07/03/2024
Well said, Sir Dodong. Thank you.
"I DO NOT HAVE AN EMERGENCY FUND."
What I have is an Opportunity Fund!
Before you react, please hear me out. I am an entrepreneur; I do not make money by investing in stocks, bonds, and the like. I make money by doing business.
There are two principles I bear in mind in doing business, (1) that calamities will come and (2) that business will go on cycles of abundance and famine. I learned the first from Solomon when in Ecclesiastes 11:2, he said, “. Divide your portions to seven or eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth.” I learned the second from Joseph when I realized that a wise and discerning man knows that great abundance will not last forever because famine will eventually come. But the reverse is true as well.
While an emergency fund will protect you from emergencies like losing your job, I need to protect myself from calamities and convert them into opportunities. Pwede ba ito? Oo, because behind every calamity are opportunities waiting to be discovered. The Chinese word for “crisis” depicts this well. It is made up of two characters, the first is “Wei” which means danger, and the second is “Ji” which means opportunities.
An emergency fund requires you to save up to 6 months of your income. So how much do I save for my opportunity fund? I follow the ways of the ants. Proverbs 6:6 to 8 says that though they do not have a king, ants work hard and save during summer to make sure they have more than enough during winter.
So I save as much as possible when business is good, without a set percentage, to invest when times turn bad. Ha? Invest when times are bad? Oo, because business goes on cycles. I know that calamities, like this pandemic, will not last forever; abundance will come after. So, I use my Opportunity Fund to prepare for the coming recovery.
Eh paano pag may naaksidente, nagkasakit, o namatayan? This why Insurance, health and life, are essential. They should address these unforeseen dangers.
I do not mean to offend any financial experts. I just want to offer an alternative approach to those who want to succeed as entrepreneurs.
