Investing Early

The end of the month usually equates to bills payment. However, instead of moping on the high cost of living in this lifetime, I decided to focus on the positive side of bills payment which included my investment policies.

I started investing on a forced-savings plan nine years ago, right after college graduation. Using 80% of the graduation money I received from my family and the educational insurance company, I signed my first endowment policy. Around that time, my monthly payments were measly Php 1,000/mo. Just enough deduction from my then, Php 10,000/mo. salary.

As my income increased over the years, so did my penchant for looking up higher yield investment. It’s a paradox since I am not really a finance person. I fall asleep reading my FinMan books when I was taking my MBA. In fact, I really don’t like talking about money and most people are actually surprised when they learn how religious I am when it comes to saving. But having trusted friends and family giving free consultations make investing easy.

The rules of thumb are, as your earnings increase, your investment should follow. Likewise, be sure to ask questions and get all the necessary details before you entrust your hard-earned moolah. Be on-guard against selling spiels, if they sound too-good-to-be-true, they definitely are. Read books. Lastly, the amount you invest should hurt a bit, you’ll get used to it anyway. Several times it may ask you to pass up that gorgeous pair of shoes but you’ll be surprised on the value of the returns in due time. Remember, eyes on the prize.

I still have a long way to go but I am really thankful that my parents taught me the value of investing early. The last contract I signed was two years ago, it’s time for a new one.