Start-Up in PH? Two words: mixed-feelings

So here I am, in my room at 12:14AM on a Monday, writing this blog. Why? because I can lol but seriously, can’t sleep so I’ll just pour my thought on this. For those individuals that are or would be reading this, just to let you know, creating a start-up company and sticking to it takes balls of steel, but if you’re ambitious and determined, no [shit] can stop you.

I heard one very good message a few days ago from Anton Kreil that I wish I heard years back, “you can’t be a trader if you don’t have a position” or something to that effect. Now, that stuff struck me, deep, emotionally. Truth of the matter is, I’ve always seen myself as a businessman not employee and I’ve always wanted to be in the world of business and investments-in the world of money, because I’ve always, almost had none. True, you can’t be a trader if you don’t have a position. YOU can’t be a businessman, if YOU don’t have a business.

On one of the magazines that I read, business was defined as the activity where you make money, even when you’re asleep. If you’re not making money while you’re asleep, you’re not doing business, you’re doing work. Suck on that.

In a feeble effort, I tried to start a little company in 2010, when I was around 20-21 years old, Mud Skeen Media as it came to be known. Had small achievements but the amount of expenses overwhelmed the amount of revenue. I had to shut it down. It was fun and it was my first experience in the world of self-employment. 4 years forward, here I am. In the heart of the Philippine capital, engaged in real estate and finance.

Just recently, I finally summoned the courage to create a start-up company, Calonge-Loria Investments. Yes, I put my name on the door-I own the company so why not? Unlike the silicon-valley types, this one us purely Filipino and its not purely tech related. It’s more engaged in sales and marketing of real estate, mutual funds and private equity. As I have the license to sell real estate and I’m currently on the process to gain license to sell securities, I am basically in my zone.

I love this photo of me lol

 

How are we coming along? Fine, still feeling those birth pains. Like every start-up company that doesn’t have deep pockets, we’re bootstrapping, trying to maximize every profit we have out of the sales and lease management services that we do.

I’ve been around successful men and women and I have heard their stories of successes. How they started, where they started. It’s very intriguing. These people that I personally know and worked with, Filipinos that are millionaires, in dollars, US. Achievements that some could only dream of. Apparently, I realized I’m not part of the group that likes to dream of such things. I am more of the conceptualizing and visualizing kind. I think, analyze and study how they did it and apply it myself. Of course, more often than not, I find out that some of their methods don’t work on or for me. I have my own style, and I work successfully on my style, that’s the simplest explanation I could give for that premise.

Being  friends with successful individuals who are not Filipinos is a mind-opening experience. Out of courtesy I wont mention their names, only their nationalities; American, Canadian, FIlipino-Chinese-American. I’ve worked with a Korean friend that I utterly know would be a successful businessman in the future. Working also with a Russian businesswoman was one of the most interesting things that happened to me this year. Point of views, work ethics and thought processes are completely different from that of what I am accustomed to. These things, it shaped how I think, act and live as an entrepreneur.

Although I am very happy as a Filipino, I am extremely sad that the working conditions for a start-up here in the country is one of the most challenging, Business permits, fees and odd rules and regulations makes it one helluva challenge. I am not complaining. Just sharing my thought. Balls of steel right?

Two of my mentors in real estate echoed each other, they once told me that I should concentrate on one thing, create one purpose, be laser focused. I absolutely respect them, and that is what I want to echo to those people thinking of becoming an entrepreneur. Focus. That’s the buzz word you’ll read and keep seeing over and over again through all those self-help guides, DIY’s. It’s true. Without focus, everybody is just wondering generality.

I focus on success and becoming the best and I’m happy my better-half is with me. Having somebody beautiful and loving to support you in your endeavors is a blessing and a great way to rejuvenate. You can’t do everything on your own, ALWAYS, you will need someone, somewhere to help you succeed. Find that someone, somewhere. No matter what.

My better-half

So, there it is, PH Start-up, you’ll definitely feel a lot of things, and surely most, if not all of it would be mixed.

Times flies fast, it’s already 1:30AM, probably time to sleep lol Thanks for reading and joining me in this little nook.

Cheers and more business for us!

