Category Archives: Life Stories

When I Manned the Store

December 2 1:08 am ,

The Art of Selling

The first time I manned a store – I think I was 14 at that time (maybe) – I chased the customer away.

Yes, I had one customer.  Because my mom would not let me talk to any other customer after that.  I think.  (my recollection is a little hazy)

We were selling batik clothes and some imported goods in a dry good stall and I was being very enterprising, butting in the conversation, giving the one customer (a man, I think) this option and that.  He almost bought something but I think he got confused because I kept showing him stuff after stuff. (giggles)

He left without buying anything and I was kind-of blamed.  I never really tried to sell after that.

But last weekend, I had to.

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Posted in: Art, Green Products, Life Stories, The Basics of Finance , Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Winning the Lottery

November 18 12:54 am ,

The Sky is the Limit

The grand prize for the lottery soared to obscene heights and people again began to dream.

Of what it would be like to have money, lots of money, the future changed in a whim, through balls swimming in the air.

What would one do with it?

What one can do with it.

Of how it would change everything.  Their lives, their past, their present.

And so they purchase their tickets day after day after day, as if through it they are manifesting their faith in the great unknown.

A chance of 1 in 20,872,566,000 – a chance that they are too willing to take.  If statistics are to be believed, being struck by lighting (1 in 280,000) would appear to be easier.

Yet they take it.  After all, you will not win if you will not roll the dice (or buy the ticket).

If you win, what would you do?

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Posted in: Life Stories, Random Thoughts, Wealth Attraction , Tagged: , , , , , ,

To be Understood, Not to Understand

November 10 10:22 pm ,

Side By Side

I used to be a sponge.

I mean, I used to be interested in anything and everything and would ask my questions, however silly they are.  I used to love to listen and would look with awe and wonder at the speaker, a sponge, taking in everything, what is being said, what is not being said, what I felt, what the speaker would want me to feel .

I used to be interested in stories and explanations and people.

But time intervened and with knowledge came… disinterest.

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Posted in: Life Stories, Random Thoughts , Tagged: , , ,

Setting Up A Charity (But It Is Not What You Think)

October 27 11:23 pm ,

Shelter. Are You?

I always wanted to set up a charity.

When my father died in 2003, I wanted to set up a charity for him.  I could not explain the motivation.  I just needed something to remember him by, for his name to remain and stand for something great and good. I looked at the website of my university and found out that for USD$1,000 per semester, I can do that.  But it did not happen – it was probably because I did not have the support or the money I needed or I eventually talked myself out of it.  But I had the strong desire to really do something like that and I often talked about it to my husband.

It is ironic because this year, we were the charity.

Let me explain.

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Posted in: Health, Life Stories, Random Thoughts , Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Musings of a Working Mom

October 19 11:47 pm ,

Love Personified

I have been thinking.

As light rain drizzles the cityscape and the horizon is blanketed by grey darkness, I thought of home and of holding my baby, tightly, in my arms.

At once, I was embraced by melancholy.

Because there is a woman holding him right now, one that both of us hardly know.

And I was seized with a realization: I am the one with the college and post-college degrees yet she is the one who is holding the prize.

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Posted in: Life Stories, Random Thoughts , Tagged: , ,

Blog Action Day 2010: On Water and Saving Rivers

October 15 8:00 am ,

The Way It Should Be

I should have joined.

On 10-10-10, a marathon was sponsored by the ABS-CBN Foundation.  It was no ordinary marathon because it was ambitious, its main aim being the rehabilitation of the Pasig River, a major water artery choked with human refuse that traversed the countenance of the once clean, once beautiful, Metro Manila.

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Posted in: Life Stories, The Philippines , Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

Life Insurance for Your Child: What Would Happen If You Discontinue It

October 5 7:36 pm ,

 

As If In Prayer

I just found out.

But first, the back story.  On the year I sold my house in Cavite, I bought life insurance coverage for my daughter.  It was an endowment type of insurance, one that I would have to pay for 5 years.  According to the plan, the sum insured would almost double (x 1.8) on year 3  and my daughter will start receiving money on the 8th year and every other year after that.  I thought it was a great plan and a great investment and a wonderful beginning for my insurance business.  After all, I get a commission, which means I get to have a good discount.  I forgot that I had to pay premium for 4 more years. (pained grin here)

And then I read an article that insurance for children is not really recommended.  After all, the purpose of insurance is to replace the income of the person living.  Children have no income.   Parents provide for them and not the other way around.  Life moves forward.

But it was too late.  I already bought it.

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Posted in: Financial Education, Insurance, Life Stories , Tagged: , , , , , ,

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: , , , , , , , , ,