Money Goals

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I've started building our emergency fund last May 2015. It was really hard as you can see from my previous post here. I am teaching myself on how to manage my money carefully by reading a lot of financial blogs. One of my favorites is Zen Habits. The very important thing that I learned from him is to start little by little. I started opening savings account when we finished celebrating the twins Baptismal and 1st Birthday. Here, I will try to enumerate my money goals and the baby steps that I will take to financial freedom.

• Pay Debts

I don't have debts from other people aside from my mom and my cousin (who helps us with our mortgage payment for our townhouse in Cavite). As much as possible, we are living within our needs to prevent from borrowing money from other people. I am hoping before the year ends, I will be able to pay if not all at least half of it.

• Open a Savings Account

As I've mentioned above, I am taking baby steps on building our emergency funds. What I've learned from other blogs is, you need to start now even if its just a small amount. Right now I have a PS Bank Savings account on where I am depositing an amount of P500 pesos every payday. And I already have a total of P1,500 from this writing. I am very proud of myself because I am not getting anything from this savings and we can still live within our budget. Aside from my Savings account, I also opened 2 BDO Junior Savers for my twins where I am depositing an amount of P100 per cutoff. Again not much but I am getting the hang of it not thinking that we have money at the banks. It's not about how much you earned but how much you save. Naks!

• Automate Bills

I also learned from Zen Habits to automate bills so you will not worry about paying the bills on long queue at the banks. I already enrolled my Cable, Postpaid and Insurance payments. In that way it will be deducted every payday and a good way to pay the bills first and stick to the budget.

• Insurance Payments

I am a bit late with my premium payments and I don't see growth on my Fund Value. I currently have a Sunlife Maxilink Prime which is kinda expensive because I got it before my twins are born. I am cutting off some bills this year. I am still trying to contact CIGNAL Cable for almost a month but it seems like they can't answer my query. I know that my 2 year contract will end this year and so stupid of me that I can't remember what month I enrolled. I am decided to totally cut the Cable bill (goodbye GOT, Walking Dead and Asia's Food Channel). I will rely on downloads now which I will get from my office-mate, hello Austin! :) . I also want to downgrade my postpaid plan.

• Open a BPI Direct Save-Up Automatic + Insurance

I stumbled upon the blog of Savings Pinay & The Wise Living regarding this product. BPI Save-Up Automatic + Insurance is an automatic saving where it will be deducted from your BPI account and it will earn an insurance for you that will depend on the savings that you will add on it. It's a good way to save for your emergency fund. This is also timely because our payroll atm is now changed from BDO to BPI. I will be starting from the amount of P250 first because I am still depositing money for my savings account and will just add an amount if there's any extra or bonuses. Update: I already enrolled my Save-Up online! Woot! Woot!

• Mortgage and House Constructions

The main reason why I wanted a Savings account is because of my townhouse in Cavite. It's been 2 years and we can't move in yet because of a lot of reasons, financial reasons. I wanted to have it renovated first before finally deciding to live there. And another reason is its far from my current work now so I am on a look for someone who can rent there for the meantime.

• Mutual Funds - UITF - Stocks

Yes I am talking about investments! I got the idea from the e-book "My Maid Invests in the Stock Market" which Jen of Its Mommy Jen sent me. Thank you so much sis! Though I already have a VUL on my Insurance with Sunlife, financial bloggers said that you need to diversify your investments. I am thinking to open up an UITF (Unit Investment Trust Fund) account first with BDO or BPI because I am not yet familiar with stocks. UITF are ready-made investments that allow the pooling of funds from different investors with similar investment objectives. For UITF account, it's easy to enroll because a lot of banks is offering it. My choices is either BPI or BDO because I already have an account with them. I am eyeing for the BDO EIP (Easy Investment Plan) because of the minimum 1k payment that will be automatically deducted from your Savings. Plus, you don't need to know all the information about the stocks or the market because the fund manager will do it for you. And right now I think this is the best one for me, while I am still gaining information about stocks. I am also reading a lot of blogs related to COL Financial and I am not yet confident to have an account. I still need to familiarize myself more on how it works. I hope I can find time to attend to one of their seminars. Is it free or is there any charge? I hope someone will help me if they know something about COL Financial. He He He. I am still reaching out to some friends who already have an account with them. If my emergency funds and savings are enough, I will definitely open an investment account. I hope anytime soon before I turn 30. :) I also encouraged my mom to invest her savings account to UITF because its not earning for so many years. I am also discouraging her in joining networking (she joined my name to Emgoldex just recently argh!) My plan is I will get a portion from her first and we will start with the moderate risk type investment. Wish me luck guys!

I will update you what are the results on my goals. How about you? What are your Money Goals?