Don't Let Gadgets Ruins Your Family Relationships

“Dinner is ready on the table” says Mommy waiting for her husband and daughter to join her on the dining table. ‘I will take some time. You can start with the dinner’ was the only reply that she heard; as her daughter was busy chatting with friends while her husband was busy preparing the office presentation.

This is a normal sight in most urban homes. In today’s fast paced and technologically driven world, conversation at family dinners resemble instant messages where family members drop in a message that they are busy with their friends or in a business meeting.

Smart phones, laptops, ipads and other technological gadgets seem to be taking over our pockets and our precious time. New gadgets and devices have been designed to bring the world closer but the irony is that it creates distances in close relationship.

Modern technology provides us with bunch of brilliant tools that have improved many areas of our lives, but they have a negative effect if not used wisely. Let’s understand how technology can have a negative effect on our relationship.


This digital age promises 24 x 7 connectivity; hence the line between personal time and work has become blurred. Though you may leave office physically but you have easy access to your pending work, so you do not actually leave your work space as it is always on your mind. You are tempted to work even when you are at home and are not able to spend quality time the family.
It has been frequently observed that even when two individuals are physically present at a swanky restaurant or at home, but are not together as they are engrossed in checking their mail, text message or are just keeping their face book status updated. Lack of verbal communication also creates a distances in relationship.
Smart phones, cheap net books and ubiquitous wi fi connection has made access to the social networking sites easier. Social networking sites are great place to unite with old friends and colleagues. On the other hand, it has become easier for an old flame to track down his lost love and rekindle the feelings that were otherwise dormant. Such a behavior can spoil a fully bloomed relationship.
Well known Psychologist, Pavan Sonar says “Being plugged all the time can cause relationship problems. At times the only method of communication between two individuals is not verbal but text messaging or email. Lack of verbal communication and excess use of gadgets can lead to jealousy, suspicion, and argument within the couple and can also become a cause for separation.”

How can an individual make the most of technology without losing out on their relationship?

Set a limit
When you are at home it is time to turn off the gadgets as they can diminish the boundaries of personal space. Although it may be tempting to pick up the remote or check the text message while your partner is trying to talk to you. Hold on to your temptation. Schedule a cut off time for gadgets where all the family members put off their gadget and spend quality time together. Though it may initially seem difficult but it will definitely help you connect with all the members.

Dr Sonar adds, “Technology can be used for work and fun but cannot replace direct communication. To nurture good relationship, they need to be fed with attention and time.”

Make positive use of technology.
Make use of technology to nurture relationships and stay in touch. A few text messages throughout the day helps to keep in touch and increases the bonding. For instance, if you are feeling guilty about the last night’s argument with your partner, or just want to share your happiness for his support, send an e card or a sweet text message to your partner. A simple ‘Thank You’ or ‘Sorry’ message can work wonders in a relationship.

Let’s face it, technology is here to stay, but unless you learn to outsmart your every day gadget, you may lose out on your personal relationship.

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Life Happens So Fast

I CAN’T BELIEVE HOW FAST TIME FLIES!

Time goes by so fast! Sometimes I think things drag on, but when I really sit down and think about the things that have changed over the years I’m really surprised with how different my life is!

You should be getting a head start on your child's savings or education plan, too.

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How To Maintain Commitment In Your Financial Goals

