Living Solo: Moving Into Your Very Own Place

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A friend of mine sought my advice the other day and was asking what she needed to get ready for, now that she was dead set on moving out of the house.

Personally, I think making a move from the comfy confines of the traditional Filipino home setup to getting a place of your own is a bold and admirable move.  I’m all for independent living, and you can build so much character by managing your own household, all by yourself.

Obviously, one of the first things to consider when you want to set out on your own is to find your own place.

It would be great if you actually buy your own piece of property (you can get a decent condo for a good deal these days), or at least get something rent-to-own.  It’s still alright to rent one, but keep costs manageable.

As a rule of thumb, I’d say 20-30% of your monthly income could go to your rent.  Factor in bills for utilities, groceries and daily transportation, you should only be spending at most half of your monthly income on all your living expenses for the month.

Any more than that, and you’re probably living beyond your means.   Take some time to sit down and assess your spending habits, so you can see where all your money is going.  If you think you might be spending too much, either scale down some, or make more money.

Don’t forget to figure in location.  Ideally, you would want a place as close to work as possible, to cut down on daily travel time.  The further away from work, the cheaper it gets (in terms of monthly rent and maintenance), but you’ll be spending more time on the road rather than doing something else like sleeping or relaxing.  So strike out a good balance.

Usually you will be needing two to three months’ deposit and one month advance.  So expect to cough out a little more cash at the start.  In most cases, the deposit gets used up when you decide to leave, so you get your last couple of months for free (assuming of course, you have fulfilled the terms of your contract).

Moving in will also entail some costs, as well as renovating and cleaning up your new place, and even buying new fixtures, furnitures and other personal effects.

At the very least, your new place should have a decent bed, a desk and chair, and some closet space.

As for appliances, you should probably start getting a few essential pieces…

• An electric fan or two, because the Philippines is hot and humid like that,
• A refrigerator, so you can store all the essential food you need living on your own, stock up on deli meats, sandwich stuff and other grocery items, have cold drinks, and essentially make life a lot easier for yourself,
• A one- or two-burner stove, so you can do basic cooking and reheating, allowing you to save some money by not relying too much on eating out or having food delivered at home,
• A basic oven toaster, for heating up bread and other food, or for doing some simple roasting  or baking,
• A lamp, for controlled lighting at night.
• A rice cooker, not only because Pinoys love rice, but also because you can do more cooking in it.

For utilities, apartments usually come with electricity and running water.  Depending on your needs, you will probably end up getting…

• Cable TV.  Only if you’re more into TV.  Personally, I’m not a TV person.  I’d rather put my money into…
• Broadband Internet.  You might actually be better off using a provider like Smart Bro, only because I haven’t had any issues with them these past couple of months (I had a couple of terrible experiences with Globe last year, one in June and another in November).
• A landline service.  Landline phones are so easy to get these days.  In fact, you can load a landline sim onto an old mobile phone of yours, so you can take your landline with you wherever you go.

As you gain a little more money, you can probably afford to but yourself a few more high-ticket items:

• A radio/CD/mp3 player. Because everything is so much better with music.
• A TV.  Used best with cable, or with a DVD player, or even a gaming console- totally up to you.
• A PC.  Used best with internet or broadband connection.  Depending on your needs, you can make it more work-friendly, or more gaming-intensive.  Even better if you’re seriously considering doing more work from home.
• Air-conditioning.  Particularly useful during the summer months.
• A microwave oven.  Cooking and reheating gets even more convenient that way.

Of course, later on you can put in money from time to time for new curtains, or even those aromatic oil lamps, throw pillows or little decorative pieces.  Maybe you might even decide to invest on a better bed, so you can get more quality sleep, or you can build up your kitchen some more, spruce up the bathroom, work towards a more impressive home entertainment center- you can have whatever you like.

With hard work, and some smart spending decisions, you’ll eventually have the home away from home you’ve always wanted- a place where you can chill, relax or crash, or have a DVD marathon with some friends, or just spend some much needed alone time with yourself.

Cheers, everyone!

Looking For Property in The Philippines?

Share This Post: dabbling in local real estate, with Renzie Baluyut.

At this point in my life, I’m looking for the next big thing, other than continued employment- something I’ve had enough of for the past 15 years.

For me now- it’s doing consultancy projects, entrepreneurial endeavors, maybe even setting up a new business or two.  Ultimately though, I know I’m going to get into real estate eventually.  So what better time to get into it than now?

Real estate, I believe is the logical next step, particularly if you’re looking to achieve a fairly early degree of financial independence.  I’ve started to get into it myself, and I’m hoping to learn more over the next few years, and hopefully work towards the kind of lifestyle I want for myself.

