it's a jungle out there (an MRT commuter's trick)

it's a jungle out there -- not with wild animals, but with people! What I mean is commuting in an overcrowded city such as Manila and Kuala Lumpur is like going to the jungle ==> you will never know what to expect.

<== See the picture on the left for instance.

It was taken sometime in August at Kuala Lumpur's monorail (during rush hour). There I was in Bukit Bintang waiting for the monorail to take me to KL Central, when the train did arrive, commuters who seconds before were peacefully queueing surged into the train. I was so astounded I stepped back & observed.
Several people wanted so much to catch that train that the doors of the train (as shown in the picture) broke down -- they won't open anymore when the guards, yes they do have guards like we do here in Manila, tried to open them so that they can ask some of the passengers to get down the train since it can't accommodate everyone.

I was reminded of this event yesterday [October 8, 2009] when I took the MRT going home. Whenever I board the MRT at Buendia Station (home means getting off at Cubao Station), I always take the south bound train and go alllllllllllllllll the way UP to Taft Station, by doing this I always have a seat which is a relief considering the 20 minutes ride home.
Such was my life when I was still working in Makati City few years back. Now, I thank God everyday that I only do MRT round trips once in a while -- only when I have meeting in Makati.
For fellow commuters, good luck - I hope you can get into the first train that arrives during rush hours. I do hate waiting for the train where I can finally squeeze in my 46 kilo body. ;-)
I know. Been there, done that.
Ciao.

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.

house of cards tumbling down

Wow! What a world we live in. Exciting and at the same time, scary like hell. One-by-one, financial institutions we thought are as everlasting as the Rock of Gibraltar or whatever rock we want to use for 'exotic' comparison, each of them are tumbling down like a house of cards so beautiful yet so vulnerable the higher and bigger it becomes.

Lehman Brothers is one of the biggest financial institutions which raised the white flag first. Clearly, we are witnessing the true essence of capitalism --- survival of the fittest. As one looks at the video below, one couldn't help ask 'what in the world is going on?'


As more stable (one knows what that really means nowadays) banks and other financial institutions absorb the weaker sex, oops, I mean the weaker ones; we are looking at a new dimension of capitalism. Are the basic tenets of capitalism slowly collapsing? Governments and their agencies (think Federal Reserve) are NOT suppose to bail out commercial institutions. Laissez-faire, right? We will know how far governments will go to bail out their respective financial systems to stem a prolonged recession. Maybe a closer observation on what is happening in Iceland will give us an idea. (I will talk about Iceland as a nation on the brink of bancrupcty in my next post).

A lot will think that what is happening is a nightmare straight from the Grimm's Brothers' imagination. I do beg to disagree. What is happening is so valuable no one, nobody can afford NOT to pay attention. The lessons we learn today will determine the directions of capitalism in the future. Perhaps, what is going on right now will revive debates on what is the best method to manage wealth. Marx vs. laissez-faire or whatever is left of it.