Category: Personal Finance

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Life Updates Personal Finance

A Look Back on my Financial Journey in 2009

I have been reflecting the past couple of days on the many blessings I’ve received in 2009 and realized that no matter where you are, no matter what you do, there’s only one person responsible about your finances – YOU.

Living in Malaysia

My financial journey over the past year started by working as an IT professional in Malaysia.  My 2-year contract with my foreign employer just got extended for another year.  To top it off, my wife also got absorbed by our client company and got a new contract.  We both got a raise, though it was only minimal due to the ongoing recession.  We were both safe & fortunate to say the least.

Some of our friends were not as fortunate.  Their employer had to terminate their contract to cope up with the recession.  Some even have their families with them, which makes it more challenging.  Panic was everywhere. It was disheartening to see everyone trying to stay focused while their eyes reveal their fear, wondering whether it was their turn to be let go.  The recession made everything “temporary”.  Nothing was permanent.  Not your job.  Not your house.  And certainly not your visa. 

Thankfully, my wife and I was not hardly hit by the ongoing recession. 

Financially, we were doing OK.  We still had jobs.  We still had each other.  We have earned enough to put up an emergency fund.  We have stayed debt free. And more importantly, we were able to set aside some of our money, which we could use to support us if our employer decided to shorten our stay in Malaysia. 

If we learned one thing in our stay in Malaysia, it is to be prepared, always.

On the bright side, we were also able to enjoy some of the money we earned. We splurged on a lot of “doodads” as Robert Kiyosaki puts it.  We bought a 32’’ Sony LCD TV (which is now broken and could not have it fixed because it costs more to repair than the original price I bought it for – duh??), a Nikon D60 DSLR (which I love to this day), and a Macbook which my wife loves very much because she can do her video editing projects and post her Facebook pictures very easily with it.

We could have stayed in Malaysia if we wanted.  However, something was just not right.  We knew something was missing and we had to change.  And after much discussions over dinner and sleepless nights, we decided to take the chance of finding what we were missing in our home country – the Philippines.

Going Back Home to the Philippines

By middle of 2009, I got a call from my previous employer from the Philippines.  They have a big project going on and wanted to check if we’re interested in going back to the Philippines.  At the time, my wife and I have been contemplating whether to finally go back home or not.  To cut the story short, we left a life full of promise in Malaysia to a seemingly challenging life back home with family and friends in the Philippines.

To be honest, the next two months were REALLY challenging.  We had to immediately report to work as soon as we arrive in the Philippines.  We didn’t have any vacation at all.  We had to squeeze everything including preparations for our working papers, fit to work health clearance, and unpacking the 5 “balikbayan” boxes in a span of two weeks.  To make it worse, a 10-day self-quarantine was required after arriving at the airport because of the ongoing AH1N1 virus scare.

It’s been 5 months now since we arrived and I like to think that we have already adjusted living in the Philippines again.  Yes, work is stressful and challenging.  Yes, because of stress we got sick a lot of times during the past few months.  Yes, the traffic is bad and watching bad news on TV is sickening. But on the bright side, there were also lot of things I’ve been very thankful for for the past few months. 

First, my wife and I were able to attend Bo Sanchez’s Truly Rich Financial Seminar and Truly Rich Financial Coaching Program since we’re now in the Philippines.  We learned a lot, not only about the many ways you can make & invest your money but also about how my wife and I view money as a tool to help ourselves and other people. 

Second, I get to eat my favorite Filipino food like “longganisa” (locally made sausage), “inihaw na isda” (grilled fish), “chicken and pork adobo”, and many many more. 

Lastly, I am also thankful I was able to spend some time with my mom and dad, as well as my in-laws.  I get to know more about them, their concerns, their plans, their dreams.  The time I’ve spent with them is priceless and I won’t trade it for anything else in this world.  

All in all, year 2009 was great for us financially.  We were able to transition from being an IT professional in a foreign country to a similar work in the Philippines.  We’ve started investing in Retail Treasury Bonds.  We’ve also opened an account in one of the leading online stock brokerage firms in the country (I’ll tell you more about this in one of my upcoming articles).  And we’re also starting to learn to give back to other people.

