God Gives Me A Blank Check

I am a raving fan of The Feast. The Feast is a Catholic prayer meeting of the Light of Jesus Family led by Bo Sanchez. It starts with the celebration of the Holy Mass and followed by an inspirational talk on various topics, with songs of worship in between. It is one of the happiest places on earth, I invite you to join us and experience God's love and abundant blessings.

One talk series was about the 4 Laws of Wealth. You may wonder why money is being talked about during a spiritual gathering. Well, because we believe that God should reign in all areas of our life -- spiritual, relational, emotional, mental, and yes, even financial. And also, we believe that the main purpose of wealth is to help and serve others.

Last Sunday, a "blank check" was inserted into The Feast bulletin, signed by God, given for services rendered. When I saw this, I remembered what Bo said in one of his Power Talks (downloadable inspirational MP3 for members of the Truly Rich Club). He said that we can earn ANY AMOUNT that we want to earn as long as we increase our psychological wallet.

As an employee, I used to think that I can only earn the amount of money that my company gives -- my salary, my incentives, bonuses and allowances -- that it is fixed to that amount only, every single month. I was living payday after payday back then.

Through the Truly Rich Club, I learned to think as an entrepreneur (and eventually actually became one) even while I am still an employee. I began to recognize opportunities to earn on the side, do work with meaning and purpose, and still be able to manage my demanding full-time job. 

How? I apply these Top Hard Core Productive Strategies. My favourite of which is focusing on what ONLY YOU can do.

Aside from what my company gives me, I earn passive income through my stock market investments and affiliate marketing, small businesses which are almost on autopilot mode, and as a financial advisor. I have learned to increase my psychological wallet.

If I was able to do all these, so can anyone else!

Now, I even find more joy in my job because I have stopped working for money.

God Lends Us His Money For a Purpose

Over time, this is what I realized. Having money for ourselves is not the end goal of all this. We only have two hands and two feet, why would we desire so much for ourselves? Remember that the purpose of wealth is always to love and serve others.

When God blesses you financially, do not raise your standard of living, but rather raise your standard of GIVING. God is using us as a channel of His blessings. And when God sees that your heart is in the right place, He is going to bless you more.

 

"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

 

Matthew 6:33

Seek God first, so He can flourish every single area of your life. Print a copy of this blank check, write the amount of monthly income that you want to receive starting on the date you will indicate, pray for it, work hard for it and experience abundant blessings.

Because God is not a God of shortage, but of surplus!

Pain Forces Me To Grow

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For one day, I was a mommy on duty. I had breakfast with my daughter, gave her a bath, prepared her things, drove her to school, stayed outside her room until they were dismissed, we had lunch and then went home so she could rest after a long day.

This is one of my dreams -- to spend time with my family. 

I would want to wake up each day next to my husband and two daughters on a big comfy bed, share every meal with them and hear their stories about work and the people they meet and the experience they have that day, driving them to school, and reading them bedtime stories until they fall asleep and I kiss them goodnight.

I hear a number of working mothers who are worried that the time may come when their kids will choose to be with their lolas (grandmother) over them, or worse, their yayas (nanny). This was my dilemma, too. When my eldest daughter was growing up, she would ask for her lola (my mother) instead of me. And every time my aunt comes home to Tarlac, she and my daughter are inseparable. They are the closest. I think this was because my aunt spends all of her time with my daughter during her entire stay.

But there were also those times, while my eldest was growing, when she would cry every time I leave for work. And yes, it was painful.

And now, another painful situation. My youngest daughter's yaya left after New Year and we haven't found any replacement until now, so we had no choice but to let her stay with my mother-in-law in Nueva Ecija. Nueva Ecija is an hour drive south from Tarlac, where my eldest daughter stays with my parents. My husband and I are working in Pampanga, another hour drive north of Tarlac.

As you can see, the quote "So near, yet so far" is very applicable to us.

Yesterday was my Youngest Daughter's Birthday

Yesterday was Elise's birthday, my daughter. We celebrated it in Nueva Ecija. We spent the whole day with her and she was very happy. There was never an instance that she threw a tantrum. All she did was tell stories, hug and kiss us, and says, "I love you." It was obvious that she missed us so much.

But in the evening, we had to leave. We cannot even bid her goodbye because we cannot bear to see her cry. My mother-in-law had to distract her so we could leave. When we got home here in Tarlac, we asked how she was. My in-law said that Elise looked for us, asked where Daddy, Mommy and Ate were. When she realized that we already left, tears fell from her eyes. She went inside her room, laid on her side, and cried quietly until she fell asleep.

At a very young age, she felt extreme joy and extreme sadness on the same day. I blame myself for this. As a mother, this breaks my heart.

This Pain Forces Me To Grow

 
This pain becomes my very strong emotional why for aiming financial freedom. I have been thinking, that if I am financially free, I could quit my job (no matter how good it pays) and just take care of my family.

I want to get out of the vicious cycle that I've been for so many years wherein my salary just come and quickly go, and my time away from my kids because of work just goes to nothing. And these are the years where my daughters need me the most. I must make up for it ASAP! 

As parents, we are working very hard for our children's future. But does this necessarily mean that we have to miss the present?

