Secret to financial freedom

I received the following story from a friend. It is VERY appropriate.
To achieve financial freedom, one must need to specify the financial goals and objectives she wants to attain. For example, in my case, I aim to earn $6,000 a month (from freelancing only) starting January 2010 - $2,000 more than what I am making now. Right now, all my efforts are devoted too achieving this goal.

Aiming for financial freedom without a specific goal is like jumping blindly. Our eyes should ALWAYS be wide open when it comes to wealth management

A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village. An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.

"Not very long," answered the Mexican.

"But then, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?" asked the American.

The Mexican explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family.

The American asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

"I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs. I have a full life."

The American interrupted, "I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat."

"And after that?" asked the Mexican.






"With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Mexico City , Los Angeles , or even New York City ! From there you can direct your huge new enterprise."

"How long would that take?" asked the Mexican.

"Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years," replied the American.

"And after that?"

"Afterwards? Well my friend, that's when it gets really interesting, " answered the American, laughing. "When your business gets really big, you can start buying and selling stocks and make millions!"

"Millions? Really? And after that?" asked the Mexican.

"After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends."

And the moral of this story is: ......... Know where you're going in life....you may already be there.

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Hi everyone,

In my quest for wealth and higher standard of living for myself and my family, I have decided to create a blog to document my journey in accumulating my first million. I admit that the blog http://myfirstmillionpesos.blogspot.com/ is a bit more serious than your typical entertainment blog, but then again wealth management is not something to joke about.
I hope that through http://myfirstmillionpesos.blogspot.com/ I can help educate people on the efficient and effective management of their wealth be it a million or just a few thousands. If a person can’t manage a few dollars, then how can that same person manage millions, right?

^^liza
http://myfirstmillionpesos.blogspot.com/

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Learning Something New

(I wrote this post on October 9, 2008)

I have always prided my self of seeking new knowledge especially on how to manage wealth & how to accumulate more wealth responsibly. Yesterday, I learned an interesting and very practical concept on wealth management. It was so simple, it doesn't make sense if you don't apply it.
Yesterday, I attended the Module 1 of www.createabundance2020.com's wealth management course at Starbucks Leviste, Salcedo Village, Makati City. It was a vert simple course, simple yet VERY effective. Effective because 3 hours after it I was applying what I've learned.

What I learned is to divide OR partition my income into its different purposes. For example (this was the example used in the Module):

Table 1: Money Jars

Purpose	Abbreviation	Percentage of Income
Financial Freedom Account	FFA	10%
Necessities*	NEC	55%
Play	Play	10%
Education	Educ	10%
Give*	Give	5%
Long Term Savings	LTSS	10%

* If you want to give 10%, then NEC becomes 50%

I modified this model a bit to suit my needs & circumstances. Here's what I came up:

Table 2: My Money Jars

What I did is deducted 5% from NEC and another 5% from Play and established another LTSS. This means that I now have 2 LTSS accounts: 1 for a new car [mine is sooo old] and the other is for my mother's house (a gift for her from my brother and me).

Now, FFA money is to be used for funding businesses and investments only. As you might have guessed, this fund will help me in creating multiple streams of income for me to achieve my yearly income without so much as breaking a sweat. The other accounts are more or less explanatory [you may always email me for questions: amgaspar20@yahoo.com]
So, this coming Monday [November 13]** I will be opening additional accounts with BPI. One account for each of the above (I already have existing accounts with the bank so NOW I only need 4 more). I believe that having an account for each of the above will SIGNIFICANTLY help me in managing my income and wealth [no matter how small that maybe compared to Bill Gates', but if I can't manage such net worth, how do you think I can when I'm as rich as Croesus?].
So how do I intend to use the percentages presented in Table 2? For example, I just received P11,900 for a work I did. I immediately electronically transferred 10% of it to my LTSS-House account (it was an existing account).
I am so excited. I know this will help me be more disciplined when it comes to managing my income & money. Yay! The world is really wonderful.

**I actually opened the accounts today, November 14.

An Epiphany of Money

e piph a ny (noun) [i piffenee]
a sudden intuitive leap of understanding, especially through an ordinary but striking occurrence (Encarta)

I just had an epiphany, few days before my 28th birthday - four days to be exact. Yes, I will be 28th the day the Beijing Summer Olympics open.

My epiphany is this - I am not getting younger, and yet I still don't have a million pesos under my name. True, I have earned millions since I started working, but where did ALL that go?

Of course, I know where it all went. I have spent them all on shoes, dresses, senseless books, trips, foods, etc., nothing to brag about and nothing to help me in my old age (ehem), but there you go - ALL my earnings blown away.

I want that first million pesos - financial gurus say that the first million is the hardest to have, the next millions are a breeze. Hence, I created this blog - my first million - to chronicle my journey in putting a million under my name. Yes, it is symbolic, but I won't stop at a million, but it is my first step. My first million is just a title, see. As I face the world everyday, I will be looking at the goal always and I hope that soon I will attain it.

Cheers!

[picture is from http://blogs.sfweekly.com]\