Now, Personal Finance

Again, the things you pick up from Oprah. (This is a  somewhat, geeky entry.)

I’ve recently started practicing financial planning. In reality, it’s a lot harder than than they say it is in the books. Add to that the ever growing multitude of self-help and advise books, all with contradictory statements: “Don’t buy this, Buy that.”, “Don’t borrow or borrow other people’s money”, “Individual stocks vs. mutual funds”, “Dollars and currencies”. For a twenty-something starting out it can be confusing. And downright frustrating when you want everything to happen, as in NOW.

I am taking it very, very slowly. For one, I am at least, debt-less. Patience Kim, patience. So far:

I’ve taken the pie-chart I picked up from Oprah and turned it into something like this:

I put up spreadsheets for monitoring and tracking my expenses, Accounting 101 style. It’s a little bit disconcerting to see that my net worth in cash/peso assets is just about $400. But it’s something to work on. Thanks to the pivot-wizard in Excel for Mac, I have been able to create various pie-charts and correlate what data I could. Now I can see exactly where the money goes, the general idea being, if I can reduce spending in that area, then I’ll have cash for elsewhere. Not surprisingly, my transportation expenses make up a good 26% of whatever I spend. It’s a sign I really have to start carpooling with Cheryl. (In Jemai’s words, “Help save the environment!”)

I’ve saved at the very least 20% of my income. Not counting the first two months of work which brought about various economic issues (including, asking for allowance from my parents, yet again.). Sure, the interest is only a little over 1%, but the bank is a safer place than my wallet, until I meet the balance I require to keep for an emergency fund, and then I’ll think about what to do with the rest of the cash.

I have not (read: NOT) been using my credit card. Even if it gets charged to my mom. It’s a bit shameful to do so, considering I’m only taking care of myself and no one else. Plus, I’ve always had this fear of credit card debt. Remember Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde? When she said, “I never thought I could be this happy without credit card debt!” I thought that would be me.

When I want something, I mull it over and buy it. I don’t mull over the price, but whether I really, really want it. It saves me from the inevitable crash of going crazy over other things because 1) what I wanted is long gone or 2) all the waiting to buy it made me crave to spend more.

Presently, I’m finding the financial plan which works for me. That includes reading the advise of the likes of Kiyosaki, Trump, and listening to Cashflow and even the likes of a certain Kate Oliva. I don’t have to do everything they say, but I can at least sort out what I think is crap and the parts which I want to try out for myself. And that’s important. (It saves me from the blame game, and the possible ranting of “_ is a liar and an idiot!” Should things turn out badly. (Cross fingers.)

And lastly, I’ve stopped doubting the power of karma. I try to do good when I can (occasional temper flares are acceptable). Okay, you may say the nastiest guys out there have all the money, but doing some good always helps, if not in this life then it’s for the next.