FINANCIAL SITUATION

Here is my current financial situation:

Credit Card 1: P 31,000.00
Credit Card 2: P 18,000.00

Emergency Fund 1: P 10,000.00 (goal is P50,000.00)(for emergency situation like hospitalization)

Emergency Fund 2: P -0- (3 to 6 months worth of salary for living expenses in case of job loss)

Educational Fund: P -0- (college tuition for my 3 children)(goal is P1,500,000.00)(I have 10 years to build this up)(tuition fee is increasing every year)

Retirement Fund: P -0- (goal is P2,500,000.00)(I plan to retire when I reach 60. I'm 27 now so I still have 33 years to raise this amount).( Partial amount raised, if there is any, will be put in time deposit the same with Educational Fund).

Passive Income: P-0- (will try to look for one)



GOAL:

Pay off my credit card debts on or before December 2008 before moving on to Emergency Fund 1.

How about you? What is your financial situation? What are you goals?

PLAN YOUR MEALS

Plan your family's meal for 1 week. Write down what's for breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday of the week. You can include snacks if you want. Then make a grocery list of all the ingredients you need to prepare the meals. By that way, you will only buy what you really need. This will also avoid food spoilages since all the items you buy will be cooked and used within the week according to the meal planner you prepared. You can also allocate one dinner a week for eating out with the whole family. By having a list, you will also avoid emergency trips to the grocery store because you forgot to buy something. This will save you time and fuel.

Food is one of our major expense. Everybody eats. And if you don't plan it out, you're only flashing money down the drain.

BPI EXPRESS CREDIT CARD CLASSIC

If you're planning to have a credit card, try to apply for this one. It has a low monthly interest rate of 2.75% and new purchases are not charged interest. Plus, late payment fee is also minimal compared to other cards that charges P600 or more. Annual membership fee is P1,250. The first supplementary card is free membership for life while P625 will be billed annually for the 2nd to 6th extensions you have.

To avoid inconvenience, be sure to ask the cashier if they accept this card because some stores do not.

DEBT SNOWBALL PLAN

Do you have credit cards? How much do you owe from them?

Here are some tips on how to pay-off your credit card bills:

1) List all the balances on each card. Then follow the debt snowball plan of Dave Ramsey.
ex. CARD 1 = P5000
CARD 2 = P 8500

2) Pay the minimum amount on both cards then add additional payment to the card with the lowest balance. By this way, you will be eliminating first the card that you have the lowest debt. Given you have budgeted P2000 to pay your monthly credit card bills and the minimum payment for the each card is P500.

ex. CARD 1 = P 5000 -500 -1000= P3500
CARD 2 = P 8500 - 500 = P 4500

3) Do this every month until you fully pay CARD 1. When done so, pay all the P2000 to CARD 2 until fully paid.

4) Be sure that you will not add any purchases using credit card so that you will achieve your goal of eliminating your credit card debts.

LIVE BELOW YOUR MEANS

We always hear people say "live within your means" if you want to be rich. But as I have read some books on how to get rich, they say the correct way to start building your fortune is to "LIVE BELOW YOUR MEANS". And it really makes sense. Imagine, if you live within your means, meaning all your income is equal to your expenses. Break-even point. But if you live below your means, there is savings since you live below your usual cost of living expenses. The extra money left can be a good start in accumulating your fortune.

Most of us live a life of paycheck to paycheck. That is because we have the mentality that since we are earning, we should spend everything we earn. But that is not correct. Just follow this equation by heart and you're starting your way to good money habits that will help you accumulate wealth:

INCOME - SAVINGS = EXPENSE

SAVE FIRST then spend what is left.