Millionaire Acts

I just would like to inform you that I just started a more professional look blog on wordpress.


It's entitled "Millionaire Acts" Journey to Your Millions with more quality contents on entrepreneurship, investments, personal finance, and self-motivation.


It was originally described as 'Journey to One Million Dollars' but a friend of mine told me to change it to 'Journey to Your Millions' because the former limits the capacity to only one Million Dollars.


Additionally, this was not only my journey but also "Your" journey. So it's "OUR" journey.


I will still post some articles on this blog from time to time but I will concentrate more on building and providing quality contents on the new blog with a monthly update on my progress on networth.


I do hope that my readers will still support me as we travel our journey to millions.


Let's all eliminate poverty and achieve financial freedom!

The Most Inspiring Video

I was going through with my normal site visits and I came to this blog of a famous internet marketer Barry Dunlop. I was intrigued by his post regarding 'The Most Inspiring Video' he has ever watched.


I watched the video and admittedly, I was also touched by the last lecture of this guy named Ryan Pausch who had a pancreatic cancer who had only months to live.


He discussed his life from his childhood dreams up to the very moment but I was actually touched by his last lines that says: "If you live your life the right way, the Karma will take care of itself. The Dreams will come to you. If you live properly, the dreams will come to you."


Watch the video here.

Christmas Carol for Investors

Since Santa Claus is again close to coming to town this Christmas, I would like to share this Christmas Carol specially made for investors during this time of economic slowdown.

Sing to the tune of 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town'. It's 35 days to go before CHRISTMAS!

HO..HO..HO…LET'S SING TOGETHER

You'd better watch out
You'd better not cry
You'd better keep cash I'm telling you why:
Recession is coming to town.



It's hitting you once,
It's hitting you twice
It doesn't care if you've been careful and wise
Recession is coming to town



It's worthless if you've got shares
It's worthless if you've got bonds
It's safe when you've got cash in hand
So keep cash for goodness sake, HEY

You'd better watch out
You'd better not cry
You'd better keep cash I'm telling you why:
Recession is coming to town



Finance products are confusing
Finance products are so vague
The banks make you bear the cost of risk
So keep out for goodness sake, OH



You'd better watch out
You'd better not cry
You'd better keep cash I'm telling you why:
Recession is coming to town.

Manny Villar’s Success Story

[With excerpts from neGOsyo by Joey Concepcion]

We all know him by his famous guiding lines ‘Sipag at Tiyaga’ which means perseverance, persistence and hard work. He had this latest TV commercial about helping Overseas Filipino Workers who were victims of illegal recruiters. He is one of the richest persons here in the Philippines and considered one of the titans in the real estate market industry, owning low cost housing firm C&P Homes and high-class housing firm Brittany Bay Corp. Who else I am talking about? He is no other than our current Senate President Manny Villar, which resembles another rags to riches story.

Senator Manuel ‘Manny’ Bamba Villar was born on December 13, 1949 in Moriones, Tondo, Manila to a family of nine children. His father, Manuel Villar Sr. was just a low-ranking civil servant and they were just living under a rented apartment. The main source of their income was their small fish and shrimp business in Divisoria. His mother, Curita Bamba Villar was a market vendor. As a boy, he was often seen assisting his mother in the wet market. His mother used to wake him up early in the morning to help her carry loads of fish. Young Manny used to complain it was too early but he would do it anyway just for her mother to save money by not hiring a helper to do it. He recalled he was once commanded by his mother to encash a 40-peso check at a bank in the former Manila Hilton Hotel. He was one of the earliest customers that time and the teller complained that the check smelled like fish. However, he remained firm telling the bank teller it was her duty to accept the check.

Manny learned his entrepreneurial skills from his best teacher, his mother. He said, “I learned from my mother what it takes to be an entrepreneur, and it means working really hard to achieve your dreams.” He described his mother as a ‘consummate entrepreneur’. He described her as a very hard working person who was never been absent or late in the wet market. He further described her as a dynamic, a woman of tremendous passion and ambitions, resourceful, pragmatic, and has a very good skill in arithmetic especially in counting change.

Manny finished both his undergraduate studies and Master’s Degree of Business Administration in University of the Philippines (UP). He then worked with the accounting giant firm SGV & Co. but resigned to try his luck into his first business venture. Having a background in the seafood business, he first ventured into that same business. Unfortunately, it failed having lots of uncollected receivables and he was technically bankrupt at the age of 22. Resilient, he thought of an idea and he approached one of the restaurants he was delivering seafood that couldn’t pay him. He printed out ‘meal tickets’ and convinced the restaurant owner to honor them. He then went to sell these tickets at a reduced price to office workers. After one year, he was able to liquidate his receivables. He then went to work again this time at Private Development Corporation of the Philippines where he specialized in selling World Bank Loans.

His first real estate venture began in 1975 when he again resigned from his job at the age of 25. He started with a capital of P10,000 which he used to acquire two reconditioned trucks in hauling gravel and sand to construction sites for BF Homes. He then learned the business well enough to build houses on 80 lots sold to him by BF Homes. The project was a success and it made Manny a young millionaire at the age of 26. At this stage, he said to himself: “One day, I’ll be the biggest home-builder in the country”.

Manny then concentrated in this business and he decided to go for low-cost housing. His initial tactic was to buy odd shaped lots of big developers that they cannot sell. Manny bought these lots and built houses on them. Majority of his buyers were Overseas Filipino Workers who availed the financing terms of PAG-IBIG, a government institution subsidizing the acquisition of low cost houses. Eventually, he had sold more than 100,000 homes for the poor and middle class Filipino families.

