Rich Money Habits

Time flies so fast. Especially when you’re enjoying what you do.  A year ago, I was counting the hours at the office, eager to leave work and do my own thing.  Now, I hardly have time to count because I’m having the time of my life in what I do.  I am meeting a lot of very interesting people every day, learning from their own life’s journey, getting mentored by highly successful multi-millionaires and yet very humble individuals.  This is life indeed.

Whether you started the year in January 1 or follow the Chinese calendar (Kung Hei Fat Choi!), it’s always a great idea to start the year right and on the right note.  This is the season of new year’s resolutions.  Of taking new beginnings.  Of fresh new look, hairstyle, or even new hope for a brand new year.

Today what I’d like to do is share with you some ideas on how you can maximize this year by starting it right.  Let me share with you how I started it, and hopefully you’ll get some ideas of your own.

Tip # 1 – Get Recharged

Right after the new year’s celebrations, I hit the ground running with a 3-day retreat with our guest speaker, none other than one of the most sought-after motivation speaker around the world, Mr Francis Kong!  The retreat’s theme was aptly described as Recharge 1.0 because last year 2011 has been a gruelling, but very fruitful and rewarding year for most of us.  It really helped me reflect on the past year’s blessings in our family’s, spiritual life, financial and personal.  And also provided a venue to recharge for another great year ahead 2012.

This exclusive retreat was organized by XTRM 1-11, and spearheaded by one of my youngest but highly successful and driven mentor, Ms Ivy Dela Cruz.  I’d like to share with you a video to illustrate how much fun we’ve had during that 3-days!

Tip # 2 – Get Connected

Right after that retreat I had to go straight to my hometown in the northernmost part of the Philippines to attend my grandfather’s funeral.  He lived a long, healthy and meaningful 99 years of his life touching many lives.  From what I heard, he died in his sleep and did not have to endure so much pain.  But before he died, he was a very loving husband to my grandmother through all those years.  I spent my time growing up in the provinces in the company of my grandparents when I was young and I have always had very fond memories of them.  It’s an experience I would treasure for a lifetime.

Seeing all my cousins, uncles and aunties and relatives mourn and share their sadness, I realized how death sometimes connects each of us together.  All walls break down.  All shortcomings are set aside for a moment.  All bitterness and shallow misunderstandings are temporarily forgotten.

More than that, while listening to my dad share a story of how my grandfather touched the lives of many people, I realized that we are all passers by in this world. One day, we too shall pass.  What is left is the lives we’ve touched along the way.  My grandfather certainly had an impact on many lives not only with his 10 children and countless grandchildren, but all the other people who seeked his help. My grandfather had the gift of healing, of being able to pray and be an instrument of God’s love to his people.  My dad seemed to have inherited the same gift. What’s great though is that they both acknowledge that it’s simply God working through them to bless other people.

I’ve been very blessed to have a grandfather who had a pure heart.  Yes, he had his own shortcomings.  But aren’t we all? What matters more is the love he freely shared and blessed this world with.

Cheers to you my grandfather, lilong Kido!  Your legacy will live in our hearts forever!

Tip # 3 – Get Organized

After getting a few days rest, I’ve had the chance to get my thoughts together and really plan for this year.  I’ve had to really think long and hard what I want to do this year.  Last year was really a great year for me and my family with all the blessings that we’ve received.  And sometimes I still wonder, what more blessings can I ask God this time?

This was time to dream again.  And dream I did! I have lofty goals this year but I’ll leave that for my next article.  For now, my tip is for you to take some time to dream and set your goals for this year.   Write it down.  Cut out some pictures if you can and put it in your dream board.

After setting my goals, my next step was to plan.  So, I got myself a planner.  Last year, while it was very fruitful it was also a great learning experience for me.  For the first time, I had to be accountable for my own results.  I had no boss.  There’s no one telling me what to do.  There’s no one checking on me every now and then if I delivered what I promised.

The temptation was there to simply procrastinate and become lazy.  And most of the time, I really was.  Without a plan, it’s been a chaotic exercise of wasting time.  This time I really wanted to take some time to get organized.  So I bought a planner.  And the first week I used it, it probably tripled my productivity, and for the first time, I actually got something meaningful done so fast and brisk free!

I’ll share with you some other productivity tools that I do next time, but for now just get a planner and create a plan to get your goals this year.

Tip # 4 – Get Going

Next step for me was to get going and take action.  And that’s what I did.

In my business, I meet very interesting people every day, learning from their stories.  I learn from their successes and challenges.  It’s really amazing seeing through another world out there different from my own.  For 9 years, I was in front of computers day in, day out.  Now, for the first time in my life, I get to interact with people with colorful lives.

Here I am with my business partners from Cebu gracing our company’s convention in SMX Mall of Asia.

I also had the good fortune of being invited to share my thoughts on stocks investing with almost a thousand PUP banking and finance students this month.  I had a really great time enjoying the event, especially in answering the very intelligent and interesting questions from the young and energetic crowd of future business leaders of this country.  I still can’t get over this simple token they’ve given me.  It’s the first time someone thought of giving me this kind of a wonderful gift.  To the PUP banking in finance students, thanks again for inviting me to share with you. All I can say is you guys rock!!!

Tip # 5 – Have fun and enjoy every moment.

Have fun.  Enjoy.  That’s it.  No gets out of life alive.  So, enjoy every moment, for it shall pass only once.  As Francis Kong always said during our 3-day retreat, “In all things, always GIVE THANKS!”

Here I am enjoying a nice barbecue party for new year with my family at our new home.  One of the best new years I’ve had so far!

I also spent my birthday party with friends.  Here’s a picture of us munching at Charlie’s Burger.

