For those interested, send me an e-mail at randellt@gmail.com

Earlier, we had a ‘picture-perfect’ moment in my family. In our small bed, our 2 boys squeezed in and this is the picture: my wife Mia was reading a Christian Book (Chinkee Tan’s new book Rich God, Poor God), my 8 year-old son was reading his Bible while my youngest son Chino, aged 5 years old was lying on top of me as we share the earphones of my iPhone and we listened to Praise and Worship music.

I was truly elated at this experience and this is a picture that will forever be etched in my heart. Also, earlier in the morning, my teen daughters went to our room to ask their mom to pray over them as one of them was awaken by a bad dream. Last night, my daughters took part of the youth service at Victory Green Hills.

As fathers, we are often burdened by the pressures of providing for the family. While many of us can be great providers financially, it is sad that many fathers limit their provision on something that is financial in nature. While it is our responsibility to make sure that our children are fed, clothed and educated… our provisions should be expanded way beyond finances.

Here’s a responsibility which I believe should be given utmost priority by fathers — Spiritual provision. We must provide spiritual covering for our family… pray for them and instill the love and fear of God in them. We must truly make Christ the center of our family first and foremost.

The picture I described earlier was a good reminder about our real priorities as parents: to raise God loving and God fearing children with Jesus Christ as the model.

Thank you Lord for this responsibility.

I love coffee, brewed coffee to be more precise. I will not take anything butbrewed coffee. Don’t make me drink instant coffee, 3-in-1, I feel like throwing up whenever I am forced to drink those stuff, haha… I always hear so-called ‘personal finance experts’ tell their listeners to avoid buying brewed coffee from Starbucks and just take 3-in-1. I agree, buying coffee at Starbucks is so expensive and we should avoid it. If you are a certified Starbucks addict and buy their coffee regularly, consider this: Let’s assume that your average cost is P100 per day (some of their coffees are even much more expensive) or about P 3,000 per month. Let’s also assume that you can find an investment at about 8.0% p.a. (you can actually get better rates). If you invested your Starbucks expenses for the next 10 years consistently (monthly compounding), your savings will grow to P 470,543.30! If you are a risk taker and opted for riskier investments that will give you an average of 12.0%p,a. yield, your Starbucks expenditure can yield you P 593,626.24 in just 10 years!

Ok, point taken, forget buying Starbucks (well I still do from time to time). But drinking 3-in-1? Hmmm, I’m not sure if I’m prepared to do that. So what shouldcoffee addicts like me do? Brew my own! If you really can’t live without Starbucks Coffee, do the next best thing. Buy their coffee beans and brew it yourself. Buying coffee beans is a fraction of a cost. A 250g coffee beans at Starbucks costs you about P300… that can make you dozens of coffee already. If you are so fixated with Starbucks, you might even want to buy their Starbucks mug that they sell for about P400. One time purchase is all you need and you can experience the real thing, in a cost effective way.

Tips for serious coffee drinkers… the best way to brew coffee is through a coffee press, much better tasting than using automatic coffee makers and no electricity cost. Just dump your ground beans (coarse for press), add hot water, wait for about 2 minutes, and press… great tasting coffee! There are other great tasting coffee beans other than Starbucks — go to your local grocery and buy the cheaper local beans, they taste as good. But, my favorite beans are the mountain beans in Baguio. If you got a friend who is going to Baguio, ask him/her to go to the palengke and buy you a kilo of baguio coffee (mountain coffee is best) at about P200 per kilogram! That will brew you over a hundred cups, talk about cost savings and at the same time, great tasting coffee. Baguio mountain coffee is one the cheapest coffee I ever saw, and it is the best tasting coffee I ever had. Trust me, I know coffee! Batangas Coffee, Tagaytay Coffe… they’re all good as well.

More tips — avoid coffee makers that uses paper filters. It’s quite difficult to buy paper filters, costly and it actually reduces the flavor of your coffee beans. There are just a few people who still insists on using coffee paper filters — I don’t think they know how to drink proper coffee. The Coffee Press (also known as french press) is the best way to brew, but percolators, drip coffees are ok too. Starbucks sells coffee presses, pretty sturdy as mine is about 6 to 7 years old now. I also see coffee presses in department stores that can range for as low as P100.

I need my brewed coffee, once or twice a day. I will not take 3-in-1, ever — plus, instant coffee has a lot of harmful chemicals to make them soluble. I will argue that brewed coffee might even be cheaper anyway.