MANAGING TOXIC CLIENTS

This is basically a simple guide for the kids starting their career in sales and marketing. Soon in your career, you would inevitably come across prospects or clients that are a headache; these are people who ask too much or have expectations higher than Everest. The world is filled with them and the Philippines is no exemption.

First and foremost, you have to understand that clients (or customers) are not always right. That kind of mentality is flawed and it’s sad that it is being ingrained in the minds of young entrepreneurs-I don’t care about those old entrepreneurs-they might be at the point where their families are waiting for that life insurance to kick-in, I care about the new ones.

In order to understand my thought process, one should change his or her business outlook. Clients (or customers) are people who have the money and are looking to spend that money by asking for a service or an item to be rendered to them. They would come to you or approach you to specifically ask, request or buy something you have. In that moment of space and time, you are the expert, you are the person who has the capability and competence to help them in their time of need.

Now, I would have to shove that business outlook in your throat and kindly ask you to digest it to the last vowel. As the “expert” you have the responsibility to guide the client (or customer) in his or her purchase or money spending. Before selling a product or offering a service, you have to know almost everything about it-it would be highly stupid not to. Of course you can’t “know everything” but try acting the part.

After weeks and weeks of training, you are expected to deliver that expertly advice to the client (or customer) and making sure in the process that he or she is above satisfied. Asking for feedback and/or suggestions is not bad, hence, it’s even helpful.

Going to the point of debunking that old adage that clients (or customers) are always right, common sense dictates that if they complain about a product or a service and you think that they are always right then you’re a fucking moron (excuse me for my French).

1. You’re selling life insurance, then a client comes bumping in telling you that you should do this and that, do you think that client went through all of your reviews, trainings and exams to be a licensed agent?
2. You own a restaurant and a customer comes rolling on the floor telling you that your food needs this stuff and that stuff, though a kind suggestion would be much appreciated, a fuming one would not go down so easily, such a predicament would edict that he or she needs to operate his or her own restaurant.

I do hope you are getting my point. There are cases where, clients or customers are such pain in the ass but you have to tolerate them because you know they would be slapping you in the face with a fat check after you finish a project for them. A good example is from a friend of mine who works as a director for an advertising firm. At one of our night-outs, he discussed that some of their clients are a pain in the ass due mainly because of the amount of demand and time-pressure.

A client of theirs would ask for 3-4 full concepts for 1 commercial within a few weeks, they deliver and then with a wink of an eye the client changes mind and asks for a new one. In this particular case, their client has a thought and my friend’s job is to interpret and draw out that thought into reality. One cannot apply the “client (or customer) is always right” excuse here as there is no single factor that would constitute what is wrong and what is right. It’s like pouring water into differently shaped bottles and asking the client which bottle they like; it is in the “subjective” realm, where right and wrong doesn’t exist, only satisfaction and dissatisfaction prevails.

Getting that thing cleared. We come to the core of the topic, toxic management. My experience this past week inspired me to write this article. I have had on more than one occasion came across such type of client/s, but this one definitely contributed to my flu so in honor of that, I will immortalize this experience.

Lease management is like any management undertaking, it is quite simple if one has systems in place set-up.

Marketing a rental/lease-unit, managing a tenant, making sure that documents are signed and money change hand (note: very very important!) is all in a day’s work for lease management. The reason why a unit-owner would come and seek assistance to professionally manage his or her leasing concerns is because:

1. He/she has no idea how to do it.
2. Or has no time to do it.

Therefore, it is given that the two parties would mutually agree to provide utmost service in exchange for a fee. This particular client of mine was demanding a significant number of things that it consumed at least 4 hours of my time. Probably it is because of the excitement, that this is his or hers first tenant or maybe just OC.

I would not go into all the pertinent details, but just to give you a clear picture, this particular client was asking for things that would already be provided by the system therefore creating redundancy in the process. This particular client was also stepping in my leasing process as I was receiving what I view as dictation of what I should and should not do. Being a professional, of course, I reminded them that everything would be processed and settled accordingly.

To manage this toxicity, I calmly educated the client/s, informing them that documents are in place and a system is being followed. Contracts and receipts were emailed to them for their reference within 24-hours from the tenancy of their unit. Everything went well, I received my fee and had a good, cold beer. Satisfaction served.

