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.

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.