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I'm not a financial guru, but through the years I've learned a few personal finance tricks, that I'm sharing below.
Learn personal finance at a young age. Help them understand the value of money and how to earn it. To strive to be independent and not to depend on parents. Instill a business oriented mind set.
The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau published a set of activities and conversations to aid children in developing money skills, habits, and attitudes needed to become financially secure in the future. There are 3 groups of activities and conversations according to age. The early childhood which is from 3-5 years old, the middle childhood for ages 6-12, and the teen years and young adulthood for 13-up to 21 years of age. Below are some points to teach kids about personal finance. Learn financial education at Practical Money Skills.
Personally, I suggest kids play games that involve financial decisions like Monopoly or Cash Flow which involve fun in learning. Test money your skills and give your brain a workout with these fun and educational games. Invstr is a mobile app that teaches everything about investing in an interactive course. List of educational board games for money management.
When kids decide to start their own "business,” like selling lemonade or candies or any items in school or neighborhood or online. There’s no need for you to provide capital. Instead, they use their own savings. Surprise? Children do have income streams in the form of allowances from you and cash gifts from grandparents, relatives, godparents, and friends on their birthdays or during holidays, reunions, occasions and house visits. Teach them to invest part of their income in their “business”. Open a kiddie savings bank account.
As they grow up, they develop the habit of reading the business section of newspapers. Subscribe to financial magazines. Also give them books by business icons like Rich Dad, Poor Dad. These will expose them to myriad investment ideas and will help guide them in molding their own.
Teach them that no matter what the alibi, they should never lend to anyone, even to their closest “friends”. The opposite is also true; no matter how enticing the loan deal may be, don’t borrow.
Prepare for your retirement money. Use this tool to compute how much you require for your retirement fund using this tool.
Some people pretend to be rich, but are you really rich? According to the best-selling personal finance book: The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko, use the following formula:
- Multiply your age by your annual household income from all sources except inheritances.
- Divide the result by 10.
- This, less any inherited wealth, is what your net worth should be.
Would like to share this article from PhilStar, Empleyado o negosyante? which sums up why its important to do a business.
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Priority is to secure a stable source of income. Apply for a high-paying regular job, don't settle for anything less. Get a digital Tax Identification Number(TIN) ID via the BIR Online Registration and Update System(ORUS).
People spend a lot of their time on the web, but most are not aware of the potential earnings that can be had. Stop wasting time and make money by sharing your opinion in paid online surveys. Having said that, do be careful of scams as there are lots of them. See some of the most reliable websites below.
Survey Savvy is an association of Luth Research which is a large market research company. Rewards range from $1 up to $15 for each survey. The least amount for redemption is just $1. But, it is delivered to you as a check, and processing may take 4-6 weeks.
What makes the service unique is the SavvyConnect desktop and mobile applications. Use it to expedite your payment requests and receive more paid research opportunities and invitations. Plus, you get an extra $5 per month!
The caveat, however, might make you have second thoughts. The software and its browser add-ons collect data about web behaviors and browsing activities on the connected devices. If you're concerned with privacy, better read the FAQ before participating in the program. Take note, this is only available in the US.
Rakuten has their own survey arm called Insight. Each submitted survey earns you EPoints with each EPoint equal to 0.1 PHP. You can redeem it as a gift voucher or cash redeemable through PayPal. The minimum redemption points are 2,500 or 250 PHP.
LifePointsPanel formerly GlobalTestmarket, and MoolaDays are other options.
Starting a personal website or blog. Earn through Google Adsense, affiliate marketing, content writing, etc. Speaking of affiliate marketing, try Magenet and via contextual ads and article placement. Start with Blogger for free hosting and buy a cheap domain. People also give tips and donate on your website.
Open a Paypal, Skrill, Payoneer or HiGlobe account. Wise.com is a cheaper alternative to PayPal and the exchange rate is real-time. It also supports fund transfers to e-wallets like Maya and GCash. Send online income here.
