Financial Management Blog
Today, FMB turned two years old! I would like to thank all of you for continuously following and visiting this blog. You are the reason why this blog exist. I hope you will continue to be a part of this blog.
I’m thankful for those two great years. In the beginning, I don’t know what will happen since I’m really a newbie blogger, zero knowledge about making blog and writing articles, and clueless on how these things will go on.
Through continuous hard work, patience and learning from you and other bloggers, I made this blog flourished for two years now and counting. There are many ups and down, lots of trials and errors but I could say it’s a lot of fun and excitement.
I would like again to refresh my mind about my plans for this blog this year and added one more thing. Here’s a short summary:
- post a total of 300 articles
- make an eBook and give it for free
- surpass $1,000 income per month
I made a post last time detailing my blog income and statistics after two years of blogging. You can find the article here.
It’s Time to Give Back!
To celebrate this remarkable day, I want to share the blessing that I’ve got by sponsoring one child through World Vision. Actually, it is my plan and dream this year to sponsor at least one child. The money that I will use for sponsorship will be coming from the income of this blog and the other blogs I have.
World Vision is an international, non-profit organization that helps poor children so they can go to school healthy and having complete materials for studying. World Vision is also helping communities by providing livelihood and empowering them for sustainable living. If you are interested in sponsoring a child, simply visit this link. The best time to help is NOW!
So that’s all and I hope you will continue to support this blog by sharing it to your friends, co-workers and family members. Again, thank you very much!
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Image by Stuart Miles
Last Saturday, April 14, 2012, my family went to a mountain here in our city we’re living now together with some members of our church. The purpose of going to this mountain is for fellowship and building stronger relationship among the church members.
The mountain is called Daegumsan which I think is just a 30-minute drive from our apartment. It is a mountain covered with azalea flowers. In Korean, azalea is called jindale.
When we went there, there are a lot of people wanting to see the blooming flowers. The weather is great during that time, not cold nor hot. Definitely, it is spring time here in Korea. It is really good to walk around and go to the top where you can see the best view of the mountain and the surrounding environment.
I’m also surprised that my 5-year old son was able to go to the top and he’s very fast. The mountain is around 440 meters high from sea level. Below you can see the pretty azalea flowers surrounding the mountain.
Here’s the picture of me, my wife and son at the top of the mountain overlooking the people and flowers below.
Here is another view of the mountain.
The place is really beautiful, it’s my first time to go there after more than 4 years of living here in our current city.
About the Author:
Gil Tenorio is a finance blogger, a husband, a father, and an active Christian. He likes playing guitar, C.S. Lewis, Plants and Zombies and NBA. Follow him at Facebook and Twitter.
The following article is a guest post from Danecca of OFWNurse.net. She is an OFW nurse in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E and writes topics about personal development, financial management and health.
“Money will match your mindset. Change your mind and you can attract money now.” – Joe Vitale
The first step towards abundance is to shift how we think. In order to do this, we must conquer our limiting beliefs. It has been said that limiting beliefs are like thieves in the night. It steals our hope and enthusiasm in life. It grabs our opportunity to succeed.
I assume many of us grow in family wherein we never met or known anyone who was wealthy. I was personally nurtured in a not-so-rich family. My father is an OFW and my mother is housewife.
Throughout my formative years, it had been planted in my mind that in order to become rich, I must finish college and earn a degree. I was not exposed in various types of investment; it never occurred to me that it’s just as possible for me to become wealthy as for anyone else.
A stand-put star in the movie THE SECRET, Joe Vitale said that we must first have a wealthy mindset before we achieve it because if we don’t, we will always find ourselves frequently getting close, but never achieving our dream. He advised to think wealth now and we will begin to attract money. Simple.
I am Valuable
The first limiting belief that you need to remove is “I don’t deserve it”. If you don’t love yourself, you will never feel that you deserve something valuable in our life. Opportunities will pass you believing that good things only come to others but they are not meant for you.
To change this belief, you must continuously affirm yourselves that God wants you to prosper. There is a greatness inside of you that nobody can do. Saying a positive affirmation like “I am a child of God. I am meant to be happy and successful” will somehow change your life for the better. Your outer world is a reflection of what’s inside of you.
