FINANCIAL

I consider my financial status in distress state. Most of my Christmas bonus were spent on hospital bills when my mom had a stroke last December. What’s left of it and a loan proceed, I used to pay for down payment for a house and lot through Pag-IBIG. I’ve been planning to get a housing loan since last year. Initially, I planned on getting a foreclosed property but I was discouraged due to an unfortunate experience I had with Pag-IBIG.

The cost of developed properties in Bacolod City increases fast due to major developments in the city and besides, I have reserved the property last year so it costs much lower than it’s current market value. With this developments, I am expecting a tough year ahead. I have to tighten the belt in order to make ends meet. To help me meet my financial requirements, here are my new year goals and resolutions.

1. Make a detailed budget and stick to it. Actually, I have a monthly budget since last year but what I find hard to do is to follow and spend within my budget. I’m also practicing the use of envelopes wherein every pay day I set aside the budget allocation for an expense item. For this year, I intend to immediately pay bills that need to be paid. Delaying it means I have money in my pocket which I often spend on unnecessary things. It’s really all about discipline, something I intend to have more this year.

2. Have more income on the side. If I depended only on my salary, I would have starved a long time ago. I have parents to support and a nephew to send to school. That doesn’t make me a saint but a typical Filipino. This year I’ll be more enterprising and always on the lookout for potential source of income in addition to my part-time teaching.

3. Get out of Credit Card debt. My credit card debt is currently around P25,000. That’s not a lot for some people but for a wage earner like me, that’s big! And it’s compounding monthly. I admit I’m an impulsive buyer that’s why I accumulated that much debt. Talk about that discipline again. If I will not start on reducing my debt right now, I’ll be in deep trouble. I don’t want people from credit card companies to call me in the office and tell whoever receives their call how much I owe them. I recently came across the Debt Snowball which I’m planning on practicing in order to start getting rid of my consumer debt.

PERSONAL

1. Spend more time with family. After what happened to my mom, I’ll have to prioritize my family. My parents are already old so I’ll have to take good care of them and spend more time with them. I also would like to make the communication line with my siblings open so that we can discuss matters regarding our parents and those concerning our family. This is something we didn’t have before my mom had a stroke.

2. Learn a new skill. I like learning new things and this year I’d like to pursue a long time dream of learning photography. Already have an SLR, Minolta X-700. It’s still film and quite old but basing on reviews I read on the net, it’s one of the best classic SLRs. And I bought it quite cheap at eBay.

3. Answer the question “Should I get married next year?”. The question has been asked though not in the cheesy, romantic way. I don’t have an answer to that yet but I hope I’ll have one before the end of 2008.