It’s that time of that year again when people love to reminisce and plan. December is a month when everyone scrambles for a planner and tries to fill out their Starbucks, CBTL, Seattle’s Best Cards to get a planner that they can start writing on. In my case, I have two planners. I have one planner for my mommy duties and one planner for my work and business duties. As to why I have two, I have no clue, but it works for me. How your plan (or not plan for the next year) is really up to what feels comfortable for you. I can’t really tell you how you should plan, but I can share things that worked for me. This is also true with investing money for your child’s future.
The topic of investing money for your child’s future has been talked about several times. Oftentimes, I wonder why we always talk about it. I would think that with the plethora of articles out there about investing money, we would all be experts already. The reality though is that only a few really take investing to heart. The reason may be, because before we grow our money, we need to have enough money set aside as savings.
Honestly, I admitted to a few friends recently, that I am not good with handling money, so I need to have a system in place. I don’t splurge on things for myself, but I love buying other people things. I think it’s a way I show others that I care for them. The problem though is that I forget to keep track of my expenses, and before I know it, everything’s gone and I don’t know where it goes. So, since I know this about myself, I have developed a system a few years back that works for me. I hope that these tips work for you, too!
Step 1: Challenge yourself!
The picture on top is the vision board that I have for myself. At the lower left side is a chart of all my sources of income and my specific financial goal for each source. As I mentioned, I have a competitive nature and everything is a challenge to me. With this staring at my face every morning, I get challenged! I look for ways to achieve these goals and really make sure that I achieve these cash inflows! All of these initially goes to a savings account. Again, this kind of visualisation tools works for me, because I love hitting targets and even surpassing them!
Step 2: Determine your “investment goals or objectives”
I tie up every cash inflow / income source with one investment objective. For example, the funds that I earn from blogging is linked to my investment objective of building up funds for my daughter’s college education. The one for Manila Workshops is linked to my investment objective of having enough funds when we retire. So you get the idea, right? I have always believed that once everything is clear in your mind, all of your efforts (even unknowingly sometimes) tend to go to that direction.
Step 3: Choose an investment tool or vehicle
The word investing can be so daunting. It sounds so complicated and boring, but believe me when I say that it is actually fun and satisfying. For those who are first timers in investing, you need to know what kind of investor you are. This means knowing your investment objective, what your threshold for risk is (meaning at what point will it be okay for you to lose money — the greater the risk, the greater the income that you will get), how long do you plan on investing, etc.
As a mom, I usually just go with investing in mutual funds. To understand what mutual funds are, check out this video:
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/mutualfund.asp
I really don’t have time to monitor each and every fluctuation in the stock market, or even monitor what’s happening to different factors that can affect my investments, so I leave it to money managers to do that for me. There are different kinds of mutual funds, depending on what type of investor you are. To know what kind of fund you should get, just go to:
This goes to the Philam Asset Management Inc. (PAMI)website. (I made it easier for you to remember the link).
The PAMI website will then show you the type of mutual fund that fits you. These are the available funds. What I like about investing in mutual funds is that you can open a fund with only a minimum investment of Php 5000! How cool is that? Also, you can put in a minimum of Php 1000 to buy units anytime you want. 
Step 4: Investing Money is a Habit one should build.
I opened a mutual fund account for my daughter when she was born. That was 3 years ago. The lesson that I learned in investing money is not the amount (how big of an investment you make) that you invest but at the consistency of putting in funds into your account. This 2017, I plan to make my investments more regular. After making the investment, forget about it! In no time, you will see that your money has grown and you’ll have enough for your child’s future.
Step 5: Investing Money should be fun!
When it comes to earning, saving and growing your money, we always fear that we don’t have enough. For a time this year, I had this kind of mindset and every thing went wrong. Writing this article made me realize that I have got to get back to my previous mindset about handling and dealing with money. Piling up money for the future is fun; it shouldn’t be a burden. So to make it fun, everything should really be intentional in creating wealth.
Let’s make tons of money this 2017! More than that, let’s have fun earning, saving and investing it. Wishing everyone a prosperous new year! Happy planning.
Love lots,
Mommy Ginger
*P.S. Thank you Philam Asset Management Inc. for the information that you have shared!
