Are you interested to invest in the stock market? Here are the list of what I did first

Many people I know are not investing in the stock market. Some may think it is only for the rich and others who have money are afraid of it. But if you have wisdom about it before you do it, the stock market is there to grow your money. I was actually thinking of investing in the stock market years ago but it's only now that I am really into doing it. Here are the sequences of my preparation.

1. I started  by reading about investing. I first heard and read about investing in the stock market from I'm not really sure when and where but when I learned that it is where you can grow money, I researched and read books about the topic. The books I first read were Rich Dad's Guide to Investing by Robert Kiyosaki and a book called How to Invest in the Stock Market by I forgot the author and of course several books by Warren Buffet. My book bucket list is still many. Now, I am reading Stock Investing for Dummies.

2. I chose a broker which is based on a recommendation of my millionaire friend. I did my own research and I even attended and visited the office of the broker so I can see for myself if the broker is really what they say it is. I chose COL financial. I attended one of their seminars entitled "Why invest in the stock market". The speaker is great and knows what he is saying.

3. I inquired about the requirements of opening a COL account. I emailed their customer service several times to clarify their requirements. They do reply and I like how they treat email inquiries. What's good about COL is that you can avail of their starter account and your account can be upgraded easily once you got more money in your account.

4. I determine how committed I can be and how much you I invest per month or quarter as well as my goal for my investment. I think this should have come first but I only read it in the book  Stock Investing for Dummies.  But even in the beginning, I already have my goal which is to bring my Lola to a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and since I budget my income and expenses per month, I already know how much I can place as an investment. Right now, my only dilemma is if I invest monthly or quarterly.

I am still processing the opening of my account. But my goal is to open one before this year ends. I decided to make my sister the secondary holder so whatever happens, she can withdraw the money if ever something happened wherein I can't do the transaction. If you are also interested in investing,I hope you learned from this article and I invite you to learn about stock market investing together.

Transition from campus to corporate: 3 things I had to change

It’s been two weeks since I started to have a “real” work for an international company that manufactures engineering and technology products. But it’s actually been more than two months since I got accepted in the company because I had to undergo through this so called “new-hire” employee training for 2 months before I get to handle my job functions. In that duration, I had to make huge adjustments to cope up with the huge changes that I faced. The following things are the ones I learned and am still trying to change.

1.      1. School Mindset – College is full of theoretical stuff especially in engineering that is why I was often told by my mentors at work to think in terms of applications and not in ideal conditions.  In the real world (yes you are said to be in the real world once you work), there is no ideal system and everything affects everything. The company I work for manufactures engineering materials and provides solutions to customers who are mostly industrial. My job is to make sure I give the customers the right product for their applications. And in my case, I can’t just give what is the ideal solution for the customer. There are many things to consider aside from the applications of the customer. The economics also plays a huge role because as expected, the customer always wants to cut cost and the same time to have the best product and because it is still the customer who decides. I cannot also give products to any customer. For example, I cannot give products to places which we are “red flagged” especially those countries who are at war because the products might be used for weapons of destruction. 

Work is not just about intelligence.

2.     2.  Dealing with colleagues. – In college, you can definitely choose who to go with during lunch or during a lakwatsa. But at work, you cannot actually choose who your workmates would be. It’s hard for me at first because I don’t really like to mingle with people whom I am not really close to. But I understood that good relationship with my workmates is really important since we would be working as a team. And even people who are not directly on my team are also good to befriend because of the great leverage that their connections can give in the future. So instead of being resistant to make new friends, I had to change to a more approachable and friendlier person. 

Knowing how to be a team player is more important.

3.     3.  Communicating with others – In the office, I noticed that all people who are on the top are good communicators. But being good in communicating is not just important for presentation purposes but also for establishing camaraderie  and networking with people which are great leverage in climbing the corporate ladder. Well, that is what most people want but I don’t really like to climb the corporate ladder if I don’t like the job function of my boss. I believe stress can kill any motivation I have in going to work so stress is something I am really careful to deal with. Many people are sick just because of stress. 

Enjoying being with your workmates reduces great stress at work.

     Being out of school does not mean having to stop learning. Being at work means continuous learning. In terms of learning, nothing really change after graduation, the only difference is that you get a paycheck and your actions affect not only you but your team and company as well.