There’s another photshoot I had just last week which I am even more excited to share with you! Watch out for those pictures! 

As you can obviously see, I am having the time of my life! Thank YOU Lord for all these blessings!!!  Truly YOU are the greatest!!!

From the bottom of my heart, I would like to also take this time to say THANKS TO YOU my dear reader for sharing in my journey.  You are one of the reasons I get excited each day gettting up in the morning, having fun and enjoying this wonderful life! I pray that whatever goals you set for this year, God will grant you the wisdom to create a workable plan to help you bring closer to your goals.  I wish you well, and let’s go get our goals together this year with flying colors! Cheers to a successful 2012!!!

P.S.  How about you? How did you start your year so far? What goals do you have this year and how I can help bring you closer to those goals?  Contact me, if you want a more private discussion.  Otherwise, simply leave your comments below.

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Today I’d like to let you in on a secret.  Do you want to feel blessed? Beyond your expectations?  To your wildest dreams? Simple. You just need to learn to be ‘grateful’.

What? That’s it?! You say.  This is one of life’s biggest paradox.  That what you think about most, will come back to you a thousand-fold.  The more you think about your problems, the more they become bigger. The more you listen and entertain yourself with mindless gossip and tragic events of other people’s lives, the more you get depressed and think that life is miserable.

This is the reason why I think, listening to “news” on TV is the single biggest mistake you can ever make during your day. Why? Simple. You get all the negative things from all over the world, the strangest and the most tragic events throughout the day, seamlessly collected and served to you 100%, in its purest, unadulterated form.  If you let yourself watch this garbage with your 100% attention, it’s like having a bunch of worms forced down your throat while your hands are tied to a chair inside a torture chamber.

Gruesome isn’t it? It’s like a bad horror-movie.  Let’s stop the movie from playing.  Press the stop button on the remote now, and decide to be more conscious of the thoughts that you feed your mind.

Now that I’ve got that out of the way, let’s practice being “grateful” for a change. Let’s start with reminiscing the wonderful blessings of the past year.

Until now, I’m still asking myself what I must have done right to deserve so much blessings in this world.  Truly, living a blessed life is such a wonderful gift.

At the start of 2011, I mentioned 3 goals in my mind that I wanted to accomplish.  One is financial in nature, another is for my health, and last is for personal growth.  You can read more about them here.

The journey in achieving my financial goal has gone beyond my wildest imagination.  For one, I not only achieved my earnings goal handily but even multiplied it 5x, and achieved it faster than I can imagine possible.   This has allowed me to be able to quit my job as IT consultant for the last 9 years and focus on helping others achieve the same.

In the last quarter of the year, I shared with you my new goal that is to help 100 other people do what I did.  I wanted it to happen before 2011 ends, but I over-estimated the reality that before you can help other people, they first need to be willing to be helped.  It’s a two-way street, and unfortunately, I have to live with the fact that I can only control the one on my end.

Nevertheless, the results have been really inspiring because to date, there are already 35 others who are already earning $40 – $400 a month and on their way to their financial goals.  They are earning US dollars in the Philippines without having to go abroad and take the risk of being abused or maltreated away from home.  They are like you and me, ordinary people with different backgrounds, IT professionals, accountants, engineers, veterinarians, linguist specialists, and more. What they have though, is the deep thirst for learning to improve their lives, the relentless positive attitude and solid character, and the bias for action to match their desire.

These are people who have given me their trust and allowed me to mentor them on a personal basis, in the hope that I bring them closer to their financial goals.  These are people who have raised their hands, and are willing to do whatever it takes to realize their dreams.  In return, they get personal access to me, my time, resources and all the knowledge and experience I’ve been through all the years.  If you want to be blessed just like them, you can email me here.  Only 65 slots left.

On my fitness goal, I achieved my weight goal in the middle of the year but gone back astray, and gained back the pounds.  That’s what you get when you have too much time having fun. What excites me though is that I now have more time in my hands and the means to do it faster and healthier next year.  Watch out for that!

More importantly, for the first time in my life, I’ve had the healthiest year so far.  For the first time in years, I’ve not had the usual one or 2 weeks of colds and cough that I normally go through almost every other month.  Now, whenever I get sick, which I had only a couple of times the whole year, it only takes me a day or two of rest to bring back my old healthy self.

The side effect of being healthy though is that you tend to stretch your limits going for days with limited sleep.  Unfortunately, when that happens for far too long, your body can only go so far, it still needs to rest and recharge.

The last of my goals is to go out to places I’ve never been to before.  One thing I learned after travelling to the US, Malaysia and Singapore is you learn a lot about life when you travel and explore.  It’s in those moments that I realize there’s a greater world out there most people are not able to see and experience.  Yes, you get excited hearing stories and adventures of other people.  But that pales in comparison to the feeling you get when YOU experience it for yourself.  Those moments are priceless gifts you will treasure for a lifetime.

I’ve had little success in this goal of mine this year, not because I don’t want to travel.  I certainly do.  But a bigger blessing has come my way, that I feel it is more important to focus on at the moment.  I am not one to complain, because I am enjoying every moment of excitement and waiting.  Perhaps next year, the travels will even be more blessed.

Now for the other blessings that came my way that I sincerely prayed but didn’t expect to become reality so fast…here are just but a few of them.

…for the gift of time, and of not needing to rush off to work every morning

…for the gift of life, and to our greatest blessing this year, our first baby is on the way

…for the gift of home, a new place of love for the people closest to my heart

The past year has been very very good to me and my family.  I feel really blessed beyond my wildest imagination.  If you would have told me a year ago, that it would be THIS GREAT, I would have chuckled and told you you were joking.

