Taking Advantage of Home Quarantine

Most of the countries has implement lock downs due to CoVID19. Many are still working from home because they are in a best company who understand the current situations and does not solely think of money or profit. 

However it is un-fortunate that many companies has never loosen its belt and let their employee still come despite the fact that CoVID19 is now pandemic, business as usual.....sigh....

In this blog i would like to talk about what we can do to ensure that those who have more time at home can benefit from the current situation. That aside from the fact that they can have more time watching their favorite Kdrama, Neflix series. That they can do beyond those leisure and spend it into a more valuable task.

1. Clean 

The best way to combat any virus and bacteria is by keeping our surroundings clean. Organizing our space will add to our good mood, and will help us feel better.

2. Make a to do list

Imagine yourself during the time that you are so busy at work, and you always wish to do something but you cannot because your tired after work. Then this is the best time to address those to do list. Because now, you have more time.

3. Self-evaluation

During this quite period it best for us to evaluate ourself, go back to your diaries if you have, try to recall what are your activities for the past weeks and months, by doing self evaluation we asses yourself if at this stage "where are we".  

By knowing where we stand we can put direction to where we wanna go, what else we want to achieve.

4. Focus on your health

When i say "health" i mean of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health. Focus means improving ourself in this aspect of our life, and de-cluttering those that worsen our health. 

5. Find new hobbies

Some need to work for a month or more from home, of course it is advantage because we do less, but when you feel bored, specially because you are not used to stay at home it would be better for you to find new hobby. Maybe you want to try doing some handcrafts, try to practice meal preparations and many more.

6. Educate yourself

I believe in street educations (lessons and learning outside the four corners of the room) for me those are the best lesson because they are practical to life. Having said that, i watch various youtube videos on the topic that interest me well like sustainable living, tiny houses, minimalism, saving tips, and financial management. By doing this i am acquiring knowledge that would benefit me in real life. 

I also like to read books of my interest.

7. Develop the family bonding

I believe that social media has taking over our relationship to one another specially to our family members. We all used to see each other but when we are gather each of us are on our phone. 

This time, try to invest your time with them more genuinely but keeping your phone in silent while talking to them, or asking them to stop glancing over their phone while they talk to you, it feel so much better that you can be in deep with the conversation with the people around us.

8. Save money
Do you usually drop by at mall to have window shopping in your head yet end up buying somethings. Or your one of those who can really resist dropping by at your favorite store? If you are guilty of this act, then surely the lock down has help you drop your expenditure on non-priority items.

While it is true that some business are suffering from lost, i believe that in one way or the other despite of alo't of disadvantage of this situation we can still find advantages from this situations. We have a road with less car, that a more than 1 hour travel can now be done in less that 20 minutes. That people are more conscious about their health, and they are force to stay in their home with family rather than going our with their friends. 

I pray that CoVID19 will come to its end so we can freely do what we have to do. So let us take precautionary measures to ensure that you are safe and the people around you are safe from you too. Just like the popular message circulating now,

We stay at work for you, 

so please stay at home for us!

The Pilgrim Life Lesson

How are you all copping up with CoVID19 stay at home policy? I hope that all of you are healthy and in good conditions right now, and my kind and sincere prayer for those who are sick and ill and i pray that God will grant you all relief from whatever pain and burden you are facing.


Because of the Covid19, most of us are able to spend most of our time at home and just go out when its highly necessary. That way we become safe from one another. However today's blog  will be about the journey. For those who knew me very well, knows that i don't read much of a fictions books except for Paulo Coelho books. Paulo Coelho has been my favorite author since college to now. For this article i would like to discuss about the lesson i have learn from his book The Pilgrims. Pilgrims is about the journey of a gentleman named Paulo in his quest to find his sword. In this book i have learn the following:

1. Decide on your journey

We all wanted to go to different path of life that we always wanted. Going on our journey we have to be sure that those path are what we wanted because no body can assure to us that life journey is easy, we will all experience various life challenges along the way.

