The World of Second Chances

Friends No More

March 19, 2010

Poems & Stories

Some great friendships are good until one must go
And leave the other one hoping that the friendship will still grow
Despite the distance and isolation
Despite the lack of communication

There was this childhood friend of mine
A friendship that I consider as an old wine
That I expected to continue ’til old life
Thus, I avoided to trigger a strife

When we needed to part ways to start a career
I kept in touch with her because she’s very dear
I looked forward to the day when we’ll see each other again
And talk about stories of work, life and men!

Call it a coincidence but we saw each other one day!
It was I who greeted first and she had nothing to say
The warm smiles of hers were gone and so is my excitement
I then realized that I was beginning to lament

She had a change of heart and I was left wondering
I was left alone in pain and reminiscing
The friendship with her that I valued so much
Was just yesterday’s dream to my touch

Aint it true that true friends are hard to find?
But sustaining a mutual friendship is one of a kind
People who don’t value a great friendship
Are selfish folks without a real relationship
Poem from Daddy:To My Baby Adi

March 16, 2010

Poems & Stories

Adi

Come close to me my little boy
Daddy’s home,my source of joy
The day is long and you’re my reward
I’ll hug you tightly and kiss you afterwards

My life has become more meaningful and happy
When God blessed me with a handsome baby
You gave me an inspiration to strive harder in life
I’ll bear all the troubles with all my might

God has a purpose why He gave you to me
It’s maybe the same one when He gave me your mommy
I guess it’s because He wants me to bring Him
A family that will worship together in gleam

Time is running fast and soon you’ll grow up
You won’t be a baby forever so I’ll kiss you now a lot
Remember our days of love and joyfulness
Each moment with you, Adi, is truly priceless

~Daddy
Young Love, Sweet Love

March 11, 2010

Life & Love

I remember an old friend, let’s call him Joker. I wonder where he is now, what he’s doing for a living and how he’s changed his life. Our chance for a relationship ended just before it would have started. Blame it on the wrong timing; I was 12 and he was 14 at that time.

How sweet a young love is! A young love so pure without the earthly intentions. It’s nice to be young and innocent in early 90’s. It’s nice to have strict parents and “supportive” friends. How I long to be 12 years old again! Twelve years old and beginning to discover the joy and pain of puppy love.

Joker liked me, too. He said that to me one rainy afternoon when tweeners still prefer hide and seek over computer games. It was the time when Balanga was not yet a city. It was the time when my only hobby was to play with my neighbors. How time flies!

My parents took my interest with Joker badly. They said that he was not the right one for me. Maybe it was my age or maybe it was his juvenile background.

He called me by my petname. He was the only man outside my family who called me by my petname. He knew that I was interested in him. There was a time when we thought, our relationship was getting into what we expected. He tried to make me jealous by getting involved with another neighbor. I did the same by saying that I didn’t like him anyway.

I developed a crush on my friend’s brother. He was older at 16. Until now, I am still shy whenever I see him. Lol! When that crush didn’t materialize, I got interested with my father’s friend’s son. We got along fine for a while until he started dating my friend.

Joker and I had our “lovers’ quarrel,” too. We would not talk with each other for weeks until the tension would subside. It was he who always made the first move to reconcile with me.

I was a little devastated when he eloped with a girl he barely knew that bore him a son. I set my limits with him. I didn’t want to be the cause of someone else’s pain though I must admit that she caused me a little pain when she “stole” my “man.”

That “love affair” lasted until I was 16 years old. It was a “love affair” when I was so innocent and young.

I would love to see Joker now and rekindle the friendship. No, I am not interested to keep him as my other man. I just want to connect with someone who has always cherished and respected me as a woman.
Letting Go

March 11, 2010

Poems & Stories

LETTING GO TAKES LOVE
To let go does not mean to stop caring, it means I can’t do it for someone else.
To let go is not to cut myself off, it’s the realization I can’t control another.
To let go is not to enable, but allow learning from natural consequences.
To let go is to admit powerlessness, which means the outcome is not in my hands.
To let go is not to try to change or blame another, it’s to make the most of myself.
To let go is not to care for, but to care about.
To let go is not to fix, but to be supportive.
To let go is not to judge, but to allow another to be a human being.
To let go is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes, but to allow others to affect their destinies.
To let go is not to be protective, it’s to permit another to face reality.
To let go is not to deny, but to accept.
To let go is not to nag, scold or argue, but instead to search out my own shortcomings and correct them.
To let go is not to adjust everything to my desires, but to take each day as it comes and cherish myself in it.
To let go is not to criticize or regulate anybody, but to try to become what I dream I can be.
To let go is not to regret the past, but to grow and live for the future.
To let go is to fear less and love more.
Remember: The time to love is short.
(author unknown)
Credit Card Debt

March 5, 2010

Career, Finance & Product

Tell me of the best credit card company. HSBC? Citibank? Metrobankcard? There is no best credit card company unless you have the capacity to pay what you used.

I had my first credit card in 2007. Quite a latebloomer, I was so excited and “honored” to own one. My first expense using my HSBC Red card was just a snack in Mc Donald’s. It costed me around PhP 200.00. Cheap, isn’t it? I just wanted to check if my credit card was already “online.”

I bought my first laptop in December 2007, 40% of the payment came from my HSBC Red Card. The minimum monthly payment was tolerable; I had a solid cash flow and I could still save a little portion in the bank. I used my Mabuhay Miles to buy a digicam in October 2008. With two cards, I could still pay above the minimum monthly payment.