Managing clients (both toxic and cooperative) is as simple as having the confidence of knowing your stuff and delivering clearly your service-point blank. Keep calm in all the anger & frustration that’s being thrown at you; being young would entail that you’re idealistic and hyper active. Clients could and would act irrational, but creating a system for clearly managing your business and sticking to that system would counter this irrationality tantrum and restore balance to the world.

Remember you are the expert in your chosen field of sales and marketing.

This article that I wrote is a brief summary of 4 years of sales and marketing experience. You may incorporate this idea in your business plan (or you may not, your choice basically).

I hope more closed deals for you! Cheers!

How to Apply for a Housing Loan in the Philippines?

How to Apply for a Housing Loan?

Tired of paying rent? Have you finally found your dream home, but don’t have enough savings to pay for it? If you think it’s time to invest in your very own home, getting a housing loan is the next big step for you. In the Philippines, you can either apply for a housing loan in banks or through PAG-IBIG fund.

Get a Home Loan from Banks in the Philippines

If you apply for a housing loan in banks, you’ll have many choices. Although there are many miscellaneous fees as compared to getting a PAG-IBIG home loan—fees such as appraisal, handing, notarial, registration fees, and tax—processing is much quicker with banks. However, remember that banks always have very strict deadlines.

The minimum loan amount from private banks is PHP 500,000. The maximum loan amount will be based on your monthly repayment capacity. Your loan term can be as long as 20 years. Interest rate is fixed for one year, and changes every six months.

Who can apply?

Filipino citizens can apply for housing loans from local banks. Filipinos working overseas would require a special power of attorney and possibly, a photocopy of their contract or a certificate of employment (COE), which must be approved by POEA. Some banks allow foreigners to avail of housing loans, but they must meet their VISA requirement and provide their Alien Certificate of Registration.

Loans are available for people aged 21-65 years, upon loan maturity. Applicants also need to have a minimum gross family income of PHPP 30,000-50,000/month to be considered eligible. Most banks also require that you must have stayed in your company for at least two to three years.

If you are self-employed, your business must be stable and have been profitable for at least two to three years. You will also be asked to provide audited financial statements from the last three years.

Some banks also require you to have a good credit standing.

What are the requirements?

Basically speaking, just like you would apply for any loan, you also have to provide the necessary documents, specified below:

1. Basic documents including bank application form, photocopy of at least one valid government-issued ID with photo & signature
2. Collateral documents incuding a photocopy of TCT (Transfer Certificate of Title/ CCT (Condominium Certificate of Title), lot plan with a geodetic engineer, or Master Deed of Declaration of Restrictions (for condominiums)
3. Proof of employment such as your COE (Certificate of Employment), your ITR (Income Tax Return) or W2, and payslips from the last three years; or a COE with salary breakdown

Apply for a PAG-IBIG Housing Loan

A popular option among Filipinos, a PAG-IBIG housing loan can be availed through developer-assisted application, or retail, where the member goes straight to the fund for application.

Who can apply?

You need to be a member to be eligible for a Pag-IBIG home loan. This means that you need to have had at least made 24 monthly contributions to qualify. You have the option to pay a lump sum if you are just a new member. You also must not have an existing foreclosed or cancelled Pag-IBIG housing loan.

What are the requirements?

You would need to pay loan processing fees, which can cost PHP 1,000-PHP 3,000 for loan application and before loan release.

Basic requirements include Membership Status Verification Slip, TCT/CCT in the name of the borrower, proof of billing address, notarized Loan and Notarized Mortgage agreement, Disclosure Statement on Loan Transaction, and Collection Servicing Agreement or Post-dated Checks

Benefits

You’ll notice how PAG-IBIG has so many requirements a member needs to fulfil to qualify for a home loan, as compared to getting a loan from the bank. It takes 15 days (or longer) to process, too. However, below are the benefits of a Pag-IBIG loan:

• You can borrow a maximum of PHP 6 million, but you are likely to be granted a loan amount you’re actually capable of paying. You can pay within a period of up to 30 years.
• You can also enjoy an interest rate of as low as 4.5%.
• Compared to banks, PAG-IBIG is not as strict on due dates or lapsed payments.
• You can also apply online for a PAG-IBIG loan. This option is available to Pag-IBIG Membership ID  (MID) cardholders, or those with assigned Registration Tracking Numbers (RTN).  You can check other specific requirements by clicking this link.
• When you avail of this loan, the monthly amortization comes with Pag-IBIG’s insurance premium.

