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The Rule of Thumb on Savings

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Jake

'Overspending on cars now could lead to having walk in retirement' - Gaurav Ghose

Wealth management books, articles, trainings, and forums offer the same general idea on savings and income protection but slightly differ on how much they should be setting aside per investment basket. I also tried to play around on which percentage allocation will I be able to prepare for my future financial obligations.

Before we proceed on the percentage allocation, let us know the different Investment baskets we need to consider. This is best explained using Colayco's illustration of Investment Baskets:

  1. Protection Basket
    • Emergency Fund – 3-6 months worth of personal expense
    • Life Insurance
    • Medical Insurance
  2. Life Goal Basket
    • Children's Education
    • House
    • Car
    • Etc.
  3. Retirement Basket
    • Day-to-day expenses
    • Medical Expenses
The percentage allocation that is common within these reference materials is the Ten Percent Rule. i.e. 10% on Protection, 10% of Life Goals, and 10% on retirement, leaving behind 70% for expenses.

But this doesn't seem to apply in reality, considering that expenses are varying due to Life Goals i.e. family. On top of that, there is inflation and interest rate you are using for your investment. In short, you need to vary your percentage allocation per age to fit your financial objective while maintain a relatively good lifestyle.

I referenced these from an article Dubai, written by Gaurav Ghose. His article states that you need to increase your fund allocation for your retirement as you near your retirement age.

Let us consider our Average Joe:
  • Have a stable job
  • Desires to have a family with two kids
  • Desires to have a car and house of his own
  • Would like to retire at age 60
Age
Protection
Life Goals
*Retirement
**Expenses
25-30
10%
10%
10%
70%
30-40
10%
20%
10%
60%
40-50
10%
20%
20%
50%
50-60
10%
10%
30%
50%

Age 25-30: Average Joe is still single and may have a few dependencies at hand. i.e. parents or siblings

Age 30-40: Common age to start a family. If you start to have kids at this age, your life goal baskets or expenses might increase as well, but DON'T NEGLECT your protection basket especially if you have more dependencies already.

Age 40-50: This is usually the time wherein people plan to have a house or car of their own. However, this is also a crucial stage wherein they need to increase their percentage allocation for their retirement.

Age 50-60: More often than not, children are already working at this age. To retire comfortably at age 60, they need to 'pump-up' further their retirement fund.

*Retirement fund should be invested in an instrument earning an average of 10% p.a.

**Average inflation rate is at 5.5% p.a.

In a nutshell, you must be flexible on allocating your funds depending on your personal and family needs, but don't leave any of these investment baskets empty. Don't overspend and invest for your future.
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Multi-level Marketing: Not a SCAM

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Jake

Multi-level marketing or MLM is a marketing strategy in which members of the MLM could profit either by selling products or by recruiting new members.

For optimist, MLM is closely associated with the word business opportunity, or life-changing opportunity.

For pessimist, they associate MLM with the words "SCAM", or "PYRAMIDAL SCHEME"

It pains me to hear people who have perception on MLM as a scam or laugh on the members who struggle on recruiting down lines.

New models of MLM are currently facing a lot of challenges to be accepted as legitimate business models due to the SINS of previous MLM. Recruited members without entrepreneurial spirit often change their perception of MLM on the first sign of production downturn. And when they gave-up, they tag it as a SCAM. Shame on you!

6-Digits a week

This is true. It's not a joke, and they are consistent with this production. But always take note on the story behind their success. No one becomes successful overnight. Before they even reached this level of income, they were consistent with their hard-work. Not just days, weeks, or months, but years of consistent effort.

Don't believe in easy money

Recruiters love to show off their pay checks, their luxury bags, cars, watches and Euro trip vacation pictures. Most of the time, prospects are enticed to join due to their upgraded lifestyle. But be careful, prospects often perceive this as an 'Easy Money'.

For recruiters

Be careful on the words you use when presenting to prospects. Do not just show the perks of being part of MLM, but also show to them the challenges they need to face to become successful on this business.

For prospects who are thinking of joining

This business is not for the faint heart. You must have the entrepreneurial spirit to endure challenges on this kind of business. The perks are real, these are not SCAM, but expect that you have to deliver consistent effort for you to become successful as your recruiters.

For those who are already part of MLM

Kudos to you. Don't give up. Continue on what you are doing. Don't lose your heart when your prospect rejected your proposal or invite. You have to treat this as a business. You have to be creative when selling this opportunity to your prospects.
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How I gained from Hospital Income Benefit

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Jake


 

Last week, October 24-29, I was confined in the hospital for 6 days due to dengue. The total hospital bill for 6 days (including medicines) amounted to Php 20,534.

Due to my medical insurances (i.e. Medicard, Philhealth, Hospital Income Benefit from Sun Life), I only need to pay, Php -8,893. Yup, that's right. NEGATIVE. It means that I even gained money from my 6 days confinement.


Here is the Breakdown:

Total Hospital Bill: 20,534

Covered by Medicard and Philhealth: 17,427

Hospital Income Benefit: Php 2,000 x 6 days = Php 12,000

Hospital income benefit is an income replacement benefit from my life insurance which pays me Php 2,000 for every day I am confined in the hospital. Since I was confined for 6 days, I'll be getting Php 12,000.