Sometimes, in life you just need a little faith.  All I did was dream and trust God that what He has prepared for me is even better than what I was asking for.  I wish all that for you and much much more.  Be grateful to the blessings around you. Have faith and be prepared to receive the avalanche of blessings running through your door!  Cheers to a blessed 2011!

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I feel blessed.  I’ve always felt very lucky, as if the great stars have all aligned when I was born.  Perhaps it’s really true.  God plays favorites. That’s why He made me. Don’t worry, you are his favorite too. 

Whether you agree to it or not, it really doesn’t matter. As one of the most profound thinkers of our time, the late Jim Rohn once said, "it’s not what happens that determines your future, it’s what you do with what happens." In short, what matters is how you look at life.  Do you feel blessed?  Or do you feel cursed? The choice is yours.

As for me, it’s easier to just show you proofs than to explain.

Proof #1. When I was about to enter high school, I remember guessing the last 50 questions of my entrance exam and ended up getting the highest score. I must have been really lucky that day…or perhaps, I was not the only one guessing?!

Proof #2. When I was attending christmas parties, I would almost always win raffle prizes.  Grocery items.  Chocolates. You name it.  Except the high-ticket items like LCD TV or trip for two to the US…I’m still waiting for the next christmas party for those.

Proof #3. When I was old enough to marry, God gave me a beautiful and loving wife to be with me until the day I die. I must be the luckiest guy in the world!

I have always felt blessed.  And this time I feel it even more…I feel God’s greatest blessings are always under way. 

I would sometimes say, "This is the best gift I’ve ever had! There’s no way God can top this! This is awesome"…and then with a smile, God simply answers back, "Watch me! You ain’t seen nothing yet!"….and gives a me a gift that would top everything I’ve received thus far.

Today, I’d like to share with you a really short story. 

One day, two people fell in love.  They got married and planned to bring a child into this world from the first day they became one.  Every month, they watched with excitement for any sign of good news.  But the angels up the heavens are saying…"no, it’s not time yet."  Months passed…and still no sign.  Months of waiting slowly turned to years.  The couple are praying for the good news…but the reality still looms in.  Depression begins.  Life stops and desperations set in..

Until finally…out of a seemingly ordinary series of events comes the beginning of the journey where an extraordinary gift awaits. The gift of life.  Literally. 

That’s me and my wife’s story…and the beginning of the story of God’s greatest gift to us.

With great joy and pride…I’m sharing with you, the first of many pictures to come of my 3 and a half month child happily giggling in my wife’s womb.

Just like all the best things in life…this one is priceless!

Cheers to God’s blessings!

P.S. If you’re curious what those series of events are…or know someone who has been in the same situation of waiting and would like to help, feel free to email me. 

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After my last financial goals update, so many great things have happened that I can’t even begin to imagine how and where to start sharing those blessing with you.  Today, however, I’d like to share with you a quick update on the status of my financial goal for this year. 

My original goal to create 3 income streams earning at least $100/month each has already been achieved from just one venture alone.  Yehey!

Now, I have a new goal in mind — help 100 other people achieve the same thing by end of this year. By doing so, I hope 100 other people will have a better Christmas this year than last year. 

I’ve managed to help 20 people so far over the past few months…80 more to go!  It’s going to be hard.  It’s going to take a lot to make it happen.  I only have a little over 2 months from now.  But I am confident, because I am not alone.  I have a great team with me and I have you behind my back.  It’s going to be a very exciting months ahead! 

If you want to learn more on how you can take part and help me in my project, please CLICK HERE to contact me so we can arrange a schedule to discuss.

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One of my greatest fears is in speaking with other people.  Growing up, I was not fond of going to birthday parties.  I was the geek at home, studying for school. I believed that if you want to appear smart, you have to keep quiet.  Unconsciously or not, it became one of my debilitating habits that I formed over the years. 

Rather than try to relate with other people, I shied away and hid in my own cave. 

The more I think about it, the more I realize that it is one of the main reasons why I have not been making the progress that I want to happen in my life.  At work, I don’t socialize that much.  Not because I don’t care, I certainly do.  But sometimes, I am just plain lazy.  I don’t want to make the effort and get rejected in the end.  I feel comfortable just being with myself, because then I won’t have to worry about anything else.  My simple mantra was.."do you work, go home and mind your own business."  Big mistake.

How do you confront your fear and laziness? 

Simple.  Go to the cemetery.  Look for tomb stones.  Imagine looking at your own tombstone.  Ask yourself if this is your last day in this world, would you be hiding under the bed, cowardly waiting for something to make your fears go away?  Or would you make the most of the time you’ve got, not a care in the world whether people will think you are crazy or not?

When you realize that you only have a limited time to live, you have no choice but to give everything you’ve got in every moment of your life.  After all, we only have one life to live.  Live it to the fullest or never live it at all!

P.S.  I am working on a project helping people live their life’s dreams, if you want to learn more and be a part of it, CLICK HERE to contact me.

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It’s now August and more than half of the year has already passed.  It’s time to get back to my financial goals this year and share with you my insights into what what I’ve been up to the past months.

At the start of the year, I shared with you 3 personal goals I had in mind.  One is financial in nature, the other two is for my health and personal development.

Goal #1: 3 income streams earning $100 each per month

The journey in achieving this goal has surprised me more than anything else.  Last March, I was on my way to earning at least $100 income from affiliate income from this blog as well as ebook sales.  I had to turn off Google adsense because while I already earned my first $100, I didn’t feel it was aligned with my long term goals for this site.

