There are a lot of tips on how to save money in books, magazines, and newspapers.  One of my friends here on Multiply, Randell Tiongson, is a Registered Financial Planner.  He has a column in the Business Mirror which provides insight on how to save for the future.

This small post I have is merely a practical tip on how to apply what Randell advocates.  Consider this a rejoinder on the item in my last post wherein the advise was:

Force Yourself to Save

One way to save more is to trick yourself. Transfer money automatically from paychecks into savings or investment accounts. With less available in your checking account, you'll be more careful about your spending. Gradually increase your automatic savings rate over time.

My practical tip is:  Exploit Available Technology

Use Internet Banking Services.  Use your internet banking account to manage two (2) separate accounts.  Tag one account as your ("alkansiya" or "piggy bank" account).  Transfer money into that account every now and then using the fund transfer facility AND, most of all, have the willpower not to take anything out of it!  Cut the ATM card of that account if you wish.

Don't you dare transfer money out of that "piggy bank" account too!

My posts in this blog have been off topic for some time now.  It has been quite awhile since I last posted something on "Retirement" and "Retirement Strategy".

Here's my first "Retirement" post for the 2nd half of 2008 :

The Perks of Being Unemployed

It has been more than three years now since I last received a payslip under an employer-employee arrangement.  For a large number of working Filipinos, the payslip which comes on the 15th and 30th of the month is a very comfortable security blanket to have.  In actuality, most decisions made by heads of families are tied up to the figures printed on the payslip.  This either frees them to make the decision to make a purchase or to withold the urge to spend and wait for a better day.

This is not the case for people who are unemployed like me.  I do not have a payslip to fall back on.  Nothing to expect at mid-month and at the end of the month.  The perk of not having a payslip is being able to trust God more.  He is after all, the great Provider.  There is no room for me to make a financial decision based on what's coming in the middle of the month and at the end of the month.

In being unemployed, one will begin to feel the intensity when praying the Lord's Prayer as one approaches the line "Give us this day, our  DAILY bread".  The fact that there is no other source apart from God's blessing drives me closer to His bosom.

I look back to the past few days and stand in amazement at how a Loving Heavenly Father has provided for this unemployed bloke.  I look back at the first half of this year with all the tumultuos happenings in the financial and economic arena taking place. All I can say now is, "Whoaaa!  Thank You Dad!  Indeed you never let your sons and daughters down"

The invitation read, "Dress up in tropical gear, bright colors, Hawaiian shirts, surf shorts, sarongs and even swimsuits for those who dare to bare".

I just found it so ironic that on the night when UniversalMcCann had its send off for VP, Cookie Bartolome, I was garbed in common work attire.  It was ironic because I usually wander the De la Costa Triangle in shorts and a sports t-shirt.

Coming in super early was a good thing.  There was nothing else to do anyway at nearby Makati Golf Club.  So I popped in at about the time ex-colleagues Carl, Ivy, Andrea, Tammy, Tin, Pam, and Danna were still sprucing up the place.
First to arrive among the invited was McCann CEO, Ricki Arches in her tropical attire.  Andrea surprises and stuns by directing to keep Mother Ricki occupied while waiting for the others to come. 

There was a good twenty minutes till UM head, Venus Navalta and hubby, ex-ASAP President, Egay came.  In a little while, everyone else started trickling in - including the fêted herself, Cookie B. with husband Eric.


Photo shows our media superstars Gie Lansang, long time area buddy, Josette Feliciano, Cookie, and the ever scintillating Junn Diva.

All in all, it was one bang of a UM reunion.

In my mind, the scene was all too familiar...parang kasal ito ni Minnie and Andre sa Boracay a :-)  Unfortunately, Minnie and Andre are halfway around the globe enjoying the Norweigian summer.

