According to the article, there are certain financial knowledge you should at least know by age 30. I’m glad and happy to say that I was able to grasp/do most of the items included in the list before I reach age 30. I actually started my financial journey when I was 28, though I wish I started earlier than that.

According to the news, at age 30

• A man or woman can make it on his/her own financially, even if he/she doesn’t have to.
• You need to keep your finger on your finances, even if you have a significant other who handles them. – Tama. You don’t have to fully rely on your partner for what ever reason.
• How you can deal with a personal financial crisis, like suddenly losing your job. – You must have an emergency fund.
• How to make a budget and how to stick to it.
• How to set up an emergency fund and how to keep it full. – 3 to 6 months of your monthly expenses or salary.
• How to read a bank statement and how to complain when something on it is wrong.
• How long it will take you to pay down any credit cards you have paying only the minimum balance. – Don’t ever just pay only the minimum balance.
• How to get your taxes done every year without going crazy. – I’m not sure if many Filipinos knows this. If I didn’t go self-employed, I wouldn’t have any idea.
• How to establish credit in your own name, even if you also share credit cards with a spouse.
• How much risk you’re prepared to tolerate in terms of investments. – Talk about stocks and mutual fund investments
• That you’re going to need money for retirement at some point and you’ll need strategies to save for it. – There’s no such thing as ‘too early’ in preparation. The earliest, the best. Prepare now.
• How you’re going to make up for any time you spend out of the work force, at least in terms of retirement.
• How much having a family costs, even if kids aren’t in the cards.
• What legal protections are out there specifically for women, like whether your state has laws guaranteeing you maternity leave.
• How to negotiate a raise, even if it feels like you shouldn’t ask for more money.
• How to leave a job you hate, preferably with another one lined up.
• How to get a copy of your credit report and how to dispute incorrect information on it. – We only have credit cards here.
• What cosigning a loan means – and when to refuse to do it. – Don’t ever do that. It’s very risky.
• What the pros and cons of owning a house versus renting an apartment. – Most Pinoys prefer building or buying a house rather than renting.
• What are your parents’ retirement plans are and whether you’re going to need to help them. – Most Pinoy’s parents don’t have one. Lucky if your parents have some sort of retirement plan especially in the provinces.
• Who is responsible for you and your finances if something makes you incapable of taking care of yourself.
• How to reach a lawyer, an accountant and an insurance agent, even if you don’t routinely need their help. – In the Philippines, pinagtataguan ang mga insurance agent, hehe.
• How to negotiate a big purchase (like a car or a house), even when the other side underestimates you.
• How to sell something you don’t need any longer.
• What it would take for you to start your own business, even if you’re not ready to make the leap.
• What are your options for health insurance are and how to make the most of them, even when they’re bad. – Most Pinoy only have health insurance provided by the company.
• Where to get financial information and advice that you trust.  - Very hard to find. When you find them, treasure them.
• What your financial priorities are and what’s the next step you need to take to reach them.
• How much are the prevailing rates of interests in the banks – This one I just added.

And if you’re way over 30′s, it’s not yet too late if you still don’t have any idea on the list above. But the not so good news is you better hurry. Time is not on your side.

And in case you’d want to look for a mentor, attend our

FREE Financial Planning Seminar / Forum on Saturday – May 19, 2012 at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Centris Station, Quezon Avenue, Quezon City (Quezon Ave. MRT Station).

Topics to be discussed can be found here.

Register below if you wish to attend – it’s FREE of charge.

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1. Sun Life Policy Holders Facebook Group – in order to keep my clients abreast with what’s happening on the market, mutual funds, insurance (be it term, whole life or vul) I created this Sun Life Policy Holders Facebook Group solely for my clients.
   Since most of them are either OFW’s, employees, businessman/women whom I don’t frequently get to personally meet with, I felt having this group will bridge the gap of communication.What’s inside this group? Mutual fund (navps) updates, news articles (videos) on market happenings,  updates on Sun Life as a company, latest offerings, inspirational quotes, where and how to pay for policies, question and answer.

   In case you’re one of my clients and you’re not yet included, please let me know. Most likely, we’re not yet friends on Facebook.

   And in case you’d want to be included in the group, there’s a catch. You have to me my clients first, haha.Just one way giving back to my clients for their trust.

   Besides, I promised them that I will help them achieve their financial objectives, so it’s only fitting that I guide them along the way.