For the past few months my affiliate earnings from Bo Sanchez’ Truly Rich Club has been pretty consistent.  It actually reached around $65 for the month of May.  My affiliate earnings to Jomar Hilario’s Workshops and Seminar climbed up to $157 on the same month.  The thing was, while my site got hacked, went down and its traffic plummetted to zero overnight last month, my affiliate earnings were hardly impacted at all. As for the ebook, that’s another story.  It has not been doing very well the past few months.

But the most surprising thing I’ve experienced for the first half of the year is the result from one of my new ventures which was 5x all my affiliate earnings combined for the month.  That’s why, like an aspiring entrepreneur would do, I’ve had to re-align my resources to focus on this new venture of mine.   I’ve also had to reassess my goals for the year, given that I may not need 3 income streams to hit $100 each anymore.  Focusing on one can practically earn more than the three combined.  My financial goal has changed, and that’s one of the topics I will be sharing with you the rest of the year.

Goal #2:  Weigh no more than 176 pounds by December 31, 2011

One of the main challenges I’ve encoutered over the past few months is in looking for healthier food to eat.  Given the proximity of our condo to the mall and the convenience of a 24-hour store nearby, sometimes, it’s hard to convince myself to make the extra effort of looking for healthier food options.  Compound that with the seemingly hectic (but actually just mismanaged) time that I have, that’s a constant battle I have to face everyday. 

From my last quarter’s update, I was able to lose 13 pounds to bring down my weight from 200 pounds to around 187 pounds.  I’ve had to change my habits to a healthier lifestyle over the past couple of months as part of my regimen to make that happen.  And even though I still haven’t reached my goal, I still think I am on the right track to hit it by the end of this year. My goal is only a few pounds away as I am sitting comfortably at 181 pounds at the moment. 

One of the great blessings I got in losing those extra pounds has to do with being able to stay healthy and not get sick as often as before.  While I got sick because of stress and exhaustion due to my hectic schedule last month, I was able to get back to the office with only a day of rest.  Compare that to the whole 2 weeks of vacation ruined last Christmas when I had to battle through with colds and fever while going on a 3-day vacation with my wife in Bohol. 

I’ve never felt healthier in my life.  It really surprises me that when I go up the stairs in the MRT station, I no longer need to catch my breath.  In fact, I even take 2 steps at a time when I am in a hurry.  Life is good, indeed!

Goal #3: Go somewhere I’ve never been to once every quarter.

This is a goal I’ve struggled to accomplish over the past 6 months and continue to struggle with as I look for travel opportunities for the next half of the year.

The last vacation I had was with my wife and her friends in Fontana Resort.  I had lots of fun.  The only problem? I’ve been to Fontana before a few years back.  So I’m stil zero out of 2 for this year.  I really need to catch up fast.  Summer is gone and rainy season is here.

Looking back, I can give you a lot of reasons why I couldn’t take a vacation or go out of town.  I have no time.  I have a hectic schedule.  My boss won’t allow me.  In the end, though, they are all excuses.  Instead of dwelling on those excuses, I think a more positive thing for me to do right now is to "just do it."

What amazes me is that while I’ve not had some vacation time the past months, I’ve had a lot of opportunities to catch up with old friends lately over dinner or a cup of coffee.  It’s really amazing how time seem to stand still when you and your friends share old memories together and laugh at ridiculous things you did in the past.  It’s really a great blessing to have such great friends.  That alone makes me believe that God has really blessed me tremendously all these years.

Looking ahead to the rest of the year

I realized that in almost anything worth doing, you have to put in the time and effort to really see significant results.  To tell you honestly, I’ve had days when I didn’t do anything at all on this site.  If you noticed, I only had one article written for the whole month of June and July.  There were times when I had to re-assess what I really wanted to do with this site…and that also means I had to rediscover what I really wanted in life.  Is it money?  Is it freedom? Is it being able to help others in however way I can?

While I have been blessed financially at my daytime job, I still wonder whether there’s more to life than just financial blessings. The more I think about it, the more I realize that one thing I don’t have is TIME.  I am still a slave of the 9-to-5 job and all the things that come with it. My dream is to be able to have control of my own time.  I want to be able to work on things that I really enjoy, and in the process, contribute however I can to also help inspire other people discover what it is they truly want in life.

How about you? How’s your first half of the year been so far?

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As some of you know, I started the year with 3 goals in mind.  One is financial in nature (3 streams of passive income $100/month each), the other two is for my health and being (weigh no more than 85kgs and go somewhere I’ve never been to every quarter of the year).

Financial Goal #1 – Three streams of passive income earning $100 per month each

For the first goal, the short status is that it’s halfway there.  I’ve shared my income report from Google adsense and the earnings form my ebook launching in one of my recent posts.  While they are not yet earning $100 per month, the income has been up to a great start!

The ebook is not selling as much as I hoped for but I am not one to complain because it is purely passive income.  I hardly do anything aside from promoting the ebook, which I must admit I am not doing a very good job at.  Besides, I am learning a lot just figuring out ways on how the ebook can be made more useful and how it can reach a lot more people.  That’s why I am excited because in the coming weeks there will be a lot more exciting things happening here at Rich Money Habits.

Also, Red asked me thru the comment section of one of my recent articles whether I’d be willing to share how much I am earning from being an affiliate of Truly Rich Club.  I sometimes hesitate sharing actual financial results because it might be taken the wrong way.  However, I feel being transparent to you and helping inspire you in your own journey is more important than my own fears.  So here it is.

The great thing about it is that I didn’t have to create a product or ship anything.  All I did is recommend a great product that I personally use myself, and would be very happy to recommend anyway with or without the affiliate income.