Finally, as a parting shot to this post: I  really don't write this way.  Nagpa-practice lang po ako as  I'm thinking, "Hey, one day, when I fully retire in Negros, maybe I could be the society columnist in the local paper".    Of course I do not intend to hop around in outrageous outfits like other publication scions. :-) 

See you later palanggas . ROFL

This has been the most hectic summer ever.  Long after major milestones took place last month such as my wife's move from being a prosecutor to corporate lawyer, and my birthday march into 40, we simply got ourselves busy with entertaining visitors from abroad, from the province, plus a few more summer activities like the usual swimming lessons for kids.

Somehow the end result of the six day daily trek to Cavite early last month slipped my mind.  Taking a back seat to all the current happenings including the string of presentations I've been doing with clients and agencies, I simply forgot about IT(signs of aging?).  Then yesterday, IT all came in as a big surprise.  As it was texted by the secretariat of the Junior Golf Foundation of the Philippines, my 5 year old son earned his slot to be part of Team Philippines in the Callaway Junior World Golf Championships in San Diego, California.

For those who are familiar with the game, we know that this is THE olympics of golf for kids.  San Diego is Mount Olympus for junior golfers.  At my son's age group, there will be no halfway cut.  All kids, 6 and under will play for three straight days.

It is obvious that as a parent, I am excited, elated, and ecstatic.  I have to confess though.  I am also somewhat confused.

Allow me to explain.  In Oaui's (Joaquin's nickname) age group, he will be competing against boys who are practically seven years old.  Although his category is the defined as the "6 and under", the rules allow kids into that category provided that that they are not seven years old on the days of the tournament.  As it is, Oaui may be up against those who are 6 years and 11 months old.  In that category, there is a big difference between a 5 year old like him and another who is on the verge of turning seven.  Driving power is different, pitching more accurate, putting skills more sensitive.

I'm not trying to come in with the mentality of a defeatist but I think I have enough common sense to see what we're up against.  We won't be any different than the Philippine Olympic team battling the Chinese in Beijing this August(LOL!).  However, for a parent who values sowing seeds of confidence and other positive intrinsic values into a child, this experience may be priceless.  Laying the golf aside, there could be no better venue to plant in Oaui's heart, timeless values which may serve him well as foundations for life.

Just in case you didn't know it, GOLF also stands for Guidance Of a Loving Father.

I used to hate golf.  My friend Minnie Bobe will actually tell you how much I hated it as compared to the former sport of fencing.  But little did I realize the great value of this sport.  No, it's not about the personal discipline and dedication involved.  It's about the mentoring.  I honestly believe that there is no other sport (save for fishing) where a father can mentor his son or daughter both in the sport and in life itself with greater depth than golf itself.

And then some more...like on the long drive home from the golf course you get to ask your kid, "Why do you like to play golf?".  And suddenly you get stunned by answers like, "because I want to be with you".

Man, even Tiger Woods missed his dad and broke down in tears at the end of  the 2006 British Open.  This was his first major win after his dad passed away.  Daddy Earl Woods was no longer there to relish the victory and see him at the end of the 18th hole.

So here I am, perplexed to a great degree.  Do we go?  Or do we wait for another year? If we pass this year, we may not be assured of the same slot next year.  That will be another gruelling 6 day elimination. If we go, obtaining that little crystal trophy will be an uphill climb.  But if we go, priceless memories including the honor to carry the Philippine colors shall surely serve as a higher reward.  After all, I have also dreamed of being Oaui's caddy one day.  For now, it's time to pray about things.

I am rattled.  I am disturbed.  I am shaken to the very core of my being.  (hehe, medyo OA)

Honestly, this is the first time it has ever happened.

So here I am at home, whiling away the time blogging.  My wife on the other hand is in her office doing OT.

Such a strange feeling indeed.

Over the past three weeks, a number of people have been asking me, in reference to this multiply site, "What is a Retirement Strategist?" .

Here's shooting from the hip, 'blindsided' readers : A retirement strategist is somewhat like a life coach.  Only that the coaching is more skewed towards the latter years in life.  As a retirement strategist, I help people deal with some critical questions pertaining to life from 35 years old onwards.

This doesn't mean that anyone less than 35 cannot avail of what I have to offer.  In fact, the younger you are upon developing your retirement strategy, the better.

