Budget Adjustment + Financial Update

Hi,

It's been a while I haven't posted about my finances. I have told you on my previous post that I was laid off from my first job and the result is that my income has been down to 50%, yes half of it, it was not easy at first but I have accepted it and moving on. Had accepted a replacement job right away after I was laid off but it does not work out. I am used to work flex, meaning I own my time, I will decide what time I will start and end my work everyday and it does not work for a night owl like me.

Ok here it goes, my finances has been down but that does not stop me from continue living within my means. This month is a breakthrough on my Emergency Fund, I was able to save 30k for it and right now I am very happy :) it is already 2 months of my salary that I was able to save. Yay! So I am excited to put more to it until I get to 6 months worth of emergency fund. It has been almost a year that I've been struggling to save for my emergency fund, I had lots of unexpected travel plus expenses last year that I was not able to hold up and my emergency fund was nearly getting to 0, oh yes at the end of last year my emergency fund went down to 2k, unbelievable and not desirable either. I don't want this to happen again to me this year.

My FAMI-SALEF is growing, I started with only 5k as an initial investment last March 2013 and continue adding up to it until now with a 1k amount every month, oh yeah small but small does still matters :) , and right now I have 30k+ total investment with a 2k+ gain, yay a lot to be thankful for!

Our St. Peter Life Plan, our because I am paying two every month, for me and for my mother, this sounds morbid but I am just securing the future. I have only 9 months left to pay the maximum 5 years contract. Another milestone on my finances :) After I finish paying for this, I can now add the amount to my FAMI-SALEF. I want to diversify my mutual fund investment this year, I would like to open an account to Sunlife and choose the balance fund, I want to try a balanced fund also, but still my priority this year is my emergency fund, maybe next year I can open another account at Sunlife.

So for this month and the rest of the year my budget will be adjusted, no more unnecessary expenses, like clothes, bags, shoes, etc. I should only purchase the needs. Sometimes I do splurge on some wants but hoping to still stick to my budget. I have a fun fund of 500 php on my budget this month, so I am hoping to stick hard to this.

This is all for now, till next time.
Cheers,

Up and Down Life Struggles

Hi,

My last post was about my travel adventures during the summer of 2015 and indeed it was a blast! Hope I could travel again by summer of 2016 :) crossing my fingers. I am looking for more travels to come.

When June 2015 came there are a lot that has happened to me. I officially enrolled my one last required subject for my Masters in Education Major in Educational Management which is Statistics in Education before proceeding to my proper Thesis 101 and 102 this second semester of the year or maybe next year. But when middle of June 2015 arrived, I was laid off from my 2nd Online work and has left me hanging on my finances. I thought I should drop the subject because my other job online is enough only to sustain my families basic needs plus other bills or insurances that I should pay every month. But when I take a good look at my finances I can still continue studying the subject I enrolled. One subject cost about PHP3000+ in one semester, so I decided to continue. All I need to do is to have a very tight budget and no more unnecessary expenses.

But a test of my faith and decision making strike me in the first week of July 2015. My boss who laid me off has referred me a job online again that I can possibly work with. Shocking as it may seem but the hiring process was very fast. My former boss contact me via skype because the person he referred me with wants to interview me immediately. The interview process was  very light and it took us only 2-3 hours to finish the interview and tadah I was hired! Yeah! really fast, I did not expect it but God does really move in mysterious ways even though I didn't ask for it. That day when I am officially hired, I started immediately with the task handed to me but they have rules to be followed. I should start work ing 8 am in the morning till 5:00 pm in the afternoon, a Time Doctor should be installed to monitor the time  being spent while working, no social media sites should be open while working, and lots more rules. I am kinda overwhelmed about this, and I said to myself  "Oh they are very strict!" but then I continue. The next working days was very torturing because I am used to sleep very late at night and wake up late in the morning. My body had a hard time coping up, getting up early to start working at 8:00 am is really hard. I've been stressed a lot trying to do a 40 hour work in a week, I am used to work flex, meaning I own my time, I choose what time of the day I will work and I usually preferred to work during early evening till midnight. I ask my close friends on what will I do and listen to each of their advises, most of them said I should continue and only one of them said that I should not. In times like this that I am really confused on what to do, I always go to Church to pray, I ask God for discernment on what to do.

