Some thoughts about money

Just for fun (and sometimes, reflection), here are some quotable quotes on money:

Money is like an arm or a leg–use it or lose it. (Henry Ford)

When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion. (Voltaire)

Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time. (Jim Rohn)

Whoever said money can’t buy happiness simply didn’t know where to go shopping. (Bo Derek)

Money often costs too much. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver. (Ayn Rand)

Pulling out my Diamond Time Deposit from Chinabank

It’s final. I’m pulling out all the money from my Diamond Time Deposit account in Chinabank. Effective Jan. 28, 2009, Chinabank has lowered its interest rates for the fourth time this month.

Chinabank cut the interest rates by 0.5% since Jan. 20, 2009 (see related story). This is lower than the interest rate I got when I first opened a Diamond Time Deposit one year ago. Back then, I got a 3.75% interest but a year after, the interest is now at 3.5%.

So come Monday, I’ll be paying a visit to Chinabank and will pull out all my money. I basically have two options on where to move it: 1) First Country Financial Bank and 2) my company’s employee savings plan.

For your information: here is the updated interest rate table for the regular time deposit and Diamond Savings:

Diamond Savings

Regular Time Deposit

How to survive the economic crisis

Anyone who hasn’t realized that the world is in a financial crisis must be living under a rock. Day in and day out, we hear stories about companies going bankrupt or closing shop, and employees getting laid off. If you’re a little bit lucky, your company may have just suspended giving out incentives and bonuses, or implemented a “freeze hiring” to keep everyone afloat.

Whether your head is on the chopping block or not, it is best that you and your family are prepared for the worst. These are very difficult times and you must make drastic moves to keep you afloat.

1. Make yourself indispensable.
Yes, I have heard of the cliche “no man is indispensable” and this is truer now more than ever. But to increase the possibility of you keeping your job, you need to step up and make yourself so important to your organization that management will think twice of terminating you. If it means being the first person to arrive in your office and the last person to leave, do so. Do an excellent job and make sure your boss knows it.

My brother, who works in HP, saw two people from his department got laid off. Although he is on a consultancy basis, he was fortunate that he wasn’t the first person to be removed. And thankfully, because he is quite smart and hardworking, he just took on the jobs of the two people laid off. Yes, it means more work for him but he can breathe a little easier that he still has a steady source of income.

2. Talk to your family.
Call a family meeting and lay the cards on the table. Stop sugarcoating (parents are always guilty of this) and tell the truth. If your job is in danger or money is tighter, let them know. Make them understand where you are coming from and where the family stands. That way, expectations are managed.

3. Make a family commitment and cut the fat.
Once your family has fully understand your financial situation, it’s time for unity and action. List down all your monthly expenses and identify which ones are “needs” and which ones are “wants.” Be honest when doing this because you might be tempted to say that you “need” a pack of cigarettes a day or your wife “needs” her weekly spa.

Once you have identified your needs and wants, decide which “wants” should be eliminated or reduced immediately. Instead of your weekly manicure/spa appointment, make it once a month. Ditch your daily Starbucks treat. Enforce once-a-month downloading of PSP games. You need to make drastic changes to ensure that you stay afloat.

4. Beef up your emergency fund.
If you still don’t have an emergency fund, shame on you! The best time to start an emergency fund is when everything is going well. If you have delayed doing this, it’s best to start today. While you are still earning a salary, save every peso that you possibly can and save it for the rainy day. Suze Orman strongly recommends that you must have at least eight to 12 months of emergency fund to keep you afloat in case the worst happens (see related story).

If you already have an emergency fund, revisit it and see if you need to beef it up. Add more to your fund so that you have a nice financial cushion in case of emergency. Transfer some of your money in a high-yield time deposit account like PSBank (see related story) or Chinabank (see related story). You need your money to be safe, sound and, at the same time, easily accessible.

5. Make more money.
Go through all your stuff and see which ones are still sellable but usable. Hold a garage sale or sell them online (see related story). Any money you make should be socked away and saved for a rainy day. Remember that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

If you can take on other jobs like blogging, freelance writing, reselling, that’s equally fine.

6. Pray.
Enough said.

PSBank Peso Time Deposit (Jan. 28, 2009)

Here’s the updated interest rates for PSBank’s Peso Time Deposit, as published in Philippine Star (Jan. 28, 2009).

PSBank’s Prime Time Deposit (Jan. 22, 2009)

If you weren’t able to place your money in PSBank’s Prime Time Deposit earlier (see related story), then it was your loss. As of Jan. 22, 2009, the interest rate went down by 0.5%. 

Still, this is a pretty good deal if you have some money you don’t intend to use in the next five years. As it is, other traditional banks are lowering their interest rates like Chinabank. So if you’re interested to park your money, you can call PSBank at (02) 845-0025.

Chinabank lowers its interest rates again (Jan. 20, 2009)

Just a few days ago, I posted that Chinabank lowered the interest rates for its time deposit accounts, effective Jan. 13, 2009 (see related story). In just a week, Chinabank again lowered the interest rates. This is the third time since the start of the year and the move is a disappointment for many of its time deposit account holders, including me.

Effective Jan. 20, 2009, the interest rates for the Diamond Time Deposit is posted below. Chinabank lowered its interest rates by 0.25%.

 And here is the interest rate for the regular time deposit:

 As it is, I’m already thinking of pulling out my money from Chinabank and place it in First Country Bank (see related story). At least, my money in FCB earns 5.75%. If Chinabank continues to lower the interest rates, I may just pull out everything.

Citibank answers issue on staggard payments

After I posted the entry about Citibank charging its credit card holders P40 transaction fee for staggard payments (see related story), I emailed the Citibank Philippines website. Here is the reply:

“We wish to inform you that we added the new fee because we would like to encourage our cardholders to use our electronic channels such as:

- Citibank Online (CBOL)
- Citibank N.A. ATMs
- Citibank N.A. Cash Payment Express Machines
- Citibank Savings Inc. ATMs
- CitiPhone Self Service Telephone Banking (AVR)

Due to the high cost of processing payments through other payment centers, these electronic channels allow you to pay as often as you want at no added cost to you. However, we recognize that you may want to pay in certain payment centers so we allow for two (2) payments a month at no cost.

Basically, the P40 transaction fee is for the cost incurred by paying in other payment centers. This, I find, is very irresponsible and unfair. Being the big company that it is, Citibank can accredit payment centers that are not expensive. If the cost is expensive, why not just drop payment centers that charge them such exorbitant fees?  Two, why pass the burden to the public, to Citibank credit card holders? With the 3.5% interest rate that it charges every month, can’t Citibank shoulder the transaction fee instead?

P40 may not be a lot to most people but P40 is already a one-way bus fare from Fairview, Quezon City to Boni MRT station. P40 is equivalent to almost two kilos of rice. P40 monthly can conservatively grow to almost P2,000 in 20 years.