2. ‘Stock Market Investors Minsan Traders’ Facebook Group – Just created this group with the purpose of sharing my knowledge (disclaimer: I’m no expert on this yet, just have some background and a little experience) on the stock market with my clients and friends who are beginners in the trade.  Actually Paulo Rocha gave me this idea, I just executed it. Thanks Paulo.What’s inside this group? Sharing of portfolio, market news, basic ideas on the stock market, stock picking tips etc. Members are mostly my friends and anyone who wants to join.In case you’d like to join the group, add me up on facebook (www.facebook.com/garrydc) so that I can easily send you invites.

   I’m not sure if I can add up people who are not in my friend’s list.

3. FREE Financial Planning Seminar / Forum on May 19, 2012- We’ve been receiving a lot of emails and text messages when will be the next Financial Planning Seminar. You may noticed that we haven’t posted any schedule yet. That’s because we still haven’t found a good and available venue.But for the sake of those who are waiting or been wanting to finally open a mutual fund account /vul with Sun Life, or have a financial checkup or get an insurance proposal, we’ll be having a small group forum this Saturday in Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Centris Station, Quezon Avenue at 1pm.What to expect? This is more of a forum/meet and greet rather than classroom type seminar.  You can have a one-on-one FREE Financial Checkup (for retirement, education, insurance),  Open a mutual fund account (bring ID, Initial Investment), ask for FREE Insurance Proposalsbased on your profile (be it term, whole life, vul based on your budget – bring USB).

   Is there a FEE? It’s totally FREE, you don’t have to pay anything.

   But as a courtesy to our venue, please order something for yourselfso that it will be a win-win situation for both party.

   FREE Financial Planning Seminar/Forum
   May 19, 2012 (Saturday) 1PM onwards
   Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Centris Station (Quezon Ave. MRT station)
   Quezon City

   In case you’d want to attend, please sign using the form below.

   Seminar

   1. Full Name(required)
   2. Age
   3. Occupation
   4. Email(valid email required)
   5. Contact Nos.(required)
   6. Current Location(required)
   7. Interested in Mutual Funds Educational Funds Retirement Fund Life Insurance
   8. Message / Remarks

    

   cforms contact form by delicious:days

   See you there!

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Before any violent reaction, let me tell you the story behind why the birthday greetings yesterday were very much appreciated. I actually made an experiment. I wanted to try something different from my last year’s birthday – I intentionally removed my birthdate in my Facebook profile few days before the big day.

Why?

Simply because, I wanted to make sure if there are people who still remembers my birthday and not just depend on Facebook or Birthday calendar etc. Madami padin pala kahit papano. 

In this facebook age, it’s easy to simply rely on certain things to do the remembering for you. I’m sure you know what I mean.

Findings

Now, here’s what I found out. The first people who will greet you are your family members – dapat lang. If they forgot you on your birthday, baka ampon ka lang, hahaha, just kidding. It will then be followed by your co-workers, friends and acquaintances.

While it feels good being greeted on the internet (facebook, email, chat etc),  it feels a lot better greeted by texting or even calling you on the phone.

And it feels best when they greet you in person – with gifts, of course hahaha – just kidding.

On the other hand,  it feels disappointing to be forgotten by the few people whom you expect to remember or should remember you.

Your simple “Happy Birthday” may not mean anything to the giver, but it sure means a lot to the receiver. Always remember your loved ones on their birthday and special day.

Thank You

Again, Big THANKS to all those who remembered me on my birthday. To all who haven’t greeted me, now is your chance, haha. Accept my ‘thank yous’ in advance.

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The story was good, so I thought of sharing it here since it is somewhat finance related. I’m not sure if it’s real or not but what the heck. Read on.

A young and pretty lady posted this on a popular forum until she finally gets a reply from the CEO of JP Morgan.

Title: What should I do to marry a rich guy?

I’m going to be honest of what I’m going to say here.

I’m 25 this year. I’m very pretty, have style and good taste. I wish to marry a guy with $500k annual salary or above.

You might say that I’m greedy, but an annual salary of $1M is considered only as middle class in New York.

My requirement is not high. Is there anyone in this forum who has an income of $500k annual salary? Are you all married?

I wanted to ask: what should I do to marry rich persons like you?

Among those I’ve dated, the richest is $250k annual income, and it seems that this is my upper limit.

If someone is going to move into high cost residential area on the west of New York City Garden(?), $250k annual income is not enough.

