Travel, Retirement, Wishful Thinking...ekek

Today, my group had a lunch out with our visitor from the US. He did some mechanical/opto checking with our test set-up. Unfortunately... it's not yet working. It may need some program tweaks and he's not the man for it. The one responsible for the program is on a whole week vacation. Hehehe.

Anyway, he treated us in Yellow Cab Tagaytay. We ate some pizza and spicy chicken wings. While traveling (Tagaygay is abut 30-45minutes drive from our office) and talking....I found out or i think he's kinda money smart man. He stopped drinking coffee because of the effect he noticed when he don't drink coffee in a day. He then finally found the saving he can get by not drinking coffee everyday ---- about $15 a week. This is about $780 a year. Laki noh?

Then... we learned also that he had been to most of the places in my travel wish list. He'd been to New York and Europe (Paris, London, etc). We asked him about the expenses they had in Europe. They told us that his family (he, his wife and 2 kids) spent almost two weeks in Europe. Almost a week was spent in relatives' places (less expenses). And still... the trip cost them about $15K. A huge amount of money. In today's conversion rate... it is about... 600K php. My husband and I can't afford it now..... but I hope... sooner or later.... we can. Hehehe.

I would like to travel. I would like to go Singapore, NY, Dubai and Europe. I've already been to US twice just because of the trainings that was sponsored by our company. Also been to Taiwan because of a project. Hubby had been to India and Taiwan because of projects but he had never been to US. Together, we've been to Bangkok for our honeymoon and Hongkong for our 2nd year wedding anniversary. Hope we will have more travel in the future.... but for now... we still need to save and invest.....

This makes me think of our retirement plan.... when we retire... we would like to have the dumdum to spend for trips. But... with the amount we're saving right now... I am still doubting it if we can do that.. We are just keeping our fingers cross that the Philippine Economy will boom someday.... we're still wishful thinking.. hehehe.

SAVE Now or PAY Later

As I was waiting for my turn in our office ATM, I was reading the post on the Bulletin Board. There are lots of campaign ads for Energy Conservation. One poster caught my attention. It says " CONSERVE ENERGY". Then there is a little caption at the bottom that says " SAVE NOW or PAY LATER".

For me.... it is not only applicable to energy. It applies to all. It can be for health, money, relationship and others. But since..this blog is about the DUM DUM. Then... I say.... we should really apply this principle.

There are a lot of celebrities we've known who are from RAGs to RICHES then RAGs again. This is because... they forgot to SAVE when they still have money to save. And Now... they are PAYing the consequences.

Saving should be practiced until it becomes a habit....

I don't know who taught me about saving... my mom does not save...shhhh.. but I can still remember that I started saving when I was a kid. I already had lots of different alikansya.. from bamboo, piggy bank, plastic bottle to fancy containers. Now I still have 2 alikansya.... a fancy looking coin bank and a Piknik Can. I save my coins there for my cravings and for New Year Tradition. Hehehe.

Saving had been a habit for me.
Investing is a different story.
I am still learning about it....

Bottomline... we have to save.
Practice Saving.
Make it a Habit.
So we'll have nothing to PAY later.
We'll just receive the interest or dividends of our savings....

And by that time.... I hope... we'll all be swimming in cash (quoted from our VP's speech. Hehehe).

Naisip ko Lang

Habang naghihintay ako sa aking asawa na isa ring corporate slave, ako'y nagbasa ng mga blogs. Madami akong natutunan. Click ng links from each blogs. Yung iba, masyado technical at di ako maka-relate. Pag ganun... diko na binabasa. Tinitignan ko lang yung mga charts at sinasabing... wow..ang ganda ng trend at kulay. Hehehe...

Then....napa-isip ako. Dapat ata mag-share din ako. Baka meron din matutunan yung ibang mapapadpad sa blog ko. Sabi nga sa isang English Movie.... "PAY IT FORWARD".

So... impisahan ko na lang ang aking sharing sa mga susunog kong blog entries.

Pasensya na sa pagka-TAGLISH ng entry na ito. Mahirap pala kasing mag-ingles at mahirap din palang mag- tagalog. Hehehe.

Bagong Babasahin

While waiting for my beloved husband, I thought of surfing and able to see this nice blog. I enjoy reading this blog. It has information and humor.

Go check it here.

Investment/Retirement Plan

Got this info from an agent. You may want to consider them.

Updates on our 2008 GOAL

As promised... we'll be reviewing our GOALs at least once a month and below is the status:

1. May not happen due to stock market recession. This may be pushed out to next year but we are still keeping our fingers cross. The fund from SLVL are still intact.

2. DONE - form Submitted last 01/28/08. Deduction will start this February.

3. DONE with Philam. Met with an agent last Saturday. We're reviewing the papers now. We are to sign-up for a retirement plan within this month. Still thinking of getting in touch with a Sunlife agent.

4. Hmmm... no comment. The retirement plan we're reviewing right now already includes a life insurance.

5. Religiously following it.

6. This blog entry is the proof. Hope I can keep my promise about it. Hehehe.

In summary, we're still in good shape except for #1. But still, according to Colayco Book, we can still consider it as a GOOD DEBT. Need not to worry much.