I was surfing through youtube the other day and came across the savingandinvesting channel of Michael Fischer. A former Goldman and Sachs man, Michael has made financial literacy his personal advocacy and seeks to demystify various financial concepts for the man on the street.
He writes:
“This subject is not about greed, short-cuts, opinions or speculation – it is about being informed, and about being rewarded for participating in our financial system in order to provide better lives for ourselves and others that we care about.”
View one video a day and increase your financial knowledge bank.
Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders is a documenatary film which seeks to raise awareness on how credit and lending issues are affecting American society. While it is targeted for Americans, it could very well be telling our own story. We as a nation and as individuals are also over our heads in debt. Affluenza has led to an addiction to debt.
It’s a movie you can’t afford to miss. Watch it here for free (albeit in low quality). Share the link with your children, your family and your friends. Hopefully, it will make them think twice about spending money that they don’t have. When it comes to credit, it pays to be informed.
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Motherhood has a very humanizing effect. Everything gets reduced to essentials. ~Meryl Streep
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Ryan of In the Money is offering a free copy of his special report: 10 Mistakes Every Investor Makes and How to Avoid Them to all subscribers to his newletter. Click on this link for more details.
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Motherhood has a very humanizing effect. Everything gets reduced to essentials. ~Meryl Streep
Subscribe to my feed or subscribe via email to get notified of my next post.
What do you do when you lose everything in a heartbeat? Oprah had Suze Orman on her show today, and as part of it they are giving out a free download of her latest book Women and Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny. You can find more information and the download link on this page, but it’s only available until 2/14 at 8pm EST. Please note that the book is copyrighted. You may view and download the file, but you may not copy the file or share or forward it to any other person. So download it now, and read it later!
The greatest insight I’ve gotten out of Suze’s book: be as committed to yourself as you are to others. Say your name out loud: unleash the power of the woman inside and take control of your destiny. Sit down and write your definition of a rich life. Articulate your needs and wants and determine what steps are needed to get there.
Other takeaways:
Establish a healthy relationship with your money. It takes more to say no out of love than to say yes out of weakness. How true! Daggamit, how many of us have made ill-advised money decisions in order to save a (dysfuctional) relationship with family members, friends, lovers?
For stay at home moms: the one who brings home the paycheck doesn’t have the power to decide how it’s spent. The two of you who share that money have equal decision-making power. Give the relationship power over the money - do not make money more powerful than the relationship.
For moms: be honest with yourself and your kids. Involve them early and teach them to be financially responsible. Let them know how much life costs…. those happy meals add up.
For BFFs/daughters: money should not be a prerequisite for maintaining a relationship. Stop feeling guilty. Emotion does not build financial security. For me, this is the hardest lesson to internalize. How do you say no to a friend or a family member? Sigh. This is often the reason why the hard earned money of many OFWs are gone within a few years.
Things I need to research: Do we have long-term-care insurance?
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Motherhood has a very humanizing effect. Everything gets reduced to essentials. ~Meryl Streep
Subscribe to my feed or subscribe via email to get notified of my next post.
The Philippines is one of the 11 countries where Citibank decided to conduct a survey called Citi Fin-Q to measure financial intelligence among consumers. The results were stark: eight out of ten Filipinos believe they face a bleak retirement and more than half expect to be supported by their children in their old age. Nine out of ten attempt to follow a budget, but only 33 percent stick to it.
We definitely need to improve financial literacy in our schools. Students are graduating without the basic skills needed to manange personal finances.
*Disclaimer: I haven’t taken the course myself but it sure looks interesting. =) *
The National Association of Online Investors — in cooperation with Phillips InvestorPlace Institute — presents a special FREE course on Investing Basics.
Course Parts:
Part 1: Beginning Your Journey Toward Confident InvestingPart 2: Understanding the Basics of InvestingPart 3: Creating Your Unique Investing PlanPart 4: Designing Your Portfolio
Presented clearly and concisely, Investing Basics and Creating Your Unique Plan gives a strong foundation of investing knowledge, then walks participants through a step-by-step process for setting investing goals and guides them through creating a comprehensive Investing Plan.
Topics discussed include:
Four building blocks for a wealth-producing portfolio
The keys to identifying winning investing opportunities
Three types of risk most financial advisors never discuss
How to set up and monitor your own portfolio
How economy affects your portfolio
24-hour online access to your investing plan tool kit
The pros and cons of mutual fund investing
Model investing plans for Retirement, College Savings and New Home Down Payment
Ways to leverage different asset “classes” to make money in good times and bad…
As a mother to a 3-year old, I find myself having to consciously fight the bilmoko mentality. We want the very best for our children but at what cost? I came across a wonderful website called The Money Mammals. Created by US-based Snigglezoo Entertainment, its goal is to teach children from the ages 2-6 to “share and save and spend smart, too”. Why? Because you can help your kids BEFORE you need to go on THE DEBT DIET.
Consider these insights garnered from the website:
Kids are voracious consumers; they need protection against the forces of consumerism…
Marketing is so pervasive that there’s almost no place where something isn’t being sold to our children…
Most parents feel they don’t set a good example for their children when it comes to handling money….
Parents also view kids as feeling “entitled” to have whatever it is they want whenever they want it.
The desire to save is becoming extinct…lack of financial education has helped drive consumerism.
All to often, we learn of stories of OFWs whose hard-earned money is wasted away by their families on useless possessions. We need to start teaching our children the value of money. Are there programs / organizations similar to Snigglezoo which cater to the Philippine audience?
Budgeting and cost cutting are the banes of my life. I’d be the first to admit that I like my creature comforts and it hurts when I have to pass on the tall macchiato or cute bag or bestselling book or…. well, you get the picture.
In my quest to balance our books, I’ve been trawling through the net searching for tips on how to cut corners without feeling the pain too much. I found Mecca in the form of Frugal for Life.
Some of the tips are very practical. I especially like one of the more recent posts entitled: 10 Fashion Tips for the Newbie Fashionista. Now if I could only bring myself to skip the ongoing sale at Zara and Mango…..
As for me, I’m trying my best to stay away from temptation (after I rewarded myself with a gift - a Canon S3IS). I’ll let you know a few months from now if it’s worked.
Work to live. Live to love. That is the aspiration of most parents as we work to give our children a brighter future. Like most mommies, I struggle to balance the checkbook while at the same time trying to bring up my son in the best way I know how. Come join me on the journey for financial security and family happiness.
. You can find more information and the download link on this 