I’m here humbly to ask a few questions:

1. Where do most rich bachelors hang out? (Please list down the names and addresses of bars, restaurant, gym)
2. Which age group should I target?
3. Why most wives of the riches are only average-looking? I’ve met a few girls who don’t have looks and are not interesting, but they are able to marry rich guys.
4. How do you decide who can be your wife, and who can only be your girlfriend? (my target now is to get married)

Ms. Pretty

A philosophical reply from CEO of J.P. Morgan:

Dear Ms. Pretty,

I have read your post with great interest. Guess there are lots of girls out there who have similar questions like yours. Please allow me to analyse your situation as a professional investor.

My annual income is more than $500k, which meets your requirement, so I hope everyone believes that I’m not wasting time here.

From the standpoint of a business person, it is a bad decision to marry you. The answer is very simple, so let me explain.

Put the details aside, what you’re trying to do is an exchange of “beauty” and “money” : Person A provides beauty, and Person B pays for it, fair and square.

However, there’s a deadly problem here, your beauty will fade, but my money will not be gone without any good reason. The fact is, my income might increase from year to year, but you can’t be prettier year after year.

Hence from the viewpoint of economics, I am an appreciation asset, and you are a depreciation asset. It’s not just normal depreciation, but exponential depreciation. If that is your only asset, your value will be much worse 10 years later.

By the terms we use in Wall Street, every trading has a position, dating with you is also a “trading position”.
If the trade value dropped we will sell it and it is not a good idea to keep it for long term – same goes with the marriage that you wanted. It might be cruel to say this, but in order to make a wiser decision any assets with great depreciation value will be sold or “leased”.

Anyone with over $500k annual income is not a fool; we would only date you, but will not marry you. I would advice that you forget looking for any clues to marry a rich guy. And by the way, you could make yourself to become a rich person with $500k annual income.This has better chance than finding a rich fool.

Hope this reply helps.

signed,
J.P. Morgan CEO

Moral Lesson of the Story

It is never enough to have beauty, style and good taste. And it is never a good investment to accumulate things or assets that lose value over time.

Aside from that, this is the first time we’re doing it on a Sunday. We’ve had some inquiries before that due to their work schedule up to Saturday, they cannot attend the seminar. So this is now your chance.

We’re now charging a very minimal fee of P100.00 to pay for the venue (electricity etc.), so I hope you don’t mind the fee as compared to the amount of learning that you can get from the seminar.

Below is the outline of the topics to be discussed.

• What is Financial Independence?
• How to Plan for your Retirement?
• How to Plan for your Children’s Education?
• How to have a plan for your Health?
• People’s behavior on Money
• Why are most Filipinos Poor?
• Fundamental of Investments
• Putting the Allies of Wealth to work on Your Side
• How Money Works?
• How to Get the Highest Potential of your Money?
• How Mutual Funds work?
• How to Open a Mutual Fund Account?
• Is Insurance a Good Investment?
• What are the Different Types of Insurance and what’s Best for me?

At the end of the  seminar you will be able to know:

• How to build a solid financial foundation regardless of your age or income level
• How to make money work for you instead of you working for money
• How to get the highest potential of your money
• How much protection do you need

For those who’d want to get started investing and sign up with Mutual funds, VUL or other investment, we will be bringing forms and signature cards.

Just bring your ID (any gov’t issued or with picture and signature) + your initial investment (5,000 for mutual funds) and we’ll have you sign up. Registration fee of P100 is reimbursable if you sign up after the seminar. Receipts will be issued.

Who Should Attend:
Best for beginner and intermediate saver/investor. For best results, bring your wife/husband or bf/girlfriend. Financial success is best achieved with your partner in life.  (walk ins are not allowed)

Time and Date:
2pm Sunday, April 22, 2012

Venue:
3rd Floor (LinxProvi8),  UG1-A The Palm Towers St. Paul Road., San Antonio Village, Makati City

How to get there via LRT or MRT

From Magallanes MRT Station

Ride the passenger jeepneys with the “PRC” placard displayed. After crossing G. Puyat (Buendia), watch for Bagtikan St. Disembark at Estrella Ave., the corner immediately following Bagtikan (right after Ambers Restaurant). Walk a few meters and turn left at St. Paul Rd to the Palm Towers.