So get started on your goal to build a home of your own. Now that you know your options, you better start preparing the documents you need to apply. Whether you decide to apply for a home loan with a bank or with PAG-IBIG fund, you should definitely decide carefully on what works best for your situation.

Getting a better interest rate can save you hundreds of thousands of pesos. To help you find the best housing loan, try MoneyMax’s comparison tool. The site  features unbiased and up-to-date information on loans and financial products to help Filipinos make sound decisions and save more money.

About the Author:

MoneyMax is the Philippines’ foremost online platform for comparing financial and telecom products and services – fast, comprehensive, and free. We aim to give the power of smart purchase decisions back to Filipino consumers by providing everything they need to become financially savvy. Find out more at MoneyMax.ph.

MoneyMax.ph

THINK TWICE: Like a soap bubble

Note: I originally wrote this 9 February and was set to be published the next day but I held back a little bit to try to gauge and predict the possible reactions of our clientele base. Though I am not sending this to our corporate clients and readers, as an alternative platform, I’m publishing this in my personal blog. Well, I’m bound to my own opinion without liability to my firm (tho the line blurs sometime).

To our valued clients,

First and foremost let me start by saying thank you. 2012 and 2013 have proven to be quite exciting!

The business environment in the country is quickly shifting from a sellers’ market into a buyers’ market. Don’t be fooled. With the current phase of the real estate industry, the country might be entering the bubble stage. So called experts have been divided over the exact situation in the industry and crowd mentality has taken over and most have settled for the mediocre cheer of the “boom” phase.

Analyzing the situation here in the ground, it’s quite clear that sellers out number buyers 5 to 1. The trend of buying low and selling high is slowly catching up to the present generation. People who bought properties, such as condominiums in 2010 are now reaping what they sow.

Secondary market is currently going toe-to-toe with the primary market and some developers are now experiencing significant backlogs. Backlogs are a sign of over-supply; developers constructing new properties while the previous properties are still not completely sold out.

 Cheap Credit, High Supply and Impulsive Buyers all play a role in this slowly growing bubble.

Though all this should be expected, like the phases of the moon, the market is bounded by the law of nature, it will have to go round its cycle-up, plateau, down.

But with the gloom of the sales side in the industry comes a bloom in the leasing part. Long-term and short-term leasing is picking up as more and more people are moving into the central business districts. This specifically goes hand in hand with the growing business outsourcing industry.

Provincial residents are slowing migrating into the cities as better job opportunities awaits them in the form of becoming call center agents

 Aside from the local leasing market, foreign leasing is also on the rise as medical and traditional tourism is picking up. Foreigners wanting to stay in the country are leaning towards leasing condominium units instead of hotels for the obvious reason of cheap economics.

With the peso dropping, foreign currencies strength creates a significant boost in leasing.

The year of the horse opens up a galloping economy and as we move past the first 30 days of the year, it’s going to be an interesting business environment in the succeeding quarters.

Part and parcel of being successful in any business venture is to have the ability to foresee possible risks to gain better ground in counter-acting any possible negative impacts; doing so will put one in the best vantage point to make better judgment call thus gaining rewards.

It is this ability that we put in place in order to have our clients settle in a better position against the volatilities of the market. Selling, buying and leasing properties aren’t that complicated nor is it that simple. It is our firm’s responsibility to take the burden off our clients and make things as easy as possible.

Sincerely,

MY FRUSTRATION: THE PROBLEM WITH THE FILIPNO WORK MENTALITY (Why this country is 3rd world)

It doesn’t need to take a genius to figure out why this beautiful country is still considered 3^rd world. Although there have been quite a remarkable and impressive development in the economy; having the credit upgrades, reaching high peaks in the stock market and nesting a real estate boom, the truth of the matter is, 80% of Filipinos are still financially illiterate and/or unemployed.

In this pessimistic view of gloom and doom, there is a silver lining, and that is revealing the truth behind the mask. Time and again, truth always sets people free.

