Heads up! Another Retail Treasury Bond or RTB has been released by the Bureau of Treasury Philippines. This is the first RTB for 2018 and its only for a 3-year holding. I've posted about RTB a year ago and you can check it out here:

https://happyprettymommy.blogspot.com/2017/03/retail-treasury-bonds-2017.html

Here's a small information regarding this RTB from www.treasury.gov.ph:





This issue is referred to as RTB-21. For easier understanding, RTB-21 offers the following:


Loan Duration: 3 years only

Loan Interest/Coupon rate: 4.875% annually (gross)

Minimum Investment: P 5,000 and integral multiples thereof

Offer period: May 30 to June 8, 2018


Investing in RTBs is one way for us Filipinos to help our government. Proceeds will help the government for its infrastructure program. Not only you profit from the loans, you are also helping our government realize its projects. 

How to Invest in RTB

Another break from my Hong Kong Trip posts because this one deserves a space here in my blog. The Philippine government has just announced another Retail Treasury Bond offer to the public. Again, before I give my own opinion about this kind of investment, I'll post the definition from our own Bureau of Treasury's website:

What is Retail Treasury Bond (RTB)?



RTBs is recommended for the people who want to invest their money but have low risk appetite. If you are not into stocks or mutual funds, I highly suggest RTB instead of time deposit in banks.

Thanks to the government's improving website they have embedded a working calculator of how much your money can earn if you invest it in RTB. I have tried the calculator on their site and  played on some numbers. Please try it because it gives the interest figures net of taxes (after taxes). I tried to enter an amount of 500k and here's the result:


Comparing the interest of time deposit vs RTB, a huge difference can be seen. Of course, you don't need 500k to be able to invest in RTB. You can invest as low as Php 5,000 in RTB so don't get discouraged if you're thinking that only the rich can start investing. By the way, this net annual return is fixed and the government will give it to the investor quarterly.

I would like to emphasize that RTB public offering is available only for a limited time so if you want to invest, please read about it first, and if you are convinced, act on immediately.


If you're just starting to invest, no need to worry because its easy to begin:



If you want to know more about Retail Treasury Bonds, please visit this site:

http://www.treasury.gov.ph/?page_id=11221

You can also try to reach BTr for more information through their Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/TreasuryPh/

You can also ask your bank of choice if you need to know more or if you need to clarify something.



Lastly, please, please read more about it before you invest your hard-earned money. Yes, it may be risk-free (almost) because it is government owned but you don't want to put your money just anywhere you have no idea of, so read more and ask if you have questions.

Happy investing! Stay positive and pass it on!


UPDATE: As of April 5, 2017, the reservations are already closed as per BPI and Metrobank.

Oh my! Where have all the time gone? So fast time flies, didn't notice that my blog was almost empty for 2 months! But I made it a goal to blog more often this September and my target is to have at least 6 blogs for this month. So let's start with this very informative financial article I would like to share to you.

As a financial advisor, I often get the question, "what is a mutual fund?" Obviously, to a lot of Juan Dela Cruz, this supposedly a basic form of investment was never a general knowledge. At school, financial education was not a subject of importance. So for us to be able to know our options regarding financial planning, I suggest you educate yourself and be responsible in getting information about financial education through reading and consulting financial advisors. You do not need to follow all their advice, what you need is the knowledge you can get from them and the options they can give you and from there you can choose what financial plan suits best for you.

Now, back to our main topic, according to Wikipedia:

A mutual fund is a type of professionally managed collective investment vehicle that pools money from many investors to purchase securities. While there is no legal definition of the term "mutual fund", it is most commonly applied only to those collective investment vehicles that are regulated and sold to the general public. They are sometimes referred to as "investment companies" or "registered investment companies." Most mutual funds are "open-ended," meaning investors can buy or sell shares of the fund at any time.