How about you?  How was your financial life the past year? 

Categories
Life Updates Personal Finance

Happy New Year!

First of all, I’d like to greet you and your family a very Happy New Year! May God’s blessings continue to pour through your life and bring you happiness, love and hope that a more prosperous 2010 awaits ahead!

Second, I’d like to THANK our dear readers and subsribers of Rich Money Habits articles. About 3 months ago, the site akosiallan.com was re-launched as Rich Money Habits – a personal finance website helping people build long term money habits so they can achieve financial freedom with peace of mind. The response has been simply amazing, as the visitors of the site grew to a whopping 300%! Thank you very much for continually inspiring me to bring more helpful, practical and useful money & personal finance articles. Watch out for more interesting articles to help you with your finances this coming year!

Third, I’d also like to thank our friends who are continually inspiring people to learn to make, save, grow and invest their money wisely.  May the coming year bless you more so you can continue to inspire and encourage people to be wiser with their own money.
> Fitz @ Ready To Be Rich
> Jay @ Foreclosure Philippines
> Tyrone @ Millionaire Acts
> Celine @ Frugal Pinoy
> James @ Pinoy Money Talk

Lastly, watch out for more exciting things happening @ Rich Money Habits in 2010 as we create more new ways to help you build rich money habits and live the abundant life.

Again, Happy New Year to you!

God bless,
Allan

Rich Money Habits
https://akosiallan.com

Categories
Life Updates Personal Finance

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

May you and your family be blessed with the goodness and financial abundance as you celebrate the Holiday season together!

Cheers!
Allan

Categories
Personal Finance Truly Rich Club

Bo Sanchez’s How To Conquer Your Goliaths Book Review

This December, we are going to feature Bo Sanchez’s newest book, How to Conquer Your Goliaths.  Bo Sanchez is a very popular and much sought-after preacher in the Philippines.

 

His new book “How To Conquer Goliaths” contains two parts.  The first part is a creative rendition of the famous story in the bible – the battle between David and Goliath.  The second part contains 7 tips to conquer your own Goliath.

Part 1: A Pebble That Crushed a Mountain (David vs Goliath)

The story is re-told with a little twist similar to a “Lola Basyang” setting where several excited children repeatedly request their “Uncle Kenjo” to tell them the story about the olden days of the battle between David and Goliath.

Reading the story feels like reading a children’s story book.  Bo’s humor is on the spot.  He not only makes reading worthwhile, but for some people (like me) to dream again.  What was it like to be a child?  To be always in wonder?  To surge with excitement over a new story of a very courageous young man named David against a humongous giant named Goliath?  It’s always exciting to be a child.

Part 2: 7 Keys of a Champion’s Life

In the second part of the book, Bo Sanchez outlines the following 7 keys to overcoming your problem that’s preventing you from achieving your dreams.

  1. Follow Your Dream With Passion
    • Find something you’re willing to die for
    • Focus on the dream, NOT the problem
    • Repeat your dreams to yourself over and over again
  2. Focus on Your Core Gift
    • Find out your core gifts & passion
    • Follow your passion and match it with the needs of the market
    • Use your strengths, delegate the rest
  3. Believe in Yourself When Others Don’t
    • Build your confidence by starting small
    • Don’t listen to negative people or those that are not in your target market
    • Seek advise and listen to people who are already living your dream
  4. Build Your Dream Team
    • The #1 desired quality is the ability to work with a wide range of people
    • Recruit people who are better than you
    • Build relationship with your team
  5. Take Action
    • Take the first step in faith. You don’t have the whole staircase. – Martin Luther King Jr.
    • Take bold, massive action
    • See everything as preparation
  6. Fail Forward
    • Learn to fail
    • Be prepared to fail
    • Feel the fear, and fail anyway
  7. Shine Your Light
    • Heal your fear of success
    • Real humility is selfless servanthood
    • Be confident when you shine your light

The book is full of graphic stories to illustrate the key points mentioned above.  These ideas are nothing new.  But I like what Bo Sanchez said that the reason he wants to learn and re-learn the same things over and over again is because he wants to be “reminded” of these ideas once again.

