Growing up, I realized that one common mistake of most people nowadays is when they let themselves work for money. Due to the choice of not learning the right way to have a wealthy lifestyle, they focus on what is the usual process that most taken. If we will look at it, they’re actually a lot of means for anyone to learn about finances. The presence of digital world has offered wide arrays of information that anyone can easily access. From books, videos, channels, website and even online training and seminar, everything can be found online. Now, the question why it is still most of us choose to go on the hard path wherein there’s actually choices that are available for anyone. I’d been contemplating for that for so many years, and I even allowed myself to enlighten individuals around me about all the things that I learned in terms of finances. During that period, I realized that everything comes with a choice. No matter how many efforts you exert for someone to make use of the opportunities present for them, it is still their choice if they’ll consider it or not. No matter how genuine you are to help them, only few are willing to accept opinions from someone else. That’s a fact because I experienced it on my own. From all the people that I shared my suggestions and advices, only one really applied it on her life. Despite of that, I don’t feel bad about it and I feel sad of the opportunities that they failed to see. Glady, at least one out there was inspired to do it. Now she’s been doing well and in the process of getting her Master’s degree and already availed a health insurance package. Isn’t it amazing to see someone who’s growing? My heart literally feels so overwhelm every time I see that person because in the few moments that we shared together, I can say that we both step up on our life. She made me realized the following:

1. It’s not that they don’t care about your suggestion, but they just choose to do what they think is best for them.
2. Our time is limited, so the moment we come across with a person who sincerely inspire us, we need to learn from them.
3. Not all people wish you bad, there are some who genuinely cares about you.
4. Opportunity is everywhere, we should do our part to take a step and claim it.
5. Making them impossible, possible should start by believing in yourself.

Our finances, plays a big role on our life since most of the necessities comes with an amount. We usually heard the saying we should live our life to the fullest because we can’t take the money on our grave. For me, it’s not necessarily owning a lot of things but it’s about saving our generations by means of managing well our finances. If you will look to the different success stories of individuals, they all have the same goal which is to build wealth for a greater purpose.

“Money does not buy you happiness, but lack of money certainly buys you misery.”-Daniel Kahneman

As soon as I found a job at 20 years old, I’d been preparing my future by building long-term investment. I made used of my young age in order to achieved early returns from my long-term investments. Before I derived on that decision, it took me a lot of review and research of the best way to make use of time in building wealth. Because of that decision, I was able to secure two insurance/investment within four years of being an employee. Now that I’m about to reach six years working overseas, I decided to strengthen my cash flow by investing in passive income streams. The pandemic also inspired me to not rely only income since that is only temporary. That’s why when I started a new job, I made it sure that I will reach my target which is to renovate our two-house rental and make a monthly income of P4,000.00 or 265 QAR. This amount greatly helped me to secure a payment for my 1^st insurance and Retirement insurance. This step became a big progress for me in allocating more funds on my other investment. It also motivates me to keep working on passive income to be able to build a cash flow that will exceed my current salary.

Other than that, I’m also doing my part in levelling up my career in order to achieve better benefits that will help me to reach my goals faster. By making use of all the opportunities right now, I believe that I will eventually be in a better place where I won’t feel restless in managing my finances. Together with the efforts of making a monthly blog about assessing my finances, everything will be my key towards the life that I’d been wanting to have. During this time, I will continue to learn more about finances so I can equip myself with necessary information that will help me in the future.

“Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all is a form of planning.” ― Gloria Steinem

In this month financial assessment, I can conclude that I achieved my goals and at the same time follow the budget that I planned. Like how I did it in last month’s financial 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 August. 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.

