Month: January 2011

Categories
Life Lessons Money Mindset Personal Growth

Top 10 Things The Angry Birds Can Teach You About Money

If you’re like my wife who once got addicted to playing Plantz Vs Zombies, you would have heard the popular game “Angry Birds” by now.  “Angry Birds” is a popular puzzle video game where the player uses a slingshot to launch the birds to try to destroy the pigs hiding under protective structures such as wood, ice and stone. 

After a watching my wife get excited playing the game, I decided to try it myself.  Lo and behold, I got addicted to playing the game as well.  Now, my wife is waiting for me to put down the game so she can play. She’ll have to wait her turn this time around. 🙂

While playing, I realized there are some things about the game that are also applicable to managing your own money.

 

Here the Top 10 Things the Angry Birds Can Teach You About Money

 

1.  It’s OK to miss

In the game, you launch the bird by getting ready…aiming at your target as much as you can…and then releasing the slingshot so the bird can fly!  You missed your target? Try again! 

In real life, it’s also OK to try again.  You may lose money.  You may feel discouraged.  You may think your money problems are eating you alive because of a bad financial decision.  It’s not the end of the world.  You can try again.  And again, until you succeed.

 

2.  Some birds are better than others

In the game, there are three other types of birds that can destroy the hardest wooden structures when you “tap” on them.  The blue bird splits into three small birds.  The black bird explodes like a bomb.  The white bird drops explosive eggs.  Each one is suited for different instances.  But all of them helps you destroy the structures easier. 

In life, there are a lot of ways to earn money.  The most common of course is having a job.  You can sell your crap (according to Baker of ManVsDebt.com).  You can invest in real-estate.  You can invest in the stock market.  Or you can just simply find other ways to solve other people’s problems, and they will be more than willing to pay you so you can take their problem away from them. 

 

3.  Birds don’t fly with the pigs

In the game, I always wondered why the birds are angry at the pigs.  While reading more about the game, I realized they are actually trying to retrieve their eggs taken away by the evil green pigs. 

Pigs can destroy your eggs.  At least figuratively.  Pigs are people who scam people of their hard earned money without giving value in return.  Pigs are deceitful individuals who have nothing better to do other than send you a spammy text message asking for a prepaid load.   The lesson?  —- If you want to get ahead, don’t fly with the pigs.

 

4.  Protect your pigs with a strong shelter

Ok, let’s try taking the perspective of the pig for a moment.  If you know the game, the pigs are pitiful creatures.  Because of their round shape, they just roll over the structures until some wood drop on them and they die.  In the game, there are three types of shelter — wood, stone and ice.  The hardest to destroy is stone.  So it’s definitely a good idea to house your pigs made of stones.

When it comes to your money.  Be very sure where you are placing your bets on.  As some people say, put all your eggs into one basket and watch that basket.  The key phrase is “watch that basket”.  You have to protect it with all your might.  Otherwise, you lose all the money you’ve got.

 

5.  Life gets harder and harder…so you can get better and better

Since angry birds is a puzzle game, it gets harder and harder as you level up.  For instance, the higher you go, the more strong stone structures you have to destroy, and the more weird looking pig houses there are. 

In real-life you should try to learn something new every day.  You can start by learning to save your money.  Then you can learn to invest the money you saved and make it grow.  Afterwards, you can then go on to other more challenging things.  

Keep the hunger alive.  Keep on learning.  Keep on taking those challenges so you can get better.

 

6.  The more you launch…the better you get

In the game, the first time you launch the bird, you fail miserably.  The next time, you can adjust your aim so it goes a little bit nearer your target.  And you can go and adjust your aim on and on until you hit your target.

In real life, nothing beats taking action.  You’ve not really learned something until you’ve done it yourself.  You can read all the books you want about investing in real-estate, but if you’ve never purchased an investment property in your life, you lack the necessary experience to truly learn investing not only mentally but emotionally as well.

Sometimes, people are held back by their own fear.  Fear of failure.  Fear of being wrong.  Fear of being different from everyone else.  Unfortunately, the more time you spend worrying about your fear, the stronger it gets.  The ironic thing is once you take a little bit of action, the fear actually goes away.

