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Investing in the Philippine Stock Market
A quick start kit for beginners
2nd edition

Copyright 2013 by Romer Tawid
Cartoons by David Gonzales
Cover photo from http://tell.fll.purdue.edu/JapanProj/FLClipart/


All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied or
reproduced, except for brief quotations, without written permission
of the author.



For information, email the author at
pinoyinvesting@gmail.com

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Disclaimer
Investing involves substantial risk. All information provided herein is for
informational purposes only, not intended for trading purposes or advice and does not
constitute recommendations or endorsements of any issuer, security or action.
While some of the information herein are from sources believed to be reliable, the
author does not warrant their completeness and accuracy and should not be relied
upon as such when making your investment decisions.
In addition, the author doesnt make any guarantee as to any results that may be
obtained from its content. The author shall also not be responsible for updating or
correcting any information or opinion contained herein.
No reader should make any investment decision without first consulting his or her
own personal financial advisor and conducting his or her own research and due
diligence. Neither the author nor any of his associates is liable for any informational
errors or for any actions taken in reliance on information contained herein.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, the author and his associates disclaim any
and all liability in the event anything in this book proves to be inaccurate, incomplete or
unreliable, or results in any kind of loss.






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For all hardworking Filipinos whose only desire is a
better life for their loved ones, youre all Gods vessel
of His perfect love to them.
5












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HAHA!

I actually had a hard time contemplating to pursue or not finishing
this book.
Initially I just wanted to give back the fun I had
investing in the stock market by sharing it with you.
But on the other side, Im afraid I might be
giving you an incomplete picture of what
stock investing is all about. I might be pushing
you into the realm of gambling in the stock
market as opposed to investing. As you
know, gambling should not be
encouraged, more so in public.
I wish I could help you not just in
the early stage of your stocks investing
journey, but also in every succeeding steps
of the way.
But just to help you get started, I managed
to go on and compiled all I learned from my
own experience.
Make no mistake. I don't claim to be perfect at investing. Like you,
I'm still learning.

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But if you want your money to start working for you one day soon,
allow me to sing your first lullaby. Im glad to be part of your financial
journey!

For your dreams and passion,
Omeng Tawid

P.S. Grow your wealth and achieve financial freedom. If youre
interested in achieving financial freedom through the stock market,
you may want to take advantage of the Truly Rich Club. Receive
Stocks Update every month telling you everything you need to know
about your stock investments, plus a mountain load of materials for
your financial and spiritual growth. Its your regular overdose of
guidance and inspiration.

To try it out, log-on now at the Truly Rich Club.
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What the heck is the stock market?

Welcome to the world of stocks investing!

Youre now one step closer
towards improving the
important financial aspect of your
life. For that give yourself a pat
on your shoulder!

While its true that there are
a lot of other ways in reaching
that goal, investing in
stocks is surely one of
the most exciting
vehicle you can ride on
in your financial journey.

And the first thing you
should do before investing your
first peso is to find out as much
as you can about what stocks are and how to use them to achieve your
wealth-building goals. Many have been hesitant and doubtful to even
try out investing because of the seemingly lack of information and
complexity involved in doing it.

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But as youll soon find out, wise stocks investing and trading could
be fun and profitable; it could very well catch the interest of those
who does have money but doesnt know how to handle it.

Lets begin!
Stock Market 101
First things first - lets define the
basic points here.
Stocks are simply shares of
ownership in a corporation. Thus
anyone owning stocks or shares of
a company is called the companys
shareholder or stockholder. Being a
part-owner, you partake in the
performance, growth, earnings and
profits, as well as losses, of these
companies.
The stock market is just like any ordinary market where people
converge to buy and sell, with the following two differences:
a. First, instead of items or goods or fruits or meats, you buy
shares or stocks of companies.
b. Second, you will need the service of a stockbroker to buy and
sell these shares.
That means once you have your broker and enough money to buy
stocks, you can readily start investing in the stock market and brand
yourself as a noble shareholder of giant fantastic companies.
QUICK NOTE - IPO
One way a company becomes
enlisted in the Philippine Stock
Exchange is thru Initial Public
Offering (IPO). They do this
primarily to raise money and fund
its growth plan. After this, the
initially private company becomes
publicly-listed whose shares
become available for public
trading.

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In the Philippines, the Philippine stock market is the place where
you can invest in Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) - listed companies.
And only those people or firms accredited by PSE as authorized
brokers can participate directly in trading and putting buy or sell
orders.

Why Invest?
To make your hard-earned money work even harder for you!
Investing enables ones savings to grow or appreciate to achieve
various long term financial goals. It is said
to be the most effective way of building
personal wealth and attaining future
financial security for oneself. It also
safeguards ones capital against
inflation which erodes the purchasing
power of your money if its not
invested.

Why stock market?
Because history says so!
The fact is that stock market is not
the only type of investment present
out there in the capital market. You
may be familiar with bank deposits,
government securities, bonds and
other fixed-income instruments. You
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can surely invest to those kinds as part of your strategy of diversifying.
But history has proven that investing in the stock market over the
long-term has outperformed all these instruments, plus it offers good
protection against inflation. The market undeniably continuously
experiences highs and lows, dumps and trumps, and blows and dips,
but these short-term pictures are just tiny pixels compared to the
general uptrend portrait recognized in the long run.

Who can invest?
Even foreigners can!
Anyone can invest in the stock market. Stock market is not what
you might have heard as the game of the rich only. Its actually a
game for anyone who appreciates the importance of putting their
money in an earning asset. It is a readily available choice of financial
vehicle for those who want to make their hard-earned money work
even harder for them. Millionaires or not, anyone can earn in the same
battle field.
Everyone motivated can do it!

When should you invest?
When youre ready!
Thats when you have money you wont need for your basic
expenses, which you would otherwise put in a bank. Its better if its
made available in a longer time as it allows the investment to ride
through the companys growth and be less exposed to market
volatility and sentiments.
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It is also important to note that you should find time to assess your
financial standing, age, return objective, and experience to find out if it
is the best time to invest for you. It is never too early to start.
But remember that stock market operates on the power of
compounding, which makes time your dearest ally. It makes your
investment grow exponentially when your earnings or dividends begin
to generate their own earnings. Those who enter sooner have that
advantage. Every day you delay is a day wasted for your money to
work for you.
Below illustration table compares the returns of investing in the
stock market at three starting ages with the same total investment
amount (Php 60,000), assuming a growth of 10% annually. Make time
your best friend!
STARTING AGE 25 35 45
Annual Investment Php 60,000 Php 60,000 Php 60,000
Year Investing 10 years 10 years 10 years
Total Investment Php 600,000 Php 600,000 Php 600,000
Ending Value at age 65 Php 20, 189,953 Php 7,784,101 Php 3,001,108
*Taken from the investing primer of Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE)


How do you make money?
By price appreciation and dividends
There are basically two ways you can make your money grow in the
stock market either through capital appreciation or through
receiving dividends.
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Companies can either reinvest their earnings (called retained
earnings) to expand their business fuelling their compounding
growth which could lead to price appreciation; or share them to their
stockholders in the form of dividends.
Capital appreciation (or capital gain) means an increase in the
market price of a stock. This is where the old popular rule buy low,
sell high originates from. You buy something at a low price and sell it
at a higher price, the difference of which becomes your gross profit.
This stems from the very nature of stock prices being very dynamic.
Every companys stocks goes up and down continuously during
trading hours every single trading day, which could make proper
timing of entry and exit your greatest ally when doing your investing
activities.
As an example, Manila Electric Company, or Meralco (stock code:
MER) shares passed through Php200 per share level last December 7
2010, then it reached Php248.8 per share on Jan 4 2011. Thats a capital
gain of 48.8 pesos per share, or more than 20% increase in less than a
month. While it is considerably a large return on investment, some
more active and volatile stocks can achieve the same or even higher
within a single day.

