My friend started investing too

This is the continuation of my previous post.

Before we start, I have a few questions for you. 

1. Are you a parent?
2. Are you an employee working 8 hours a day?
3. Are you living a very simple lifestyle?
4. Do you love dogs, pigs, and chickens?
5. Are you very busy? 

If you answered YES to any of the questions above, then maybe you can relate to some aspects of my friend's life.

Let me tell you about my friend. Just like you, he is: 

•         A parent. Not just a parent but a single parent.
•         An employee too who works 8 hours a day but on very rare and special occasions only because he usually works for at least 12 hours a day.
•         A very simple living guy. He just rents for a place to stay. He walks from his home to our office and he attends the Mass thrice a week.
•        Very passionate about animals like dogs, pigs, and chickens and he dreams of living in his get-away dream farm one day.
• A very busy man too. He usually loses track of the time because of his very busy life. By the time he checked his watch, it was already time for the afternoon coffee break.  

Kidding aside, that's my very dear friend Bet. We have known each other for quite a long time now.

One day, I was talking to this other guy, Jay, who came in it at our office, about some stuff about investing in the stock market taught by Bro. Bo Sanchez in his Truly Rich Club. The discussion was very exciting as we were exchanging thoughts about the matter for an hour or so. He had a lot of questions and assumptions about it and I did the best I can to answer them. He was very excited to start doing it. And when he left, it was only then that I noticed that Bet was also there at the corner very silent and doing his stuff.

Few weeks passed, Jay and I met again. Within our few minutes of talk, I asked him if he already started on the investment. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to do so. He had a lot of reasons.

That same ordinary afternoon, Bet passed by my table and invited me for a cup of coffee and just out of nowhere he asked me how it was going with jay. "Did he start investing already?” he asked.

I was surprised by his question since I never thought he was listening all along. I simply answered that Jay needed more time to think about it and maybe he has some other priorities as of this time.

Bet told me about his past experiences with investments. Some were good and some were bad. He also told me that there were still a lot of questions and doubts at the back of his mind about investing in the stock market. But, he was very sure of one thing - he wants to retire rich.

He then asked me if I can help him learn about what I was saying. Of course, I was much honored to share with him what I learned. And in just a matter of few days, he embarked on his journey in the investment world with five thousand pesos (Php 5,000) only as a starting capital and bought shares from two companies. Yeah, you read it. You can start with only five thousand pesos.

You can learn more about it here -> Truly Rich Club

Do you want to retire rich like what my friend Bet wants?

I know you do.

You can do it,

Ivan Jude

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Act now

What are you doing for your future?

For years, this question seemed to have no meaning to me. I was young, wild, and free. If I wanted to have or do something, the formula was so simple – work hard, save, and spend. Easy, isn't it?

Thinking about future gave me a headache. Besides and eventually, it will just come and, to think about it at this age, seemed very odd. Isn't it nice just to think about this Friday night’s party and what am I going to wear? That’s what I thought until it came to my senses that I wasn't getting any younger as another day passed by.

We recently had a reunion and I saw my younger cousins grew up so fast as if they were given super boosters. Are growth hormones really that effective? I should have bought one. But, seriously, some of them are already graduating in college, some are professionals, and some are even taller than me. Was it just two or four years since we last met each other?

Reality reminded me that I wasn't as young as the Ivan of two years ago and I was now carrying this cute little creature while walking down the stairs. Nope, I’m not a father yet but an Uncle.

Back at the office, I am one of those very few guys that are not yet married.  And whenever I was asked about when will I be marrying, I easily get goose bumps. I simply smile and answer - “Oh, I’m still very young and nothing to hurry”.

Well, part of it was true. Only a part of it because deep down inside I realized that I simply wasn't prepared for it – yes, financially. I was only using my age as an excuse of not doing something that I could have done beforehand.

