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Bonds Investing

How to Invest in Retail Treasury Bonds (RTBs) in the Philippines

Are you frustrated from earning too little from your savings account or time deposit?  Do you want to find a way to invest your money securely but with relatively higher interest rate?  Investing in Retail Treasury Bonds (RTBs) may be for you.

 

What are Retail Treasury Bonds (RTBs)?

Retail Treasury Bonds (RTBs) are fixed-income securities offered by the government to raise needed funds.  The bond maturity period ranges from 2 years to 10 years.  They are being sold primarily through the Bureau of Treasury.  You can also buy and sell bonds through banks via the secondary or resale market.  In the simplest of terms, this is government’s way of “borrowing” money from you.  🙂

 

How to invest in Retail Treasury Bonds (RTBs) in 3 simple steps?

As first time bond investors, my wife and I didn’t have a clue what a Retail Treasury Bond is, let alone have the courage to actually invest some of our hard earned savings.  Surprisingly, investing in RTBs is a very straightforward and simple process.  Here are the 3 simple steps we did.

Step 1: Go to your nearest bank and ask if they offer RTBs

Ideally, you would want to go through your local bank where you already have an existing savings account.  This will make it easier for you to transfer funds when you “buy” the bonds, and receive your annual “interest” earnings.  If you don’t have an existing account with the bank, they will ask you to open one.  :) 

Step 2: Fill-up the forms and have it notarized

There’s quite a number of forms to be filled up so just take your time. There’s also one document which needs to be notarized to make it legally binding.  In essence, this document tells you that the government “owes” you money for the duration of the term and obligated to pay you “interest” based on the “coupon rate”.

Step 3: Pay and wait for the interest to be credited through your bank account.

The payment will be debited from the bank account you provided in step 1 so it is important that you have enough funds in your account.  Once paid, all you have to do is wait for the interest to be credited to your account (usually) every quarter until the maturity date.  Once the bond matures, the principal will be returned to you and credited to your bank account.

 

Why invest in RTBs?

RTBs are attractive to investors for the following reasons:

  • Relatively safe – since it is backed by the “full faith and credit” of the government, it means the government has the power to tax its citizens just to pay YOU.  You lose money only when the government collapses and can no longer pay its debts.
  • Liquid – you can “sell” the bonds through the secondary market any time, even before its maturity.
  • Minimum investment – some banks offer RTBs at a minimum of only PhP 5,000 (around US $106).  Others, usually require at least PhP 100,000 minimum investment.  It’s different from bank to bank so ask around.
  • Regular interest income – since it is a fixed income, you receive the same amount of interest regularly (usually every quarter) until the bonds’ maturity.
  • Interest is higher than CDs / Time Deposits -  interest rates from year 1998 to 2009 ranged from a low of 5% to a high of 21%. 

Things to note when investing in RTBs?

  • The interest you earn is subject to tax (20% in the Philippines).
  • When the government “really” needs money to pay for its debts, RTBs are offered at very high interest rates (21% in 1998, during the Asian financial crisis). 
  • Generally, bonds with higher maturity period offer higher interest rates.
  • RTBs are normally “sold out” within 2 weeks after issuance.  You can check out the Bureau of Treasury website @ www.treasury.gov.ph for the next schedule of RTB offering or watch out for announcements on the business section of daily newspapers.
  • Interest from RTBs is NOT compounded so you have to find another way to “reinvest” the interest earnings.
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Business Investing Personal Finance Stocks Truly Rich Club

Bo Sanchez's Truly Rich Financial Coaching Program (Day 2)

Since my wife and I were late during the first day of the Truly Rich Financial Coaching Program, we wanted to make the most of the seminar by being early on the second day. Before 8AM, we were already on our way to Valle Verde Country Club. Since it was a Saturday, there was not much traffic jam and we arrived a little around 8:15AM. Thinking that we were early, my wife and I sat on one of the benches outside the room. I saw the room where we had the seminar yesterday and noticed that some people were already preparing the place. I thought to myself, maybe in no time they’d be done preparing the place and we will be sitting comfortably inside the room. After a few minutes, brother Bo arrived with his usual winning smile. He saw us and invited us to go inside. Thinking that he was going to where the waiters were preparing, we hesitated a bit. Only when he entered the OTHER room beside it did we realize that we were looking at the wrong room. When we followed Bo and entered the room, there were already many people inside, some of them having a great time drinking their morning coffee. I couldn’t keep from laughing at myself for thinking and being proud that we were the early birds for the day. 🙂

Basic Foundation of Financial Planning

DSC_0617 The first speaker was Noel Arandilla, from International Marketing Group (IMG).  He talked about the basic foundation of financial planning.  He shared some tips to having better finances like increasing your cash flow, building long term asset allocation, how to compute the right amount of insurance that you need, and more.

