Investing is like Planting a Tree

Investing can be daunting especially for people beginning to learn how to manage their money. One way to make it easier to understand the concepts and avoid doing things that can hurt financially is to think that investing is like planting a tree.

You don’t eat it while it is a sapling

All plants and trees start out as a seed and then a sapling. Even the largest trees in existence today started out as small saplings many years ago. This is also true with wealth: all of the wealth today started out as a small investment decades or centuries ago. Continue Reading

Mr. Productivity

I pride myself on being conscious about my time (or at least I like to think I am). I set up a daily routine in the morning when I read my devotionals, do my personal projects, and write something in this blog. I have written posts about time management like “Consistency Beats Intensity” and “How to gain extra time“. I listen to podcasts and audiobooks daily, and give my best to my work every day. I might even like to call myself Mr. Productivity.

I don’t like it when something happens in the day that ruins my routine. Some days there is something that needs to be done, or something unexpected that needs to be fixed and cleaned and it disrupts my schedule. I am also uncomfortable when I feel like I am not doing anything useful, like just lying down to rest or sitting somewhere to talk. Continue Reading

Live in Day-tight Compartments

After reading Dale Carnegie’s book How to stop worrying and start living, one concept stuck with me in the end: learning how to live in day-tight compartments. This is one of the main concepts discussed in the book that enables us to reduce worrying. However I think this can be used in a wider scope than just a remedy to worry.

Dale Carnegie is also the author of one of my most recommended books, How to win friends and influence people. So when I found out that he also wrote a book about worrying and anxiety, I knew that I am going to learn a lot. The concept of living in day-tight compartments was actually discussed in the very first chapter, but this idea was the most influential for me. If you feel like you do not have the time to read the whole book (which is just an excuse), give the first chapter a chance and you will not be disappointed. Continue Reading

Protect Your Online Accounts

Data breaches are a common occurrence nowadays, with larger and larger personal data being exposed to the public and the hands of malicious organizations. Big companies such as Yahoo, LinkedIn, and Equifax are not immune to these data breaches and resulted in exposing millions of customer accounts. In the Philippines we also experience these data breaches, recently in COL Financial (online stock brokerage) and in Jobstreet (job board). Therefore it is important for you to protect your online accounts to minimize the damage caused by these data breaches.

I personally have accounts in COL Financial and Jobstreet, and so the reported data breaches served as a wake up call for me to take steps into securing my own account. In this article I will share some ways on how to protect online accounts in a practical way. Continue Reading

Why I finally decided to use a Password Manager

For quite some time now I had been hesitant to use a password manager. Even though I knew that it is a security best practice, I feel that entrusting all your passwords to one program or organization is scary. This feeling changed recently amid increasing occurrence of data breaches and the amount of data that is being divulged. These events and reflecting how I actually use passwords finally drove me to install and use a password manager.

Password managers are programs that store your passwords in a secure and encrypted format. They also provide tools such as random password generators to make it easier for you to generate secure passwords. These programs can be installed locally in your computer or in the cloud and accessed through the internet. Continue Reading

Tech and FI

Technology and Financial Independence