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Of course theres also the other side of the coin. Stock prices going
down can also happen resulting to losses in your investments. See
below what happened to MER Price starting last week of January 2011:

160
170
180
190
200
210
220
230
240
250
260
270
280
290
300
P
R
I
C
E
Manila Electric Company (MER)
Dec2010 -Jan2011
*Data based on closing prices
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In both cases, unless you actually sell your winning or losing stocks,
you only see paper gain or paper loss in your portfolio. If you
decide to keep your shares, those paper losses or gains can be bigger
in value, or take opposite roles. In the case above, if MER shares were
kept until January 12 2011, the paper gain could have been bigger given
that its price reached above PhP280 per share. But keeping it longer
until early February would drag it down back to 220+ level.

The second way of making money is through receiving dividends.
Dividend represents part of the company earnings thats not going to
be reinvested for future business plans and is instead divided into its
shareholders. Dividends are given in the form of cash or stocks.
Shown below is a cash dividend declaration by Metropolitan Bank &
Trust Co. (stock code: MBT) amounting to P1.00 per share. It
represents cash earnings given for every share of stock as decided by
160
170
180
190
200
210
220
230
240
250
260
270
280
290
300
P
R
I
C
E
Manila Electric Company (MER)
Dec2010 -Feb2011
*Data based on closing prices
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the company. This means that if you have 10,000 shares of MBT as of
the record date, you will receive a cash dividend of Php10, 000.00
pesos, gross of tax (Php1.00 x 10,000). Take note that under the
Philippine Tax Code, these cash dividends are subject to income tax of
10%.

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The second type of dividends is stock dividends. Here, instead of
cash, additional shares are given to present stockholders for free. You
can sell those stocks just like your ordinary stocks anytime after they
are issued.
Different companies can have different positions when it comes to
declaring dividends. Some can be very generous, and are known in
giving consistent dividends, while some are not. It all depends on the
decision of the company subject to government institutions
regulations. You can navigate through the PSE website to check all the
dividend declarations of listed companies.
Also remember that since ownership of stocks can change from day
to day due to everyday trading, dividend declaration needs to set a
deadline on when stock ownership will be recorded and identified.
See a closer look discussion below on the three dates that are
mentioned in every dividend declaration that will be critical in your
dividend-related strategies.






AD
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Ffef Ffef
A CLOSER LOOK A DATE TO REMEMBER
Whenever a dividend is announced, theres always three dates mentioned in
it. Look for them to aid you in your decision of buying and selling stocks and
availing of a desired dividend.
RECORD DATE date where stockholders to be entitled of dividends are
identified and recorded.
EX-DATE - three working days before the record date. EX means bye-bye
dividends. This starts the three-day process period, during which if you buy
youre NOT entitled to the dividend.
PAYMENT DATE date where dividends will be finally paid to stockholders.
Yahoo!
Bottom-line: To avail of a desired dividend, make sure you have the stock in
your portfolio at least one day before the EX-DATE. Buying the stock starting
on the EX-DATE wont entitle you to that dividend.










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Who took your money?
You may be wondering where all your profits come from, or your losses
go.
Lets find here in this fictional story.
Best friends Lulu, Mimi and Popo started investing in the stock market,
with 500 pesos each. Luckily, company OMG is offering one share at Php250
price.
Cash Shares
OMG 0 1
Lulu 500 0
Mimi 500 0
Popo 500 0
Total 1500 1
Lulu, the oldest and bravest of them all, immediately bought the first
OMG share. Mimi and Popo both felt excited about it.
Cash Shares
OMG 0+250=250 1-1=0
Lulu 500-250=250 0+1=1
Mimi 500 0
Popo 500 0
Total 1500 1

Lulu was lucky that, because of the company's spectacular performance,
OMG stock price went up to 300 pesos, so she sold it to Mimi, her closer
friend, who willingly took it.
Cash Shares
OMG 250 0
Lulu 250+300=550 1-1=0
Mimi 500-300=200 0+1=1
Popo 500 0
Total 1500 1


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Sadly, with the market crash rumor, OMG price was pulled down to 200
pesos which forced Mimi, whos afraid she could lose more, to sell it. Popo
bought it to the rescue.
Cash Shares
OMG 250 0
Lulu 550 0
Mimi 200+200=400 1-1=0
Popo 500-200=300 0+1=1
Total 1500 1
So effectively, Lulu had a gain of 50 pesos, while Mimi had 100 pesos loss.
With the 200 peso present price of the share, OMG essentially had also 50
pesos gain, while Popo had breakeven.
Cash Shares Total Gain/Loss
OMG 250 gain Loss 1(worth 200) 250-200 = 50 gain
Lulu 50 gain 0 50 gain
Mimi 100 loss 0 100 loss
Popo 200 loss Gain 1 (worth 200) -200+200 = 0 (breakeven)

Throughout the cycle, total money remained constant, with a total of 100
pesos gain and 100 pesos loss, so no money magically disappeared! This
means that a loss by one means a gain for someone wiser. Be that wiser
investor!


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Have a winning game plan!

Now that you know the very basics of stocks investing, its time to
put them to use and kick-off your stock market expedition.
Information without action is dead!

The following pointers may help guide you in starting your
adventure in the stock market world!
Invest in yourself
Heres the reality: You can never
invest if you do not have a cash flow
(meaning, money entering your pocket
in a regular basis), for the obvious
reason that you need money to buy
any stocks. And unless youre starting
with a very big chunk of cash, its
recommended that you continually add to your
investment capital regularly.
So invest first in yourself before trying
investing in companies.

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Pay yourself first
Paying yourself first means getting your fair share of your paycheck,
of what youve worked for each month. Many people do pay others
first before themselves, and so they are left with nothing for their
savings and investments.
They pay Meralco for electricity, they pay Manila Water for the water,
they pay their monthly mortgages, and they pay for their expensive
dinners. They pay everyone except themselves. The next thing they
know is they are waiting for the next salary day, only to do the same
thing again.