This week I finally decided, I quit the job! I realized that I should choose the job that makes me happy. Money should not always be the solution for everything. I must choose my hearts decision over my head. And after I said that big decision I felt relieve and happy about it. Why do I stay on a job who does not make me happy, right? So from now on I will choose those that will make me truly happy.

SO CHOOSE HAPPINESS ALWAYS :)

Cheers,

Life Update + Travel Adventures

Hi,

I have to apologized for not updating this blog and posting anything that had happened to me for the past 2 and a half months. My last post was on April 1 and after that this blog has been very quiet :( and the reason was because of "laziness", so I want to say sorry. But right now I realized I should go back to writing and posting some of it on this blog, hope you could bear with me with this very long post this time around.

I mentioned in my last post that I will be traveling on April til May this year and indeed I really did went to the places I have mentioned.

Last April 15- 17, 2015 I went to our Family Grand Reunion at Compound, Mahayag, Zamboange del Sur. This is the place where my mother was born, it was more than 5 years that I was not able to get back to this place since my Elementary years.

Overall, the place was lovely :) fresh air is free, no noises from the vehicles, no air pollution and the awesome part is that most of them sleeps at around 7 pm in the evening, very early than my usual routine of 12 midnight everyday when in am in the city, lol.  You can see lots of trees everywhere, trees that is not usually growing in the city. Like that tree I had a picture with above, that tree according to  my Aunt is over a 100 years old, awesome, right?  So that was the month of April for me. I hope I could go to this place again next year and enjoy the trees and more moment of solitude :)

My next travel was last May 12-16, 2015. It was only 1 week but hey I did so many things even in just a week! I have with me my two friends Irene and Juvy, the plan was we will go to Juvy's place to celebrate their fiesta and the other days will be spend together to see the beautiful spots of Siquijor! Yup Siquijor, when Juvy mentioned if I want to go with her, I didn't hesitate to say Yes! Who would have not like going to a place that most people are excited to go to for a summer vacation? Certainly I would like to go. So May 12 at 3 am in the morning we travel from Iligan City and we arrive at Siquijor on the 13th, we had a quiet delay at Plaridel, Misamic Occidental coz the ticket has been sold out. So we decided to take the route of Dapitan City to Dumaguete via boat and a ferry from Dumaguete to Siquijor. Travelling by land is quiet tricky especially during peak seasons and indeed we have survived! Thank God it is really a nice and forgettable experience.

Here are some of our pictures of our "Extreme Siquijor Escapade". 

*A church of Lazi, Siquijor. Forgive me if I wearing a short inside the church.*

*At Salagdoong, Beach Resort of Maria, Siquijor.*

*At Salagdoong, Beach Resort. The water is very clear and blue :) *

*This is the beautiful "beach" we are able to go to. The Kagusuan Beach, this beach was featured number 1 in www.rappler.com , cool! Right? :) *

*We have a foreigner companions!Lol :) The beach sand was really white and tiny. Oh how I'd love to swim in the water for the whole day. 

*We cannot go without doing some jump shots!Haha *

After Kagusuan Beach, we go to the "Foot Spa" where fish is making the foot spa...yeah you would not believe? Then try it at Siquijor only :) you only need to give any amount as donations and then you will have a foot spa in an instant by the fish themselves, hehe

That is the end of our 2nd day itinerary. Our 3rd day was spent visiting the St. Claire Monastery at Maria, Siquijor and the famous Infinity Heights of Siquijor, Siquijor.

*St. Claire Monastery*

*The Famous Infinity Pool of Infinity Heights!*

So that was it! I had posted a lot of pictures, lol :) Till next time! God Bless You Always!

Cheers,