Another thing that I finalized this month is fund allocations once I strengthen all my investments and other savings. In this plan, I also considered our future family’s way of managing our finances in order to make it more efficient for us. Even though, it is still quite far from today, just by seeing all of these plans makes me more inspired to do my best. I applied here one of the professors I had when I was in college that the best way to manage your money is to allocate it differently based on its used. Now, I planned to follow it in order to ensure that we’ll be more systematized in handling our money. Here are some ideas which you can also apply in your plan:

1. At least two overseas Bank Account
   • Salary Account/ Expense Account
   • Investment Account
2. At least Four Local Bank Account
   • Tax, Insurance & investment payment
   • Business Fund
   • Family Expense
   • Kid’s Education

Am I being too much? I know that you may think that I’m doing advance planning to the extent but for me, it’s my way to motivate myself and be inspired. I’d been a planner since before and I really like it when everything is well managed. Of course, this may not be applicable for everyone. It will still be based according to what you prefer. Now, here below are the businesses that I have in mind which I also shared on my previous finance review blog:

1. Food Cart Business. Beverage (Coffee, Tea and Fresh Juices) / Chicken and Beer (Korean Style Restaurant) / Street Food / Porridge

2. Necessity Business. Rice / Filtered Water / Fresh Goods (Vegetables) / Frozen Goods (Meat and poultry)

3. Glamping Place (Air BnB). Farm House with minimum P7,500.00 per night.

4. Reseller. Existing skin care products (Ryx/ Beauche etc.)

5. Brand Ambassador/Influencer. Instagram/ Facebook/ Tiktok

To remind me of my plans that I need to work on today, 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 Monthly Total Amount Needed: P7,700.00)
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 of 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 August 2022.

As you can see on the illustration above, I’m left with few financial goals which I need to achieved before the year 2022 ends. Most of it has been addressed and that is all thanks to my determination on working on it despite of those challenges came to my life. With these limited months that I have right now, I believe that I can achieve it by means of consistently doing what I started. Although there are some priorities that had changed due to some situation happened in this year, I believe that it affected my whole plan positively. For now, I will just focus first on the things that I’m left to do and slowly plan the goals that I have for the next years. In this coming month, I will take time to relax and set my mind to new opportunities and goals that I can do. I will continue to assess my finances and hopefully I can find a means to level up my budget which can greatly help me with my plans.

Waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. – Benjamin Franklin

As I carefully assess all the opportunities that I can do, I feel more motivated that I can achieve the financial goals that I set for myself. In order to stick to what I’d planned for myself; I need to divert my mind in such situation wherein I feel frustrated from not experience things that some of my friends is currently doing. Rather than building up negative thoughts, I need to just think that all of my efforts will be granted in the future. I need to set my mind that everything I do is for myself, and there will be a perfect time for everything. Now, let’s carefully assess my current savings as of this month of August 2022.

1. Business Fund. Like what I stated on my previous blogs, this fund is where most of my money goes. This is for the reason that the type of investment in which I chose requires big amount to start it. We all know that when it comes to real estate, it is not like other investment wherein you can start small. Here, you need to have enough initial amount in order to purchase a real estate property. Another reason is that real estate industry can provide steady source of income unlike others. That’s why I also chose this because by investing on this, I can address my other investment funds which still needs to be paid in a long-term basis. In this year, I finally made use of the amount I saved in this fund for the two-house rental which we renovated. We are now receiving the income from it, so I will start saving again for the year 2023.

2. Insurance Fund. After almost six years being an employee, I finally achieved a passive income from investing in real estate. It actually a two property of my parents which I renovated and we decided o divide the income from it. Together with my retirement fund, I source my payments from it here which help me to allocate more money for my business fund. In the future, I will continue to invest in real estate so I can strengthen my passive income to support me from my goals.

3. Investment Fund. This is the only fund that I’m left to look for source of payment. As of now, I can only pay this through my salary that’s why until now my budget is quite hard to manage. In this year, I planned to make an advance payment until the year 2024 in order to focus on my other priorities. Based on my real estate investment, if I can make it work then I’ll finally gain a source of payment for this just like my retirement and 1^st insurance fund. 

4. Retirement Fund. Another fund that I finally address (lifetime) is my retirement savings. Now that I’m earning P4,000.00 monthly from real estate, I made use of that to address my payment for this. Even though I only need to pay until 2029, I plan to continue it until I’m 55 years old. By doing this, it would help me to be more secured in the future.