And after many years of working hard, their financial condition is
nothing different than when they started working.

This doesnt mean not to pay your bills; its totally your obligation.
But be equally concerned with your obligation to yourself, your
ultimate and primary capital. Focus both on the golden egg and the
producing goose, achieving both short-term productivity and long-
term efficiency.

So setting aside a portion of your income for your savings is a must.
And you allot a part of this savings for your long-term investments.
This may sound very easy, but is pretty hard to follow at first,
especially that we humans are creatures of the present we feel that
constant urge to enjoy each and every moment that we only see the
very small picture and fail to consider our long-term plans.
Start saving small amount and build it up through time. Whats
important is that you acquire the discipline of saving and develop the
habit constantly.
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Starting small is a good start, but dont expect it to rain you huge
profits in short period of time. Thats why its essential that you
continually finance your investment capital because each small
contribution adds up to your full power of letting your money work for
you.
You should make out your own plan of saving system and allow
them to work harder for you. Tuck in as much money as you can in
your liquid savings until you can start funding your stock investments.
At this point, its worth emphasizing the rule of using only your free
cash in your investments. Free cash means money you wouldnt use in
your day to day expenses and you would otherwise put in the bank.
Thats why its important that you really pay yourself first because
unless you start saving a part of your earnings, you would not have the
money seed to grow in the market field.
Set your investing goals
Each of us has our own financial goals, with corresponding time
horizon. It could be long term like having your own house and car, or
for your future family, or short-term like preparing for your coming
vacation.
Its obviously important that you set-up your goals before entering
anything, be it in the stock market or not. You make these goals
beforehand so you can appropriately devise and make the necessary
plans and prerequisites, and check if your present situation is fit and
prepared enough toward achieving those goals.
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One of the biggest mistakes investors make is not having clear long-
term investment objectives, focusing on short-term returns, rumors
and price swings. Not having these essential clearly-defined objectives
exposes you to the risk of relying on just anything that comes along
your way instead of sticking to your planned strategy based on a more
comprehensive and sound foundation, which has a higher probability
of success.
Setting-up goals also help you assess your performance of whatever
youre into. Since goals are always associated with some net result,
checking the actual and expected outputs allows you to make the
necessary adjustments - either you fine-tune your goals to fit better to
your condition, or improve yourself and strategy and go on achieving
the pre-set goals.
In that way you can say youre always in full control of yourself,
which minimizes the probability of sabotaging your initial plans just
because of the momentary inconvenience due to temporary glitches.
These goals can be different for individual investors. Some just want
to maintain their capitals purchasing power while others want their
investments to provide cash flow for the kind of lifestyle they desire.
Still others want to make their assets grow aside from having a
continuous source of cash flow for them and their loved ones. But
whatever those goals are, there must be corresponding attached
objectives for each that can be used in the future to assess if youre
achieving that particular goal, and should prompt you to make
changes as necessary. The whole point is in being clear with your goals
objectives so as not to make you lost in the wilderness later on.
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Know thyself
Closely related with identifying your goals is defining what type of
stock market participant you will be and setting-up your game plan. A
game plan is crucial for your actions and decisions. Your game plan is
closely related to your investing approach and goals, and must be
complementing each other. You need this to be clear with yourself as
to what extent youll get involved in your investments so you can be
totally committed to it. Your returns will result from your investing
horizon.
Are you a passive investor or an active trader?
Investors (or long-termers) are market participants who buy only
great companies, and really dont care selling them after several years,
say ten to twenty years. They hold them and go for the long term.
Because of this, they are very picky when it
comes to choosing their stocks, making sure
those companies have
solid big reputation and
potential for growth,
either because of its
historical performance
or good fundamentals (earnings report at
the least). This is a totally passive
approach, and is readily available to those
who dont want to be bothered by all the
complexities but still want to make money
out of investing. This method takes
various names like peso-cost averaging or
money-cost averaging. Online stockbroker
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COL Financial (formerly Citiseconline) calls it Easy Investment Program.
See a closer look on Easy Investment Program (EIP) at the end of this
chapter. These conservative investors make money from dividends,
stocks rights, and price appreciation.
Traders are different.
They like short-term pursuits, so they need to time the market. They
also sell in a shorter timeframe, within a matter of days, even hours.
They just buy and sell
stocks every day.
How are they able to do
that? Because active traders
buy anything, especially
those stocks that are
volatile, possibly giving them
more areas for earning more
money. And because of that
great potential of multiplying
money, traders also pose
themselves to a relatively
higher risk compared to long-
term investors.
Anyone can be a trader, but not
everyone can be a successful trader. It
requires a lot of time analyzing and
understanding the current market
situation, a lot of expertise and a lot of
fees associated with many buy and sell orders.
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While passive investors look for the fundamentals of companies,
active traders look solely at the current price conditions of the stocks.
And since they trade full time, they need to check the market health
every day (even the market of foreign nations) and have the discipline
to follow strict rules without which, they cross the boundary toward
gambling.
What are the advantages of becoming a trader?
Traders definitely have the chance of earning more than passive
investors can, but it also naturally demands a lot more from them
time, money, and expertise. Long-term investing, on the other hand,
requires very minimal effort. It can require you at most fifteen
minutes every month when you choose and buy your carefully and
tightly screened stocks. After that, you shut down your computer and
go back to your life.
Long-term investing alone, however, may after some time feel like
very boring, especially at the point you believe you have acquired that
experience and when youre still in your early twenties craving for all
the excitement of life. If you can imagine yourself investing faithfully
that way, consistently buying shares and holding on it for a long time,
that would be perfectly fine.
But for those who feel the traders spirit deep within them, take this
advice: Do it only with your loose change - that is, money that when
you lose wont change your lifestyle. In this way youre not impacted
very much whatever undesired happens to the market.
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You can also educate yourself more to equip you with the needed
tools in trading. Some brokers even give free seminars for those who
want to be more engaged in this approach of technical active trading.
The Third Approach (Semi-Passive)
Balancing the passive and active methods paves the way to the
third approach. In this semi-passive (or semi-active) strategy, you
combine your buying with some timing. Unlike pure passive investing
where you keep on buying every single month, you assess first the
condition of the market and your potential stock before placing your
orders.
There will be times when you go away and dont buy when these
stocks reach the overbought level (when they are overpriced), or
when theres crisis threatening the general market sentiment. Instead,
you try to catch them during their dips when they are cheaper and
consider selling them once they reach at or near your target prices.
Also, unlike in the passive that buys only recognized giants, this
approach at times mulls over investing in some penny stocks when
backed-up by an intelligent speculation.
The table below summarizes the major differences among the three
strategies. Note that this is just a very loose classification. (Others call
active traders as speculators while semi-passive as medium-term
traders).






