BDO's Easy Investment Plan-Brochure

I'm feeling industrious to type away today so I'm posting some of the contents of BDO's brochure on EIP given to us. Credits to BDO. And no, I was not asked to blog about it. I just want to.

"Don't Just Save, Invest."

Saving is, and always will be, the foundation of any fortune. It is secure, risk-free and readily accessible.

But saving alone is not enough to make your money grow. You should also invest. This means taking some risks, but the rewards are higher. When you save and invest, your money has the power to grow faster. So don't just save, invest!

The BDO Easy Investment Plan (EIP)

The BDO EIP is a wealth build-up plan that enables you to attain your financial goals and financial wellness through the twin habits of saving and investing. It incorporates the best, tried and tested principles that make a successful saving and investment plan and provide a solution to counter the major obstacles to saving and investing.

Here's how in just three easy steps:

1. Fill out the EIP Application Form and enroll your BDO Savings/Checking Account in the EIP at any BDO branch.
2. Decide on the following details of your contribution:
• Amount: Minimum of Php1,000.00 per contribution
• Frequency and schedule: Once a month (5th, 10th, 15, 20th, 2th or 30th) or Twice a month (every 5th & 20th, 10th & 25th or 15th & 30th)
3. Choose what type of Unit Investment Trust Fund (UITF) is best for you: BDO Peso Fixed Income Fund, BDO Peso Balanced Fund or the BDO Equity Fund.

Once enrolled, the amount you have chosen will regularly and automatically be debited from your account and will immediately be invested in the UITF of your choice. Every time the market value of your investment reaches Php10,000.00 on a contribution date, this will spin off and be treated as a regular UITF investment documented by a Confirmation of Participation (COP). The cycle of saving, investing, spinning off from the EIP and issuance of COP continues for as long as you are enrolled in the program.

So with the EIP, saving and investing become a habit. It's simple, it's easy and it's automatic.

Choose your Investment
Choose where your monthly investment will go.

BDO Peso Fixed Income Fund
A medium-term bond fund which aims to provide a high level of income with preservation of capital and maintenance of liquidity. This fund invests in a combination of short to long-term fixed income securities. The fund is suitable for risk toleranct investors.

BDO Peso Balanced Fund
The fund aims to achieve capital appreciation over the medium-term by investing primarily in equities and to some extent in fixed income securities, the allocation of which shall be determined by the Trustee depending on market conditions. The fund is suitable for risk-taking investors.

BDO Equity Fund
The fund aims primarily for capital growth over the medium to long-term by investing in a selection of exchange-listed equities. The fund is ideal for risk-taking investors.

The Perfect Opportunity
The time for investing is now. With the BDO Easy Investment Plan (EIP), it has never been easier.
Automatic savings and investment
The EIP has an auto-debit facility to regularly set aside funds for immediate investment.

Convenience
Enrollment  can be don in any of the BDO branches nationwide.

Flexibility
The BDO EIP is multi-purpose since it can be used for a variety of your major projects (i.e. education for your children, family vacation/s, special family celebrations, retirement). THis is unlike private and government pension funds and pre-need and insurance funds which can be withdrawn/distributed only upon retirement, disability or death.

Affordability
With a minimum of Php1,000.00, an investment can be made in the chosen UITF.

Professional Fund Management
Gain access to the services of BDO professional fund managers who keep constant watch over the BDO UITFs.

Cost Averaging
The BDO EIP enables you to benefit from Peso Cost Averaging, a time-tested personal wealth-building strategy wherein fixed amounts of investment in regular intervals over a period of time allow you to average your costs. This allows you to invest without having to constantly monitor the market. Any time is a good time to invest!

The BDO EIP is the perfect opportunity for you to invest. Rush to your nearest branch today."

Well, that's it. Now, your call :).

**Disclaimer: I'm not Financial savvy. I'm just sharing what I learned from the seminar. I hope to at least become financially literate though :). **

Gain or Loss?

As I posted earlier, my friend and I attended a seminar sponsored by BDO.

Here's one thing that's a new learning for me. The speaker showed the performance of one investment product. Sorry, I don't remember which one and I don't remember the exact figures as well. But for instance, we have these percentages of the investment product's performance per anum:

• Year 1 - 52%
• Year 2 - (48%)
• Year 3 - 63%
• Year 4 - 37%

The question thrown to us was: did I regain my loss in Year 3 after its negative return in Year 2 and very high return in Year 3? The answer is NO. Here's to illustrate:

Based on our example, our starting Principal for Year 2 was 15,200.00 but by year end, it dropped to 7,904.00. And although Year 3 yielded high return, the principal of Year 2 has not yet been recovered by end of Year 3. It was only on Year 4 that it was greater than Year 2's principal.

