A WORKING MOM'S PEN HAVEN

I started to think about retirement at age 36.  I don't know why but it was then that I realized that despite my good prospects for promotion in the near future and my steady stream of income from the investments that we were making, I just knew then that I needed to start my journey to financial stability and security.   My son and my youngest was less than a year old then.  I computed in my mind that when he reached college at 18 years old, I would be around 55 years old by then.  I was unsure what I'd be by then.  Would I still be healthy enough to work?  Would we have enough savings to make sure that he has money for a decent college to go to?  Would he be intelligent enough to make it to UP to enjoy free tuition?  It was unsettling.  I felt I had to do something.  And so I realized that I wasn't even talking about retirement.  I was just thinking about Sam's college really.   So it was then that I made my big lea...

I have again been invited to give a talk about digital selling among its sales network. This time by a very popular brand Camella and its new vertical brand Camella Manors. In my webinar, I've covered topics from Macroeconomics and Industry updates collated from several sources. I also presented a perspective of the brand's buyer persona and journey map. Finally, I gave recommendations on how sellers can leverage on digital assets and tools to effectively reach their market.   But as I pre-recorded that webinar and while giving the piece about the industry update and how the market demand was changing towards the suburbs and even provincial areas, I came to realize that I was indeed describing in general and maybe even in detail what Camella Manors is.  Camella Manors' advantage has always been its prime location in the provinces and even fringes of the Metro like Caloocan.  Emerging cities like Antipolo and Malolos are among those is the pipeline developments of th...

If you're my age, you've more likely come across an Insurance Agent or Financial Advisor from among the popular insurance companies in the Philippines.  Most of them claim to be able to advise you on investment portfolios that you may want to buy or avail for yourself.  They would often ask you first about your investment capacity or the amount that you are willing to invest whether monthly or one-time and then move into presenting you a proposal based on that alone.   Based on my experience on investments, the best kind of advisors are those that are concerned with the end goal rather than what you'd like to give up from your disposable income.  Normally, when you ask people about how much they would like to invest, they would normally just let you know how much extra extra money they have or what they usually have left after a payroll cutoff.  If you let people do that, chances are you'd end up getting lose changes as investment funds.  There lies th...

REALIZATIONS OF REAL ESTATE PANDEMIC TRENDS It's now Feb 2021 and I have held off this 2021 outlook piece precisely because I was too busy thinking of what to say.Yes, 2021 unlike its predecessor the phenomenal 2020 is perturbly quiet and uneventful. Whether good or bad so far, we don't know. https://www.camella.com.ph/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2018-CAMELLA-MEADOWS.jpg In the real estate scene, all developers including the top dogs have been silent about their 2020 performance except for one IPO company who happily announced that they even grew by 12% in 2020. This is probably considering that they are still a minor player despite going public. For the big guns, top developer Vista Land has been showing muscle to defend its turf in the horizontal segment. Now that the vertical realm has been challenged on several fronts including the mass exodus of the POGO market, the impending oversupply may occur because of it. Shortly after this and in the offing is the correction in price...