How to transfer PayPal and Wise.com funds to bank in minutes? The majority of home-based workers are dependent on PayPal for receiving payment from clients. However, despite its merits, It does have a lot of issues. Check out how PayPal scammed me. They also charge an extra ₱50.00 for transfers below ₱7,000.00 on top of the very low exchange rates. However, if the amount is greater than 7,000.00 PHP, you can transfer for free, just need to wait for 2-4 business days, but sometimes its faster.
GCash is an e-wallet that allows users to buy load, pay bills, and send money. You can do a bank transfer via InstaPay and receive it almost instantly. It supports over 30 major banks. They once offered free almost instant PayPal cash-in, but sadly it stopped. To instantly receive funds, they now charge an additional 1% fee.
To use GCash with PayPal, you need an Android smartphone with an internet connection and identification documents. On the phone, open Google Play, download, and install the GCash app. After registration, get fully verified by submitting an ID, a selfie, and your address. Full verification increases the cash in limit up to ₱100,000 per month.
Link GCash to PayPal by following the instructions here. There is a need to log in, before proceeding, take note of the requirements. After link-up, it is now possible to cash in using PayPal. Other currencies must be converted to PHP first before transferring. Minimum transfer amount is ₱500.00. Take note of the fee.
If there's an error like this: "Sorry, we are unable to proceed with your cash-in request", you have to re-link your PayPal account.
Congratulations, almost instant PayPal to GCash withdrawal is a success!
Did you know you can also link SeaBank account to PayPal? Check this article. Their BRSTN(Bank Routing Symbol Transit Numbers.) is 311820018. The digital bank allows 14 free transfers per week. Use my referral code: RT866084. Here's a list of banks and their BRSTN.
In case its needed, here's SaleCalc's PayPal fee calculator that computes the fees deducted when sending payment and the fees to add by the sender when receiving exact amount.
Wise.com is a cheaper alternative to PayPal. The exchange rate is real-time and it also supports fund transfers to e-wallets like Maya and GCash. Receiving cash here is fast too. They have a free invoice generator. Of similar mold is HiGlobe, but USD account only, gives a 3% interest in account balance.
Monito is a international money transfers comparison site. Find low fees and save.
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Always budget. Money is finite and no matter how rich you think you are, if you don't manage it, you'll lose it all. That's why it's important to track your income and expenses, so you can make informed decisions when spending. There are lots of online tools for managing personal finances, but few really meet my expectations. What I'm looking for is simple, I just need features like budgeting, keeping tabs of income and expenses, and reporting.
MoneyManager Ex, HomeBank and Alzex Finance are free desktop-based personal fiance and accounting software. MoneyManager Ex is FOOS and cross-platform, available in Lihux. They are easy to use, at the end of the day, all that matters is you are aware of how much cash is at hand. Right?
To save money on groceries, apply for membership if the mall offers it. Gaisano's Value Card costs only 100 PHP and you earn 1 PHP per 100 PHP purchase. The annual renewal is just 10 PHP.
Robinson's Rewards Card costs 150 PHP and earns you 1 PHP per 400 PHP purchase. The annual renewal is 100 PHP every 2 years. ShopWise and Daiso have some unique and imported products. Buy it in bulk and in discount packs. Using GoTyme Digital Bank’s card earns you 3x more points.
Dali ang O'Save are hard discount stores that's offering rock bottom prices for basic goods. DealCatcher, and Woot offers deals, promos, and coupons.
Buy only when there's a sale or promo. Shopee, and Lazada offers a fantastic discount on their “ber” months' sale. That happens on September 9, October 10, November 11, and December 12. Discounts are fantastic, especially on branded tech gadgets. When buying online, take note of the product/seller rating. Read the product quality reviews and inquires. The replies are a reliable gauge of whether the seller is responsive. Get Shopee free shipping vouchers here.
