How I manage my finances

This is something that I've always wanted to share with everyone. But I would like to apologize in advance if I sound like I'm bragging. It is not my intention to brag, but I would really like to share my financial journey.

Key Points:

1. Work Hard, Work Smart

2. Right Mindset

3. Set a goal that you can achieve in a specific timeframe

4. Avoid bad debts

Work Hard, Work Smart

When I was still single, and didn't have a baby, I used to work at least 2 jobs, ever since I started working. I always have my full-time job, and a part-time job. No matter how small the pay was, it is always an additional income. And I never once asked money from my parents after I graduated. In fact, I started giving back (monetary amount) to my parents every time I get my salary. Please note that you are not obligated to give something to your parents, I give because I have something to give and something to share. I'm not that stingy, and that is actually how I express my love to my family.

Working Hard means that you actually do something profitable or productive on your free time. Whatever you do on your free time is what makes you successful. Which is why I always have a part-time job, in order to earn extra income, and becoming productive on my free time, as well.

In Working Smart, you have to know which of the things you want to do is more beneficial to you. Example, you are offered two jobs, you will acquire certain skills as you do different jobs, but the one with the higher pay is more beneficial. I also know when to quit. If I'm overworked, or not appreciated, not paid well, I will quit right away. It's a painful, and fearful process for me as I send my resignation letter. But I have to let go of the bad apples in order to receive good ones.

It's not wise to overwork yourself to do 2 full-time jobs which gives you Php 50, 000, if you can work with just 1 full-time job which offers PHP 50, 000. Quitting from a job forces you to look for better opportunities. It allows you to learn new skillset, and new knowledge which can help you grow in your field. I'm not asking you to job-hop, I am against job-hopping, since you are not giving yourself enough time to learn and absorb the skillset that is necessary for your growth.

Before you quit, it might be difficult to get hired right away. So I suggest that you only quit your job once you got hired to a new job.

Having an income is definitely the first step. Having more sources of income, is the next step. Which is why I used to have part-time jobs, even 2 full-time jobs before. I was able to save a lot, and get the things that I want. And I don't spend money if I don't have money, meaning, I don't have bad debts. If you can't afford it, don't buy it. I only have the in-house loan when I was paying for my lot, it was supposedly a 5-year loan, I finished paying for it in 1 and half years. And now, we only have the housing loan, which we were supposed to pay for 10 years, but we're planning to pay it in less than 5 years. Yes, we're saving a lot so we can achieve that goal.

Right Mindset

I'm not a "positivity guru", but when I started working, I started reading about positivity, law of attraction, gratitude, self-help books, and a lot more related to that topic.

Before, I was a negative-thinker, I always think of the worst in order to "condition" myself, and not to get too hurt if the outcome is negative. When I started reading these kinds of book, I found out that I am attracting those negative things into my life, and eventually, it will manifest. So I started changing how I think. One of the books that helped me was The Magic book by Rhonda Byrne. I also watched The Secret movie, still from one of Rhonda Byrne's books, and I bought her other books, The Power, and The Hero.

This gist is to Ask, Believe, Receive

Ask: This is about your thoughts. If you want something, you ask it from God (if you're a believer), from the universe, or from your higher being. Imagine every detail of what you truly want, and keep thinking about it, imagine yourself getting what you want, feeding your subconscious mind of the things you want.

Believe: This is about the feeling. When you imagine getting what you want, how do you feel? Does it feel real? Imagine the emotions when you receive what you want. Believe that you already have it. Our subconscious mind doesn't know if you really have it or not, it just accepts any thought you have as true. Having the attitude of gratitude actually helps you with the "feelings" that you need in order to give out the positive vibration to attract the things that you like.

Receive: We have nothing to do in this stage. Because if you keep feeding your subconscious mind that you already have what you want, the universe will conspire to get that thing you want and bring it to you. We just have to wait positively, thinking about what we want, feeling that we already have it - and it will be given to you. You don't ask "how" you'll achieve it, you'll end up having a headache trying to figure out how you'll be able to do it.

In almost anything that I do, I always apply this. Before a job interview, I will always think and feel how the job interview goes, and how happy and satisfied the interviewer is, and finally shaking hands with them as I receive the job offer. I focus on my thoughts, and my emotions while doing this. Really feeling happy and excited getting the job offer. When I applied for a housing loan, I've been imagining getting a call from the bank telling me that the application has been approved and that I need to go to their office for signing. And yes, even in my salary, I would attract the salary that I want. I also used to write myself cheques with the amount I want to achieve on that specific date - and yes, I got the amount I specified on the cheque on those specific dates. And the house that I'm living in right now was something that I just used to imagine in my head.

I also have a journal of the things that I want, or the places I want to go to. And it's so satisfying to see items getting checked off from the list because you know you've achieved something you only used to "imagine" before.

Set a goal that you can achieve in a specific timeframe

When I started working, earning your salary is a really great feeling, but budgeting and actually implementing your budget doesn't come as an easy thing to do. Whenever I have cash in my wallet, I am very eager to spend it on something not important. Luckily, I'm not the worse type of spender since I still feel guilty if I spend it on something I didn't plan to buy.

I don't feel guilty if I spend it on books though, reading is also an investment. And I learned a lot from reading. I may not be a bookworm, because I don't read a lot of books, but I read essential books that I think will help me manage my time, my finances, and even in training myself to have the right mindset.

So, because I'm afraid that I'd end up spending my extra money, I decided to put my money somewhere I can't touch it. And on my 4th month since I started working on my first job, I decided to get myself a life insurance. So, I decided to list some goals that I want to achieve.

