Show me the money!

I just had my mid-year performance evaluation at work. I came to realize that I've chosen to grow old with the company I currently belong to. I trust my skills as well as my superior's capabilities to help me improve in terms of career and financial growth. With the current state I'm into.. it seems that I am not yet financially free.. I have house loans to pay coupled with car loans, utilities, salaries, food expense, miscellaneous and some investments for the future.

I don't have much current savings. My earnings coupled with our expenses almost evens out. We hope to change the trend and come up with better savings once we have earnings when we sell our car in the near future. For savings, I am thinking of not placing my money in bank accounts but rather in investments funds. Mutual funds as they most call it. I currently have some in PAMI and I hope to increase my investments as time goes by. What I am eyeing for is to invest in their AIG Global Bond Fund. Hope that I could embark on it in the near future and have wise financial decisions when in comes to investment and savings!

Financial Management Tips

Do you have enough savings? Are you ensured? Do you have more than 5 "insurances"? Do you know your net worth? Were you able to save more than your net worth? If your answer is yes, I wish to ask how you did it and hope to give me some tips.. If you answered no to any of the above, then let's help each other out.

I am not an expert when it comes to financial matters. I am a self declared frugal but there are times that I spend just out of the whim! Though I can say I am earning quite well, I was not able to manage it carefully not until a few years back. Let me share you some tips that I was able to accumulate over time on how to improve one's financial condition.

- Spend less than what you actually earn
- Every payday, pay yourself first before others. This means to already allot a certain amount of money for savings.
- Invest wisely and save more!
- Have at most 2 credit cards. One does not need more than these actually. Remember to pay off every amount due in your card during its due date.
- Determine which are wants and which are needs. Insurance is a need. A high tech phone is a want. Travel is a want and so is jewelry. If you can afford these wants without sacrificing your need, so much the better.
- Do not put all your money in the bank. The saying "do not put all your eggs in one basket" applies to financial matters. It is not advisable to keep money in the bank more than 5x your monthly spendings. It is important to build this emergency fund as well. The minimum emergency fund one has to set up is at least 3x monthly expense.
- Divert excess amounts to insurance or other pre-need plans (life insurance, educational, endowment, pension etc..), mutual funds, bonds, stocks or equities
- If you have kids and would want to get them pre-need plans, best to get these before they turn 8 years old since rates are still low and affordable.
- Explore and join a cooperative group that you are comfortable with or has a good reputation
- If you will invest a few of your monies in the bank, best to go with reputable rural banks or have it enrolled in the bank's various strategic management growth funds.
- maximize loans- put them in good use and make sure to pay off loans when it is due.
- Take advantage of various credit cards' 0 interest schemes when you want to purchase "high ticket items" that are in a way needs for the family.
- Discuss with your family or partner any major ticket purchase that you are thinking of.
- Treat yourself once in a while
- Explore ebays, flea markets for great and affordable finds!
- Maximize housebrands and compare other brands' prices
- Buy in bulk for things you always use.
- Learn how to budget. It is best for couples to have a financial diary if they want to track down their expenses. Though this is quite tedious specially if done monthly, one will soon get a hang of this.

Start Up in Household Budget Management

I just got my salary adjustment but despite the increase, I became more conscious of how I spend my earnings.

I am the official finance handler in our household. My husband gives me a certain amount for his monthly share and i try to stick to our monthly household budget. There were a few times that I failed in sticking to it but most of the time we are always on track.

I want to share with you how we did it and perhaps you can share with me as well your tips on how to save for the rainy days, spend less and invest wisely. Perhaps we might be in the same boat and we can compare notes. =)

Just to give you a background, our scenario is the following: we bought a condo unit and had a certain amount on loan, we have a car part of the company car loan benefits which we pay 50% share for 5 years at 0% interest. A few months to go and the car is ours to own already. We are planning to sell it since it still has a high resale value given minimal kilometer run. We have 2 babies - a 2 year old and a 1 year old respectively. Our firstborn was initially diagnosed with a pervasive developmental delay undergoing treatments through various therapies such as occupational therapy, enrolled in a small group class and waiting for his turn( as we already enlisted him) in speech therapy session. As part of our medical benefits, our great company subsidizes a huge % for medical costs such as but not limited to consultations, medicines, treatments with only some minor exceptions. I'm glad that my son's condition falls part of the reimbursement scheme but as to what are included and not - i still have to learn about it along the way.

HOW DID WE START?
We initially started on the wrong foot in terms of financial management but we were both glad that it was corrected after almost reaching financial lowdown and now we have recovered from our financial experience as a couple pretty well. A year ago, my husband and I fully disclosed our net income. Then we determined how much our budget would be for our personal expenses as well as which are part of our compensation. Personal expenses such as daily food budget while working, gas, parking fees/toll fees, cellphone bills and "miscellaneous" - where occasional shopping, DVD purchases, salon trips for haircuts, foot spas with pedicure, massage and other expenses to our delight would fall into.

Next we determined our monthly expenses and budget for it such as yayas' salaries, housing loan monthly amortization (fortunately our parking space is included in our amortization), association dues, bills for landline phone bill, internet, water, electricity and cable, drinking water expense, Dr Edwards water for babies, babies' health check up . We even alloted a monthly budget for recreation - for going out/eating out in the malls, occasional city trips and dates for hubby and me.

Since there are only minimal savings left given our expenses, we initially agreed that whatever is left is to our discretion - either we put it in our joint savings account our add it up to our mutual fund investment. At the start of our marriage, we opened 2 joint savings account wherein we placed our "wedding gifts" in this account. 1 local currency joint savings account and another in a foreign currency. Just to briefly share with you, we in a way had a break-even with our wedding expenses given the wedding gifts that we received. =) Later on in our relationship, we also opened mutual funds separately wherein our co-investor are our babies. We also separately have accounts for cooperative savings account which yields higher interest rate than banks, purchased insurance/plans such as educational, endowment and life insurance.