Allow me to give you some scenarios.  A person has a nice job in the Makati Central Business District.  Earns well.  Saves a little bit.  But then, given the way time is zipping by, he or she finds that the years spent in the corporate grind snatched away the moments for planning future dreams.  It's a classic case of, "Can't see the forest for the trees.".  By the time the person is aware of what's totally happening, it may be too late.  Things may not be irrepairable but, we do know that this minor glitch has a fair amount of impact down the line.

This minor symptom leads to what is more commonly known as "mid-life crisis".  MLC is sometimes worse than cancer.  At least for cancer, there's chemotherapy - a basic one shot solution with other preventive treatments and fixes on the side.  For mid-life crisis, there are many other items to deal with and, the solutions are in phases.

In case you haven't realized it, retirement is not all about finances.  A large part of the work of a retirement strategist is dealing with the non-financial aspects of retirement.
                                                                                    
Allow me to give you this picture.....that of an iceberg.  We do know that more than 3/4ths of the iceberg remains under water, invisible to the human eye.  Retirement is like an iceberg.  What people usually see upon mention of retirement are: the financial package, days of leisure, saying goodbye to work, and unashamedly, old age.

The retirement strategist deals with other not-too-visible issues such as: quality of life (transition from the current to the ideal), career reorientation (using old skills in new ways), spirituality and relationships, adapting to change, and so much more.

Why is there a need for a retirement strategist?  Well, one quick answer is because most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.  In other words, in the busy-ness of the daily grind, most people are impaired in the retirement planning process.

Retirement strategy talks of exit strategies and other vehicles to take you places.  We always talk about the corporate ladder.  Whoever was the boss who devised the term corporate ladder was an absolute genius!  He framed people's sense of thinking that there was indeed such a thing as a ladder.  Through the years, people have been thinking inside the box in reference to THE corporate ladder.  The retirement strategists tells you, if you're on the so-called ladder, get down (no matter how high you've risen) and walk over here to take the elevator.

More to come.

As a media strategist, I was impressed by the kind of data generated by The Media Audit on the people group easily classified as "Retired America" or "Retiring America".  For anyone in marketing, this data could spell a great difference in terms of focus in product development, media selection, and the whole gamut of marketing activities.

I could only wish for data like this wherein the base would be 'total Philippines'.  I honestly doubt if the Philippine Retirement Authority (PRA) has solid data as this:


Retirees, Followed By Boomers, Will Redefine Retirement

According to a report from The Media Audit, adults who are nearing retirement are now one of the fastest growing demographics in the country. 17.9% of all U.S. adults are now retired, a figure that has increased by 6% in the last five years and will rapidly increase as Boomers exit the workforce over the next few decades.

Consumption habits of aging Americans are likely very different from those of their predecessors because they are living longer, achieving higher levels of education, are wealthier, and redefining what it means to be retired.

• 83% of the retired adults in the U.S now own their own home
• Thirty percent of retired adults have cash, stocks and CD's valued at more than $100,000, the highest figure ever reported
• 13.1% of new automobile purchasers are retired, compared to 11.1% five years ago. 8.3% of adults who have a car loan are retired, compared to 6.4% five years ago, an increase of nearly 30%
• 16% of adults who frequently stay in hotels are retired, compared to 14.7% five years ago, a jump of almost 10%
• Among frequent beer consumers, 13% are retired, compared to 11.3% five years ago
• Adults who are retired are 6% more likely than the average U.S. adult to frequently dine out at a full service restaurant and retirees now make up nearly 20% of all adults who frequently dine out.
• 14.3% adults who plan to take an ocean cruise in the next year are retired.

Nearly one in five adults who plan to have lasik eye surgery are retired, and are 5% more likely than the average adult to be planning a lasik eye surgery procedure.