I learned that there are only two things you can use to generate cash flow: time and money.  We all have 24 hours in a day.  But how you use your time determines whether you become rich or poor.  For most people, the only time available to become rich is after work or during weekends, that is – spare time.  It is very important to utilize the spare time that you have in money-making generating activities and not waste it on watching TV, sleeping, gossiping, and more.

Noel also shared that a person normally starts out in life with very little or no money but with lots of responsibilities.  For example, he has to help his parents with household chores, he may need to send his younger bother or sister to school, or earn a living to help with the family’s finances .  After a few years of getting his paycheck, the typical person would earn a little bit more each year while his responsibility gradually  decreases.  Once he reaches retirement age, all of his kids have probably graduated by then, hence he would have minimal responsibility.  At this stage, he’s supposed to have money working for him to fully enjoy the remaining years of his life.  That is the purpose of financial planning.

Be the Bank!

May I tell you a little secret?  Do you know how the bank earns money?  Let me illustrate the answer by using an example.  After spending 2 years as an OFW, you have a little extra cash that you don’t really expect to use for the next 30 years.  Let’s say you have  100,000 pesos in total.  Now, being a saver, you deposited the whole 100,000 pesos into a time-deposit account at 5% annual interest for 30 years.  Right after you left the bank, a business man came in, asked the banker for a loan of 100,000 pesos payable in 30 years at 15% annual interest.  The banker than says “OK”, took the 100,000 pesos from your time-deposit and gave it to the business man.  After 30 years, the bank’s 100,000 pesos loaned to the businessman has already earned around 6.4 million pesos including interest, while your 100,000 pesos invested in time-deposit earned only about 400,000 pesos.  When you claim your time-deposit earnings, the bank give’s you the 400,000 pesos, then keeps the remaining 6 million as profit.  I’d love to be bank! 🙂

How you’re losing money from your savings account

In the Philippines, most people still invest by saving their money into banks over a long period of time.  The bad news is this. Banks are offering very minimal interest rate on savings and time deposits.   With less than 1% annual interest rate on your savings account, what future does your money hold?  Counting average inflation of 7% per year, you are actually losing money at the rate of -6%. This is because of inflation.  Inflation is the effect of steadily appreciating prices of goods.  For example, your 100 pesos can buy 5 loaves of bread 20 years ago.  But today, the same 100 pesos could NOT even buy 1 loaf of bread.  The same thing is happening, when people say “if only I bought that piece of land 20 years ago, today, I would already be a millionaire!”

Start early.  Invest your money for the long term.

tarlacroad I love the way Noel spoke about ordinary experiences and making them as great examples of interesting financial decisions.  For example, you get your 13th and 14th month bonus today worth around 40,000 pesos. The question is, would you save and invest it on a mutual fund at 10% average interest rate?  Or would you buy another NEW mobile phone? For some, the answer is simple – buy a mobile phone for “pogi” (handsome) points. For others, they would hesitate quite a bit but eventually give in, saying “I’ll just invest my next year’s 13th and 14th month bonus. For now, I’ll buy myself a gift.  I deserve it.  My brand new cellphone, here I come!” For those a little bit financially savvy, they might invest it through mutual funds, or stocks, potentially earning even better average annual returns around 15 – 20%.  For most people, it is hard to invest because earning an interest over a long period of time is NOT tangible RIGHT NOW and you need time to make it work. The delusion of instant gratification is the enemy of long-term investing.

