Monthly Archives: September 2010

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How We Did It

September 25 7:55 pm ,

 

A Door, Windows

“Did”.  I am not sure about that word.  Because it is in the past tense and means the fun and the adventures are over.  When they are not.  We are just beginning.A reader wanted to know how we “did it”.  She said she read my first post but that I just skimmed the surface of how we overcame the bleak prophesies of our first financial planner, that I did not really explain how we got that 24% increase in our annual income, and more importantly, how we overshot it.  If you have not read that first post, here is what our first financial planner said:

“While the couple’s Emergency Fund Ratio (EFR) will be over 1x by the end of 2007, the ideal ratio is 3x.  The couple would need to add around Php149,000 to their annual income to meet such a ratio.  To raise their savings rate to 18.1% from 6.7%, the couple would need additional annual income of Php262,000, or add 24% to their current annual income.”

So, how?

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Posted in: Financial Education, Life Stories, The Beginning , Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

I Thought I Was Saving with Breastmilk

September 23 7:19 pm ,

The Other Half

I had full faith in it.

Twice (or even thrice) a day, on a work day, my door would close and I would be enveloped in the womb of my office, in semi-darkness, lost in my thoughts or looking at the sky (which, surprisingly, is many shades of blue), my right hand in constant motion, pumping.  My efforts would be rewarded by the gurgle of a small stream of white froth.  I would smile and continue to muster all the love that I have so that it will nourish the froth, while my eyes, although mirroring the clouds in the distance, seek the slopes of my memory for my son’s face.

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Posted in: Children's Stories, Life Stories , Tagged: , , ,

Be Still (I Cannot)

September 21 12:54 pm ,

The Art of Being Still

I behooved my mind – be still. 

But my mind keeps wandering off – to where, I am not sure.  It just needs to meander about and hop from one idea – question – thought – decision – realization – to another.  I cannot stop it.  I cannot keep it still.  It has to ponder the blueness of the sky or the crispness of the winds (yeah right) or what I have to do next.  And before I know it, I am standing up, or jumping about, or talking on the phone, or tinkering with my computer keys, or ruffling the pages of the newspaper or a book – anything but still.  It will not be still.

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Posted in: Random Thoughts , Tagged: , ,

What to Do, If You Can’t

September 11 1:34 am ,

Cloud Bursting

You are writing.  You want to be shaken to your core, inspired beyond belief, get your thoughts flowing but the words won’t come.  Today is one of those days, you tell yourself, brows furrowed, while trying to figure out what it is you are supposed to do now.  How do you get to the zone?

If the experts are to be believed, there is no zone.  There is only you.  And that you are blocking you.

Or you are blocking your chakra.  And It could be stress, fear, insecurity or worry that are the culprits – negative emotions that are of your own making but ones you think you cannot heal or overcome – at least at that point in time when you are calling upon your inner genius.

But there is something you can do.  You can tap.

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Posted in: Financial Education, Health, The Secret , Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,