How I avoided paying over P40,000 in tuition fees
I wrote some posts for College Startup about how I saved over P40,000 in tuition fees for two semesters.My school doesn’t give out scholarships for academic performance, so all I get is an onionskin paper with my name on it and fancy lettering whenever I do well.
I don’t need that paper.
What I need is a tuition discount. Why? Because most of my income goes to paying my tuition and I really wish it didn’t have to be that way.
So I tried creative ways of getting a “scholarship”.
For the first semester, I applied as a student assistant and was given a 75% discount in exchange of 75 hours of work. However, I struck a deal with the school librarian and only worked 64 hours. Click here for the story.
As for the following semester, I managed to get a 100% tuition fee discount. For this, I signed on as the school’s website designer for a whole semester. Click here for the story.
Have you ever made these types of deals to get a discount on anything? Share your ideas and experiences in the comments.
Read MoreWhy you need an emergency fund
What is an emergency fund?
It’s basically a collection of money that you can access whenever there’s an emergency. And only an emergency. Emergencies may include the following: the sudden loss of a job, unforseen medical bills, a natural calamity, sudden home or vehicle repairs, etc.
Upgrading your cellphone is not an emergency. Neither is buying new clothes – unless your house happened to burn down and all your clothes went down with it.
In the past, I’ve used my emergency fund for medical bills, both for myself or relatives. However, because I was hospitalized last year (for amoebiasis), and had other unexpected medical expenses (I don’t even want to talk about those) my emergency fund suffered a big dent. I need to build it up again.
Where should you put the emergency fund?
Not under your mattress, that’s for sure. Here are some options:
- Savings account with ATM access. Because emergencies seldom happen during banking hours. In terms of accessibility, this is a good choice. However, this may be difficult for those who spend money impulsively. Having your emergency fund accessible might tempt you into using it for unnecessary purchases, and before you know it, it’s almost completely depleted.
- Savings account with only passbook access. Since passbook withdrawals are a bigger hassle, some people prefer this so they won’t be tempted to use the funds. Part of my emergency fund is in this kind of account.
- Time deposit. These tend to have better interest rates than savings account. The downside is that if you don’t have access to it until the maturity date – unless you want to give back part of the interest you earned to the bank. Most of my emergency funds are here.
- Investments. This may include money market funds, mutual funds, and other investments. The return of these investments tend to be high, but you need to educate yourself a lot to get your investments right. Since most of these investments aren’t insured by the PDIC or BSP, if you invest in the wrong areas you might not get all of your principal investment back. This is only good for people with high-risk tolerance and who already have at least 3 months worth of living expenses stashed away (anything above the 3 months you can invest in without feeling unsafe). Personally, I’m still trying to educate myself with investing, so I haven’t taken this route yet.
Also, keep in mind that a credit card is NOT an emergency fund. Using a credit card to pay for huge emergency expenses might cost more in the long run because of the interest and extra fees you need to pay.
There may be other ideas that I haven’t mentioned above. The point is that you should know your risk tolerance and temptation to spend when deciding where to put your emergency fund.
How much should be in the emergency fund?
That all depends on your feeling of financial security and what your monthly living expenses are.
If you work in a high-demand field and you know that it’s almost impossible for you to be unemployed for too long (because of experience, skills, or connections) or you have multiple income streams, then perhaps 3 months worth of living expenses should be enough.
If you’re the sole wage-earner in the household and you have many dependents, or if you have non-regular work (such as a freelance illustrator, independent filmmaker, etc.) it’s good to set aside at least 6 months to 1 year’s worth of living expenses.
How am I doing with my own emergency fund?
My personal goal is to save at least 1 year’s worth of living expenses. This is because I have many dependents and still have to pay for my school expenses. I’m 1/3 through that goal.
My main problem was the medical expenses I spent last year – they really ate away my emergency fund. I still feel safe with the amount left, but I’d feel better and I can take more financial risks (such as investments, riskier business decisions, etc.) if I know that I have a year’s worth of living expenses stashed away.
Do you have an emergency fund? Where do you keep it? How many months of living expenses do you keep stashed away?
Read MoreMy personal gardening project
I’ve always dreamed of growing my own herb garden, especially since I love to cook and prefer to get herbs from my own yard rather than the grocery store. It’s rewarding, cheaper, and healthier (since I don’t use fertilizer or sprays).
Recently, I’ve taken a step towards this dream by planting some stuff. I already have oregano in my garden. Oregano is great with tomatoes and tomato sauce. Very easy to grow too. We just got a stalk from a neighbor and planted it.
We also have sili (chili peppers), which is all-purpose. We add it to vinegar, soy sauce, and dishes. I don’t know if it’s because I’m part Bicolana, but I really love spicy food. Because of this, having sili in my garden has been useful.
Pandan is also present in my garden. We use it to flavor poultry, sometimes for rice, and it will be excellent with buko for drinks and desserts.
As for my new gardening project, I want to plant more herbs from seeds or seedlings. I’ve started with cilantro and curled parsley. The curled parsley is notorious for growing slowly, but it’s very useful for many dishes. I imagine I’d be using it to flavor garlic bread, pasta, and even for garnishing.
My cilantro is growing a bit (see photo) . Cilantro is commonly called wansoy in supermarkets. It’s great for Chinese and Mexican dishes. I use it to add flavor to tacos.