Let me share with you seven websites that have a fairly good selection of properties for rent, sale, or for lease not only in Metro Manila, but also in other parts of the country:

• AyosDito.ph. AyosDito.ph sells all kinds of things, from cars, to personal effects, to even gadgets and electronics. Of course, they have a fairly extensive listing of properties in the Philippines, organized according to region, so you can browse through all kinds of condos, apartments and houses depending on what province you’re going for.

• MoveInTheCity.com. While MoveInTheCity.com seems more like a directory for transients and all sorts of accomodations and rooms for rent, it also has a good listing of all kinds of properties, not just in Metro Manila, but in other key cities around the country including Cebu, Baguio, Davao, etc.

• Sulit.com.ph. Sulit.com.ph is another free online classified ads site for the Philippine market. What I do like about the site is that it keeps track of the ads you have recently browsed through so you can easily come back to them on your next visit.

• Classifiedsph.com. Another free online ads service. I haven’t personally had the chance to browse through this site yet, but right off the bat, you could see the most recent ads put up, from property to concert tickets, to vehicles for sale- pretty much everything you can expect to see in a classified ads service.

• FindProperty.ph. On the plus side, everything on FindProperty.ph is all real estate- apartments, houses, condominiums, commercial properties, etc. You can easily navigate properties by location, if you’re either buying or selling, or if you’re even looking for timeshares or foreclosed properties.

• Bahay.ph. Aside from being the real estate-oriented free online classifieds, bahay.ph also puts the spotlight on real estate agents and brokers. You can even leave messages for these agents and brokers, if that’s the way you want to play.

• iProperty.com.ph. Another online directory for real estate agents and brokers and all kinds of Philippine properties. It has a listing of the most popular properties, as well as the most sought after agents and brokers, on top of the usual most recent listings, quick location searches, and others.

Do you have your own favorite Philippine real estate websites as well? Please, do share.

Cheers, everyone.

Living Solo: Spending Money The Right Way, part 2 of 2

money management, made better with Renzie Baluyut.

In the last post, Part 1 of  Spending Money the Right Way, we discussed a simple money management technique recommended by “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind” author T. Harv Eker.

Eker recommends that whenever money comes our way, we should make it a habit to divide it up into six different accounts, each with a particular purpose.

• 10% goes solely for investments (the FFF fund)
• 10% is for big-ticket items you’re saving up for (the LTSS fund)
• 10% goes to your continuing growth and education (EDUC)
• 50-55% goes to your bills and necessities like rent, utilities, food, clothes, etc. (the NEC fund)
• 10% goes to rest and recreation (the PLAY fund)
• 5-10% goes to gifts, donations and charities (the GIFT fund)

So for every Php1000.00 I have, it would be broken down accordingly:

The Philippine One Thousand Peso Bill. Image courtesy of WikiPilipinas.org.

• Php100 goes to a fund for future investments, particularly for acquiring more passive income.
• Php100 goes to saving up for, say, brand new appliances at home, or that new laptop I wanted for myself.
• Php100 goes to a fund that will support my digital photography lessons, or business workshops, or more books on marketing.
• Php500 goes to doing groceries, or paying off bills, or for buying a new shirt or something.
• Php100 goes to my “movie-and-coffee” fund, or “dinner-and-drinks-out-with-friends” fund.
• Php100 goes to feeding those stray cats outside the apartment.

Which means if I had received a check for, say, Php18,000.00…

• Php1800 goes to the Financial Freedom Fund,
• Php1800 goes to Long-Term Savings for Spending,
• Php1800 goes to my continuing Education,
• Php9900 goes to paying off day-to-day Necessities,
• Php1800 goes to my Play fund,
• and the remaining Php900 into the Gift fund.

This habitual allocation of funds should be in effect regardless of amount, no matter if you receive, say, Php100 or Php20,000.

Now bear in mind that the percentages may vary according to your need, and can therefore be adjusted according to your current situation.  But the most important thing is getting into the habit of putting money into EACH of these separate accounts, no matter what.

The system works so that it allows for more controlled spending.  If my friends invite me out for beers, I know that I can spend up to Php1800 and nothing more.  Otherwise, we can find ways to just party at home so we can spend less.

Putting a cap on my Necessities Fund also conditions me to live a simpler lifestyle, as I now have to find ways to cut down on unnecessary bills (why subscribe to cable TV when I have a fairly efficient internet connection?) as well as to save money.

It might be hard at first, but just like forming any habit, it becomes second nature as you go through the motions on a regular basis.