If you’re like many people, you’ve set one or more financial goals for yourself. You might be trying to stick to a personal budget, save more for retirement, pay off your credit card debt, build an emergency fund, or buy a house. There’s just one small problem: You want the reward, but don’t want to do the work it takes to get there. So you procrastinate and continue to spend and charge and dig yourself deeper into debt. What you may need is a commitment device, a way to keep yourself accountable in reaching your goals. The earliest known example of a commitment device comes from “The Odyssey.” The hero of the tale, Odysseus, knows there is no way that he can resist the Sirens, the classic femme fatales who lure sailors to their doom. So he has himself lashed to his ship’s mast, making it physically impossible to leap overboard and succumb to their temptation. Though it’s probably not a good idea to lash yourself to your recliner to keep from heading to the mall, you could try more modern ways to stay on track. Commitment Devices to Help You Reach Your Goals 1. Make It Public If you’ve ever set financial goals for yourself, you may have also put them in writing. But how do you hold yourself accountable? If you’re the type of person who doesn’t like to be outdone, try posting your goals on Facebook. You don’t need to describe every last detail of your plan, unless you want to. For example, you could say something like this: ”I’m going to pay off my credit card debt in 12 months, and I’ll be posting monthly status reports. If you don’t hear from me on this goal, please feel free to ask about it.” By doing so, your friends and acquaintances know what you intend to accomplish, and you’ll make a commitment to share your progress with them. Embarrassing? Perhaps. Does it require swallowing some pride? Of course. But there’s a good chance you’re going to get waves of support, while also feeling pressured to perform. Plus, it’s possible you’re going to inspire others to make their own goals public. 2. Write a Check to Your Least Favorite Cause You know you have one: a nonprofit organization, political group, or movement that you really can’t stand. It represents everything you find revolting and wrong in the world. Now, write a check to that specific group and place it in a sealed envelope. Hand it over to a close friend or relative and tell them to drop it in the mail if you fail to meet a monthly saving or spending goal. This tactic not only puts your pride on the line, but your sense of morals as well. Choose a friend or relative you don’t want to look bad in front of, and one who shares your feelings about the organization you choose. Then, they’re invested in your success, and you may get a motivational coach out of it as well. enlist online help 3. Enlist Online Help Some enterprising economists and psychologists have started websites to help you stick to your goals. For example, stickK offers commitment contracts that are monitored by a referee. You can optionally back your commitment with money to fund a friend, your favorite charity, or your least favorite charity in the event that you fail. Beeminder, another commitment-geared site, helps you map out your progress and only charges you if you fail to achieve success. If you’re more motivated by peer pressure and encouragement, consider Goalmigo. This site can help you set, track, and share your goals with other users with similar goals. 4. Reward Yourself for Failure Though counter-intuitive, this commitment device serves to amplify your failure and can be an effective way to meet your goals. Ordinarily, if you don’t pay enough toward debt this month, you might intend to make it up next month. Or, if you don’t save enough this month, you might plan to save twice as much the next. The problem is, most people can’t enforce their self-imposed punishment, so they get discouraged and quit.

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Retired But Earning

YES ! You can earn even if you are retired, how? by making your retirement money works for you, by then you can make your money last and enjoy your retirement years..

 At 65, you'd think you could stop worrying about building your retirement stash and focus on preserving it. But with today's longer life expectancies (a 65-year-old man can expect to live until 84, on average, and a 65-year-old woman can expect to live until age 86), "you have to take on some level of risk if you want to keep up with and beat inflation.

 To keep the growth engine running, financial planners generally recommend that you have 40% to 60% in stocks at the start of your retirement, with the rest in cash and fixed-income investments to tamp down risk. A more conservative investor might start with 30% in stocks and 70% in fixed-income investments; aggressive investors would reverse it to 70% and 30%. Ang key lang naman dito is to always aim for a diversified portfolio. You need to find an advisor who will sit-down with you and ask your risk portfolio when it comes to investing.

 Live off your interest

One obvious way to ensure you won't run your portfolio dry is to siphon off the interest, dividends and perhaps the capital gains on your investments and preserve the principal. At current interest rates, you'd need a hefty amount plus a decent guaranteed income to generate a respectable pay check. Let’s take a look at illustrations below Collecting your pension and provident fund money is work half-done. You have to plan meticulously to not only make your money yield returns that are higher than inflation but also minimise the amount you have to pay as tax.

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Why Every Filipino Family Should Have Insurance

Insurance is all about having money when you need it the most. The important thing is to ensure that whatever happens to you, your family must be able to continue to survive financially.

