T Harv Eker said, “your income will only grow to the extent that you do.”
This is one of the things that has really guided me over the years in my financial journey. Here’s a picture of my library at home where my boy Ethan is playing. I must have around a hundred books at home. I am very proud to say that 100% of which were purchased after I graduated from school. 🙂
Like most people, I didn’t like reading while growing up. Until I realized, I actually enjoyed reading if only I read books that were interesting to me, not a boring text book that would bring me to sleep the moment I glanced through the first few pages. You see reading is fun when you are having fun. I remember asking my mom growing up for a few coins so I can purchase my favorite comic book the ‘Funny Komiks’. I enjoyed it so much, I had collections of them at home bound by a paper fastener. The characters NikNok, the “Noon” at “Ngayon” features, and more were a delighful read for a young kid growing up. But I grew up pretty fast, and Funny Komiks, however funny they are to a kid, just could not fascinate me the same way as before. I had moved on to other more exciting things.
Right after graduation, I remember wanting to work in the “industry” to get a first-hand knowledge of how the world worked. The academe has this reputation in making you focus too much on theoretical stuffs. I wanted the real thing. And the real thing hit me hard very fast. I thought graduating from UP with allow me to get a job quickly. Much to my dismay, job interviews were not going the way I wanted. There were days when I questioned my own capabilities. Being out there looking for work and no one responding does that to you. Your spirit can really be crushed to pieces if you let it.
Fortunately, after a few months, I got a call from my first employer who offered me a starting salary of P16,000. I was just happy I now had a job. I can finally start feeding myself and stop asking my parents for an allowance.
Working was a bliss. I remember being so excited to meet new people, taking this new adventure, that just about anything was exciting, even getting a cup of coffee in the pantry. Me and my colleagues used to do it as a group. We were a group of 10 or so and we would go to the pantry to get a cup of coffee together. You can imagine how much noise we would generate just talking and walking down the hall onto the pantry and back. And sometimes, if the coffee machine is not working, we would go upstairs and invade the pantry on the next floor. It was fun.
Having fun is nice until you get carried away. After having too much fun, I eventually learned how to buy stuffs that I didn’t need, go out with friends and look “cool”, not really caring about tomorrow. Once the new credit card hit the mailbox, my habit of indiscriminate spending just got a boost. It’s true what they say that “money neither make you rich nor poor, it only magnifies what you truly are.” What I was at that time? Poor. I had a cashflow pattern of a poor person. All income goes out to the expense column and nothing is left at the end of the month. So when the credit card arrived, I thought I had “more” money so I just spent it down to the expense column again and voila I got buried in credit card debt!
This was the time when I got first awakened to the world of money. I was so frustrated with myself because here I was working for a credit card company for years, I’m the one who supposedly knows how to compute the credit card’s interests and fees, the “expert”in credit cards in short, and I still got buried in credit card debts. There’s no one to blame other than myself. It was embarassing to say the least. But what really jolted me from my senses was when I had to pay for my rent using cash advance from my credit card. Doing cash advance may be the most expensive transaction you will ever do on a credit card. It carries a hefty fee as well as a very high interest rate. It was not wise to do a cash advance. But I had no choice. Either that or I would sleep on the streets with my sibling.
When you encounter problems, especially financial problems, you tend to grow up pretty fast. I had to find a way to make it work. That’s where I started my financial journey. Eventually I learned enough to get out of debt and more from buying (and reading) 100+ titles of books on finance, money, business, investing, etc., attending lots and lots of seminars (invested more than P100K+ worth into seminars), and also investing a lot of time, effort and money in building my business, investing in stocks, real-estate and other assets. The most expensive investment, unfortunately, is experience. But for some people like me, experience can be your best teacher. The best investment, however, is still the money you pay to help you grow. For once you grow, your money tends to take on an exponential rate of return.
Fortunately, you don’t have to pay what I paid to attend those seminars or read those many books, or go through those painful experiences and humiliating defeats just to get a chance to learn from my experience and story (but I also don’t discourage you from doing so). One way you can get to learn from me is to read through my blog, but with the many articles here, who has time to go through all of that? The good news is there’s another way – attend my seminar.
A lot of people have been asking me when they can attend my next seminar (friends included), and much as I’d like to invite them, it’s just not possible in most cases. For one, it’s because the seminar is normally organized for an exclusive group of students or an organization. They are paying me to share my story to them, it would not be proper to invite other people to seat in if they are NOT part of the group. Other times, I also conduct financial literacy seminars or talks exclusive to my teammates at XTRM 1-11, a group of young and energetic individuals from all walks of life who are passionate about learning to live a life above mediocrity. These seminars are NOT available to the public unfortunately. Until now. Today, finally, there’s a seminar made available to the public. Now, you can have the chance to meet me personally and hear my financial story on how I was able to get out of debt, save enough money to marry my wife, invest in stocks, real-estates and other assets and build a growing international business allowing me to quit my job of 9 years.
My good friend Sha Nacino of Seminar Philippines.com has organized a one-of-a-kind seminar on How You Can Achieve Financial Success on October 12, 2013 @ 8AM – 12NN. I was invited as one of the Resource Speakers along with Jay Castillo of ForeclosurePhilippines.com and others. CLICK HERE to check it out.
From my conversations earlier today with Sha, the initial seats made available is almost sold out. The good news is that after checking with the venue organizers, Sha confirmed that there’s still a possibility to accomodate a few more seats, thats why she opened up additional slots for those who are really serious to attend this seminar and get a no-holds-barred, straight-from-the-gut true-to-life personal stories on how to turn your life to a financial success. CLICK HERE to register now.
P.S. Avail the EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT if you register before Monday, September 30. If you register now, I will give you a FREE COPY of my ebook Rich Money Habits (just send me your email via the contact page afterwards.) CLICK HERE to register now. Just think, how much are youwilling to invest in yourself if you knew that what you will discover will allow you to earn the amount of money you want and become a financial success story yourself? Others have made it, why not you?
Powered by Qumana