 

7.  Don’t try to break a stone…learn to quit

At certain stages of the game, you have to deal with stone structures.  They are strong.  They are indestructible no matter how hard the birds hit the stone.  You can put everything you’ve got but as long as you’re hitting the same spot on that very hard stone, you will never be able to bring it down.

In life, it’s OK to quit.  You don’t have to go through life being miserable.  If you think that what you’re trying to do is not working, you can quit.  If it won’t take you to where you want to be, then by all means, quit.  You can be true to your dreams even if you quit often.  The interesting thing is, the most successful people quit a lot of things so they can focus on the things that really matter to them.

 

8.  Aim for the weakest spot

The trick to playing the game of “Angry Birds” is aiming at the weakest spot of the structures.  The structures may be made of the hardest stone there is, but if one spot is made of wood, you can aim your bird through that one tiny spot of weakness and you can bring the whole house down. 

This is especially true for business.  If you want to be successful, you have to stand out.  You have to be different.  You need to offer your customers a new better way to solve their problems.  If you do, it would be like hitting all your competitors in their weakest spot.

 

9.  There are a lot of ways to get to your destination

In the game, you can aim the birds high so it arcs upwards and aim straight down to the structures.  Or you can aim them horizontally so you hit the structures by the side.  No matter what aiming you want to do, you can turn down the structures as long as you keep on aiming at its weakest spot.

There’s no such thing as one way ticket to success.  Henry Sy became successful because of SM malls.  Manny Pacquiao is rich because of boxing.  Warrent Buffet became one of the richest man in the world by getting really good at investing.  No matter where you are right now, you can be still be rich by finding your own way to succe
ss.

 

10.  Have fun…no one gets out of life alive

The game is addictive because it’s fun.  It’s challenging.  It makes your mind think of different ways to achieve your goal of bringing the structures down so you can destroy the pigs.

Life should be the same.  It should inspire you to keep on dreaming.  It should give you challenges to overcome so you can tap into your inner genius and become the rich person that you truly are. 

And it should certainly be fun. 

Keep having fun.  Keep learning new things.  Keep believing in your dreams.

Cheers!

Categories
Investing Stocks

How To Invest In Stocks In Your Sleep

What if I tell you you can invest in stocks in your sleep?  How would you react?  I realized you actually can…literally.  Read on to find out how.

Before I proceed, I would like to clarify what I mean when I say “invest in stocks in your sleep”. I don’t mean logging on to your computer like a zombie, eyes closed, still dreaming in your sleep, typing away at your keyboard in the middle of the night and placing an order to buy shares of stock.

I also don’t mean it’s easy to buy stocks.  Doing anything “in your sleep” figuratively means it’s easy. What I mean is more literal than that.

If you’re halfway around the world from the Philippines, you can put your order during your day, and while you’re asleep at night, the official trading hours of the Philippine Stock Exchange begins and your order automatically gets processed and invested in shares of stocks of your choice.

In short, while your order is being processed and buying stocks, you are practically sleeping. How about that? 🙂

Ok, I must admit, it’s more accurate to say “how to buy stocks in your sleep.”

Now, that I’ve got your attention, let me show you exactly how.

How To Buy Stocks In Your Sleep?

I’ve been asked many times before how someone can invest in the Philippine Stock Market outside the trading hours which is from 9AM to 12 noon.  Here’s one from Jezz logged under the comment section of my article Online Stock Market Investing in the Philippines.

“Mr. Allan, Am I right to assume that I can only trade from 9am to 12nn Philippine time? You see, I’m somewhere in the Middle East and 9am Philippine time is only 4am here. I find it quite difficult to trade in CitiSeconline because of this time difference.”

I’ve also had this dilemma myself so I was actually looking for some answers but with no luck.  Until now.

CitisecOnline, Inc has officially allowed placing an order to buy stocks outside the Philippine Stock Exchange trading hours (9AM to 12NN) starting September last year (apologies for sharing this to you just now).  It starts from 1PM to 8AM the next day.  Here’s a definition of Off-Hours orders from FAQs of the CitisecOnline site.

What are Off-Hours orders?

