Category: Saving

Are You Really Ready To Buy A House?

If you are running a social media group like our OFW UsapangPiso Forum, one of the most moderated posts are those ads of houses and condo units that local real estate brokers and agents are selling. The problem is that they don’t read our posting guidelines/rules first before flooding our walls. Nothing against selling of properties as I myself do sell some passively. (Yes, I don’t like competition). 😛

Seriously, agents and brokers target OFWs and OFW communities in selling their units, boasting of easy installment plans and low interests. There are also a lot to choose from. Pretty tempting for most OFW’s whose goals include owning a house or run a house-for-rent business.

However, people need to examine their situation first whether it’s already the right time for them to buy their first house.  Just because everybody’s buying and news of a good economy keeps on popping up your TV screen, doesn’t mean you have to buy now also.

Ask yourself the following questions to know if you are really ready to make that once so elusive dream of owning a house come true. Continue reading Are You Really Ready To Buy A House?

We’re Using Cheap Cellphones, So What?

Some friends are telling me that I should buy a brand new smartphone, an iPhone5 (Update: iPhone7 na!) perhaps. Para saan pa ba daw ang sweldo? Probably because they’ve been seeing me using a ridiculously older and funnier model of cellphone (not already) available in the market today.

Well, my wife and I agreed that we don’t need a brand new smartphone for now as we don’t see its benefit and relevance to our goals. Besides, we communicate heavily through the internet (emails, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.) using our laptops and a tablet (I’m not a cheapskate after all!).

In spite of the fact that we can actually afford to buy a couple of brand new top-of-the-line smartphones, we still preferred to just keep our old ones while they are still working according to our needs (Read: Text and call).

I know you don’t care but perhaps if you are someone who’s currently in deep debt but you brandish the latest smartphone, then I guess you can learn a thing or two from what we do. So whether you are interested or not to know what cellphone models and brands we use, I present to you our Trio Ring-O. Continue reading We’re Using Cheap Cellphones, So What?

OFW UsapangPiso Biblical Finance Coffeetable Coaching Sessions

The OFW UsapangPiso Forum – Manila and Angat Pilipinas Coalition for Financial Literacy (APCFL) will be conducting a Biblical finance coffee table coaching session on July 27, 2013, Saturday at 1pm.

The Biblical finance coaching session will be headed by OFW UsapangPiso & APCFL’s volunteer speaker Joseph Gerard Romana.

Joseph (or Seph) is a Bank Examiner at the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC). He used to work at the Philippine Stock Exchange as Market Risk Officer, Fixed Income Securities Trader, and as a Stockbroker. Seph is also a resource speaker for Biblical personal finance seminars in his church.

Supporting Joseph are Edmund Lao, a Registered Financial Planner and a personal finance columnist at  BusinessMirror, and Loriza Cabatbat a seasoned investor and Certified Public Accountant (previously from Deloitte).

Topics include:
A. Why study Biblical financial principles?
B. God’s part: Ownership, provision and control.
C. Our only part: Stewardship
D. Why Study Spending?
E. Spending 101
F. Biblical financial principles
G. Practical approaches
H. What is debt?
I. Price or Cost of Debt:
J. Kinds of debt:
K. Disadvantages of Debt
L. Biblical perspectives on Debt
M. When is it alright to borrow?
N. How to avoid debt?
O. Getting Out of Debt
P. Biblical perspectives on Savings.
Q. Biblical Perspectives of Investing
R. Different Kinds Of Investments
S. Avoiding Scams: Recognizing Red Flags
and everything about Biblical Wealth Management

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The event will take place at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (a coffee shop), G/F Four Season Bldg, Tordesillas cor Toledo St, in Salcedo Village, Makati. Kindly get in touch with Ms. Carmi Irene Revilla-Cristobal at 09178340426 for directions and details.

So if you are interested to join, please fill out the form below.

See you all there for another awesome and spiritually-packed learning session!