Hospital income benefit is not a form of hospital reimbursement. It is an income replacement on the event that you were hospitalized. This is perfect for people who are self-employed or has completely variable income.

For me to have this benefit, I am paying an extra Php 490/month. But this benefit will not go to waste if I'm healthy. On the event that I maintained myself healthy, that monthly charge will go to my MF investment in my Variable Life Insurance Policy.

Of course, I don't want to make this Hospital Income Benefit a form of "Cash Cow" for my gain. Having dengue is something I don't want to experience again. It was torture.

The Lesson: "Wag magpakagat sa lamok"
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Stocks or Mutual Fund? Which one

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Jake


Part time investors still dwell on the aspect on where to place their hard earned money that would yield higher returns.

Those who would like to invest on corporations are thinking of two methods: either to invest personally on stocks through a broker OR to invest on Mutual Fund.







Before we compare, there are two ways on investing on stocks through a broker:
  • Traders or Day Trading – Requires extensive monitoring market. Profits by buying cheaper shares and sell it at a higher price.
  • Long Term Investing – Fixed and periodic investing on corporate stocks.
For Mutual Funds, there are three common types:
  • Bond – Government Loans and Corporate Securities
  • Balance – Mixture of corporate stocks and Government Loans
  • Equities – Corporate Stocks
For the purpose of comparison, we will be comparing only:

    Day Trading VS Long Term Investing VS Mutual Fund(Equities)

Market Monitoring
  • Day Trading requires extensive monitoring on the market. Even though trading period only last 3 hours, missing this period could cause high investment loss or opportunity of gain
  • Long Term Stocks investors require moderate monitoring in the market.
  • Mutual Fund investors require low or no monitoring the market.
Company profiling
  • Day trading – Extensive. Aside from the numbers provided to you on their assets and liabilities, you even need to consider several factors that could affect the company. i.e. Changing of CEO, weather affecting commodities, government policies etc.
  • Long Term Stock Investors – Looking at their numbers (assets and liabilities) and historical performance should suffice for a successful long term investment on stocks.
  • Mutual fund Investors – They only need to profile the investment company (Managing the mutual funds), not the companies being invested by the investment company.
Overall Risk/Return
  • Day Trading – Highest risk, highest potential return. There were some stories of traders who was able to profit 50%-300% I just one trading day. Of course, there were also traders who lose their bet on stocks. One story came from recent recession; a Stock Trader killed himself when the recession came. The return if investment is highly dependent on the skill, knowledge and experience as an investor.
  • Long Term Stock Investors – Moderate to high risk. Moderate to high return. The longer your investment stays, the higher the probability your investment will provide higher return. Investors under this category usually mitigated the risk by diversifying their investment to different companies. One advantage of choosing Long Term Stock investing is the freedom to choose which company to invest to.
  • Mutual Fund – Low to moderate risk. This investment simulates an experienced Long-term Stock investing. The investment also is highly diversified which further mitigates the risk. Due to several mitigated risks, it also provides the lowest return among the three. Based on 10 year historical returns on mutual funds, it averaged around 15% p.a.
Overall verdict: That depends on your financial objective and risk profile as an investor.

If you have the luxury of time to study the company profiles, monitor the market religiously and completely understand the risk/return principle on investing, I highly recommend go for Day Trading.

If you wish to think long term and would like to have a freedom to choose which company to invest to, go for Long Term Stock Investing.

If your financial objective is long term and doesn't like to worry about the day-to-day fluctuations in the market while it is being managed by a professional fund manager, proceed for Mutual Funds.

My Personal Choice

Mutual Funds. Why? I love my job and my 9 AM to 12 PM schedule is my most productive time of the day. Also, I do not have the luxury of time to review or to worry about company profiles and market fluctuations. I love the idea that my investment is being managed by an experienced fund manager and knowing that my investment is diversified.
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The Budget App der

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Jake


It was twelve months ago that I started managing my finance by having my own budget. The first application I used was actually an excel file forwarded to me by one of my officemates. I used it regularly and tracked my expenses religiously. The only problem was it takes a lot of effort to input the values and track the expenses. Also, it doesn't have any form of feedback on how far I am on the budget that I was able to set.

On April 2011, I started to look into Apps on mobile devices that would help me manage my finance with ease and provide me real-time report and trend on my overall finance. On my experience on budgeting, my criteria are as follows:



  • Able to set budget represented by different criteria
  • Should contain data for income and expense
  • Track reoccurring expenses
  • Monthly report for income vs. expense.
  • Should be able to tell you how far are you from your budget: Budgeted vs. Actual
  • Can be exported to excel
  • Graphs like pie chart, bar and line graphs to show trends in my finance
  • User friendly
So far, with all the available apps offered in the market, one app fits the criteria I made: Budgets for iPad by iBear LLC


http://ibearsoft.com/budgets/

What makes this app so cool is the interface (and the graphics). Because of the real-time update and report on my finance, I was able to make sound decisions over my expenses.