Take your coffee daily, and still save. No need to sacrifice quality for cost.  Okay, all this writing about coffee makes me want to go down and brew me a cup — I got baguio mountain coffee around, courtesy of a good friend who always knows how to make me happy. There are lots of practical savings tip at this site, you may want to check out this site and sift through the blogs. Before the readers think that Starbucks paid me to write this (I wish they did), I am not endorsing any coffee shop – I just want to make a point and write something close to home for many of us. Save money and drink your favorite Starbucks, its like having your cake and eating it too. Just drink it like I do. If that’s not Personal Finance for some ‘experts’ well, that’s Personal Finance to me! Happy savings, and have a caffeine blast!

“You who are simple, gain prudence; you who are foolish, gainSave  understanding.” – Proverbs 8:5, NIV

If you believe that this program can help you, submit your comments and we will chose 5 individuals. P2,000 worth, Free!

Details of the program — http://www.randelltiongson.com/cito-beltran-changing-directions/

I believe that the industry went through some great changes in the 80s with the establishment of the Life Underwriters Association of the Philippines (LUAP) — it paved the way in drastically improving the image of the insurance agents, which ushered the  ‘golden era’ of the 90′s. However as the new century came, the professional agent went through a lot of challenges — policy yields, dividends, commissions started to drop while the competitive environment became more unforgiving.

The need and value of Life Insurance did not change. Now more than ever, people should have the benefit of financial protection only a life insurance policy can give. It is important to note that having a life insurance coverage is the beginning of the financial planning process and as our population yearn to achieve financial stability, it should be reflected in the increasing number of people buying life insurance. However, it is perceived that the growth in the number of insured individuals are not even catching up with the growth of population. The number of professional agents should be even growing with the supposed increase in demand… but it isn’t. I feel that there is a great need for change… pretty much when many concerned parties advocated needed changes in the 80′s — and this change should be initiated by the professional agents themselves, just like in the 80′s. Don’t get me wrong, there have been milestones already.. I see more Financial Planners (in deed, not just in name) now… we just need more, way more.

Let’s look at hard facts… total premiums are still growing but where did the growth come from? 2 major reasons contributed to growth — Variable (Unit-linked) Life and Bancassurance. The current bull run in the Philippines made the new product very encouraging… double digit growth rates would really attract a lot of people. I dare say that the number 1 selling strategy of many practitioners is anchored on the performance of the investment-linked funds. Bancassurance allowed Banks to start selling insurances in their own branches… believe me when I say that selling in the banks is way ‘easier’ but that’s another topic. Hmmm, how much is bancassurance’s market share lately? A lot… as in a lot! The sad part is, although there are growth in total premiums, it really is still a drop in the bucket. The increase in absolute premiums was not driven by the increase in number of new family heads being insured but rather by the 2 reasons I mentioned earlier.

My question… what happens now as we are faced with a very volatile market — wiping all those gains or at the very least, tempering growth rates? Remember the times when some pooled funds were giving -30%? That wasn’t too long ago. What if Bancassurance completely dominates the environment? What then is the future of the Professional Life Insurance Agent?

My answer? Create VALUE! The Professional Life Insurance Agent would be of great value to the insurance company and the clients because he can provide better service, better advice if he is genuinely true to his profession. The professional agent should make himself very valuable; upgrade his skills, move away from the very traditional ways of selling as they are now turning off clients. Where ‘soft’ skills were enough to make a sale before, hard or analytical skills are just as important nowadays. This is important if the life insurance agent is to survive the onslaught of many changes.

The Professional Agents should lead in these changes. They should not wait for their insurance companies to do it for them. Bring ‘professionalism’ to a different level, an evolution in the truest form. Upgrading of skills should be foremost in every life insurance agent’s priority list. Technical knowledge should be at par with good selling skills. I’ve met many who experienced success in their sales when they started evolving — we just need to see more, more, more of them. Our professional organizations should also be in the forefront of changes — their conventions are still the same, mostly about ‘soft skills’.. and it’s as if motivation is the only thing that is important. In the last insurance convention I attended, I did so to check if the ‘quality’ of the conventions changed. Well, it is still the same — same speakers, same topics, same format.

Well, these are just my thoughts. I’ve spent many years in the frontline for me to write this article. I strongly believe in the Professional Life Insurance Practitioner… I strongly believe in Life Insurance. I hope that what I wrote here will plant the seeds to openly discuss this concerns.. we need to start talking about it and doing something about it.. again, and again. Maybe it is time for me to once again go back into Life Insurance Sales so I can practice what I preach — not really, I think I’ll just stick to advisory and planning services, haha.