Money is a Wonderful Servant
Movies and TV programs inculcate in our mind that money is the root of all evil. This belief makes our subconscious mind repel money away from us because we don’t want to be associated with evil. In truth, the Bible says in 1 Timothy 6:10, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
In my personal observation, poor countries have a lot of crime than rich countries. Desperate mindset and the greed (love) for money is the true cause of evil. Money is neutral. It is neither good or bad. It can either be your master or your servant.
Money had nothing to do with the diploma and awards that you received. It will always depend on our mindset. When you realize that money is a neutral force for good and you deserve it, you will attract abundance in your life.
Image Credit: digitalart
Last time, I made a post about the list of insurance companies in the Philippines. I’ve never thought before that there are many companies in this kind of industry. For this article, I would like to discuss what are the types of insurance you can applied for.
Do you know what will happen to you next month or next year? All of us don’t know what will happen or the things that might happen to us in the future. I’ll always pray for God’s protection on me and my family members because I believe He controls everything. He’s the one who knows our future.
Last month, I’m thinking of this thing. What if I die early? How will my wife and son go on? There are lots of questions popping up in my mind but of course, I don’t know all the answers. I’m studying lately to get an insurance so I can leave something to my family when I accidentally die. In order to help me choose which type of insurance best suited for me, I research three different types of insurance that I can get. Here it is.
In general, there are three kinds of life insurance: whole life insurance, variable life insurance, and term insurance. Each type has its own unique features and benefits for the policy owner (you) which I will try to discuss in the succeeding sentences below.
Whole Life Insurance
The whole life insurance is an insurance policy that covers your whole life as opposed to the term life insurance which has a specific period only. The primary benefit of this kind of insurance is the guaranteed payout when you die or even if you don’t when you reach the age 100.
However, there’s a downside here, since it is a guaranteed payout, the premium would be higher than the term insurance. The reason behind this is that some portion of your premium will go to taxes and due to the fact that you are paying for longer period, your whole life.
A whole life insurance has a guaranteed payout of the face amount to your beneficiary if you die or to pay you the face amount if you live up to the age of 100.
Term Life Insurance
Term insurance, from the word itself, is a kind of insurance wherein there is a defined or term period where you can only redeem the insurance. Beyond that period, you will not be guaranteed of any premiums from your insurance policy that you paid in the past.
Either you will stop the coverage or obtain further coverage of the insurance after the period elapses. For most people this will not be a good insurance option because you don’t know how long will you live. Term insurance is the least expensive way to get death benefits among the types of life insurance but may not be a good choice since you’re not guaranteed about the payout.
Variable Universal Life Insurance
Variable Universal Life Insurance or VUL is a type of life insurance that has an investing part. It is an insurance that builds a cash value. The cash value of the insurance is normally invested in several kinds of investments like mutual funds, bonds, and stocks.
The cash value may vary from time to time because the performance of investments also vary. VUL is a permanent life insurance meaning the death benefit will be paid to the beneficiary as long as there is a sufficient amount of money to pay the cost of insurance in the policy.
I’m researching and studying these different types of insurance because I’m planning to get one. However, I’m still thinking which can be the best choice. I’m looking or inclined to get a variable universal life insurance from the suggestions and comments I’m reading from other blogs.
In my mind, I think this is the right time to get an insurance but it’s been hard to apply since I’m out of the Philippines. One requirement in insurance application is that you should go in person at the office of the insurance company that you are applying.
How about you? Do you have an insurance now? Maybe it’s time to think and get an insurance to protect your family. I want to ask a favor, please like my Facebook page or follow me at Twitter. Thanks!
Image by David Castillo Dominici
One of the ways we can save money is during buying groceries. Our family buys our groceries and food for our daily consumption once a week. Here in Korea where I am living now with my wife and son, marts are everywhere. A mart here is like a small supermarket but there are also other markets called “wet markets” or “traditional markets”. There you can see many vendors selling different types of vegetables, fish, fruits, seafood and other things that you cannot see in the mart.