5. Emergency Fund. For this fund, I already allocate 3000 Qar or P45,000.00 by the end of this year. After my vacation, I will separate an amount solely intended for emergency situation so that in any case that may arise, my savings won’t be compromise.

6. Joint Account Fund. This fund is intended for me and my partner’s plan in the future. It can be use for our wedding, travel or anything which involves us. In this year I decided to make a separate fund for it so that I can simply transfer the money and make sure that it won’t be spend. Together with my partner, we already agreed to start it this year.

By pushing myself to focus on what matters, I believe that all of these fund that I’m working on presently will help me towards a life where I can be financially free. I need to be very patient on this because it will still take years for me to achieve that goal. Nevertheless, I will seek activities that would help me to enlighten myself and not be pressured with these plans. I need to be very grateful on what I’d done because only few chose this kind of path wherein, they’re sacrificing a lot of things to attain the future that they want to have. Through these years that I’ll continue to do this, I want to be an example for many and be their inspiration so seek whatever goals they have as well. Every year, I promise to myself that I will make a significant progress in my life and will not let any opportunity be missed. As I work on the ideal life that I want to have, I can only count myself in order to make it happen. I‘m the only one who can make my dreams come true and I believe that I’ll eventually achieve all of what I hope for. As soon as I read again all the efforts that I’d done in the past years, I hope that it will remind me about the best decisions that I’d ever made in my entire life.

I promise to myself that I will never give up and I will not let anyone stop me from making my goals happen.

“The speed of your success is limited only by your dedication and what you’re willing to sacrifice.”

― Nathan W. Morris

For this month of August, I had more expenses incurred due to my upcoming vacation next month. A big percentage of it is from the vacation treats that I bought for my whole family, relatives and friends. Unlike in my previous vacation wherein I usually buy presents months before, this time, I bought everything one time. This is mainly because I don’t really plan in going for vacation, but due to the FIFA world cup 2022 and the wedding of my sister on 2023, me and my partner just decided to push with this plan. Gladly, my ticket has been approved even without completing two years. I’d been worried for it actually because the cost of the ticket is higher compare to before. By God’s grace, I was granted with it and I was able to secure the payment I planned for is as an advance payment for my 2^nd Insurance fund.

If you’ll see in the illustration above, more than a half of my salary went to my vacation expenses. From buying treats for my family and up to my vacation requirements, all of it made up most of my expense in this month. Gladly I was able to adjust my budget to make way for these expenses and in the end, I was still able to secure my vacation budget. Like most people do wherein they spent the whole amount remaining in the bank account every time they go for vacation, for me, I tend not to do same method. I just don’t want to come back feeling unease because of lack of money. I’d experienced it on my own and I refused to be in that situation again. My aim is to gain experiences but at the same time won’t run out of money before, during and after my vacation. All of the plans I made for this trip is my own preventive measures in order not to feel the same like others. I wanted to make most out of the days without regretting all the money that I spent in the end. This will not be about others anymore. As I seek new experiences and inspiration in life, I want to be more diligent in terms of handling my finances.

You can check out all my vacation plans which I shared on this blog below. It shows the budget, priorities, Schedule and plans for the whole month which can give you an idea for your future vacation plans:

With all the list stated above, you’ll surely get an idea on how busy the month of August is for me. Because of this as well, I still don’t feel excited yet for my vacation from the first three weeks of August. After I finally completed the requirements and bought treats for my loved ones, that’s the only time I started to look forward on my vacation. I think it only happened on the last week of August when I’m all set and ready. It was really funny because rather than excitement, I really feel frustrated from all of the new things that we need to secure. Together with my own plans, it feels like I rushed things in order for me to ready everything. Glady everything went well and we slowly address one step at a time all of our concerns. Despite of all the expenses that I have this month, one reason that I feel more motivated in managing my finances well is when I started to plan a lot of things such as:

1. Investment Opportunities from Real Estate
2. Investment Opportunities from Government Funds
3. Investment Opportunities from Gold