Upgrading Your Financial Mindset to Millionaire's Mindset: Some life-changing things I learned from listening to Brian Tracy

Japan is AMAZINGLY different. Many things we can learn from the Japanese.

1.    They love their jobs.
This, I already noticed when we were boarding one of the airplanes of Japan Airlines. Flight attendants were lined up, bowing and greeting us.  After the safe trip, they bowed again saying “Arigatou Gozaimashita!”. One Japanese flight attendant who gave us food and drink during the trip really stood out from the rest because her smile seems permanently drawn to her face. And mind you, it’s not a robotic smile but it’s a truly genuine smile. Of course, I cannot really say that deep in their hearts they love their jobs, only God knows that, but from all the Japanese people who assisted us in the hotels, restaurants, convenience stores, etc.,they all seem happy doing their own respective job no matter what it is. And they love their jobs not because they are being paid high salaries, but because they really put great importance and value into their work to the point that it is almost SACRED.

You couldn't ask for a better tour guide than Innaba-san

2.    They are highly disciplined people.
I came from the Philippines, so you may understand how astounded I was during my one week stay in Japan. It was a CHALLENGE for me to look for strayed trash.  I never saw anyone breaking the road rules. Everything is organized even their garbage! One friend who stayed in Japan for months warned me to segregate excellently all the contents of the garbage bag before giving it to the collector. Otherwise, they will ask you for a fine which is ridiculously high of course. How do they know it's yours? Well, they will run a fingerprint check to the contents of the garbage bag. I bet they will.

A typical street in Japan

3. For them, time is really gold.
"The Japanese are never late." This is one of the many things that were reiterated to us during the orientation before going to Japan. This is true in general except of course when there is an accident or when something happens. Needless to ask, we really need to be reminded about it especially me because I was almost 20 minutes late to arrive in the airport on the day of the departure. I got really scared because it was possible that my all-expense-paid trip to Japan will be gone just because I'm late. But thank goodness, the one from the travel agency is a Filipina so she already adjusted the time giving allowance to the dreaded "Filipino Time". All of our activities started on or before the set time except on our last dinner when my pasaway colleagues did not show their faces.
I also noticed that most of their innovations and inventions have so much to do with improving so that less time is required for a certain task. They measure everything in terms of time. They judge a product better over another if this product will save them more time. And they pay pretty much so they can save time.  That's why they have the Shinkansen Train  (Bullet Train). It's a  VERY EXPENSIVE train because of course it required a great investment too. But mind you, many Japanese use it and almost all of the people I saw there are in business suits.

My friends who stayed in Japan will be really jealous.

 4. We don't know what HONOR means. They do.
They say that the Filipinos are the most hospitable people but when I met and stayed with my Japanese host family, they are beyond hospitable. They  honored their guests and I was blessed to be one of them. As I stepped into the shoe area (where all people removed their shoes as it is forbidden to use them inside a Japanese house), a scrapbook with welcome greetings got my attention. They were very apologetic for they can't speak English that well (we used google translate to survive). But they gave us the BEST- from accommodation to food and recreational activities. I never experience horse back-riding and canoeing ever in my entire life but I did in Japan thanks to my host family.

The Sakamoto sisters welcoming us into their home.

I don't usually go horse back riding but when I do, I do it in Japan. Haha [where everything is way safer]

I also really admired the Japanese government -from the JENESYS 2.0 program of the Japan International Cooperation Center (JICE) to the local government of the Shizuoka prefecture, I and all the Filipino delegates were amazed at the same time, really sad when we thought of the Philippines in comparison to Japan. What Japan is, now, has been a result of the Japanese values combined with hard work and Kaizen. How we wish that all of our government officials and the Filipino youths can visit Japan and see what the Philippines can achieve if only we change for the better starting first within ourselves.

11 Things to Prepare your Kids to Become Billionaires. # 2 will blow your mind especially when you are Filipino

I got this from a trusted forum. Some  of these are unconventional and may challenge your perspective especially when you are a parent. # 2 is a challenge . #7 is for me, not necessary.  This article is, for me, worth reading and pondering since it comes from an actual billionaire parent who has kids being prepared to be just like him.
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I once had a VC tell me that I had come up with more legitimate billion-dollar concepts than anyone he’d ever known. I have friends who went from zero to billionaire status. So, I feel qualified to give you a straight answer. My answer will assume you want them to have the know-how, creativity and value systems to pull it off on their own. Plus, I raised my three sons this way.