Most of the time, we go to our chosen mart to buy our groceries and food, not in wet markets because of convenience and easier transaction. Also, my wife and I want to take advantage of the bonus points that we can earn by using our Samsung Bonus Point credit card.
For your info, we have only one credit card that we are using for all of our purchases. But I think owning a supplementary card can be a good move since you can use it during emergency cases.
To give you some ideas on how to save money on groceries, I listed some of the ways my wife and I carried out. Some here may not be applicable to you so just choose the one that you think can be helpful to you and your family.
1. Compare prices of products on different marts
First tip on how to save money on groceries is to compare the prices of products of different marts. Before picking our current mart where we always buy, we used to go to 3-4 different marts. We noticed that they don’t have the same prices for the same product so we closely monitor our groceries to find out which mart charges the lowest price.
Right now, we are satisfied in our current mart because it has a free delivery service when you purchased groceries amounting to more than $30. Our Samsung Bonus Point credit card also earns points around 0.5% of the total purchase every time we used it in that mart.
They have also many bonuses and free giveaways for their customers. Actually, a couple of weeks ago, my wife won a gift certificate worth around $5. It has also a membership card which we applied two years ago that gives us around $20-30 bonus cash per year.
2. Do your groceries on sale period
Most of the supermarkets and marts have their scheduled sale period especially when there are big holidays approaching like Christmas and New Year. You will know the sale schedule by taking some of the flyers or posters they give to their customers one week before the sale period.
It is a good chance to buy the consumables that you are using because it is cheaper during that time. Even, food products like meat, vegetables and fruits have also lower price than regular period. Just make sure that when you buy food products, it should be far from expiration date so it will not be wasted or perish.
3. Buy consumables on bulk
We buy our consumables like toothpaste, bathroom soap, detergents and other consumables through the online store. Here in Korea, there are also many online stores like in the US and Canada. One popular online store here is GMarket which is acquired by eBay. Perhaps in the US, many people buy their consumables and other stuffs through Amazon and Wal-Mart.
We buy consumables with long expiration in bulk because it is cheaper than buying in fewer quantities. I think there will be no problem here because these products have long shelf life and cannot be expired easily.
4. Use coupons and gift certificate
Coupons and gift certificates are big help for every consumers who like to save money on their groceries. I know coupons are very popular in the US, even here in South Korea. There are many companies giving away free coupons in their hope to attract more customers and boost their sales.
If you are patient enough, you can get these online through offerings and giveaways by many online stores. In addition, you can also get it in newspapers and magazines circulating around your area. Click here to get some coupons courtesy of WorkSaveLive.com
5. Use a cash back and reward credit cards
Me and my wife agreed to use our credit card every time we go to groceries and mart to earn as many bonus points (cash) as we can. Only few selected stores give rewards so we already pinpointed which one gives and which one is not. So far, our card earned a total of more than $150 in cash back rewards when we started using it since 2007 . It is not that big amount but it really helps a lot.
There are many cash back/ rewards credit card that you can apply particularly in the US. I know many finance blogs promote their chosen card because of the great benefits they get from it. One example I would like to mention here is the Chase Freedom credit card. It was reviewed and promoted in Free Money Finance and I think many people could benefit in this card.
However, before you apply or get this type of card or any other credit cards in your area, do your own research and study if this is the best credit card for you. First, do your part by studying and researching and then reap the rewards later.
That’s just a few tips on my list. Do you have other money saving tips that you want to share to other people when buying groceries. Just leave your comment or suggestions below. If you find this article helpful, please like us on Facebook and Twitter. Many thanks!
Hi there! i just want to make a quick post about the proof of my Google Adsense income. I have decided to make this video so that you know that I know what I’m talking about making money online by using Google Adsense.
I know it is not that big amount compared to other bloggers out there. It is just a proof that you can also make some money from blogs and websites but you have to invests some of your time and money to make it happen.
I just want to tell that it didn’t happen overnight. It may take several months or years before you could actually earn a substantial amount in Adsense. So here’s a short video about my Google Adsense income.
