Raffy's How To Win In Life

Hi! If you've seen my webisodes and decided on following my footsteps towards financial success, I'm sure by now napapaisip ka na on taking your first real action for your first investment.

Well, do not worry. All big things anyone has ever achieved started from step 1. Lucky for you, Raffy is here to guide you.

Why not start investing in the Philippine stock market?

Here is a step by step guide that I personally used when I first started investing in the stock market. It has very detailed instructions that you may follow. It is very easy to understand and caters to all sorts of background. There are also supplementary videos that teach the proper approach and mentality when entering the stock market.

Click the link below, "Take the Leap" and begin your journey!

Take the Leap — Stock Market for Pinoys - Learn How to Invest in the Philippine Stock Market It's Time to Take the Leap, and Invest within the Week! Hey there and welcome to the Take the Leap Tutorial Page! This page contains FREE step-by-s

Oh, Guys! Napanuod niyo na bang lahat ang tatlong webisodes ko? If yes, you must be wondering how I was able to achieve all of that in 10 years. :) Here is the excel sheet that I used to manage my savings and expenses. It also served as my timeline of goals (Yes! Goals of what I want to achieve in life!) sabi nga ng tropa kong si Antoine de Saint-Exupery - "A goal without a plan is just a wish."

So, stop wishing and start to !

Google Sheets - create and edit spreadsheets online, for free. Create a new spreadsheet and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Sheets to edit Excel files. Free from Google.

How to Manage Savings and Expenses

After finding a reputable company and securing tenure, the next battle working professional face is how to manage savings and expenses. Some tend to exhaust all their earnings once they receive their pay check which makes them one day millionaire and struggle all throughout the remaining weeks waiting for the next one.

It is also evident that not everyone has a good amount of savings, and much more of an emergency fund. It is important to have both because we don’t know what life may hit us. Rule of thumb is if you have 3 month worth of salary as emergency fund, you’re more or less secured in any case you would experience some unforeseen circumstances like sickness, unemployment et al.

So, how can you manage your expense? Here are some tips you can take:

1. IDENTIFY YOUR NEEDS AND WANTS

There is always an inner battle in identifying our needs and wants. List down how your expenses flow is today. Needs are usually the ones you can’t live without like housing, food, transportation. But using transportation like uber or grab may not be what you need, but a want to have a better service. Analyze if your expense is acceptable as you may spending more on one aspect than the other. If its hard for you to decide, ask your self the same question each day "Is this something I want?" until you get the right answer.

2. CREATE A REALISTIC BUDGET

Now that you identified your needs and wants, you can now monitor your expenses by creating a more realistic budget. Yes! You should budget everything down to the food that you eat. It is indeed essential to treat yourself from time to time, but you can do this at least few times a week and not everyday. You need to have a frugal mentality. Besides, most rich men thinks frugal. Just look at Mark Zuckerberg and the late Steve Jobs.

Here is a link of a budget sheet you can use to help you in budgeting:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15gVPfWKh7-kUvXRX5YtXL8btSSo9_UpY-CQ_VUTBF-s/edit?usp=sharing

3. LIVE WITHIN YOUR MEANS

For sure your salary will continuously increase over time and most people have the tendency to increase their expenses as well. It is understandable that people would want to upgrade as it is what you’ve been working hard for anyway. However, it is not advisable to always stretch your means. With your budgeting, try to target the things you want to achieve in years time. This way, you’ll have more time in achieving them and wouldn't be compelled to max out your capacity to pay. It is always better to be liquid.

4. WALK THE TALK AND INVEST!

Now that you have identified the needful expenses, you need to do the hardest part which is to do strict implementation. Use the budget sheet to remind you that you need to save more. Identify where you are spending your money and make adjustments as you go along. Lastly, other than saving your money, you go invest it where you can earn more.

You think you can have 3 month worth of savings by the end of this year?

Amortization and Interest
We all dream of buying our own house or that nice car. Such purchase is no joke and requires a lot of money so before jumping into a decision just because of a promo offer or discount, here are some things that you need to consider.