Who should buy this book?  I did! 🙂 It costs PhP 295 (around US $6) at National Bookstore.  I think it is a good read.  And it never fails to inspire.  More than anything, I believe you can get most out of the book if you can pick 1 to 3 gems of ideas that you can readily apply into your life at the moment. 

So, I’ll start with mine.

1) My first Goliath is time.  I got sick the past couple of days…perhaps because of stress at work – working a lot of overtime due to the upcoming holidays….or because of lack of sleep and exercise.  I want to be able to manage my time more so that I don’t feel like I’m always in a hurry.

2) My second Goliath is physical fitness.  Isn’t it obvious I don’t want to be ever sick again?  One thing I miss doing was engaging in sports activities like badminton and basketball.  When I was in Malaysia, I’d always play badminton and basketball every week with friends.  Even though it is a challenge to play those games now, I still want to find a way to take care of my body and be physically healthy.

3) My third Goliath is freedom fund.  I want to be able to choose what I work on, with whom I work it with, and when I want to work.  I have just started learning more about the various financial vehicles that I can grow my money and earn some passive income on.  My goal is to be able to generate enough passive income to cover my monthly expenses.  This is the purpose of my freedom fund.  I am still a long, long way to go.  But there’s no other way to be alive than being inspired to achieve your dreams.

How about you?  What Goliaths are you facing right now? How are you planning to face them to achieve your dreams?

Categories
Life Lessons Personal Finance

How much is your time worth?

The other day I was reflecting on whether it is really all worth it giving up your time for a hefty paycheck.  After all, it does pay the bills…and more.  But if you don’t have time to enjoy any of it, does it really matter whether you have all the money in the world?

Should we just wait for our retirement to be able to enjoy the fruits of our labor?  But you say, “it’s why we have vacations throughout the year!”

Is that really the case?

Tell that to a father who has to give up attending his son’s birthday just to fix an “emergency” situation at the office.

Or to the proud mother who has to miss her daughter’s recital just so she can keep the business going during a “major” software upgrade.

Or to the countless call center agents who are on a “graveyard-shift” struggling to stay awake, feeling like zombies while listening to endless rants and complaints from angry customers on Christmas day!

Over the years, I’ve personally observed how our own personal time is being taken upside down.  There’s no such thing as a vacation anymore. Or even a holiday for that matter.  The dates to celebrate  holidays keep on changing.   Your boss allows you to have a vacation, only if you agree to be “on-call”…which literally means, you can’t go anywhere but within 100 meter radius from the office.  It doesn’t make sense.  It’s depressing, especially for a hardworking office worker who doesn’t have any choice other than quitting the job.

So, who makes the rules?  Who makes a 40-hour workweek, a 45-hour one, or even a 60-hour one?  Who says you can only take holidays only if the business doesn’t need you anymore?

Who decides how you spend your time?

Is it really you?…Or someone else.

Categories
Life Lessons Personal Finance

Multiple Stream of Income

Are you currently earning from multiple streams of income? How many income streams do you currently have?  How many ways does money come to you? 

Some people rely only on their job to earn money.  That’s their only stream of income.  The danger of having only one income source is that once you get fired the money stops and you are forced to find another way to earn money.  This is even more risky during a recession because it is harder to find another job.

Other people earn very high income using their specialized skills.  Doctors, lawyers, dentists, architects, consultants, small business owners earn a lot of money – which is good, but for some, it stops there. 

Most professionals have only one income stream – working using their specialized skill.  If they stop working, the money also stops.  When their skill becomes obsolete, they are forced to accept a reduction in pay to make money.  Or worse, to shift to another profession.

The few who are really rich in both money and time, have a different strategy. They build multiple streams of income.  They earn money through various ways.

For example, really big businesses like the SM malls of Henry Sy not only earn from you when you buy groceries from its SM supermarket, but it also earns income from the stores who are renting their mall space.  That’s creating multiple streams of income.

So what streams of income are available?  In what ways are other people earning residual income today?  Here’s a list of the many types of passive income streams from the book Multiple Streams of Income by Robert G. Allen.