Money is flowing

The second speaker is also from IMG.  He shared his personal observation about how rich people in the Philippines spend their money.  He noticed that Henry Sy, Lucio Tan and other billionaire tycoons move their money around.  In a way, they are actually just buying from themselves.  For example, Henry Sy who owns the very popular SM department stores, is renting mall space for his department stores from SM properties, which is a different company but still owned by the same family.  When SM properties build new malls or residential buildings and need money, who do they ask money from?  Instead of borrowing from other banks, they borrow from their own bank – BDO, which, is owned by the same man, Henry Sy.  The same is true with Lucio Tan.  When his Philippine Airlines and several tobacco companies need money to finance its projects and investments, from which bank does it borrow money?  Of course, through Allied Bank or Philippine National Bank, which Lucio Tan owns a stake.  So you see, money is just flowing around, being controlled by the same rich people who owns most businesses, selling high quality goods and providing world-class services for our countrymen.  Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to do the same thing?  Wouldn’t it be nice to buy from yourself and save on costs?  You might even want to give yourself a hefty discount as part of your loyalty program. Who wouldn’t want to be a loyal customer to one’s self? 🙂

Mutual funds

The idea of mutual funds, I learned, is making investing available to ordinary citizens.  Each person invests a small amount, as little as 5000 pesos.  The money from all the investors are then pooled together and invested into money generating assets like bonds, stocks or both.  The money is managed by professional fund managers.  The goal of the fund manager is to make money for the small investors.  Whether you invested big money or not, you earn the same profit percentage as that of the group.

This is particularly beneficial for ordinary citizens who don’t have much time and money to participate actively in managing the investment and content to just leave their money to professional fund managers.

One way to minimize risk, is to use an investing method called peso cost averaging.  It is an investing technique based on the assumption that since you’re unable to time the market, you just try to average out the risk by investing same amount of money every month or every quarter  to take advantage of the times when the price of the stock/net asset value per share (for mutual funds) becomes very low.  Even though the price is fluctuating, or is going roller coaster, the risk is minimized as the same amount of money can buy more shares when the stock price is low.  When the price is up you can either take away your profit/earnings or leave it there to earn compound interest.  It is advisable to maintain a long term outlook on your investments like a 10 or 20 year time frame in this scenario.  If you need the money within 1 year or 3 years, it is best to leave it at the bank where it is safe and liquid.

There are also different types of mutual funds: 1) bonds & securities, 2) stocks & equities, and 3) combined.  Mutual funds which invest in company or government bonds & securities are stable but offer limited earning potential.  These funds are especially designed for those that are risk-averse and those that are already retiring and don’t want to spend their time analyzing funds for themselves.  The mutual funds which invest in stocks have high growth potential but also entails higher risk especially during times of booms and recessions.  This is advantageous for those still young and can tolerate the swings in the market that even if they lose money, they can still go back up.   The upside is that if they make money, they earnings is also big.

Passion, Hardwork & “Angel” Investors in Business

The third speaker was a successful businessman.  His name is Ronnie Siyasoyco.  He has built several successful businesses to which he attributes most of his success today. He shared personal stories on his many ups and downs and a little bit of luck dealing with business failures, learning from them and enjoying his successes.

Ronnie got started selling “uling” (charcoal) one summer day.  He and his brothers experienced being laughed at by their friends because of their dirty clothes which was battered from their having to lift several sacks of charcoal each day.  The painful thing, according to Ronnie, was seeing their friends make fun of them, and them not being able to enjoy the seemingly “easy” lives that their friends had.   Many times,  he went home crying, asking himself, why they are very poor.  But with a powerful & positive attitude, he worked hard, ignored the joke from their friends, even hired some of them to do the charcoal delivery themselves and earn extra money. That summer, he and his brothers were able to sell 3 truck loads of charcoal.  Not an easy feat for 3 young high school boys.

In those early days, he learned the value of hard and honest work.  Growing up in a family of entrepreneurs, breakfast and dinner time was shared and business ideas were freely discussed among the family members.  His mother would always ask him if there’s anything he needs to do for the day.  When he starts answering “nothing”, he would be scolded and the words “there is ALWAYS something to do” would then be ingrained in his head.  If you have nothing to do, you find something to do.

Very early in his life, he had asked his parents why they were so poor.  His mom would say that they are NOT poor.  They eat 3 times a day.  They go to school.  They have the necessities of life.  His dad would add that the only legacy that their parents can pass on to their children is good education.  So it was in their hands to make the most out of it.  If they squander the opportunity, their lose will be their own doing, not the fault of their parents.