He then entered politics in 1992 by becoming a Congressman in the districts of Las Pinas and Muntinlupa and continued by serving as Speaker of the House of Representatives and today as Senate President. He has received various awards and recognitions. These include Agora Award for Outstanding Achievement in Marketing Management in 1989, Most Outstanding Certified Public Accountant in 1990 given by the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and Most Outstanding UP Alumnus given by University of the Philippines in 1991.

Truly Manny Villar is another excellent example of a rags-to-riches story. He proved to us that his humble beginnings as a poor boy from Tondo was not a hindrance in achieving his dreams and ambitions as long as there is hard work, persistence, and perseverance coupled with determination. More power 'Mr. Sipag at Tiyaga'!

To know more about stories of famous Filipino Entrepreneurs, visit rags to riches entrepreneur.

Philippine Stock Predictions

In my previous post, I mentioned about the predictions of a famous astrologer. I was going around my usual site visits back then and I came to this site of a famous astrologer in the US. She even gives advices to stock markets.


I asked:

"Hi Denise, can I ask what do you think will happen to the Philippine Stock Exchange? And to the Philippine Economy?"


She answered:

That’s a big question. I’m going to see if I can find a chart on the Philippine Stock Exchange. I found the inception date and figured the trading began at 9:00 AM so I ran it for that time. If you know what time it starts let me know in a post so I can rectify the chart. Here is the chart:


So here we see that the Sun is at 01 degree Capricorn. This is the same degree as the Dow’s ascendant. I’m seeing this 1 degree Capricorn in so many financial charts it’s making me wonder if that degree has some special significance especially to markets. Anyway, it’s in the 11th house and the Sun rules the 7th, meaning it will take a big hit because it’s friend (us) and partner (us) is going to get punched. It will also start freaking out in late December. I haven’t been paying attention to it, but I’m sure there have already been signs, and problems as this aspect gets tighter.



Now the bigger problems are going to come down the line — it may even dissolve and be re-invented or absorbed by another market, rumblings of this will start in January 2014, but it may not happen until later when Pluto hits Uranus and then all of a sudden it will go bye-bye. That will be a few years later in January of 2017. This could be part of the global market change I’ve been talking about, perhaps the Philippines will transform around that time. But I’d say from December of this year until November of 2009 this market will be very volatile and you might want to stay away until it settles down. Hope that helped.

I was shocked and let's see if this will really happen. In the mean time, I would follow her thoughts and I will stay away from stocks until November of 2009. To visit her site, you can go to this link.

Share me your thoughts on this.

My Investment Losses

We all hear different bad news on financial markets. The subprime mortgage crisis really caused a huge problem that brought the greatest financial turmoil ever since the Great Depression on the year 1930's. A lot of economies are entering into a recession and the most recent case country that joined the list is Germany.

A lot of companies also declare bankruptcy. US Secretary Henry Paulson and FED Chairman Ben Bernanke are both doing their best to save the US economy into an impending recession that will have a domino effect to the rest of the economies leading into a global recession. Ben Bernanke kept on cutting interest rates and the recent moves of Paulson includes the buying of commercial papers and directly investing into the equities.

Recently, the most severe case of bankruptcy filing is Circuit City Stores, Inc., a leading specialty retailer of consumer electronics, which declared $624 Million of unsecured debts. The whole stock market is struggling. There are a lot of withdrawals in hedge funds and job cuts by several companies.

No one is spared from these events and that includes also my investments.

I have attached here an excel file that summarizes the health of my investments.

From the excel file, here is a summary of these losses:

• I'm losing 114,046.90 on all my investments representing around 33% loss. My stock investments were down 37% while my equity fund investments were down 32%. What the heck?!
  
  
• In my direct stock investments, if MEG was the best stock that I considered during my previous post since it generated the highest net gain, then it was the worst stock that I hold now since it was having a net loss of 33,559.74
  
  
• In my equity funds investments, Metro Equity Fund is having the biggest loss of 72%.
  
  
• I was surprised that even my mutual fund investment in Sun Life incurred now a loss of 54. I invested in this fund early 2006 and since then received twice stock dividends per annum but it didn't survive the crisis and suffered a loss now.
  

I really do hope that the stock market will recover soon. For those who believe in astrology, one famous and credible astrologer named Denise said that both the US and Philippine Stock Market will start freaking out very badly by late December. She advised to stay away from stocks until November 2009. She even told that based on the charts she's been reading, the Philippine Stock Market will go bye-bye sometime in January 2017. It may be absorbed by another market. Wow! Scary! Read her predictions here most specifically my question on the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Don'ts to Remember

The Don'ts to Remember:

1. Don't Wait For Time, Make It...
   
   
2. Don't Wait For Money, Earn It...
   
   
3. Don't Wait For the Path, Find It...
   
   
4. Don't Wait For the Opportunity, Create It...
   
   
5. Don't Go For Less, Get The Best...
   
   
6. Don't Compare, Be Unique...
   
   
7. Don't Avoid Failure, Use It...
   
   
8. Don't Dwell on Mistakes, Learn From Them...
   
   
9. Don't Run From Life, Embrace and Enjoy It...

Be STRONG!

BE STRONG!!!


Never tell yourself, "I am tired!"


The more you accept that thought...


The more exhausted you'll become...


But if you tell yourself, "I CAN DO EVEN MORE..."


You'll find that there are no limits to what you can accomplish.