Tag Archives: investing

Up all night

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Building a new work desk. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I suddenly had a brilliant idea of going to Ikea this afternoon to buy myself a new work desk so I can give my old one to Twin A because hers is tilting dangerously and is falling apart. I would have a bigger problem if it suddenly crashes.

I had been up all night since the new work desk requires me to build it myself. I started at around 7 pm and finished at 1 am.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com

The dimensions are almost the same as my old desk: 120 x 60 x 70cm. I was initially aiming for the 140 cm long Lagkapten to accommodate my printer but I realized my room in my new house is much smaller even though I made provisions there for a 140 cm desk. If I find myself wanting more surface area, I could always order another Alex drawer. Or I can mount a wall shelf and place the printer there.

I also have better cable management.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com

My desk now matches the oak finish of my cabinetry in my tiny house. I just need to make the cables tidier by buying that spiral pipe cord protector/organizer so I can place my workstation in a command position facing the door in my new room. There’s nothing more stressful than seeing unruly cables when you enter a room.

Available on Lazada

I chose not to update my girls’ desks because I will have theirs custom-made together with their loft beds. I will just buy them additional Alex drawers (and more DIY for me) so they will have more storage.

This weekend I will start throwing away old stuff that we have been harboring under the stairs. Then we will start eliminating things that we wouldn’t be bringing to our tiny house.

I’m sleepy. I will collect my thoughts later…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I’ve been selling my ETF in tranches this week because the outlook is bad in the coming months. While I have already completed the payments for the entire contract with my builder last week, there are extra expenses that I have incurred because of additional posts and making the laundry/utility area downstairs more decent. So I needed to draw down from my stock investments.

This is the reason why I don’t spend on luxury bags, designer clothes, and other unproductive things. Bags are not an investment; an investment is something that will help you increase your earnings—not to boost your ego. Besides, these luxury houses target the insecure middle class customers who want to be perceived as rich. It’s aspirational.

It’s so superficial.

I buy a lot of bags–some expensive, some are just so-so because I often break my bags. I rotate them so as not to tax one particular bag and destroy it before I get my ROI.

I’ve been investing in the stock market since the great market crash of 2008. This enabled me to build my house debt-free. Although it’s small, I have the option to enlarge it later but then I don’t want a big house to clean…At least I can get off the rental market now and build wealth faster. One of the killers of wealth-building is consumer debt and rent. I don’t have both. This recession is a buying opportunity, granted that I don’t lose my job or some other catastrophe happening like illness.

So for those who look down on me for not having designer bags or designer everything–I want to pose this question: Do you already have a retirement fund? Are you fully insured? Do you have emergency funds? No? Then come back to me when you already have one/some.

Stooopid

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I rushed in buying ETF earlier this week. It was 2 pesos more expensive than today as Nikkei index has registered the biggest fall in 4 weeks on US Fed comments about rate hikes. I had a nagging feeling then that I should wait but I ignored my inner voice and told myself what bad news could we have again? 🙄 How annoying. I could have bought more at today’s price.

The Nikkei lost 1.58 per cent to close at 27,350.30, posting its biggest daily fall since Mar 11.
PHOTO: AFP

Meanwhile, I didn’t get enough sleep as a midnight email from London rocked me. My boss is transferring to another product and she didn’t tell me what was going on. My colleagues and I were running around like headless chickens even until yesterday because our reporting lines were blurred. I could not help my colleague with her request for travel because I was not yet given authority to do so. A lot of things were pending because there was no reporting line authorized under me. I wasn’t even told that my boss was no longer doing editorial work so everything fell on me, without proper compensation yet. A lot of admin work kept piling up on me even though I had no official word that these were already my official duties.

I was so confused this morning. I don’t know what to make of this. Why didn’t she tell me? I kept on adding her in team calls and in email threads when she could have just told me that she doesn’t need to be in there. I was walking on eggshells for months.

I’m thinking of attending art classes and I found an atelier near my house that offers classical drawing and painting lessons. Unfortunately their schedules are not friendly to working people like me.

I figured even if I draw and sketch everyday, I will not make a lot of improvement because the theories are lost on me. If I didn’t buy a Domestika course, I wouldn’t be able to learn about vanishing points.

Unfortunately, this atelier only offers oil painting. Although the same principles could be applied to watercolors, the latter is more finicky and the medium’s immediate permanence on paper makes it unforgiving to novices. I didn’t go for oils because I have asthma and the fumes, especially the thinners, cleaners, and solvents/varnish could trigger an attack. It’s a lot messier, too, and it demands a bigger space when practicing.

Meanwhile

I’m tired. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com

I no longer know what to do with this.

I’m going back to my poppy flower.