When 2009 came, the additional expenses were unforecasted. Instead of my usual practice of paying above the minimum monthly payment, I settled at the minimum. But the minimum monthly payment barely covered the montly interest rate; my credit card debt got bigger and bigger every month. To add to my self-made misfortune, I realized that my credit card debt nearly reached PhP100,000 only in November 2009!

It was on the same month when I chanced upon Francico Colayco’s bestseller book, “Pera Mo, Palaguin Mo” in SM. According to Colayco, credit card debt is the most expensive debt because they charge an interest rate of 3.5% per month or 42% per year. What happens if you’re only paying the minimum? You are only paying for the monthly interest and the credit card company computes for another 3.5% on your remaining balance for the next month’s billing statement.

I made a wrong financial decision when I least prioritized my credit card debt in 2009. I could have paid my two credit card debts in March 2009 but I opted for a solid cash flow instead of a little cash flow but zero credit card debt. Wrong move!

I called up HSBC in December 2009 to ask if they have an installment program. The agent said that they don’t have an existing program. Okay,fine!

I computed my cash flow. Colayco said that Income Less Savings = Expense. Which means to say that saving must come first before spending. I computed our monthly budget and realized that if I could raise my monthly credit card payment to xxx amount. I targetted June 2010 to pay all of my credit card debts.

Today is March 2010 and I have three more months to go. I realized two important things:
1. To check my monthly billing statement. (I used to take this for granted)
2. Never spend what you can’t pay for in two months time.
Who Will Be The Next President of the RP?

February 25, 2010

Life & Love

Survey says it’s Manny Villar who is preferred by 70% of respondents followed by Noynoy Aquino at 64%. One thousand eight hundred respondents versus a voting population of 43 million Filipinos, can we trust the statistical figures then?

Assuming that the SWS survey is correct, then by statistics, it’s Manny Villar who will be the next president of the Republic of the Philippines. That is good until the voting public makes a change of heart. A lot of things can happen before the May elections and survey results will definitely change as the voting public is made to realize who to vote.

I am looking for a website that reflects the presidential candidates’ personal and public profile. I would like to know their educational background, their family background, their achievements in life, the good things that they did for the country, their wealth and health status, their religion, their ethnic group, their political view, their stand on Mindanao and Abu Sayyaff, their stand on pre-marital sex, euthanasia, nepotism, agrarian reform program, alternative sources of energy and the growing Filipino population that is forecasted to hit 100 million in 2010.

On that website, I would like to include a public forum wherein we can discuss the candidates’ character. Is it true that this candidate is a drug user? (just an example) Why do we need to know a candidates’ flaws? So that we can compare it with our own values. I know that nobody is perfect but at least we should vote for somebody who has the highest appraisal when it comes to being moral.

Eddie Gil, a former presidential (nuisance) candidate said that once elected, he would pay our country’s foreign debt using his personal funds. We laughed at him and ridiculed him but is there any candidate who has the same objective? I have yet to hear from a candidate’s mouth his strong willingness to at least reduce our foreign debt.

I hope for a transparent and honest election this time.
Loyalty To The Company

February 23, 2010

Career, Finance & Product

How is loyalty to the company being taken by the Filipino working class? Is there an available statistics of loyal employees? What is the ratio of home grown talents versus a non-home grown ones in a company?

Back in the old days, loyalty to the company is like being loyal to one’s country. Promotion and the reward system were based on years of service in the company. It’s no wonder why our grandparents were able to afford large houses and nice cars back then. It is like the age-old belief that a college education is the key to one’s success. Remember Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter’s “Rich Dad Poor Dad?” Loyalty to the company and obtaining a college degree to get rich are related assumptions. Both are old-school beliefs. I won’t discuss the principle of “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” you try to read the book if you care to know about it. I will be focusing on my own belief that “loyalty to the company is old school.”

And why is it old school? As I mentioned, during the time of our grandparents, the reward system was based on years of service to the company. Is it happening now? Let me cite Intel Philippines as an example. Intel Philippines wrapped down its operations in 2009. Ask any ex-Intel employee and he/she will just give you a uniform answer. They would all agree that when it comes to compensation and benefits, Intel was the champion at it. Some if its employees were middle-aged men and women who even bought a home within the Generial Trias area. Maybe ten years ago, they thought of permanently settling down in Cavite though some of them came from as far as Northern Luzon. Of course, it’s not Intel’s fault if its employees decided to settle near their work area. My point is, these loyal employees did not foresee that the semicon superpower would someday pull out its operations in the Philippines. Where did their loyalty put them? Thanks to Intel’s separation pay? Unless you’re a good businessman, then maybe that amount is in good hands.

Some employees tend to bind theirselves into the company that they learned to love but they fail to acknowledge that our employers are business-minded people. They hire us not because they want to give us a better life. They hire us because they think that we are capable of expanding their assets.

A friend asked me,” So, are you implying that I must be lax and lazy just to prove my disloyalty to my employer?”

What a question! I did not mean to say that a person must be lazy and lax to his work just to show his disloyalty. My point to all this argument is this. Be hardworking, show your commitment but for your own sake, do not be a blind follower to your company. Leave when you feel that the company does not respect or acknowledge you. Leave when there is a better opportunity. Do not be stagnant, learn a new skill, find the best employer, learn how to invest your earnings while working.