Mar 19th, 2008 by Admin |
I bought a large plastic box at SM Mall’s Ace Hardware so the kids will have a single container for all their toys instead of just putting them away in various nooks and crannies from cabinet shelves to under the bed.
I didn’t realize that the kids would find a different purpose for it when they spilled all the toys to empty the box and they climbed inside to use it as a fort during playtime. When bath time came Audrick (3 years old) also dragged the box to the bathroom as a makeshift bathtub as it has more depth in holding water while playing with his set of rubber duckies.
It brought to mind a line that I overheard when the kids were watching an episode from one of their favorite cartoon characters, Spongebob Squarepants, who said:
“What’s the need for television when you have a lot of imagination?”
Kids, even though they’re just kids, also have something to teach the so-called adults if we just keep an open mind to new learning experiences. We forget as we grow older that some things do serve more than one purpose other than the one we envisioned and that we need to see things and life through the eyes of a child every now and then.
Mar 15th, 2008 by Admin |
I’ve never really fully appreciated the value of saving until now that I have a family of my own. A lot of my acquaintances, friends and colleagues never gave it much thought while they were living the life of a bachelor but getting married changes your perspective and priorities some.
Experiencing a personal paradigm shift from thinking about what cool stuff to buy and regularly hanging out with your buddies to thinking about how you can afford to provide a good education for your kids takes some time to get used to. And let me tell you that it makes you think about how much you might have saved up to that point had you been really thrifty on your personal finances.
Thank God for giving me the chance to meet a savings-minded girl (how I ever managed to hoodwink her into marrying me I can never recall) who slowly educated me to the benefits of saving for the future.
Why should you save as early as now? Let me enumerate some good reasons:
1. For emergencies. What would you do if you suddenly lost your job due to company downsizing? How are you going to pay the hospital bills or medicine if somebody in your family got sick?
2. For travel and vacation. How are you ever going to deal with all the accumulated stress at work if you’ve been working 6 days a week for the last 2-5 years? A good vacation time and some recreation is what you need every once in a while to prevent burn out and that still needs money. You can be so lucky if your company pays for your vacation but what if they don’t?
3. For your kids education. Nowadays, it takes a whole lot of money to put your kids through college and other related expenses from allowances and etcetera. Investing in a college education plan ain’t so bad either.
4. For retirement. Don’t think you’ll always be young and healthy the way you are now. Everybody grows old so you need to save for it as early as now. I know a lot of people in our neighborhood who didn’t save enough that they had to look for work even when they’re 65 years-old to put food on their table.
5. For all the good and better things in life. Don’t you ever wonder why some people went from rags to riches? Its because they don’t spend their money needlessly, saved as much when they could, and invested for their future. They only bought the things they needed to save money and then bought what they wanted when they had more than enough money to spare.
Developing financial literacy is something we could all use to get us out of the rat race we find ourselves into. Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” was a enlightening and educating read for me. I highly recommend you take time to read it if you haven’t already.
Mar 9th, 2008 by onyx |
Giordano used the latest technology to come up with Dry Tech clothing. Fabrics with this tech utilizes a micro-fiber inner layer that removes skin moisture from the wearer. The sweat is transmitted through specially combines cotton and polyester outer layer for a breathable non-sticky, quick drying fabric.
Liked the cloth so much I bought a couple of pastel colored-polo shirts. Refreshingly cool!