Why a lesson learned for me? Because if I were to look only at the rates, it is always my impression that you recovered your loss by Year 3 because of the big jump in interest. However, the figures don't show it. In some instances, perhaps it may, but not always.

**Disclaimer: I'm not Financial savvy. I'm just sharing what I learned from the seminar. I hope to at least become financially literate though :). **

BDO's Easy Investment Plan (EIP)

Around 2 weeks ago, I saw an announcement in BDO's website that they are giving a free seminar to introduce their new product-the Easy Investment Plan (EIP). I grabbed the opportunity and signed up with a friend. The seminar was this morning. It lasted for about 2 hours. And I'm glad I attended :). There were new lessons I picked up, aside from the fact that it affirmed the things I read from books and financial articles.

Sad to say, the Philippines has one of the lowest percentages globally. In Asia, China ranks first, followed by Singapore.

Here are some tips shared during the seminar. The short explanation is based on how I understood it.

• Pay yourself first. All financial references say this. Savings should always be part of your budget. The formula should be Income-Savings = Expenses and not Income-Expenses = Savings because the tendency is, you’ll always have nothing to save.
• Stop spending on things that decline in value. We should be spending on things that put money on our pockets, instead of things that take out money from our pockets. Hence, we should know which are real needs and which are just wants.
• Make your financial plan automatic. With the advancement of technology, this is very feasible nowadays. All you have to do is inform your bank to do that for you automatically on a schedule of your preference. A lot of banking institutions are now also online so go, create your online account and monitor anytime, anywhere as long as there’s Internet!
• Make money work for you. Famous line. Make money work for you instead of you working for money. How? By investing so that it will earn you more money.
• Invest wisely and regularly. Should you invest, you should understand what you’re entering into. Again, there are a lot of references online. Otherwise, you can also just proceed to the bank or financial institution and talk to a fund manager (that’s how those people dealing with investments are called J).

I'll post some more if I remember the other things discussed.

**Disclaimer: I'm not  Financial savvy. I'm just sharing what I learned from the seminar. I hope to at least become financially literate though :). **

* Image from here. *

It's Nice to Meet You, Magalawa Island!

** This was written sometime in May, right after this trip.**

Magalawa Island is located in the municipality of Palauig, Zambales Philippines. It’s a small island where you can rent for accommodations or pitch your own tents and cook your own food. We visited the place last weekend and it was a perfect weekend getaway. 

How to get there from Manila:

• Take the Sta. Cruz bound bus at Victory Liner Caloocan. You can take the LRT 1 to Monumento then walk to the back of Victory Mall to get to the terminal. Else, you can always take the cab. :p
• Drop off at Barangay Pangolingan, Palauig Zambales. This is at corner Radio Veritas Road. The bus drivers are familiar with the place so just tell them that you’re alighting there and you won’t get lost. Travel time is 6-7 hours, including stop overs.
• Ride a tricycle that will take you to Oslet Armada Fish dealer compound in Brgy. Luan. When we went there last weekend, fare was Php 150.00 per tricycle with 2 pax (so that’s Php 75/pax).
• From the compound, take a mini boat going to Magalawa Island. Since we availed of the package, boat fee is already included so I'm not sure how much they charge but I'm guessing that would be around Php100.00/pax. Travel time is approximately 10 minutes.

Then, welcome to Magalawa Island!

Estimated expenses is at Php3,200.00 but this is because we availed of the package which already includes accommodation, 4 meals, boat transfers, bamboo rafting and snorkeling (snorkeling gears were provided with no additional fee). This can be much lower if you bring your own camping gears and cook your own food.

Playing loud music is prohibited. People should use earphones if they wish to listen to music.

If you're looking for a quick and relaxing weenend getaway and you don't mind the long travel time, try Magalawa Island.

For our booking, we contacted Ate Grace. Here's their Facebook page.

And I leave you with these photos :)

Pictorial with the star fishes. Don't worry, we brought them back to the water after :). Oh, don't mind my long sleeves. I didn't want to get more tanned since I was somewhere else almost all weekends of the summer!

 Off to the snorkeling site with the beautiful, amazing friends and the little niece. Teenager niece didn't want to join us anymore. We were being pulled by another boat! Very exhilarating! When we got to the site, the little niece and I transferred to the boat. Didn't snorkel coz I had to babysit :p.