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Passive Investors Active Traders Semi-Passive
Looks at company
quality
Looks at stocks price Looks at company
quality and price
No need of timing All about timing Uses little timing
Never sells (long-term
hold)
Always sells
(days/weeks)
Sells after few
months when target
price (or near) is
reached

Now that youre ready, clear with your goals, and set with what
type of player youre going to be, its time to dip to the water and see
if its hot or cold.










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A CLOSER LOOK PESO-COST AVERAGING The easy way of
building wealth in the stock market
Peso-cost averaging (or PCA) is the strategy of investing fixed amount of
money at fixed intervals over a long period of time. You dont need market
timing here since you just buy at the prevailing market price of the giant stock
of your choice. Because of its nature, you are able to buy more shares when
stocks price go down, and less shares when they climb up, effectively reducing
the market risk by stretching the activities over a longer period of time and the
average cost low.
Easy Investment Program or EIP, launched by brokerage firm COL Financial last
August 2008, simplifies investing in stocks using the power of peso- cost
averaging.
Under this program, investors are to put consistently fixed amounts every
month into solid giant companies with GEMS (Growing Industry / Earnings
Visibility / Management Credibility / Superior Products or Services / and a Strong
balance sheet). These criteria assure that clients only choose solid fantastic
giants.
Since it started, the EIP list has included original six premier stocks namely ALI,
BPI, JFC, MWC, SMPH and TEL. As of this writing, they expanded the list to
sixteen (16). But evaluating its performance within the 33 months monitoring
since it started until April 2011, the six premier EIP stocks did perform pretty
well. ALI had 41% annual yield, BPI had 27%, JFC had 49%, MWC had 15%, SMPH
had 21% and TEL had 11% effective annual yield. See summary performance
below.*






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ALI BPI JFC MWC SMPH TEL
Price as of
launch
date 8/1/08
10.00 42.00 36.50 17.00 7.40 2,490.00
Price as of
4/27/11
16.66 59.00 97.00 17.96 12.00 2,466.00
Average
Purchase
Price per
Share
under EIP
9.85 41.15 52.46 14.62 8.95 2,116.38

Total
Investment
165,000 165,000 165,000 165,000 165,000 165,000
Current
Market
Value of EIP
Portfolio
279,086 236,574 305,079 202,672 221,268 192,258

% Effective
Annual Yield
41.10% 27.30% 49.00% 15.10% 21.90% 11.10%

The table is derived from the May2011 Strategy Report of COL Financial
(Recommended Stock List for EIP).

*ACTUAL PERFORMANCE OF ORIGINAL 6 EIP STOCKS
Period Covered: From EIP launch date of 08/01/08 to 04/27/11 (33 months).
Monthly Investment: Php 5,000 assumes that you fully invested entire
amount every month.
EFFECTIVE ANNUAL YIELD Annualized interest rate on an investment taking into
account the effects of compounding.




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Lets get started!
The first two chapters show you just the basic preparation you need
to know before getting started in the stock market.
With all those basics, starting investing in the stock market then
becomes a simple following of rules - choosing your broker, opening
your trading account, placing your orders, and keeping track of your
investments. Lets now feel that real market heat by having your first
touch of it.
Choosing your broker
One needs a stockbroker to invest in the
stock market. Your broker can either be
the traditional live broker type, or the
online one accessed through the
internet. Note that authorized
stockbrokers are the only ones
directly involved in the
transactions of securities. A list
of more than 150 brokers is
provided in the PSE website
for your reference.
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Before, there were only traditional brokers. Investors tell these
brokers their desired orders by writing or through phone call.
Emerging in the trend is the use of an online broker. Through an online
broker, you see market information and price movements comfortably
on your computer screen, and you place your orders directly via the
internet.
Your choice of what type of broker to use should be based on the
service best suited for your needs. Some people prefer live brokers
due to the rumors and stories they get from them, plus the fact that
they get to talk to real warm bodies. They can ask question, seek
advice and get answers personally.
Online brokers on the other hand
are designed for self-directed
investors and who want to manage
their portfolio online. You place your
orders directly and make
transactions in your computer. It
also offers the lowest commission
rate (0.25%) in buying and selling
stocks. The downside of this is that a
computer cant entertain your
queries. You do all your analysis by
yourself with the aid of market researches offered by your online
broker. You can get the full list of authorized brokers in the PSE
website, but below are some of the most widely known online brokers
in the country.

QUICK NOTE Are you an OFW?
One of the benefits of online
trading is that youre able to see
and monitor your investments even
while in abroad real-time. You can
open your trading account in the
country or in any overseas
branches of PSE-affiliated
Philippine banks abroad, then
afterwards do all your activities
online.

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COL Financial (formerly CitisecOnline) is the leading online
brokerage firm in the Philippines. It has been actively trading since
2001, and is also a listed company in the PSE (with stock symbol COL).
They offer free seminars to its customers and the general public, and
have launched the EIP or Easy Investment Program for passive
investors. Philstocks by Accord Capital is another broker that allows
you to start trading immediately with just 5,000 pesos and prides itself
with a one screen do-it-all trading console. BPI Trade and
FirstMetroSec are also good choices and are tied up with their bank
counterparts, allowing easy transfer of funds between your trading
account and bank account. With FirstMetroSec, you just need to open
a Metrobank bank account and enroll it in its internet banking service,
after which you can enroll for a trading account (also online). Same
procedure goes for BPI Trade. All these four online brokers practically
offer the same services.


The following gives some specific details for these online brokers:
*Double-check the information in their website as some may have
changed already from the time this is written
35


COL Financial by COL Financial Inc.
Website: www.colfinancial.com
Email:helpdesk@colfinancial.com
Minimum Investment: Php 25,000 regular trading account
Php 5,000 EIP (Easy Investment Program) and starter (student)
accounts
Commission Fee: 0.25% of gross value of trade or Php 20,
whichever is higher
Funding: Over-the-counter payment or online banking via
merchant payment (BPI, Metrobank, BDO)

BPI Trade by BPI Securities Corp.
Website: www.bpitrade.com
Email: bpitrade@bpi.com.ph
Minimum investment: no minimum amount - just needs a BPI
bank account
Commission Fee: 0.25% of gross value of trade or Php 20,
whichever is higher
Funding: Over-the-counter payment in any BPI branch; thru BPI
expressphone or ATM, BPI Express Online, or mobile banking

Philstocks by Accord Capital Equities Corp.
Website: www.philstocks.ph
Email: info@philstocks.ph
Minimum investment: Php 5,000
Commission Fee: 0.25% of gross value of trade or Php 20,
whichever is higher
Funding: Over-the-Counter deposit at any BDO branch; Online
banking via Merchant Payment (BDO, BPI); thru WEEPAY

FirstMetroSec by First Metro Securities Brokerage Corp
Website: www.firstmetrosec.com.ph
36

Email: customerservice@firstmetrosec.com.ph
Minimum investment: no minimum amount for MetrobankDirect
clients; For clients with no Metrobank Account, initial deposit of
at least P 25,000.00 is required.
Funding: Over-the-counter payment or thru Metrobank Direct
online transfer