2. Accept your past

Many people tells us, forget about the past, the truth is we cannot forget our past. The life journey that makes us all so happy and sorrowful are the  past that we can never forget until our death. The best way we can do is to accept our past, be friendly with our yesterday, and take all the lesson to improve your self and your future.

3. Forgot who are you

When we travel to foreign land, we experience so many things. Simply because we are not in our comfort zone. We do not have the favor or the VIP treatment we got in our home zone.

Being in a place that no one know you and you dont know anyone will give you adrenaline rush, for me it was exciting because i can just be myself and what i want to do. It is magical and the experience that i always wanted to have. An experience where i am carefree and someone who lost connections...

4. Discover yourself

When we are in a foreign land, we discover many things about ourself. In my experience most of them are my fears. Right after college graduations i move on my own. Prior to my journey i find myself wanting to back-out because i thought i have so many fears, specially the fear of making mistakes and failing. I gather my falling strength and still continue my journey and i find myself very comfortable walking on my own, doing on my own.

At present i can say that myself is my best company and i am enjoying doing this on my own, and deciding on my own. Now, i can finally get lost in any country and i know i can survive.

5. Enjoy the process

in everything you do, being with that very moment is the best gift you can give to yourself. In our world today, the social media has overpower us by storm. We snap almost everything that we do, what we eat, where we go. I am really guilty of it. At present if i wanted to share my travel i do it after, simply because i do not want to exploit the moment because those notifications are really disturbing and we don't realized that we spend so much time answering those that being in a present time and place.

6. Do not kill your dreams

"We kill our dreams because we are afraid to fight a good fight" Indeed it was true. Our fears stops us from achieving more, we fear failure and see failure, we always ask ourself what if i failed, what if i made mistakes.

But what if you succeed? and the only way to know it is to try. To just do it! In our life we often regret things that we didn't do, that those things that we do yet we failed, simply because if at least we try to do something, its either we learn or win. We never lost.

7. Follow the best road and not the road you are accustomed too.

Because of our fears we take the path that we are comfortable with, we human being always wanted to feel safe, yet if we always do, will never find our real strength and the path which is meant to be taken, because although its has the most difficult road, at the end it will reward us with the most beautiful destinations.

8. Be kind to yourself

I don't compare myself to other, i always look at my previous performance and try to top it the next day, i compete with my own self. I don't know if you are experiencing it, but i am cruel to myself. If at times i dont hit my target (set goals) i punish myself severely. Allhamdullilah that at present i am learning to love myself and forgive myself specially if am making mistakes. By doing this i am getting calmness. 

9. Believe in yourself

If there should be a person who should believe that you can succeed should be yourself. We know our own strength, our own flaws, no one ever know who we are than ourself but sometimes we doubt our own self. So for us to succeed we should have the confidence and courage and belief that we can.

10. Learn and apply

So many of us are well verse. There are so many people who came from prestigious school. We have Cum Laudes and Honor student, but those title doesn't guarantee our place in success if those that we learn from our school, books and the life lesson that was thought to us was not applied correctly in ourlife. The lesson has no meaning if it will remain in paper, therefor we have to apply our lesson in life and be wise than ever.

11. Win alone

I always tell my siblings. When you are at bottom, embrace the difficulty of life but never live their or rely on anyone for help. No one can help you get up except yourself. If there would be a perfect example that was near to my heart that would be in getting our  career. Perhaps we Filipinos are very much aware of palakasan system, and kamag anak system.

Some people are hired in their present job because of this system, but wouldn't it be so good to land a job because you work hard for it? because you are qualified? because you deserve it, and not because of who you know, and which family you belong too? 

12. The right decision

The only way to know the right decision is to know the wrong decision. If we can separate right from wrong, same as how your south to north are been separated then there's a possibility that when we make our decision it was a correct decision. The problem with us is we decide emotionally without realizing that we are losing our logic.

