In this day and age, e-commerce should be part and parcel of every business. I'm glad that I have already successfully convinced most of my entrepreneur friends about this. Gone are the days when brand advertising is constrained to print, radio, and television. If you want ultimate business success, you would have to tap the Internet as one of your marketing media.
Insider Secrets to Google AdWords is a seminar that shares how to use Google AdWords to your business' advantage. Probably, you are wondering what Google AdWords is all about and how it can help you promote your business. Imagine an Internet user searching about something in Google, say "Manila restaurants." Once the SEARCH button is clicked, the relevant searches appear on the succeeding page,right? Do you notice the right side bar of the search page with the sponsored links in it? They're there because of Google AdWords. With Google AdWords, businesses appear in searches for keywords that are relevant to their products which translates to an effectively targeted audience.
But of course, not everyone of us are tech savvy entrepreneurs. This is why this one time event is held to help them discover the Insider Secrets to a Google-friendly Website. It will be held on June 24 and 25, 2010 at the Crowne Plaza in Robinson's Galleria. If you are a businessman and would like to expand your customer base online, you should not let this pass!
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We bought 2 split type Gree airconditoners for our home just a few days before my son's birthday. It was a mutual decision between me and my husband. We had guests coming in from the province and they stayed in my son's room. The heat was unbearable this summer that we finally had to buy a 1 hp a/c unit.
The other unit, which was a 2 hp split-type a/c by the way, was installed in our living room. Now this purchase wasn't really a priority. But the Gree salesmen in the SM Megatrade Hall offered us great deals we were not able to resist. Free installation, discounts, plus other freebies. We just considered it as an investment for our home. Besides, our guest would really be more comfy now with the a/c installed in the living room.
The electricity bill will be another story. Then again, we will only get to seldom use the a/c n the living room. I believe that our energy consumption will not be big enough to require energy auditing from the experts.
At the end of the day, we are still reminded to live within our means and never beyond what we can spend.
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For the first time, I am pissed of with my credit card company. I have been their financially responsible client since 2005 and I have never been delinquent. In February, we purchased our Bacolod airline tickets online and I used my credit card as I have always done. The amount was around 22 thousand pesos.
The following month, I forgot to pay on time because of my busy schedule. Well, actually, I did pay on time. The only problem was that I payed in a bills payment center. Naturally, the payment was posted a day after.
Lo and behold, I was charged 1,300 pesos as finance charge when the next billing statement came. I furiously called up customer service and they explained that they now charge an interest from the day I made the purchase until I had the full amount settled! It was a new policy according to them. I felt like I was robbed!
So I learned about this the hard way. I now pay my bills a week before due date to avoid the finance charge. I always pay my credit card bills in full, by the way. I make it a point to have a good credit score. That way, I won't need to find an agency that provides free credit score service to know my credit score. I know that my credit rating is good because I pay in full on time.
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I've been often asked by friends and relatives about how we loaned our home through Pag-IBIG Fund's housing loan. As much as I encourage by sharing how easy it is to secure a Pag-IBIG housing loan, I also realize that they are not as fortunate as ours in shelling out the initial downpayment.
We were lucky to have our Tita Ops who gladly loaned us money just so we can sign the Contract to Sell for the contractor to start building the house. We availed of a 2 million pesos housing loan from Pag-IBIG but the actual cash-out was only 1.6 million. If it were not for our generous aunt and wedding godmother, this home could not have been possible. We have already finished paying our tita the amount that she shelled out for our downpayment. We still have 29 years to go till our housing loan is payed, though.
A cheaper way of buying a home is by getting a foreclosed property. Pag-IBIG Fund and GSIS have a long list of foreclosed properties that they are already selling to the public. (US Residents can try looking for a list of Outer banks foreclosures.) My sister-in-law's home was also a GSIS foreclosed property.
