Wealth of Advice

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By Francisco J. Colayco

Hello Mr. Colayco. I am one of your followers, meaning, I take your financial advice by the bucket. I met your book 5 years ago when I was a call center agent earning Php 21,500 monthly. At first I felt skeptical about your advice but having read a lot of books on entrepreneurship, it seems that the first command of paying yourself first is a common ground.

To tell you the truth, I realized that what you said about paying myself first is correct because it is the starting point of my savings. But before I can save, I have to settle all my debts. Unfortunately, I began saving without settling my debts. This is also one of my mistakes which my Mom also pointed out. Back then when I was a call center agent, I saved up to Php 36,000 in just 5 months. Aside from this, I invested Php 5,000 in SALEF since 2007. I spent the money I had but unfortunately none of it was used to pay my debts. I also was not able to redeem my shares at SALEF. I thought it was such a hassle to redeem my shares at that time.

I am currently unemployed. Ever since my mom passed away, my siblings made me the bookkeeper of our family business. Being one of the heirs, I receive a “salary” of almost Php50,000 every month. This is quite a good income if you come to think of it. But I am still determined to find a job so that I can save my income from the family business and put those in investment instruments. Like before, I am still keeping an eye on government bonds and mutual funds.

I followed your advice to settle my debts on 5-6, and credit cards, change our lifestyle, and know our needs and wants. To tell you the truth, it seems that the strain on our family’s finances is starting to ease. But we are not about to be complacent; while our financial strains are easing, we continue to tighten our expenses – especially wasteful expenses such as “gimiks” and the like. We also have a small sari-sari store but instead of closing the store to devote some time for rest and recreation, we choose not to do so. We have already planned the family outings to be just once a month. Our allotted budget for this is just Php1,500.00 including our meals in restaurants. Our kids are still young and we are not making them accustomed to a lavish lifestyle and too much malling.

To cut the story short, thank you for you advice. I am going to start adding more to my mutual fund investments. I am quite pleased that the Php5,000 that I have invested has now become Php8,000. I just waited for it to “ripen”, so to speak.

I am not able to attend your seminars and I think I already missed three. The kids are about to go on vacation, that is why I will be able to attend your seminars, especially the workshop. More power to you and to the CFE staff.