“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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After 99 posts, 453 comments (54 of which are spam which I have not deleted nor approved) and 699 tags, I come to this, my 100th post.

To think that YouWantToBeRich started as just a requirement to get a certificate in MavenSecrets, a professional blogging and internet marketing education seminar that I attended in 2009.

I did not know that it would change my life and give it colors that I never knew existed, or give me opportunities for self-expression and advocacy in a niche that I was just getting really interested in at that time.

At first, I thought I would go into food and travel because like Anton’s OurAwesomePlanet, it was my passion. I even asked hubby to buy me a camera to herald my entry into the blogosphere via a food and travel blog.

But I am glad I went down the path of learning about money and people and their money idiosyncracies (especially my own and my family’s). It felt good to chronicle this journey and to look back and learn from it again.

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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 scholarship I received for voice and dance – 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…

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I have a secret.

But before me, it belonged to Bo Sanchez (and maybe before him from some really wise man).

I could still remember the time when I first heard him speak of it. I was cruising in my car and listening to one of his boxed audio seminars. It was the first CD I received from him as a member of his Truly Rich Club. I honestly did not think much about that CD – I plugged it and listened. But there’s something about a two-hour traffic and listening to Bo’s charismatic voice that gets the heart pumping and the mind dreaming dreams.

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The future is on the Internet. MavenSecrets has opened a lot of doors for me, even doors within myself. I feel what Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan must have felt as colonizers eyeing a new colony – the reach of my eyesight cannot even comprehend the breadth and height and limitless potential of what is before me. Except that I am sitting on a desk, my eyes reflecting the many colors on the computer screen.

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In one desperate (yes) moment to get into a tax law firm, I told my interviewer that my dad was an accountant and my brother was an accountant. Silence. Without batting an eyelash, he told me, “Maybe I should hire them”. He’s got a point.

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My first memory of Schonberg was of him playing the piano. He was with Lea Salonga, while she tried out the strains, in her melodious voice, of Sun and Moon. They were on TV as Saigon specials were aired every day. Every little girl at that time wanted to be Lea Salonga. From obscurity (in the global sense), Schonberg brought the Philippines and Lea to the forefront of musical history.

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It could be quite frustrating to be told that you cannot buy something that you really, really want to have. But that is the function of a financial planner – he will tell you if you can, when you can, how you can. He is my personal financial brakes, someone to tell me that I am going overboard, or that I am just being silly.

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