  • Savers earn interest
  • Songwriters earn royalties on their songs
  • Authors earn royalties from their books and tapes
  • Insurance agents get residual business
  • Securities agents get residual sales
  • Network marketers get residual commissions
  • Actors get a piece of the action
  • Entrepreneurs get business profits
  • Franchisors get franchising fees
  • Investors get dividends, interest and appreciation
  • Visual artists get royalties from their creations
  • Software creators get royalties
  • Game designers get royalties
  • Inventors get royalties
  • Partners can get profits
  • Mailing-list owners get rental fees
  • Real estate owners can get cash flow profits
  • Retired persons can get pensions
  • Celebrity endorsers get a percentage of gross profits
  • Marketing consultants get a percentage of profit or gross revenue

Since the list was written about 10 years ago, it obviously doesn’t include how some people are now earning money online through the internet.  If I may add to the list,

  • Some bloggers earn money from every Google Adsense ad clicks on their sites
  • Popular bloggers earn money from paid advertisement on their sites
  • Online retailers earn money selling their stuffs online
  • Giant online retailers earn profits by selling other people’s stuffs online

How about you?  What can you add to the list? What additional income stream are you earning money from today?

Categories
Business Life Lessons Money Mindset Personal Finance

7 Ways to Celebrate Christmas Without Breaking Your Piggy Bank

Christmas is just around the corner.  Many of us are already planning how to spend our vacation.  Some are even singing a tune or two of their favorite Christmas carols.  Christmas in the Philippines is really special.  In fact, the season spans at least 3 months, starting in the early “ber” months of September until the misty dawns of December and even extends until the first few days of January.  What’s with the three kings and all?  🙂

With all the 13th and 14th month pays being given just before the month of December, everyone enjoys his own “extra” jolt of cash.  Suddenly, people have money to spend.  So they spend their money left and right, partying, buying gifts, busily getting into debt through the “easy monthly payments” for the brand new “ultra cool” mobile phone or flat screen TV. These expenses, if not controlled, can cause a strain on your budget even with the sudden influx of cash. Worse, after spending more money than you have, you end up needing to break your piggy bank.

 

Here are 7 ways to Celebrate Christmas Without Breaking Your Piggy Bank

1) Give your time.

Time is indeed gold.  In the world of business, it is an undeniable fact that your time is worth money.  As a contractor or employee, you get paid per hour of you time.  Your business generally earns money as long as it is open, which is also restricted by the time of your employees.  As the world becomes busier by the minute, your ability to give time is becoming more valuable more than ever.  In my opinion, your time is even more valuable than money.

So give your time.  Spend it with your family.  Take a walk.  Play outside the house.  Enjoy some time gardening.  Smell the fresh air.  Your precious time is more valuable than any gift you can ever give them this Christmas season.

2) Decorate your Christmas Tree Together

When I was growing up, we’d always decorate our Christmas tree together.  Most of the time, we’d use indigenous materials as decoration.  We would use white soap for a snow.  We would pick up stones and wrap them up as candies and hung them under the Christmas tree.  One time, we even made a “parol” (star) out of banana stalks.  It was a lot of fun and we didn’t even have to pay a dime. 🙂

3) Sing Christmas carols with your friends

There was a time when me and my friends would go out at night, knock from door to door to sing a Christmas carol or two.  Our neighbors being so kind and gentle would give us coins and gifts.  We enjoyed it so much we even brought our musical instruments along. We had a lyre, a trumpet, drums, and my favorite – a home-made tambourine made out of flattened aluminum caps.  And at the end of it all, we even earned some money from the whole thing.

4) Share stories with old friends

The yuletide season is one of those days where everyone is going to their home town.  It is a great blessing to be able to catch up with your old friends and enjoy the season together.  Long lost high school friends ask who is  already married and who is next in line.  They might even ask you to be the godfather of their own kids. There is something refreshing in meeting up old friends.  With all the stress we endure at work throughout the year, it is a very welcome opportunity to spend some time with those you’ve spent most of your childhood with.

5) Sing and dance to your heart’s content

We Filipinos are a happy people.  We love to sing! We are all singers, even if we cannot carry a single decent tune!  Everyone knows the hottest song on the radio is the Korean hit sensation “Nobody, nobody but you?!” 

