The Awakening of Hope

Lord, I love my present and I am excited for the future but I just want to pause and thank you for my past. Looking back I can see why I had to go through the heat. Fire and time moulded me into a beautiful design because you are my potter and I am your clay. Only the potter knows the clay." ---My Facebook status posted July 11. 

DISCLAIMER: I am not a good writer. If you can deal with it continue reading, if not STOP right here as I don’t want you to have a bad day *wink*.  To those who want to take the risk… here it goes…

Learn, Inspire and Be Inspired.  

Saturday, July 15, I was asked by a brother to share to the attendees of the IMG financial coaching session how I came to know IMG, WHY I joined and how it all begun. 

Nervous and surprised that he was serious about it, I immediately grabbed my phone and typed in notepad the summary of my financial journey. If I were to split into phases, my financial journey, can be categorized into three parts. Allow me to unveil to everyone how it all began. 

The Awakening

I used to be rich. What happened?

My father was once an OFW just like me. I was born in 1984 and this happened in the year 1985. From his hard earned money while working in Saudi, he was able to put up a door to door business. I bet you can imagine how much income the business brought to our family.

 My dad has a business partner, his best friend, who looks after the operation in the Philippines while he does all the ground works in Saudi. My dad entrusted everything about the business to his best friend. Yes! Everything! That includes access to my dad’s bank accounts. One day my dad received the news from my mom that our business went bankrupt. My Ninong took all his money and ran away. He could no longer locate him. My dad was devastated because he knew he made a big mistake of entrusting OUR FUTURE in someone else’s hands. 

Money is Cure, Money is Life

It was in 2006 when we found out that my elder sister is ill. She has stage 4 breast cancer. We weren't prepared for it. No insurance, no savings! In short we were financially broke which later turned us emotionally broke as well. We exhausted all our resources from SSS, Philhealth, PCSO including all the K's in our lives (Kaibigan, Kaparokya, Kapitbahay, Kamag-anak, Katrabaho). One day help came. There was this doctor who offered to help us with my sister’s treatment (at no cost) with the condition that she’ll be treated with the new medicine that is being tested to cure cancer. In desperation, my sister agreed. This was her last hope. While undergoing treatment, my sister died. Can we complain or sue the doctor? NO! Because my sister agreed to undergo the treatment despite the risks involved. No money, no cure, no life!

Chase your dreams, know how and where to access it

I want to be financially free so I searched the net to learn more about investments and surprisingly a familiar name came up from the articles I've read.   I found out that our rich uncle (I can't say who he is but he is the VP of the financial asset sector of a famous bank in the Philippines) acquired most of his wealth from investing. How odd! I had to learn from my uncle through the Internet! That very moment I was punched by the reality that you will never know unless you ask. Was my uncle selfish because he kept to himself the solution for poverty? I don’t see it that way. My uncle should have been my access to reaching my financial goals but “I” failed to ask. Take note of the word “I”.

The birth of “HOPE”

Blessings come to those who seek

I have always been curious about how investing in the stock market works so I searched for a good book to read on the topic. I read the book “My Maid Invests in Stock Market…And Why You Should, Too!” written by Bro Bo Sanchez. The book changed my life big time. You think after reading I was blessed financially? Not yet! I was blessed spiritually first then financially. Through the book, I learned about LOJ (Light of Jesus) community and so I searched if there is one here in Singapore. I went to the feast ALONE but went home with new set of friends who journeyed with me in becoming Truly Rich. My blessings if you ask me? It’s LOJ and my new friends. They gave me HOPE. 

You are who your friends are

As mentioned above I have friends who invest in building a good relationship with God and building a solid financial foundation. I used to have many friends who influenced me to acquire new clothes, gadgets, to travel, etc. 

To cut the story short, they taught me how to spend. They also taught me how to save… so I will have more money to spend. You see, I used to be hopeless that I can be rich because my friends also did not believe that they can be one. I worked as a Unit Manager for Citibank back in the Philippines and at that time I thought that my salary was not enough to support my family and my needs (the needs I’m talking about are actually wants). Looking back, my salary was more than enough if only I knew how to spend and invest wisely.

