Husband. Jesus Follower. Musician.
20/11/2024
"Kaleidoscope World"
10M is the new 1M. And it may be achievable than you think. And it’s something you need to prepare for starting today.
The cheapest Montero Sport 2023 is priced around 1.5M requiring zero down payment and Php32k/monthly payment. The cheapest New Expander is around Php1M with Php79k DP and Php22k/monthly payment.
A rowhouse in Cavite is around Php800k with equity payment of Php6k and Pag-ibig amortization of Php5k. The Rise of Monterrazas popularized by Slater Young sold out its 172sqm units at Php35M. Its next cut at 500+sqm is priced at Php56M.
When I got hospitalized few years back, my total charge for 3 days was almost half a million. Luckily, everything was shouldered by insurance. But everyone understands that insurance costs money. Every month, I shell out around Php15k for insurances alone.
When my sister-in-law got pregnancy-related complications, easily Php200k+ gone.
I’m not yet married and have no kids yet, but I know from friends who do send their kids to school the rising costs of education. Include daily allowances, ad hoc school expenses for projects and the likes.
Not to mention the rising costs of groceries and food. Your Php1000 before is just looking like Php100 now. A single visit to a grocery store will cash out easy Php3k to Php5k, depending on size of family and how long you want these supplies to last.
And you have usual stuff like Netflix, random Shopee finds, , pampering expenses, health and supplements, and occasional mobile app-based savings and investments.
If you want a condo for less than Php3M, you need to step out of core Manila and find commercialized provinces like Cavite, Batangas, Laguna, Bulacan where condos are being sprung. Makati and BGC condos today can easily command Php10M price tags too.
Inflation will not go away and central banks are mandated to stick to a yardstick that is generally 2%. Nowhere are we close to prices going down but rather we see it getting stickier and longer.
A glimpse of hope is more and more Filipinos are getting exposed to opportunities to earn dollars. Dollars ang kitaan sa trading. Be it crypto, US stocks or forex. Same setup, same play, same yield whether I trade PSE or US, but trading global markets obviously gives me more upon dollar conversion.
Freelancing can also land you ad hoc projects that can earn you dollars.
And if destined to be, you may just be exploring to work outside the Philippines. Have you seen posts reselling houses and pasalo businesses with RFS: migration?
It’s not surprising to see more fellow Filipinos to consider lives abroad. The better option is - if you are earning dollars from the comfort of your homes, no need to leave the country for a foreign land that requires you to double-hat or triple-hat jobs just to survive. Mind you, tax rates are also high abroad (compensated by quality government governance) and nope, not all education and healthcare services are free. But of course, you can say the environment, visuals, learning experiences are something to look forward to. Haven’t mentioned the level of Asian hate crimes and racism.
Life is short so make decisions that are smart, practical and worth it. We will all fail from time to time but that’s why we keep going and going.
All of us are torn between saving like an ant for rainy days and YOLO because life is short. Life is short yes but you’ll never know how short is short. As life expectancy improves, we gotta stretch our money til we last. And you want to be in the position where you have excess, not the lack of. May this Sunday make us realize and figure out good decisions for our wallets. For sure the Lord wants the best for us.