An Off-hours Order or ‘After Trade hours Order’ (ATO) – the Off-hours ATO Order is provided to allow customers to enter orders after closing in preparation for the next trading day. ATO orders are accepted after 1:00PM and before 8:55 AM weekdays and anytime on weekends. Off-hours orders will be collected on a first come first serve basis, and will be sent to the Exchange for posting on a first in first out basis during pre-open session. After posting, all Off-hours orders immediately become Limit Day Orders and cannot be cancelled/modified during (9:15AM-9:30 AM). All orders will be governed by the Exchange’s order regulations. For orders during market activity (9:00 AM to 12:10 PM), please use the regular “Enter Orders” function.

There are many reasons why someone would want to invest outside of the trading hours.  The most common is due to schedule restrictions.

For example, you may be working on a night shift and during the day, you would rather be taking your much needed sleep than go and buy stocks during the normal trading hours at 9AM to 12NN.

Or like Jezz you may be living in the Middle East or somewhere on the other side of the world.  Now, you don’t have to wake up in the middle of the night just to place an order to invest in your favorite stocks.

I was so excited about this development I decided to try it out.  Here are steps I followed to place an off-hours order.

How To Place an Off-Hours Order

1.  Log-in to your account at CitisecOnline.com

2.  Click on the ‘Trade/Portfolio’ tab

3.  Click on the ‘Off Hours Order’ section

4.  Enter your order details: Stock Code, # of shares to buy, and price, etc

5.  Click the ‘Preview Order’ button

6.  Review your off-hour order details

7.  Enter your password

8.  Click ‘Place Buy Order’ button

After following the above steps, you should receive a confirmation that your order has been placed.  Once confirmed, your order will be processed during the next day’s trading hours, regardless whether you’re in front of your computer or not at that time.

It’s a good idea to go check your order again the next day just to see if it was processed successfully.

And yes, you can be sleeping while your order is being processed.  Now, that’s investing in stocks in your sleep! 🙂

Happy investing!

Categories
Business Credit Card Investing Life Updates Money Mindset Personal Finance Personal Growth

Looking ahead to 2011

Last week, I shared my reflections of the past year 2010.  Today, I’d like to share with you my personal financial goals for the coming year 2011.  This is actually my way of challenging myself by publicly declaring my goals for the coming year.

My 3 major financial goals this year 2011

1) Create at least 3 new streams of income earning at least $100 per month each

Right now, I am still working full time at my current job as an IT consultant for a credit card company.  While I do enjoy my job, I still want to have more options.  I want to be able to one day control my income streams.  Having a job is good.  However, it is only a temporary solution to a permanent financial problem — not having enough money.

I’ve been fortunate to earn quite enough to be able to sustain me and my family and have some extra money saved every month.  The big challenge for me this year, just like in the past year, is to learn how to invest a portion of that money for my family’s future.

I don’t exactly know what the 3 income streams will be.  One thing is for sure — for this year, I’d like to focus on investing to generate more cashflow.  Last year, most of my investments had pretty good returns.  The only problem is, they were only capital gains. There’s no monthly cash flow.  This year, my goal is to learn to invest for cash flow and capital gains.  I’m considering putting up a business.  Or perhaps finally invest in a property and rent it out.  Or may be I can explore going into franchising.  I will share more to you as I get clearer on how to achieve this goal.

2) Go somewhere I’ve never been to for a week, every quarter of the year.

This is my way of growing myself.  I feel I haven’t grown that much personally and haven’t widen my horizon for the past year.  This year, I want to go somewhere I’ve never been to. Either in the Philippines or outside.  I’d like to experience and learn new things to keep my hunger alive.  I’d like be able to share exciting stories.  I’d like to be able to know what it feels like to discover and be amazed again.

As I shared last week, I was able to travel to Bohol with my wife last December.  It realy felt good just doing nothing, hearing the soothing sound of the waves while trying to relax in a hammock by the beach.  Working in a fast-paced IT and financial services industry sometimes takes its toll on my mind and body.  I feel I need to freshen up every once in a while to stay sharp and energized.

3) Weigh no more than 85kg at any time of the year.

It’s been one of my greatest struggles every year to keep my weight down.  I am getting sick quite often the past year.  I can’t go on and blame my work or my lack of time for exercise.  I know that it’s just a matter of building new habits in terms of my overall health.  Eat right. Get some exercise.