Before
2 Years After
The house looked old and ugly before they brought the property but it's now a complete opposite from what it was before. The best thing about it is that they only bought the 150 square meter house and lot in Camarines Sur for 300 thousand pesos plus! Our 2 million Cainta house and lot is just 100 square meters, mind you.
I suggest that you consider looking for a foreclosed property if you want to save up in buying a house.
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It's May once again and Sitti needs to be registered for 2010. It's our third time to be registering our car through the car registration service that's available in Greenwoods Executive Village. It's hassle-free on our part since we only need to present our old official receipt and car registration papers. Our contact does the legwork in the Land Transportation Office (LTO)and we just need to pay the amount after.
The only downside of the transaction is that we don't get to choose the cheapest car insurance for our Sitti. Still, I think it's ok considering the amount of time and effort we saved with this transaction.
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We just brought Black Beauty to our dealer's service center for its scheduled 15,000 km check-up this past weekend. As we entered our dealer's garage, the first thing that the manager asked was "Na-Ondoy ba yan?" probably because most of the cars brought to them lately suffered the great flood that Ondoy (Typhoon Ketsana) brought last September 2009.
We were lucky that we were spared from the flood. I can't bear to imagine if we weren't. The Tucson will be technically ok because the auto insurance that covers it includes a coverage for "acts of god" like floods and other disasters. Our 98 Honda City isn't. As much as I wanted to avail it, our older car is not qualified for that kind of coverage because of its age. I believe that having an "acts of god" coverage" is worth the extra money spent because we'll never know when a disaster will strike.
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I recently hooked a writing deal with a local client that gives me guaranteed monthly writing projects. It's like I'll be receiving a regular monthly pay except that I'm just a contributing writer. I really am so happy because, with that extra income, I can now start saving for myself. I'm still helping my parents send my youngest brother to college and the bulk of my freelance writing payments goes to his college fund. What's left with me is just enough to pay my credit card bills.
So, I was thinking, what could be a wise investment for that extra income. I'm not really a fan of savings accounts in banks since I know from experience that you really don't get to earn a lot from that. I am thinking of upgrading my gadgets since I heavily rely on them for work. I may buy myself the 3-in-1 printer I was eyeing since last year. I may also get a term life insurance for myself. Insurances are never a bad investment, don't you think?
My list is not yet final as I am still on the lookout for wise investments for my hard earned money. Any suggestions?
Sitti is our eleven year old Honda City. Technically, she's been with us for seven years because we bought her from a second-hand car shop. When Black Beauty arrived (our Hyundai Tucson), Sitti was assigned to me and we had good times driving around while I was practicing my driving skills.
Lately, Sitti's been in a bad shape. It started with her roof. All of the auto restoration shops that we went to told us that it is common for Honda cars to have problems with their roofs. Honda roofs tend to rust easily because the silicon sealants used eventually break out of the car paint. It started out with small bubbles. Over time, the bubbles popped and became big paintless spots that turned a little rusty. And when it rains, drops of water get inside the car.
We are currently saving up for the repairs. We already talked with some providers who gave us reasonable quotes. We plan to have Sitti's body repainted by Christmastime. If there's still some money to spare, we may add some upgrades to our list. Who knows, we may even affors to have some cold air intakes and filters to keep her engine humming again. When this happens, I'll probably be seeing my husband bring Sitti to the office again which leaves me with the other car. Not bad!
Do I need to get a life insurance? This got me thinking lately. It's not a priority, really. Or is it? Probably if I have extra savings, I would get one for myself although the current state of the world economy may stop me from doing so.
When I was still working in a publishing company years ago, part of our employee benefits was a term life insurance. It was imperative, especially for me, to have one. I was an editorial assistant and part of my job was attending media events. I needed to be insured just in case an accident happened while I was on the job.
This is one of the cons of having a freelance job. I guess I will just try hard to be safe at all times while I still cannot afford to get a life insurance for myself.
