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.

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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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There are those who know early on what they want in life. They know they want to be – president, CEO, beauty queen, housewife.

I did not.

And I looked at those people with awe. It seemed to be the right way to be and so when I was a child I had to force myself to choose to be something (newscaster), not knowing that life can take me to different, more exciting destinations and that it is okay and that it is possible to be many things.

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But some important lessons were learned. One, do not go into business that you do not understand (selling). Two, do not leave the selling to other people and think you can just sit there, oceans away, and make lots and lots of money. Sometimes it works, most of the time it does not. Three, do your due diligence. Find out about the business, does it sell, can you get the goods for less (I did not really haggle that time), how long before you make the first installment, can you get a discount for bulk, are there existing flyers to help you promote the business, how many months before you get the ROI (return on investment), what is the possibility that it would fail and is it surmountable. Four, have a marketing plan – launch, joining trade fairs, email marketing, providing incentives or discounts, testimonials, product review – that would span months, or years.

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What Ondoy brought was a different kind of rain. It was harsh, it was hard, it was constant. And the constancy was alarming. We Filipinos are no strangers to storms. We fear them, yes, but we have known no other life than a life with storms. We would build our lives around them, and welcome the majestic sunsets that were their peace offering. Our storms would come in gusts, but then fade into light rain, and then pummel us again, accompanied by aggressive winds, great lightning, and even greater thunder.

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The acomodador could be many things and events in a man’s life. It could be when he was told that he was not good in math, that he is deathly sick, that his wife is fooling around; getting death threats, not getting that promotion, falling on a bicycle, not getting the part in the school play, not getting the guy, a book she read, a movie she watched and believed.