From G. Puyat (Buendia) LRT Station

From the G. Puyat (Buendia) LRT Station, ride the passenger jeepneys with the “PRC Kaliwa” placard displayed. After crossing G. Puyat (Buendia), watch for Bagtikan St. Disembark at Estrella Ave., the corner immediately following Bagtikan. Walk a few meters and turn left at St. Paul Rd to the Palm Towers.

Registration Fee:
Minimal fee of P100/person

How to Register:
You may call or text thru the following numbers with the following details

• Name:
• Birthdate:
• Occupation:
• Email:
• Contact Nos.:
• Current Location:

or Register thru the form below.

cforms contact form by delicious:days

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Don’t get me wrong but this has nothing to do with his death nor his estate. It’s just that after the interment (libing), out of no-where, my Tita approached me with a question. Knowing that I’m with Sun Life Financials, she asked about investment vehicles for retirement.

She was actually a previous policy holder of Sun Life – sadly she surrendered in 2008 amidst the closure of some pre-need companies during that time. She thought even Sun Life will fold but fortunately it’s still standing tall that’s why maybe she’s considering Sun Life again.

The Need for Retirement Fund

She shared that she has 7 employees at the moment and would want to somehow have a retirement fund for her employees should they decided to stay with her until retirement age. And of course, she’d also want one for herself. And since she also read books of Chinkee Tan and other financial planners, she knows that with proper investment vehicle, retiring with P10 Million is very achievable.

(By the way, P10 million is only her projected retirement fund need. We haven’t done any Financial Needs Analysis where you can actually project how much retirement fund you will need depending on different factors like life expectancy, income at retirement and existing investments)

I asked her, “Tita, ilan taon ka na nga?”

She answered “Forty one”.

“At what age would you like to retire?”, I asked.

“Gusto ko Fifty Five”, she answered.

“Actually Tita, we (referring to my wife) are actually doing that right now. Altho it will be different on your case since you’re already forty one. But just to give you an idea, we started at age 30. We invest P5,000/month and plan to do it for 30 years. And if it gives a return of 10% per annum (happily in the past 3 years it’s more than 10%), by the time we reach age 60, we’ll have P10 Million”. I told her.

“Cge nga, icheck mo nga if in 14 years, how much ang kailangan ko per month”, she replied.

“Cge Tita, I’ll try to prepare a projection to determine how much you’ll need to invest on a monthly basis so that you can have P10Million by the time you retire.

Our conversation ended there since they had to go.

I thought to myself, this could be a good guide for people who wants to retire with P10 Million but doesn’t have much time on their side. Why not share it here in Financial Planning Phils.

How to Have 10 Million Retirement Fund?

If you can remember, I previously posted “How to have 1 Million Pesos Even If You’re Just An Employee”.  I guess a lot of people liked it and shared in Facebook for 103 times.

Again, we’re going to use the simplest way to achieve this. No, it’s not by any pyramid scam or networking or any multi level marketing but by having the discipline to regularly invest in Mutual Funds.

If you don’t have any idea what Mutual funds is, I suggest you read the articles in this link - http://www.financialplanningph.com/mutual-funds/

Again, we’re using the 2 allies of money here which is Time and Compounding interest. The longer the time on your side matched with higher interest rate, the more easier to achieve your target retirement fund.

Here’s what I came up with using our Financial Calculator.

Say your age right now is 25, you’d like to have P10 Million retirement fund by the time you reach age 55 (that’s 30 years in the making), then you only need to save and invest P4,848.00 in an investment vehicle that earns at least 10% per annum (mutual funds or stocks that is).

And guess how much is your total savings for that – just P1.65Million. Imagine, you get P10Million with only P1.65M. It only means that P8.35Million is the interest you get from that savings.

In our case, we (me and Aileen) altho we started investing in mutual funds at age 28, we only had the discipline to put in P5,000 a month a age 30. We round it off to P5,000 a month instead of P4,848 for easy tracking. Have we been successful in doing it regularly?

So far I could say that we’re ahead of schedule. We even joke sometimes on who’s leading as if it’s a competition.

In the case of my Tita, she’s now 41. If she wants to have P10 Million retirement fund at age 55, she’ll need to invest P28,505.00 per month.

What’s your age right now? Do you also want to have 10Million retirement fund? Better plan and start now.