Enjoying the waters with the little niece. My arms were hurting after this outing. My niece wanted to practice swimming so I had to hold her everytime she wants to practice ker kicks :p.

Conversation with Kids

After our Quezon trip where I brought my nieces with me, I showed her our pictures that were already uploaded in FB. While viewing, she had some comments that really cracked us all up. I placed all her comments in FB as well and my friends and I all had a good laugh. Here are those pictures:

V: Apay ag-ung-ungetak (Why was I angry)?

Me (In a teasing tone): Makabis-bisinak! Makabis-bisinak

(I'm hungry! I'm hungry!)

* This was where she told me that she was hungry but we had no food at hand hihi. Good thing she was shy so we were just whispering when this episode happened-her almost crying because of hunger and me, trying to pacify her hahaha.

V: Nagkatawa akon ta mangmanganak. (I'm already laughing because I'm eating.)

* She really was hungry! Hahaha!

Lessons Learned from the Quezon Trip

I was with my nieces aged 8 and 14 when we went to Quezon Province. Being single my entire life and as it was my first time to bring with me my family in an outing with friends (where there are no other family members to take care of them), I was clueless and wasn’t ready :p.

• Be ready to carry even the kid who can already walk. My 8 year old niece is used to walking because she lives in Baguio and walking is normal for her. I just didn’t foresee that I need to carry her when we went to the river because she didn’t want her feet to get wet on the way back. The water is cold. So I had to carry her on parts that we need to walk in the water. And since that’s a river, I had to carry her for the most part. *Tiring* 
• Be ready with food. I’m not used to eating snacks unless I’m so hungry so I did not have any snacks with me. I did not foresee my little niece to go hungry on the way to Kwebang Lampas because we had breakfast earlier. After the boat ride, two minutes after we stared walking, she told me she was hungry. I told her to wait a little because we were already near the beach (even though I know that we are not really near yet :p) and we don’t have food with us because some of the guys volunteered to carry it for us so they are nowhere to be seen and we don’t know who had it. And yes, the food I’m referring to is my friend’s which she graciously shared hihihi. Anyway, good thing that my niece was discrete enough and did not show her tantrums to everyone. But I was crossing my fingers that she won’t ask me to carry her again because she’s too weak to walk hahaha. So there, lesson learned. I should be ready with food anytime when I’m with kids.

Rise and Shine and Get Ready for Kwebang Lampas!

We woke up at 7AM and breakfast was already waiting for us. We sure were spoiled by A’s relatives! :D By 8:30AM we were already on our way to Kwebang Lampas. We’ve been to Kwebang Lampas 2 years ago for the same occasion so we were a bit surprised with the changes we saw.

• Before you even reach the parking space (I’m estimating that this is around 3 KM away), there’s a checkpoint/gate where you have to pay an entrance fee. Not sure how much but they charge differently for cars and tricycle
• You are not allowed to pass by the trail anymore. You need to take the boat to reach the other side where you will trek further to the beach. The charge is Php 10/head. I doubt if they even have the permit to operate those boats. They don’t even have the basic safety precautions such as the life vests and they allow more than 15 people in a small boat, thus you’ll take the trip standing. I was a bit worried because I was with my 2 nieces before who were kids.
• The caretaker at the entrance was rude. I don’t know the exact details but those who were ahead of us were asked to wait until all of us were complete before he allowed us to enter the premises. What’s wrong with just collecting a fee for those who have gone way ahead of us then collect from those who were behind? Also, don’t be grumpy please. Not a good way to greet your guests, if I may say so.
• On the way home, we decided to just walk on the same trail we used 2 years ago. Upon reaching the parking area, we were shouted by the people there because apparently, we were not supposed to use that trail anymore. Well, sorry but there was no signage and nobody mentioned it to us when we arrived in the morning so we thought it was ok. But to be rude and shouting was unacceptable to us. We suspect that the reason why they were pissed off at us was because they were not able to earn from us via their boats :p. I do understand but then again…this is supposed to be a “tipid” trip as well :p.
• They still have water problems and when we requested in advance for water in the morning for our use in the afternoon, they told us that we just request it from them in the afternoon. When we arrived there in the afternoon, there was no water available. Because of the rudeness we experienced earlier and water unavailable, we decided to just leave the place and go back to A’s relative’s place and wash up there.