Set a Goal and Use that Pain to Motivate You

As I write this, I pray that God blesses us abundantly, grant promotions, open doors of opportunity, and increase our income and help us attain financial freedom so we could spend time with people who truly matters to us.

As for me, I'm giving myself four years at most. I will be a full-time wife and mother, and everything else will just be part time.

Now, may all our dreams come true!

Create Wealth for Your Old Age

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Three days ago, I was having a conversation with a good friend. She is in her early 40s, a medical doctor with around 80 to 100 patients per week. Because of this, she starts working early and ends very late, almost everyday. She was telling me that she wants to start investing so that after a few years, she can have a laid-back and a more relaxed kind of life even while she is still practicing her profession.

On a Facebook page that I manage, Financial Planning For Pinoys, a 40 year old follower sent me a message saying that she wants to have a cash allowance for herself in the near future even while she is currently saving for her children who are in college.

I believe every person who has been working for a long time has this same goal -- to have money for old age.

My Visit to Anawim was an Eye Opener

With these concerns, I remembered my pilgrimage to Anawim last August 2013. Anawim is the home of the abandoned elderly located in Montalban, Rizal. Many of its residents were not always poor. Some were government employees, one was a principal of a school and another was a dentist. Yes, there were maids and laundrywomen, but they, too, were earning money then. Money which they sent to their nephews and nieces who only abandoned them in their old age.

If you are earning today, what happened to them can happen to you unless you create wealth for your old age.

Although Anawim was a very nice place to stay, I do not want to become one of its residents. I choose to become a donor instead. But how can we do this?

Build Wealth Over Time

My mentor taught me that the secret of wealth is to keep your wealth reproducing after its own kind.

Invest in paper assets now. It is the easiest way to build wealth since not everyone can start a business or buy an income-generating property.

Since we are into a long term investment, I encourage you to invest in the stock market. If you follow a simple system which I learned through the Truly Rich Club, the stock market is the best, safest and most effective way to build your wealth in your old age.

 

"What seems inconsequential over the short term becomes profoundly important in the long term."

 

 

If you invest Php20,000 per year, which is around Php55 per day, in the stock market at 10% interest growth per year, it becomes Php560,000 in 15 years! Even if you stop adding capital after 15 years, your money grows to Php900,000 after 5 more years, or Php1.3 million after 10 years. The longer your money stays, the higher it grows because we are talking about compounded interest.

 

So, whether you are in your 40s or have just started working and in your 20s, I encourage you to start investing TODAY. Create wealth for your old age. And remember that depending on your children is not a good retirement plan.

Happy investing!

My Misconceptions About Mutual Funds

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For almost a year now, I have been investing in the Philippine stock market directly. This means that I have a stockbroker who acts as a middleman, and I choose which companies to buy and when to sell them based on the recommendations of my mentors in the Truly Rich Club. The Truly Rich Club is a membership site founded by Bo Sanchez, a Catholic lay preacher, which aims in helping people achieve financial and spiritual abundance at the same time.

I've chosen the direct method because I've always thought that investing in the stock market indirectly, which is through mutual funds, was not a practical thing to do.

But a couple of months ago, when I became a licensed financial advisor, I learned about the features and benefits of mutual funds, and my thinking has changed. True enough, learning has its advantage.

Let me share with you my misconceptions about mutual funds and the truth behind each myth.


MYTH #1     When you invest through mutual funds, the company will take a part of what your money earned through charges every now and then.

FACT

There are mutual fund plans that will only charge you initially, around 7% of your investment. Then the rest will be invested. When you make a withdrawal, you will no longer be charged.

MYTH #2     Investing directly is more convenient than investing through a mutual fund.

FACT

If you have the time to read and study about investing in the stock market, you may opt to do it directly. And yes, it is convenient because it can be done online. But with our busy schedule, even though you may want to do it, you may not have the time. I have talked to a number of my friends who want to invest, teaching them how to do it directly, but sadly no one actually did it. They were just too busy. Some invested through a mutual fund instead. They just give their money to a reliable insurance company, and the company's fund manager does all the work. Now, for most people, that is convenience.

MYTH #3     Part of my investment goes to paying the fund manager every now and then when I can do his work when I invest directly

FACT

Again, there is only an initial charge for the fund manager to do his work. And it is a decent amount. Besides, when you invest directly, you are also being charged every time you buy and sell stocks.

CHOOSE WHICH PATH TO TAKE

Investing directly and indirectly has its pros and cons. Choose which works for you. As for me, I plan to do both. Currently, I invest directly through the country's leading online stockbroker. You can start doing this with as little as Php5,000 plus the discipline to continuously do it no matter what the situation of the stock market is.

Next month, I will start investing through mutual funds. With my preferred insurance company, which is the largest in the country today, I can do this with as little as Php10,000 per year.

With capital requirements like this, anyone who has a steady income can invest. I encourage you to start TODAY.

LAST NOTE

This I also realized, that what makes mutual funds better than investing directly is the Insurance Coverage. If something happens to me and the family knows that I have a mutual fund, the insurance company gives my beneficiaries 125% or 500% of my investment, depending on the plan I chose. They can even get the benefit amount IN FULL, no tax! Now that is peace of mind.


I hope this article was of help to you. if you have any queries, please post them on the COMMENTS below.