The biggest lottery jackpot to date in Philippine history – the Grand Lotto 6/55, is now at more than P450 million. If you win this amount, what would you do? I asked my friends this question and almost everyone said that they’ll quit their job and retire, build their dream house and travel around the [...]

Recently, I was able to join a market research project which aims to know the habits, attitudes and perceptions of middle class Filipinos towards banking. Around thirty individuals from Metro Manila, composed of employees, housewives and businessmen, were invited to participate in a focus group discussion and share their thoughts on the topic. As I [...]

Have you ever been bankrupt? And I don’t simply mean “being broke” but real serious “I just filed for bankruptcy” serious. I personally don’t know anyone who have filed for bankruptcy. While possible, it’s not really common practice in the Philippines. But in other countries like the US, it is – and I’m sure you’ve [...]

Owning a house is everybody’s dream and today, one of my readers shares his story on how he was able to finally afford it. This guest post shows us several lessons: the power of automatic savings, the value of research and due diligence and how leveraging can really help us achieve our goals faster. So [...]

Today, I’m giving you a guest post from Jason Holmes who has successfully gotten out of debt through debt consolidation or settlement. While this is not a very common practice in the Philippines, it is in the USA. So I hope my readers in America can appreciate Jason’s story and the advise he offers. Let’s [...]

Welcome to the fifteenth edition of Reader Mail. This is where I post the questions I receive from my readers and share with you the answers and advise I gave to them. For today, we’ll discuss the topics of finding work, investing and family finances. Note that the names of the senders have been made [...]

I would like to invite my readers to attend two great events this coming July 2010. First, as I’ve already written before, is the Money Summit & Wealth Expo 2010, which is a 2-day, whole day, super conference happening on July 2-3, 2010 at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza, Makati City. This is [...]

Part of being financially smart is distinguishing between necessary and unnecessary expenses. We all know that food and shelter are basic necessities. Clothing too, but only to a reasonable extent. And depending on our lifestyle, there may also be other essential costs that we need to pay for. But along with these, did you know [...]

Have you heard of PERA or the Personal Equity Retirement Account? It’s a bill signed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last August 22, 2008 which aims to help Filipinos, specially OFWs, to save for retirement. This is actually very similar to the Roth IRA and 401(k) which Americans enjoy. Unfortunately, available information about the PERA Bill [...]

How do you pay off your debts, specially on your credit cards? Do you spread your payments across them? Do you pay whichever calls or contacts you first or those who are persistent with their payment demands? In the past, when I was still struggling with my finances, I discovered a debt reduction strategy which [...]

Recently, I received an email from a reader who is really set on getting out of her credit card debts. I replied back with quite a lengthy response and thought I would share with you my advise to her. I hope that through this, I would be able to help others who are likewise having [...]

Financial freedom all starts with being able to live within your means because once you do, everything else will follow. You’ll have savings which you can use for financial emergencies, you’ll be able to control your debt and most importantly, you’ll have extra money to invest. And that’s why the first step to becoming truly [...]