The lukewarm attitude Filipinos have towards life insurance is partly an off-shoot of the collapse of the pre-need industry, which brought a negative perception on the life insurance industry. Most Filipinos do not differentiate between pre-need and life insurance products due to some similarities of the two.

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Think Critical Illness Can’t Affect Your Career? Think Again.

You’ve gotten this far in your career because you’ve left nothing to chance. Then why haven’t you still gotten yourself protected against critical illness.

Critical illness cover  is a type of insurance that should pay out a lump sum if you are diagnosed with a life-threatening illness such as cancer or heart disease. Sunlife offers flexible critical illness insurance product that provides you with a one-time, lump sum benefit at a critical time in your life. How you use it is up to you-to pay a lump sum off your mortgage, enable you to stop working, or buy private medical care. It can provide cash to allow people to pursue a less stressful lifestyle while they recover from illness.

For single people with no dependents, critical illness cover that pays off the mortgage is more important than having life cover, as it means you have fewer bills or a lump sum to play with if you are very unwell. 
The list of Critical Illnesses and those requiring surgery include:

But it can also be useful if you are part of a couple. It provides a welcome financial boost at a time of emotional stress and financial hardship.

Critical illness is relatively cheap. It also pays to start young when premiums will be relatively cheap, rather than leaving it until later in life when the price of cover will start to rise substantially and who know you are not anymore be approved.

As one underwriter said "Critical illness and life policies are the type of policy nobody wishes to 
need to claim against, yet evidence shows that these are vitally important policies that can support families and secure their financial wellbeing during the worst of times."

Don’t’ risk everything you’ve worked so hard for by leaving yourself unprotected.

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Why Pinoys Like To Shop More Than Save Money

MANILA, Philippines - There's little doubt many Filipinos love shopping and spending, as seen with the crowds that flock to the many malls around the metropolis every day.

Unlike most Asians who are stereotyped as frugal savers, it seems Filipinos like to spend their money, not save it.

In an interview on ANC's "On the Money," Benedicto "Poch" Cid Jr, chief brand advisor of Mansmith and Fielders Inc., gave some insights on why Filipinos like to shop and spend.

"We like to enjoy ourselves. Some cultures value sacrifice, frugality and giving up for the future. We are not quite one of those. We like to live," he said.

Cid explained that this hardwired emotional need affects most of the country's consumer population, differentiating the Philippines from other Asian countries where sacrifice and frugality are valued.

"We like to be noticed. We like to be fashionable. We like to be in style. We want to be 'pogi' or 'maganda' and its a characteristic of ours," he said.

According to Cid, marketers have managed to tap into this need and suggest that buying their product will enable Filipino buyers to live a dream, especially in products which are consumed publicly, like brand name fashion items.

"Today, compared to 10 years ago, people are definitely more brand-conscious. Filipinos have more money. The Philippines is going through a phase in where as income rise, people appreciate brand names more," Cid noted.

The Philippine economy has shown strong growth in recent years, backed by rising consumer spending fueled by remittances from overseas Filipinos and young Filipinos employed by BPO companies. Many foreign brands such as Gap, Uniqlo, Forever 21 and Zara have set up shop in the country, in hopes of attracting Filipino shoppers.

"We have a young population growing to buying age and falling in love with a lot of brands. But as they grow older, they will make mistakes and learn," Cid added.

Cid said young Filipinos should ask themselves how buying makes them feel. "Because you probably would start to understand what emotional reward you're getting from all this buying. But once you've got that understood, see that if you can satisfy those needs by doing something else. It all comes to down to delaying that moment of decision," he said.

So before you hit the mall and buy something, Cid offers this advice: "If you want to safeguard yourself, back away and don't make a decision right away, especially for a big-ticket item... Just ask for a little time. Back away from it, breath, move away and let your mind, sleep on it. What that does is that it allows you to bring up your other needs and you can choose to balance them."

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How Your Behavior On Money Affects Wealth Creation?

