Who Decides Where Your Money Goes?

This is the second article that I wrote for Money Smarts and is my latest published piece.  The original can be found here.

GUEST POST: Who decides where to put your money?

01/27/09

Posted under Guest Posts, Investing, Pre-Need

By Aya Laraya, RFP*

With the global financial crisis hitting everyone and so many people losing their shirts, a lot of people are beginning to lose heart and quitting the whole financial planning mindset.  And as lousy as it can be to talk investing when you have just lost your life’s savings, you will only be able to recover from things like this if you develop a sound and coherent plan. How?  By being the one who actually decides where your money goes.  What do I mean by this? Consider the following:

First, ask yourself, how did you arrive at the decision to purchase your last investment?  (Let’s say a pre-need educational plan.)  Did you decide on your own or was it recommended to you? Did you consider other options before deciding on the pre-need plan? (Like stocks, mutual funds, etc.)  What factors made you decide to take that option over the others?  (Risk? Accessibility? Rate of Return? Cost?)

Financial Planning FAQ

One of the most popular and in-depth financial blogs around is the one run by Ms. Salve Duplito on the Inquirer website.  Appropriately titled Money Smarts, the site offers tons of articles on a variety of topics.  Best of all, the site has a very independent streak in that they do not push or protect any one product, industry or company.  It is also visited by people from all walks of life so their comments and concerns give a pretty accurate idea of what the average Filipino thinks about financial issues.  You should definitely check it out.  Anyway, what follows is a small FAQ that I wrote for them in February of 2008.  The original can be found here.

Financial Planning FAQ

I recently conducted a half-day seminar on financial planning for some professionals and it was a rather enlightening experience on the mindsets of people when it comes to financial planning. As always there was an open forum at the end and quite a number of questions were asked – some were the usual and some were rather unusual. So for those of you who may have had some of these questions in mind but didn’t know who or what to ask; here is a small FAQ on financial planning.

On Memorial Plans

This is an interview that I did for the Philippine Daily Inquirer last October.  In a nutshell, we discussed the merits of buying a memorial plan as an investment versus purchasing one to be used.  As the interview was done over the phone, (I was in Baguio at the time giving a seminar), the interview had to be short and to the point.  So if anyone has any further questions or concerns, feel free to post.  The original article can be found here.

Is it smart to invest in a memorial plan

By Ma. Salve Duplito
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 04:16:00 10/31/2008

Filed Under: Financial & Business Services, Investments, Personal Finance

In a largely happy-go-lucky country, talk of death still spook Filipinos, and most try to avoid planning—and even just thinking—about kicking the bucket.

“I am not comfortable with the idea of getting a memorial plan. Irrational as it may sound, I feel like it’s courting bad omen,” says Ed Timbungco, a 30-something professional working in Makati City.

This sentiment is not uncommon among the young, and the topic becomes even more of a taboo when parents or grandparents are around. Unfortunately, the cost of putting a loved one in his final resting place may be a bigger reason to get scared.