Mighty Change of Mind: A Personal Finance Paradigm Shift

This may be a late update but, I just want to jot down the success of our Saturday's activity, June 9, 2013:

 

Our guest speaker being Mr. Tom Tandog, an Associate Financial Planner and Senor Marketing Director for IMG - Wealth Academy. Part of the lecture was also conducted by Bong Sanchez, President for The Academy for Creating Enterprise, Angeles Stake Chapter. 

From there, we learn about how to change our mindset about money. Now, why is this important? It is because many people though that getting rich can only happen if you get to be lucky in terms of heirloom or hitting a lottery jackpot, other think its investing but they don't know how and where to invest their money. This often leads to being scammed. During the said event we were taught the right way of budgeting which leads to proper saving and investing of our money in legal entities that can guarantee us our return on investments. 

The program was also in line with the letter of the First Presidency for this year, regarding sound investments:

Everything in the announcement agenda has been covered during the seminar, including some introductions to legal publicly listed investments such as bonds, mutual funds, insurances and stocks. What a great way to be taught and refreshed on what were suppose to do in order to achieve self sufficiency and reliance the way our Father in Heaven wants us be. It's one of the ways to build Zion.

After College and Office, Now What?

If I look at my resume, I would see that in the span of 11 years, I have been through different Employers and I could say, I would only stay at a workplace from maybe 3 to 6 months. I would say the longest I've been in a company would have to be around 1 year and 6 months at Convergy's. I just don't have the grit to stay in an office.

Sometimes, I feel that being in a office makes me feel really stupid. It's crazy, but it's the way I am. Sometimes or a lot of times colleagues  make me feel like, I don't know what I'm doing. At first I thought something is wrong with me. Well of course as un-perfect as I am. But one thing I know is that, amazingly I still survive after leaving the corporate slavery world. This is I guess, because  I never really stop doing something every time I'm out of job, or just resigned. I just have to be doing something else.

I remember when I was working at the ICT group, I got suspended from work for some stupid reason. It wasn't because I failed to try to do well. Who wouldn't want to do well for their office job just to stay afloat as an employee? It felt devastating during that time. Instead of wallowing at home, the timing was just right for me then to attend a one week Academy for Creating Enterprise Training. I belong to the executive batch which made my office suspension a lot easier to deal with. While at ACE, I learned a lot about Entrepreneurship. The last day of our class was our ACE graduation. Who wouldn't feel so special about this? I just turned my misery into a happy occasion.

Now that I work  from home as a self employed individual and a mom. I like it better. Funny as it may seem but I even have extra blessings in my pocket than I did when I was working for someone else's company. I also like the fact that I was able to do other things. Something always comes up and I was never content. I got more time for myself learning the things I really want to learn about.

Something that I've been learning a lot lately dwells more on the topic of personal finance and investments.

My journey to this so called financial independence started back in 2008 while I was working at Convergy's. It was in response to a friend's invitation to attend a lecture about The Law of Building Wealth and Decreasing Responsibility. I like their concept, so I did join with them in the International Marketing Group. To cut the story short, I am not an active participant to the IMG group. But because I do believe in the concept to strongly. I apply the principles I learned. I took my husband one time with me to attend to two of their lecture series in Makati.

My progress with IMG was slow on the business side. Living now in Pampanga, I am grateful to have bumped into a small business opportunity which helped a lot in my Entrepreneurial path. I am learning a lot working working on the business than working for a business. It is not always easy but I can sense that I'm growing more this way than the other way. 

Two years ago, I opened an account with COL Financial formerly citiseconline. They are now the country's largest online brokerage for stocks trading and investment. So far, I have positive experiences with them. It took me a year to attend their investor seminars. 

The First one I attended was a seminar entitled Investing in the Stock Market Today, conducted by Mr. Aya Laraya, RFP and an Investment Advocate. He is also the host for the show Pesos and Sense The lecture was an eye opener. It's amazing how he can simply explain what stocks are and how to invest in it. Too bad I didn't have my camera that time, I didn't even know he'll be the speaker so I didn't get the chance to have a picture with him.

After attending the lecture with Aya Laraya. I booked for another one the following month. The Fundamental Analysis by Charles William Ang, Research Analyst of COL Financial. I wasn't really happy about my attendance on this one because I slept late the night before going to the seminar, so I was feeling sleepy the entire time. I stayed anyways, the entire time trying to stay awake. I don't want to waste my travel time from Pampanga to Manila. I least I was able to hear lectures about the Fair Value and Book Value of a company and why it is an important consideration when picking stocks. Luckily, I brought my camera that time so I was able to take a picture of him while he was discussing. (I placed his photo with the other two below, I hope this is OK)

The last one I attended was the Primer to Technical Analysis, conducted by Juanis Barredo, VP for Sales and Chief Technical Analyst of COL. I really enjoyed this one! We were taught how to read the charts that will help us decide when to buy, hold or sell the stocks we own and are eyeing on. As he (Juanis) promised, I was even sent yesterday an email of the whole module!

And just last night, I cannot sleep. So I opened my laptop and checked on my dropbox folder. There are e-book files I was able to open, I went to look for a good read. I found this college book looking item. It was entitled. Financial Management Principles and Applications, by Keown, Petty, Martin and Scott, Jr. It was really late when I decided I have to stop doing what I'm doing and head to bed.

After I get to finish this book, who knows what I'll be doing next? Always, I'm at a start!