The lesson that can be gleaned from lizards is to stand still and run fast. Observing almost any survival creature, you see the simplicity of their impulse. Freeze, jump, run. What can financial planning teach about lizards? Stand still, observe, crack like a whip into action. We’ve stood still long enough. So here and now, […]
Doing what you love to do, fuels success for every other thing. Most people in business who really succeed are the ones who are most passionate about their work. They have a competitive edge (if you can call it that). By empowering what you already love doing, you are in fact creating wealth within you,
Revitalize your Retirement Plan by Flipping the ScriptRead More »
As a long-time comic book reader, I’d say Stan Lee had an ideal retirement. Despite his age, Stan Lee was still occupied with the excitement of telling new stories, creating new characters exploring new ideas, and collaborating with old and new talents. In his 80s and 90s, Stan Lee’s vitamins were his continued foray with
Better to Burn Out, than Fade Away! A Primer to Purpose-Driven Retirement PlanningRead More »
From time to time, we like to break conventions and rattle the cages. This is one of those times. For this blog, let’s disturb the general understanding of retirement. Ah, yes, retirement — that elusive, long stretch of a goal come your senior years. In terms of our career life, retirement is the time to
A Dynamic Retirement Plan for the Brave, Daring, Purpose-Driven Souls (Updated)Read More »
Press Start V.1 is just your friendly-neighborhood to-do list, which just happens to have a spaceship. The mechanics are simple. Award yourself points for good habits you’ve completed. Your points carry over to the Energy Management Worksheet, where you can convert your points into energy. Save enough energy so you can boost your spaceship forward.
Good habits are the key to all success, bad habits are the unlocked door to failure, says Og Mandino, author of the Greatest Salesman in the World. Performing financial planning is 90% sticking to good habits and 10% number crunching. If you develop good financial habits and stick to them for the rest of
Your long-held math anxiety may be the reason why you’re delaying your financial plan. To ease the tension and reduce “financial planning anxiety”, we’re going to gamify the process. In high school, my blood pressure would rise for this dreaded anticipation of math time. What made it worse were the math teachers who had the
Overcoming Your Anxiety with Numbers through PlayRead More »
Years ago, I stumbled upon a beautiful poem from the 19th century by an English poet, John Oxenham entitled “The Way”. Eloquent and transcendent, the poem echoes through time—and it certainly echoes with the way financial planning should be done. The Way To every man there openeth A Way, and Ways, and a Way And
The one consistent aftermath of a crisis is that it would have created an abrupt change in the system due to a catalyst—so damning and so destructive—we cannot return to past routines. The COVID-19 pandemic is one such catalyst that has wreak havoc in so many areas of our lives, which forced healthcare, schools, and
The New Normal in the Financial Advisory ProfessionRead More »
The Role of Happiness It shouldn’t be surprising to know that money management and financial health are pegged to your long-term happiness. You have to understand the things that make you happy. How do you define contentment? What is having enough for you? A conservative view of money management is about holding back and force
During the first quarter of 2019, I’ve decided to completely shift my attention to Behavioral Finance. The only problem: I was flat out tired. Because I’ve been doing this for almost a decade, I feel burned out, often stressed and pressured on the rigorous routine of marketing and prospecting for new clients. I am legitimately
I’ve always been a student of history and have a high regard with historians. I believe there’s always beauty in looking at things with their historical backdrop. And I find this useful to improve my comprehension of difficult and boring subjects. So, on that account, math has a history. Someone invented accounting, not just out
Financial education is often dismissed as a vocation for the elite, or simply laid aside for a later (indefinite) time. But make no mistake. Everyone needs it…. and quickly. Do you want to learn how to achieve a financial security for you and your family? There’s no better time than to start NOW—regardless of your
You may have heard the saying “Giving is its own reward”. Have you ever wondered why? Recently, I was asked by a client a series of playful questions… can you explain, in scientific terms, the fine art of giving? Why do you think that when you give something, you will receive something of equal or
The Un-Scientific Truth behind the Power of GivingRead More »
Today, we’re about to tackle the perennial question? Is it really good to borrow money from banks such as, for example, getting a simple credit card? From a macro perspective (if all people got themselves credit cards), there would a surprising revelation that would come out from that. The creation and the exponential growth of
Don’t Read this if You Borrow Money from Banks, Read if You’re an Investor!Read More »
As our final piece of presentation of what i-TeachOptions stands for–we go to the very core of our belief system. Happiness. What makes you happy? And it’s opposite — Misery. Misery is finding a lot of companies these days just by reading the news – with an upwards of 7% inflation in our economy. The
