Category Archives: Mentors

Do You Stick to the Path that You Know? (Second of 2 Parts)

February 9 11:20 am ,

 

A Celebration of Life

Life is a Celebration

You can read the first part here.

I am waxing nostalgic about some trainings and seminars I attended in the past. (some of them do that to you, you know)

A memorable one was the training I received for voice and dance (a scholarship) – it was through the generosity and kind-heartedness of Dong Alegre (of Miss Saigon fame).  In that “school”, I met many wonderful and talented people,  including two people whom I still consider my best friends, M and A.  The people in that school rose to great fame in theatre, both locally and internationally (and sometimes I catch myself wondering where I would be now if I had pursued that path).  I will always remember those years as one of the most exciting.

Then there are others I still want to experience:

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How To Get To Your Dreams (Second of Two Parts)

November 9 11:43 pm ,
Like Minds

Like Minds

I have a secret.

But before me, it belonged to Bo Sanchez (and maybe before him from some really wise man).

I could still remember the time when I first heard him speak of it.  I was cruising in my car and listening to one of his boxed audio seminars.  It was the first CD I received from him as a member of his Truly Rich Club.  I honestly did not think much about that CD – I plugged it and listened.  But there’s something about a two-hour traffic and listening to Bo’s charismatic voice that gets the heart pumping and the mind dreaming dreams.

He was telling a story, of what he did a long time ago, when he was just learning about riches and dreams.  He wrote about them. And when he wrote those dreams, he considered them as not just dreams.  He regarded them as if they were already realities.  He confessed, though, that when he was writing them – being a best selling author, being a wonderful husband, having a nipa hut (middle) with a fishpond (front) and a coconut tree (back) – he was laughing (could not help it).

I laughed too. (i thought i saw the other drivers look at me silly)

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Posted in: Financial Education, Mentors, The Basics of Finance, Wealth Attraction , Tagged: , , , , , ,

Are You On The Internet?

August 31 5:20 pm ,
Virgin Territory

Internet: Virgin Territory

My mother had foresight.

She had the two of us enroll at a computer school at a nondescript building, with an area not exceeding 40 square meters.  I forgot where it was located, but I remember we had to look over the shoulder of the teacher and we had to share a computer, tinkering with DOS and binary numbers and floppy discs together.  We were no longer mother and child, but two people trying to ride with the times.  I am not sure if I (or she) learned anything.  I know that back at home I continued to type my thesis with an electric typewriter.

Not that it mattered.  What we had learned would be relegated to the annals of computer history, because in a few years, mankind was to take several quantum leaps into the information age.

In his book “The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty First Century”, Thomas L. Friedman catalogued the shift of the philosophy of the world – from working hard, man had to work smart.  He said, “… One way small companies flourish in the flat world is by learning to act really big.  And the key to being small and acting big is being quick to take advantage of all the new tools for collaboration to reach farther, faster, wider, and deeper.”

From the computer came the Internet.  And the internet is the new frontier where this is possible.

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Accounting, Math and Newscasting

August 18 1:34 am ,
The Universe Says Yes

The Universe Says Yes

I used to love numbers and would spend countless hours doing my trigonometry exercises.  I could not explain it except that I (probably) had the genetic predisposition for it – dad was an accountant.  I could have been one too, but for some twist of fate, it was my younger brother who became an accountant (okay, okay, he’s also pretty good in Math) because I wanted with all my heart to become a newscaster, and shunned what I now call my lost inner talent.

In one desperate (yes) moment to get into a tax law firm, I told my interviewer that my dad was an accountant and my brother was an accountant. Silence. Without batting an eyelash, he told me, “Maybe I should hire them”.  He’s got a point.

Imagine my surprise when they hired me.

Imagine my surprise (!) when Robert Kiyosaki mentioned in Rich Dad, Poor Dad that if he were to do everything all over again, he would be an accountant.  And that this is the course he would recommend to kindergarten students.

The destiny that I denied.

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Passion, Schonberg and Miss Saigon

July 12 12:39 am ,
By D: Hanging By CMS' Bedroom

By D: Hanging By CMS' Bedroom

He was captivated by a single photo where the mother, with pain palpable on her face, was saying her last goodbyes to her bui-doi. It was but a single picture, of emotions caught on a flash, that immortalized her and fired-up the imagination of one French and the world of musical theatre. His name is Claude Michel Schonberg.

My first memory of Schonberg was of him playing the piano. He was with Lea Salonga, while she tried out the strains, in her melodious voice, of Sun and Moon. They were on TV as Saigon specials were aired every day. Every little girl at that time wanted to be Lea Salonga. From obscurity (in the global sense), Schonberg brought the Philippines and Lea to the forefront of musical history.

My last memory of him was of one Sunday afternoon, four years ago. He was sitting across from me, while strings were playing and the Sofitel dessert tempted us from the distance.

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Walking Down the Aisle with Our Financial Planner

June 22 8:00 am ,

 

Swimming Together

Swimming Together

 

D and I have been meeting resistance from our financial planner these days.

We (okay, I) had wanted to purchase a lot at Tagaytay Highlands (fine, Midlands) which will give me a free club membership.  He said no.  I wanted to buy a foreclosed house for which I would pay a pittance for.  He said no.

It could be quite frustrating to be told that you cannot buy something that you really, really want to have.  But that is the function of a financial planner – he will tell you if you can, when you can, how you can.  He is my personal financial brakes, someone to tell me that I am going overboard, or that I am just being silly.

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Posted in: Financial Planning, Mentors , Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Remembering Warren Buffett

June 15 8:00 am ,
Reaching Up to the Skies

Reaching Up to the Skies

Financial advise comes from the most unexpected source sometimes.

I met Warren Buffett through a Chinaman, a name the Chinese were called a long time ago, and which I use here with awe and as a form of endearment.  My Chinaman, let us call my Chinaman Mr. S, ushered me into the wonderful world of stocks.

He came one ordinary day into the office, wearing simple unassuming clothes, wanting advice for a tax problem.  He did not impress me on day one, nor I him.  He did not shake my hand when the meeting was over, only did some form of a bow, muttering that he still had a bus to catch. That would not have been odd except that I knew that his net worth was 290 Million Pesos, up from 29 Million Pesos, because he was a stock market genius.  Having started learning about stocks that year, I knew I should have his ear, and he mine.

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