In general, you may find your loan option fall under these four categories. Depending on your financial capacity, you need figure out the right balance between down payment, monthly payment, and interest.
1. High down payment, high monthly payment, low interest
2. High down payment, low monthly payment, med interest
3. Low down payment, high monthly payment, high interest
4. Low down payment, low monthly payment, higher interest

Remember that no matter how good a deal is, the price of a property will NOT change. Ask for the amortization schedule and you'll see how much you really have to pay.

Quick Tips:
1. Plan ahead of time, big purchases requires preparation. Start saving money a year or two before your planned purchase
2. Always ask for the effective interest rate and use that to compare between your options
3. Housing loans usually don't have a fixed interest rate and changes every 5 years
4. When buying a house or condominium, take into consideration the monthly homeowners dues
5. When buying a car, take into account the annual insurance and car registration plus your monthly gas allowance, parking fee, and maintenance
6. Cash loans have higher interest rates

For car loan computation, you may try BPI Auto Loan Calculator: https://cal.bpiautoloans.com/loan-calculator/bpi

For house loan, you may try BPI Housing Loan Calculator: https://cal.bpihousingloans.com/loan-calculator/bpi-family-housing-loan

Alternatively, you may use your Pag-IBIG benefit to get a housing loan. Here's a sample interest table:
1 Year 5.500%
3 Years 6.500%
5 Years 7.270%
10 Years 8.035%
15 Years 8.585%
20 Years 8.800%
25 Years 9.050%
30 Years 10.000%
For computation and requirements, you may visit this website: http://www.pagibigfund.gov.ph/amort/

Understanding Your Payslip

How does it feel when you finally received your paycheck? Have you ever wondered what are those several deductions from your hard-earned salary leaving you a take home pay of an amount less than what you expected?

It is time to figure out those numbers in your payslip.

Payslips show the details of your salary and deductions such as SSS, Pag-ibig, Philhealth and Income Tax. But what are these deductions for?

SSS Contribution

SSS Contributions are monthly deductions mandated by law. In return, SSS provides benefits to its members. These benefits are:

Sickness Benefit – This is a cash benefit equivalent to the number of days a member is unable to work due to sickness or injury.

Maternity Benefit – This is a cash benefit granted to a female member who was unable to work due to childbirth or miscarriage.

Disability Benefit – This is a cash benefit paid either by monthly pension or lump sum for partial or permanent disability of the member.

Retirement Benefit – This is a cash benefit paid either in monthly pension or as lump sum to a member who can no longer work due to old age.

Death Benefit – This is a benefit paid in monthly pension or lump sum to the beneficiaries of a deceased member.

Funeral Grant – This grant is given to whoever paid for the burial expenses of a deceased member. The amount ranges from a minimum of P20,000 to a maximum of P40,000
Monthly contributions are based on the compensation of members.

Refer to this link for official SSS contributions:

https://www.sss.gov.ph/sss/appmanager/pages.jsp…

Philhealth Contributions

Philhealth provides financial assistance for medical emergencies. PhilHealth Benefits are extended to the qualified dependents of the members.

Refer to this link for official Philhealth contributions:

https://www.philhealth.gov.ph/par…/employers/contri_tbl.html

Pag-ibig Contributions

This is a government mandated contribution. Contributions of members are pooled into a mutual fund and invested. Earnings are given back to members through dividends which can be claimed along with the premium upon retirement of the member. Other benefits from Pagibig are the housing loan and loyalty card where the member can enjoy special rewards and discounts when they pay for their medicine, tuition, fuel and many more.

Monthly contribution is computed at 2% of the basic salary. The maximum monthly compensation used for computing the contribution is currently set at P5,000.

Income Tax

This is a tax levied by the government directly on income. Only those employees earning more than the minimum wage is subject to this tax.

All taxes collected by the government are used to fund public infrastructures and pay for all other government expenditures.

Refer to this link for computation of tax on compensation:

http://birtaxcalculator.com/calculator.php