Opening a trading account is pretty easy just like applying for a bank
account. You submit the required forms and documents, and initial
cash (if necessary, depending on the broker), and you wait for a few
days for your account log-on details (username and password) to be
emailed to you. You can then start buying stocks after sufficiently
funding your trading account.
Also remember
that once have your
own account,
youre not obliged
to buy your stocks
right away. In fact,
you can just leave it
there and start your
stock market self-
study by navigating
through their
websites, touching the stock market without touching your cash.
These brokers pay a lot to their analysts to provide their clients
relevant researches, company updates, market news and insights
about the prevailing market conditions. But also keep in mind that
their conclusions and recommendations should serve only as your
37

guide complementing your own due diligence, and should never be
your sole basis in choosing what stocks to buy.
Feel the market heat
Now that you have your trading account and enough cash, nothing
can stop you to make your first purchase.
Word of warning: One of the common mistakes many commit when
starting is getting too excited about it, too eager that they dive into
the deep sea right away, with the illusion that they know how to swim.
Especially if they have the cash, their itch to make their first move
reaches an all-time high irresistible.
Unless youre really after the long haul as long as ten or twenty
years in which case timing wont be a big factor, proper entry points
can be a major concern for you if you want to feel good in your initial
decisions.
As you will know in the future, stock market goes through different
phases which serve as either buying signal or a red flag warning for
everyone. So if youre not yet very confident which first stock to buy,
you may better be just an observer from the corner while doing your
own assignment. It can save you mental aches (and cash as well).
You may just watch first how stock prices move in a typical trading
day, navigate through the website of your online broker, or read
through their market researches and reports. Be familiar with the
most active stocks (stocks that have the interest of many). Recognize
the factors influencing stock prices. They may seem intimidating at
first, as they sometimes use financial jargons, but soon youll be used
to it with experience.
38

Placing your orders
Opening your online trading account requires a minimal value (BPI
Trade/First Metro for example just needs you to have a bank account
with them), but buying stocks will definitely require you more than
that. Below discussion tackles how to place your orders and calculate
the costs you would need for them.
Unlike having a traditional broker where you communicate your
order through a phone call or text message, online trading allows you
to place your order directly through the internet. Below image depicts
a typical online window when making an order entry (from BPI Trade):

Here you will see the important fields necessary for placing any
order. These details include the side or type of order, the stock
symbol or code, the volume or the number of shares you want to buy
39

or sell, and the price. Some brokers require even more details like the
type of your order (limit versus market) and the validity and
duration/timing of the order (Day versus GTW versus GTC versus
ATC versus GTD). See other online order entry windows below.
While these functionalities can be helpful in some of your strategies
for a more active trading, the first three mentioned constitutes the
very basic order.

Take note that you cant just put any value you want in all these
fields. There are certain restrictions you need to follow when filling
them out to make a valid order.
1. First is the stock symbol. You just cant buy from a store something
that doesnt exist. Be familiar with the codes of your favorite stocks.
Through time you can commit those in your memory.
40

2. Second is the volume (or number of shares). This is where the board
lot table matters, shown below. All buying and selling orders are
subject to a minimum number of shares as prescribed by the board lot
table instituted by the PSE.

Price Minimum Fluctuations
(Tick Size)
Lot Size
0.0001 - 0.0099 0.0001 1,000,000
0.0100 - 0.0490 0.0010 100,000
0.0500 - 0.2490 0.0010 10,000
0.2500 - 0.4950 0.0050 10,000
0.5000 - 4.9900 0.0100 1,000
5.0000 - 9.9900 0.0100 100
10.0000 - 19.9800 0.0200 100
20.0000 - 49.9500 0.0500 100
50.0000 - 99.9500 0.0500 10
100.0000 - 199.9000 0.1000 10
200.0000 - 499.8000 0.2000 10
500.0000 - 999.5000 0.5000 10
1,000.0000 - 1,999.0000 1.0000 5
2,000.0000 - 4,998.0000 2.0000 5
5,000.0000 - up 5.0000 5

The board lot and fluctuation table above simply dictates the
minimum number of shares (lot size) that can be traded and the stock
prices allowed fluctuation (tick size), both depending on the present
market (or reference) price of the stock. This minimum lot size is called
a Board Lot.
41

For example, if Meralco stocks are priced at Php250 per share,
inside the [200.0000 - 499.8000] interval, then the minimum number
of MER shares you can buy is 10. If you want to buy or sell more shares,
you can post larger volumes using only multiples of 10, like10, 20, 500,
1000 etc (for main board lot). Volumes like 7, 13, or 319 will be rejected.
(You can use the odd lot market for this).
3. Third is the price. This price can either be a bid price if youre
buying, or an ask price if youre the one selling. At any trading day,
you can put a bid/ask price within the range 0.5CP (ceiling) -
1.5CP(floor), where CP is the closing price of the stock the previous
trading day.
The board lot and fluctuation
table also dictates the prices
allowed for use in your order
postings. In the example above
with Meralco at Php250 price, the
table shows the minimum price
fluctuation to be 0.2, so you can
only post an order price with this
jump from its current price like
250.6, 250.4, 250.2, 250, 249.8,
249.6 etc. The stock price also
moves with this increment so you expect it cant achieve prices like
250.15, or 249.7.
Note that with online trading, the volume and price you use, plus all
the associated commission and transaction fees, should not charge
you more than your available trading balance in your trading account.
QUICK NOTE Odd lot
An odd lot (also called broken lot
or uneven lot), is an amount of a
security that is less than the normal
unit of trading for that particular
security. This happens for example
when receiving stock dividends. Odd
lots are traded at an Odd Lot board
which are usually illiquidly traded or
are sold at price lower than its main
board market price. You can enter
odd lot orders by choosing the
ODDLOT option on your order entry
window.
trading.

42

If thats the case, the system will tell you that you dont have enough
balance for your order, and you need to adjust either your price or
volume (or both) until the total cost is below your available trading
fund, to make your order posted in the market.
Once posted, that order can either be fully matched, partially
matched or remain unmatched. If its carried out, you will be given a
confirmation invoice by your stockbroker showing the details of the
transaction, either via your personal email or in their site.
See a closer look on the order matching process below.








hi
43


A CLOSER LOOK IF THE PRICE IS RIGHT!
You may be wondering how the actual order matching occurs.
Whenever you place an order, your online broker will let you see all other
orders currently queued for your chosen stock. This is the order board or quote
screen that identifies the Buying (Bid) and Selling (Ask) parties into each stock
choice. It lists on the left column the desire to buy and on the right column the
desire to sell, showing the respective volume levels (or size) at each bid price
level. The queue actually shows the precedence and sequence of execution of
these orders, depending on their price, which you can use to adjust your own
bid/offer price to get the desired priority.
For example, in the case below for SMDC, under the BID column, the order
with the highest bidding price of 8.30 (with 31,700 shares) will be prioritized
against those orders with bidding prices 8.29 and below, so its placed in the
first row being the best buyer. Similarly, under the ASK column, sellers with the
lowest ask price of 8.31 will get priority versus those with price 8.32 and above,
being the best seller. Unless theres an agreement of price between buyers
and sellers, no matching will occur. For SMDC below, the quote then is: BUYING
at 8.30 and SELLING at 8.31.