For simpler terms, mutual funds is a pooled money from investors being managed by a professional fund manager who is then responsible to buy securities (bonds, stocks, etc). The fund manager will be the one to analyze what would be the best security to buy in order for the money to grow. Mutual funds entwines risk in investment. For people who wants to invest in this kind of investment vehicle, as with any other investment, you need to understand it first before throwing your money in. Your profile as an investor should be taken into consideration as well as your current financial status and goal so as to minimize the risk of losing money.

In my honest opinion, mutual funds is one of the best investment vehicle for the ordinary Juan Dela Cruz. Why? Because it does not need a very large amount of money to start investing and it helps our money grow faster than that of savings and time deposit. Remember, investing is different from plainly saving.

If you want to know more about mutual funds, you may watch this detailed video from Sunlife











Here is another informative video, this time from  Peso and Sense







If you are interested to know more about mutual funds and other forms of investment, I would be more than glad to share my knowledge to you! Just contact me and I would be happy to accommodate you.

Stay postitve! And pass it on!

Dear Mommies, I know how hard it is to resist the temptations of shopping for a high heel red shoes just so we could stick to the budget. But the fabulous life we live during our single days need not be compromised when we become a mother. Yes, I know that in a mother's world, a shower is already a luxury but just a reminder: Your beauty is one of the things your husband loves about you. Please do not let it fade just because the needs of the kids should always come first before yours. You can be fab without spending so much. The happiness of seeing yourself beautiful in the mirror can change a lot about yourself. We need not to buy expensive and branded things to look pretty. Make sure your budget would include a little to buy something for yourself once in a while. Looking good need not to cost an arm and a leg. Here are some of my tips for being frugal. I hope this could be of help to you too:

1. Buy yourself some cosmetics. Yes, I know its not a budget friendly advice but hey, we're talking about being fab here. You don't need an expensive lipstick to get everybody's attention. A lipstick of quality can may you look as good and brighten up your face without having to cut your family budget in half. A foundation, lipstick and eyebrow pencil if properly applied can make you a head-turner. Add up a smile and sexy eyes... perfection!

2. Invest on classic-looking clothes. Classic never gets out of fashion. A simple and elegant little black dress and little white dress is a good investment on clothing. You can wear these two dresses a lot of times and just add some accessories to make it look different everytime. You can add bangles, watch, scarf and even you bag can be an accessory to your outfit. And because black and white are neutral colors, mixing and matching with bold colors will always result to fabulous!

3. Tyangge is the place to be. You don't need to have all your clothes branded to feel fashionable. What we all need is not a name patched on our clothes but a good looking jeans that would fit us properly. I surely realized that when I was a mom. I never visited tyangge when I was still single. But now, its one of my favorite place! How many times have I bought an ill fitting pants when I was still young? Oh God, I can no longer count! I bought them just because its the fashion trend and because of the label. Now, its a different perspective. I recently bought a pair of jeans for 500pesos (yup, 2 for 500) in tyangge and I would always get a compliment how good it looks on my legs. One more thing, because it fits me well, its also a comfort to wear.

4. Work-out from home. Gym membership fees are ridiculously expensive. If you really, really want to be fit, you do not need these fitness center to get in shape. You can easily search and download work out videos from the internet that would be effective for you. I, for one, can attest to that. I downloaded a video of Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred and I was able to really shred some lbs! Yes, I am proud to say I lost some lbs but there's more to lose to reach my ideal weight. Jillian Michaels ways work for me and I am keeping her as my virtual trainer. No need to go to the gym (I hate it, I get bored in the gym), no expensive fees, no transportation expenses, definitely home-based, best of all, in no time you'll see the difference in your body. Try it!

These are just few of the things I would like to recommend as a mother to be able to stay fab and still apply frugality in every way we can. 


Be frugal and still be fab. Please make this as a pledge from now on.

Stay positive and pass it on!

It is always the number one rule to "walk the talk". So for today's blog I'm gonna reveal how am I really doing my own financial planning. My way is actually one of the old, traditional, mostly advised ways of organizing your money and that is, the envelope method. I don't use the traditional envelope though, literally speaking. Let me start with a brief discussion about it.