13. Death is certain

Human being dosent want to talk about death, but everyone is talking about the going to heaven and others warned us going to hell. Prior to my study on Islamic Teaching i am also very un-comfortable talking about death. I was thinking so hard when our Islamic Teacher told us that we could die anytime yet she talk about it so calmly with happy face. I was puzzle at  first. But then it is true, that is why we always have to prepare because we never know if tomorrow will ever comes for us.

14. The search for happiness.
We all search for our own happiness. Sometimes we thought that we could find it from the person we love specially in our romantic relationship. Of course we all wanted to feel that butterflies in our stomach and the abnormal beat of our heart that would make us blush! wheeeew!

But our search for our happiness can never be found from other people if we don't know on how to find the very joy within yourself. In my own opinion we should always love ourself and enjoy our own company because by having enough love within us will naturally illuminate and will spread on the people around us.

So have you find your own happiness?

Corona Virus (CoVID-19) so...what now?

Coronaviruses (CoVID 19) are large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases. Coronaviruses are zoonotic, which means they are transmitted between animals and people. (Source: WHO). 

WHO (World health Organization) has already declare that CoVID-19 pandemic. (Source: CNN) But what is pandemic? A pandemic is defined as the "worldwide spread" of a new disease. Whereas, an outbreak is the occurrence of disease cases in excess of what's normally expected and an epidemic is more than a normal number cases of an illness, specific health-related behavior or other health-related events in a community or region.

Since the day one that corona virus has hit Wuhan, China, and now the world, i can see floods of information in our social media some makes memes, while others are very good in spreading great information. But people are scared, many does the panic buying of mask, hand sanitizer, alcohol and many other supplies. On the other hand it is hugely disappointing to see businesses who  increase their prices up to 10 folds from its original price, specially on mask taking advantage of the situations. sigh....

But what should we do now that we are in the middle of the situations?

1. Hygiene 1st

Fighting the COVID-19 should start within ourself. We should pay attentions to our hygiene by taking a bath regularly, using hand sanitizer, cleaning our surroundings. Wearing a mask in public, covering our mouth when we sneeze, not splitting in public are just few practices that we should always observe at all times with or without virus. In my home country (Philippines)  and here in Qatar wearing mask is not common but when you visit country such as Korea and Japan, wearing a mask is common even before the COVID19.  But as i composed this blog  i can see people who are now wearing mask.

2. Be informed.

I am currently based in Qatar, so if you are here we should remember that hotline for the COVID-19 is 16000. If you are active via social media the following page are very useful source of Information.

Hamad Medical Corporations

The Peninsula

Gulf Times

I love Qatar

Qatar Living

MOI has published a warning for us to refrain from sharing malicious information that would create panic. Also bear in mind that the Qatar Government will punish severely those who are sharing wrong information specially if it will result to panic. So let us do the cautions at all times.

3. Eat Health and be healthy

It is time to put more emphasis on our health by eating the right kind of food at the right amount.  Fresh fruits and vegetable should be part of our diet now. 

4. Avoid Public Places

Many activities has now being cancelled, that we should also avoid the public places and the gatherings. Because this virus can be transmitted from person to person therefor we should do the cautions at all times.

5. Avoid Panic Buying

During this week i was very surprise that theirs a lot of people at grocery stores and rushing to get food supplies, i normally finish my grocery within 10-15 minutes but during that time it took me almost 3 hours, sigh. I almost wanted to back out and do mine the next day but because it was really my grocery day schedule and i don't have enough food for the week i have to stay and be on cue. 

In my opinion, we should not hold too much food supplies specially the perishable foods because it will go to waste if not consume. If we stick to our normal grocery consumption the tendency of getting a new produce is high plus the fact that we will save money.

6. Postponed your travel

As we all know many countries who have cases of COVID-19 has issued various travel advisory. If we are just traveling for excursion then we can postponed it. But if the need to travel is mandatory for us to do our stuff in other country then we should do a HIGH precautionary measurement and bring your medications.

7. Take vitamins

If your taking vitamins before COVID19 then you should continue doing so. And if not, we should visit our pharmacies and have over the counter vitamins which will help us strengthen our immune systems.

