Building Rich Money Habits 101: my personal finance story

<p>I have always thought there�s only one formula in making money. That is work hard and at the end of each month, you get your paycheck. Growing up in a family of farmers, I have seen what working hard really means. I�ve experienced waking up early in the morning, go to the farm, plant or harvest rice until the sun sets in. When you go home after a long day of working, the aching muscles says it all. It is HARD work. I�ve learned from my parents that if you want to have some money, you have to work for it. Often times, I�d go along with my mom to harvest tobacco leaves from a nearby town, and afterwards, she�d pay me for how much I was able to harvest. That�s always been my training in terms of making money. That was my first money habit � work to earn.</p> <p>When I was in College, I wanted very much to help my parents pay for my education. I was fortunate to have been granted a full scholarship, so that took care of the tuition. Even then, making money from a far away prov
ince, and spending it in the most expensive city in the country is no easy task. It is an uphill battle similar to walking up to a going down escalator. So in my own little way, I also tried to make money by applying as student assistant to one of the universities� projects. It doesn�t pay much since it is a government project but enough to pay some of my daily expenses and grow my confidence.</p> <p>After graduating, I immediately started work as a mainframe programmer for a multinational IT company. The offer I got then was around 16,000 pesos which was BIG money then for someone who�s fresh out of college and don�t have much working experience. I worked very hard and was fortunate enough to be promoted almost every year.</p> <p>As my paycheck increased, my appetite for consumption also increased. I bought a refrigerator, a washing machine, gas stove, shoes, etc, ALL at the same time, EVEN when I didn�t have the money to pay for it. I just used my new credit card! That�s w
hen my debt started to pile up. The �easy� monthly payments never lived up to its promise. No monthly payment was easy, especially when you only have your paycheck to rely on. As my debt seemingly increased every month, I also had to worry about paying my monthly house rental, buying groceries, eating out with friends, and more. There were times I was so out of money I even had to do �cash advance� on my credit card. As some of you might know, you get to pay a hefty �fee� for doing a cash advance. This is on top of the amount of money you actually �advanced�. My already big debt, ballooned even more! I was so ashamed of having to do cash advance, I promised right there and then, I had to pay for my debt no matter what. It was like a having compound interest working against me. I had to learn how money works. I had to figure it out no matter what. I had no choice.</p> <p>While pondering my huge debt, I tried to look for ways to earn more money. I tried doing some programming
projects for friends. I even entered the world of network marketing, tried selling wellness products and failed miserably. I remember that my only �downlines� (a term indicating those you�ve recruited into the business) was my mother, my aunt, and a few of my friends. It was a learning experience. The thing that struck me most, was that my �need� for money, was being transferred to my �clients�, without me being conscious of it. It was hard �selling� something you don�t 100% believe in and it�s even harder when your motivation is �making� more money without necessarily helping other people. I think this mindset barrier is one of the reasons why I was not able to make it work. Everyday, I had to battle with myself. Am I here to really help other people? Or is it just because of the money?</p> <p>One time, while me and my friends were hanging out at a bookstore, I saw the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. I heard my friend say it�s a great book, so I bought it, took
it home and devoured the stories and financial lessons in the book. The book opened my eyes to the world of money I never knew existed before. That�s when I realized that the rich have different sets of money habits from the poor and the middle class. For the first time, it finally made sense why I can�t seem to be making a dent on my credit card debt; why I can�t seem to sell anything at all. Because I had the wrong money habits. I had to learn rich money habits to achieve financial freedom.</p> <p>After that, it got me excited to learn more about money. First, I signed-up for our company�s savings plan. I started really small. At first, only about 2% of my paycheck is automatically deducted and kept under my savings account. I don�t even get to hold the money. After a month, I increased it to 5%, then to 10%. After a year of saving, I was able to set aside 20% of my paycheck without necessarily scrimping myself too much. That was rich money habit #1 � pay yourself first.</
p> <p>With the savings, I had, I was able to pay my debt slowly buy surely. More than that, it gave me confidence to know that I can do it, with the proper discipline and rich money habit. When the opportunity came for me to be assigned to the US for a 6-month stint in my company, I was able to save even more and pay-off the rest of my credit card debt. That was rich money habit #2 � get out of bad debt as soon as possible!</p> <p>I also started to take serious notice of the numerous calls I got from insurance agents offering life insurance. Before, I would always make up numerous excuses just to avoid talking to them. But now, I wanted to know more how I can use the different insurance products to protect myself and my family. I also started reading more on business, money, investing and personal finance. After a few years, I managed to save up for an emergency fund. That�s rich money habit #3 � Get some protection!</p> <p>I�m still a long way to go from financial freedom.
That is my goal. I am in the process of learning how to build passive and semi-passive income, and I am loving every minute of it. In this website, I will share whatever I learned so that you too can build your own rich money habits and ensure your financial success and freedom!</p>
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