Why We Really DO need an Economic Indicator for HappinessRead More »
A typical financial plan would want you to plan for your children’s education, for long-term investment, for retirement, for estate preservation. It is like checking off a list of routines. They’re cute. And yet most people hardly do that? Why? Because you feel your financial plan as something external–they really don’t strike as relevant to
This week, we at i-TeachOptions would like to discuss, what we believe in, what can you expect from us, what you’ll get through our collaboration, and what makes us different from many financial advisers and planners out there. Today, let us talk to you about one of the most important principles we follow: Inspired Health
The Secret behind that old adage “Health is Wealth”Read More »
For me, and I guess for many of you, it is difficult to know how exactly can one be motivated to save money. Do I save money for the long term (for future protection), for investments (to earn from interest rates), or for bigger savings to get a whole lot more investments and insurances? At
Three Crazy, Peculiar (But True) Things About Saving MoneyRead More »
It’s that time of the year we preach Recent spates of bad news have bombarded us in the various media we interact with on a regular basis: Surging oil prices, the P54 per dollar, the 9-year high inflation rate at 6.4%, metro traffic woes (EDSA), bearish market—it seems nothing is going right these days. What
In life, we will always come across two great, absolute forces that go head-to-head: Ali vs. Frasier, Pacquiao vs. Marquez, Ateneo vs La Salle, Ginebra vs. SMB, Coke vs. Pepsi, Jollibee vs. McDonalds, Jobs vs Gates, Apple vs. Samsung, DC vs. Marvel…. In the financial arena, it is no different. In the red corner, one
The VUL vs BTID Insurance Smackdown: Can We Settle this Already?Read More »
This is for all frustrated artists and creative individuals out there. You are not alone. We all have the potential to become artistic. We all have the book–the stories–to share the world. One way or another, we can all become painters, photographers, novelists, musicians, and so on. But because there are immediate responsibilities to take
Why Artists should look at Passive Income as their Best MuseRead More »
Ah, the ever-reliable Rule of 72, the handy mental shortcut that determines or approximates how long your money (investments) will double. For example, suppose you placed your money in a bank for a time deposit. The bank tells you your investment will be given a 2% interest per annum. Now you wonder, what is the
We get that investing for the first time can be a confusing mess—you don’t know where to put your money. All you think about is the formula: profit versus risk. To get a fix on that, you were told to get all the numbers and facts about the investment instruments before going ahead. While this
Confused about where to invest — Just follow this Chart (Read if you must)Read More »
Find the job that you love and you will never work a day in your life – Mark Twain Are you tired of working? Have you lost your powers of creativity? Somewhere along the way, we lose the motivation to work due to a myriad of things, due to office politics, lack of pay, change
We’ve been talking about saving money and trying to defeat your emotional urges to spend money while you can if you can. But we’re just human aren’t we? Chances are we would always be controlled by emotions. There’s always a chance emotion will get the better of you. No matter how many tips I give
The consumer market works to condition your brain to think that by buying stuff, you would be solving your emotional and personal problems. But we all know that this doesn’t provide real solutions—it just adds whiskey. By buying stuff, we just want to feel good temporarily. There’s nothing wrong with this, of course. We all
Taken together, money and spending are pretty influential subjective concepts. Ever noticed that when you’re shopping, your emotions get the better of you? Your shopping could very well beat the hell out of your logical reasoning cold. This happens when you can’t stop the urge of using little plastic cards to purchase some things that
In finance and investments, emotion is a dangerous creature. It’s cute, furry, cuddly, but feed it after midnight, it turns into a Gremlin. With emotion, we’ve tagged the one thing that salespeople use to lure you in. The same thing goes with advertisements. Ads pepper you with lots of images and sound designed to trigger
Finance 101: Needs, Wants, Sizzles, Steaks, and GremlinsRead More »
You often hear that long term saving requires discipline and commitment. Just a bunch of words that conveniently sum up the idea. But be warned, you may have been duped by the understatement of the year. Yes, long term savings needs your discipline and commitment. But if you’re planning for your children’s education and retirement,
Have you ever heard the X-curve concept before? Experts on the matter say it is indispensable; you won’t have a feasible financial plan without it. The X-Curve diagram makes it easier for a financial planner to explain why a client needs insurance and investments. It’s a sure-fire way illustration on how to prevent bankruptcy and
The Cold, Heartless Financial Tool called the X-Curve, and How to Cope with itRead More »