8. Avoid social media stress

People create panic that result to stress. If we will spend so much time reading every post of our friends in social media regarding COVID-19 we are just scaring our self even more. For me sticking and limiting my source of information from the authority will help me calm myself and address combating virus more efficient and clam.

Stay alert and always do cautions! Be safe everyone!

Mentality of Rich Dad vs Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

Perhaps one of the most popular and best selling books when it comes to learning finance is the book of Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad, Poor Dad . It was around 2009 when i first read this book while i was at UP Diliman while taking a program for Public Policy Development Advocacy. I read without comprehension nor application, and they way i understand it is kinda shallow and not all information was retained in my head. Then back in 2012 someone has gifted me Kiyosaki books, but because of my poor financial mentality i set it aside. What a shame!

Recently, i meet a person who said "sana pala di na lang ako nag aral". She was referring to the story of the Rich Dad, Poor Dad as for unknown reason our topic went to that books. Although i didn't understand it in a deeper way i know that the book doesn't say that way, it doesn't promote dropouts, it even encourage learning outside the four corners of the classroom, because financial educations is our tool to become successful financially. So i decided to read it again and ponder.

But what is Rich Dad, Poor Dad books all about. If your would ask me, i would say it is a book that you must read if your want to want to attain financial independence and retire young and rich. In this book, Kiyosaki have two father, his biological father as his poor dad who have a doctoral degree and his Friend Mike Dad as his rich dad who only have until 8th grade. 

Many people just listen to few conclusion without going deep into the books lesson. Of course reading is not for everyone, specially if it has 300+ pages more. It might be boring, or just  that you hate reading. Perhaps this person that i am referring too only hear few line from the books but haven't read the entire book, she was never alone, perhaps many of you whos reading this blog now have heard of the book but haven't read and ponder. 

In my quest to share the lesson i have understood from his book, it leads me to  create series of blog. And for my 1st entry let me draw your attention to Rich Dad mentality vs Poor Dad mentality. 