1. Make them aware of the full range of life options. I told my sons of a remote beach in NW Australia where the climate is magnificent and you can pull lobsters out of the surf two at a time. Build a grass shack. Find a good woman. You’re set. At the other end, how did that guy build his love of crafting musical instruments into a $100M business? Take the mystery out of the steps it takes. The world abounds with opportunity to lead whatever life you want, but you have to demystify, demystify, demystify for them to be able to see what makes go businesses go.

2. Do NOT send them to public school NOR to the prep schools. If you want conventional minds, get them a conventional education. Our oldest started working professionally at age 12. He skipped high school to work. He worked at a corporate branding company in SF Media Gulch. He did at least one project a year with an itinerant filmmaker. He traveled the Maya for several months assisting a woman writing a book, lived with Maya families and interviewed children in Spanish on their beliefs about different plants and animals and the Quiche (or Yucatec or Mam) name for them. He spent two winters in Luzern captaining a dive boat mapping wrecks in the lake. He shot a documentary film in Cuba. (This was not a rich dad buying opportunities for his sons–it was opportunities they earned.)

3. Teach a love of work. After you get rich you can coast some. Getting rich takes work. They will need to excel at physical work and have stamina. They will especially need to excel at mental work and be both flexible and tough.

4. Teach a love of people. The only way you get rich is by serving the real needs of others. You must have an affinity for others. My household was famous for all the people who came trooping through. People I met stranded at the airport. Japanese Homestay girls. Aux pairs. Local homeless guys dropping by for a shower and a meal. Chinese physicists and Eritrean guerillas had meals with us. Our sons’ friends were welcome at any time without prior arrangement. Make sure they understand that they are not above or below anyone else.

4. Teach generosity. Those who would receive much must be able to give much. My middle son (11 or so at the time) and I walked across Embarcadero from my office to look at SF Bay. There was one sole figure there, a man in his late 40s with one entire seam of his jeans ripped open. He was playing the spoons and playing them well. We got to chatting. He’d just been let out of San Quentin Prison that morning. I told him time to celebrate. We took him up to my office for a shower, out to buy some clothes and to dinner and gave him money for a room for the night. On the way home, I pointed out to my son that the money I gave the guy was nothing compared with the time we gave him. The only real wealth is the time you have, and whenever you have a chance to use your time well for others, do it and do it fully. Giving money without time can be a way of creating distance.

5. Teach the mental nexus. Here falls the shadow. Rational people do not become entrepreneurs. Like combat officers, one is constantly making critical decisions on partial information. One has to take steps without being able to see if there is support there. One must taste failure time and again and be inspired by it. One must be armed with a variety of rationalizations for continuing on despite doubt, buffeting, adverse opinion. Every successful new business gores someone’s ox, and those people react in nasty ways. The faces you see each day are now depending on you to make payroll. Pediatric oncologists must be mentally tough to deal with the suffering of others; entrepreneurs must be superhuman to deal with the tragedies they themselves can be the authors of. Trick is, you can’t teach that mental nexus if you have not lived it yourself. If you haven’t, then apprentice them to someone who has.

6. Lie, cheat and steal. I was shocked at my mother’s funeral when a brother flatly stated that he’d had a difficult time in life because he’d just assumed everyone was as wonderful as she was. The world is full of assholes and swindlers and your kids will need a radar for it, and they need to suffer the consequences so that they develop an arsenal of techniques for dealing with it. They need to be superb judges of character. You can’t teach good behavior by isolating them from bad behavior. There’s no satisfactory example here; let’s just say that April Fools was big in our house, and not just once a year.

7. Make them teen outcasts. Correlating highly with successful entrepreneurs is unfulfilled teen years. Basically, those who are dialed in by 18 stay comfortably dialed in. This is another reason to keep them out of high school. Another high correlation is Fs. Entrepreneurs are highly results-oriented and have little patience with those as process-oriented as teachers. I’ve talked with VCs who confessed to being a little disappointed if they don’t see an F or two on a possible CEO’s college transcript. I know I had ‘em.

