If you missed out before, don’t miss out this time (part 1)

By Randell Tiongson on July 30th, 2009

A missed opportunity is probably one of the most common regret a lot of us have. For some people, they regret missing out on things like a business idea, an investment, a career and well, even on love. If I were to enumerate those things that I missed out on, I probably will have a very long list… top of mind would probably be buying PLDT shares when I started working 20 years ago, among others.

There are a lot of people who realized that they missed out on many things that would have probably made them happier today; or they would have avoided certain things in their lives that make them unhappy today. The common cliché “there’s no sense crying over spilled milk” does make a lot of sense – but it doesn’t make our feelings of regret any easier, right?

On a personal finance note, there are many things we missed out on and if we can only bring back time, we would do things differently. If there’s anything I feel that I have missed out on, it is putting my financial life in order early enough. If I had more common sense in handling my finances earlier than I should have, I would like to think that my financial picture today will be a lot prettier. The stress that I had to endure over the years would have been lesser. I don’t have a rosy financial history not because I didn’t make enough money, but because I didn’t keep enough. I spent a lot of money on things of no value today; borrowed too much too often; indulged unnecessarily, planned poorly, invested unwisely – in other words, I was really clueless on proper financial management and that makes me a total idiot, financially speaking. My being part of the financial services industry makes it severely ironic because I should have know all of these and I did, I just did not put it into practice. My experience tells me that knowledge is great, but what is more important is what you do with that knowledge.

However, let me repeat the old cliché… “there’s no sense crying over spilled milk” – really! I can’t go back in time and I can’t undo what has been done. It is one thing to think about what was but to dwell on it really makes one a fool.

Catch part 2 of this blog, soon!

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8 thoughts on “If you missed out before, don’t miss out this time (part 1)”

  • This reminds me of the parable of the talents where the third guy reported to the rich man how he went through the difficulties of life but at the end of the day made 10 times his talents. In Bo Sanchez’s book he describes this guy as the investor. Just like you, I started late in getting my financial life in order. But I think we just have to trust the process because we won’t be what we are now unless we knew the contrast of what we were before. Cheers!

  • thanks thanks! it really is not too late for many of us. Read the part 2, out tom.

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If you missed out before, don’t miss out this time (part 1)