44


Costs of Trading - How Much Will You Need?
The Costs Involved
Its time to do the exact math here. This is also important because
these fees necessarily add to your buying amount or subtract from
your selling proceeds. How much exactly will you need to make your
first purchase?

The following lists the basic charges for buying and selling
transactions.
FEE AMOUNT
Commission .25% of the gross trade
amount or 20 whichever
is higher
Value-added Tax
(VAT)
12% of Commission
Philippine Stock
Exchange Transaction
Fee (PSE Trans Fee)*
.005% of the Gross Trade
Amount
So it boils down to the order price. If you want to make sure that your order be
executed (matched) right after posting it, you use the best bid price or lower (if
youre selling) or the best ask price or higher (if youre buying) in your order. In
this way, you become the best seller or best buyer respectively. Otherwise,
your order just gets lined up in the queue and you have to wait for further price
movements toward your price before it can be matched. Take note that if you
decide to wait, you also take the chance of getting left behind if market price
goes in opposite direction and no buyer /seller would be willing to buy/sell it at
your set price.










45

Securities Clearing
Corporation of the
Philippines Fee
(SCCP)*
.01% of Gross Trade
Amount
Additional Fee for Selling
Stock Transaction Tax
(or Sales Tax)
0.5% of Gross Trade
Amount
*Varies depending on the stockbrokers fee structure.

All these charges add to (in case of a buy order) or subtract from (if
its a sell order) the Gross Trade Amount or Transaction Amount:

Gross Trade Amount = Number of shares*Price per share.

Online brokers COL Financial, BPI Trade, First Metro and Philstocks
charge 0.25% commission. The 12% Value-added Tax (VAT) is levied on
the commission charge. The PSE Trans Fee and SCCP Clearing fee are
other additional charges as these institutions are also involved in the
orders matching and processing cycle. You will also notice that the
only difference between buying and selling is the additional sales tax
in the latter. The 0.5% amount actually makes it the largest slice among
all the charges in your sales. Note that all these costs wont be applied
until your posted order becomes an actual matched order.

Also check your broker for the slight modifications in their actual
computation. Philstocks, for example, has PSE Fee (Philippine Central
Depository Ad Valorem) which includes transaction and other
brokerage fees of .0002 totaling to 0.02217% of the transaction
amount.BPI Trade applies 0.012% PSE Fee and 0.011% SCCP Fee. For COL
Financial, the table above shows their exact computation with 0.25%
commission.
46

Shown below is a sample computation from COL Financial for a buy
and sell of 1000 shares of Ayala Land Inc (stock code: ALI). The values
can be confirmed using the computation table above:


BUY OF 1000 SHARES OF ALI AT PHP 15.3 PER SHARE
Gross trade amount = 1000*15.3 = 15300
FEE AMOUNT
Commission .0025*15300 = 38.25
Value Add Tax (VAT) 0.0012*38.25 = 4.59
Philippine Stock
Exchange Transaction
Fee (PSE Trans Fee)*
0.00005*15300 = 0.77
Securities Clearing
Corporation of the
Philippines Fee (SCCP)
.0001*15300 = 1.53
Additional Fee for Selling
Sales Tax (for Selling) None for this buying
activity
TOTAL 45.14

So the total purchase amount is 15300 + 45.14 (total charge) = 15345.14.

SELL OF 1000 SHARES OF ALI AT PHP 15.6 PER SHARE
Gross trade amount = 1000*15.6 = 15600

FEE AMOUNT
Commission .0025*15600 = 39
Value Add Tax (VAT) 0.0012*39 = 4.68
Philippine Stock
Exchange Transaction
0.00005*15600 = 0.78
47

Fee (PSE Trans Fee)*
Securities Clearing
Corporation of the
Philippines Fee (SCCP)
.0001*15600 = 1.56
Additional Fee for Selling
Sales Tax (for Selling) 0.005*15600 = 78
TOTAL 124.02
So the net sale proceeds received is 15600 124.02 = 15475.98.

TIP: You may want to prepare a ready MS Excel file that will
automatically calculate these for any given order. In that way you can
immediately have an idea on how much youll need for all your
transactions and the profit you can make for your target selling prices.
Trading Hours- When to Post Your Order
You can do your trades daily, Mondays to Fridays, except during
holidays (legal or special) or when the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)
clearing Office is closed, and such other days as may otherwise be
declared by the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) or PSE to
be a non-trading day.
Effective January 2 2012, PSE trading hours are from 9:30am to
03:30 pm, including a market recess from 12:00nn-1:30PM. This is in line
with the implementation of Phase 2 of the trading hours extension
effort of PSE after its phase 1 which initially extended the schedule
until 1:00pm from the previous 9:30am-12:10pm starting Oct 3 2011.You
can examine the market during this time to monitor exactly the price
movement of each stock and strategically use them in adjusting your
real-time orders. Note that you can start placing your orders 30
minutes before the market opens or at 9:00am.
48

You can also put off-hours (O-H) orders (or orders after the trading
hours) in preparation for the next trading day. This feature is especially
useful for those who are not able to monitor the market and place
orders during the actual trading hours. One disadvantage though with
placing off-hour orders is that you only base your order price on the
days closing prices. You miss the opportunity of monitoring the exact
market movement to better adjust your investment decisions. In
effect, youre putting your orders predicting the market direction the
next day, when you can actually have it right tuning to the market real-
time.
Be aware also of the specific restrictions and schedule of your
broker regarding posting orders after trading hours. BPI Trade for
example accepts off-hour orders from 05:30PM to 11:56PM (weekdays)
and the whole day on weekends and holidays, while COL Financial can
accept them after 4:30PM until before 8:55 AM of the next trading day
and anytime on weekends.
How to Get Your Money Out of the Market
You can withdraw your money out of your trading account anytime
subject to the withdrawal policies of your broker and your cash
balance available for withdrawal. Note that cash proceeds from your
matched sell orders will only be available for withdrawal three days
after the transaction day (T+3), though you can use it right away for
your new buy orders. Check your broker for their specific policies and
conditions on this. BPI Trade, for example, has 11:00 AM (on weekdays)
cut-off time of receiving withdrawal requests for them to process it
49

within the same day. Requests submitted after this cutoff will then be
processed the next banking day.
50


A CLOSER LOOK EXTENDED TRADING HOURS
As necessitated by the demands and trends of the times, that is--to extend
the trading hours--the Philippine Stock Exchange has pushed through with the
second phase of trading extension up to 3:30 p.m., beginning January 2 2012,
Monday.