Ikea and Muji may have affordable and practical shopping choices.
Carousell, and MyBenta are online buy and sell websites. TipidPC is for gadgets, and electronics. Carmudi is for cars.
Are you aware that you can buy online in the US and EU and have it delivered in the Philippines or in your country, cheaply? No, I'm not talking about Amazon, which is expensive with the shipping cost added. So, if I order Spar soap online, I can have it delivered to my US address, thanks to MyShoppingBox service. They provide a US and EU address, and they charge 5.99 USD/pound only. The items are air shipped and it takes about 21 days to arrive in my address. Another option is BuyAndShip, they charge 620 PHP on the first pound and only 380 PHP on succeeding pounds. Galleon.PH buys and ships products for you. Shipito and ComGateway are alternatives.
Love using FoodPanda or GrabFood? Here's a trick, GoMo from time to time offers 30 PHP vouchers for just 1.5 GB of data via Mo Creds. That's a steal! If you need more than 50 PHP FoodPanda vouchers, you can use Alipay Rewards in GCash.
Finio Cafe et Restaurant in Quezon City, Metro Manila offers affordable PHP 199 breakfast buffet, and PHP 299 lunch and dinner buffet.
Rappler has coupons for major e-commerce platforms that works!
Love eating in Vikings? Check-out their promos. They offer birthday promos:
- Celebrants can eat for free ON THE DAY of their birthday for both lunch and dinner accompanied by ONE FULL PAYING ADULT.
- Celebrants can eat for free on any day WITHIN THEIR BIRTHDAY MONTH and should be accompanied by FOUR FULL PAYING ADULTS.
Eatigo provides huge discounts if you make reservations through them, otherwise just book online.
Pay bills online using Bayad Online.
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SSS or the Social Security System, is provided for private-sector employees and gives pensions to members who have a minimum of 120 contributions and are at least 60 years old. However, to maximize the benefits paid, a monthly Total Contribution of 1,760 PHP for the maximum Monthly Salary Credit (MSC) of 16,000 PHP as shown in the SSS Schedule of Contributions. Pay it from age 54 until you retire at 65. Why?
There are 3 ways to compute the monthly pension, as explained in Globe's post. This one generates the most:
Pension = 300 PHP + 20% of AMSC + (2% of MSC * (CYS - 10)) + 1,000 PHP
AMSC is Average Monthly Salary Credit and is computed based on the last 5 years. CYS is a Credited Year of Service. The AMSC and the 2% of MSC multiplied by the CYS in excess of 10 years is the trick. Take note that SSS doesn't allow a drastic increase in contributions for ages 55 and above.
So if one starts working at age 20 and retires at 65, the pension is 14,700 PHP. See how it is computed here. If there are fewer than 120 contributions, you get a lump sum of the total contributions. Use the Pension Calculator to estimate how much to contribute in order avail of the desired pension amount. Login here.
Pay contributions using the SSS Mobile app. When the PRN generation doesn't work, you can still generate it on the website and use it to pay using GCash. Or Maya, use my invite code WY6Q0KG7O6QR.
Upgrade the UMID Card to the new SSS UMID Pay Card using UnionBank. It is both an ID and debit card, so you can withdraw your loan or pension directly through ATM. It offers free bill payment!
GSIS is the public-sector equivalent.
Pag-IBIG offers a Savings Program in which members can avail of housing loans, multi-purpose loan(MPL) and calamity loans. Pay savings for as low as 100 PHP monthly. Savings plus the dividends may be withdrawn after 20 years or 240 contributions or reaching the age of 60. If interested, here are the requirements for new loans.
One can pay online through the Pag-IBIG Online Payment Facility using Visa or Mastercard. Or better yet, use GCash. Check for contributions here.