I also want to add the following plants to my garden:
- Basil. Great with tomatoes. You can simply put basil with tomatoes and cheese on a sandwich and it’s absolutely delicious. My partner loves it
- Thyme. Generally used for soups, and is great with tomatoes or eggs. Also useful as tea for respiratory ailments.
- Tarragon. This smells really good. My mom worked in a restaurant/farm for the most part of my youth and whenever I was visiting the farm, I would bend down and smell the tarragon or rub the leaves onto my fingers. You can infuse it in vinegar to make tarragon vinegar, or in oil to make tarragon oil.
Do you have any gardening experience? If so, what plants do you grow? Feel free to share in the comments.
Read MoreDo you have what it takes to be a millionaire? (Part 2)
To recap the previous post, here are the questions you need to ask yourself to determine if you have what it takes to be a millionaire (at least, according to David Bach’s Automatic Millionaire):
1) Do you pay yourself first?
2) Do you have an emergency basket of cash?
3) Do you know what your latte factor is?
Now, on to the remaining 3 questions.
4) Do you own your own home?
According to The Automatic Millionaire, statistics say that most renters have a low net worth (roughly $4000) and home owners have a higher net worth ($140,000 and up). However, this isn’t necessarily true if you have a long-term mortgage you haven’t paid off yet.
If you already own a home, you need to learn why it’s an important asset and investment. According to David Bach, You can leverage the value of your home, especially when real estate values go up. (I’ve seen this happen in Marikina, especially over the last few years.) Also, nothing compares to the sense of security you feel when you’re owning a home. Overall, David Bach says that whether you rent it out or hold on to it, a home is a good investment.
5) Do you give to charity?
Some people give for tax deductions, while others give because they’re feeling guilty. They wait until the end of the year, ask themselves how much of their money is extra, and that’s what they give. David Bach doesn’t recommend this. He suggests that we make giving automatic – just like when you automatically pay yourself part of your income.
This part is all about feeling like you’re coming from a place of abundance. Some people may have multi-millions, but if they don’t give away a single peso to anyone, for a cause larger than themselves, they probably feel cheap inside. From David Bach’s research, most multi-millionaires have one thing in common: they were giving part of their income for charitable causes, even when they weren’t wealthy yet. It’s all about the mindset rather than just the measurement of how much money you have stashed away in the bank.
I can’t say that this is something I do on a personal level (I’m not in the best financial shape), but my business partner and I have agreed that part of our company profits should go to charity. We have yet to decide the beneficiaries, but it’ll probably go to causes that we truly believe in.
6) Is your financial plan automatic?
Wherever your income goes – to the bills, savings, retirement, emergency funds, debt payment, charity – you need to make these payments automatic. Not only will it save you time, but it strengthens your commitment to distribute your income properly. It lessens the spending temptations you may encounter along the way.
Personally, my financial plan isn’t automated. The main reason for this is because I get paid in cash (via remittances, because I’m an online worker). However, several banks offer bill payments (via phone or online). So if it were convenient and possible for me to automate distributing my income, I would. It’ll certainly save me a lot of stress doing personal accounting. Also, it’ll force me to save more.
Read MoreDo you have what it takes to be a millionaire?
I’ve been listening to David Bach’s “The Automatic Millionaire” audio book. At the beginning of the audio book, he wants you to find out if you have what it takes to be a millionaire. You can find out if you do by answering these questions:
1) Do you pay yourself first?
David Bach recommends that as soon as you get your paycheck, you should pay yourself first. Not the government, not the electric company, YOU. He also recommends that you pay yourself at least 10% of your income.
Personally, I think it’s important to pay yourself. After all, it doesn’t make sense to work really hard and have someone else take your money.You need to make it possible that YOU receive a percentage of your income. He recommends that you set it aside on your savings or retirement account.
However, it’s not as easy as David Bach portrays it. When PLDT sends you that notice of disconnection, you can’t exactly tell them “I’m sorry, I can’t pay you now because I had to pay myself first.” It’s very, very important to pay yourself, but make sure that you can survive with what’s left. I’ve had my own experiences where I had to pass up paying myself first to pay the “Big Guys” (PLDT, Meralco) and for other necessities (food, school supplies).
2) Do you have an emergency basket of cash?
I’ve talked about emergency funds in the past (specifically, in my pinoy money talk post). David Bach recommends that you have at least 6 month’s worth of living expenses stashed away in an emergency fund. Personally, I have 3-4 months worth of living expenses in mine. My goal is to have a year’s worth of expenses.
Why is an emergency fund important? To prevent you from digging yourself into a financial hole, should emergencies arise. If you want to learn about emergency funds, click here to read the post I wrote about it.
3) Do you know what your latte factor is?
Throughout his books, David Bach often talks about the “latte factor”. This is the small amount of money that we spend regularly for little things. An example – if you buy a latte every morning before going to work. Let’s say that latte costs P150. For an entire work week of 5 days, you spend P750 on that latte. After a month, you would’ve spent P3,000 on lattes alone. You need to figure out what unnecessary regular expense accumulates to a lot over time.
For me, my latte factor is fast food chains. That’s why I have a No Fast Food Goal for the entire month. For other people, it might be their cellphone credits, idle chatting on internet cafes, etc. Figure out what your latte factor is by writing down your daily expenses as you’re paying for them. that way, nothing slips by your radar.
There are 3 more questions you need to ask yourself if you want to know whether you have what it takes to be a millionaire. Click here for part 2 of this article.
Read MoreHelp Iligan and CDO
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