If you like this video, please subscribe to my YouTube Channel by clicking the link. Thank you for watching! If you have questions about making money with Google Adsense, just leave your comment below. I’m happy to answer all your questions.
Before April 2010, I have zero knowledge about blogging, making websites, Google Adsense and how to make money online. Through persistence and hard-work, I managed to make a blog (and few other blogs) that is giving me now a semi-passive income and helping more and more people around the world through the posts I published in this site.
It is a great feeling and achievement that you can help other people from the knowledge that you gain starting from scratch. It is not easy to start and build a blog especially if you don’t where to start and how to do it.
Sometimes, I don’t know what should I write or what should I do to reach more people, drive more traffic to my blog and improve the design and overall performance. One topic that seems to be very hard to write about is the blog income earning by this site.
After two years of blogging, I finally decided to share my blog income report and statistics through this post. I think this is the right time to give you more information about what happened in those 2 challenging years.
Actually, I find it very difficult to disclose or publish my blog income because some people and readers of this blog might perceived that I’m bragging about the figures. However, as I think it over and over again, I came up to a conclusion that perhaps only few will think about it and more people will benefit if I can share this information and the lessons I learned along the way.
To make things clear, this post is not intended to brag the earnings I got but to give you proof that you can also make money online by blogging what you love and your passion. In addition, this post wants to share the statistics and the earnings history since I started this blog way back two years ago. So let’s get started.
Blog Income and Stats
Like what I said earlier, before April 2010, I have no blog, zero knowledge on blogging and making websites, no income coming from online ventures, no knowledge on how to write an article, and many more about blogging. However, learning and knowledge come from small steps and consistent desire to learn more.
After making small steps, I finally build my first self-hosted blog through WordPress. I admit its hard at the beginning since I don’t know how and where to start but I’m glad I conquered the fear and doubt. Thanks for the infinite information that you can get from the Internet.
I think I will do this report each month starting this post to track my progress and record the lessons I learned. I know it’s not too late to do this kind of stuff. Here’s my stats and income report summary as of this writing:
Stats
Alexa Rank: 218,367
Google Page Rank: 2
RSS subscribers: 1,438
Facebook Like: 1,050
Twitter: 72
Post published: 223
Comment: 2,026
Income (Total as of March 31, 2012; all figures in USD)
Google Adsense: 7,965
Private Ads: 466
Affiliate: 60
Infolinks: 45.90
Expenses (Total as of March 31, 2012; all figures in USD)
Web Hosting: 468
Outsourcing: 233
SEO tool: 281
Blogging tools: 60
As you can see in the data above, my income and stats are not really impressive compared with other bloggers who started at the same time maybe because I’m only blogging part-time. Perhaps if I could add more hours in my blogging activities, I’ll achieve better results in terms of traffic and earnings.
If you want to start your own blog, there are several things that you should consider: time, money, your desire and purpose why you blog and other several things. In addition, the most important step in making a blog is to start now!
I can help you to make your own blog, just visit this link. I’m happy to answer all your questions in mind. I want to ask a favor, please like my Facebook page or follow me at Twitter. Thanks!
Many people find it very difficult to pay debt because of many factors and different reasons. In this post, Diana Degarmo, our guest writer will discuss on how to effectively eliminate your debt.
The recent financial hardships, like job loss and wage reduction have caused many people falling into overwhelming debt. Being in debt is not at all a rosy experience for an individual since it takes a toll on both the health and finances. However, there is nothing to be worried about it since there are many ways to pay off the debt and achieve debt relief. So let us take a closer look at some of the debt reduction ways that you can do.
1. Make more than minimum monthly payment
Making minimum monthly payment hardly reduces the outstanding balance on debt, so it is advisable to pay more than minimum in order to pay off the debt as soon as possible. If you are paying $100 each month, double it to $200. Remember, the longer you will take to repay the debt, the more interest rate you will have to pay.
Now you may wonder how you can afford to pay more than minimum. Simply create a budget and abide by it. Compute all your income and expenses, and determine if the latter is higher than the former. If so, cut on your expenses and save money to pay more towards your debt.