8. Teach numeracy. Anyone who can’t do math in his head on the fly is going to have a difficult time being an entrepreneur and putting deals together. Schools don’t teach this; it’s a special, long-term effort.

9. No allowances. No “Joe” jobs. Nobody ever got rich working for a living. Trading your time for money is a loser’s game. An allowance just teaches a kid to lack resourcefulness–same for teen jobs. My wife and I played VC to our kids. They could ask for any amount of money they wanted but what’s the plan? what’s your purpose? what are alternatives? etc. etc. They learned to recognize opportunities and pitch them. [Add: If you are going to help them get job jobs, make it in sales--they won't get far without the power to persuade, and it's another thing they won't learn in school.]

10. Get a grubstake. Fortunately, my kids went to school with the children of an immigrant couple who left the kids with relatives two straight summers while they went to live in a tent in Alaska and can salmon. They each cleared $80K each summer, and after two years they had a third of a million with which to get into the start-up world. They found some scientists with a bright idea (one that everyone reading this is impacted by many times daily), started the company, got backing and they are billionaires. No grubstake. No billionaires. You can’t be a capitalist without capital and the willingness to put it all at risk.

11. Worthy. Finally, the most important thing is they must be worthy. No backing comes to those who lack abundant evident character. I have found the best way to fine-tune morality is to put it entirely on them. Each time a moral decision is called for, it’s “Search your heart, son. You have to build your life around what is important to you. The only way I can help you is to tell you how I screwed up sometimes. But the sooner you learn to get in touch with your own feelings of what is right and what is wrong, the better.” (But be sure to model right over wrong like crazy to them.)
There is only one path to getting wealthy: exploit opportunity. The whole purpose of what I’ve stated above is to equip your children with the tools to spot and build on an opportunity to add value to the world.
How will you know you’re on the right track? The vast majority of people you meet are inert. One in ten or twelve has scalar energy–they liven up the event. One in a thousand or so has vector energy–the ability to channel effort to a purpose and pull others in their wake. The only way a human being begins to become a vector force is to Find and Embrace His or Her Passion, and that can be a bit quirky. For example, our youngest has long been the butt of family jokes for his inability to tell a story. What did his passion turn out to be? Turns out his head was too crammed full of details for each story. Once he learned to animate, his stories were incredible!
You should be getting glimpses of that talent to pursue purpose with passion all along, but it doesn’t mature until adult years. It is such a rare thing that schools are not at all equipped to teach it. Even the best MBA programs teach you how to go to work for that guy rather than be that guy. So, if you can pull it off, you will not only have enriched your children, you will have enriched the world.
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You want your kids to become billionaires? Are you willing to take the price?

Want to know why some people are way successful than others? Here's what an expert has to say.

 First of all, why Brian Tracy? If you have the same question, you probably do not him yet. Brian Tracy is one of the best seller authors of books related to success. Take notice of the books being displayed in national bookstore and I bet you will see several of his books. Aside from books, he has also created hundreds of audiobooks which I am listening to these days. He has many experiences to make him a known trainer of individuals and even organizations.  His rags-to-richest life has  been about looking for answers of why some people are successful and many are not. In summary, the answer is just the difference on how people think and learn. Here are the qualities that set successful people apart from the average according to Brian Tracy.

Brian Tracy

1. Successful people are continuous learners.

Successful people know the value of continuous learning thus, they learn how to learn. They take many personality tests and seek to find their strengths and weaknesses. They know the methods on how they learn best  and apply them to their actual learning. They are continuously upgrading their skills and learning to have other skills as well. They are best motivated by self-growth and development.

2. They know their learning is for their own good.

Brian Tracy himself admitted to having read not just hundreds but thousands of books. Successful people take responsibility for their own learning. Many people are learning to please others just like many kids excel in school just to please their parents. This is the reason why some corporations need to threaten employees of termination just so for them to take further learning endeavors. Successful people are self-initiators of learning.They do not need external factors to force them to take further learning.

3. They simply know more.

As a result of 1 and 2, successful people are highly knowledgeable people. This does not mean they all have multiple Master diplomas. Some of them did not even have a formal college education. Most of the wealthiest CEOs are successful not because of their intelligence but because of their experience. They surely have failed in business MANY times before they got to succeed. They acquired their knowledge not simply from the school but from their own experiences.They know more things not just from books but from experience which is the best teacher available.