So this year, I want to be able to maintain my weight to a more manageable level — no more than 85 kgs.  It will take some time, but I’m ready for it. Let’s bring it on! 🙂

I know goals #2 and #3 don’t look like a financial goal at all.  They seem more to do with personal development than money.  I totally agree, it looks that way.  And it’s the way I prefer it.  I personally think it is very important to take care of my mind and body in my journey to financial freedom.  As I’ve described in one of my articles, your health is more important than your money.  Without it, none of your other financial riches really matter.

2011 Goals for Rich Money Habits

My goal for Rich Money Habits is to be more consistent in posting new articles — at least one per week.  As I share my thoughts to you, I gain more clarity.  The clearer I am with the things I want, the nearer I am to my goals.

Here are some of the things I’ve been thinking as I was doing some planning for Rich Money Habits this year.

– create more useful articles
– find more ways to reach out to more people
– find more ways to help you in your financial goals
– launch a product that helps you manage your money better
– redesign blog so you can navigate it easily

As you might have probably guessed, most of my goals above are still in the works.  And quite general, if you might add.  I still don’t know what exactly I am going to do.  But I think the important thing is to use these goals to remind myself what I need to focus on — helping you.  Everything else is secondary.

Cheers to an exciting year ahead!

Categories
Life Updates Personal Finance

Looking back

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted something here at Rich Money Habits.  To begin the year right, I thought it would be a good idea to look back and share with you my reflections of the past year 2010.

Overall, last year was an exciting adventure with a lot of ups and downs, unforgettable experiences, new friends met and lessons learned. 

For now, however, I’d like to focus on how I did with my financial goals last year.  There were 3 main financial goals I listed at the start of the year: 1) Buy a house,  2) Invest 20% of my income, and 3) Be physically fit (i.e. weigh 80 kgs by end of the year).

Buy a house

 

Ever since we got back from our 2 and half year stint in Malaysia as an OFW, my wife and I have been searching for our own house.  We searched…and searched…and searched for months and months, but with no luck.  The single-detached house we are dreaming of seem too far out of reach.  The only houses that we like are either so far away from our place of work or just too pricey for our budget.

We also like a clean and peaceful neighborhood where we can walk around at night after having dinner, holding hands, reflecting about life and the blessings you received throughout the day.

One Sunday, my wife and I along with my in-laws checked out Rosewood Pointe in Taguig City, a few minutes from Bonifacio Global City.  After we looked at Rosewood Pointe in Taguig, our interest was picked.  It looked like a really nice resort!

No, we didn’t buy a condo in Rosewood Pointe. 

Better, a new project was being launched that time, a nearby mid-rise condo similar to Rosewood Pointe.  It looked promising.  We asked for a quotation on a 2-bedroom unit. It was nice and the model unit looked really great.  Of course, this is expected since it is staged but it really felt a lot like our dream house. 

Yes, it is not single detached but the ambiance felt really good.  The clean air, the playground, the walkways.  It feels great just being able to enjoy the simple things in life. Everything is relaxing and it’s not too far away from our place of work.

The rest, as they say, is history.  We finally decided to buy and pay the down payment.  Unfortunately, the unit won’t be ready until April 2012.  I know, it’s still a long time before we get to enjoy it.  But it’s ok, we’re not in a hurry.

Invest 20%

Ever since I had extra money, one of the financial challenges I’ve faced has been to learn how to invest more of the money I have.  My wife and I initially targeted 20% of our income to be invested for our future. 

Stocks

I started investing in the Philippine Stock Market February last year after opening an account with CitisecOnline.  The gains have been extraordinary so far.  My stocks are all up at an average of 22%.  Some even went high up to 55%.  I admit, this is NOT because of my investing genius.  It’s more a matter of luck than anything else. As you may have heard, the Philippine Stock Market has been in upward trend and breached all time highs last year.  It looks like this will continue on this year, so this is something I am looking forward to in the coming year.

Real-Estate

This is something I tried to get into last year.  The first deal my wife and I went into was a private lending deal on a 2-bedroom property.  My wife and I were very lucky that we partnered with a very trustworthy investor.   Our money earned quite a bit @ 1% per month for 4 months.  It’s actually a great deal compared to it sitting idly in the bank.  We would have preferred something that generated additional cashflow but getting the extra cash is nothing to complain about.  In the process, I also met a lot of great people doing real-estate investing and I hope to continue learning more on this area again next year.

