Category: Education

A Cyclist’s Investing Tale: From P2,500 to P400,000

My father-in-law was a veteran cyclist. He was an active racer in various competitions such as the Marlboro Tour in the 80’s. An and although he did not win any of those races, he’s always won the love of his family. 🙂

There was just one problem when my wife and I decided to invest our income in the stock market. He was not that supportive with the idea and our decision to invest. The reason was because he has heard a lot of stories of people losing money in the stock market. Continue reading A Cyclist’s Investing Tale: From P2,500 to P400,000

On Buying a House – Invest in Stocks First or Get a Home Loan?

I received this question earlier this morning from a fellow forum member and blog follower (name withheld for security and privacy reasons):

“Hi Burn! I’d like to ask for advice if it’s ok with you. It’s about our plan to have a house of our own. We’re currently renting an apartment for P6,500/mo so we’re considering taking a Pag-ibig housing loan of 2M with a term of 30 years, 8% interest per annum and a monthly amortization of about P17,000. Actually, P17,000 is almost half of our monthly budget already so we’ll be sacrificing a lot, maybe even our monthly 20% allotted for buying stocks..

So do you think it is much better to just put the P17,000 monthly in stocks and just withdraw from it when it reaches 1-2 M? Maybe after 5-10 years given the interest is 10% p.a.? However, the prices of labor and materials might have gone up considerably by then..

The loan seems more attractive now as the house can be built with in 6 months to a year so we also won’t have to pay for the apartment rent once we’ve moved in.. Continue reading On Buying a House – Invest in Stocks First or Get a Home Loan?

Know the Company’s Fundamentals Before Investing

So you are itching to invest in the stock market. But you don’t know what stocks or companies to buy. You join various social media groups, circles, and forums and shout out:

“What are the best companies that you recommend for a newbie to buy?”

Then you get tons of answers from intelligent, experienced, inerrable investors and traders. Sometimes you get ditched. Sometimes you receive some sermons. And most of the time they intend to get you confused even more. Okay, not all the time. 😛

Before we proceed, I want to make it clear that this post is mainly intended for aspiring and new investors. Those who have 8-5 jobs or a small businesses and are serious with their chosen crafts. Those who don’t have time to time the market. And those who value their precious time with their spouses and children. Continue reading Know the Company’s Fundamentals Before Investing