Today, financial coaches, motivational speakers and do-it-yourself authors are popping-up left and right, they’re a-dime-a-dozen. It is turning out to be an era of free information, though the “Freedom of Information Bill” comes to mind; that stuff touches on a different subject matter-the ever so dirty politics-and I won’t touch on that, at least for now.

Era of free information means, the people or anybody that’s part of the society could easily create and pass around ideas and thoughts unhampered through the use of online vehicles. The fact that you are reading this articles makes point to such that.

I am writing this article to point out my frustration in my fellow Filipinos.

For the past year, I have been working for a foreign company based here in the country and from the very beginning, when we started operating the company, I have seen and experienced the follies of the Filipino mind and fatal attitudes passed down and ingrained from generations.

Although there are many variations of this, many Filipinos have been ingrained to try to take advantage of other people-to clarify (I am not saying all, just most).

It was my experience to see Managers, being trusted with the finances and operations of the company, just squander and waste time and money in mostly worthless things. Though in fairness, those managers did accomplish some degree of operational competence throughout their tenure of employment.

Well, this scenario touches base with the current political situation in the country where scams and scandals are being exposed day in and out. It’s amazing how this country is being robbed in Billions of Dollars without anybody or anything stopping it. It’s not new nor isolated. Japan, Korea, Singapore, China, The Middle-East, Europe and the Americas, all of these countries have had their own brush with corruption.

I guess greed and evil is a deep part of humanity and being human means you should have a bit of greed and evilness inside you. Angels, Saints and the prophets Jesus, Muhammad, Krishna or even Confusions (?) were a special kind, able to utterly or completely suppress these negative characteristics of man.

It forms part and parcel of my learning curve to be exposed and connected with incompetent Filipinos or to sweeten the sourness of my view, Filipinos who are mismatched with their current skill and ability to their present employment.

In my finance and administrative department alone, turnover time is 3 months for 1 employee. After 90 days from the start of employment they either grow incompetent or screws up their job. Out of the 4 people who were employed at the same position in the last 12 months, I had to fire 2 people for their stupidity-playing and doing facebook at office time-if they were on the marketing department, I could’ve considered their actions.

Currently, the new challenge I’m facing is dealing with college-like attitudes. I guess immaturity knows no age or gender.

At the inception, the owner of our company, clearly stated that he, first and foremost started the firm to give back to the Filipinos and help them in the way that he knows best-that is to provide employment and create a competitive working business environment.

Sad to see that the things we experienced with our employees is not just confined to the walls of our office on the 30^th floor. It unmistakably forms part of the bigger picture. At the National Economics and Development Authority website (http://www.neda.gov.ph), their figures shows unemployment at 6.5% in October 2013, tradingeconomics.com puts it at the same level as of 20 December 2013 whilst The National Statistics Office’s website (http://www.census.gov.ph/statistics/survey/labor-force) pegged it at 17.9% in the first month of the Q4-huge difference but with the same conclusion, all though the figures mentioned are lower than the previous years, it’s clear that unemployment will never cease as long as the Filipino people’s attitude, mentality, thinking, behaviour don’t change-then again, at the present time, it will never will.

It will take a few more generations before this country could make an exit into its poor condition. The snakes of today, might just shed their skins and still the reap havoc tomorrow but here’s hoping that there would come a beast of person that would chop their heads off.

Is a mismatch of skill and employment the root of unemployment? Checking the anatomy of the problem, it shows that though it plays a part in the problem, it isn’t completely at fault.

I hold a degree in Nursing and a high-school IQ Test stamped me with a below-average Intelligence Quotient (of which I realized that such tesst are completely idiotic) but lo and behold! I had article writing as a part-time job, SEO optimization training, did audio, video and photo editing gigs, organized and produced events, had a short but successful bancassurance career and is now in the real estate industry. Not to say that I don’t have focus on my career, my point here is, if I-a small time province boy from a middle-income family could do all those things, then anybody could basically do it. I have heard and read of disabled Filipinos, like Roselle R. Ambubuyog (http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Roselle_R._Ambubuyog), who achieved far greater results than her fully-functional, fully-capable peers in Ateneo de Manila University. Read this carefully—she became SUMMA-CUM-LAUDE when she graduated in 2001. Now how in the universe did that happen? Maybe she had powers like the American superhero Matt Murdock a.k.a Daredevil? Probably only the universe knows.

