I admire parents who raised their kids educating them about
finances. I know some friends who have always been more than responsible in
handling money. There are some of them who started early - savings, mutual
funds, time deposits, small businesses, insurance, real estate, etc.
I was one of those who lived from paycheck to paycheck. I
only began looking into it seriously when I got pregnant with Gab. I started to
really look into the details of budgeting and tried to find ways on how I can
catch up with the lost years when I should have been "building".
I read from financial websites and heard from videos of
experts that it is never too early to start. I'm telling myself, it is never
too late. When I was having lots of troubles about money, I thought I'd never
get out of it. But I was certain that my family deserves MORE. So, we had to
START and had to little by little DO IT.
The first step was to make a list. Monitoring the INs and
OUTs really works! Then, I literally cut the plastic cards and cancelled them
from the banks as soon as I finished paying up the debts. And in the process,
we actually lived below our means. We had to do that to zero out all the
nightmares.
We now got ourselves insurance protection and (partially
ready) emergency fund. And so we are presently thinking of investing in mutual
funds and/or stock market. In my effort to try and understand how it works, I
came across a very useful website PESOS AND SENSE and I am so
glad I saw the videos of Aya Laraya in YouTube (actually it's more like how
come I am only watching this now?). I still got a lot of episodes to see but so
far I learned a lot already.
"If you are going to take care of your money, it's
really a commitment." - Aya Laraya
I cannot agree more. There are still a lot of things that I
need to learn. And for sure the way will be, let's say long and (I want to
think) happy. But for sure, we will get there. Maybe not as far as my other
friends can reach, but will sure get somewhere.