No, I am not ranting because my husband had to work and my dad's in Boracay that we didn't get to spend Father's Day with them yesterday. Being at home the whole day yesterday just made me think a lot about how other families are spending the day with their respective dads. Some of my plurk pals had lunch or dinner in a special place while the others just cooked up something special to eat at home.
Different strokes for different folks. It's really the thought that counts. In this time of economic recession, being frugal is best. Anyway, most of these holidays are just marketing strategies to urge people to spend and buy gifts for their loved ones. Still, my belief is that one can splurge if he has the resources to do so. Never go way beyond the budget. Who are we to condemn someone who buys, let's say, an expensive motorcycle jack for his dad if he can afford it. In the same way, we should not judge the person who can just afford to give a kiss and a hug to his dad on Father's Day.
One of the major financial adjustments I make during the month of April is the allotment of funds for our annual insurance payments. This year, with the global recession and the obvious downfall of most insurance companies in the industry, we felt worrisome. My husband is having second thoughts about continuing the payment of his pension cum accident insurance plan. He fears that there may come a time when the insurance company will close even before the time when our investment has reached maturity. When that happens, all of the payments we have made will have gone to waste.
I am torn between his fear and my feelings over the payments we have already made in the past three years. We only have two years to go. If we quit now, we can have a refund but, for sure, that will just be a small fraction of the money we have already invested in the insurance program.
We do not actually need the pension and accident insurance because my husband's company has the best insurance coverage for its employees and the employees' dependents. We signed the contract because the agent is a very close relative and we cannot let him down. A mortgage protection life insurance could have been a better choice. Still, if it were just up to me, I will still continue with the payments. I have already kept a portion of our monthly budget for that, anyway.
What do you think? Should we continue with it or not?
I have already written how we applied for a Pag-ibig Housing Loan for our Php 2.5 M home here in Cainta. Our loan was approved in 2007, a few months after we moved in, but only for Php 1.6 M. For thirty years, we will be paying the monthly amortization of around 16 thousand pesos. We have already done our part as buyers when it comes to submitting the required documents. We left the rest of the responsibility to our developer to go on with the other procedures like the transfer of title and mortgage processing. We paid around 53 thousand pesos for the transfer tax by the way. Here's the funny part, the loan application was made in 2007 and our developer has not taken out the 1.6 million peso payment from Pag-ibig yet. It's their fault, not ours. They had administrative problems during the duration of our loan application process that they failed to complete the required documents. So from November 2007 up to the present, we have not paid a single cent for the monthly amortization. I am not so happy about this though because it will just mean that instead of having our loan end in 2037, it will be in 2039 or 2040. My goodness, Ralph will be 40 years old by then! I hope we can restructure the loan or pay out the whole amount in a few years to save us from paying the annual interest.
Yesterday, we went back to the developer's office to hand over a 12 thousand peso cheque as payment for the annotation fee required by Pag-ibig. It turned out that the developer's office had a major staff reorganization and our file is one of those countless files that they finally decided to follow up. At least, we now know that they are starting with the leg work again and that they will be shouldering the penalties for the late submission and all. However, since we shelled out the 12 thousand pesos unexpectedly, my home re-decorating plans will be postponed. Oh bummer... to think that I am planning to get some industrial knobs to replace the ones that we already have to make our doors more secure. Hmm... I guess letting the dogs out of their cages at night is an option. What do you think?
As parents, it should be second nature to us to make everything alright for the family. Death is inevitable. As most people say, the only things that are sure to happen in this world are births, deaths, and taxes. Having said so, we should be prepared for death, don't you think?
One of the things a young couple should be getting is a mortgage life insurance for their home. This kind of insurance protects the principal loan maker in the event of him/her passing away. It means that should the principal dies, a death benefit will be made available to the beneficiaries to pay off the remaining balance of the mortgage. Somehow, I felt relieved that our PAG-IBIG loan has this feature. Who knows what will happen in 30 years? It still pays to be insured and assured of the fact that our child has a home to call his own should anything happens to us.