My feelings were even intensified as I saw very old people in our office still working past their retirement age. Some are even having troubles coming up the stairs. Yes, they are holding positions in the top level management but that is not something I can be envious with because these guys should have been relaxing and enjoying the fruits of their laborious years already.

Funny thing is that I work for a bank but never did I learn how to grow my finances aside from opening a bank account and saving. If I wait for a YEAR, it’ll grow at 0.5 percent which translates to 1 Peso in every 200 Pesos or 5 Pesos in every 1000 pesos of your savings. But, that’s not good enough if I wanted to make my life better.

So, I said to myself – ‘I have to learn something new. I have to find other ways. I've got to do something about this. I don’t want to grow old and still be working’. Those are the reasons that urged me to learn investing. It only took a cup of coffee, a 30-minute break, and an open mind to read the 29-pages book about investing in the stock market written by Bo Sanchez. And that’s where I started.

But, when people hear about words like future, investing, stock market, finances, etc… they would normally and immediately tell their excuses like:

1.       I don’t have time.

2.       I’m too young to worry about the future.

3.       I’m too old to start.

4.       I don’t know anything about it.

5.       I already know it (but did you put in action?)

I’m not saying that I know everything about this stuff, but the thing is, at least, I did something about it. As Einstein said, nothing moves unless something happens. And just yesterday, one of my friends already started investing in the stock market and I’m certainly going to tell you how he got to that decision in my next blog post.

If you think you’re still too young or you think that it’s already too late, you've got to think again because you've got to do something now.

You can do it,

Ivan Jude

Do you love yourself?

Whenever I read books about personal development, I usually encounter the question “do you love yourself?”. I began to wonder how important really is that question to our lives. Of course, my obvious answer would be yes. Hmmm, really?

 Being an IT guy by profession was not that easy as you might think of. Well, not in my case, I guess. I usually work for more than 8 hours a day. And the setup of being the first to arrive and the last to go home was not new to me. Why? It is because I work with machines. Machines that are very important to the daily operations of our company and are made to run without being turned off – ready to serve its clients 24 hours and 7 days a week. Sometimes, I even think that I am also a machine and that I don’t need a rest.

 It was really not a problem when it started. What more can I ask for? I have a job and I really loved what I am doing but not until I slowly felt its effect on me. Being so occupied with my work, I even forget to eat sometimes especially when the machines I am administering are having problems. I wanted to fix it right away and I didn’t want to be disturbed - not even for a meal or a nap. But most of the time, it took longer than expected to resolve the issues. After finally finishing the tasks, I already lost my appetite and was very tired. As an effect, I easily lost my temper and didn’t get along very well with others in our office and even at home.

 I was infected by the virus called prolonged stress and I was suffering from its effects. Not getting enough rest not only had a big toll on my body but to my personality as well. I was even tired to wake up in the morning. Symptoms usually felt by people who were chronologically tired. How could you expect a very tired guy like me to answer politely on the phone or even return a greeting and smile from the security officer standing just right out of the door? My relationships were greatly affected and I became very moody. I wasn’t able to show simple acts of respect and love to others simply because I wasn’t fully rested. I overlooked my own needs and was not able to love myself.

 But, as soon as I started heeding the advice of my mentors to take a break and have enough rest, I slowly realized that there really is a truth in what they say “You cannot love others if you don’t love yourself”. As weird as my experience seem to be, it made me understand that before you can show patience to others, you must learn how to be patient with yourself. Before you can forgive others, you must first learn to forgive yourself.

 Right now, I am still doing the things I love to do and that is to play with the supercomputers and machines but I already learned to set my limits. Lucky for me, those machines were not offended or hurt when I snubbed them. But, what if it was your cute little daughter showing you her drawing? Or your wife who is equally tired but still managed to prepare you a dinner? Or your parents who just wanted to see you smile? 

Love yourself so you can love others. Get enough rest. Take a break. Relax.

 You can do it,

  Ivan jude