From DINK to DIwK

Before I started this blog, hubby and I are DINK couple (Double Income No Kids). We've been DINK for 3 years. We've been praying for a baby after a year of marriage but it was not given to us.

As the saying goes, GOOD things happen to those who wait. This is exactly what happened to us. GOD is GOOD. He puts everything into place. We received a big blessing by end of May. We confirmed that I was pregnant 1st week of June. We're able to close our Housing Loan by mid July because of the blessing we received in May.

Everything just fell into place. Thanks to Him!

And now that some things will change because of the addition in our family, we will need to be Money Smarter. We need to plan for everything like:
1. Budget - need to add the baby necessities like diapers and Milk
2. Insurances
3. Educ Plans
4. Health plans

I know the list will go on and on. But we need to be ready. Planning plus action is still the best defense for emergencies and crisis.

Update on LBC Banks' Royal Earner Account Interest Rate (as of 10/24/08)

LBC bank is one of the banks that offers high interest rate for a 5YR TD. Learned about it from PinayandMoney Blog. Hubby and I inquired last Friday and there was a slight change. The interest rate for the TAX Free 5Y TD was lowered from 9% to 8%. This is still acceptable because currently most banks offers TD with interest rate ranging from 1.5% to max of 6% (PSBank).

We just hope that they will not lower it more because hubby and I are planning to increase our savings in this bank.

Rice Price Increase

Few years ago, our cafeteria is only charging us 3 pesos for a cup of rice. Just this year, they have increased it to 4 pesos. And today, we received a memo from our company that they will increase it again from 4 to 6 pesos.

The good thing is that our company will subsidize the additional 2 pesos. We will still be charged 4 pesos/cup. Thanks to the management. This is still a potential savings of 1040pesos/year for us.

We Feel it Now

Hubby and I are working in an American Semicon Company. We have 5 major sites.We have San Jose CA, Minnesota and Texas in the US. We have a plant in Cavite and an office in Taguig (The Fort) here in the Philippines.

We start to feel the US crisis last month. Lay-offs happened in Minnesota. Our Texas plant is shutting down - this is an old news but we know that somehow it will affect our stock price. The recent happening was last Friday. Lay-offs happened in our San Jose site. Approximately 50-100 people lose their jobs.

This worries us because whenever layoffs happened in our major sites, something will also happen in our Philippine sites. We normally have voluntary resignation. There were benefits given but it can't sustain a lifetime. To have a business or a regular source of income is still the best option. One thing that worries me is our EF which is still way behind our target. We're only at 17% so we need to tighen our belts more. We need to revisit our expense file and check how can we improve further. We just hope and pray that it would not happen here.