These were my goals:

1. (First year of working) Life Insurance

2. (Second year of working) Bought a lot from Robinsons Land. And I paid the equity for 1 and half years. If you plan to buy a house and lot, or even just a lot, you might learn something from my experience here. Please make sure that you know what will happen after you paid the equity. Will they help you apply for a bank loan? or for a Pagibig loan? If you get rejected by banks or financial institution, will they offer in-house loan?

3. Pay the in-house loan for my lot

   1. In-house loan means I loaned from Robinsons Land (where I bought my lot), instead of the bank or other financial institution.

   2. After paying for the lot equity, I got rejected by 3 major banks to get a loan, because I'm too young, or my salary is too small. And since I have freelance jobs, I decided to go for an in-house loan even though it has a huge annual interest of 18%! I basically don't have a choice, if I don't go for the in-house loan, everything I paid for the equity will go down the drain, and Robinsons Land will take my lot back.

   3. The lot equity was only 20% of the total lot price (to be paid in 18 months). So when I was offered to get an in-house loan, they required that at least 30% of the price was paid. I think this is really greedy, if this was the case, they should've just set the equity to 30% instead of 20%, because not everyone can pay the remaining 10% in spot cash. I've heard that a lot of people who bought the land and paid for the equity got rejected from the bank, and at the same time couldn't proceed with the in-house loan because they need to pay 10% more. Robinsons Land takes the lot back, and the equity they paid will not be returned.

   4. Luckily, I had money that time because of my freelance, so I was able to pay 10% of the lot in spot cash, and I was able to proceed getting an in-house loan.

   5. I didn't want to pay 18% interest per annum, so I decided that every time I get paid for my freelance, I will always put everything to my in-house loan. And I managed to pay my in-house loan in 1 and a half years.

4. Save money for house construction

   1. This part was something I didn't quite enjoy since I have no specific plan as to how many years should I save, or how much should I save. I'm very happy to see my savings, but I got reallllly bored. I'm not that patient, and I'm easily tempted. I was always tempted to buy a car, or a condo. It is even more difficult not to get something when you know you can afford it. But because it wasn't my goal, I always stop myself from buying a car or a condo.

   2. When I got my first million, that's the time we started planning for our house. We hired an architect and a contractor. And even though we've got our house loan approved from the bank, we still have to shell off some cash since the house loan only covers 95% of our structural cost. And after the structural cost, we still need to buy materials for the finishing.

I managed to achieve all of these. I didn't include getting 3 insurance more, getting my father and mother life insurance (I paid for it), paid for the repair of my dad's very old and broken car, paid for the house construction in Leyte, our wedding (both my husband and I paid for our wedding), giving birth (private OBGYN in a private hospital), becoming a World Vision sponsor since 2013, and getting our son his life insurance with the purpose of having it for his college education.

Current goal for me and my family is to finish paying the house loan as soon as we can - I'm eyeing for 3 - 5 yrs. And again, I attract the things that I want (by doing Tip #2). I still imagine me and my husband going to the bank paying our house loan in full and getting my land title back (which was used for collateral).

Avoid bad debts

Last, as I mentioned on the first key point, I don't buy something if I don't have the money to pay for it. I didn't have a credit card up until 5 years ago, when my finances were stable and I earn more because of my freelance job. I was earning 6digits/month that time. I only got myself a credit card because I needed it in order to buy myself a plane ticket to go to UK to visit my previous employer, and also to pay for my Airbnb rooms. Most of my expenses were paid by my employers, lucky me!

But even when I have credit card now, I always pay in full. Total credit limit - current limit = that's how much I pay. I tried doing zero-interest stuff, but no matter how much I try to compute it, my bill always has some additional fee to pay because I didn't pay in full. After 3 months of trying to figure out the zero-interest scheme, I gave up on it and decided to pay everything in full.

I use credit card now, not because I don't have money, it's just very convenient to use it. And as long as you pay it in full - the bank don't get to charge you extra fee. I also ask / email the bank to waive my annual fee, and if you have a good credit score, they will always waive it for you.

Back when I still have small salary, even though I feel like my money might not make it to my next salary, I never ask or borrow money from my colleagues. Instead, I try to be veeery thrifty, and don't spend on anything unnecessary. I even only eat Jollibee's 49'ers for a week, because that's the cheapest food I can find in IT Park. Don't worry, I also reward myself when my salary comes by buying myself a Starbucks coffee.

But I never once regretted my decision before. Because I know that my money was not wasted anywhere, it's on my life insurance, on my lot, I also get to sponsor 2 children on World Vision, and I also give money to my parents.

On my 4th year of working, that was the time that I wasn't living paycheck to paycheck. What I mean is that I now have more spare money. I'd sometimes forget that it was a payday, because I wasn't lacking money. When you lack money, you always check your payroll account if you already received your salary. Of course, I still feel very happy when one of our colleagues inform us that our salary is in.

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I don't like lazy people.

There are some people who'd always complain about the job they're currently working on, saying they want to earn more, be their own boss, even do freelance jobs - I usually reach out to them, and share with them how I became a freelancer, and even give them tips, and websites where they can look for freelance jobs. The sad part is, they are not action-takers. I've basically given them a summary of my experience as a freelancer for 6 years, and where they can look for a job - but they won't take action. They only like to complain, not take action, or they'd make an excuse to procrastinate.

If that's the case, I won't reach out to them anymore since they don't have the 2 key qualities needed: a hard worker with the right mindset.