To buyers of life insurance policies, be very particular when you chose your agent – look for someone who is very competent and someone who will really take care of your needs for a long time, a true Professional. Doing so will help force my friends in this industry to evolve faster.

Little did I realize that my mentor was coaching me using the “Strategic Thinking” way. It’s been over half a year since that fateful moment in our lives and I am glad to say that our lives has never been the same and our future is so much brighter.

My mentor? Mr. Cito Beltran.

This is the story why we opted for other people to benefit from what my wife and I experienced. This is the main motivation why we are promoting the event “Changing Directions” with Cito Beltran. Listening to Cito teach us was a great moment in our lives, I am sure that the others who will do the same will come to the same realization as we did. Listening to him was one of the best things I did in my life.

August 21, Changing Directions with Cito Beltran is not just a good seminar – it will truly be a life-changing one. I personally guarantee it!

To learn more about the program, click here http://www.randelltiongson.com/cito-beltran-changing-directions/

——————————–

I received a very interesting and timely text message from a very good friend, one who I really look up to. He gives me wise counsel, particularly in the arena of investments.

The message goes like this: “In market crashes and recessions, heed the H-I-T advice which stands for ‘Hang In There.’ During the ‘Height of Pessimism,’ there’s always H-o-Pe.”

That advice is so wise especially in these times of financial anxiety.

There is a lot of talk recently that people would rather keep their money in cold cash and sale of vaults has dramatically surged in the US.

While I agree that we should keep a portion of our money in cash, having everything in disposable cash is very unwise. Why? Well, crisis or not, we always have to contend with the fact that inflation will always erode our money. Keeping your money out of investments may help you feel secure but, in the long run, it would do more damage toward achieving your financial goals.

The antidote to crisis is opportunity. In times like these, we see investment and business-savvy people really jump in and look around for opportunities. When things are on “Sale,” we tend to buy things—that we normally wouldn’t—because it suddenly becomes cheaper. Many of us are guilty of such practice.

We can use the same mindset in investing, particularly in the stock market today. If you look at the prices in the stock market today, you will see many of stocks priced really low, some even below its book value. I’m not referring to speculative stocks here but to the tried and tested blue-chip stocks that are fundamentally strong and highly profitable.

There are many stocks that are on their 52-week low or very near it, like Ayala Corp., BPI, Banco de Oro, SM, Globe, Metro Bank and even the favorite PLDT. If you have money to invest and you are willing to invest it over a long period, say five years, then investing in the stock market may be a great idea.

Of course, you must always consider your risk tolerance—if you can’t tolerate volatility, the stock market is not for you regardless of the buying opportunity today.

Keeping calm in these times is crucial; be steadfast and avoid the stress brought about by panic. The best form of risk management is not keeping your money in vaults; it is diversification.

What determines the performance of your investments isn’t so much about selection and timing. It’s allocation. While it is always a great idea to be prudent with our investments, we must also understand that things operate on cycles—there are good days and there are bad days.

You can bet that people like Warren Buffet and Henry Sy and his family are not keeping their money in cold cash. They are busy looking at many opportunities—and that’s the reason they are, well, rich.

Let’s take the case of Henry Sy’s family. Economic activity does not deter them from being bullish in their investments. Even when the gross national product is really low, SM opens malls. Why? Well, for starters, things are cheaper when the economy is slow, particularly real estate. They don’t look at economic statistics, they look at golden opportunities.

Remain calm and focus toward the end goal: your investment objective. Here’s some great advice from the world’s richest man, Warren Buffet: turn off the stock market; buy a business and not a stock, you don’t sell your business immediately when times get rough, right?; don’t worry about the economy, buy companies that profit regardless of the economy; manage a portfolio of business; diversify.

Such wise counsel in times like these. No wonder he is that rich!

For those who are feeling the anxiety of the looming crisis, be still. Be comforted by the fact that we are in a cycle, it is down today but it will be up tomorrow (hopefully).

I find comfort by consulting the best business, investment and practical-living book of all time. A book that is not just timely, it is timeless —the Bible. Romans 12:12 (NIV) says: “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” God’s words really help bring clarity to our hearts and minds.

“Get Real… People hope for friendly, but rarely get it. You can capture business with friendship gestures. You can lose business without them.”  - Jeffrey Gitomer

“You have to have your heart in the business and the business in your heart.”  - Thomas J. Watson, Sr.

“A man to carry on a successful business must have imagination. He must see things as in a vision, a dream of the whole thing.”  - Charles M Schwab