The Biggest Baby Related Expenses From 0-3 Years Old

It's no secret that parenting is a huge responsibility. Parents protect, teach, support, and provide for their children. It's also no secret that it’s expensive to raise a child in this day and age: from costs of giving birth, college tuition, and every little expense in between. In this post, I want to share how …

College Fund Planning: BPI Invest Philippine Equity Index Fund and ESOP

There are many ways to save and invest for future college expenses of a child. I don’t know what is the best vehicle to use, but for our two kids, I chose to invest in the BPI Invest Philippine Equity Index Fund and employee stock ownership plan from my wife’s company. The PSEi (Philippine Stock …

Sept. 2020 Update – Net Worth // Retirement Goal // Passive Income

Stressful September. September was a stressful month. It started when I received a text from BPI saying I made 2 foreign transactions for $300+ each. I immediately called their hotline and reported the unauthorized transactions. I emailed a dispute too last Sept. 14, and have followed up twice since then. The issue is still in …

Sept. 2020 – Stocks Update

In my last post about stocks, I mentioned a plan to segregate my stocks into 4 categories: Actively Traded Stocks, Dividend Stocks, Target Price/SAM Stocks, and Long Term Stocks. It's been almost a month since I shared that strategy, and I was encouraged by Peanuts and Nat to continue writing about my road to recover …

Deep, Hard, and Scattered Thoughts on Retirement

Our retirement goal or FI (Financially Independent) number as a couple was set at P21M, as mentioned in previous posts. This assumes that the whole amount is invested in funds that yield at least 4% annually, or P70,000 monthly. This was also based on a rough estimate of our expected monthly expenses. However, I never …

A Personal Finance Interview With Myself

For this blog, I will be answering some random personal finance questions in order for my 10 loyal readers to know me more. My previous posts have been mostly numbers and figures related to my goal to financial independence. But I felt like sharing more personal stuff about me - or putting the personal in …

Aug. 2020 Update – Net Worth // Retirement Goal // Passive Income

September marks the start of Christmas here in the Philippines. So before anything else, allow me to greet you a Merry Christmas! September will also be the sixth month in lockdown, so I think more and more people are getting used to the new normal. August was an eventful month for me and my family. …

My New Stock Investing Plan After Selling TEL At A Loss

It’s been almost 7 years since I started investing in stocks. 7 long bloody years. I shared most of my mistakes in stocks in this post, with the biggest one being how I panic bought more TEL (PLDT) stocks to average down. I didn’t take note of the exact amount of the realized loss, but …

10 Personal Finance Podcasts I Listen To On Spotify

The term podcast was derived from the combination of iPod and broadcast. It is basically a digital audio file that people can download and listen to whenever they want to. Although podcasts have been since around 2005, I only started listening to them last year (sorry I’m barely a millennial). Personally, I prefer reading blogs …

BPI Save Up: Savings Account with Free Life Insurance

A few weeks ago, my wife was looking for an additional life insurance plan. I personally didn't see the need and was against it. She agreed to meet two life insurance agents via Zoom, but told me she wouldn’t commit to any before we carefully analyzed it. I discouraged her to get additional life coverage …