A Flower that Blooms

A few months after Paul and I lived in our tiny house, we knew we needed something to brighten up the mood around us. So we bought a few plants. Some have died some have flourished and hope others will continue to nourish.

I was so delighted when one day I saw a rose bud in our backyard. I never thought I could make a rose plant flower. Hurray Hurray! I think I like this new hobby of planting and propagating.

This also opens a new home project for me and I’m excited about it! Unfortunately I don’t usually own my Saturdays so I have to cramp all my planting activities on Sundays.

I’m still happy of my achievements and I know I’m going to look forward to planting and arranging our front yard and back yard. So cool to have a little garden of our own.

Till next time.^_^

Arranging our Finances as Husband and Wife

Before we got married we managed our money separately. But few days after being married I scheduled a talk to my husband about our finances.

We are not afraid to talk about our finances ever since. It was not a matter of who earns better or who splurges more. It was more of trusting on each other.

We talked about our expenses and our savings. We have identified things that we constantly buy or pay and have established a reasonable budget for those. We have also set a constant amount for our personal expenses wherein my husband does not have the right to question me on how I spend it and vice versa.

Of course we talked about our savings and where to invest for maximum growth potential. We have allotted specific amount for each of our savings plan and agreed to talk about this for review and possible shift.

We also talked about our future plans and how they will affect our decisions few months/years from now.

I guess I’m lucky I have a very “masinop sa pera” husband. Hello bright future!^_^

Setting Up Priorities

Doing personal finance is a tough task. You have to practice what you preach because people will watch you closely. 

Before telling the whole world you are doing personal finance you have to set up your priorities first. 

What do I mean? 

People will ask you why you are doing what you are doing right now. If you don’t have a solid foundation you will actually doubt yourself and go back to the usual you. And that’s called a financial suicide.

When someone asks you, “Why are you saving and investing?”, don’t just tell them “Because someone told me to do so.” Rather go back to your values and priorities in life and tell him how much they mean to you.

People have different priorities. Some prioritize saving for retirement, some save for a house and lot or a car and others save for travel. Whatever reason we have, we need to learn how to respect each other and look at our priorities only and not compare it with anyone else. 

~Till then

Lessons from the Bees at Work

We were fortunate to see some few hundred gigantic sunflowers in the University of the Philippines – Diliman Campus. They were so enormous that the circumference of palm, including my fingers can fit into the core of the flower.

What caught my eyes were the bees buzzing from flower to flower doing their chores to balance nature.

Pollination is 80% done by bees while the other 20% is done by butterflies and other insects.

Looking at the bees, I was able to learn three things from them.

1. Bees get out of their comfort zone.

Their hive can be a few hundred kilometres away from the sun flowers. Despite the distance they go to the campus to get some nectar for their queen. They didn’t mind travelling that far. They didn’t mind the pollution. Once they get there, they work as hard as they could.

2. Bees work until the job is done.

Bees can be called one of the hard-working insects. They gather nectar or pollen depending on the demand. They go from flower to flower until they are full and ready to go home.

3. They don’t mind distractions.

Bees have extreme focus. I, myself, am a distraction when I took pictures of them. They didn’t mind me. They went on. If they got irritated by my perseverance they move on to the next flower away from me. They didn’t lose focus. They knew what they have to do and did exactly as what the job requires.

~Till then