Life is a Celebration

You can read the first part here.

I am waxing nostalgic about some trainings and seminars I attended in the past. (some of them do that to you, you know)

A memorable one was the training I received for voice and dance (a scholarship) - it was through the generosity and kind-heartedness of Dong Alegre (of Miss Saigon fame).  In that “school”, I met many wonderful and talented people,  including two people whom I still consider my best friends, M and A.  The people in that school rose to great fame in theatre, both locally and internationally (and sometimes I catch myself wondering where I would be now if I had pursued that path).  I will always remember those years as one of the most exciting.

Then there are others I still want to experience:

» Read more of "Do You Stick to the Path that You Know? (Second of 2 Parts)"

Tweet This Post

The (Long and Winding) Road to Enlightenment

If you think you are the fountain of learning, you are not.

At least that is what I tell myself (okay, not in those words) when I feel lethargic about going to some training or something.  Because really, what is there in the world and in this life but to know.

So I tried to know.

» Read more of "Do You Stick to the Path that You Know? (First of 2 Parts)"

Tweet This Post

Love in the Key of R

I listen to the hum of the airconditioning as I sweep my eyes across the huge room.  I turn my eyes to the center, to the lights caressing the empty stage.  It is 3:00 p.m. and it is the calm before the storm.  I can hear a distant noise outside, slow and steady, punctuated by laughter and loud chatter.  They are coming.  The lights go out as the stage manager calls out: sound check is over.

The lights are on again, this time, on full blast, as if egged on by the screams of the crowd.  A clamor.  Music starts to float, and again, a roar, strong and sure.  One by one, the artists come out, each swaying to their inner tune, some great, some not so, all, somehow, adored.  A deafening clap at the end, as if the crowd could not get enough.

I thought I had forgotten this part of my life when I left show business for law school.

But I guess, an experience like that could never be forgotten, and somehow the mind, or the heart, looks for a similar uplifting.

And so we are producing a show with some of our like-minded friends.

» Read more of "Win Tickets with the Business of Show Business"

Tweet This Post

Continuation

Today, I learned about a different kind of investment and a different kind of bank.

What did the endorsers have to say?

Giselle Sanchez: “It is an investment just like bonds, stocks and savings.”

Anna-Lynn Salindong: “It is just like an insurance policy – a biological insurance policy.”

But I was not really thinking about investing and investments that day.  I was going about my own way, staring at the wall of a clinic, when the wall stared back.  On it was a message board and on the board was a poster of a cute baby.

It was a poster for cord blood banking.

Cord blood what???

And I was reminded that I kind of knew about it, a colleague in work having “banked” his baby’s cord blood in Singapore two years ago.  All I know was that the expense was prohibitive.  But I remembered too that my colleague, although sighing and murmuring about all that money he spent for it, thinks that he did good.

Could I? (should I)

» Read more of "A Different Kind of Investment"

Tweet This Post

Semblance of Order

Live within your means, an old saying, is what one is religiously expected to follow.

In reality, this is not implemented all the time and it is evident from the statistics which tell us about innumerable mortgage delinquencies. How then will you avoid deviating from the “old saying”?

Effective money management skills are called for.

Mortgage loan calculators can be of good help along with judicious spending habits. (please take note of the combination)

» Read more of "Guest Post: Mortgage Loan Calculators to Assess Your Financial Obligations"

Tweet This Post

Dissect, Analyze, Solve

Something bothered me.

I was looking at my financial duties for 2010, staring as far out as December, when the imminence of what I have to pay struck me: huge life insurance premiums.

Do you have the thought that sometimes you may have bitten more than you can chew?

Years ago, when I bought those policies, business was good and was not yet bogged down by recession woes.  I felt I could do anything – be anything, buy anything.  My financial planner convinced me of the wisdom of obtaining life insurance (my second attempt at it).  For peace of mind, she said.  And I did have it.  I remember thinking while driving one day that my family will be okay if…  But now, that same thing that gave me peace of mind is shattering it.

» Read more of "Solving a Finance Problem"

Tweet This Post

Magnify

If there is anything that I have learned during all my years of existence, it is that you do not get answers if you do not ask any questions.

So I ask my questions, no matter how silly or how dumb it sounds.  Doubt is also an element that I constantly entertain in my mind, so I confirm and re-confirm until the thing has no choice but to sound true.

So on the day that I got my credit card statement and alarm bells were sounding in my head, I picked up the phone and called Citibank direct.

» Read more of "Credit Card Musings (er, Woes)"

Tweet This Post

Hop In

I think I first heard about Mutual Funds from Bo Sanchez.  He likens it to a vehicle that almost anyone, with some funds to invest, can jump into, and that it should be a staple in the portfolio of any smart investor.

I was not entirely convinced (I did not really understand).

To further dispel the mystery of this so-called staple – Mutual Funds – I did some further reading and some interviews.  It is simpler than I thought.

Mutual Funds, turns out, is an investment vehicle where people can pool their resources to take advantage of the magic of larger numbers, that is, because a lot of people invest into “the fund”, they have a large number, and thus, the mutual fund manager – a professional who will manage the investment – can get better rates of return for them.  The mutual fund manager trades the “pooled” money on a regular basis and the net proceeds or losses are then typically distributed to the investors annually.  As my friend Salve Duplito said in one of her articles in MoneySmarts, with as little as USD$100, the regular John or Juans can get their feet wet in an instantly diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds, or both.

A sort of safe haven for the cautious investor.

» Read more of "Mutual Funds: Magic of Larger Numbers"

Tweet This Post