Investing 101

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My high school friends and I were throwing ideas on FB Messenger about the next topics to tackle in our live stream for January. I suggested that we take up basics of investing because a lot of people even in their 40s have no idea how to go about it. I said why not we talk about what are the investment instruments that you should have when your investment horizon is 6 months, 1 year, 3-5 years, or 10years ++? I told them I remember interviewing the president of COL Financial about 13-14 years ago about this and he gave me excellent tips that I use up to this day.

I did a similar interview with then-PSE president Hans Sicat about the basics of stock market investing for my TV network. We did an #askPSE live tweet segment then to popularize stock market investing and to widen the local retail investing base.

I really should upgrade my digital camera now. *sigh* I should get what some Youtubers use for clear videos. And a good video editing software. These videos are just raw videos for posting on my TV network’s online news website and wasn’t meant for broadcast since these videos are accompanied by texts. I just collated them in my channel, which is just a dumping ground of my interviews that had nowhere to go.

Like this one:

I think this interview was done during Ayala Corp’s annual general meeting in April 2012.

I should fix my Youtube channel because I have a lot of interviews that could be used as reference or they could be standalone news stories.

On the other side of the coin, I was almost scammed this morning but good thing I was alert.

So you see I have posted the ad (on several FB groups/marketplace/platforms) that I am selling my Roland E-09 arranger keyboard and I had been receiving inquiries about it. Most were low-ballers but there was one potential buyer who was keen. Then long story short, we came to the advance payment part of the conversation.

Then he sent me a G-Cash payment alert

However, I realized that it wasn’t a notice for payment; it was a notice that he asked for payment as a remittance fee. It was fishy because the remittance fee was exorbitant.

I searched on Google and found that KKB (kanya-kanyang bayad) a.k.a. Dutch Treat is a function in G-Cash, like Venmo in the US, where you can split the bill and you can receive a payment from your friend for his share of the bill. The scammer made it look like it was a notice from Moneygram and at first glance it was convincing. But Moneygram transfers don’t look like this.

When I told the “buyer” this was a scam, he blocked me and left the FB messenger chat. I posted on Twitter and FB about this modus operandi and I asked my friends to report the scammer. I had one TV reporter friend from my old network to message the scammer that the network received a complaint about him and he would be reported to NBI.

I would check his many FB accounts if they’re still up. The fucker.

I was so incensed that I finished a floor-length curtain panel for my room to let off steam. By hand.

My granny curtains. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I’m trying to have more prints in the house because white is boring. Next time I will try graphic prints and see how it would look and if I like them. So far I’m in this cottagecore phase again, just like when I was in high school. My bedspread then were florals and I crocheted doilies, my study table was decorated with figurines of rabbits and similar designs that would go with the cottagecore aesthetic. Then when I started working, I gravitated towards Asian designs, the zen mode–the minimalism phase. I went for Budji Layug x Francisco Mañosa designs with a sprinkling of Japanese aesthetic. This is my rebellion against the horror vacui that Filipinos are known for and which my ex-in-laws were going for. I simply rejected this pack rat mentality and this design aesthetic that was an assault to the senses.

Speaking of designs, I already contacted my future contractor and he will meet my mom on Thursday or Friday and I will do a video call with them so I can explain what I wanted. It would have been great if we could have met on a weekend so I can drive down there but he’s also a busy guy as I see him posting his multiple projects. He and I used to chat a lot in high school over the ham radio. Fun times.

Fresh air and financial spring cleaning

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Tonight I finally was able to ride my bike for some exercise and fresh air. On my way to UP, I saw how Maginhawa is trying to keep itself afloat.

Uno Cinquenta with diners. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I did my usual routine: I bike, tie my bike at the guard house then walk for an hour or so around University Ave.

Another day has died. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I take short breaks to do stretching exercises and then resume walking.

It has been months since I last saw the Oblation up close. Sigh. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Water break before going home. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I was out for almost two hours and enjoyed the soft, cool night breeze and the smell of grass. I also heard cicadas, the sound that reminded me much of provincial life. One day I will go back to the province and escape Manila.

Or I will be somewhere else. I don’t know.

This thought prompted me to check my investments. Well my UITF, ETF and VUL funds are tanking because they are all in equities. The PSEi last week touched the psychological barrier of 6,000 and 5,900 may not be far behind. My money market UITF is doing fine but it’s not even an investment at this point since I’m just letting my emergency funds sleep in that facility so it won’t be eaten away by inflation.

I’m debating whether I should top it up because unemployment emergency funds should be 6 months’ worth of my monthly salary.

I am more inclined to top up my VUL fund because this has been my habit whenever I get a windfall every year (i.e. bonus) but I’m thinking of opening a mutual fund with another fund management group. The reason why I got another VUL is that I want to have two life insurance policies since my kids don’t have anyone else but me to rely on financially. Their dad hasn’t given any tuition money since they started going to school at 3 yrs old. So anyway, one VUL plan is heavy in the life insurance part and not so much on the investment funds. The other VUL is heavy on the investment but not much on the (term) life insurance side but both have accidental and health riders. VULs would also protect my children from being taxed when receiving money upon my death.