Everything in God's perfect time

Now that I know how money works and how investments can affect our future, I wish I knew about this when I was still a teenager. However, I realized that I have to go through all those trials so I will be armed with lots of inspiration to strengthen my financial foundation. If I invested 10 years ago when I was still financially irresponsible, by now the money I acquired have been used on material things instead of using the money to prepare for my future. If not for my wealth of experience, I wouldn’t be in the position to share how God has blessed me in the spiritual and financial aspect of my life. Is it too late for me to start investing? NO! This is the perfect time for me to build my investment. I could have started investing early to reap more fruits but it is never too late to start. God’s perfect time to dream big is always NOW!  

 The point of NO RETURN

I am fed up being financially broke and irresponsible. I am at a point in my life where I want to make sure that I have enough for the rainy days and am prepared in case of unfortunate circumstances. I am planning for my future and retirement as I do not want to wake up one day when I’m 60 and realise that I have not saved anything and only have five years left or no time at all to do so. I’ve been awakened and privileged to be given HOPE. There is no turning back… I am now traversing the road to becoming Truly Rich!  

-Abby Birosel, Truly Rich Maker Team Singapore

SLACKER?

How long will you slumber, O sluggard? —Proverbs 6:9

While studying the book of Proverbs in my small-group Bible study, our leader suggested that we change the description of a lazy person from a sluggard to a slacker (6:6,9). Ah, now he was speaking my lingo. I immediately started thinking of all the people I consider to be slackers.
...
Like the men and women who fail to teach and discipline their children. Or that guy who refuses to help around the house. Or those teenagers who neglect their studies and play Internet games day and night.

If we’re honest, we’re all susceptible to this. What about being a “prayer slacker” (1 Thess. 5:17-18), or a “Bible-reading slacker” (Ps. 119:103; 2 Tim. 3:16-17), or a “non-exercising-of-our-spiritual-gift slacker” (Rom. 12:4-8), or a “non-witnessing slacker”? (Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 1:8).

If we are not doing what we know God wants us to do, we are certainly spiritual slackers. In fact, when we refuse to obey God, we are sinning.

Listen to these challenging and convicting words from the book of James: “It is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it” (4:17 NLT). Let’s not be spiritual slackers.

When we know what God wants us to do,
But then we refuse to obey,
We’re ignoring the voice of the Lord,
And sinfully choosing our way. —Sper

We may make excuses for not obeying God, but He still calls it disobedience. (by Agnes Domingo-Arbon)

We are Privileged

God has empowered us to live life fully with meaning and purpose. To dream big, and make all possibilities to realize our dreams. Serve at your best, serve without limits and increase your number.

It is our privilege as children of God that all the resources are all around us. We just have to acknowledge that they exist and God has provided us everything that we need. He has already planned each of us to be prosperous. Our task is to plan how to enrich ourselves and share these abundance to serve and glorify God.

Providence is already in us. Use it well, use it more to serve and Glorify God's kingdom.

Prosper your mind! Serve and Glorify God!

Prayer:
We acknowledge your healing power, O God, Empower us more and increase our service by sharing your healing power and make others realize your Greatness.

Called to Mission

It was not long ago when I was invited to attend the same seminar. I'm a truly rich club subscriber for years so it wasn’t really that difficult for my friend to invite me to sit in this seminar. But as usual, since I’m a Truly Rich Club subscriber, I’d say "alam ko na yan! Nag subscribe na ko nyan kay Bo." But friend, this I tell you, I'm glad I came!

It’s not because you have read a lot, heard a lot and more will you know everything. Sometimes some things are customized and may have different instruction manuals you need to follow to be able to operate. In the Gospel of Mark last Sunday, Jesus called Simon and his brother Andrew, and said "Come, I will make you fishers of man" so they left their nets and followed Jesus. Then along the way they saw James, son of Zebedee and his brother John and they too followed Jesus. See friends, Jesus did not call for the King to be his disciples. He called the fishermen, tax collectors; he called common people to teach his ways. 

This is how I got into this. The mission of Truly Rich Maker Team is clear to me and they really did touch me, that is to teach people to be truly rich and good stewards of money, to build wealth for families that will bless the world. Yes, they are not financial managers in big time finance companies, not even graduates of banking and finance, but the example that they have set is amazing. Young as they are, they know the value of growing their income big and where to put these earnings! It made me turn 360 degrees when it comes to managing my finances. Thank you Leo ganda, Rex, Yanmar & Raymund!