When Friday and Payday collides, always anticipate looooong lines in ATMs, heaaavvvyy traffic, bars and gimik spots a chaos, and coffee shops and restaurants are as full as a Jollibee. To be honest, I never withdraw my salary on a payday, instead I wait 2-3 days after payday before I withdraw my earnings... just because I hate wasting my time in long lines of ATM. :)

For an ordinary employee, payday not only means getting paid for all the hard work, it may also mean "payday" for bills. Credit card bills, cellphone bills, house bills, loans due, etc. Almost 60% (sometimes even higher) goes to their bills that are already demanding for payment. The other 40% would now be the budget for the days to come before the next payday. And because the remaining budget seems too little, most of the time we no longer allot budget for our savings. Instead, we just spend it all and tell ourselves that we will just save when there's an extra pay or bonus. But most of the time, we still don't get to save our bonuses because we also splurge on spending whenever we get a hold of additional money. Are you one of these ordinary Juan Dela Cruz employees? If yes, you may have to rethink your perception regarding saving.

Its not bad to spend money on some luxuries in life, after all, isn't it the main reason we are working hard - to have money to spend? Just be careful not to forget the more important things where your money should be going. Always save even just a little amount every payday for your rainy days. Remember, its not Christmas everyday. Think about your long term goals and little by little do something to achieve. If you just save a little every payday, at the end of the year, you might be surprised how big your money has grown.




The picture above says it all!

Stay positive and pass it on!!

For someone who graduated Cum Laude, was able to grab a great position in the IT field, received numerous recognition for her works, young and beautiful, who would have thought that climbing the corporate ladder is out of her priorities. Marie is a client of mine who is also my friend for years. She's only 24 years old but she is very responsible when it comes to her finances. She's also a blossoming entrepreneur. This pic shows just some of the things she offers:

A new portion of this blog would, from now on, be dedicated to people I've had discussions with regarding financial planning, insurance and investments. This is so readers may somehow relate their own profile with these people who are definitely on their way to reaching their financial freedom.

Well, it seems like the Chinese New Year brought another luck to the Philippine Stock Market with PSEi reaching another all-time high index last Monday: 6500. Whoa! Financial experts have predicted that we might just end the year at 6800 index. Way to go for the Philippine Stock Market!

As a Mutual Fund Representative of Sunlife, I would like to show you how much effect the market has on your mutual fund investments if you have started investing exactly 1 year ago or at the start of this year 2013.

Let's look at the performance of the Sunlife Prosperity Funds for this year 2013 and its performance exactly 1 year ago (February 12, 2012):

As of 02/12/2013	NAVPS*	YTD*	YOY**
Bond Fund	PHP 2.6322	3.42%	6.67%
Balanced Fund	PHP 3.7076	8.63%	27.44%
Equity Fund	PHP 3.9555	10.72%	37.24%

* NAVPS - Net Asset Value per share
* YTD - Year-To-Date yield (yield from start of year)
** YOY - Year-On-Year yield (yield from one year ago this date


Now, suppose you have invested your hard earned money in these investment vehicles, how much would they be today?

Your 5,000 pesos today should be:

Sunlife Prosperity Fund	January 2-February 12, 2013	February 12, 2012 - February 12 - 2013
Bond Fund	5,174.06	5,333.31
Balanced Fund	5,431.75	6,367.48
Equity Fund	5,431.75	6,861.95

A 10, 000 pesos would be:

Sunlife Prosperity Fund	January 2-February 12, 2013	February 12, 2012 - February 12 - 2013
Bond Fund	10,348.12	10,666.61
Balanced Fund	10,863.49	12,734.96
Equity Fund	11,072.39	13,723.89

And if you have 100,000 pesos to invest:

Sunlife Prosperity Fund	January 2-February 12, 2013	February 12, 2012 - February 12 - 2013
Bond Fund	103,481.20	106,666.10
Balanced Fund	108,634.90	127,349.60
Equity Fund	110,723.90	137,238.90

And for the millionaires out there, surely this would be a prosperous Chinese New Year, because your 1,000,000 peso investment should be gaining like this:

Sunlife Prosperity Fund	January 2-February 12, 2013	February 12, 2012 - February 12 - 2013
Bond Fund	1,034,812.00	1,066,661.00
Balanced Fund	1,086,349.00	1,273,496.00
Equity Fund	1,107,239.00	1,372,389.00

How about you, how much have your money gained so far? Are your funds beginning to prosper too? :)

One of my new year's resolutions is to be able to read at least 10 books this year. But more than novels and fiction books, I want something more substantial and could contribute to my newly ventured career. So after a long thought, I finally bought a finance book. Why a finance book? Firstly, to be effective in teaching or promoting financial literacy among Filipinos (which is my current career being a Sunlife Financial Advisor), I must be knowledgeable on the subject. Secondly, because this book that I bought had convinced me with all the awards and good reviews it received that it is worth reading.

Pera Mo, Palaguin Mo

Francisco Colayco is a well-known name in the financial industry. This book shows just how much respect he really deserves in the field of financing. The book shows that hard work really pays off in the end. He also wrote about the different obstacles and failures he had to go through in order to reach his present state of "financial freedom. He also made me realize that it is okay to take risks and fail, for this will teach you something. Truly an inspiring story from someone who I actually thought had everything from the start. But no, he really started from a humble beginning.

I highly recommend this book to all the Juan Dela Cruz out there who wants to get out from the world of financial obstacles and experience financial freedom. To be informed is the beginning. Application of the things written in this book will not only teach you the value of your hard earned money, but also the value of disciplining and motivating yourself which will always come in handy in every aspect of our lives.

Stay positive! And pass it on!

Seeing the country's economy rise up and getting better everyday would be the one of the best news to start the year. For everybody's information, Philippine Stock Exchange, Inc. or PSEI made another milestone by hitting 6000+ index level!

I know, I know, most Filipinos would never appreciate this improvement in our stock market because really, what's in it for us? Let me share to you a few things I know.

1. Economy rising. Though it would never be felt instantly for an ordinary Juan dela Cruz like me, I believe that the raise in the stock market would also mean an improvement in the financial system of our nation. If the  stock market continuously augments (and I really wish it would!), little by little the lives of the many would also improve.

2. More investors for the country. Because of the growing economy and the promising future the PSEI indicates, more and more investors would put in their investments in our country and trust our local market. It could also mean more business investors would dare to start or expand their business in our country. Of course, that would mean more and more jobs which is probably one of country's needs right now.

3. Financial literacy for all people. The progress of the stock market could also be an indication that more and more Filipinos below the elite class, are beginning to learn and be aware of the different investment vehicles they could use in order to achieve financial freedom. As an advocate of financial literacy among Filipinos, I hope that the boost in stock market would encourage more of our countrymen to give themselves a chance to grow synchronous with our economy by seeking education about financial management. This is a necessity if you want to achieve a life of comfort.

Of course, for someone who relies on the newspaper regarding the economy, let me tell you that all these are just my plain observations.

For the mean time, let us all be positive about 2013 and let's all work together for the greater good of everyone. I wish the Philippines would grow and develop more to become not just a third world country but a country full of hope.

Stay positive... and pass it on!

from the Philippine Stock Exchange Inc website

I've been wanting to start a blog long time ago but never had the guts to do so. Maybe because of the lack of topic I could think of that would interest the world. So what I did, just so I could fire up myself to begin this blog, is that I posted some inspiring quotes everyday every morning that I also use to motivate myself for the whole day.

The purpose of this blog is to help myself (and maybe the readers of this blog too) to always think positive. To serve as an inspiration that life will turn out the way I want it to be if I just focus on the things I want to happen. The truth is I've read a lot of books and articles about the power of positive thinking. Mind over matter. What the mind can achieve the body can achieve. So how do I incorporate this positive thinking to my own mind?

From now on, I will try all my best to think brightly for me and my family's future. I will think no ill ideas. And will always remember that though life may give us a tough time sometimes, life is still beautiful. Today is the beginning. I will try to update this blog about what's happening in my life and how much I am enjoying it. Hope this blog helps uplift your spirits too! :)