Going back to the point, assuming Roselle doesn’t have superpowers, it’s obvious normal-thinking Filipino’s could and would have the opportunity to be successful in whatever career or life-situation they are currently in or would be.

In my blessed life, I have met a number of outstanding individuals who have, although they don’t know it, have inspired me. No, I don’t think they have ever been featured in bigwig news outlets like Philippine Daily Inquirer-Sunday Edition or Time Magazine or on those local TV stations. They’re were or are just individuals who were given the opportunity and made the most out of it.

Many says that although the late dictator Marcos did mostly evil things in his presidential life, he did for a fact made jumps and leaps in regards to the “economical” betterment of the country. I quoted economical just to make the message clear. I know he’s been prosecuted for un-humanitarian deeds.

How did he achieve economical betterment? Point-blank, he knew what was needed to be done and acted on it! For more details, just go to Wikipedia.

Funny how this country is being considered now as an “Emerging Economy”. We already emerged before-read economy of the 1970’s… we just sank back, probably, it should be better coined as “Floating Economy”. We’re floating in the midst of the world economy; we’re not at the ground nor are we at the top, we move from one point of the graph to the next, cheering when we float a little higher and clamoring when we lose a little air.

If Maynard Keynes was Filipino, he could’ve thought of a better term, no doubt about that.

Moving forward, writing this article could only go so far, the next best thing to do now is get my free Starbucks Grande and think of a way on how to create a better business world for my future staff.

Creating a Forbes-worthy company isn’t a menial task, it doesn’t start by giving up when the going gets tough! No! In fact it makes it more exciting!

Where the determination is, the way can be found!

A beautiful quote from the book, The Richest Man in Babylon.

2014 PRELUDE

Seems I’ve not been the most active writer that I thought I would be. Quite a number of months have passed that I have been hesitant to work on another article-procrastination at its best I guess.

There’s been a good number of topics that I wanted to discuss in the previous months but I was too pre-occupied with a number of business activities that needed deep thoughts, this combined with social parties that consumed both my time and peso.

Since we’re launching our upgraded company website this month: www.remaxasyenda.com (better check it out) I’m planning to write our daily, weekly and/or monthly newsletter to all clients and subscribers-I’m thinking of just integrating that with this site of mine, but as we all know, there would be significant considerations to factor in-might just as well use the never dying opinion disclaimer:

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the company.

Anyway, on the note of re-polishing my writing skill, I’d push through with either publishing a pamphlet or finish writing the book that I was working on since 2011 (which was lost last Sep 2013 due to burglary in our office-ALL files were saved in my netbook and I made no back-up, so will start from scratch-unfortunately).

Here serves a prelude to a great 2014 and a refreshing start to a writer-at-large career.

Here’s to the PRELUDE.

RECOMMENDED: iMoney Philippines, HOW IT WILL CHANGE FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING

21 June 2013, I received an email informing me that iMoney is now in the Philippines. Curious as to what that really is, I began checking their website and what I found was remarkable; a tool that could be easily utilized to aid individuals in making financial decisions that related to bank products.

I often read stuff like these on Kiplinger & CNN MONEY Magazines. I believe having a platform like this is long overdue for the country. As the economy rise and becomes prominent in the region, more and more financial products start to appear in the market raising the risk for scams and frauds.

Just recently, the country had been rattled by the Aman Futures Group pyramid scam that left around 15,000 people in the Visayas and Mindanao region a massive Php 12 Billion loss. Then on 25 June, Nestor P. Burgos, Jr of PDI reported the story entitled “NBI uncovers P3-B Iloilo finance scam”. An estimated Php 3 Billion of hard-earned money was duped from the Chinese-Filipino community. Lastly, there was the warning of the SEC against the unregistered online financial firm Professional Forex Union Ltd (proforexunion.com) which guaranteed high ROI’s for a minimum investment of Php 3,000 to Php1, 200,000.

Well, I can’t blame them for trying. With the boom that we’re seeing now, it’s highly expected that unscrupulous people would start taking advantage of the other people’s money. Now, it’s up to each and every one to safeguard their savings and capital, relying heavily on the government for protection would be synonymous to being stupid.

