Sometime ago, while attending our church service at Victory Green Hills, my Pastor (Dennis Sy) said something that made a lot of people pause and think. He said “direction, not intention, determines destination”.  I believe my pastor picked up those words from Andy Stanley’s book The Principle of the Path. Andy Stanley is one of my favorite authors and I do recommend you pick up his books.

Although my pastor was talking about our spiritual plight, the words got me to think about personal finance also.

I have yet to find anyone who will tell me that he does not like to experience financial prosperity. I am pretty sure there are very few people who relish the idea of being deeply in debt or terribly broke. Financial security remains to be a top goal of almost everyone. During my public talks, I would often ask the question “who likes to be rich?” and I’d see about 90 to 95% of the hands being raised (the other 5 to 10% are probably not listening to me).

People are often looking for a grand magic formula to achieve financial success and many of them are also looking for the quickest way to do it. After 20+ years in the financial services industry and observing hundreds of successful people, I know that there is no such thing and quick-rich ideas, though can work, is hardly ever sustainable. Achieving financial freedom is a long and deliberate process, and most of the time a painful process at that. Fortunately, it is not a complicated process but rather a very simple one. My good friend and best-selling author (Pwede Na! Books) Efren Ll. Cruz shared to me 3 ways to get rich:

1) Inherit it (for those born fortunate);

2) Marry it (again, for those born fortunate – physically, haha!); or

3) Spend less than what you make and invest the difference.

The 3^rd option is actually the only viable option. Inheriting money doesn’t always guarantee you can keep your wealth. Marrying for money is actually a guarantee of a miserable married life. The 3^rd option is the sure-fire way to achieving financial prosperity.

The formula is too simple right? But how come majority of us find ourselves lost in the quest for prosperity? Our intention is to be financially disciplined, learn to save, budget properly, etc. Until we see our favorite store on sale, dine at a hotel buffet at a whim, upgrade your car spontaneously, buy furniture unplanned… get the drift? Often times, we lose focus of our goal and we get sidetracked. The intention is still there, we just got detoured momentarily. But hey, “direction, not intention, determines destination”  right? It’s like having a terrible fight with your spouse — it is never really our intention to quarrel with our loved ones, but when we lost our control, we get lost and we eventually suffer. One can always make a course correction and redirect towards the original path that will bring us to our destination but there’s time lost and a lot of opportunities may be lost as well. In money management, like anything in life, time is really important. We can never make up for lost time.

Next time you are faced with a detour, focus on your destination and remember that the fastest and most efficient way to get there is through a straight line.

“Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you.” Proverbs 4:25, NIV.

— taken from the May-June issue of Moneysense Magazine.

I wrote this blog about 18 months ago… nice to be reminded.

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Most people have a lot of regrets in life, albeit they may not want to admit it publicly or even to themselves. Most regrets stem from bad decisions. How often have we made bad decisions and wished we could have some sort of a “do-over”?

I have made a lot of mistakes in life that I later regretted. One thing I have learned is that getting counsel from people helps—just make sure that you chose the right counsel. As I am in the midst of a very big decision, I had a nice talk with the two best counsels I ever had, Pastors Dennis Sy and Chinkee Tan of Victory Christian Fellowship in Greenhills.

Besides giving me very wise counsel, they recommended that I read the book The Best Question Ever by Andy Stanley. I would say that had I read that book earlier in my life, I would’ve avoided making many unwise decisions that I would later regret.

What I am going to say will come as a shock to many of the readers: Most of my regrets in life are those that deal with personal finance. How can someone who claims to be a “personal finance coach and educator” have so many regrets on personal finance? Well, it is because of my many mistakes that I resolved to be one who can help people avoid the mistakes that I made and the regrets that I had to live with.

I’ll be borrowing the blogging style of my friend Raff Oca and do a list of my mistakes. Here goes:

§          Spending every peso I make: For some reasons I feltthat I needed to spend every single centavo I make; anyway, I’ll earn again. What a fool I have been.

§          Not saving early enough: If I could wind back time, I’ll set a certain percentage for saving no matter how ridiculously small it is.

§          Not buying life insurance early enough when I was much healthier and premiums were much cheaper.

§          Buying the wrong kind of life insurance.

§          Buying too many gadgets and electronic stuff; they really have no resale value.

§          Investing in the stock market when I should have avoided it and not investing in it when I should have.

§          Buying too many toys for my children; I really should have limited what I bought for them because they sometimes do not appreciate what they have and it teaches the wrong values.

§          Buying too many things on credit. Ouch!

§          Buying a piece of real estate too early, too soon.

§          Buying expensive watches and other jewelries just because it was the “in” thing to do. (Can I get anymore stupid than that?)

§          Eating too many times at too many restaurants.

§          Not starting a business earlier than I should have.

§          Changing cars too often and buying gas-guzzlers.

§          Not buying motor-car insurance; wrecked a car that had no coverage.

§          Not learning the value of giving tithes earlier (best investment there is!).

. . . and the list goes on.

While I did make a lot of mistakes in the past, I will have to say I am still blessed. Blessed? Yes, the Lord still blessed me. I may not be able to turn back time and have a do-over, but I am still blessed to realize my mistakes with enough time. . . time for me to make a life-adjusting course change, particularly in the area of personal finance.

Time remains to be one of the most valuable resources we have and it should be used properly for us to live a victorious life. In Job 14:5 (NIV), it says, “Man’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed.” With much time, much can be accomplished; with limited time, what can be accomplished is, likewise, limited.

There are many bad decisions we do in life; they do add up. I like what Andy Stanley said in his book: “Neglect has a cumulative effect.” We are where we are today because of the cumulative effect of our actions. If you are happy where you are right now, you can assume that you made more good decisions than bad ones throughout the years. However, if you are not happy with your situation today, you may have to face the fact that you have made a lot of bad decisions through the years.

I felt the desire to educate people so that those who listen can avoid the regrets I had to live with. While it is a popular cliché, experience is not really the best teacher. Make a list of things you regret; if the list is too long like mine, it’s time for you to have a self-realization and it’s also time for you to seek counsel. Sit down with people who can really help you, for, “The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice.” (Proverbs 12:15 NIV).

It’s Holy Week once more. This is the time many of us Filipinos try to become pious, try to seek penance for the many sins we have committed during the past months. Churches will be filled more than usual and many will abstain from things like meat, Internet, etc. Some will even take drastic means to wash away their sins and hope for blessings to come by doing more sacrifices, such as walking all the way to Antipolo or even inflicting pain on oneself through self-flagellation. For a few days in a year, the nation becomes united in its devotion, in its desire to make amends and to rectify its faith.

We all know how the story will end, of course; after Holy Week, we will go back to our old ways and go back to our own self.

In many ways, how we treat Holy Week is how we treat our financial goals. We set out our goals, become passionate about achieving them for a while, and then when the honeymoon stage is over, we go back to the way we used to do things and we are nowhere near our goals again. How many times have we sworn off using our credit cards irresponsibly? Then we see our favorite store put up its ubiquitous sign “SALE” and then we totally go berserk. How many times did we start off sticking to our budget, then totally go overboard by the end of the month, repeating the same mistakes month after month?  Then by some force of circumstance, we come to terms with how we have been treating our personal finance; It could be a book we read, a seminar we attended, an article we stumbled upon  or even someone who made us realize how far off we are from our financial goals…

… catch Part 2