Oh well, despite all these mishaps, we still had the time of our lives at the beach. I just hope that the people there were friendlier. Their place is becoming popular these days but people may just be disappointed because of how they handle their customers.

Anyway, as agreed, we will just go back to A’s relative’s home for wash up. Unfortunately, when we arrived there, they also don’t have water available! LOL. We tried with their other relatives to no avail. We considered other options and one mentioned that we can try the Grand Central Terminal because they have restrooms there where one can take a bath for a minimal fee. Since we were 15, others had to commute. Unfortunately, those that should be commuting were having a hard time looking for a ride so we fitted everyone in the Inova hahaha. 15 peeps! Whew. Off we went to the terminal where we will later on find out that taking a bath is only allowed from 5 AM – 7 AM. Disappointed a bit because we can’t convince the one in charge for us to bath as well, we just told her that we’ll just change into clean clothes then. But of course that did not happen…and that must have been the quickest bath I took in my entire life :D.

We parted ways after wash up. The others took the bus at the Grand Central and we also headed straight to Manila after that.

Hello Summer, Hello Quezon Province!

** This was written sometime in May, right after this trip. **

It’s my friend’s birthday this 19th of May so to celebrate, we headed to Quezon province last May 14-15. Our itinerary was to have a picnic at Yapak ni Hesus on the 14th, spend the night at her aunt’s place then proceed to Tayabas, Quezon for another picnic on the 15th. However, everyone was more interested in going to the beach so we went to Kwebang Lampas in Brgy. Polo instead of Tayabas River.

I was also with my other friend and 2 nieces (a 7 year old and a 14 year old) on this trip. We met with the gang at around 5 AM and proceeded directly to SLEX where we met up with the rest of the group. We brought private cars by the way. We did not commute. We were supposed to drop by Shell SLEX for breakfast and to buy our lunch from KFC but we missed the right turn. Assuming that there’s also a KFC in Petron, we proceeded there. Unfortunately, no KFC so we just had a quick breakfast at McDo then resumed our travel, now in search for a KFC. We did not find any so we ended up buying chicken from Andoks instead. Not KFC but still chicken :). We also dropped by the market to buy some mangoes and have a CR break.

We arrived at Mang Domeng’s place at around 10AM. After changing into our swimming attires and rechecking items to be brought to the river, we started the trek going to our spot, the mini-falls (mini to me at least :)). It takes around 30 minutes to reach the place. It’s a combination of river trekking and land trekking (if the way is the land beside the river). When we reached our spot, everyone was already hungry so forget 12 PM, we were already having lunch by 11 AM LOL. After a hearty meal, the others went down to the falls while my nieces and I and some friends stayed at the shallower part of the river. The stones were slippery. Maybe because it was not yet raining often during that time so the muds are not yet washed out.

At 3PM, it was time to head back to Mang Domeng’s for wash up. On our way back, the others, including my older niece, entered the cave. At the cave, there’s a pool of water where the local believe to be miraculous. During the first time I was there, Mang Domeng poured water unto our heads while we say our wishes. True or not, it doesn’t hurt to wish right? :)

At around 6PM, we were already on our way to Pagbilao, Quezon to my friend’s relatives’ home where we’ll be having dinner and spending the night as well. Other friends and Pastour Emata (yes, the Filipino M.t Everest summiteer) met us there as well. They had prior appointments so they were not able to join us in Yapak ni Jesus and opted to just follow.

Our hosts prepared delish dishes for us! My friend’s cousin’s specialty was . it was with cheese! Would you believe that? A viand with cheese! :) But then again, I love anything cheesy so I may be biased a bit but everyone said it was yummy as well so I was not the only one captivated by it :D. The other dish that struck me was . it was shrimp with grated coconut, wrapped in banana leaves and steamed to perfection. Home cooked food is and will always be glorious :).

Of course after that sumptuous dinner was socials-stories, laughter, jokes- over a bottle of beer and of course endless picture taking. We called it a night at 1AM and proceeded to our designated sleeping quarters for a much needed rest.

Me and my nieces

Yummy yummy dinner!

Whew! 102!!!

Happy 102nd birthday my beloved Baguio. You will always be my home <3. I hope the sun's up and shining today. Let's go and move forward to a better Baguio. Entako la manlinis! (Let's go clean!)

* I was looking for the program of activities so that I can post it here but learned from several sites that due to Typhoon Mina, celebrations will just be simple and then a clean up drive will follow. Good move! I hope everyone participates. :D

116 days...

...to go before christmas! Merry christmas y'all! :p