It is probably not every day that we will come across a work like this if we keep ourselves deaf, mute and blind. In the earlier days I used to define JOB as the Journey of the Broke now I'd like to call it the Journey of the Bountiful! With this team, this Job is fulfilling. We are able to live our prophetic mission as a living example.

So if you could, come and join us with the mission and you'll see commissions follow later. Have a truly rich new year! God cheer and God bless!

Philippine Mutual Funds pick for 2012

Below link is an article about Philippine Mutual Funds Pick for 2012.

http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/home/banking-a-finance/20909-mutual-fund-picks-for-2012


.I'm so thrilled that the mutual fund companies where i'm investing are included.

Happy investing!

The Best Business - by Mr. Joen Delas Peñas

Our group had an opportunity to attend the seminar conducted by no other than Mr. Joen Delas Peñas, the CEO & President of International Marketing Group (IMG).

By the way before that day, he’s able to attend our Christmas Party!

IMG Truly Rich Makers Team Singapore

IMG Truly Rich Makers Team Singapore

A gift from IMG...

We find out that he started in IMG at the age of 26. Since IMG is already 14 years in the Philippines, you sum it up you’ll know how young he is.:)

Are you surprised???me too! He looked like 35 years old. :)

Let me go back about the learning’s we gained during the seminar. I’ll just summarize it up to the best of my knowledge.

1.       Mission

Mr. Joen keep on with this company because he saw the IMG mission…mission to EMPOWER the AVERAGE PEOPLE even the POOR to learn how to grow their hard earned money. He believes that with the RIGHT INFORMATION everyone will be wealthy.

If you are poor or just an average people, big financial institution will not bother to teach you how to develop a financial strategy & also they made it quite complicated so that they are the only one who can understand it. So what IMG did? They simplify it...using the X-curve concept. If you are not familiar with it...let me just explain a bit.

The X-Curve concept theorizes that a person’s responsibilities generally decrease and wealth generally increases over time. X-curve has 2 stages:

First , when you are young, you don’t have savings or less savings, high responsibility (educational, food, clothing, shelter, Debts/Loan) and working hard for the money (Income is active)

On this stage you need to protect the responsibilities that will be left behind in the event of sudden demise. This is where the life insurance will be needed…In IMG what we recommend is get a Term Life Insurance and invest the difference. IMG also have a product that will cover your 3 major financial needs, Health Care, Term-Life Insurance & Investment.

You ask a Filipino if they like to have instant money, absolutely will response with a big “YES” . But you asked them to get an insurance, they will say “NO & run away. They don’t realize that insurance is the instant money. What if you a take an insurance today then after a few days you accidentally (intentionally) cut off your fingers (some foreign workers here do that).Will you get a money? Yes! But to make myself clear we don’t suggest it anyway.:)

Second, when you are older, you should have a big savings or living on the interest of your investments, less responsibilities (maybe)...only HEALTH is your biggest responsibility and money is working hard for you (Income is Passive)

This stage you don’t need Insurance anymore if you’ve been investing during your younger days, you will have a big savings that means you are self insured. You live on the interest of your investments. One of the biggest responsibilities on this stage is your HEALTH. According to the survey..most of the bankruptcy happen on this stage…not because we don’t have hospitals but sadly most of the Filipinos don’t have enough money to cover the hospital bills. 

2.       Best Business

The reason why Mr. Joen stayed on this company is because of the business…the BEST BUSINESS! A business that will teach you how to save & invest and also will give you an opportunity to have an additional income or if you are serious enough you will have your own business..an IMG business.

Why is it the best business? On this company we’re not selling you something that you won’t benefit of. Example, if your friends sell you clothes, shoes or whatever material things then after a few years, did that things earned you money? No, right? That is the difference of IMG to other businesses, if I sold you an investment like mutual fund and on the following year the mutual fund company earned an enormous ROR (rate of return). Did you benefit of it? Of course! Indeed, IMG is the best business.

Now, let me just say that you want to do or you’re doing the IMG business already and you want to make it BIG. Here is the secret…..

Please watch... 

December 18,2011

Credit: Richel De Mesa for the Video.

Financial Coaching Seminar (videos)

On these videos, you'll learn how to present the IMGs' financial concepts.

Watch it once, twice or until you are able to present it.

Learn from our Mentors Fely & Benj Santiago..

Truly Rich Makers Singapore Financial Coaching 23-07-2011 

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