BTW, did I tell you it was free? Yes, its free. And the advertisement on the app is not that annoying when you are using the application.

I have been using it for almost 6 months, and because of this app, I have better control over my expenses.

TRY IT!!!

Unfortanately it doesn't have a counterpart for android. However, they were able to release a better application that has more features than Budgets. It is called "Money", also developed by iBear LLC, and available for android OS.

http://ibearsoft.com/money/

I haven't tried this app but I am very curious to explore it. Two cool things about it is the Bills and Calendar features.
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Types of Mutual Funds

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Jake


There are several types of mutual funds offered in the Philippines. But for this article, I will only tackle on funds that are commonly available in the Philippine market.





Common Types:

  
Investment Portfolio
Investment Objective
Risk
Potential Return
Equities
Corporate stocks and loansLong-term capital appreciation
Moderate to high
High
Balance
Combination of corporate stocks and bondsFixed income and capital growth
Moderate
Moderate
Bond
Government and corporate loansProvide interest income and principal preservation
Low to moderate
Low

Historical returns:

The historical returns showed below are based on historical performance of Sun Life Prosperity Funds.
Prosperity Philippines Equity FundProsperity Balanced FundProsperity Bond
2001
-10.05%
-1.44%
10.54%
2002
-17.68%
-12.76%
8.40%
2003
39.84%
31.51%
8.42%
2004
20.18%
19.09%
7.89%
2005
11.35%
9.98%
11.05%
2006
44.00%
34.29%
11.96%
2007
20.58%
17.21%
2.42%
2008
-37.60%
-23.73%
1.65%
2009
43.50%
21.70%
5.67%
2010
41.24%
30.67%
7.85%


You might be scared of investing on Equity or Balance due to the negative values. The negative values do not really mean that your investment will zeroed out. The negative values mean that the unit values you bought on the previous year, devaluated. It is just considered as "paper loss". The number of units that you bought is still intact.

In fact, if the unit values went down, for just an example "due to recession", you must take advantage of that one by buying MORE mutual fund units, because the unit values are lower.

I highly recommend investing on Equity fund for your long term investment such as Children's educational fund or retirement fund. I will show on the next table why equity fund is superior to any other fund if you are thinking long term.

i.e. Initial investment =10,000

Period = 10 years


Alas! At the end of the tenth year, Equity Fund showed it's superiority over other funds.

Which fund is best for me?

That really depends on your risk appetite, your current financial situation and your financial objective. Always remember the simplest investment principle: "The higher the risk, the higher the potential return"

What do you recommend?

If you don't have any intention to use any of your investment on the next ten years, I highly recommend for you to maximize return of investment through Equity Fund. If you are about to use your investment, for just an example 5 years before your child goes to college or 5 years before your retirement, switch or transfer your funds to a more conservative type of investment like Bond Fund. This will protect your investment from any market fluctuations while you are doing periodic withdrawals on your investment.

What are the other MF available in the market?
  • GS Fund – Pure Government securities or loans. Lower returns than bond fund.
  • Money Market Fund – Short-term loans or commercial papers issued by corporations. Investment returns is almost as low as the bank.
  • Foreign Currency – Consists of either corporate stocks or foreign government loans. For me, I don't recommend investing on dollars. It's growth is just being nullified by it's devaluation.
If you have more questions about MF, feel free to email me or set an appointment to enlighten you in detail about this investment.
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The ideal way to save money

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Jake





There are three types of people on their methods of saving money.


  1. Income - Expense = Savings
    This type of saver tends to spend his or her income first for expenses, and whatever it is left, will be considered savings. Most people failed to save in this process due to their perception that they are spending money below their income. This clearly shows that the person does not keep track on his/her expenses and only relies on what is left on their ATM savings account. We usually termed this as a "Luck" Saver.

    i.e. At the beginning of the month, the person receives an income of 20,000. Since the person relies on perception when spending, he never realized that he/she has spent 19,950 pesos at the end of the month. Before the 2nd months income, he/she was able to save only 50 pesos.
  2. Expense - Income = Savings
    These are the people who haven't received their income, but already have their expenses lined-up. These are the people who were able to accumulate bad debts from loans or credit-cards. They subjected themselves to spending spree and totally OUT-OF-CONTROL.

    i.e. At the beginning of the month, the person has accumulated already 10,000 peso worth of credit-card expense. When his/her 20,000 pesos income came, the person is already limited to budget his/her remaining 10,000 pesos to a whole month. If this habit will continue, he/she will remain on bad-debt.
  3. Income - Savings = Expenses
    This is the most ideal way to save money and accumulate wealth. The moment your income is provided, set aside a portion of that money for you savings basket. The remaining money will be used for your expenses. In this way, you will be disciplined to limit your expenses and not to extend your savings. With this method you will be able to set your expenses and savings fixed.

    i.e. When the person received his/her 20,000 peso income, 10% has already been set-aside for his/her savings. The person is now free to spend the remaining 90% on anything he wants. He/she will be able to accumulate 24,000 pesos at the end of the year if he/she continue to do this type of discipline for 12 months.
So what kind of a "Saver" are you?
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