Internet Marketing

Last year, I learned the intricacies of internet marketing through Jomar Hilario’s Online Mentoring Club.  This has been an eye opener for me precisely because it’s something I am comfortable with (at least the internet part).  I’ve been working in the IT industry for the last 8 years so I am comfortable with the technology side of this business. However, I practically had zero knowledge about the marketing part. 

Good thing I chanced upon Jomar Hilario’s 1 Year Online Mentoring Club.  It literally took my blog to the next level. This blog finally got an audience after applying what I learned from the mentoring club.  The great part is hearing your warm and kind appreciation to the articles.  It’s one of the reasons I decided to get back to blogging after 3 months of not posting a single article.  So, thank YOU for inspiring me to keep on blogging!

Be physically fit – weigh 80 kgs by Dec 2010.

I failed. Miserably.  I not only missed the weight goal.  I even went heavier. Ouch!  No, I won’t tell you how much I weigh now.  It’s too embarassing. 🙂

Worse, I again got sick at the end of the year.  Just when I am supposed to be enjoying my vacation.  Because my body has not been getting the rest, exercise and nutrition it needs, I suffered another attack of colds during the holidays. 

The sad thing is not being able to enjoy and celebrate with your loved ones because you are sick. 

Last month, my wife and I went to Bohol to celebrate our wedding anniversary.  Instead of enjoying the great outdoors with my wife, I was at the hotel  nursing my worsening colds most of the time.  I tried very hard to get out of bed and enjoy the Bohol tour and island hopping for my wife’s sake but it seemed it worsened my sickness even more.

A week after, I still have that nasty cold.  I know I should have gone to the doctor.  Instead, I went on a long 10-hour trip to my hometown in Ilocos.  There’s no time to rest.  I have to be home to celebrate Christmas with my parents and siblings. 

With only a few days to spare, I also had to be back again in Manila to celebrate New Year with my in-laws.  It felt like going to a mini-Amazing Race while nursing a stubborn cold that won’t go away.

My mom even kidded me that I was allergic to vacation, because as soon as I left work and went for vacation, I got that nasty cold.

This year, I feel like I really need to put some effort in protecting my overall fitness. The pressure from work won’t go away.  But I need to put in the time to exercise which I rarely did in 2010. I also need to watch out what I am eating. 

Most of the time, my wife and I are too tired to cook after getting off from work.  So we end up eating fast food.  Worse, we even call a delivery in the middle of the night. This added another extra pound into my already bulging stomach.  This has got to stop. There has to be a better way.

Rich Money Habits

Last year was really great for this blog. 
There were a lot of new things that happened. First and foremost, the year was a huge leap from total non-existence to the surge of the number of readers of this blog.  It felt really good being able to reach and help someone you’ve never met before in your life.  Some of you even expressed your appreciation by your kind comments to the articles in this blog.

The Rich Money Habits Newsletter was also born.  The 8-part Rich Money Habits article series is available fore FREE!  If you still haven’t received it, subscribe now! 

It was also the first time that I saw earnings from Google adsense.   This blog has also received affiliate income both from Bo Sanchez’  Truly Rich Club and Jomar Hilario’s workshops. It feels great to receive these blessings however small the amount.  It’s a great start.

The sad this is that I lost steam the last 3 months of the year.  I hardly written any new articles.  It was both a case of getting busy at my full-time work as well as losing motivation due to laziness.  It’s easier to just sit in front of the TV and watch your favorite show.

In a way, the past 3 months was a good thing.  It allowed me to reassess why I am doing what I am doing in this blog.  It gave me time to really focus on the things that really matter – helping you build better money habits. 

 

There were a lot more things that happened during the year but for now, I really just want to let you know that I am back.  And what better way to say that than writing my very first article of the year.

That’s it for now.  Next time I’ll tell you more about my goals for this coming year and what to expect here at Rich Money Habits.  Again, thank you for making year 2010 truly wonderful!

Categories
Life Updates Personal Finance

Happy New Year!

I would like to take this time to wish you and your family a very exciting and happy new year ahead! 

May 2011 be your most fruitful year ever, not only financially, but also in all other areas of your life – healthy mind and body, loving family and friends, rich and happy life full of meaning.

Cheers!