Tuesday, November 6, 2012

buy experience

i'm wasting money when i pay for something that doesn't give anything in return. so when i'm about to buy something, it should give me something. and the returns of buying are categorized in two:

1. benefit of consumption and
2. benefit of experience (which i always prefer)

consuming is to stay alive while experiencing is to live. even if it's good or bad, experience gives out more than just staying alive.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

categorize: save money


want a reason to save?

when i buy, i categorized my purchases as either:

1. necessary or
2. not necessary(others)

easy as that.

the tricky part is how to determine whether what i'm buying is necessary or not. it should be as simple as a yes or no question, but some factors complicate the decision making process. whatever those factors are it all boils down to whether it is needed or not.

let's use phone as a sample. i would say i don't need a phone to live or i wont die(literally) if i don't have a phone. but if i have a kid and i want to keep track of him because i will die of worrying, then that's a need.

now, think. what are the things that you can't live without? don't cheat. and, only by that you will be able to save.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

money works

money makes the world go round: that's half true. money and people makes the world go round. sad to say, people are letting money make the world go round when it should be the other way around. people are working for money instead of letting money work for the people.

let's take a look at the three kinds of people-money relationship, which i have in mind.

employment: when one is employed, one is working for money. he works to receive money for him to use for daily activity. once depleted, the cycle is repeated. it's advantage: it's basic, no complications and no stress (depending on whose looking at it). drawback: unstable and routinary. once you're laid off, the pay stops and you need to look for another job.

business: when one owns a business, one is working with his money. to clarify, he is helping his money grow by making the business stay afloat. then the owner would hire managers to take charge of the operations so he can sit back. then, from time to time he takes part on the operations. that's better than being an employee, in so many ways. one disadvantage though. it consumes time. not like if you are going be an investor

investor:  when one invests, he uses his money to generate more money. sample would be time deposit, real estate, stocks, bonds, etc. simplest form would be saving up in a bank with compounding interest. that may return the smallest but adding it up to, let's say, 15 years: that's big. 1,500 monthly with 0.5%interest rate for 15 years would have a future value of 281,939.13, regardless of the currency(i think).

final note, make your money work for you. do not just work for money.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

siyaman (plus one)

siyaman (n) jeepney's passenger seat can hold nine people per side

jeepneys are means of public transport in the philippines. it looks like the willy's jeep with the rear stretched back by several feet depending on how it was customized. passengers will enter from it's rear opening, much like a mini container van. then passengers will crowd inside on two long adjacent seats, which seating capacity depends on its length.

the problem: drivers force additional passengers to the seating capacity limit. more passengers mean more income for drivers and more inconvenience to the passengers. imagine seating on just half of your butt for the whole time of travel. i know: that sucks, big time!

the solution: nothing. in the philippines, there is no "solution". there's only "work-around". that's either you shout a the driver that it's not possible to fit another soul inside. or, you don't let anyone inside even if the jeep is still picking up passengers. another work-around would be categorizing jeepneys by seating capacity. unfortunately, i'm seeing bureaucracy's dark side creeping in. with those said, we can only stand back and figure out what lesson we can get from the situation.

the lesson: save up for your own mode of transportation because public transportation sucks.

Monday, October 1, 2012

teach yourself how to teach yourself

how do you do that, you ask? i have no clue. it was just a catch for you to keep on reading. pretty neat, eh. seriously, what i really wanted to say is "teach your body how to teach itself".

to elaborate: it's like raising your body and your soul (and other parts of your being) to absorb anything that comes along the way- that means learning it and making it stick that you don't have to think of it every now and then. think of muscle memory when you eat- spoon, fork, chopsticks, where you mouth is. you know.

now, think bigger and faster: that means a lot of info to learn, and faster.

next: how do we do that? this is where google comes in. but not all will be laid for you by google. you still need to decipher all the pages it presents you. but to filter things down, here's my list of pointer (in no particular order)
  • hold on to that interest - i don't know how you'll do it. what i do? i try to learn my interests first. if i got stuck. i leave it and move to the next interest at hand. i don't stay on something where i don't get anything. then somewhere along the way, i get back to where i left.
  • know thy self - really? i need to explain further? simply put, if you don't know yourself, you're in a big trouble.
  • taking a break is not bad, not at all - batteries, fuel, food, energy, r and r, sleep: you will die if you don't take a break.
  • google is not your only friend - actually, search engines are just the middle men. they introduce all the friends that you need.
now what?  leave this blog and go some-blog else. you don't expect me to give you all the details, now, do you? i don't spoon feed. sorry.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

copying and pasting


sitting down doing nothing is not that all unproductive. in my case, it pushed me to think about small things in life. and one of them is "copy and paste". i know it's silly but just think of it. when was it first used? to what machine and what operating system? how was it conceived or how did originate? now, if you ask why is it important to discuss this, it is not. well, not so important, in general. my point, anything can be worth blogging. even just the tiniest, unrespected matter or, in this case, action.

