How I discovered my passion in personal finance

Like many of us, I was born and raised to get the usual routine in life. That is to study hard, get a good job and earn money (as Rich dad Poor dad book says). It’s the same with me.

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That is my dream and goal when I was a child. All I knew was that I need to study and graduate in a good school, look for a high paying job with good benefits and then earn more money.

Then I will be rich and I will have no more problems. I was wrong.

As I grew and become matured, I realized that there is more in life. It’s just not about going to school, finding job and earning money.

There’s a lot of things not being teach in school that we really need in real life. And one of them is personal finance. Most of the school especially here in the Philippines are setup to condition us to become a good hard-working employee.

Very few or no one teach in school how you will handle your salary when you start to work and earning money. How to budget or the importance of building emergency fund, setting financial goals, the importance of life insurance and growing your money so you don’t need to work when you retire.

Those things are very important in real life but not being taught in school. Maybe it has been discussed but not being given a formal attention. That’s why many Filipinos after graduation and started working, still have no idea how to handle their finances.

No savings and no emergency fund. Including me before. Work – pay bills – spend what is left. That’s our usual scenario and that’s need to be change.

Because I came from a poor family, I was somehow influenced by my parents especially my ‘ina‘ on how to be a wise spender. I also learned that I need to save. But that’s not enough.

The teaching of our parents at home are the most basic personal finance lessons we got early in our lives. And that helped shaping our mind on how we look at our finances.

And since most of our parents also came from the society of going to school – getting good job – earning money – paying bills scenario, it is more likely that they conditioned us the same.

Not all of us of course, but in general that is what happening. Those are not enough!

We need to learn a lot. And honestly, it’s not simple as what they taught us when we are child.

It takes a lot of effort and self-discipline. It takes a lot of lessons and most importantly it takes a lot of time!

Along the way of my early working years, I find myself lacking of information how to properly manage my personal finance. I still don’t have enough savings and not really don’t know how to budget properly.

Yes, I’m doing a little bit of effort to handle my finances but I always see myself failing on most of my financial goals. As mentioned above, those lessons we learned from home are not enough to rely on the real life. There is more to learn!

As I started to look for ways to learn how to properly save money and how to earn more, a passion ignited inside me. I discovered my passion in personal finance.

I became ‘hungry’ for more personal finance tips and information that could help me properly save more money and earn more if possible.

I started to get hooked on personal finance blogs of well known financial advocates here in the Philippines.

I see myself digging the internet and all other resources that are related to personal finance. I watched personal finance videos, tv programs, youtube channel, read books, newspapers, magazines and many more.

I ‘craved’ for more knowledge. I want to learn more and more and more.

And as a result, I learned more. So much more! I started creating smart financial goals and achieved some of them, others still on progress.

I attended 2 seminars about investing in stock market and after a week I open an account and started investing too. Another concrete example is, I was able to save enough money for my wedding (December 2014).

In fact my parents didn’t spend a single peso on my wedding because I have enough savings although my wife helped me. And many more.

My newly discovered passion helped me a lot. It helped me re-shaped my thinking about money and more importantly helped me properly manage my personal finances.

Today, I’m still learning. In fact I’m still a newbie and still need to learn a lot.

But boy, I can tell you that there was a huge difference from what I knew today from what I knew before. It really pays ‘big interest‘ if we invest in ourselves first. It’s true that this is the best investment we could ever have that can give us higher returns in the long run.

Where this will be heading? Or where this passion will take me? I don’t know. No one knows the future.

All I know is that if I continue this I’m creating more chance of success in achieving my goals. It already helped me in just short period of time, what more in the long run, right?

What’s in it for you?

What about you? If you also discover your passion in personal finance, share your story with us. Tell your story at the comment section below and we will gladly read it.

If you’re a beginner like me and just discovered your passion in personal finance, I encourage you to do the same. Ignite your passion by feeding your mind with information that could help you achieve financial freedom.

Learn how to set smart financial goals and take small steps to achieve them. Start tracking your expenses  and start budgeting.

Learn more!

INVEST IN YOURSELF!

That’s the best thing I can advise to my fellow newbie in personal finance.

Join me and this blog as I continue my journey and passion in personal finance.

I will share what I know, what I think and what I believe hoping to help and inspire other people as well. Especially my fellow newbies.

Let’s all start taking charge of our finances to achieve financial freedom and provide better future for our self and our family. Small step each day will bring us closer to our goals.

Let’s achieve financial freedom, one blog at a time! Cheers!