Last Christmas, my gift for my husband was Francisco J. Colayco's books "Pera Mo, Palaguin Mo!" I gave him both the two books and the workbook. It was actually my gift for the both of us since we resolved to further increase our savings this year.
I have started reading the first book and one of the most important concepts of savings that I have learned is the importance of having an insurance plan. Colayco writes that insurance is needed only when you think that there is a possibility of unbearable financial loss. The kind of insurance that you will get (either term life, medical, or accident) and how much you will invest will depend on who will suffer just in case you die or how much income is needed by your family for them to survive without you.
We already have a medical and accident insurance but I have yet to find a term life insurance online. It is unusual in our typical Filipino culture to talk about preparations for death but we prefer to be prepared than be sorry in the end.
Buying a house is no joke. Before we made the big decision to buy one, we initially had to make our personal financial statement so that we could assess if we could meet the financial demands of the move. It has been almost two years since we moved in and I am glad that my husband and I carefully planned our finances before we took the plunge.
Our home is mortgaged under a 30-year Pag-ibig home loan. We opted to apply for a Pag-ibig loan instead of making a bank home loan because in 2007, Pag-ibig's home loan rates were lowered so we grabbed the opportunity immediately. Also, the principal loan maker, who is my husband in our case, has the security that just in case anything happens to him or he will be disabled, the loan is considered fully paid. We opted to apply for a 30-year loan f0r the meantime to give us the chance to pay the lowest ammortization possible. We will be restructuring it to shorten the loan period once we are sure that our finances can handle a more expensive monthly loan payment. Oh, another benefit of having a Pag-ibig loan by the way is that the member gets to enjoy a bigger dividend come retirement. This is another one of the agency's move to encourage members to loan from them.
I am not sure how home loans work in foreign countries. Here's a site though for readers in the States. Compare home mortgages online at Amerisave, the nation's fastest-growing retail mortgage company. Head over to Amerisave's profile for more background information. It always pays to make a research first before making the big move. As I said earlier, buying a house is no joke at all.
Wilminton, North Carolina is a city in New Hanover that is very promising. The place is settled on the Cape River Fear and is also just minutes away from nearby beaches. This is why in 2003, through an act in Congress, the city was given the title "A Coast Guard City". Wilmington has a humid subtropical climate, one that is closer to our tropical climate in the Philippines. This is good news for people who are not much fond of the cold snow in winter. But because of its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, the area may be hit by tropical cyclones at an average of once every seven years which is not that bad at all. Wilmington has been famous for being the hometown of basketball great Michael Jordan. It also home to the World War II battleship USS North Carolina. Watching movies like "A Walk to Remember", "Black Knight", and "Nights in Rodanthe" will make you see how beautiful the place is because these movies, along with so many others, were shot here. This is the same case with TV shows "Dawson's Creek" and "One Tree Hill".
All of these features make Wilmington, North Carolina the best place to settle in. But with the recent financial drought, most people are wary of getting into mortgages because of the fear of not being able to pay up during worst case scenarios. A major solution to these woes is The Alpha Mortgage Corporation. They offer Wilmington NC real estate and Wilmington NC mortgage options that are most suitable to their clients. For one, they guarantee the lowest rates, the finest personal service and a financial management plan to complete their aim of total customer satisfaction. For those who already have a home in Wilmington NC and are currently having problems with their mortgage, they also offer home refinancing at the lowest interest rates. Plus, they are a a full service mortgage banker offering in-house processing, underwriting, closing and funding.
Get pre-approved by applying on-line. Visit the www.alphamortgage.com today for more details.
Hair woes
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I badly need a hair rebond. Nowadays, I keep my hair neatly tucked in a bun
not because it's hot but because it's all wavy and uncooperative. I want my
hai...
Project 365: #10 Tong-its
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[image: JAN 10: Tong-its]
My husband's family is almost complete. His mom and sister is with us
tonight. This is just one of their bonding moments.
Read more on this entry...