Now going to iMoney, what I personally liked is their website’s interface. Very simple, clear and downright practical. Upon entering the site, visitors will be welcomed by 7 categories on the top pane; Credit Card, Personal Loan, Mortgage Loan, Savings Account, Time Deposit, Travel Insurance & Articles.

Except for “Articles”, all the categories would show a plain-vanilla table consisting of banks, product names, interest rates and other pertinent information.

For the financially savvy Pinoy’s engaging in short-term bank investments and debt-leveraging, the table iMoney provide would highly decrease the amount of time one would have consumed in comparing individual interest rates manually-as what I used to do before.

Acting as a reference point for investors, iMoney gains its strength in its pro-bono use—simply means it’s FREE!

This could also be greatly used by young individuals studying in high-school and college to basically teach them where and how to put and use money.

Kudos to Sil Silvestre and his team for organizing, digesting and presenting the information posted in the website to all the Filipinos worldwide.

Truly a game changer, iMoney.ph is a website recommended for everybody’s use.

 

CLICK HERE TO GO TO iMoney WEBSITE: http://www.imoney.ph/

EARNING PENNIES

Let me start with an obvious question. Are Chinese-Filipino’s leading the Philippine economy? Capital-YES, most of the top companies in our country are led by Chinese-Filipinos; Lucio Tan, Henry Sy, Gokongwei, just to name a few. I admire their way of thinking. It is their mentality of earning-a-penny-for-every-bucket-of-sweat that we common Filipino’s lack.

It is this mentality that I would like to share with you. An idea, so obvious it became unnoticed.

We all need to go through the phase of sweating-a-bucket-to-earn-a-penny… or a cent, to be in particular.

In this world, our finances determine our state of being; we all need to have money to live a good life, I am not being materialistic here, I’m just being realistic. Unless you have taken the vow of poverty, you know deep in your heart that you want to be wealthy or taste a pinch an opulent lifestyle before you pass on to the next world.

Spending money is one of the easiest tasks to do in the face of the world, while earning it is a completely different story. I don’t know why but we Filipino’s, as a people seem to have a lubricated hand when we have cash under our palms. This completely contradicts our intangible asset of being pictured and framed as a thrifty race-internationally.

In terms of earning, most of us seem to carry boulders behind our backs when we’re tasked to do certain jobs. We move so slow and feel so exhausted that our clients, customers and bosses are on the brink of collapsing due to high-blood pressure from watching our work pace. (Let’s not use the excuse of low salary because if you don’t like your job and your wage, then why still work there?)

It is this attitude, the kind of mentality that we need to change in order for us to attain the certain degree of excellence that those tycoons have achieved. I am not imposing that you be the next Lucio Tan or Henry Sy, I am just implying that you need not to be poor or financially troubled all throughout your life time.

Let us impose the mentality of working hard, investing time and effort into our work and saving the little cents that we earn. I will emphasize “saving the little cents”. Do not make the mistake that many of our ancestors made. They passed-over the business that offered little cents of profit and worked for jobs that provided deflating income. The Chinese people would grab every opportunity they have to do those meagre businesses that offered little cents of profits, that is why they are now the leaders of the economy here in our country and abroad. On the other hand, majority of the Filipino people would satisfy themselves by working under and for other nationalities. Most would pity themselves and blame the Philippine Government for not providing better living conditions-really, how pitiful!

Want to know the obvious success secret of the Chinese people? Remember those little cents of profits they’re earning that our Filipino ancestors passed-over? Those little cents were pooled together to create a huge fund. That huge fund in-turn was used to create other businesses that would provide cents of profits which would be then once more pooled together to expand and create chains of businesses. The cycle went on until they have reached their peak and those people that worked buckets of sweat for those little cents are now on their 3 piece suits employing Filipinos that’s eager for jobs that would provide deflating income.

“A drop of water isn’t worth much, but when pooled together fills a jar.”

These people aren’t more superior to us; they’re just a little more-for lack of better word-determined, to work harder and smarter than the rest of us.

We could still change our circumstances.You, my dear reader, becoming the next business leader, yes! That does not sound farfetched, doesn’t it?

Let us apply the knowledge that we have learned and live with the mentality that they, our Chinese-Filipino brothers and sisters, have imparted to us to achieve our financial and economic goal.