The report further reveals that adults who are retired today compared to the average U.S. adult:

• Spend nearly 30% more time watching broadcast TV,
• 14% more time watching cable TV
• 25% more time reading a daily newspaper

Retired adults today spend only 89 minutes per day online, a figure that is 26% less than the average U.S. adult who spends 123 minutes per day online. The next generation of retirees, though, is expected to be more computer and internet friendly, since Baby Boomers between the ages of 45 and 64 spend a considerably higher amount of time online - 123 minutes per day.

The most affluent retirees can be found in larger markets such as Washington, D.C., where the average retired adult earns $64,000 in household income.

San Jose, California, Fort Myers- Naples, Florida, San Francisco, California and Long Island, New York, follow behind with household incomes of more than $50,000.

And, currently the top ranking retiree markets are:

• Ocala, Florida with the highest percentage of retired adults (36%)
• Fort Myers- Naples, Florida (34%)
• Daytona Beach, Florida (33%)
• West Palm Beach, Florida (31%)
• Melbourne-Titusville-Cocoa, Florida (29%)

Bill Gates' Last Day at Microsoft

January 1.

Happy New Year!

Or so you thought.

Today, is actually the day you begin to work for the government. You will slave it out for the next three and a half months until April 14, 2007 gathering money for the government to spend. By April 15, you can then relieve yourself with the idea that you are finally working for yourself.

So how did we arrive at this?

Well, granting that 28 to 30% of your annual earning is allocated to taxes, that would mean that a conservative 28% of your 365 days for 2007 would be devoted to just that....paying taxes or plain and simply, working for the government. 28% of your 365 days is about 104 days or, the same amount of time between January 1 to April 14. Little wonder then that the deadline for filing income tax returns is April 15.

Surprise, surprise!

Happy New Year!



(if this really bothers you, then you can just read Robert Kiyosaki's books to find out how some people end up paying less taxes without actually evading them)

I was walking in Glorietta and saw this guy wearing a super nifty shirt.  All it said was :

RETIRED.  If you want to talk to me, I'll have to charge you for consultancy.

`nuff said.

My wife just turned 40 last month.  I catch up in a few months time by April 2008.  The season between her 40th birthday and mine seems to mark a special period for us as we take advantage of major redirections in our lives.  Added to this, we will be celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary this coming June 12, 2008 (yes, nag Centennial Wedding po kami).  So the time from her birthday last month up to June 12 of next year looks like an exciting chapter.  Two milestone birthdays and a milestone anniversary.

When people say that life begins at 40, they ought to know what are the mechanics behind the statement.  Here lies the clincher: you see, in our 20s, we usually have all the energy and the time but hardly the money.  In our 30s, we have the money and the energy and the money, but we don't have the time.  Later in life as we grow old, we have the money, we have the time, but we don't have the energy.  Ergo, the emphasis on 40.

My personal belief is that people should strike the perfect equilibrium of time, energy, and money at about age 40 (40 is just the ballpark number; it could be a bit sooner, it could be a bit later).  What a person ought to do at 40 cannot be dictated upon.  There's a myriad of activities and life pursuits to take on given the various personalities and temperaments we all represent.  However, at this point, ideally, there should hardly be an excuse for having a lack of any of the three elements. 

"Carpe Diem" as Eden Nares would always say.

Here's an item I saw on the Inquirer. net.  I'm reposting it here for your convenience but at the same time supplying the link.

Click here.

You may browse the article but please, do not fail to read my comment below.  Cheers!

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Do you really want to retire early?

Posted under Millionaires, retirement

When I was in my early 20s, I longed to retire at 30. Now that I have reached that marvelous age (plus several years), I realize I need more time. Besides, I can’t imagine not doing what I’m doing now. I would probably be lost without my writing that constantly defines and affirms every day who I am and what are the little things I can do to leave my little mark in this world.

A retirement survey by HSBC called The Future of Retirement in fact showed that many Filipinos would like to work even after they retire.

Boy Javier, an advertising executive, on the other hand, decided to get off the train early. And he is having the time of his life, according to this MoneySense article in the personal finance section of INQUIRER.net.