Pag-IBIG MP2 is a voluntary savings program on top of the Pag-IBIG I contribution that provides a much higher yield. Membership is limited to active or former members. The minimum monthly contribution is 500.00 PHP. Term of 5 years and renewable. It is possible to open several accounts. Not strict, no requirement to contribute. Dividend rates vary but are always higher than Pag-IBIG I and tax-free too. A very safe investment, as contributions and earnings are government-guaranteed. More info here.
PhilHealth provides health insurance for all members. For the informal sector, the contribution is 200 PHP per month for those earning 25,000 PHP or below, otherwise it is 300 PHP. Member's login page here.
MYEG is an all in one portal for payments of any government related services like SSS, PhilHealth, BIR, NBI, CSC, SEC, PEZA, SBMA, TIEZA, etc.
Now that you have savings, invest part of it in RTBs and LTCNDs. RTB or Retail Treasury Bond. Not tax-free and not insured by PDIC. Invest in RTB online or via UnionBank's Bonds.PH mobile app. LTNCD stands for Long Term Negotiable Certificate of Deposit. It is tax-free and insured by PDIC. You can also invest on gov't bonds via GCash GBonds.
Corporations also issue bonds with fixed interest rate. PDS reports bond launches. Know more about bonds here.
There are numerous advantages to getting life insurance, especially if you get one that also offers an investment option. Such a type of insurance is known as variable life insurance. In 2008, I took Sun Life Financial's Sun FlexiLink plan.
Sun FlexiLink is a peso-denominated insurance plan that provides financial protection and, at the same time, gives you the option to choose where your premium payments will be invested. I selected the Balanced Fund.
With variable life insurance, your plan's fund value appreciates or depreciates depending on the performance of the fund selected. In this aspect, it is similar to a mutual fund or UITF, except that your beneficiary is guaranteed to receive the plan's face amount, no matter what happens to the fund.
You can also withdraw portions of the fund value if needed.
On top of the face value and fund value, you get supplemental benefits such as the Hospital Income Benefit (HIB), which pays a daily hospital income in the event of hospitalization of the insured. The daily hospital income doubles in the case of confinement in an intensive care unit or confinement due to a dreaded disease. Another benefit is the Total Disability Benefit (TDB), which waives premiums if the insured becomes totally and permanently disabled.
Unlike mutual funds, UITFs, or stocks, variable life insurance is not a one-time lump sum investment. Premium payments are piecemeal and gradual. You can also top up if you have extra cash. It's very much like a savings account but on steroids in terms of financial benefits and security.
SingLife's Cash for Goals is an investment and life insurance product offered as part of GCash. Unlike other services, there are no entry fees or commissions, so that 100% of your money is invested. There is no lock-in period, zero charges if you withdraw your money. There won’t be an extra charge for missed payments, too! Minimum monthly premium is 1,000 PHP, automatically deducted from your GCash wallet. In case you pass away, while your policy is active, your beneficiaries will receive the higher payout of either:
- 125% of the premiums paid minus 125% of the partial withdrawals made; or
- 105% of the available portion of your current investment value at the time of notice of your passing.
Take note: The target goal date for your policy is the date when you should expect to achieve your goal. For this product, it will be 6 years after you have fully paid your monthly payments. For example, if you select to pay for 5 years, your target goal date will be set at the 12th year.
Both bank savings accounts and insurance are highly liquid assets, a feature very useful in emergency cases.
Manulife Chinabank Invest with Enhanced Critical Illness Rider. Other good candidates are PhilCare and ValuCare. HealthWay Care Card offers unlimited consultation, discounts on laboratory and imaging services, generic medicines, telemedicine services, emergency room fees including room and board, one time free flu vaccination or annual physical exam, and personal accident insurance of up to 50,000.00 PHP for just 999.00 PHP. CocoLife Zenith Med is the only plan in the market that allows you access to high investment returns and exclusive access to the widest network of accredited hospitals. Single pay with coverage up to 100 years old, anyone 70 and below can apply.
Here's a comprehensive HMO list, if you need to know.