It is difficult to believe that in most formal education systems today one of the most important aspects of our lives is not taught. Money! 

Money is sought after and traded by individuals, companies, governments, and countries; but still we are taught little about money in school. How we make money, how we manage it and how we invest it will determine our place in society, our lifestyle and our freedom to make the choices of how we want to live our lives.

Most individuals do not realize the void in their practical education until they are well into their careers and realize that their current or projected salary are not going to provide them with enough funds to achieve the lifestyle that they would like to enjoy and to provide for their families. Many people are willing to accept this and give up on reaching their financial goals, however, others seek new avenues and means to advance their economic positions.

Most people can not afford the time or money that is required to go back to college or university to educate themselves, enabling them to advance in their careers or switch professions totally. This means that motivated individuals have to take the initiative to educate themselves through short courses or by the advice of mentors that can help them to achieve financial freedom.

Most wealth mentors will agree that one of the best ways to get on the fast track to financial independence is to create multiple income streams. The way in which you create the multiple income streams of course will depend a lot on your financial position and interests. However, Sunlife Financial Wellness  is very attractive in this respect as it can be conducted after regular office hours (enabling you to hold down a regular job), involves only a couple of hours per day, and can be done from anyplace or in your office with group of  friends as if do conduct free Financial Wellness Seminar for free, you just have to contact us for scheduling of course.

Why should individuals be concerned about furthering their financial education?

If you are not concerned about money or how to make more of it….who else is? Even high net worth individuals who may not have the time to practice the strategies themselves should learn about options, the market, and about managing risk. By doing so they equip themselves to be able to question their fund managers regarding what decisions they are making with their money. It is never too late to take the initiative of educating yourself so that you can achieve the financial freedom that you seek. I think the bigger question is, 

“Can you afford not to educate yourself about money?”

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My Career As Sunlife Financial Advisor

The Power of Writing: I believe a blog is hands-down the most powerful passion-discovery and career-transition tool on the planet.

It all started here when I attended the Business Opportunity Forum of Sunlife at Max's Roces Avenue, then the rest is history.

The promise to becoming a Sunlife advisor was so high and you really would think that this is a kind of career that will change your life and would give meaning to it.

Im so adventurous that I have explored so many careers in my life, to being an employee to a Law firm, Citibank, San Miguel then explored business, but this does not gave me satisfaction, as if something is really missing, when my friend Regge ask me to try Sunlife,having a second thought, (why would I sell insurance? ) but then something is telling me to try, and why not, then this day at BOF inspired me to go and try this field.

True enough, every learnings and training the more i get excited to share to as many friends, relatives, and filipinos out there how important to prepare for our future, I found the meaning in my life. No matter how many friends and relatives still asking what I am doing here, naghihirap na ba ko? hahaha, but there are others who are positive and supporting me, especially my husband who been very supportive of me.

Here is some glimpse of what I do as an advisor

My role as an  advisor

At Sun Life Financial, we have a proven model in place to help  build long-term client relationships.

The financial planning pyramid shows the multi-faceted approach that advisors take when working with clients. A financial plan provides the base for clients to prepare for non-controllable evnts, priorities and asset accumulation.

A financial advisor can help you with many things, such as:

•   Retirement planning

•   Superannuation

•   Estate planning

•   Insurance eg life and disability cover

•   Investing

•   Wealth accumulation

•   Debt management

Our training and sales tools will show you how to look at clients' needs from every angle and recommend a strategy that will allow them to not only accumulate wealth, but also protect their savings and plan for their long-term health and financial well-being. Here's a high-level view of our products and how they can help clients:

At some point, people need to take personal responsibility for what happens in their lives, and make conscious choices to improve their well being. If that requires the larger-than-life personality peddling common sense that has simply been wrapped in a shiny new package, so be it. I can think of worse things than convincing people they'd be better off if they saved, invested and stayed out of debt.

so now, for those close minded individual, its their lost, there are so many filipino family who needs me, i just need to tell them I'm here ready to help them achieve their dream. 

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