Tag Archives: money

Expense or Investment?

Before our daughter was born, we got sort on an insurance policy for my daughter with Manulife. But the insurance is not just exactly that. It is a variable form of investment that comes with a life and disability insurance.

Now just after her second birthday, I paid the 4th installment to the 20-installment plan that is payable in 10 years. Wow! It seems quite a lot of money for us but I think it will be worth it eventually.

And then just after she was born we just a similar plan but with a smaller coverage with Prulife. So we are paying for two policies for well on top of the two policies that I got when I was still single. I forgot how many years I still have on mine, but I am pretty sure I am still a long way to go.

If you come to think of it, these are items that are listed off as expenses, either annually, semi annually, and quarterly. I made it this way so that the payment schedules are different.

But if you come to think of it, these things are not exactly expenses but investment or forced savings for the future. Since we do earn much, our plans are not exactly big, but at least we have set aside some money for our daughter’s education. We did not get an educational plan per se because plans nowadays are not protected from inflation so they are no longer worth it. We got these investments because for long-term, these have better returns.

I don’t know what my daughter would want to do for your her college education or where she wants to go, like a sixth form college london but at least, there is already some money stashed for her somewhere.

Great Bash

We attended a great birthday bash for a friend’s son. It was his second birthday party and we really enjoyed the decors, the sumptuous buffet, and the photo booths. We only had our photo in one booth because Dindin was asleep most of the time and so we had limited time to go around.

We have another one-year birthday party and christening in one to attend to this weekend but it also coincided with a cousin’s wedding in Manila and so we have to travel the day before that. Wow, we have a busy party schedule.

I think we have another friend whose son is celebrating his second birthday for February, so that means just one birthday next month. But on March, we have two friends and also
it will be our daughter’s second birthday as well so that we have to prepare for.

Last month, another friend of ours wanted so much to celebrate her two sons’ birthdays, which fall one day after the other, but she was short on cash. She wanted even just a simple party, after all, it is already for the two of them. She can no longer make payday loans no credit check because she stopped working already and so there is no longer an ATM collateral for her loans. And well, I believe it is not a good idea to make a loan for a birthday party. I believe that it is best to use only what you have.

Anyway, as for Dindin’s party, we already have P7,000 worth of package with Jollibee. I hope we can make our guests fit in another P5,000 budget on top of that package as anything more than that is already overspending for us.

The Fluctuating Currencies

I checked on the value of the Philippine peso to the US Dollar today and the dollar rate is rising again. I am not sure what caused it this time, but currencies are really volatile. One issue or concern that is blown out of proportions and we find currencies diving. Who controls these happenings? And my bigger question is, when this happens, who gets richer? Gee. That is a tough one.

Anyway, I think that trading foreign currencies is good business because many people have been made rich because of that. However, it is also very risky. There have been people, too, who have lost a lot of money because of currency trading . And you gotta have a lot of spare money for this because there are days that you just have to buy a lot because other currencies are down and the peso is high. Or something like that. I do not really understand how this works, all I know is that this is such a high risk investment.

And I also think that it is also a high-pressure business. You have daily look at values of money. Sometimes, the margin is just a couple of cents but when you are talking about thousands of dollars, that already means a lot.

I am not one who is too careful about such things so I guess that forex currency trading is not for me. I just and sell stuff on the side from time to time but that is it.