Enjoy a lifetime of medical benefits if you buy stocks of ACE Medical Center including 50% discount on laboratory and imaging services like CT scans and 45 days of free board and lodging per year. Read article about it here.
Thinking of preparing for the inevitable? Don't waste precious time and get a life plan from St. Peter. You can create an account for free and select a plan later. Use my referral code: RICA0262-P. Another good option is SingLife's Cash For Funeral Cost. Payment duration of either 5 or 10 years. It can extend the benefit to spouse or life partner and also cover children for free.
Since you already have a steady source of income, it's time to indulge. Indulge in what?
Buy high-quality gold jewelry like necklaces, rings, earrings, and bracelets. purchase a pawnshop's rematado sale. Don't forget branded gold watches; they're good buys too. You can pawn it easily in emergency situations where you need cash immediately. Aside from jewelries and watches, did you know you can also buy 24k gold bars and coins? You can, via PalawanPay app, use my referral code: RWNK-RCJ3.
The gold price does go up and down, so purchase it only when it is cheap. GoldPrizeZ is a good source of real-time gold prices per karat per gram. One good characteristic is that it is easily pawned during financially tough times; just make sure to get it back. Not only that, pieces of jewelry always make your wife happy, which is a plus point.
If savings is sufficient, buy properties.
Poverty is a global problem, it exists even in economically advanced countries. One of the most effective methods of reducing it is to provide poor but business oriented people with the much-needed capital. With Peer to Peer investment (P2P) investment, it is now possible for lenders to provide personal loans to borrowers residing halfway across the world.
P2P lending is the practice of loaning to an unrelated individual (peer) without the use of traditional intermediaries like banks or financial institutions. This personal approach results in people gaining access to money at very low rates or even with no interest. It is an alternative financing system that's way more effective than banks.
How do lenders connect with borrowers? It is through the use of free online lending platforms.
One such platform is Kiva.org. It is a non-profit organization with the main objective of “connecting people through lending to alleviate poverty”. They have a worldwide network of microfinance institutions which they call Field Partners who administer the loans in the lender's behalf. You can lend for as low as $25.00 and immediately make a big impact on other people's lives. Send 100% of your loan, to these institutions without any interest or deductions.
Another website that's highly recommended is Zidisha.org, which was founded in 2008. I consider it the truest form of a peer to peer lending in the sense that it has completely gotten rid of the middleman. In their platform, it's just you and the borrower, which they call an entrepreneur.
Estonia based Bondora offers the Go and Grow investment product. It is an automated highly liquid but low risk diversified loan portfolio that promises a return of up to 6.75%* p.a. They charge a flat €1 withdrawal fee regardless of the account size.
Mintos is a loan aggregator, getting loans from partner lending companies around the world. Invest for as low as €10 per loan and get as high as 12.08% income per year. More than 95% of the loans come with a buyback guarantee. This means that in case of a loan delay of more than 60 days, the lending company will automatically buy back the investment and pay the interest.
FundingSocieties is a debt investment platform based in Singapore. Allows people to invest and receive interest returns by financing local SMEs via property-backed secured, invoice financing, revolving credit, and business term investments.
PeerBerry is Europe-based P2P(peer-to-peer) investment platform that allows individuals and companies to invest in short-term, long-term, real estate, and business loans with returns up to 10%. It has a buyback guarantee, to be paid in full with accrued interest, if a borrower is over 60 days late. EstateGuru is a European digital investment platform that specializes in short-term, property-backed loans of small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs). EG Grow product provides a steady 7% monthly payout with a simple, fixed income investment. Or select the Auto or Manual Invest. Option to sell the portfolio on the secondary market. Both platforms require the investor to have a bank account in a licensed credit institution within the European Economic Area(EEA).
