Invest, Invest!

Since last year, my boss has been encouraging us to start investing our money instead of just leaving it in the bank (his wife works with Sun Life). Of course, since we had our wedding last year, we couldn't really invest too much because our money was already allotted for the wedding expenses.

Now that the wedding is over, we can finally start thinking about our investments. It's just too bad that the dollar-peso exchange rate is so low (and contrary to what our government says, I don't think the economy is getting better...I mean, I don't see the prices of ANYTHING getting lower)! We've started first by getting insurance coverage. Actually, I know I should have gotten this years ago, but back then I just wanted to enjoy my money first.

Our next step was actually to invest in mutual funds, but we're still waiting for the stock market to stabilize. So while waiting, my colleague and I were briefed on the Educational Plan or Retirement Plan from Sun Life.

I was shocked at how much money we will be needing in case I plan to retire by the age of 45. Assuming the following:

• I will live 25 years after my retirement
• I eat 3 meals a day
• Each meal averages P250

I will need to have a whopping P6.8M at my retirement so that I will be able to EAT. And that's considering that each meal averages only P250 in the years to come.

I also did some computations on my own to find out how much tuition would be in DLSU in 16 years time, assuming the following:

• Current tuition is P150k per year
• There is a 10% increase per year

The result? Around P700k per year and around P3M for a 4-year course. Our kid definitely won't be going to DLSU then.:)

It seems a bit daunting doesn't it? No wonder my boss seems so pre-occupied -- to think that his Net Worth is probably 20x that of mine. I do agree though that after the wedding, couples should definitely think about their investments. But at the same time, don't be too consumed by it, that you worry so much about the future.

What Kind of Accountant Doesn't Know How to Budget?

Apparently, it's an Accountant that's about to get married.

Once Danz and I had established that we wanted a relatively small wedding (not more than 200 guests), we started to work on our budget. Initially, Danz had asked if P500k would be enough, and I told him that it was too much. I thought we could fit everything into P300k.

Fast forward to today....we've long been over the P300k mark! I'm normally pretty good at sticking to a budget, but with regard to our wedding, our financials are out of control! It doesn't help that when I consult Danz or ask him whether we should get a certain supplier or not, he would always say its ok even though its over the budget (I guess maybe it's because he doesn't want me to have a hard time). Another thing is that I'm not good at haggling with suppliers - partially because I don't agree that its a good thing to do to people who will play a huge part in making the wedding a success. Oftentimes, I am upfront with the suppliers regarding our budget, and we just work around it. But we sometimes end up going over nonetheless.

There are days when I sit and stare at our budget worksheet and try to figure out a way to minimize our expenses. But no matter what I do, we are still hopelessly over budget!