We also love to dance.  Why do you think noon time shows are full of dancing from hip-hop, to modern to ethnic dance?…They even have dance contests all year round!

During Christmas, you have an excuse to celebrate.  So sing your favorite song on your videoke!  Dance like crazy! Live life and have fun!

6) Watch the stars

During the whole month of December, the cool winds clear out the clouds so the stars can come out at night!  Watching the glittering stars on a clear night sky is both relaxing and peaceful.  The stars are saying…”settle down…be calm…rest for a while”.

It is one of those rare opportunities to really reflect and reconnect with nature and the universe.  So grab the chance to watch the stars and marvel at the wonders of the world!

7) Give love!

Just like what the popular Christmas carol says…

Give love on Christmas day (Christmas day!)

No greater gift…is there than love.

What the world needs is love!

Yes the world needs your love…

Why don’t you…give love (Repeat Chorus)

Love is priceless. Love is “cheesy”. 

Love other people.  Love your neighbor.  Love your dog.  Love your son.  Love your daughter.  Love your parents.  Love yourself. 

Love is the only thing that grows and comes back to you a million fold when you give it away. 

 

Christmas is a season of celebrating joy and happiness.  Be happy! Smile!  There’s nothing that can take that away from you.  Not working on a night shift on the eve of Christmas day.  Not enduring the very long ride home just to catch your family’s Noche Buena.  Not even your problems on work, money or family. 

You dictate how to celebrate Christmas.  You alone can make it the best day of the year!  You have the power to give, to sing, to dance, to share, to love, to be happy and smile!  You can do all these things…even without breaking your piggy bank.

Categories
Life Lessons Money Mindset Personal Finance

How to save money on drinking water

When my wife and I moved to a new condo a couple of months back, we were having
a hard time looking for a place to buy drinking water.  On the first week, we had to buy a gallon or two of distilled drinking water from the nearby mall.  As some of you might know, distilled water does NOT come cheap. But we had no choice, we HAD to buy the distilled water because we badly needed something to drink! 🙂

After getting fed up of carrying the heavy gallon of distilled water from the mall to our condo, I asked our condo’s receptionist if they know of any water refilling stations nearby who deliver water to the condo.  Fortunately (or unfortunately), they did!

I thought, finally, here’s the solution to my problem.   Much to my dismay, the delivery service from the water refilling station was far from satisfactory.  First, they required us to buy at least 2 “new” water containers.  Second, they could NOT deliver the water on that day…they could only delivery the next day at 7:30 pm.  And lastly, they stopped delivering to us after only refilling the water containers once, saying we should order drinking water from someone else going forward.

So we’re back to square one. 🙁

Then just last week, we finally solved our problem.  We bought a drinking water filter at a nearby Handyman store.  It’s easy to use and install.  It is safe (so far). And, more importantly, we won’t need to buy drinking water, ever again. 🙂

The cost of the water filter is PhP 2,500 – flat.  No extra charges. No recurring monthly/weekly payments. No headaches.

The filter can be cleaned just by wiping it out with a damp cloth or a scrub and washing it on a running tap water.  No need to buy a replacement filter worth PhP 1,000 unless it is broken.

I made some quick calculations at the top of my head to see if the deal makes sense.

Here’s what I figured. My wife and I consume an average of PhP 30 of refilled drinking water every week.  At this rate, we would reach PhP 2,500 pesos after 1 year and 8 months.  That means we would only get our money’s worth after more than one and a half years of using the water filter.  Hardly exciting. 🙂

But what if

  • you are ordering drinking water for your company of 500 people
  • you own a restaurant serving drinking water to your customers
  • you live with your extended family: parents, grandparents, nephews, nieces and other relatives

Imagine the savings you’ll get just by replacing the delivered/purified drinking water by a water filter directly tapped from your faucet.  What if you only get 10% off of what you currently pay for on your drinking water?  That may mean a monthly savings of PhP 30,000 for your company of 500 people.  What if you managed to save 30% instead?  Or 50%?

The possibilities are endless.

How about you?  How do you save money on your drinking water?