Personally, I think it’s great advice; something that would have been a lot more useful 15 or 20 years ago when I was just starting out.  But hey, there’s no better time to start than right now.

You can expect a lot more articles on the topic of money management and personal finance on this blog in the future.

Special thanks to Andy, and his post on the Financial Freedom Formula, and to Chase of Barfield Management.  You guys were great help on the topic.

Hope this helps all you chicks and dudes living solo, all you entrereneurs, and pretty much everybody else who’s looking at taking their money management a bit more seriously.

Cheers, everyone.

Living Solo: Spending Money The Right Way, part 1 of 2

managing money for bachelors and entrepreneurs, with Renzie Baluyut.

It used to be a lot simple.  You make some money, you spend it, maybe set aside some for savings, or for whatever big ticket item you’re eyeing for yourself in the future.

If my spending goes up, I would be the kind of guy who would probably try to look for more side projects or gigs to cover the added expenditures.

That was when I was still working for a radio station and all that.

These past few years, I had to take a good hard look at how I spent my money.  A few months back, I wrote about the expected cost of living is in Metro Manila.  I also had a post on How To Make More Money, also from a few months back.  A good start, but now I feel we need to write a follow-up to that post in the very near future.

Fix Your Money Blueprint

The way we see money, our spending patterns, how we’re serious about our savings- all those are manifestations of what is called our Money Blueprint.

This was all the idea of T. Harv Eker, author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth.  Which, if I may point out, is a good read for anyone who needs a little more guidance on managing money.  And I mean, anyone; not just entrepreneurs and businessmen.

In fact, had I known about this a lot earlier in my life, I probably would be a lot better off now.  But hey, it’s never too late to start anything, so here I go.

In his book, Eker recommends a fairly simple money management technique: separating our income into a number of different accounts, with each account created for a specific purpose.

There are six different accounts that he recommend we create, each with a corresponding percentage value:

• Ten percent (10%) goes to an account to accumulate money for the purpose of investing and building more passive income; never to be used (withdrawn) for any other purpose.  He called this the Financial Freedom Fund, or FFF.

• Another ten percent (10%) goes to an account for Long-Term Savings for Spending, or LTSS.  This is what you use for whatever big-ticket items you have in mind for yourself: renovating your kitchen, that big new plasma TV, or that brand new PC you always wanted.

• Still another ten percent (10%) goes into our Education (EDUC) account: which we should spend on books, seminars and workshops, anything that allows us to keep on learning new things, which in turn, encourages our personal growth.

• Necessities (NEC) will account for fifty- to fifty-five percent (50-55%) of our income.  It’s not as easy as you think; if anything, limiting your bills and day-to-day expenditures (food, transportation, phone bills, internet, etc.) challenges you to live a simpler lifestyle.  A real eye-opener for me, on a personal note.

• You will definitely need to enjoy the fruits of your labor- which is where ten percent (10%) of your money goes: to the Play (PLAY) account.  Anything for the purpose of rest and recreation.  For best effect, spend your entire PLAY account monthly, or at least every 3-4 months (if you’re saving up for that Singapore vacation you’ve always wanted, for example).

• Lastly is the Gift (GIFT) account, which takes the remainder- five to ten percent (5-10%) of your income.  This is what you use for any and all your charitable endeavors, whatever makes you happy.  Remember, there are always people out there worse off than you.  Giving back, therefore, is important (and is therefore a topic worthy of another post).

So now you know how to divide your money up.  Eker even had gone so far as to recommend we use jars- actual, physical glass containers- to put money into, accordingly.

I say, whatever works best for you.  It can be as simple as doing an electronic funds transfer from one main account into all your other accounts, maybe a bunch of envelopes you keep on hand.  The point of the exercise is to get you in the habit of divvying up your income this way.  Something we’ll be talking about in the next post, Spending The Money The Right Way, part 2 of 2.

Cheers, everyone.

Three Things a Couple Should Never Fight About | Relationship Advice

relationship advice with Renzie Baluyut.

A friend and I were having coffee the other night, and she was opening up the fact that, while her relationship with her current boyfriend is generally alright, they usually end up quarreling.  This usually happens when she has to go out of town, attend to some clients, or work on a photo shoot.

Now, as far as relationships go, I think I have a fairly good idea of what works and what doesn’t.  While I am enjoying a very happy eight-year love affair with my girlfriend/fiancee, my current view on relationships has been shaped by a number of ex-girlfriends, numerous dates both successful and disastrous, as well as stories from other friends.

So here’s what I think: if there’s anything you, as a couple, shouldn’t be fighting about, it would have to be these three things:

1.  Work,
2.  Friends,
3.  and Money

Let’s get into all three in greater detail, shall we?