To buy or not to buy? A question that needs to qualify an answer.
I am a working single mom striving to care for my parents and my kid. Salary is never enough. No one can even evade inflation. I'm hardly trying to achieve financial freedom but it's indeed difficult. It cannot be achieved overnight. I am not a Napoles either and I don't dream of becoming one ending in jail for a criminal charge or in the halls of Senate for an inquiry. I don't want fame.
As a breadwinner, I am thinking of a replacement income. I think ahead and I think of a lot of "what if's" in life. What if I die too soon? What if I live too long? What if...and many more what if's.
I am grateful for my IMG Wealth Academy family. My friends and mentors in IMG showed me the way. It introduced me to the right peers. I belong to a group of frugal people in IMG. Some of them have already earned their millions but they are still frugal and meek until now. They give tithes regularly and they go to the feast. I am not feast goer though. Even so, some of them belong to top level corporate positions yet they still manage to prepare daily "baon" for work instead of buying somewhere or dining out. I'm impressed with one IMG colleague who cooks kamote and saging na saba at home as his snacks for the day and brings his day's water consumption in his car instead of buying a daily bottled water.
I love the discipline that I'm learning in IMG WA. For now, I am telling what are the things that I'm buying. It may sound stupid for people who do not believe in insurance but as of today I have five life insurance plans. I also have an accident insurance separate from those plans. I have a long-term health care plan aside from Philhealth. In fact, I am also a holder of a memorial plan and my payment period is about to end. Sounds weird but I believe in having plans in the absence of a big emergency fund. I believe in insurance. I'm computing the total cost of all my insurance plans and these are not yet enough to cover my replacement income in case I die too soon.
Since I am a single mom, I know I can never be a Warren Buffet anymore. Too late for me. Perhaps I cannot even be like that of Bo Sanchez' household help and driver who have gone a long way investing in the stock market too much ahead of me.
So, I am buying shares for me and my kid. It is in a trust account in conjunction to one of my "what if's" in life. Quarterly, since I cannot make it a point to buy on monthly basis, I try my best to buy minimum of ten shares from a reputable food and beverage company. Aside from that, I also buy shares in mutual fund companies. For now, I maintain two equity fund accounts - equity funds being the most aggressive - in two top performing mutual fund companies in the country. I cannot boast anything on my investments in mutual funds because these are just too small. In fact, I find it difficult to add more investments after opening an account. So far, you may now have an idea how much it is.
I dream to get out of the debt trap. As of now, I am still in debt. Being single, I may not have a vow of "till death do us part" however, at least a dream of "till debt do us part" will be enough for me. I tried to apply for a credit card few years ago but all of them got disapproved. Now, I am thankful for all those disapproval. I presently maintain a debit card instead of a credit card. Renewal fee is just 350 pesos yearly without interest rates to boggle up my mind.
Instead of buying signature clothes, I buy from bargains and ukay ukay. For me, ukay ukay is better than patronizing an imitation. In this case, after wearing those clothes for a certain period of time, it's not heavy to the heart to give them to victims of natural calamities. I am also a recipient of used and old stuff (clothes, wallet, etc) from relatives and office mates. Still sounds weird? I don't care. I have to, otherwise, who else will care?