Ronnie also shared his personal story on how he lost 80 million pesos through a cancelled deal and several outside forces devaluating the peso and skyrocketing the value of his loans.  For one month, he was not able to sleep very well.  That went on and on, until he prayed and surrendered his problems all to God and a miracle happened.  Since he was not doing anything one day, his friend invited him to drive him to meet up someone.  He was  just listening there watching his friend speak to this very rich businessman, when the businessman suddenly asked him, “you, gentleman, what are you doing here?” To which he replied that he was accompanying his friend.  He asked again, “what do you do? what business are you in?” and so he answered again and provided a background on his business.  And so on until the businessman asked how his business was doing and how he can be of help.  At the end of the conversation the businessman offered to help by giving him a cheque, enough to help him pay back his loans and get his business moving again.  He referred to this businessman as an “angel investor”.  The moral of the story he says, is saying “yes” to your friends when they ask you to drive them. You never know, an angel might be waiting on the other side for you. 🙂

What I appreciated about Ronnie is how he passionately shared about his ups and downs.  His story is truly inspiring.

Internet Marketing

The last speaker of the day was Bo Sanchez’s internet marketing mentor, Jomar Hilario.  Jomar talks fast and is very entertaining.  He shared his experiences selling concert tickets through online internet marketing.  He also mentioned his initial attempts to enter the world of marketing through selling “forever living” products, carrying a big box with him, seemingly always in “high” state, shouting positive affirmations to himself.

After reading from Robert Kiyosaki’s book that one needs to visit at least 100 properties to buy just 1 house, he visited houses one after another and took a lot of pictures of those houses using his old film camera.  At the end of the day, he was exhausted.

At some point, he also mentioned the story on how he spent 80,000 pesos to attend a wealth seminar in Singapore, bought the training materials, only to find out that the ideas on the training materials are the same ideas he had already done before when he promoted concert tickets in 30 days to fill a whole coliseum, all by himself.

Lastly, Jomar extended an invitation to his upcoming Internet Marketing Seminar and his Online Marketing Workshop Club.  You may learn more about his seminars by visiting  www.jomarhilario.com.

Action starts now!

It was long day.  With lots of financial information to digest, I had to prevent myself from suffering “information overload”.  Overall, the Truly Rich Financial Coaching Program was a very good seminar, showcasing the different financial vehicles and opportunities on how to invest and make money.  From here, the only thing to do is take action!

Watch out for the next articles in the coming weeks and months, as I try to share my progress and experience taking action on some of these financial lessons.

Do you like to attend Bo’s Truly Rich financial seminars but you are based outside the Philippines? Here’s your chance!

Join the Truly Rich Club!
Join the Truly Rich Club

Categories
Bonds Business Investing Money Mindset Personal Finance Stocks Truly Rich Club

Bo Sanchez's Truly Rich Financial Coaching Program (Day 1)

Last Friday and Saturday, my wife and I attended Bo Sanchez’s Truly Rich Financial Coaching Program.  The event is a two-day seminar showcasing financial lessons and tips from Bo Sanchez and his mentors on business, real-estate, stocks, mutual funds and internet marketing. In this 2-part series, I will try to share what I’ve personally learned from the seminar. This is part 1 which includes the insights I’ve learned during the first day of the coaching program.

The ARRIVAL

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Confucius

We arrived at Valle Verde Country Club around 2pm Friday.  We were actually late because we came all the way from Makati and we still had to drop by our house in Mandaluyong, have lunch and take a taxi going to the venue.

When we arrived, the seminar already started.  We were just in time for the first talk of the day.  Thanks to the small note outside the room and a little luck, we managed to find which room the seminar was being held.   The funny thing was, we actually arrived at around the same time as the first speaker.  When the speaker entered the door, we took a quick peek inside and saw that the organizers and the other participants were already inside the room.  We registered right away, took our seats, settled down and prepared ourselves for a very exciting and interesting financial coaching seminar.

Online Stocks Investing

The first speaker was Juan ‘Juanis’ Barredo, the VP of CitisecOnline, which is an online stock brokerage firm in the Philippines.  He has 18 years of experience in the stock market.  What struck me about Juanis is the way he spoke very fluent English.  I thought – “this guy can speak!”.  The way he captures the right words to explain the most intricate subject of stock investing is excellent.

One of the first things I learned from his talk is that less than 1% of the Philippine population invests in the stock market.  Which is really very small compared to other countries like US, Hong Kong, and even for our neighboring countries such as Indonesia.  In the US, even cab drivers invest in the stock market.

The main idea of stock investing is – you buy “shares” of a company to become a part-owner.  That means you are actually investing on a business.  Just like in business, one of the strategies used to gain a profit is to buy “low”, then sell “high”.  The tricky thing about stocks is how to know if the company’s shares are being sold “low” or “high”.  Is it based on the “market price”?  Or is it based on the “actual value” computed from analysis of the company’s earnings and performance?  Or is it both?