When I “retired,” I stopped wearing a watch and abandoned most things attached to it. An hour or a day or a week is totally irrelevant. Now is important. Now is forever.

Now I am reading a book. Now I am playing with my three granddaughters, cooking pasta, diving in Anilao, putting for my fifth bogey in the front nine. Now I am free! When I set my watch aside, I did not “retire.” I went off the train and took the bike into the unknown.

It’s been eight years since I retired. That bike has taken me to dreamland – to islands in the Visayas and Mindanao, some so small they could not be found on ordinary maps; to a farm in Lipa where there is always fruit in season and a hammock and a beer for listening to music with; to cheap bookstores so I could renew ties with Sufi and Zen masters, pundits of Wall Street and corporate America and journeymen of the sports and spiritual varieties; to hospitals where I awaited the wondrous births of my three granddaughters, made vigil over my wife’s thyroid operation, and anguished over my mother’s long and fatal battle with a stroke; to the kitchen where I experimented with pasta, meat, and seafood; to Palawan…to Boracay…to Thailand. Have you ever been held by border police while crossing Juarez into Texas?

It all sounds so…I don’t know…ideal? Romantic? Is this what I want with my retirement too? Then should I do everything to retire by 40? 50?

I want to feel this way now. I don’t want to wait till I’m 40 or 50, or even formally retired from work. I don’t think the age and the formal status matters. Filipinos need to do the work that they love so that it doesn’t feel like work. (Easier said than done, I know). Yet if we do find that Holy Grail, then perhaps we all don’t have to formally cross that “retirement” line.

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My comment:  Retirement is such a broad subject.  Especially nowadays when the entire concept of a "traditional retirement" as characterized in the industrial age no longer exists.  Hey, we've long crossed over into the age of information.  There's a whole new meaning to retirement now (another blog entry on that soon).

At any rate, here's what I have to say about the article.  I admire the blog writer's intent to pose this question, "Do you really want to retire early?".  However, in posing such, I feel that the writer is speaking primarily to male readers.  I may even go to the extent of reading between the lines that he is not posing the question to his readers but is in fact subliminally POSING THE QUESTION TO HIMSELF.

Look at it this way, I have been married quite long enough to know that you should not even dare pose a question like this to a woman.  After all, there are very, very few women who would like to be chained to a desk or be a cube-monkey.  If women had their way, they would spend the entire day doing SSS ...shopping, salon, spa, shopping, sipping Starbucks, socializing with the ladies, shopping, etc. ....of course apart from the other social responsibility and spiritual pursuits.

Do you really want to retire early?  In my mind I can hear the women say, "You're barking up the wrong tree".

Everyone in the advertising industry will readily admit, "Napakaliit ng industriya" (The industry is so small).  This is said in the manner that what goes around, well...obviously comes around.

Scene : 12th floor of GT Tower (where McCann Worldgroup Philippines is based).  I bump into a former colleague who left McCann a few months after I did to concentrate on being a full-time mom.  She's now back in UniversalMcCann (the media division) but only for only three months so as to fill the absence of a media director who went on extended leave.  She was having lunch with another ex-colleague who's now with Mindshare (one of the rival agencies).  A few minutes later, we chance upon another colleague who joins our little meet.

Knowing that this friend was soon to leave UM for ZenithOptimedia, I asked her, "When's your last day?" .  "Today!" she said gleefully .  Chit-chat went on for a few minutes, waxing nostalgic about where everyone else has gone.  With that realization, I remarked, "We should soon have an ex-UM get-together in the very same way ex-J. Walter Thompson folk gather together consistently".  The Thompson people are known for that 'one-big-happy-family' spirit.  I should know.  My dad was an ex-Thompson guy and he would still attend their parties 30 years after he had left.

As our little huddle parted ways, with new beginnings up ahead for our friend moving to ZO, it crossed my mind that while UniversalMcCann has as its current catch phrase, "NEXT THING NOW", it is but plain obvious that there now exists an ex-UniversalMcCann group.  Its catch phrase :  ARE YOU NEXT?