let's define it first. copying and pasting requires the action of highlighting a certain character, file or element first. then, copying by several means like pressing ctrl+C or clicking file on drop down menu the selecting the word "copy". finally, going to where it is to be pasted and pasting it by, this time, pressing ctrl+V or clicking file on drop down menu the selecting the word "paste". let me remind you that this is only limited to what i know. other procedures and articles are all over the net.

next, how did it came about? let me check google.

The term "cut and paste" comes from the traditional practice in manuscript-editings whereby people would literally cut paragraphs from a page with scissors and physically paste them onto another page. This practice remained standard as late as the 1970s. Stationery stores formerly sold "editing scissors" with blades long enough to cut an 8½"-wide page. The advent of photocopiers made the practice easier and more flexible. 
- wikipedia
now it gets more interesting. isn't it nice to know that there's a lot that you can do on your spare time?

ps: can anyone please coin a word for copy/paste?

Monday, January 30, 2012

i love art

i slept in the bus on my way home and ended up at where the buses are garaged. then i saw this.

i love this kind of art.

Friday, January 27, 2012

trial experience

and so i used envelope budgeting and achieved some results: not that astonishing though. i budgeted my last Php1732.00 yesterday to make it last until tuesday, just before the next pay day. i got 4work nights and 2 offs. i need Php250 per work day, which means Php1000 so i still have extra Php732 since i dont have debts and bills to pay for now. that's a good sign considering i'm already thinking that i'll have no money when tuesday comes. what makes it work? here are what i saw


  1. big view on a small scale - i never get to see the whole picture when i spend or swipe: especially swipe. because there's something with buying that makes me feel easy and comfortable that i want to do it again. without consulting the purse. but last night i saw the details on my spending. i know i love food and that was the time i realized that i eat for comfort. so, i know i spend too much on that part and that's where i need to watch out.
  2. preventive measure - knowing that i only have money for food and transportation made me back-off on those luscious donuts with custard inside and icing on top. need i say more?
these are just two of, i should say, benefits that it can offer. i have some more at the back of my mind. but i just got back from work and i want to sleep. so, ponder on these for and i'm pretty sure you'll have your own list once you've tried this envelope thingy.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

budgeting 101


to dig deep into envelope budgeting, i must simplify the term first. hence, i need to make sure i understand the word budgeting... budget.
A budget (from old French bougette, purse) is a financial plan and a list of all planned expenses and revenues. It is a plan for saving, borrowing and spending
so, basing from the definition, it can be simplified as... (income - expense = 0) where income is defined(in my own words) as any monetary device labeled with currency which was received and/or is available to be consumed by the calculated expenses. while expense is a calculation of how the income will be used.

some might ask where saving lies in the formula. since, i believe that it is one of the elements of expenses, let me extend the formula to: [income - (saving +other expenses) = 0]

i still have doubts on this calculations, though. so, any comments and suggestions are encouraged for a healthy discussion.

envelope budgeting

i've always had a hard time saving up for the rainy days. i'm always stuck in the part where i have no idea where the money is going to. and believe me, i hate that part. so i scoured the net to look for ways how to solve this eff-ing problem and googled(i wonder if this verb is already an entry in the dictionary) budgeting. then i thought, why don't i just check its wikipedia entry. unfortunately, all information inside that entry were on a macro-scale of the word itself. and fortunately, except the "see also" part. there lies the phrase envelope system.

although there's just a small info about it, the description how the system works gives enough overview on how it works basically: enough to make me save.
"Typically, the person will write the name and average cost per month of a bill on the front of an envelope. Then, either once a month or when the person gets paid, he or she will put the amount for that bill in cash on the envelope. When the bill is due, the money is taken out to pay for that bill. 
This prevents the person from spending the money out of their pocket or bank account, because it is already allocated to the bill."
But why stop there? the basics will make one save. but knowing the entirety will make wonders. a little more on that matter, later.

Monday, January 16, 2012

new feel

it's amazing to find something new with blogger.com interface. i'm not that enthusiastic about it though. with all this white stuff allover the screen that somehow looks over my shoulder every once in a while. well i don't want to dwell that much on this change. let's just embrace it. moving along.

i'm not quite sure how yesterday went. we just moved some furniture, watched prison break and did some origami crane. and looked for some albums on toptenreviews.com which i find interesting. massive attack's blue lines: i like!