One of the challenges I’ve faced as an affiliate, however, was that because I didn’t have a way to contact those who signed-up as a result of my referral, I have no way to reach them and say thank you…and may be even give them a free gift or something.  That’s one of the reasons why I launched my own product so that I can have more control and be able to give freebies anytime I want.

One thing you will notice in the report is that the affiliate income started only last May 2010, more than a year after my wife and I already signed-up as members to the Truly Rich Club.  I honestly cannot remember why it started so late, but the great thing is, even if it was only a very very small amount in the beginning, it consistenly grew to PhP2,572.80 just last month.  That’s US $59.83 already, more than half of my $100 goal!

There are other streams of income I’m planning to launch in the near future that are still in the exploratory stage, but I don’t want to spoil the fun and surprise.  You’ll hear more about them once there’s something more concrete to talk about.  In any case, the first quarter has been a great learning experience so far, one I totally didn’t expect.

Financial Goal #2 – Weigh No More Than 85 kgs

At the start of the year, I finally got the initiative to use our condo’s gym.  Jog on the treadmill for 20 minutes a day, 3 times a week — that was my goal.  I was able to do it consistently for the first few weeks and lost a few pounds…But after a few weeks of not going to the gym, I gained it all back.  My wife and I even bought a Wii Fit board, just to get some added motivation in trying to enjoy exercising, but after a few weeks, we hardly ever use it anymore.

I also started trying to eat healthy.  After learning from Bo’s book ‘Awaken the Healer In You’ that drinking fresh fruit juice can be a very healthy morning habit, my wife and I invested in a juicer that was offered at a 50% discount in one of our visit to the mall.  So we started using the juicer in the morning and got ourselves small cups of fruit juice.

The only problem – we had to clean up the juicer ourselves.  It’s not too much, but sometimes when you’re in a hurry to get to work in the morning, the last thing you want to do is spend some time washing your juicer.   So after a few weeks of being very busy, getting our daily juice in the morning became less frequent.  Of course, I could have hired a house helper to do that.  And it is certainly part of our long term plan.  But the thing is, our condo is small and just enough for me and my wife.  Getting a stay-in house helper doesn’t look like a good idea at this point.

Then I discovered Nutrimeal, a nutritious mixed protein drink designed for those who are trying to manage their weight.  I followed the recommended RESET program and in 10 days, I lost 8.6 pounds safely and easily without needing to starve myself and hardly any exercise at all.  I’m currently at 187.10 pounds, just a hair thin away from my goal of 85kgs (i.e 187 pounds)…almost there! Yey! And because it is very easy to prepare, I can have my “meal” in just 45 seconds.  This solved my problem of not having any time to prepare a decent meal as I rush off to work in the morning.

The first time I took my weight and BMI was around January, when we bought the Wii Fit board.  Just for fun, I tried checking my weight again after the 10 days of RESET program was over.  Here’s a picture of my Wii Weight Loss Chart at exactly 190 pounds.  I actually went down from being an Obese to just Overweight.  And even though it’s not yet under the “normal” range, the funny thing is that I’m still very very happy because for the first time, I am now seeing some tangible results.  There is hope indeed!

After another 10 days, I weighed myself again on the Wii Fit board and was even more delighted to find out that I’ve lost another 2.9 pounds. Sweet! Now, I feel more confident going to the beach!

I am not sharing these to you to brag but to help inspire you to keep on going for your goals and dreams no matter what they are.  I’ve tried a lot of ways to achieve the results I wanted…a lot of them failed.  But finally, one worked and my goal is now closer than I think.  I have no doubt in my mind that I will be able to get to 85kgs (187 pounds) in no time flat.  In fact, I am now re-setting my weight goal to now target 80 kgs by December 31, 2011 instead.  My wish is that you achieve your fitness goals too.

If you are also trying to lose weight (and has seen limited success so far), this may be for you.  Unfortunately, you cannot get the Nutrimeal from grocery stores or even at any retail stores like Health Options.   If you want to find out how you too can get it, you can simply email me. No, this is nothing illegal or unsafe so don’t worry.  I am no drug dealer, alright.

Financial Goal #3 – Go somewhere I’ve never been to every quarter.

This is one area I’m struggling with.  Both because I’m always very busy at work and also for personal reasons I want to keep private for now.  In any case, this is still one of my most cherished goals.

Recently, my wife and I spent a nice weekend getaway in Tagaytay.  But that doesn’t count, because I’ve been to Tagaytay before.  In fact, our wedding a few years ago was held somewhere in Tagaytay.  So it’s a place close to my heart.

The reason I really want to travel is so that I can explore other places and meet other people, learn other culture and just be amazed.  Sometimes, with the very hectic schedule at work, and the many urgent deadlines, I feel the fast-paced lifestyle is draining my energy.  I long to find some time to just reconnect with nature…doing nothing, just relaxing.  That’s why I want to go somewhere I’ve never been to before.  To be surprised.  To be mesmerized.  To be refreshed.

It’s already April, so I better search for some place to visit fast!  Wish me luck!  Or better yet, if you know of a great place to visit that’s not too far from Metro Manila, feel free to mention it under the comment section below, so others will benefit too!

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One of the reasons this blog has become popular is because of the valuable lessons I’ve learned from enrolling through Jomar Hilario’s 1-Year Online Mentoring Club.  The results speak for itself…and it’s not just me.

To tell you the truth, you wouldn’t be reading this now if I am not 100% convinced that the Online Mentoring Club lessons actually work.

Now, here’s the good news…this month, Jomar Hilario is giving a favor to Bo Sanchez’s Truly Rich Club members by offering them the 1-Year Online Mentoring Club membership at 50% off until March 31,2011 (I know, I know it’s only 5 days left…that’s why I wished I announced this sooner.)  If you are able to sign-up on time, send me an email because I have some special gifts for you.