I realized that investing in the stock market is a lot like buying a pair of jeans on sale.  How do you know if it’s on sale?  First, you need to know, how much is it truly worth?  That is, how much is it really selling for when it’s not on sale?  For jeans, usually it’s around 1,000 to 2,000 pesos.  Of course, you can buy cheaper jeans from Divisoria, or more high-end jeans from branded stores.  So if they say it’s 70% off, they’re selling the 1000 peso worth jeans for only 300 pesos.  Would you buy?  If it fits and you like it, why not?!  The same is true with stocks.  When a share of the company is worth 1000 pesos and they are selling it for 300 pesos only, would you buy?  If you like the company, and based on your analysis it is really worth 1000 pesos, why not?  Among other things, it should also fit you.  Is the company something you want to be involved in?  Do you and those people running the company share the same core values?  If you have all the money in the world, would you build the same business?

During the seminar, I asked Juanis which companies he personally invests in. Many people in the room laughed. I’m guessing because it’s a familiar territory almost similar to asking your classmate what the correct answer to a question on your exam is.  The main reason I asked is because I wanted to know if he is practicing what he is saying.  To me, more than the information that he shares, it’s the integrity he exudes that really matters.  When he shared what he personally invests in without hesitation, I knew he was someone who really walks his talk.

Business is about relationships

The second speaker was actually the owner of CitisecOnline. His name is Edward Lee.  Actually, I already saw him in one of Bo Sanchez’s videos for Truly Rich Club.  When I spoke to Bo during one of the coffer breaks, I said it was kind of surreal to be able to actually see some of the guys in person, where before we only saw them from the DVDs that we received as a member of Truly Rich Club.

Edward Lee has a very long track record of business success and he shared with us some of the key things he learned as an entrepreneur.  What struck me was that here was a man who’s very successful and wealthy.  But when he speaks, you can see the integrity and passion in his voice.  He’s really excited in sharing the lessons that he learned, occasionally sharing  some personal stories from which he derived most of his business success.

One very important thing I learned from him is that – business is all about relationships.  It’s building relationships with your people, your customers, and your suppliers.  As Bo mentioned later, “you buy from your friend”.  Upon reflection, I realized that “yes, I am like everyone else, I really buy from my friends.”  When I want to know something, I ask my friends.  When there’s something I want to buy, I try to find out who from my friends are into that business.

I realized we are just one piece of a big puzzle.  We do our share.  When we buy from our friends, what we’re really doing is sharing what we have to the world.  It’s the same thing when we sell.  Because we address a problem that our friends are facing, we’re making their life a little bit easier.

Business is about Integrity

The second thing I learned from Edward is that it’s very important to be very trustworthy and keep your word.  Even if it losses you money.  Even if it costs an arm or a leg.  This is a core value that rings very close to my heart.   I like to deal with those I trust.  I realized that when I don’t really believe in something, I hesitate to share it to my friends.  I am a silent man, but when I share, I want to make sure it is something my friends will benefit.  More than the money, it’s because they are my friends.  Friends look out for each other.  We want the best for them. Isn’t it great to give and be able to share something valuable with your friends?

Real Estate

The third speaker was Larry Gamboa, the author of Think Rich Pinoy.  He shared about the idea of franchising in the world of real estate.  Perhaps because it was something new and still in its infancy, I had a hard time following where the talk was going.  I guess because it is something that was still in the works, it was also hard for him to explain.  What I appreciated about him is that he realizes what people are going through.   He recommends learning while also earning at the same time to shorten the gap between dreaming and execution.

Internet Marketing part 1

Bo also shared some tips on internet marketing.  He mentioned that Kerygmafamily.com is making money through donations, all through the power of the internet and marketing. The website is actually making lots of money from those donations which all goes to the many programs that Bo is organizing to help those in need like the Anawim – a place for abandoned elderly, or the charity that aims to help pregnant women.  This is a very good example of showing that the ultimate purpose of money is to help and love other people.

This is only day 1 but there were already so many things I’ve learned. Watch out for the part 2 of this blog post where I’ll share personal insights I’ve learned from day 2 of the Truly Rich Financial Coaching Program.

Do you like to attend Bo’s Truly Rich financial seminars but you are based outside the Philippines? Here’s your chance!

Join the Truly Rich Club!
Join the Truly Rich Club