CASHAYSAYAN: A Book to Teach your Little Ones about Money

We always tell Zeeka before going into a toy store that she needs to choose a toy that she will let go of before we buy another toy. We tell her that money doesn’t grow on trees, but to explain where money comes from, we’re glad that we have Cashaysayan. Cashaysayan is a book that teaches your little one about money. This book is super helpful!

Before I tell you about the book, I’d like to acknowledge the authors for doing a good job. One of the authors (Divine) is actually a friend, do kuddos to you Divine and your co-authors for writing this book. I apologize it took some time to write this, but I really want to spread the word because I know this will help a lot of kids understand concepts and everything about money and value.

Sharing the authors of this book:

Divine Gil Reyes is the Chief Creative Officer and owner of an advertising and public relations agency. She is a writer, lyricist, and part-time voice actor. Divine has written a musical album for kids about positive values, and several episodes for the children’s TV show “Jollitown,” and a few short films. She hopes to help raise a new generation of dutiful Filipino citizens.

Michelline Espiritu Suarez is a wife to her college sweetheart, mother to five kids, and mistress to three lazy dogs. A Liberal Arts graduate, she is fascinated by history, philosophy, sociology, and literature. Halo-Halo Histories is her midlife crisis in book form. She hopes the series will spark an interest in and love for our common heritage, in children and adults alike.

Joonee Garcia, or “Miss Joonee” to her students, is a music teacher, theater teacher, composer, writer, and occasional actor. She penned the musical “The Princess and the Red Carp,” as well as many childhood music and movement programs. She was the Local Musical Director of the London West End Production of the The Sound of Music in Manila, 2017.

Benjor Catindig is an illustrator, graphic designer, art director, and owner of an advertising and public relations agency. His many works include theater posters; a children’s book, The Legend of Juan Pawikan; and the graphic short story, “Karnabal” (co-written with Joonee Garcia), which was a finalist at the first Philippine Graphic /Fiction Awards in 2007.

About the book…

I started reading this book to Zeeka and she was deeply interested. What I personally liked about it is that we forgot that our money (bills and coins) tell a lot about our history and culture. We always take it for granted (although not when we need to spend it… haha!), but it’s time that we share with the younger generation how it’s created from the time when “value” was created with the exchange of goods to how we acknowledge it at the present.

When I read Zeeka this book, I showed her different bills and showed her the images in the bills. I told her also to observe the different coins that we have.

CASHAYSAYAN: A History of Philippine Money is actually the second book from the wildly popular Halo-Halo Histories, a series dedicated to making the study of Philippine history fun and engaging for young people. I think it’s about time that we dig deeper into our culture and find ways to pass it on to the next generation.

It’s so cool that these four authors came up with this book! More power to all of you.

Regards,

 

 

P.S. Have you read the book? What do think of it?

P.P.S.

Order your own copy online through www.tahananbooks.ph or visit Tahanan Books at Unit 402 Cityland 3 Building, V.A. Rufino corner Esteban Streets, Legaspi Village, Makati City.

Having that Millionaire Mindset

A few years ago, I was someone who thought differently in terms a lot of things. One of those things was money. I had a change in mindset, somewhere along the way, about money, and it has help me a lot and terms of reaching for my goals. There was a time (seemed like a long time ago) when I thought that a lot of the speakers who talked about mindset when it came to money were all just talking bullshit. But after changing my mindset, everything was clearer. I realized that these speakers knew what they were talking about.

Image of pink piggy bank surrounded by stacks of dollar bills

Image of pink piggy bank surrounded by stacks of dollar bills

What was the change in mindset?

#1 Being a billionaire or millionaire shouldn’t be your end goal

I forget how I actually changed how I viewed money, or when exactly that change wash was. But, what I remember, is thinking that money should be a means to an end. It shouldn’t be the end goal, or the be all of everything. The thing that I noticed about people, is that they put so much weight into earning a lot of money and then they set their end goal to be millionaires or a billionaires. Being a millionaire, billionaire, a unicorn, etc. has been something that people aspire to be and I’ve noticed that if they set it as their end goal, they put so much pressure on themselves to achieve these.

When I was in my early 20s, I wanted to be a millionaire when I reached 30. I placed so much weight on the peso value that I forgot to focus on what is more essential. The more essential aspect is to look for that something that I love doing. I focused so much on my paycheck that I got burned out fast. And obviously, when I reached 30 and I wasn’t a millionaire, I was clearly disappointed.

So going back, a few years back, I just suddenly woke up with the thought of money as a means to an end. I focused on doing what I was supposed to do and I started doing the things that I loved doing. And guess what? Money just came in. This is actually related to my next point…


#2 You and your time is valuable but don’t ever think and calculate things.