If you are not familiar with Bo Sanchez’ Truly Rich Club, you just need to answer these questions:
- Do you want to gain financial wealth and spiritual abundance at the same time?
- Do you want to get Bo Sanchez’s Financial talks in CD, DVD or downloads and get specific financial advise from Bo?
- Do you want to find out what specific stocks to invest in and taught on when to buy and when to sell?

If you’re saying yes, of course, then you can consider joining the Truly Rich Club.

Once you’re a Truly Rich Club member,  you can now avail of the 50% off of Jomar Hilario’s 1-Year Online Mentoring Club until March 31,2011 only.

See you at the club!

Cheers!
Allan

P.S.  That’s not all, if you manage to sign-up on or before March 31, you will get my Rich Money Habits Ebook Guide for FREE including all bonuses, and you will also get a special reserved slot in my next Cashflow 101 event this coming April.

P.P.S.  What are you waiting for?  Join the Truly Rich Club now and avail the 50% off discount of Jomar Hilario’s Online Mentoring Club!  I’ve only seen Jomar offer the 50% discount once or twice since I joined the club sometime in September 2009 so make sure you don’t pass up this incredible opportunity today.

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I’ve wondered a few times whether I’d share this information to you or not.  I hesitate because the topic of earning money online invoke different emotions from different people.  One of my main goals in this blog is to be as transparent as possible but my fear of being taken negatively is getting in the way.  Today, I’m taking a leap of faith to share with you what I learned trying to earn income from Google adsense and launching an ebook to help inspire you in your own financial journey.

Google Adsense

Last week, I was able to finally claim my very first $100 Google Adsense earnings.   That’s after 1 year and 5 months.  The $100 minimum threshold was actually reached by the end of January but Google takes another month to compile everything to have the necessary payment issued.  Here’s a picture of the payment.

While trying find the yellow receive money form of Western Union, I was surprised at first because the form was a bit different that what I expected.  It’s now smaller than what it was previously.  I filled-up the new form anyway and gave it to the Western Union agent.  In less than 3 minutes, my money was handed out to me in cash.  Hassle free.  Of course, I had to bring two IDs (my driver’s license and employee ID) for identification purposes as well as print out the payment details in my Google Adsense admin page but that’s pretty much it.

Why am I sharing this to you?  Simple.  It took me 1 year and 5 months to earn $100.  Hardly exciting.  But when you think about it, this is purely passive income.  I didn’t have to create or ship any product, hire employees or even actually sell anything.  All I did is copy-and-paste an html code provided by Google upon signing-up for FREE to automatically generate Google ads.  Whenever someone “clicks” on those ads, I get an income paid by the advertisers of those ads. Google tracks and manages every part of the process.  All I do is copy-and-paste the code once and forget about it.  After reaching the threshold, I received the $100.60 amount from Google. It’s a relatively small amount, but being able to earn it passively is mind bloggling.

How it all started…

A few years ago while still working as an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) in Malaysia, I started writing about my thoughts on money and investing and published them here at Rich Money Habits (you can check out my old articles at the archives section).  In March 2009, I got interested in the potential of making money online and tried putting Google adsense ads into this site.  After 8 months, my Google adsense earned me a whopping total of $1.08. 

For some this was a very very small amount.  And it is!  That’s just enough to buy a small burger.  But one thing that got stuck in my mind from earning that small amount is the realization that I can actually earn money online — it is indeed possible!  That helped inspire me to try to learn about how to do it more effectively.

I really didn’t know much about Internet Marketing then, so when I found out from attending Bo Sanchez’ Financial Coaching Seminar that Jomar Hilario is offering an Online Internet Marketing Mentoring program, I grabbed the opportunity right away.  From Jomar’s Online Mentoring program, I learned that you can display the Google ads in a certain way to maximize your Google earnings.  I did apply some of it and noticed my Google earnings start to grow.  It really suprised me because after a month of applying those lessons, I now earned $6.10! Still not that huge, but it is now more than 5 times what I earned in 8 months figuring it out by myself.

This could have been higher if I bombarded this blog with Google adsense to the point where you cannot read the articles anymore, but as I mentioned in one of my previous articles, I decided early on that Google ads will not be the main focus of this blog.  For as good as the “passive income”sounds, there are still some things that are worth more — that is helping you read through the articles without disctractions, so you can focus and absorb the money and investing tips better.

Rich Money Habits Guide Ebook

Last February 17, I launched my very first ebook guide Rich Money Habits – 8 Ways To Shift Your Money Habits and Be Rich.  Because it was my first time to publish a paid product, I didn’t know what to expect.

What if no one buys?  Am I asking for too much?  What will other people say?  I had all these fears and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that these ideas are only in my mind…they reflected my own internal struggles that I had to battle through.  I had to refocus my attention away from my own fears.

There was only one question I had to answer — “will this help other people?”  My short answer was a definite YES!  And because I created the product from beginning to end and applied the same ideas myself, I know how valuable it is.  But I still didn’t trust myself enough.  I had to go and ask other people, specifically those who have read the same information through my newsletter…and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.  It was enough to give me the courage to actually launch the ebook.

Launching the ebook was my own little experiment.  And it’s aligned with one of my goals this year to earn $100 monthly income passively from at least 3 income streams.  I wanted to share with you the results (so far) not to brag, because there’s nothing to brag about, but to help inspire you to take your own journey as well.  Here it is.