In accordance with the Revised Trading Rules, the PSE shall determine the
hours and schedule of a trading day. Unless PSE decided otherwise, a trading
day shall conform to below schedule. This information can be crucial for your
time-sensitive trading strategies.

PHP Time ACTION PERIOD
8:45 am NATIONAL ANTHEM
9:00 am PRE-OPEN
Orders accepted and queued are considered in the
determination of the Opening Price (based on the pre-
opening algorithm).These orders will not trade until the
market opens.
9:30 am MARKET OPEN (OPENING PERIOD)
Opening Price for all securities is calculated. The order book
is frozen for a short moment until calculations of the
opening price is completed. Order entry, modification and
cancellation are not allowed.
9:30am 12:00 nn CONTINUOUS TRADING
Orders are automatically matched at the Best Price in
accordance with the Revised PSE Trading Rules and
Implementing Guidelines. Odd-lots can only be traded and
modified during this period.
12:00 nn - 1:30 pm MARKET RECESS
Clients are not allowed to enter/modify/cancel Orders
during this period.
1:30 pm MARKET RESUMES
03:17 pm 03:20
pm
PRE-CLOSE
Orders accepted and queued are considered in the
determination of the Closing Price. These orders will not be
traded until the market transitions to Run-Off/Trading-at-
Last.
03:20 pm 03:30
pm
RUN-OFF/ TRADING-AT-LAST
Orders are accepted and executed only at the Closing Price.
03:30 pm MARKET CLOSE
End of a trading day.
51














03:20 pm 03:30
pm
RUN-OFF/ TRADING-AT-LAST
Orders are accepted and executed only at the Closing
Price.
03:30 pm MARKET CLOSE
End of a trading day.

As with any other stock transaction-related information, its better to check
your broker on their specific policies regarding order entry timing and
restrictions. COL Financial for example doesnt allow modifications and/or
cancellations of orders from 9:15am-9:30am (Market Pre-Open No-Cancel
Period order entry still allowed), while First Metro and BPI Trade doesnt allow
order cancellation during the entire Market Pre-Open from 9:00: AM to 9:30:
AM.








52



Have fun investing!

The previous chapters only serve to guide you in your first steps
along your stock investing journey. Obviously, theres a lot more to the
stock market than whats contained in this book. The following can
help you plan your next moves:
Save More
Saving is a prerequisite of
investing. Seeing your investment
growing should drive and motivate
you to save more each year. And
the best way to do this is by
increasing your income at a rate
greater than the rate of increase of
your expenses. Find your own little
ways on how you can save more.

Invest More
With more savings, invest in
more than one company and
industry as a form of diversification.
Investing more also gives you the
benefit of seeing more significant
earnings during market uptrend.

53

Learn More
This is for those who want to spend more time in their stock
investments. As you may have already heard, investing in stocks is
both an art and science. There are a lot of venues available to increase
your knowledge about stocks investing which can be rewarding in the
end. If you want to test your trading skills before actually investing,
you can try first the PSE Stock Trading Game which can be found at
the PSE website.

Check More
Finally, check your stock portfolio from time to time to see if its
working as planned. You may want to dispose stocks that are not
moving and replace them with more aggressive ones, or add more
conservative ones to reduce your risks. The important thing is to make
sure that youre investing in quality investments, and that it is aimed
toward your goals.

As a final note, once you get started, keep practicing and build up
your momentum over time. Your investment will grow at the extent
your knowledge is growing. Start humbly, keep saving, learn from your
experiences, ask questions, test your answers, and stick to what
applies to you.
Have fun (and millions) investing!




54



How to Open an Account in COL Financial
How to Place Buy & Sell Orders in Philippine Stock Market
How to Choose What Stocks to Buy and Sell
How to Withdraw Funds and Enjoy your Profits
When to Place Your Orders - Trading Hours


Bo Sanchez' My Maid Invests in the Stock Market And Why You
Should Too!
FREE Stock Computation Tool
FREE Budgeting Tool






55



Obviously, it wasnt easy for me the first time I started investing.
I needed all the guidance I could get to protect every peso I put in
the market.
Specifically I needed to know when and what stocks to buy and sell,
their entry and exit price levels, and their target prices. I also needed a
constant direction for my investments.
Thats how the TrulyRichClub helped me.
You may also want to take full advantage of the entire TrulyRichClub
system to guide you in all succeeding steps of the way.
Its a powerful system that rests on a larger financial education and
foundation.
Youll receive Stocks Update report twice a month, telling you what
to buy and sell for your stock investments, written simply without the
use of financial jargon.
Youll know everything you need to know about your stock
investments in a short report.
It will tell you the new undervalued stocks that you can buy.
56

At rare times when gems are seen with penny stocks backed up
with intelligent speculation, youll also receive recommendation for
some of them for your extra funds.
By the way, its not just about stocks. Youll also receive a mountain
load of materials for your financial and spiritual growth in the form of
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With its December2011 Stocks Update Report, TrulyRichClub
parades itself with its TOP 10 winning stock picks for 2010-2011.
TRULY RICH CLUB TOP 10 PAST WINNERS DEC 2011 STOCKS UPDATE
REPORT
STOCKS STOCK
SYMBOL
TIME
RECOMMENDED
TIME
HELD
PRICE
RANGE
YOUR
RETURN
Lepanto LC Dec 2010 to May
2011
5
Months
P0.34 to
P0.85
150%
Jollibee JFC Mar 2010 to May
2011
14
Months
P47.50 to
P94.45
98%
Security Bank SECB Mar 2010 to May
2011
14
Months
P53.00 to
P96.20
81%
DMCI DMC Sep 2010 to May
2011
8
Months
P27.25 to
P44.80
64%
Intl
Container
ICT Sep 2010 to May
2011
8
Months
P32.40 to
P48.70
50%
First Gen Co.

FGEN Mar 2010 to May
2011
14
Months
P9.80 to
P14.78
50%
Megaworld MEG Jul 2010 to May
2011
10
Months
P1.54 to
P2.30
49%
Nickel Asia NKL Oct 2010 to May
2011
8
Months
P15.00 to
P22.40
49%
57

Ayala Land ALI Mar 2010 to May
2011
14
Months
P11.25 to
P16.64
47%
Energy Devt
Co.
EDC Mar 2010 to May
2011
14
Months
P4.85 to
P6.49
33%

Below are its TOP Winners for the year 2012.