Conclusion

In a country like ours, having a retirement fund is not mandatory unlike other countries. That’s why it’s a common scenario when Filipinos retire, they got no choice but to depend on their children. (see Story of 2 Lolas)

Even more sadly, it seems that a lot of Filipinos view their children as their salvation when they grow old. Though it’s a good sight to see where children support their parents in their old age, it is not the obligation of our children to do so.

To everyone who are within my generation 50 years and below. I have a simple request to all of you. Let’s make a simple favor to all our children. I hope to see that there will be no parents to take care of – because of the simple fact that we can all take care of ourselves when we grow old.

Let me end with an excerpt from Randell’s blog on what the Bible tells us about retirement.

The Bible actually talks about preparing for the future — many refer to it as the ‘Storehouse’ Principle. Come to think of it, retirement planning is just like filling our storehouses. Let us be consistent in filling up our storehouses so that when the time comes, we will have enough supply for our needs. Retirement planning is no different – we must be faithful in allocating for our retirement so the when we do retire, we will have more than enough. Just as God blesses the storehouses in the biblical times, God will bless our financial plans as well. Remember though, if one does not have a storehouse (or a retirement program in this case), what will God bless then? 

If you want to learn more about Mutual Funds or would want to open a Mutual Fund account immediately and other investment vehicles to prepare for your Retirement, Children’s education  etc., I’d like to invite you to

Steps to Financial Security – Basic Financial Planning Seminar
details here -  http://www.financialplanningph.com/basic-financial-planning-seminar/

April 22, 2012 (Sunday) 2-5pm
c/o LinxProvi8, 3rd Floor,
UG1-A The Palm Towers St. Paul Road.,
San Antonio Village Makati City

Register Now ->

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Last Good Friday, we (Jacob and Aileen) were in Bulacan at my parent’s house. I was looking at my Conie’s (my sister) movie collection and copied some of the old movies I haven’t watched or watched but wanted to re-live the story.

My youngest sister (AJ) saw that I was copying Rocky Series and exclaimed “Naku ang tagal nyan. Rocky palang dami na.” Then I told her, did you know that the story was a Rags to Riches story? She asked “Alin, yung boksingero sya?”

I then told her the whole and brief story of Sylvester Stallone and how Rocky Movie came to be. My wife Aileen, Conie, AJ and even Kuya were all listening intensively so I thought why not share it here in Financial Planning Philippines. By the way, I too never cared about Sylvester Stallone before not until I read it from Bo Sanchez’ Truly Rich Club (which I’m a member since 2010).

Here it goes.

Stallone attended school in suburban Philadelphia where he first started acting. He then spent two years instructing at the American college of Switzerland in Geneva. When he arrived back in the United States he became a drama major at the University of Miami where he also began to write.

He left college before graduation and moved to New York to pursue his acting career. He auditioned for almost every casting agent in town with no success. He decided to turn more towards writing and wrote many screenplays while waiting for his acting career to blossom.

In 1974 he got a break as one of the leads in “The Lords of Flatbush”. He also received his first writing credit for additional dialogue on this film.

Despite this small break he struggled to build momentum. He kept auditioning with one rejection after the next. He started writing more screenplays and received similar rejection.

Stallone had run out of money and was living in a desperate situation. He could barely even feed his family. Then one day he was walking through the streets of New York and he wandered into the library to keep warm. This became a regular habit for him during the colder months.

During his time at the library he began reading books from writers such as Tolstoy and Edgar Allan Poe. This gave him a bit of an extra edge in his writing endeavours and so he pursued this more and more.

By this stage he was desperate to get work but he wouldn’t take an average job, he knew his outcome, he wanted to be an actor and that was it.

He resorted to many regrettable things like hocking his wife’s jewellery. I mean seriously, there are some things you should never do, you could get killed for something like that ha ha.

The Sylvester Stallone story continues…

One day Stallone was sitting at home watching a fight between Weppner and Ali. Weppner was getting absolutely slaughtered but kept holding his ground and coming back for more. This underdog was really fighting for it despite the slim chance he would even get close to winning.

This inspired Stallone to begin writing based on his inspiration from this fighter. He wrote for over 24 hours straight and after this time he had written the entire script to Rocky.

He began trying to sell the screenplay to many producers with enormous numbers of rejections. This went on for months.

He was so poor by this time that he decided he had to sell his best friend, his dog. Stallone waited outside of a local liquor store asking people if they would buy his dog. Eventually someone bought the dog for around $50. He was devastated to have to do this.