2. Play with your debt payments
If you want to pay off your debt as fast as possible, pay off the highest interest debt first. Transfer the balance on your highest interest rate credit card onto the one that offers the lowest interest rate. However, if the entire balance does not fit on one lowest-interest card, pay the minimum amounts due on all the cards except one. Then transfer the majority of the debt payments onto that card and pay it as soon as possible. Once it is paid, continue this process onto the next card.
3. Liquidate your savings account
Taking out money from savings account and using it towards debt repayment is a highly common practice. But you should only take out the amount that is required so as to avoid falling further into debt. Moreover, if you are approaching towards retirement, then resaving the same amount might not be an easy task. So do not cash out more than what you require.
4. Seek help from friends and family
To pay off your debt, you may also borrow money from your friends and families. The advantages about borrowing money from near and dear ones are that they will charge you lower interest rate and will not bother you to repay the money. But before borrowing the amount, get everything in writing in order to avoid future misunderstandings. Review the paper work and see if the interest rate and repayment schedule have been mentioned. Adhere to that repayment schedule and pay off the money soon.
5. Obtain a home equity line of credit
If you own a house and have equity in it, consider the option of taking out a home equity loan to pay down the debt. Consolidate your multiple bills into the loan and pay them off as soon as possible. This not only helps you paying off your debt fast but also saves you money.
6. Renegotiate with creditors
If you think that none of the above mentioned ways are suitable for you then renegotiate the payment structure with creditors. Let your creditors know about your financial hardships. If you can explain your financial situation to the creditor, you might be surprised to see how creditors are willing to work with you. Ask for a new and affordable repayment schedule so that you can pay off your debt quickly and easily.
7. File for bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organization, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. There is no doubt that bankruptcy is an effective way to eliminate the debt, but many people consider it as a last resort. That is because it ruins the credit score for as long as 7 to 10 years. However, many times in life, people hardly have an option other than filing for bankruptcy.
In conclusion, a fore mentioned are some important ways to pay off the debt and eliminate financial stress in life.
This article is a guest post by Diana Degarmo, a financial writer. Follow her at Twitter and Facebook.
Image by Stuart Miles
I’m very happy to announce that two (2) of my posts were featured in Wise Bread, second top personal finance blogs on the web today. If you don’t know much about Wise Bread, you can visit their website for more info. Anyway, here are the articles where my posts were featured:
http://www.wisebread.com/best-money-tips-buy-organic-on-a-budget
http://www.wisebread.com/best-money-tips-cheap-ways-to-keep-fit-and-stay-healthy
I have never expected the inclusion of my articles and I think this is the first time that a top finance blog featured my articles in their site after my two years of blogging. I have learned many things along the way and still learning new stuffs as the days passed by.
I’m actually contemplating why these 2 articles were featured and what makes it stand out from the others. In my assessment, here are some of the factors why these 2 posts were chosen and be included in Wise Bread.
1. Unique and good quality content
Without a doubt, my articles are unique and good quality that’s why it is noticed and included by Wise Bread in their blog. I think they will not put any post on their site that is poorly written and low quality since they also need to protect their image and help their readers to find good solution to their problems.
2. Helps readers to make good decisions
Helping other people and readers is the greatest concern of this blog. It is the reason why this site exists to give you information and ideas on the smart way to manage and grow your money. Through the experiences and knowledge I shared in this blog, I hope it will help you to make wise decisions about your finances.
3. Clear and straight to the point
Clarity in writing financial articles is very important so that your readers will not be lost on the way. It should also be straight to the point without any unclear messages or clutter of advertisements that might distract their reading and comprehension of your post.
4. Encourages readers to be positive in life
Our world is full of negative thoughts, news, and activities that make us worry, doubt and be fearful of the future. Through the articles I’m writing, I wish to give hope, encouragement, learning and new good ideas to my visitors and regular readers of this blog. Let’s be more positive and influence other people.
5. Solve common problems
One of the articles that was featured entitled ” How to Choose the Best Credit Card” lists the characteristics of the best credit card that you should look for. It solves the common problems of many people who are applying for a credit because most of them don’t have the idea which one to choose from many cards available in the market.
