole year and I can focus now on my passive income investment and budget for vacation. As long as I strictly followed my monthly budget, I can settle a lot of things this year and start a prosperous new year on 2023.

Now to check my progress for the month of march and the plans I have for the next month, here below are the two illustrations of it:

1. Collect debt payment. After I successfully collected the first two payments from someone who borrowed to me, I listed it right away in my cash flow so I can see the overall cash on hand that I have. As of this last week of April, I still need to collect the remaining amount which is QAR 1640 for the upcoming months. As long as there will be no changes of payments, I can successfully collect all the amounts balance on June.

2. 200 Qar intended for “Wants”. Now that I have plans to go for vacation, I decided to slowly invest on things for my self-care items. In this particular month, I planned to buy a hair straightener, Argan Oil/Hair Color, Vitamins and Shoes (for work). The only catch is that I only have 250 Qar budget for all of those. Since we are planning to buy during Eid Holidays, I hope I can get great items on SALE!

3. 200 Qar Intended for Leisure. For me to enjoy this month as well, I allocate 200 rials for my leisure. As of last week of April, I have a plan to meet with my cousin May Ann on her birthday and do our photoshoot session again. The place that we are planning to visit is Palace Vendome Mall, which just opened recently. I just hope I won’t exceed in the allotted amount I put for my expenses this month.

4. 360 Qar Mom’s Birthday. This month of May is the celebration of my Mom’s birthday. They’re planning a high school reunion so my gift for her will be cash so she can just manage it on her own.

With these financial priorities for May, it will guide me to make the right budget. To be able to strictly follow it, I’ll make a print out of it and post it in my room to remind me the amounts that I’m only allowed to spend. Since I also planned to go on vacation, I need to be very careful on my spending habits!

IDEAL BUDGET FOR THE MONTH OF MAY

After carefully assessing the things, I did in the month of April and the priorities I have for the month of May, I came up in a budget that will address all of those. Now that I am in the fifth month of the year 2022, I need to make sure that all of the sacrifices I did in the past months will not be put into waste. I need to be consistent in everything, especially that this will help me determine the future that me and my partner will be having. I know that by doing these baby steps, it will pile up and grant me a clear projection of our future.

Making specific and detailed plan greatly helped me achieve everything that I set. I’d observed that once I have a clearer version of my plans, I tend to effectively follow it more. The monthly assessment that I am doing, greatly helped me to come up with right plans and strategies fit for my goals. Even though I need to exert efforts to do so, it is worth of my time because I’d seen how it positively affect my decision making.

Here below is the guide that I made for myself in this coming month:

Now that I am 26, there are things that I learned to prioritized more. I learned to put my needs first and assess my wants in order not to be impulsive in spending my money. I can say that I’m in my adulting period wherein I am very meticulous in regards with my money. Although I feel pressured sometimes, I just take it as a good thing because in that way, I’ll be more eager to save more. I believe that this is the critical years which I need to make use efficiently. As long as I still haven’t settled yet, I need to make most out of my income and invest on things that will help me in the future. This year will be the start of everything, and as long as I repeat the process over and over again, I will slowly be granted with things that I am dreaming of. I need to enjoy this process and let God do His work. The one who trust and believe Him are those who will have peace in their heart, mind and soul. So, in this coming month, I will continue what I started, enjoy at the same time and focus on the things that I set.

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”

-Antoine de Saint-Exupery

April is another successful month of savings. I am happy that I was able to follow the budget that I set for this month. Other than that reason, I was able to restart again my savings for the next target I planned to achieved.

I still have eight more months to achieve the rest of my financial goals, as of this April I can say that I’m doing well and in the right track towards the things I set for this year.

GOOD JOB PIA!

Now that I’m done with my first major project this year, I’ll slowly saved up again for my next project on July. As soon as I come up with my target amount for renovation, I will send it right away so that I can officially mark these target goals DONE!

I just need to be more disciplined, patient and determine in order to achieve another successful month. One thing for sure is I will slowly make it happen. Little by little, Step by step.

“It’s not how much you make each month that matters — it’s how much you save along with the flexibility and time outside work that you have.”

― Francis Shenstone, The Explorer’s Mindset: Unlock Health Happiness and Success the Fun Way