Reignite Your Finance

When was the last time you have looked at your expenses this month? How much are you saving per year? Do you pay all your bills and debts on time? Do you have investments years ago that you have forgotten about? The new year can be a good time to reflect on how you are doing with your finances and to see if it has turned cold in some way. If it has, then maybe it is time to reignite your passion about handling your finances well. This is my story on how I regained my passion on personal finance after almost a decade.

After I graduated from university in 2005 I immediately found a job at a software company for printer hardware. I chose this job because it paid well relative to the other job opportunities I had. When I received my first paycheck, it felt very weird as it was my first time handling a “huge” amount of money. As with most people during college, I constantly lack money and sometimes had to borrow from friends to get by, so a month’s paycheck looked a lot of money for me then. Not knowing better I then proceeded to find a way to lose all that money again by spending and giving it away, probably because I was not used to having money before. This continued on for months. Continue Reading

2016 Year In Review

2016 will be over in less than an hour, and as we all welcome the year 2017, here are some of the things I have learned in the past year as well as adjustments that I need to make in the coming new year.

Family

In the middle of the year my father had a serious illness which required hospitalization for several weeks. My mother did her best to take care of him physically while me and my siblings took care of the finances. In the end it was well worth it as my father recovered and is doing well. Continue Reading

Should you get VUL Insurance?

Variable Universal Life (VUL) insurance is one of the most popular types of life insurance sold today. One of its main selling points against traditional life insurance is that it has an investment component, meaning that in addition to the guaranteed death benefit you receive, it also accumulates a cash value that is invested as part of your premiums.

This option makes sense for people who do not have the time or the interest in investing their own money. They just want to let others handle their own money and at least have more returns compared to letting their cash sit in their house or in the bank. However, as conscious investors we need to be aware that VUL insurance may at times not be the best option for us in terms of value for money. This article will explore the different aspects of VUL insurance and how we can analyze if a particular product best suits us. Continue Reading

Running Long Tasks and Scripts

As your web application grows, there will be times when you need to run scripts or code snippets that could take quite a while to finish. Examples of these are generating large and complex reports, or updating your database with new values. When there are large numbers of records in your application, these scripts may take hours or even days to finish.

We usually access our application using the SSH protocol to log in and perform tasks in the server remotely. This article describes ways to perform long-running scripts or tasks in your application in order from least effective to most effective. Continue Reading

You need a PERA

You need a PERA

In 2008, the Personal Equity and Retirement Account (PERA) Law was signed in the Philippines. Eight years later, there was still no progress on the actual implementation until September of 2016 when BDO was accredited as the first PERA Administrator.

Retirement Accounts

Retirement accounts are usually set up by a government in order to encourage its citizens to save money in the long term. One major benefit for the government to do this is that it tones down government-sponsored pension expenses and so effectively reduces the amount of money needed to support their retired population. One drawback for this is that citizens are now being asked to manage their own retirements instead of relying on the government or the businesses that they are employed in to handle those investments. It is therefore important for everyone to educate themselves on the advantages and benefits in properly managing their retirement accounts. Continue Reading