This will be my first post dedicated on discussing about money saving tips. I hope you will enjoy the article.
One of the biggest expenses you may have right now is buying the food that you consume for your every day living. All of us eat every day so it is obvious that we will spend some portion of our money to buy the food we eat and want.
Because of rising inflation, food prices are also going up. Here in South Korea where I am living right now, I remembered two years ago, my family only spend $80 worth of groceries and food per week. However, today, we need more than $100 to buy the same amount of food that we normally consume.
All prices of products and services are going up. It’s normal and we can’t control it but we can make some counter measures to lessen it effects on our finances. One good way to fight inflation is to produce your own food as much as possible and as long as you can.
I know there are some limitations in doing this because may be of your present condition, your resources and other factors that you cannot control. However, for those who want to try to make their own food, here are some of the tips that can be helpful.
Our family carried out some of these tips and it saved us a substantial amount of money by doing so. Here are some of the ways to produce your own food:
1. Plant vegetables or fruit-bearing trees that you consume regularly
Planting vegetables or fruit-bearing trees is one good way to produce your own food in the comfort of your own backyard. Even if you don’t have a big backyard or space in your house, you can plant some vegetables in pots if you have limited space or may be you can try hydroponics if you can do it.
I love planting vegetables since my early childhood. It is one of my hobbies that I love to do. While sometimes other kids are playing their toys, I’m on our backyard planting some corn, tomatoes, pole beans and several kinds of vegetables. I’m very excited during harvesting time because my effort and patience finally paid off. It is a good feeling that you can get reward from the simple thing that you do.
There are many added benefits that you can get from planting vegetables. One nice benefit is you can have a free exercise/ workout as you dig and clean the land that you’re preparing for planting. Another one is you will be assure that your vegetables are freshly picked and don’t contain any harmful insecticides or fertilizers. Let’s go organic and be more healthy!
You can see below the picture of me and my son (when he is two years old) cleaning and picking some vegetables in our mini garden located at the back of our apartment.
Here you can see some of our planted corn in the Philippines. Right now, we don’t have any neighbors in our street so we took advantage of the free vacant land nearby our house. My father-in-law is the one that manages all of the planting as a way of recreation and producing some vegetables for our daily food.
2. Learn how to preserve food
By learning how to preserve your own food, you can prolong its shelf life so you can eat it after several weeks or may be even months. One good example of preserving vegetables or fruit is through pickling like pickled cucumber. Another way is by making jams from berries.
You may need some good bottles or containers when doing this to preserve the cleanliness of the food and make it more tight to prevent air from coming in. You can learn the proper preserving of food in some videos that you can see in YouTube.
3. Make your own dish that you like
Another practical way to save money on food is learning how to cook your own food that you like. Maybe you are going to restaurants just to eat the favorite food that you like and it cost higher than when you cook it by yourself. Don’t worry the taste will be much better each time you cook because you can learn it as the time goes by.
If you will learn how to cook your favorite food, you can save extra amount of money and you will be more satisfied because you can cook it anytime you want. If you don’t know how to cook, there are lots of video tutorials that you can see in YouTube. In the future, I’ll study cooking and some kitchen stuffs.
4. Learn how to raise poultry or livestock that can give you food
OK, this tip may not be applicable for every one because of several limitations like available space and policy of your neighborhood. Another consideration that you should make when doing this tip is the budget you have because you may need to buy some materials for making your coop and chickens that you will raise.
However, if you can do this one, it can be a big help for producing your own food. For example, if you can raise chickens in your backyard, it will definitely can give some eggs and meat. Furthermore, you may also sell it to other people who are interested in buying live chickens.
By producing your own food, you can save some amount of money that you can add to your savings. If you do this for a long time, you can have a substantial amount that you can use for investing or additional money to your savings account.
Do you have other tips on mind? It would be great if you can share your thoughts to other people. Just leave your comment or suggestions below. If you find this article helpful, please like us on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks!
Hello there! My name is Gil Tenorio. I write topics related to personal finance, saving money, investing in stocks and mutual funds.
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