To be able to know the opportunities present today, I need to make an effort to learn each of it and at the same time make a suitable plan for each.  Rather than wasting my time doing unproductive things, It is much better to spend it by assessing the opportunities present in my life right now. Since I already my current expense, I need to start making an effort to increase my savings capacity to be able to address all of it. My investment will all be depending from my cash flow, that’s why I need to work it out as early as possible. The earlier I make time for it, the earlier I can also be financially free. To give you an idea of my current expenses, here below is the status of each:

1. 1^st Insurance – P25,000 Yearly until 2029 and so on
2. 2^nd Insurance + Investment – P43,000 Yearly until 2030 and so on
3. SSS Retirement Fund- P23,400 Yearly until 2029 and so on
4. Business Fund -P250,000 Yearly target

“The important thing is this: to be ready at any moment to sacrifice what you are for what you could become.”  ― James Allen

All of these comprises my long-term funds and passive income idea. To summarized everything, I need to secure a yearly amount of P341,400.00 or a monthly amount of P28,450.00. These are all my current payments every month. As you can see this is a big amount and it is more than a half of my current cash flow. That’s why, it took me a lot of courage in order to stick to my budget and allocate money for each. Gladly I’d been a fan of saving since before that’s why I don’t feel bad about it. I know that everything is for my future and as long as I have the capability to save more, I will definitely go for it. For the next years, I will still continue to stick to my expenses and make more investment opportunities for me.

To give you an idea on where most of my expenses went this month, here are some pictures of it which I also shared in my previous blog:

Vacation Requirements & Vacation Treats

Since September will be the month of my vacation, I allocate an amount more than my usual budget. This is for the reason that we have more travels and adventures that will happen during this time and at the same time, I need to allocate an amount for my priorities as well. It took me a lot of revisions and update before I finalized this budget that I made. I keep adjusting it to come up with the best one that will fit on each activity that I need to do during this period. Compare to the previous vacation that I had, this will be the first time that I will spend this big amount of money. I don’t regret it though because most of my financial priorities this year are all done and this amount won’t compromise my other savings. Of course, before I decided to spend this amount, it took me a lot of planning to come up with the best options for myself. Considering that this will be my vacation after almost four years, I don’t want to regret not making most out of it. With all the plans that me and my sister put together to make this month memorable, I believe that I deserve to be spend this amount to be able to experience new adventures in life.

Within these two years that I’d been making a monthly budget, I’d seen how my financial goals slowly come to reality. Sometimes, I still feel overwhelm because I can’t still find the right way to express how happy I am to finally start investing in real estate. Although it was a property from my parents, I still feel happy that I made it more profitable and at the same time provide an income for both of us. This made a big step in my life because that provided me an aid to have steady flow of income other than my salary. Because of this as well, it made me more inspired to keep investing in real estate to strengthen my current income. Due to the limited amount that I get from my salary, I need to start first by providing a source of payment for my existing long-term payments. That’s how I became so busy this year because my target is to address my 1^st insurance and retirement fund payment. I became so eager to achieved the budget for both houses to the point that I’m saving my expense budget as well. With months of sacrificing my wants, I finally achieved both amounts intended for two properties. I was also able to settle all the payments for my 1^st insurance and retirement fund which really made me feel so happy up until this day.

“Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” ―Alan Lakein

For my vacation, I made a schedule and a budget that will both guide me not to overspend and make sure that all my priorities will be address first. I did whatever plans I can do in order to support me within 30 days. Since I need to follow the projected cash flow that I did for the remaining months of 2022, I need to make sure that I will still successfully achieve the budget I planned for my vacation. With the use of this blog, It serve as my reminder of the things that I should prioritized and must focus on.

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

1. Budget Achieve. Like what I usual do every month, I also need to ensure that I need to follow my budget even though it’s my vacation. As much as I can manage it, I need to stop myself in doing unnecessary expense that will compromise my plan.  I need to balance everything and it will take efforts from my side in order to make it happen.

