0007 – Facebook-ing

Contrary to the millions of Facebook addicts, it takes me a lot of effort to find time to check my Facebook account. When I went online once, I spent two hours on reading friends’ updates from the day before. And I didn’t even finish reading! I don’t know if that was because I had slow internet connection, or just had many friends who frequently updates their status. I tried uploading photos, and wasted a couple more hours for one album (uh, I think I can blame this one on the slow connection).

Facebook is the fastest way to get updates from people you know. Sometimes it’s the only means to get updates, hence, the reason why I am late in getting news. But to check it daily, and get status updates from a hundred of friends, that’s something I don’t think I can handle. I guess I still prefer the traditional chats over dinner and telebabads over reading posts and browsing pictures online. But since the world is growing smaller and friends are now flying to the different parts of the globe, I had to join the club and connect. Maybe it’s time to upgrade to a better internet service…?

0006 – 12 Resolutions for 2012.

New year, new life. New years are often used as an excuse to forget the painful past and are seen as an opportunity to start fresh. 2011 was not of my favorite years but I am truly grateful for the blessings I received. Since this 2012 is supposedly the year our world ends, I just want to make this year a blast! I am posting these 12 resolutions I made (and hopefully will achieve)  so I will be reminded of my commitments to make this year the best year in all aspects of my life J

1 – Read the bible every day

2 – Learn a new Spanish word everyday and speak a new sentence a week (Aprender una palabra en Espanol cada dia y decir una nueva frase cada semana)

3 – Live healthy! Eat right and exercise at least once a week

4 – Check facebook once a week and write a blog once a month

5 – Read a book or watch a good movie monthly

6 – Meet a new friend or chat with an old friend

7 – Eat dinner at home at least twice a week

8 – Save PX amount and clear debts

9 – Make 1 person smile every day and be a blessing to others

10 – Recognize my blessing for the day

11 – Volunteer in at least 6 activities this year and do good deeds

12 – Pray for someone else everyday

Aja! J

0005 – Do you want to be rich?

I bet everyone would say, “Yes, I want to be rich.” But that’s really just easy to say. If you give that question a follow up and ask “What have you done to become rich?”, you would probably get a good number of “Uh, ano bang kailangan gawin?” answers. Two years ago, I sat in one of Colayco’s seminars on Piso-bilities, and I think there was another one I attended that has a similar theme (they were given for free for separated employees). You see, that’s my problem, I forget things. I forget even the good lessons I learned. And I guess that’s everyone’s problem too. It’s easy to forget if you don’t apply them. And because of the emptiness that my bank account has long been feeling, I decided that I need to do something to fill it up. So to start, I attended Bo Sanchez’ How to be Truly Rich seminar. It was just the refresher course that I need. To be honest, the messages there weren’t new to me. They were the same words I heard 2 years ago in those free seminars. And there were a lot of notes that I already knew. But I still had to hear it again from someone, so I could really absorb it, even if I had to pay a small sum just to remember it.

How money works

The biggest lesson I learned about money is that we shouldn’t work for it, instead, we should let money work for us. It’s a mindset that a little hard to achieve in this corporate environment that teaches you to work because you need money.  Investments and business were virtually limited to the rich and the risk-takers. But times have already changed, and because people are more financially literate nowadays, opportunities are now better seen (and hopefully grabbed) even by risk-averse people like me.

One of the simple tools taught in the HTBTR seminar was how to compute your net worth. It’s as simple as computing what you have (assets) less what you’re obliged to give (your liabilities) and tada! That’s what you’re worth (at least financially on paper). If you’re surprised to know that you’re not worth much, then, that should be your sign to take the 1^st step in getting rich – which is saving.

I’m not going to pretend and say that I’ve really put these lessons I learned to heart, because I really haven’t. I’m a work in progress, but while being so, I’ll make a little good deed by sharing a few tips I learned:

Tip#1: Know the formula

Most of us follow the wrong formula in saving: Income – Expenses = Savings. That’s because it’s easy to know how much you have to spend than how much you’re supposed to save. But as hard as it may be, we have to apply the right formula for us to get the right results:

Income – Savings = Expenses

Tip#2: Let go of your baggages

Start paying off debts. I know, that’s really hard if you’re already best friends with your credit cards and you’re living by your paycheck. But we’ve got to start paying those debts and start separating ourselves from those ever-reliable plastic cards. Pam, my officemate, told me before that I should set my Freedom day – that means plan out how you’ll pay your debts and set a date on when you’ll finally clear them all up.

Tip#3: Change your lifestyle

When you earn a lot, you spend a lot. Take yourselves back to your 1^st job when you were earning probably only 20-50% of what you’re currently getting now (depends on how long you’ve been working, it may just be 5% for the oldies :P) When you weren’t getting much, you had to stick to your budget. You were better in judging needs vs wants. Of course, you ought to reward yourself for every good job you’ve done. But for once, try sticking to your budget and saving (or investing) that increase in your paycheck.