2012 TOP WINNERS OF TRULY RICH CLUB'S STOCKS
STOCKS STOCK
SYMBOL
TIME
RECOMMENDED
TIME
HELD
PRICE
RANGE
YOUR
RETURN
Ayala Land ALI June 2011 to Feb
2012 (3rd week)
9
Months
P15.09 to
P21.65
35%
Nickel Asia NIKL Feb 2012 to
March 2012 (3rd
week)
2
Months
P23.75 to
P26.20
10.32%
Bank of the
Philippine
Islands
BPI Feb 2012 to Nov
2012 (4th week)
10
Months
P68.45 to
P91.00
34.29%
Ayala
Corporation
AC Oct 2012 to
Dec 2012(2nd week)
2
Months
P440.00
to
P520.00
17.65%
SMP Prime
Holdings
SMPH Feb 2012 to Dec
2012 (1st week)
10
Months
P12.48 to
P17.00
27.75%

(Note that past performance doesnt guarantee exact same results in
the future. TrulyRichClub may have different stock recommendations
now.)

To try it out, join the TrulyRichClub now. Click here to get your exciting
freebies!






58



The goal of this book is simple - To cover the basics and essentials of
stock investing, and help you help yourself in your financial life.
I hope I was able to attain that with you.
In case you have any suggestions or comments to better achieve
that end, then please share your thoughts and help improve this book..
You can send all them here.
You are also welcome to share this book with anyone and everyone.
Help them cut the chase as well.
Here are some ways to share: Facebook|Twitter
Get constant updates here: Facebook|Comments|Twitter
Finally, join our support circle in our Facebook group Investing in
the Philippine Stock Market Tips and Tricks, and get exclusive free
access to our private vault of financial ebooks, mp3 files and other
tools and resources for your investing journey! Meet other investor
there too!
Its been my pleasure meeting you in this book. Thank you for the
opportunity of being part of your financial journey.
In the meantime, keep learning. Have fun investing!
For your dreams and passion,
Omeng Tawid
59


This is how I started in my exciting journey to financial freedom.
You see, I had very poor relationship with money before. And I now
realized it was a combination of three reasons.
First, I came from a poor family.
My father used to work as a taxi driver. To augment that income, my
mother decided to get out of her way as a long-time housewife and
took a janitorial job. Still, their combined income was hardly enough to
make the ends meet. How could you expect their minimum income to
cover sending three children to school?
Years later, my older sister had to delay entering college so that my
older brother could continue his education. Fortunately I received a
government scholarship grant that covered my college tuition with
small monthly allowance. In all those years, I was trained to live a
simple life. Or better yet, I had no choice but to learn the ropes of a
simple-but-most-of-the-times-lacking life.
Second, I was limited with my vision.
The type of surroundings I grew up in for two long decades had
stained how I viewed wealth.
We never talked about money in our family simply because we didnt
have it. I couldnt recall a single discussion about building a business. I
didn't even have an idea of how bank deposits works.
60

All I was hearing was how my mother would try to do all the tricks and
magic to cover all the family expenses with their meager salary which
comes every week. We were used to our limited resources. But in the
process I became financially ignorant. Worse, I became limited in my
dreams. My vision was contained in a small world opened up to me.
The third and last reason is that I had really terribly awful beliefs
about money.
I subconsciously saw well-off people as greedy oppressive group. I
guess I got that from watching night TV series that would almost
always have similar plot. A poor lady meets this young man who
belongs to a wealthy family, who would then do all means to cut the
relationship, revealing their wicked character.
Then on weekends you hear a Sunday preaching telling you to stop
thinking about making money. That money won't make you happy.
That money is the root of all evil. So eventually I had problems
combining money and God. If God saves the poor, who would save the
rich? So why should I be rich?!
I WAS TRAPPED.
After being bombarded by those kinds of thoughts, I was effectively
and helplessly conditioned not to desire to have money, to be a poor
receiver and to limit myself in being small. Sure I had my own child
dreams, but those are as small as the possibilities presented to me.
It went so deep into my beliefs that when I finally graduated in college
and shortly landed on my first job, a fear came creeping into myself
thinking that I might forget the values I have once I started earning by
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myself. That I might be controlled by money instead of I being able to
handle it. I was totally afraid of money!!!
THEN THAT FATEFUL DAY HAPPENED.
I came across this book by Bo Sanchez - 8 Secrets of the Truly Rich.
I was hesitant at first to read it. My subconscious self was sabotaging
me again. But after finishing the book, munching its message with
struggles at the start, my beliefs was slowly changed. Little by little,
my mind was unlocked to more opportunities. Finally, I felt I was given
the divine permission to be truly rich for the right reason, for love.
It's the same message I've been hearing in The Feast, the weekly
gathering of Light of Jesus Family. We're asked to dream big, not out
of selfish ambition but out of love. We're asked to put constant
actions on it, but still relying in God's grace for His perfect plan and
timing.
In hindsight, I now realized that God has allowed me to go through
such a journey to prepare me in the blessings that would come my way.
In all those years, God has been molding me and forming my character
in the next phase of my life. Since I knew the feeling of being poor, in
being in need, I can now appreciate God's wealth more. Since I lived in
a state of lack and scarcity, I can now cherish and welcome God's
abundance even more. All because I said "Yes" to God's blessings and
opened myself to His overflowing love and universe!
BLESSED TO BE A BLESSING!
Now I have a supportive relationship with money. The man who once
cursed money and anything related with it is now an advocate of
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financial literacy. Working in the corporate world for two years, I am
delighted to have hundreds of thousands in my investments now. I'm
also blessed to have additional passive income which began
interestingly when I started tithing. It may be small for some, but I am
more than happy to have that kick-off at this planting season of my life.
But more than the figure, the enlightenment and God's grace behind it
gives me the real fulfillment from it. It's not just about having that
lump of money, but being a better and more responsible steward of
blessings God has gifted me.
I can now have that priceless joy of providing for my family. Because
God has given me, I am also able to give. Because I'm blessed, I am
blessing others.
MY THREE FAMILIES
Finally whenever someone asks me about my financial life, I would
jokingly answer "sapat na sa tatlong pamilya".
That's somehow my self-reminder that whatever material blessings
God gives me should provide for what I consider my three families: for
the family God had given me and the one I would be called to have in
the future, for the spiritual family that nourishes my soul and expands
God's work on earth, and for my bigger family with my brothers and
sisters in Christ.
And as I continue to expand my territories and fulfill my dreams, I am
so thankful and grateful to the Lord for giving me the ability to create
wealth, the power to multiply it, the heart to share it and the wisdom
that ultimately, real wealth is found only in His presence, in His love, in
His everlasting embrace.
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To God be the glory! Amen.

PS: If you also have the same passion and zeal of spreading financial
literacy to others as we share and impart our learning to our fellow
Filipinos, (or you simply want to learn more and be guided for your
own personal dreams) I personally invite you to our team. Get
personal mentoring by no less than Lyndon Malanog, Financial Coach
of Bo Sanchez and Truly Rich Club.
You can also attend a free seminar - Practical Money Management
Strategies and Creating Multiple Passive Income Streams - and come
up with your personal finance strategy so you'll know what you need
to plan to achieve your financial freedom.
Get more details here.
See you there!








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A quick start kit for beginners