So the alternative to topping up the VUL fund is I can have a mutual fund invested in a balanced fund since my investment horizon has already narrowed significantly as compared when I first bought my two VULs (I was 28).

But but but… I want to bottom-fish! If the market is tanking, I should be picking up bargains, right? I do cost averaging on my UITF and and ETF every month so a tanking market is immaterial at this point. But topping up my VUL or investing in a mutual fund now means something–buying really low.

Something to think about before I buy a new laptop.

Planning for retirement (adulting is very hard)

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courtesy of philstar.com

courtesy of philstar.com

My conversation with my friend (see previous entry) prompted me to ponder about my immediate financial future (Will I get a raise after working my butt off for a year and six months? How should i ask for a raise? Shall i ask for a change in contract?). While I did so, I couldn’t help but think of (and act on) my financial future 30 or 40 years down the road.

My mother has scrimped and saved and was brutally frugal when we were still under her roof and she’s now reaping the rewards: she has more than enough money in the bank; a generous retirement package c/o GSIS; and she will be going on an Alaskan cruise, a European religious pilgrimage and a Canadian tour all within this year.

While I don’t plan to have a grand retirement like that, I suddenly felt that I should be saving more than 50% of income for retirement since the SSS is going bust in a decade, methinks, if they don’t mend their ways and be beaten to a pulp to shape up.

The benefit of being a business journalist is that you get to learn more about investing than an average Juan from the streets. So while I was writing about Lehman Brothers going belly up and the subsequent tanking of the markets in September 2008, my mind was whirling and began gathering up my courage. On the second day that PSE was on a tailspin after Lehman, I bought 3 stocks that (having previously bought a power/energy stock prior to Lehman) I knew I could hold for the long-term until my kids enter college (I was 28 years old then and didn’t have kids). So until today I hold those 4 stocks that I bought for dirt-cheap prices that I will never see in my lifetime again. When markets bleed, I buy. When they do a rights offer, I buy. I never sold any of them yet.

Prior to Lehman (around February 2008), I bought myself a traditional insurance policy. A few months after that, I placed a huge sum of money (for me at that time) in a mutual fund.

I terminated that traditional insurance policy last year and shifted to a VUL with several riders in it (I neglected to keep up with my traditional because life got in the way and my insurance agent left the country and was an orphan policy holder until last year). My mutual fund was still intact and in fact it earned well. I just regret that I wasn’t able to top up my investment for the past 8 years because again, life got in the way (high-octane job that made going to the bank for payments a little off-putting) and because my former agent left me high and dry. *Aww shucks for the lost time, I keep telling myself* I got my financial life in order last year and a few weeks ago I just transferred my mutual fund into another fund. Then topped up my investment after the market tanked. I’m hoping the market would tank again by March or by the third quarter (US Fed hiking rates) so I could place another tranche of my savings into that mutual fund.

Last month, I bought my nearly 5-year old twins insurance policies with investment riders that hopefully we could use for their college education (the direct stock investments are for their college funds as well). The other education policies being offered to me were expensive that I felt I would be stretching myself too thin if I was suckered into buying those so I searched for other insurance products that have good investment riders. I would pay for the policies for my kids annually while my own insurance policy is a quarterly thing so my monthly budgeting would be easier.

Aside from my mutual fund and insurance policies, I’ve been putting funds in another savings account that I don’t touch. That is my emergency fund. I want to have at least 6 months’ worth of expenses for my emergency fund, just for my peace of mind. I hope I don’t get to be unemployed that long.

I’m still not satisfied with my investments since I worry about inflation and future medical costs. I’m thinking of placing some savings in time deposits but—bahahahaha! As someone who covered Treasury auctions, I know it’s nearly impossible to make money out of these unless the Philippine government goes back to its bad habits and blows its finances and starts borrowing more than it can collect revenues. Of course I wouldn’t want that. But I can revisit this time deposit option since I don’t want inflation eating into my savings in my regular savings account. Inflation is a brutal animal but at this moment, with oil prices dropping and food inflation a slightly less-than-worrisome issue, I can put it off my mind in the next 6 months.

Or I can go for a UITF. The Landbank Growth UITF looks ok to me (40% fixed income, 60% stocks) but I have to check their performance vs other UITFs. After I meet my desired emergency fund ceiling, then I can go back to thinking about investing in a UITF.

I have two vehicles that are over 5 years old (one is 10 years old and another is 7 years old) but they’re running well and have a couple of more years in them. I don’t see any need to replace them in the near future. I am renting right now but I must think about buying a property outside Manila to be the forever home. How I would budget for that is still a mystery. Either I would have to change jobs again or be brutally frugal like what my mother was, sending us to school while paying for her forever house, which by the way, worked out well in the end.

Adulting is very hard.