Wednesday, January 21, 2009

To Keep or NOT to Keep?!

We have saved some USD for my hospital delivery. Now that USD is not yet stable, we are having 2nd thought of using it. We are thinking to just use the peso that we have.

What do you think?

Friday, January 16, 2009

Goals for 2009

We scored good last 2008. We hope that we can make it better this year. So far here are our goals for this year:

1.After giving birth, transfer part of USD savings from BDO regular savings to PS Bank or China Bank TD.
2. Current EF is at 25%. By the end of the year, it should be more than 50%.
3. Transfer part of our EF to either BPI Direct TD or China Bank TD (whichever have the higher interest).
4. Invest in Mutual Fund (PAMI and/or Phil EQ)
5. Increase investments in Philippine Stock Market.
6. Renew our insurances.
7. Get a HS and/or College Plan for our soon to arrive Baby or just increase our investments.
8. Keep our Company Stocks (Grants and ESPP) intact and wait for the up turn.

Goodbye 2008

I was not able to update this blog for quite sometime. A lot of things already happened.

1. Late in November, our company had a RIF (Reduction In Force). Approximately 15% of our company's population was laid-off. The package was good but the thought of losing a job before the holidays was still hard to accept. Hubby and I was just lucky that we are not included in the list.

2. After the RIF, one of our company's VP released an email that there would be no salary increase for year 2008 and 2009. Sigh. However, we are still thankful that we have a job.

3. The stock market is not doing any good both in the US and Philippines.

4. Christmas came and now a memory. We're poorer by some grand. But we feel rich in love. This is talking about emotional investments.

5. Many families celebrated the coming of the New Year with a blast and bang but we celebrated it with fun. No fireworks but laughters.

And now that 16 days of 2009 already passed, I think I need to revisit our 2008 Goals and grade ourselves.

1. Pay off Debt (Zero out our Housing Loan from Pag-ibig) - DONE!

2. Increase our individual coop deduction by 500php by February this year.- DONE!

3. Get in touch with a Sunlife and Philam agent for our planned Life Insurance and Retirement Plan to study their plans.- DONE!

4. Only hubby will get a Life Insurance. We based it from the books we read.- DONE!

5. Bonuses - 10% will be kept for savings, 10% for sharing, 80% bonus for ourselves - dine out and wants.- DONE!

6. Review our goal at least once a month.- SEMI- DONE! We're not able to review it monthly due to busy schedule.

Our score is 5/6 or 83%. We think this is not bad for the 1st Yearly Goal we have set for ourselves.

How about you, we're you able to attain all your 2008 goals?