Categories
Online banking Personal Finance

How to Enroll Additional Accounts into your BPI Express Online Account in 3 easy steps

In my previous article How to Enroll a BPI Express Online Account in 3 easy steps, I described how I was able to enroll my BPI savings account into BPI Express Online.  Since I also have another BPI checking account, I wanted to link my two accounts together so that I can monitor both of them online.

The good thing about being able to tie your accounts together is that you can transfer funds between your accounts in an instant, anywhere and any time you want.  No need to go to your branch, wait in line or be put on hold while waiting for the next customer service rep to pick up the phone.

Another good reason to link your accounts together is for your security and peace of mind.  For example, if someone stole your ATM card, you can simply logon to your BPI express online account and transfer the funds from your ATM card to your other account.  So even if someone tries to withdraw money from your stolen card, he won’t be able to withdraw any, since there are no more funds on that account.  That is, assuming only one of your ATM cards is stolen and the other one is kept somewhere safe 🙂

Here’s How to Enroll Additional Accounts into Your Existing BPI Express Online Account  in 3 easy steps

Step 1: Logon to your BPI Express Online Account

You need to have an existing BPI Express Online Account.  If you still don’t have one, you can enroll your BPI account by following the steps mentioned in my previous article How to Enroll a BPI Express Online Account in 3 easy steps. Once your BPI account enrollment is activated, you can go to BPI Express Online website at http://www.bpiexpressonline.com and logon to your account using your Login ID and Password.

Step 2: Go to My Portfolio > Enroll Additional Accounts

Once logged on, click on the ‘Go to My Portfolio’ on the upper left side of the menu.  A drop down list will appear.  Click ‘Enroll Additional Accounts’ from the list.  You will be asked which of the following 5 types of account you wish to enroll into your BPI express online account:

  • Savings and Checking Accounts
  • Time Deposit Accounts
  • Auto Loan Accounts
  • Housing Loan Accounts
  • Credit Card Accounts

Choose the type of the additional account you want to enroll then click ‘Continue’.  The next step will ask you to enter your account number.  Once done, click the ‘Submit’ button.  A confirmation page will be displayed indicating your account enrollment request’s Confirmation Number along with the Transaction Date & Time.  Take note of this information, or better yet, print it out for future reference.

Step 3: Wait for the bank to approve your enrollment

The bank will review your additional account enrollment application and verify that you really are the owner of the account.  The verification and enrollment activation is completed within 5 banking days.  Once your additional account enrollment is activated, you will be sent another notification email.  You can then logon to your BPI express online account to verify if you are able to view the account details of your other account online.

Even though you have to wait for around 1 week to have your additional account activated, the great thing about it is you don’t need to manually activate your enrollment via the ATM machine anymore. You also don’t need to go to your branch and wait for hours just to activate your enrollment.

Personally, I’d rather have the bank take their time to make sure that it is really me who is enrolling the additional account.  Otherwise, it could be a security issue.  This is, IMHO, still hassle free online banking.

DISCLAIMER: This is simply a guide to illustrate how easy it is to enroll an additional account into your existing BPI express online account.  No guarantees in the accuracy of the above steps is implied in any manner, whatsoever.  It is best to ask your local BPI branch customer representative or call BPI hotline 89-100 for more accurate instructions on how to enroll you account to BPI express online.

Categories
Business Credit Card Money Mindset Online banking Personal Finance

8 Best Home Budgeting Software Features I’d Really Love To Have

I’ve been looking for a home budgeting software for quite some time but I haven’t really found anything that has all the features I’d really love to have. You see, my wife and I have been relying on the good old excel spreadsheet to track our income and expenses.  Sometimes it works.  Sometimes it doesn’t.  There are days (usually at the start of the year) where we would be very excited (and committed) to enter our daily transactions into the spreadsheet.  But after a couple of months, the excitement dies down along with our budget.  As a result, unexpected expenses happen.  And we wonder where our money went. 🙂

Here are the 8 Powerful Home Budgeting Software Features I’d Really Love to Have

1. Secure

I may not have billions of dollars in my bank, investment and credit card accounts, but even then I still want my privacy when it comes to my own money.  In this day and age when information can be easily sold to unscrupulous individuals with not so good intentions, and with the many scams we hear every now and then, I think it is but prudent to take some extra precautions regarding your own personal financial information.  Security is the first feature I’d really love to have in a good home budgeting software.  Without it, all other features really don’t matter.