In my talks, I would always tell people that they need to charge for their time and effort. This is true, but also, do not spend too much time calculating your worth and how much you should get paid for the things that you do, because you will end up losing a lot of opportunities or a lot of time.

I’ll tell you that the secret to the financial success that I have is knowing that some of the things that you know won’t pay financially, but it has “strategic” value. What do I mean?

What I have noticed that most of us are wired to think of financial rewards for jobs, careers, businesses, or anything that requires us to put in some effort. We then equate our efforts and place a price tag. That may be the reason why a lot of people go to VTRs for commercials, because they think that being “discovered” requires such menial effort with a pay that’s exorbitantly high and ridiculous. But you know what, what you don’t see is that you still put out tons of effort. Oftentimes, those who get picked for commercials are those with experience, those with amazing portfolios, those who spend to maintain good complexion, those who spend for transportation cost going to all those VTRs, and those who undergo acting or voice lessons. When you look at it this way, they still put a lot of effort into it.

But what I want you to understand that sometimes, you can do things without thinking of monetary rewards, but more of doing it because it is in line with the strategy that you want to implement or because it is in sync with achieving your ultimate goal. An example is that not all the workshops that we created earned. Some of these we pushed through with because we wanted to check on the feedback of the market. Also, sometimes, I offer discounts for being featured or advertised in my blog because I really believe in the product or the advertiser’s mission or goal. So there, not all of your efforts need to have monetary compensation.

#3 I decided to achieve “clarity” — I tracked my expenses and income to have a clear understanding on what was happening

There was a point in my life where I felt I wasn’t in control of my own funds. I didn’t know where I was spending. I wasn’t looking at the debt being accumulated in my credit card, etc. I felt so heavy — it was probably because I was burdened  by this concern. I know that I was losing control. I needed to do something.

If you are feeling this way, I think it is best that you decide to track everything already. Tracking every expense and income will give you clarity as to what is happening to your finances. you will achieve financial freedom faster, too, since you can strategize well now.

These are the three things that I believe that you need to think of to have that millionaire mindset. I definitely needed to adjust and practice thinking this way, but it really did me good. I hope that it will work for you, too!

Love,

Mommy Ginger

Mommy Ginger

PS. Check out these financial workshops that may help you!

Millionaire Mind Intensive

Basic Accounting and Taxation Workshop

Wealth Planning 101 (with Estate Planning)

Stock Smarts

Encouraging Kids to Learn about Money — Money Smart Kids!

My mom’s so cute! We were having a discussion about Zeeka’s party and we were suddenly discussing about Zeeka’s future. I told her that I opened a mutual fund account for Zeeka’s future. She was insisting that that wasn’t enough. She was telling me that I should open a passbook account for Zeeka so that I can write down line-by-line where the money came from and from whom, so that when she grows up, she’ll know where the money came from. I told her that I already had an excel file, but she insisted that writing it down was different. She’s so cute because that’s such an ‘old school’ method. So anyway, I got a passbook.

I didn’t really grow up in a house where money and how it works was taught to me. I think I just figured it out. We were never really taught how to invest and if we did (invest), I think my parents did that for us. The concept of interest wasn’t really explained to me. I think I only knew about it when I was graduating from college, etc. I didn’t have a credit card and was only exposed to the concept of debt when I was in College.

I think what I’m thankful for was that early on, I was taught the basic concepts (even if investing, interest and debt) were not explained to me. I saw that my parents had to work to earn to buy what they want. I wasn’t really spoiled by my parents. Even if we were living a comfortable life, I never asked (and abused) for money to buy what I want. I don’t think I threw a tantrum even just for my parents to buy me toys (I know because my mom always tells everyone that we were well-behaved children). I guess it’s because we were both girls, too! 🙂

For Zeeka, I know that I will expose her to the concept of earning and saving early on. I want her to realize that money does not grow on trees, even if we wish they did. I want her that working smart is the best way to earn money (rather than working hard). I have a lot of lessons that I want to teach her, and hopefully, she’ll be happy, contented, rich with wealth and blessings and healthy when she grows up.

Fitz Villafuerte of Ready to be Rich and I came up with the idea of teaching children, ages 6-12 the concepts of earning, banking, saving, etc. so we came up with this workshop called Money Smart Kids.

Money Smart Kids Logo

I am so excited for this workshop since there will be a lot of activities. We have cute materials and even role playing to explain the different concepts. We’d like to thank Mothercare Philippines who has been kind enough to sponsor the venue for this event. This event will be on Feb. 23, Sunday at Mothercare, Level 3, Podium. From 11:30 am to 2:30 pm.

Money Smart Kids poster

We hope that you can join this workshop with your child. We are requiring that the child must be accompanied by a guardian so that both of them can go through the activities together.

To sign up, plesae fill out this form:

See you at the Money Smart Kids Workshop!