EquityZen is a financial platform that lets accredited investors buy and sell shares of private, pre-IPO companies. It acts as a matchmaking service, allowing early employees or founders to cash out their equity before a company goes public, while providing everyday investors access to venture capital-style investments. Rather than buying shares directly, investors typically buy into a specific "fund" created by EquityZen, which in turn holds the shares of the target private company. The minimum investment usually starts around $10,000-20,000 per offering. It is mostly restricted to "Accredited Investors"(high-net-worth individuals or those meeting certain income thresholds as defined by the SEC). They charge a one-time sales fee, typically around 2.5% depending on the size of the investment.
There are lots of platforms out there, and the easiest way to gather information is to visit CrowdSourcing.Org. According to their site, they are the “leading industry resource offering the largest online repository of news, articles, videos, and site information on the topic of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding”. This is where I came across Zidisha.
Another good source is P2P Platforms.
Don Victor Farms is one of the Philippines' leading commercial dragon fruit producers. It is operated by Agbeam Farms Inc., an agribusiness enterprise that focuses on sustainable, high-value crop production. The "Build-a-Farm" Program is a partnership model where aspiring or existing farmers can lease land or set up their own commercial dragon fruit plantations. They offer full management, technical assistance, fruit harvesting, and a dedicated buying system for the produce.
Got an innovative project that will save the world but lacking funds? Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform that brings people with ideas and people who have funds together and enable the idea to become a reality. Ideas can be about anything like technology, films, games, music, art, etc. By resorting to crowdfunding, creators increase their chances of launching their projects compared to, say, applying for a bank loan. One good thing about this service is, the originators of the idea/project retains ownership.
Despite the good intentions, take note that peer to peer lending is not an investment, rather it is about helping through lending. Having said that, there's a chance that you might lose your money, and this happens when the borrower defaults on their loans. Most of the time this is not intentional, but due to circumstances. This is especially true in areas that experienced war or calamity that completely destroyed their livelihood. These setbacks, if they do occur, shouldn't deter you from doing a very noble gesture.
Personally, I'm happy knowing that I have done my share of helping others in achieving their goals.
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If you have a PHP 20 to spend, what would you buy? For me, I will take my chances with PCSO(Philippine charity Sweepstakes Office) Lotto and buy a ticket. They offer 5 main games each randomly generates a non-repeating 6 digit number:
- Ultra Lotto 6/58 as the name suggest have numbers range from 1-58. Drawn every TUESDAY, FRIDAY and SUNDAY 9PM, the initial jackpot is PHP 49,500,000.00 PHP(net of agent’s prize commission). The pot money grows bigger whenever there is no winner.
- Grand Lotto 6/55 have numbers between 1 and 55. The jackpot starts at PHP 29,700,000.00. Draw is every MONDAY, WEDNESDAY and SATURDAY.
- Super Lotto 6/49 have numbers 1 to 49. Drawn every TUESDAY, THURSDAY and SUNDAY with an initial price of PHP 15,840,000.00.
- Mega Lotto 6/45 have numbers between 1-45. Gives a change to win PHP 8,910,000.00 every MONDAY, WEDNESDAY and FRIDAY.
- Lotto 6/42 have 42 as the highest number starting from 1. Drawn every TUESDAY, THURSDAY and SATURDAY. The pot money starts at PHP 5,940,000.00.
Getting 3, 4, or 5 digits of the winning 6-number combination, in any order, also winds some cash, but not much. To make things easy I use this random number generator. Each tickets cost 20.00 PHP.
Aside from the main games, there's also the 6D(6 digits) and 4D(4 digits), which ranges from 0 to 9, but the numbers can repeat.
- 6D is drawn every TUESDAY, THURSDAY and SATURDAY. The prize money starts at PHP 150,000.00.
- 4D is drawn every MONDAY, WEDAY and FRIDAY. The prize starts at PHP 10,000.00.
Each ticket costs 10.00 PHP.
Here's how to claim the Lotto prize.
I'm also betting the US Mega Millions via TheLotter. Before betting, check this lottery simulator.
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