He kept pursuing this story that he had written. Eventually someone loved it and they agreed to do the movie. He was wrapped and told them that he wanted to play the part of Rocky.

They declined and told him he was a writer not an actor. Stallone disagreed and told them he was an actor. He declined there offer of over $100 000 despite his current poverty.

A couple of weeks later they contacted him with an even higher offer and Stallone still insisted that he play Rocky. The once again declined. Was he nuts? I mean the man was poor, he could barely even eat.

The offer kept rising just so he would sell them the film without playing the part. The price eventually got to around $400 000 and still he declined. He was certain that he was actor and that was it, there was no compromise.

Eventually they offered Stallone a measly $25000 so they weren’t throwing their money away by having him as the lead role. He accepted. Then the first thing he did was go back to the liquor store to buy back his dog.

He waited 3 days for the guy to come by and finally there he was with his dog. He offered the guy $150 to buy back the dog, the man declined. The offer kept rising, but again, Stallone knew his outcome and kept pursuing his goal.

It ended up costing him $15000 and a part in the movie to buy back his dog. The guy and the dog are in Rocky.

Of course we all know what happened with the Rocky movie. It won Academy Award for best picture in 1976. At the awards ceremony he read out all the rejection slips from those who said the film would be sappy, predictable and a film that no one would want to watch.

as shared from http://www.endlesshumanpotential.com/sylvester-stallone-story.html

And why the blurred speech? Here’s why

Complications his mother suffered during labor forced her obstetricians to use two pairs of forceps during his birth; misuse of these accidentally severed a nerve and caused paralysis in parts of Stallone’s face. As a result, the lower left side of his face is paralyzed – including parts of his lip, tongue, and chin – an accident which has given Stallone his snarling look and slightly slurred speech.

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvester_Stallone

Learning from the Sylvester Stallone Story

When I read this rags to riches story of Sylvester Stallone, I was awed.  Hard work and perseverance will surely pay off. You just have to sharpen and master your craft as you go along and one day you will reap all its rewards.

It kinda remind me of one of my favorite Bible verses -

Matthew 7:7 - ”Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

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How much is your Salary? How much is your income?

When I started working, this is like one of the most sacred info in the office. As much as you’d want to ask your co-worker how much is his or her salary, more or less you already know that you’re not going to get a straight answer. Just the same, when someone asks you, I’d bet your answer will be a simple ‘SECRET’.

As I attended seminars about finance, I learned of a better way to answer such question. When someone asks you, “Magkano sweldo mo?”, you should say “Tama lang”. When he goes “Magkano nga?”, you say “Tama lang nga”. And if he goes, “Magkano nga please”, answer him “Tama nga lang. Pag di ka pa tumigil, tatamaan ka na”. Har har.

Can I Borrow Money? (Pautang Naman)

I have to say I learned this the hard way. Basic rule of thumb is that “Never lend to family and friends, period.” A lot of good relationships  were destroyed due to this common practice. And to think  it’s very common to Filipinos to borrow (mangutang). And guess what, problem usually arises when the borrower refuses to pay.

So how do you handle if a friend or family is borrowing money? Instead of lending him the full amount, try to give ‘some’ instead. Say your friend is borrowing P10,000.00, just tell him that you don’t have that spare cash. If you can ‘give’ him P1,000-P2,000 without expecting any returns, that would be a better way than lending money.

Other awkward situations are dining out with friends, your friend did a poor job on a project, giving to charity. If you want to read the whole story, check it here ->

I know it’s never easy when you’re in those kind of awkward money situations. I’ve been there a couple of times and I’m not even sure if I can handle it smoothly in case I’d be in another in the future. But reading ideas like this can surely equip you with better solutions and excuses.

How bout you, have you had any awkward money situation before?

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And because of that, we’re going to have another batch of FREE Financial Planning Seminar on Saturday, 1:30pm March 17, 2012 in Quezon City. No fees to be collected. Just don’t expect any snacks or drinks.

After the seminar, we will have a chance for a FREE one-on-one personal finance consultation with yours truly and my team should you want to consult your financial problems, open mutual fund account, ask for insurance proposal  or simply with any questions.

Details of the seminar below.

• What: All About Financial Planning Seminar
• When : 1:30pm onwards (Saturday) March 17, 2012
• Where:  Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf , Centris Station, Quezon Ave., Quezon City. Due to the volume of registrants we’ve received, we’re moving the venue to Sun Life Quezon City, Orcel II Bldg, 1611 Quezon Avenue, Quezon City. (see map below)
• Fee: Absolutely FREE.
• Best for beginner and intermediate investor. For best results, bring your wife/husband or bf/girlfriend. Financial success is best achieved with your partner in life.
• LIMITED Slots Only.

