Free is wonderful.

So I spend about 5 minutes of my time everyday signing up for free stuff. I do not even have to look for offer of the free stuff, it comes in my e-mail box every day. And all I need is time in my hands (and for most free stuff offers, a US address).

See the picture on the left? I got all of those for free. Included there is a big can of milk, baby magazines, lotions, creams, diapers, shampoos, conditioners. And coupons, lots of coupons. I am not sure I will be able to use everything, but the feeling of free is good.

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A relative does not like eating out, even on important occasions. You can actually feel his displeasure when we insist (except when it is the Sofitel buffet, which he loves).  This is because he thinks eating out is a waste of money.  This view is okay (and maybe true), except that he strongly suggests to [...]

“When I enrolled in Maven Secrets, I did not know what I was getting into. I only thought I would learn about blogging, get to know the man behind all those amazing features in Our Awesome Planet and, yes, dabble a little bit in internet marketing. I did not know that it will lead to my re-examination of my life, that it will change my life, transfer me from the confines of my glass penthouse to vibrant, more exciting possibilities. Let this serve as a warning and a warm welcome to those who will follow this unbeaten path.”

The above was my testimony for MavenSecrets when I attended its pilot class more than a year ago. But its echoes reverberate to the life I know today.

MavenSecrets is an internet marketing program. But it was also a way out – because like what it did to Anton Diaz, its founder (and to my other classmates), it strengthened my desire to leave the rat race and go after things that I am passionate about – like family and doing the things I could not find the time to do, the more important things that give life its flesh and its color.

Through having multiple passive income streams.

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I will make an unusual statement: in some countries, it is easier to give.

First, a backgrounder.

In the US, we held some garage sales. It is easy. You just gather the things you do not use out of the closet (or the garage), put a price to it, set it up at your garage (or yard, for a yard sale) announce it over the internet or advertise in some local newspaper (for free), show up on the day with some loose change, preferably psyched up to deal with penny pinchers (who want your memorabilia for a song) and wait. At the end of the day, you will have earned some cash, freed a part of your garage (or closet), and found homes for the stuff you would not miss anyway.

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Forgive me, but I have not ridden the public in a long time.

I used to. In fact, everyday. I remember that I liked it. The streets were not too crowded, the weather not as hot, the traffic not as bad. A younger world. And I think, a better world.

I would collect my thoughts in those 2-hour long drives from my college to my house. During the commute, I would have conversations in my head, the role of the antagonist alternating between my mother and my best friend. It is the time when I would get what I thought were my best ideas – for scripts which were a weekly requirement in my course, for my thesis, solutions to problems, awakenings. I would plan too, the strategies of my life without meaning to. It is true what others say – there is so much creativity and movement that can go on in one’s mind when one’s hands are not on the wheel (a fuel for the debate of whether to have a car or not to have a car).

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I irritate my husband with one habit.

I get myself invited to open houses – of summer houses – and I drag him with me.

For some reason, summer houses appeal to me. I tried to enter an exclusive one once and I was turned away (not a member, no invitation from a member, no appointment to go in – how was I supposed to know it was that exclusive?). And maybe that is where the appeal lies – it is so hard to get in (well, okay, that one time, but memories of experiences sometimes stick around longer than they are wanted).

Hard to get in but also hard to keep one. But that is another story.

Summer houses in exclusive enclaves. They are the playground of the rich, and when you own one, it means you have earned the right to squander money away – and squander you will because although you paid an arm and a leg for it, it is a place where you will stay maybe only 1 or 2 months in a year.

But like I said, I like them. So yesterday, we went again to another one – in Anvaya Cove which is off the coast of Bataan, very near Subic Bay.

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Everytime I see that little squirrel in Ice Age chasing his chestnut and then doing everything to protect it, including shunning love and running after it across the ages, I am reminded about how we are as human beings.

Some of us make it our life’s mission to get something, the more obvious of it are material things – money, jewelry, real estate, a way of life.

And then we make a showcase of what we have. We parade that we have so much – like the jewelry and Louis Vuittons in the arms of women, parties in our lavish homes or summer houses, feeding ourselves in expensive restaurants, shopping.

Then the story turns something short of horrible.

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One year. That was how long my relationship with the stock market has been. But there was a pre-story, which was training, lots of training, before I found the heart to jump in and play for real.

Flashback to 2008, giddy and excited and with fake money at hand, I started with the online stock exchange (it offered a practice account). Prepped by my financial planner, pumped up with some reading I had done here and there and some monitoring of the market, I found I gained some fake USD$600 in a few months. But I since I was in no real danger of getting poor or rich, I soon found myself bored. The market bottomed out too, wiping my gains, but ironically, it was also the perfect time to get in for real, to play for real.