Total guides sold: 15

Total sales: $118.38 USD

Affiliate share: $8.97 USD

I am not a best-selling author and I don’t claim to be one.  I am just like you, an ordinary person still working full time as an employee looking for ways to bring value to other people and earn income without having to spend so much of my time…because in reality the bulk of my time is still being consumed by my full-time job.

5 Surprising Things I Learned from Launching My Ebook

1) Comparing Ebook Earnings vs Google Adsense Earnings.  The $100 amount was reached in just a week after it was launched.  For a moment, I realized the same result ($100) was achieved a lot faster compared to Google adsense!  1 week vs 1 year and 4 months!  It’s hardly a comparison.  Of course, Google adsense pays only in cents while the ebook is priced at $9.95 initially.

2) The value of launch.  As expected, the bulk of the sales (80%) was made on the launch day itself and continuing on to the next day.  After that, the sales began to taper off in the next few days.  Now, it’s 1 guide sold every other day.  Which is not disappointing considering that this is now purely passive income.  I don’t have to do anything anymore.  Everything is being taken cared of by e-junkie, my shopping cart provider.

3) Being true to your customers. One buyer sent me an email asking when will the book delivered.  After receiving the email, I was surprised.  Suffice it to say, I didn’t expect it and was confused at first.  One, because I was selling an ebook, not a hard copy version.  And two, because I was totally clueless that the book description was misleading people.  I checked my site again and realized that there’s actually no specific mention that the guide is sold as electronic copy only (i.e. ebook) and there’s no paper-based actual hard copy to be delivered.  After calling the buyer, I figured out the miscommunication right away and promised to fix the problem.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t ship a hard copy book to the buyer so I decided to do the next best thing.  First, I decided to refund the payment immediately.  Also, I gave away the ebook, including the bonuses to the buyer for FREE to help compensate for the inconvenience.  Last and more importantly, I had to go and modify the description of the Rich Money Habits package to say that the buyer will get an ebook, not an actual hard copy paper-based book to prevent other people from facing the same problem.

4) Facing your fears by taking action.  One surprising thing I learned from the whole experience is that — “your fears are not as scary as you might think.”  My fears didn’t materialize.  Someone actually bought my ebook.  That alone gave me the confidence to think that this could actually work.

5) All the support that you need is nearer than you think. Some of my friends were delighted when they learned that Bo Sanchez wrote the Foreword to my ebook.  The reality is that Bo Sanchez wasn’t even paid to write the Foreword.  And I didn’t even have to meet him in person to make the request.  One night, while thinking who should write the Foreword for my ebook, I asked myself this question — “if there’s one person in this world that you look up to and would like to write the foreword to your ebook, who would it be”.  There’s only one person that came into my mind — Bo Sanchez.   I learned a lot from Bo Sanchez so to have him write the Foreword would really be the greatest thing in the world for me — a seemingly impossible dream at that time.  I hesitated because I felt my own insecurities cropping through my mind.  Thoughts like “who am I that Bo Sanchez would take the time to write to foreword of this ebook?”was making my own personal doubts stronger.  But I started writing the email anyway…and at the last second, I closed my eyes and took a leap of faith by clicking the send button.  The next day at 9AM in the morning, I got the surprise of my life.  Not only did Bo Sanchez read and replied to my email — he even wrote the Foreword and included it in his email reply right away, no questions asked!  Wow!  To say I was happy is an understatement.  I was wearing a very wide smile the whole day! 

Throughout this journey of trying to learn to earn income through the internet, I’ve met a lot of interesting people and learned a lot along the way.  But my journey is only just beginning.  I am still a long way from financial freedom…but I’d like to think I am inching towards my goal each and every day.  My wish is that this article help inspire you in your own financial journey.

Cheers to your financial success!

In my continuing effort to address your overwhelming request to feature true-to-life success stories to help inspire you in your journey to financial freedom, I am very honored to share with you my interview with one of the most influential foreclosure investing experts in the Philippines, my good friend Jay Castillo.

Jay Castillo, made his dreams happen – to become financially free. A few years ago, he was a busy IT manager working his way up to the corporate ladder. At one point in his life, he was really frustrated spending hours and hours working at the office and going through the frustrations faced by employees. He realized that the stress from his job was literally killing him.  That’s when he decided to do something about it for the sake of his loved ones. After reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, he was inspired to learn how to do real-estate investing.

He attended seminars, seek out mentors and built his now very popular blog Foreclosure Investing Philippines at foreclosurephilippines.com. After only a few years, he is already financially free. He was able to quit his job and work full-time on his real-estate business, that is investing in foreclosed properties. Without further ado, here’s my interview with Foreclosure Investing Expert — Jay Castillo.

1) Can you give us some background on what you did for a living before you got involved with real-estate?

I was the MIS department head for a multinational company. I have been in the IT field for more than 13 years and I worked my way up the corporate ladder from being an IT staff, to DBA, to Network specialist, supervisor, and to Manager.

2) What made you decide to pursue financial freedom by investing in foreclosed properties?

It just made perfect sense to invest in real estate and foreclosed properties appeared to be the niche with the most number of properties available out there. As to why I decided to pursue financial freedom, this article pretty much covers everything: http://www.foreclosurephilippines.com/2009/04/foreclosure-investing-is-not-really.html

3) What were the 3 biggest obstacles you had to overcome when you decided to pursue real-estate investing?

1. Lack of financial literacy – Some would say it would be lack of money but I would say it really is just lack of financial literacy. After I started to manage my finances, I started to have a positive cashflow, even though I only had income coming from my job. This is where I got money to invest not just in foreclosed properties, but also for my education.

