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.
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 province, 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.
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 w orked very hard and was fortunate enough to be promoted almost every year.
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 when 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.
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?
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.
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.
With the savings, I had, I was able to pay my debt slowly buy surely. More than that, it gave me confid ence 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!
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!
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!
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