In conclusion, this verse said it best.

For Start-up Businesses: GoNegosyo-ASEAN Foundation 'ICT Training for Micro and Small Entrepreneurs

 

Sign up at: http://tinyurl.com/pce-af-ms-icttraining

Are you living in the Philippines? Do you a business and you want to use technology to your business advantage? Then this training is for you! The Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship is looking for participants for its GoNegosyo-ASEAN Foundation ‘ICT Training for Micro and Small Entrepreneurs scheduled on April 15-16, 2014.

Registration is free. This 2-day training can teach you  more about integrating technology with your business operations.

For more info go to: Go Negosyo.

I hate living in poverty. And you should too. The first step towards financial freedom.

I came from a poor family in a far-flung barrio in a not-so known province in the Philippines. I knew how to be poor. I lived it. And one thing I detest about it is living in shortage. One memory still so vivid to me was when one day I was walking home from school. Since my allowance is just enough for a lunch of vegetables, I did not really afford to get a ride from the main road to our house so I usually walk. Whenever I am lucky, some tricycle who will pass by our house will allow me to take free ride. The road is not cemented yet. I really don’t know how on earth the local government still hasn’t got funds for that. Anyway, so since it’s not cemented, whenever a vehicle passes by, it creates a halo of dust that will be all over your face in no time. On that day, I wasn’t lucky so my face got powdered several times with dust.  I remember on that day, I promised myself that one day I will never have to walk on that road again just because I can’t afford it.

I hate living in poverty. And you should too. If you are a Filipino reading this, aren't you aware that we Filipinos, usually romanticize poverty? Just notice our local movies or telenovelas, what do they usually portray? Poor Filipinos are living simply and happy while rich people are having troubles with family feuds and money problems. Living simply and living on principles most probably do give you a life full of sense and happiness. But it is definitely not living in poverty as the media usually portrays it.

When I ask my mom what her dream in life is, she said it is to see us all, her children, to graduate and have a good job and life in the near future. Generally speaking, that’s the life dream of a normal Filipino mother. But I know that deep inside (although my mom just doesn’t just say it out loud) she also wants to travel abroad, to have a business, to have a family car, and many others that means big money.  We all want financial freedom and not just enough to survive in our everyday lives.

For me, that’ the first step towards financial freedom - the desire for it. They say everything happens in the mind so most books will say that the first step towards financial freedom is changing your mindset. One Filipino writer once said that Filipinos are not destined to be poor. He had the need to say it because the real reason why the poor is increasing in number in our country is because the children of the poor think they can get nowhere but to where they are now. They think that since their parents are uneducated and unemployed, they will just be like them. Most people use that excuse not to strive harder for them to make a difference in their lives. True enough, making excuses is far easier than going out from your comfort zone and exerting effort. So it’s really up to you because financial freedom is a personal decision. Your parents can not decide it for you.

Where to start in pursuing your financial dreams? My dream is to be an investor. What's yours?

Lately, I've been really busy that I wasn't able to post something new here. Our college graduation is getting near as in we have less than a month to complete everything. But of course that's not the only thing I've been doing. Graduation will eventually come and college life will just be small part of the future.So what other things kept me busy this time around? You may have noticed in my last posts  that I was so passionate in learning and educating myself about financial stuff. So basically, that's what I've been doing. But actually, it's more than that. What I've been doing this past weeks is investing. Don't get me wrong. I said in my first post that I'm not rich (yet). So I'm not talking about investing in the stock market or real state or whatever. What I am investing at is myself. Yes myself. How? I am investing in myself by developing the skills I will be needing in achieving my financial goals. Now, that statement can mean many things. But here is exactly what I've been doing. Have you read Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad Poor Dad? If not, stop here and read the book first. Then after reading that book, read his other book entitled Rich Dad's Guide to Investing. Well, my goal is to be an investor so this books really appeals to me. But it still is a must-read for all people who have high financial goals even though not really wanting to be an investor. Well, but if you are the kind of person who wants to stay forever in your job (maybe you just love your job so much) then probably you won't need to read this book.This book contains a lot of eye-opener truths when it comes to how money works. My goal is to be in the investor quadrant and for me to go there, I have to pass first the B quadrant which stands for business! Why business first? Because in my condition right now, there is no way I can be in the I quadrant simply because I do not have money to invest yet! And even though I have a lot of money now, say I won 10M PhP in the lottery, I still will not invest. Why? Because investing is not just about percentages going ups and down. In the book, Rich Dad's Guide to Investing, it was revealed there why people like me should go through the B quadrant first.