2. 4PHP95,0000 intended for Vacation. Unlike others who usually spent more than this amount, I decided to just stick in this budget and manage it according to all of my plans for the whole month. This whole amount already consists of my travels, adventures, leisure, dine out, treats and of course my main priorities. To be able to be reminded of this plan, I prepared a print out for myself together with the schedule that I prepared.

3. 4Secure 3000 Qar for 2^nd Insurance payment. One of the reasons that I stick to my budget is the amount the I need to secure for October. Due to the change of my vacation, I need to move the payment for my 2^nd insurance on October. This is for me to be able to come up with my vacation budget and at the same time consider the amount that I’m left on my local bank account. Based on my projected cash flow, as long as I follow my budget, I can finally settle the money as early as October.

4. Check House Renovation Status. After I secured the money for our second renovation, the only task we need to do is to secure a worker that will start it. As of August, we still haven’t anyone due to the demands that they have. This is why we need to double our efforts again this month so we can finally find one for it.

By setting up monthly priorities, it helps me to manage my thoughts in things that I need to consider first. This method helped me already in the past months and that’s also the reason why I keep consistently doing it. Not only here in this blog, I also write it down on my journal so I can always see it every now and then. I hope that sooner or later, I’ll be able to gain progress with all these efforts that I’m doing for myself. All of these require efforts and sacrifices to do so and I pray that in the right time, I will be able to get the fruits of it.

“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” ―Pelle

Like what I mentioned earlier, this budget that I planned for my whole vacation undergo a lot of revisions to be able to come up with the one fit for my priorities. It has been two months prior to my vacation when I started to plan out from general to specific things. I really wanted to achieve all of the things that I planned even though it may seem impossible to do so for the rest. Even with a limited budget, I wanted to maximize all the things that I can do within 30 days of my vacation. I wanted to somehow prove to myself that I can do it and I will not be affected from whatever people are telling me to do. In this time, I just need to focus on things and experiences that will make my whole vacation memorable. Together with my family & friends, this vacation will surely be fun and jampack with a lot of activities.

For me to make sure that everything will still be according to this plan, I will continue to track my expenses and at the same time list it down like how I usually do. I also allocate an amount intended for any expense which is not stated on my plan. I named it “buffer” which I learned from my sister. This great idea will surely help to secure my plan in any unnecessary expense that I may incur during the whole month. I input it every week in order to be secured the rest of my plans. In any case that I won’t use this amount, I will just intend it for additional expense for my family once I’ll be going back. I just hope that I will achieve all of the things that I planned and at the same time won’t feel regretful in the end. I still don’t have any idea on how will the whole month of September will unfold, but one thing for sure is I will make it memorable. I want to come back more inspired and motivated to achieve my goals and by the time that I will come back again, I already made a big progress in my life. I will also share in this blog all of the great things that I experienced for the whole month of September 2022.

Without further ado, here below is the guide that I made for myself in this coming month:

As you can see in the illustration above, here’s the overall budget that I need to follow for my 30-day’s vacation. It includes all of my priorities, travel and treats for my whole family, relative and friends. I made this because I wanted to have a guide during my vacation to ensure that I won’t overspend. I’d been told that a P100,000.00 is not enough and I want to check it for myself. I want to challenge myself if I can manage this budget or will I have the same fate like them. In this coming month, I just need to make sure that all of my priorities should be address first in order to start another year with more manageable funds.

“Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence.” – Colin Powell

A lot of things happened in this month due to my upcoming vacation. Because of this, I also spent a lot in preparation of my requirements and treats for my family. Nevertheless, it all went according to my plans so I’m still happy about it.

Another reason that made me feel so grateful this month is when I started to make specific plans for myself. This step greatly helped me to be inspired and motivated to all the things that I planned for myself. Although some may see it like I’m over planning things, what important for me is I’m progressing every single day.

I always think that it is better to do something for myself rather than doing nothing at all. I have a big expectation for myself and I will continue to surpass it in order to inspire others.

“Financial peace isn’t the acquisition of stuff. It’s learning to live on less than you make, so you can give money back and have money to invest. You can’t win until you do this.“ — Dave Ramsey