Tip#4: Expand your wallet.

Don’t put a limit to what your virtual wallet can accommodate. Don’t think you’re only supposed to get this much, and that you’ll never afford those goods things. This may seem contradicting to Tip #3 which asks you not to spend much. But don’t confuse yourself, you should believe that you’re going to receive more, that you’re going to be rich, but don’t spend what you’re not yet getting. Just believe that you can afford them (and then you will in time).

Tip#5: Be friends with the rich.

No, this doesn’t mean that you should be a socialite (or just a climber). Remember, the key to this success is all in the mind. You have to change your mindset, and being around people who have already achieved that would surely help you. Or just be around friends who can help you and give you tips on how to manage your money well.

And because it took so long to write this blog about the How to be Truly Rich Seminar, I have already attended another seminar by Bo, How to Make Millions in the Stock Market. For those non-Finance people, this is a simple easy-to-understand seminar on how the stock market works and how you could be a part of it. I’m not going into the details of this one, as I have not been able to get myself into the stock market (but I am planning to this year). It really helps to learn this stuff from other people. I just hope the lessons will make rich and won’t be forgotten J

0004 – Nimbus Clouds Today

Rain rain go away... It’s been raining for days. The gloomy weather really clouds my good mood too. Though I like clouds, rain clouds are the least of my favorite. Rain clouds are called nimbus clouds, and wiki says that they are clouds that produce precipitation in the form of rain, hail or snow. It’s supposed to take different forms, depending on which level the cloud is at. I looked outside the window, I don’t see how the clouds look like.  They hide themselves in the grey skies and rain.

A nimbus cloud wasn’t always gloomy. It was once a happy cloud. Maybe it was a cumulus cloud, fluffy and grand and showed itself on the brightest days. Or it could have been a cirrus cloud, floating freely up in the sky, moving in whatever direction it likes. Or maybe it was a stratus cloud, silently looking over the grounds, just keeping itself close. But day after day, that cloud absorbs the world’s water. It takes in droplets from everywhere – rivers, seas, sidewalks. It doesn’t really care what it takes and where. But that cloud can only take so much, soon it would have to release all that it took. It had to be a nimbus, it had to shower rain, so it can feel light again. So it could float up high again. So it can be a happy cloud once more.

This is a cycle that this cloud must go through. We can’t expect it to be a cumulus cloud forever, because sooner or later it will get tired of absorbing the world, and it just had to let the rain flow, just like today.

0003 – Operations Master Plan

Operations plan, dynamic forecast, master business strategy, these are terms we frequently use in the company to refer to our plans. We have weekly plans, monthly plans, 5-year plans, we just can’t get enough of it.

Personally, I’ve never really had a plan written down. Sure I’d make mental notes whenever I think of something I’d like to do, or a place I’d want to go, or a state I’d want to be. But except for my day-to-day tasks, I’ve never really listed what I wanted to do with my life. Perhaps that’s because I believe that plans, just like promises, are made to be broken. Plans are rarely followed anyway. Sometimes, we take so much time piecing a great plan but it never really gets executed the way we wanted it to be. And most often than not, though things happen differently, they somehow work just fine (even if they don’t look that way at first).

Last week, when I found out about my friend’s migration, I told her that none of what she’d planned and promised a few years go happened. She said, “ok lang, masaya naman eh”. None of what’s happening has been in the plan, but things just fell into place. And the changes were welcomed. I was really happy to see another living proof of happy endings (or beginnings, both of them are applicable anyway).

There are lots of things we can’t control. But the ego in us couldn’t really accept that, and we do things to try to change the game...to try to make things happen according to our plan. It gets tiring to do that. Let’s not mess with things that are not up to us anyway. That’s easy to say, but really hard to do.

This week, I suddenly came across a fork in the road, in my career. It was something I wouldn’t have really thought of, but since I was asked, I now had to think about it. This is not in my plan, not my comfort zone. It could be a detour, or it could be a complete change in direction. I don’t really know, and I won’t know until I get there. So there are a lot of questions popping in my mind right now. I have discussed this with a few friends, and they’ve been really helpful, but they’ve given me more to think about. I know I have to shorten that list. I know I should lay down all considerations and plan out where this would lead. But as much as I would like to have a clear plan on this, right now, I just want to trust that this is happening for a good reason J

0002 – My SUPER trip to (Cebu) Bohol

For my 25^th bday (yak tanda na), I decided to go on a trip with my family. It was the first time I’m bringing all of them out of town. So thanks to the 50% off promo of Cebupac, I was able to book a flight to Bohol for the whole family on my birthday weekend. Weee!