This is also a good venue for those who have emailed me before who asked for sample proposals or who are ready to open mutual fund account but don’t know how or where they can start. In case you’d like to take the opportunity to open a mutual fund account after the seminar, please bring a photocopy of any government issued ID along with your initial investment. Receipts will be issued.

If you’re sure to attend, all you got to do is register using the form below. You’ll receive a confirmation email or text telling that you’ll be included in the list. We can only accommodate up to a certain number of attendees so better register as early as possible.

Please sign if you’re 100% sure.

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See you on the 17th!

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[Not familiar with mutual funds? Read and watch the video in this link What is Mutual Funds?]

To continue the momentum of that wonderful year of 2011 [ended with P21.46 Billion asset under management - story here], Sun Life Asset Management Co. Inc (SLAMC) – the mutual fund arm of Sun Life Financial – Philippines is introducing another promo called “Invest and Fly” wherein for a certain amount, investors will get a *FREE round-trip economy tickets to certain destinations around the world via Dragonair and Cathay Pacific Airlines. (promo period is til March 31, 2012 May 31, 2012 only)

Below are the amount of Investments to qualify for the promo and destinations.

Promo Period – January 2, 2012 – March 31, 2012 May 31, 2012. Investments placed til March 31, 2012 May 31, 2012 qualifies for the promo. Travel period is valid for 1 year (til March 31, 2013).

How to Qualify

• New and subsequent investments under Sales Load Option B (back end sales load option) in any of the 6 participating Sun Life Prosperity Funds (mutual funds) – GS Fund, Bond Fund, Balanced Fund, Philippine Equity Fund, Dollar Advantage Fund and Dollar Abundance Fund.
• Investments in the Money Market Fund are NOT included. Transfers however from an existing Money Market Fund to any of the 6 funds are qualified.
• Minimum investment to qualify is P500,000 for peso funds or US $10,000 for the US dollar-denominated  funds.
• Investments under Sales Load Option B will be invested with no upfront sales load deducted but will be subjected for early redemption fees. (5% if withdrawn on the 1st year, 4% if on the 2nd year, 3% on the 3rd year, 2% on the 4th year, 1% on the 5th year, 0 charge on the 6th year onwards.)

*correct me if I’m wrong but as far as I know, Sun Life is the only mutual fund company in the Philippines that offers 0 sales charge (if withdrawn 6th years onwards).

Is the Promo Good?

I’m sure some people would say, “if I have that amount of money, I can surely afford to buy the plane tickets anyway, so why invest”. Of course you can buy them, besides P500k is not a small amount of money. But if you have an investible fund of at least P500k, wouldn’t you want the idea that by investing that amount of money, you’ll get to travel for FREE? I sure won’t.

As I told to one of my clients, going to Hong Kong or any destinations, you can easily get a Piso or Promo Fares nowadays, so no need to shell out P500k just to go there. But if you have a time deposit in the bank that has been sitting there for sometime now and your not planning to spend it in the next 5 years anyway, wouldn’t you like the idea that by just transferring it to another financial company like Sun Life, you can get to travel for *FREE ‘with style’.  Not to mention that it has a lot more potential to earn more – 5%-10% per annum (though not guaranteed) as compared to 1%-4% in time deposits (guaranteed yet guaranteed to lose value due to inflation).

I’ve mentioned ‘travel with style’ coz I rode Cathay Pacific once and the experience is a lot different from PAL and Cebu Pacific Airlines.

I’m Interested, How Do I get Started?

In case you’re interested or maybe your parents or grandparents might be, better call your Sun Life Financial Advisors and inquire about it. If you don’t have one yet, just email me [garrydc@financialplanningph.com], text or call [0922-897-8077 / 0916-414-7400] and I’ll try my best to help you.

In case you’re in Visayas or Mindanao area – I can refer you to a trusted Sun Life Financial Advisor in your area. You can also fill up the form below so that I can contact you instead.

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Happy Investing!

Note: You don’t need P500,000 to start investing in mutual funds. In fact, for a minimum of only P5,000.00, you can already have your mutual fund account. It’s just that you won’t qualify for this specific promo.

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