MENTALITY
	RICH DAD	POOR DAD
1	DID NOT FINISH 8 GRADES.	HIGHLY EDUCATED.
Both Dad view that Education is a vital tools on everyone success. Poor dad finishes his degree and even took doctoral to increase his credentials. While rich dad only finish 8th grade.  In my personal opinion, both seek and put importance on education. While poor dad focus on traditional educations rich dad has demonstrate that education won’t end in the four corners of the classroom. If you are student reading this blog my advice is to never forsake your education, finish it, get that degree because having a degree will give you unlimited opportunities and advantage as you explore the world after schooling. Use it as a tool for you to go further and further until you get your  ultimate goal in life.  Do not listen to others saying "pinapayaman mo lang boss mo sa pagiging empleyado" indeed it is true, but my advice would be simple. Keep your regular job, and while having a regular job, start a business, go for some investment. Set you timeline until when you want to become employee. Work towards it, road may not be easy, of course, but never give up! Visualizing your life aspiration will give you directions, work towards it, it may take you one step at a time.
2	THE LACK OF MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL.	THE LOVE OF MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL.
While it is true that money causes chaos, but having no money to live creates more trouble. We need money to feed yourself, we need money to pay our bills, we need our money to go to school, pay our hospital bills. In many household money talk is taboo.  I am thankful to my educated mother who taught me about money, who never get tired of commanding me what to do and how to do it. In my 20's i am hating it, because i find her nagging me, but at 31 i can see how much she help me, because without her financial advice it i wont have life directions.
3	HOW CAN I AFFORD IT? (YOUR BRAIN START WORKING)	I CAN’T AFFORD IT. (YOU’RE BRAIN STOPS THINKING).
If we want somethings then we must work towards achieving it, if you cannot afford it and really want it, save and get extra job to afford it. We human being has a lots of ways for us to achieve whatever it is that we want to achieve. But we can also have a lots of reason if we dont want too. The choice is ours, and that choice will determine your life success or failures.
4	A TAX PUNISHES THOSE WHO PRODUCE AND REWARD THOSE WHO DON’T PRODUCE.	RICH SHOULD PAY MORE TAX.
As an OFW in Qatar and i feel so blessed because whatever i am earning from my employer i got it as whole without worrying about the tax, that is one of the reason why i stayed here for a very long time. If i would be in the Philippines, i will be obliged to pay 12% income tax which will stretch up to 32% depending on my employment salary plus another contribution that i am not even getting the full benefits of it.
5	STUDY HARD SO YOU CAN FIND A GOOD COMPANY TO BUY.	STUDY HARD TO FIND A GOOD COMPANY TO WORK.
Many of us myself included was told “study hard to find a good job” just like my parents who are both educated and working for the government. I really thank my parents for sending me to school, because through educations I was able to land job, pay my bills, go to places and buy what I need and be able to treat myself for what i want. It is true that handling money wasn’t taught in school, but my mother never failed to remind me to save penny from my allowance in fact she even teach me on how to have a piggy bank and spend my money on buying valuable item such as gold jewelry. As I grow, I realize that it is our own journey and initiative to find ways on how to improve our life. It is not the task of our parents nor our teachers. But us. Our own quest to financial freedom is our own life choice and decisions. Therefore we should never blame anyone for who we become rather our self for doing and choose what we do and choosing what we choose.
6	THE REASON I MUST BE RICH IS BECAUSE OF YOU KIDS.	THE REASON I’M NOT RICH IS BECAUSE OF YOU KIDS.
The blame game is everywhere. We blame our family, our friends and relatives for our miseries without realizing that it is us who created all of those for our self. Its not true that we don't have choice, we have choice, but during the course we allow our emotions to overpower us, we decide on our emotions that we forgot our logic. We are not rich because we spend more than we earn, we don’t have money because we buy what we want instead of what we need. We have so many reason and the blame games never end for those who are looser.
7	DISCUSS MONEY AND BUSINESS OVER MEALS.	HE FORBADE TALKING ABOUT MONEY IN MEALS.
Perhaps I was very lucky to have a mother that does encourage and very open talking about, money, savings and future plans. Money is the issue we face every day. From the food that we eat until the place where sleep, we use money on those.  For many it might be a taboo, but for me, financial education and finance management should be discussed in a deep manner with your family. This is the best way for us to be able to succeed handling our finances and be able to live comfortable to wither we are earning below or above average. I was desperate to teach my sibling about financial educations, but as the old saying goes by, you can never teach an old dog new tricks. Excuse me am not comparing them to a dog, what am just saying is for us to learn new things, absorb new things, we should allow our mindset to have new beginning, embrace what we learn, apply what we can.
8	LEARN TO MANAGE RISK.	PLAY SAFE WITH MONEY. DON’T TAKE RISK.
For this mentality I would adopt both. 1st Play safe which means that I will be very careful about handling my money and will educate myself very well before putting my money on any business and investment.  Many financial coach does advise never to put your money on invest that you do know. Which I agree 100%. Some people lost their entire saving simply because they do not know what is the investment where they are putting their money on. They just invest because they go with the crowd, or they were amaze. For me knowing what it is and ensuring that it is safe will.