2. Easy To Use

One of the main reasons I hesitate to use most of the available home budgeting software out there is because they all require me to “manually” download the transactions from my bank or credit card account and then “manually” upload the same information into the budgeting software.  This is a complete waste of time, not to mention a complete bore.  When I heard about Mint.com and its ability to automatically download/upload the transactions from your accounts, I thought finally someone had found a neat way to solve this problem.  The bad news is – it is only available in the US at the moment.  Not to mention the privacy concerns raised by other people since the data is being kept by Mint.com on its own servers.

3.  Visually Appealing Charts and Graphs

The human mind understands pictures better than words.  One look at a picture and you know whether you are spending more than you are earning.  One look at the chart and you know your income or expenses are going up month after month.  Looking at rows and rows of transaction details is NOT a great way to organize the financial information available from your bank statements.  It will only add to the clutter that you don’t need and don’t really like to have.  As they say, “a picture is worth a thousand words”.

4.  Voice, SMS and Email Alerts

More and more people are attached to their mobile phones today than ever.  Aside from keys to your car, you cannot leave the house unless you have your mobile phone with you.  I bet you’ll even go back to your house in case you forget it.  Sometimes, you even feel incomplete without it.  For people on the go, it is very important to stay informed especially about anything related to your own money.  You can receive alerts if there’s any suspicious activities involving your finances.  You will be notified if someone just withdrawn half of your money from the bank.  Good banks would do just that.  But sometimes it is not always the case.  That added security of receiving alerts wherever you are is a welcome convenience to give you peace of mind.

5.  I-Phone/Mobile Phone App

The financial services industry is being revolutionized by the Apple I-Phone.  There are hundreds of cool apps you can install on your I-Phone or mobile phone free of charge or for a small fee.  A lot of these applications help manage your money and budget. Today, everything can be literally controlled from your fingertips wherever you are and whenever you want.  You can view your account balance.  You can receive reminders to pay for your bills that are due.  You can be notified if you’re going over budget after paying for that coffee using your credit card.  A cool app extends your home budgeting software beyond your home PC or laptop.  It is the only way to go for mobile people that are always on the go.

6.  Update Feature

Today, most home budgeting software can only read/browse through your transactions.  They can only make sense of the information that you give it.  It is passive.  It can only give you information.  You cannot tell it to do something other than spit out a report or chart.  The one feature that would really make a home budgeting software powerful is the ability to process “push” services like updating your account information, transfer funds through your mobile phone, or do everything you can do on your bank account and more.  Wouldn’t it be great if you can do everything without going to your bank and wait for hours just so you can have a customer service representative update your account for you?

7.  Track Cash

In Asia where most transactions are still made in cash, using a home budgeting software is not effective.  To be able to make use of the software, you have to manually key in the transaction details by yourself.  It is a complete waste of time and counter productive.  Besides, who would want to carry a notebook everywhere and jot down the transaction details when paying for his lunch at the cafe?  Certainly not me.  The really cool home budgeting software must be able to record cash transactions easily and track it effectively. Most important of all, it must be able to treat cash just like any other transaction.

8. One Account

Most people maintain a lot of accounts.  They may have multiple accounts in several banks.  They receive many credit card offers on the mail each month.  Not to mention their retirement and investment accounts in different brokerage firms.  Organizing your finances under one roof is getting harder and harder every day.  If you cannot link all your accounts together, the information you have of your finances is incomplete.  The home budgeting software of choice is able to integrate everything together under one roof so you don’t have to do it yourself.

These are the 8 powerful features I’d really love to have in a home budgeting software.

In the end, these features will only take you so far.  You still have to take control of your own money.  You still have to challenge yourself to make more money and keep it.  You still need the discipline to know when your expenses are helping you achieve your goals or not.  In the end it is still up to YOU to become rich or poor.

How about you?  What features would you like to have if you were to build the most amazing home budgeting software in the world?

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