The trip was booked 4 months ago, but we didn’t have a concrete plan until the last week. So our budget-tight plan was as simple as this:

Flight departure: 08:25 am

ETA @ Bohol: 10:30am

Check-in @ Citadel Alona in Panglao

Hire a van from Bohol Rain Tours

Day 1 - Panglao Tour ~ 6 hours

Day 2 - Country side tour (Blood compact, Tarsier, Chocolate hills) ~ 8 hours

Day 3 – Beach bumming

Flight back to MNL: 01:55pm

ETA @ MNL: 3:30pm

So ayan. At the last minute, we decided to bring the van to the airport and just park and fly (kasi mahal magtaxi hehe!). Maricris, my sister, and Rein were to pick us up at home so we could all go together.

06:00 am - We left and home and drove to the airport. We underestimated the traffic, and it was just soooo bad

Hala. 07:00 na, zapote pa lang! We finally reached park and fly at around 7:20 and reached Terminal 3 at 7:40 (on my watch). We checked in at the counter, pero naglast call na daw sila ng 7:40, at 7:53 na daw,  HUWAAAAT?! 7:45 pa lang kaya sa relo ko! Lo and behold, ayaw na talaga kami papasukin. Kesyo napirmahan at nasubmit na daw ang manifesto (whatever that is) to the departments and we just have to rebook. ASAR.  So fine rebook then. But whoa, for P7K per person??? Haller! P7K x 10 pax = P70K. no way. The next flight won’t even be until tomorrow. So there’s no sense wasting that much.

So now what? I didn’t really want to forego the money already spent on the fare, but more importantly I didn’t want to ruin my birthday. Our only affordable option was to ride a Superferry to Cebu and then ride another boat to Bohol. But that would take us a day. ONE WHOLE DAY. Pro okk lang J I really wanted to try riding the superferry anyway, now was my chance! So after getting the consensus of the family (my tatay didn’t want to come anymore, may bagyo daw..????!), and making calls to make arrangements (Thanks Joyie!), off we went to the Pier in Manila.

1-DAY Cruise

I really had fun riding the ferry. There were probably a thousand passengers aboard, the boat was headed to Cebu, Surigao and Nasipit. There were only 3 floors (I think) with lots of room. It was good that we were able to grab an empty cabin (with no additional charge!), else we’d have slept in different rooms with strangers K There was a small canteen area, where everyone ate. And since our tickets included meals, we had to line up (a boat-long line) just to get our ration of food. Parang preso lang.

There wasn’t really much to do in the ferry, but the thing I enjoyed most was going to the deck.. We spent hours watching the sea, waiting for dolphins (meron!), running around, breathing sea air.  It was relaxing, though there wasn’t really much to see, it kind of felt like a cruise. And for the 1^st time in looong while, I got to sleep for 8 hours that night J

 

After 22 hours at sea, we finally made it to the shores of Cebu J it was already 10am at that time, and we the next boat was at 10:30. So there wasn’t really time to go around. We just saw SM Cebu when we transferred piers, and that was it. Unfortunately, the boat ride to Bohol was 2 hours, we thought it was only an hour-ride. That would shorten our tour time in Bohol.

The Supercat ride was baaaad. It rained hard, and since the seats we got were non-aircon, we were soaking and puking wet. I kept praying to God to give us clear skies. It was the birthday gift I asked. Though I initially had bigger things in mind (i.e lovelife and money hehe!), this trip had already caused us so much, and the last thing I needed was for the rain to ruin it. Thank God, He kept His promise. Though there were drizzles, it was only so we could see a rainbow. The weather was really nice J the clouds (stratocumulus!) were really picture perfect.

A trip cut short

Our supposedly 8-hour tour was compressed to 3 hours since we arrived so late. But in fairness, we able to see all the tourist spots in Bohol – Blood Compact, Baclayon, Tarsier, Chocolate Hills, Loboc, Hanging Bridge.

We had a good dinner at some resort, and we went to sleep.

The next day – we hadn’t really planned on anything but going bumming around Alona beach. But since the beach wasn’t so pretty at that time, we decided at the last minute to go island-hopping – a 2-hour trip.  We needed to be back in time to catch our flight at 2pm, and we couldn’t afford to miss our plane again. We went to 2 islands and enjoyed the long shallow beach of Virgin Island. It was really nice just walking on the beach, too bad we had little time. Maybe next time J

FIRSTS:

his trip, I had fun doing these things for the first time

·         1^st major out-of-town trip of the family

·         1^st time in Bohol!

·         I rode the superferry J

·         Shouted “hi” and waved to a manong bangkero while on the boat

·         Ate scallops (I forgot though how it tastes hehe)

It surely wasn’t perfect, but it was an experience to remember. ‘Til our next trip! J

0001 – I'm blogging! :)

Late bloomer. I was never really into the web trends ever since.  I didn’t have a Friendster account, was late in joining Facebook  -  I seldom check my account anyway -  and now blogs.  I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately (it goes with age I guess) and I realized that there are a lot of things, takeaways in everyday life that I want to share and remember. But i can’t really count on my 64kb memory, so I thought that this is one convenient way of immortalizing what I have fortunately remembered.  Besides, it feels nice to just share whatever, diba? J

So that’s it for my 1^st blog J