2. Lack of time – It’s funny that we all have this excuse of lack of time, but when something drastic happens, like when I had to go to be rushed to the hospital, and eventually got diagnosed with hypertension at such a young age, I suddenly realized what things are more important to me, and I MADE TIME to for them. I stopped wasting time on unimportant things like TV, unproductive use of the computer for gaming, I no longer did overtime at the office where I focused instead on getting things done through automation, delegation, etc. I was able to set aside time to learn and do real estate investing.

3. Distractions – There were so many distractions like negativity, doubts, and fears, not just from the people around me, but also from myself. It really helps to have people who have the same goals in life to be around you as they help cancel out the negativity form “well meaning” people who really don’t have a clue what you are doing, and why you do it. Another form of distraction are those unproductive things like watching TV, reading too much newspapers, and a lot of those things that can be delegated or outsourced. For example, we hired a maid to take care of household chores, this alone freed up so much of my time and helped me focus on things that are more important.

4) Can share with us the story on how you finally achieved financial independence?

It was really just a combination of getting other income streams from real estate investing and internet marketing, learning how to manage my finances and stop spending on liabilities, and also practicing “delayed gratification”. It is also very important to “simplify” and lower one’s expenses. It just came to a point where I realized that my expenses can already be covered by income other than that from my job, and that gave me the means to quit my job, and go full time with real estate investing, and internet marketing.

5) How did you get started with internet marketing?

I started to take internet marketing seriously with my blog http://www.foreclosurephilippines.com . Initially, it was just an experiment, as I was looking for a way to have all my foreclosed property listings accessible from anywhere, through the internet, from my PDA, eliminating the need to bring the actual classified ads with me. I remember that during that time, I have just finished helping facilitate an internet marketing workshop of Jomar Hilario in Cubao, courtesy of an invitation from Thea Santos (Thea was the one in charge of Think Rich Pinoy Club Marikina, where I was a member back then), and I said to myself I might as well create a blog for this purpose. Aside from listings, my wife and I started to document lessons learned (our very first was about the auction of tax delinquent properties in Marikina), and people started to follow the blog and I guess the rest is history.

6) Which is better, real-estate investing or internet marketing? And why?

Personally, I am becoming more biased towards internet marketing because the passive income potential is so much more because of the global reach, physical boundaries are virtually non-existent. In contrast, with real estate investing, I prefer to invest in properties that are nearby, and that somewhat puts a limit on where I can invest. Of course there are ways for me to expand my real estate investing like partnering with other real estate investors, but this is turning out to be more complicated as compared to internet marketing. Furthermore, even if one invests in rental properties, I believe hiring a property manager at a certain point is needed for it to remain as truly passive income, I guess I’ll cross the bridge when I get there, so to speak. Nevertheless, I truly believe that internet marketing and real estate investing can have synergy. In fact that’s exactly what I am doing right now.

7) What is the most important habit you’ve learned that has really helped you in your journey to financial freedom?

One needs to have a big enough why that would help sustain one’s drive to be financially free, and I suppose one of my habits in relation to this is I ensure that I always remember why and for who I am actually doing all of this. I try my best to make all my decisions with this in mind. This habit also helps me become very disciplined in just about everything that I do, and this has made a world of a difference.

What 3 tips can you give to our readers who are also dreaming of someday being able to leave the rat race and achieve financial freedom just like you?

1. Start with a plan. In it you write your objectives(your vision), your purpose(or mission), your roles and goals, your principles (the non-negotiable’s), and your values. You also need to include the actions you need to do in order to accomplish your goals, make sure these are broken down into “S.M.A.R.T.” tasks (Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Timebound). This may sound daunting at first. Looking back, I am very thankful that I did make a plan like this using an excel sheet and it was specific enough that it was like a checklist where each task accomplished will lead me closer and closer to my goals. This is very much like creating a business plan and I created mine early 2007!

2.  It’s all in the mind. You need to believe that it is possible. Think of it this way, what if your life or the lives of those you love depended on it, don’t you think you can actually do it?! It was like this for me, I strengthened my belief that it really is possible and there is a better way, especially after realizing my work(too much stress doing the work of 3 people) was killing me and I always had a choice what to do. I also believe in the following: “Whether you think you can or you can’t, either way, you are right” – Henry Ford

3.  Just do it. No one learns how to swim just by reading about it, etc, you really need to get into the water and start swimming. Sure you may swallow some water along the way, but that’s part of learning, just make sure you don’t drown. No one learns how to ride a bicycle by reading about it, etc, you really need to get on that bicycle and get your feet on the pedals and start riding. Sure you may fall many times, but that’s part of learning. Just make sure you don’t get hit by a car. No one learns how to drive by reading about it, etc,you really need to get behind the steering wheel and start driving. Sure your engine may stall at times and die, but that’s part of learning, just make sure you don’t crash and get killed. The same goes for striving to be financially free, you can’t just read about it, you really need to do it! Sure there will be problems along the way, but that’s part of the journey. Just make sure you apply what you have learned from others, fo llow your principles, values, and have good old common sense!

Cheers!

Allan

P.S.   Dear Readers, I hope you learned something new today and realized that financial freedom is indeed possible.  My hope is that you get closer and closer to it every day.

P.P.S.   Quick update on the launching of my Rich Money Habits guide ebook — I have both good news and bad news for you.  Bad news — all 10 slots for my special bonus to get a chance to play Cashflow 101 board game with me and my wife live have already been taken.  If you’re one of the lucky 10, you will receive an email invitation from me in the next few days with the event details.  The good news — I’m extending the 50% special introductory price discount to those of you who haven’t claimed your discounts yet.  This extension is available until end of this week only.  After this week, the price will now go up.  Hurry, get your copy of my guide now!

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