Financial Checkup - Midyear Checkpoint

Making a monthly check didn?t quite work for me. But I want to stick to my goals. So I’m going to report on my financial checkup. I’m also posting here some of the highlights of my expense report. This is because after “semi-annualizing” my expenses (computing all my expenses from January 1 to June 30, 2008), I could see clearly where I overspent. And I have to make a plan on how to reduce expenses on such categories.

EXPENSE REPORT AND EXPENSE REDUCTION PLAN

• Oil prices skyrocketed from just Php34.5 two years ago to P61 as of this writing. Who?s to blame? Not me. ACTION PLAN: Move to a place closer to work.
• My motorcycle was not well taken care of. So some parts had to be changed. And there was a stretch of going to the vulcanizing shop on almost a weekly basis. My bad. ACTION PLAN: Take better care of the motorcycle, regularly check items for maintenance.
• I have two phones. The Smart line costs Php800+, and the Sun line costs less than Php400 a month. I spent too much on short calls and 3G Internet usage. I needed to be connected to maintain my blogs. But I think I can do something with the short calls. ACTION PLAN: Get rid of the Smart line. Get a Globe prepaid. Use uMobile (ad-based mobile service gives free credits monthly) for 3G internet. Keep the Sun line .
• Food is a basic need. But when there is no one to cook for you, dining out is the most convenient solution. However, the bi-weekly visit to an “above average” restaurant proved costly. Using a credit card for dining out turned out to be a really bad idea. ACTION PLAN: Stay away from malls and high-priced restaurants. Set a daily budget for food expenses.
• Finally, my Creative ZEN Vision M and Acer Aspire 5583WXMi are fully paid already. What a relief! No more credit card installments to worry about.
• I never thought I was giving away that much. Those would have been investible funds. My bad again. ACTION PLAN: Gifts need not be costly. It’s the thought that counts.
• A pair of shoes and a gym bag did the trick. But I’m not even going to the gym. Toink! ACTION PLAN: Make good use of them. Go to the gym.
• The Lakers lost. So did I. LOL! ACTION PLAN: Learn to play defense in NBA Live. Better luck next time.
• Laundry costs increased by 20% this June. Damn it!
• Parking was the only expense that never got over the monthly budget. Cheers!
• I thought I could save money on dining out by going to the grocery and cook my own lunch. I didn’t. Add in there a 9% - 11% inflation rate. Need I say more? ACTION PLAN: Buy what I need. Nothing more, nothing less.

EMERGENCY FUND REVIEW

As of June 30, 2008, my emergency fund stands at 33.06%. This percentage might go even lower since a big salary increase is expected in September. This means I have to readjust the target goal even though I have not even hit half of it. There are no surprise bonuses yet to help keep up with the target. But I’m keeping my fingers crossed into hitting this goal.

NET WORTH

Computing for my net worth was not as easy as I thought. One of the reasons is that I am holding a chunk of my mom’s and brothers’ savings and invested them in equities. But for the sake of simplicity, let us presume that the funds invested were mine. Another reason is that my investment portfolio’s value is not yet updated. But what the heck, I’ll just update this post when I get the updated value. Here it goes:

Note: Credit Card liabilities are interest free. They were incurred through 0% interest installment. All credit card bills are paid in full.
INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO

If there is one word to describe how my investment portfolio looks like, it has to be “forgettable.” I’m losing around Php13,000 (paper loss) in stocks alone, and I don’t have an idea when it would bounce back. The only opportunity I could see is that I can buy more shares at lower prices. This means the average cost of my stock positions would go down. The same is true with my mutual fund investments. Since both are heavily invested in equities (I have an equity fund and a balanced fund), it is only natural that they are also taking a beating. Another perfect opportunity for cost averaging. But sadly, my savings usually goes to my VUL investment. Yeah, it sucks that the company is eating away around 90% of my money for the first year. But at least I won’t worry too much about me and my family’s future.

LOOKING AHEAD
Six months gone, six months left. Looking back at the goals I set at the start of the year, some were hit early, some were not and probably won’t be accomplished. But at least I had a plan. I stuck with it. I’ll have something to look back to at the end of the year.

• July - end of 2-year lock-in period with Smart, arrival of my uMobile SIM, 3rd payout from Matched.co.uk
• July/August - moving somewhere nearer to work, Matched.co.uk, Bloggerwave and Ipower payout

, GDI Crews business launch

• September - promotion and salary increase
• October - Longevity bonus (reserved for the iPhone. LOL)
• November - 13th month pay & Health Bonus
• December - Christmas bonus

There it is. At least there’s something to look forward in the coming months. And since I’m going to start renting this July or August, I’m gonna be posting about Setting A Budget. Till next time.