9	HOME IS LIABILITY	HOME IS THE LARGE INVESTMENT AND OUR GREATEST ASSET
I believe that home can be asset and liability but whatever it is, we should have our own home. A home that answer our needs and not fit our wants. Many of us want a bigger home; they took a bank loan to build their dream house to show off to their family and friends, same goes with having a car. In my own opinion as a tiny home fanatic, and great options, we should have a home that we can afford, it is always been an amazing journey to sleep in a home that give us total freedom without worrying about our bank loans. Many of us took a home loan that takes up to 30 years + to pay and for them to keep the home they all work hard and stick to their job even if they are no longer happy with the work that they have, for me that is ridiculous.  If you were to ask me if i have home, yes i have a tiny home, a sanctuary i build for my needs after my life changing journey in South Korea where i had a chance to experience to live in a goshiwon. Small student place for half a month. I build it in course of less than 6 months, without a huge debt. and i had it at the age of 30! Allhamdullilah. If you were to ask me again, would i invest in bigger home just like what my parents? my answer would be "yes, but not now". Because i would prefer to invest in a business establishment building, and if Allah would give me opportunity to earn millions from it, then i would. Who knows!
10	PAY BILL ON TIME	PAY BILL LAST
Reading this book give me two ideas. One to pay bills on time to avoid penalty, however he also mentioned that you should pay yourself 1st because it motivates you to work hard, to my understanding as long as the last payment or late payment will not cause you penalty then its OK to pay last. So doing both at your own advantage is wise.
11	SELF-RELIANCE	BELIEVE THAT THE GOVERNMENT IS TAKING CARE OF PEOPLE HEALTH AND RETIREMENT BENEFITS
We become busy in our work that at times we work hard and set aside our health. As a person who have been into 6 major surgery, I believe in self-reliance, because at times of hospital emergency cannot wait, at time waiting for the insurance approval will worsen your health.  When i was in late 20's i had a very urgent surgery and because the procedure has to be done as soon as possible otherwise it will create more complications. The insurance will take care of the bills however we can no longer wait for the another weeks for the approval. If at those time i don't have saving might be my health will become worst. Although many will ask how we do, how we feel, if we are OK or not, only few to none are willing to help us paying our hospital bills. Having an emergency health fund is vital especially if you know yourself that your health is not at its 100% good conditions.
12	CREATE INVESTMENT	SAVE FEW DOLLARS
Saving money and creating investment and business is always best, it takes two to tango!. The best way to save money is to live within our means and buy only what we need. Our wants will always comes when we have more than enough. If we don't practice self discipline when it comes to our finances we will always end up broke and poor. Saving alone is not enough if we want to attain strong financial strength, investing our money to various opportunities will always help us increase our wealth.  I highly suggest that you invest on what you know, not where most people go and popularize, go and be with investment who are handle by the people and company with strong and proven financial standing, there is no shortcut to success, always remember that.
13	WHITE STRONG BUSINESS PLAN	WRITE GOOD RESUME
I believe in educations is our gateway to expand our horizon, having a good experience in corporate world will give is a glimpse that our learning doesn't end in the four corners of the classroom. On the other hand i also believe in having a good eye when it comes to business, starting small and starting from the ground will give you good foundation specially if you aim to have your own.
14	MONEY IS POWER	MONEY DOESN’T MATTER
Ka Ernie Barong is a weather TV presenter in the Philippines. As someone who are born in 80’s he is very popular with his line "Knowledge is power, kung walang knowledge walang power". And this is true, because having a good knowledge to various topics and issue around us will help us  make a good amount of money. And so having money is power! Because you can buy business and build empire!

Reading books about financial managements is always good, if you hate reading books, well you can choose watching youtube videos. But learning alone is not enough and will never benefits you. The best thing to do is to apply whatever lesson and learning which is good for you in your real life. 

As an OFW for more than a decade i have seen people coming from different ladder of  life who are earning a good amount of money but end broke and poor because they do not know on how to handle their finances very well. 

It is what we do after we leave our office that determine our future, most of us work 8am to 5pm, but not everyone go home straight and improve our financial knowledge by watching educational videos or attend short courses. Many of us want to enjoy having coffee or have dinner with their fellow office mate or friends, and some want to drop by the shopping mall to reward themselves. Some of us use our day off to do business, while others use their day off to relax and have fun.

Before ending this blog let me clarify that i am not against of going out and having fun with our peers, buying our self gift, relaxing, because i do them also. But it is the frequency that i am against off, as well as if we are not allocating budget then we are simply destroying our entire budget. 

Impulse buys is a NO, NO! We should not buy because we want it (more often), but we should buy because we need it. 

Living with this principle will save us a lot of money BECAUSE THE BEST WAY TO HAVE A FAT BANK ACCOUNT IS TO HAVE A GOOD LIFESTYLE.