So basically, that's where I am now, in the B quadrant. I am relatively a new player here and I am investing on skills which are necessary to be competent in this quadrant. What's my secret? Reading. That's the first advice I got from my millionaire friend. But not just reading but reading with intelligence and having visions for your goals. :)

P.S. 

You want to read now? I recommend you to read Joey Concepcion's article "Filipinos are not Destined to be Poor".

Go Negosyo 6th FIlipina Entrepreneurship Summit 2014

ONE MORE DAY TO GO!

Since I am a fan of conferences or talks especially about entrepreneurship, I am helping Go Negosyo to publicize their event tomorrow which is about women empowerment and entrepreneurship. This has been an annual tradition of Go Negosyo since 2009 dedicated to target the very important kababaihan sector of our society. The GoNegosyo team just had the 3rd Filipino Technopreneurship Summit and they are again gearing up for this women summit. This is timely for International Women's Month celebration which we are doing this March. All the government officials and employees are invited and of course all of madlang people (there is no registration fee). The speakers are all famous and worth listening to. Watch this video I especially created for more information.

I'm hoping for the event's success since I'm a solid supporter of women empowerment and entrepreneurship. My dream is to become a successful young entrepreneur and to be able to talk and inspire others as well. I do not have a business degree but I believe that doing business is something you can not learn inside a classroom but something you learn from other people's experiences and from your own experiences as well. This is why I always try to attend seminars and conferences about starting and doing business. I am aware that there are many Filipino micro-entrepreneurs out there especially in this time when it is easy and cheap to publicize in the internet. So if you are one of those, I wish you can attend to this event and I also encourage you to have the passion in learning so that you will never stop learning. Most of the businessmen I know say that your earnings in your business is directly proportional to your learning!

Financial Advice to Young People

   Okay, so continuing on the topic of financial literacy, I would like to emphasize again the importance of self learning. Believe it or not, when I asked my millionaire friend who the heck is his financial adviser to have made the amount money he had, he said, “I have the best adviser- the INTERNET.” At first I thought he’s got to be kidding me! But later, I found a video in ANC channel about youth investors and the investor being interviewed at that time said that the internet is indeed a minefield of information for young investors! So I did not waste any time. Since I’ve learned from my millionaire friend that I must start first with educating myself financially talking, I downloaded as many ebooks from the internet as I could. The topics are ranging from investing to personal finance to accounting. So now, I have a pretty amount of materials lined up to be read. If you want to look for free ebooks just as I did, you just need to be a little creative in how you search in the internet to get reliable sources of reading materials. When I scanned the ebooks I’ve downloaded, honestly, I got a bit overwhelmed. I did not know where to start. So instead of reading, I’ve watch videos first about financial advice to young people and I came across a video where Warren Buffet was a guest speaker to a forum of students. By the way, I only came to know about Warren Buffet, considered to be the most successful investor of the 20th century from that video. Obviously, he did not exist in my vocabulary before but ask any investor and he/she might actually know even Buffett’s current net worth. Same thing applies to you, if I ask you who is considered the father of health engineering in the Philippines, of course you don’t know. But ask me and I’ll tell you the guy’s name and even his mannerism when he talks. That is because I came from the engineering discipline and that person was my teacher for a couple of subjects in the University of the Philippines. (By the way, if you are curious, the answer is Dr. Wilfredo Jose.) So the vocabulary of a person tells you pretty much about what he/she knows and what world he/she is into. That’s why I only came to know about Warren Buffet when I got introduced into the world of investments.

   So going back to Buffet’s advice to young people, he also emphasized the importance of self-teaching and learning from other people. But the one thing that struck me the most is his line, “Discover the full potential of the talents you have. This is the only asset you have that can’t be taxed and can’t be taken away from you.” 

He also enumerated 5 elements of a wealth-growing mind:

1. Do not be afraid of making mistakes.

2. Know the power of compounding.

3. Learn how to move your money.

4. Educate yourself.

5. Learn to wisely allocate your resources.