US Economy Crisis and Some Bad News

I was not able to go to work yesterday because of nausea. I know this day will not be a good day for me because I have tons of email to read. I have ~ 400 new messages in my inbox.

But I never thought that more bad news will be coming in. A counterpart from the US called me and brought out a bad news.
1. One of our counterparts were terminated this morning. She was in our plant last week and just reported to our SJ office this morning. I know it it such a bad news for her. This made us all sad.
2. Latest news in Silicon Valley is about a Chinese Engineer who got fired and in return killed 3 people in their company (HR personnel, VP and CEO).

I know US is far from the Philippines but we are somehow affected because there are a lot of American companies here in the Philippines. We will be affected whether we like it or not.

Actually, rumors had been circulating lately here in the office. There would be lay-offs. They said it's about 15-20% per group/ per department. This is making us paranoids. We don't know whose on the list. Only directors know what's on the list. The announcement is taking a backseat because they still need to consult with DOLE. But according to the rumors, the announcement will be on Monday. I'm keeping my fingers cross. I'm praying really hard and trying to stop thinking about it. I don't want my baby to be affected.

Free Coupon - TREAT or TRICK?

Few weeks ago, hubby and I did our grocery shopping. We are doing it twice a month in SM Hypermart near our home. Our bill reached more than 2.7K and from the receipt, we saw that we accumulated more than 500 pesos of "Buy Me" items. So I have it checked by the customer rep and I got a chance to rub a lotto ticket. Unfortunately, I didn't win anything (I already won 2 coke in can from our previous grocery shopping). But I thought we're still lucky because I got a P50 off coupon which is valid until Nov.02.

Came Nov.01, we still haven't use the coupon. But since I forgot to buy candles for the All Souls Day, we visited SM and bought some candles and some other stuffs we need for the house. All the time, I thought that I can easily use the coupon like what we did before. Unfortunately, there is a note in there that we can only use it if we accumulated a total of 500pesos worth of Buy Me products. I was disappointed because we don't have plans of buying more stuffs that day. Bottom line, we're not able to use the coupon. And thanks to SM Marketing Strategy. It was a good TRICK and not a TREAT.

2008 Performance Chart

I had been religiously tracking our finances since year 2008 started. So far here is our track record. I didn't include the Gross Asset because I am more concern on the Net Asset. This is being updated bi-monthly after receiving our salary.
Our investment portfolio is somehow diversified but the proposed division by Money Smart is not yet online. The fluctuations were mostly caused by the Global crisis because we are working in an American company. We have some benefits that are given in USD. This is also the reason why sometimes I get torn by the foreign exchange changes.

Anyway, we are forecasting that there will be a big deduction of our net asset early next year because I'll be giving birth that time. The good thing is we are prepared. We just need to replenish the "loss" after that.

By the way, I am a visual person and this chart can show me how good or bad are we doing. I just don't know it this will also work for other people but it might be worth a try.