The Secret to Being a Good Teacher

This year one of my part-time jobs was being a tutor to a middle-aged mom in the same condo complex where I used to live. It was actually my first time to teach an adult learner but not my first try at tutoring. I had also taught this young boy years ago but that was a short gig because I quit after just a few sessions.

The reason I lasted longer with this adult learner was that I finally unearthed the secret to being a good teacher (or tutor). The secret is that most students fail in school not because they’re stupid or feel like they know it all, and not even that they dislike the teacher. No, my experience told me that most students fail at school because they are AFRAID.

Students are afraid of school and learning because they don’t want other people to know that they don’t know the answers to the questions being asked. Students are afraid of their teachers humiliating them in front of the class. Students are also afraid that their fellow students (especially those who perform well in school) will make fun of them for not knowing the answers to the questions too. This is the root of juvenile delinquency – the fear of the unknown. Once I had realized this fundamental truth, it became easier for me to adjust to my student.

“Wait” you might be saying. “Shouldn’t the student be the one to adjust to you? You’re the teacher.” Well, the reality is that both sides have to adjust to each other. I had to adjust to my student by acknowledging that she is afraid that I will make her feel stupid. She had to adjust to me by acknowledging her fear and telling me what she was afraid of. Once we got past that stage, it became easier for me to teach her.

When your student tells you what she is afraid of, you learn to create lessons out of the academic topics that you can explain to her in terms that she will understand. So instead of acting like a professor in college who would talk using big words that people in the academic world seem to like to use, I had to scale down my language and explain the lessons in terms that she could grasp and that didn’t seem like they were obscure or difficult to understand. When necessary, we would repeat the lesson day after day until finally a light switched on in her head and she got the core of the lesson.

I had to learn patience and humility through this process, because she already knew that she didn’t understand the topics so I didn’t feel the need to point that out. Rather, I had to observe the way she would go through the lesson, waiting for the times when she would pause (puzzled by a part in the lesson) then I would explain that part again to her. I had to build up her confidence by staggering the lessons into small steps for her to go through so that she could see that big lessons are just small lessons summed up into a whole. I also had to acknowledge that some lessons were vague to me or that I had forgotten them so I had to go through those lessons again just to know how to teach them to my adult student.

The point to all this is that (in this age of soaring tuition fees and schools that are ineffective at educating due to overcrowding) we teachers must realize that our “business” is more of an advocacy and a lifestyle than a business. Yes, it does cost money to train teachers and it does cost money to educate students. But once we realize that the key to educating is to acknowledge that our students are afraid then more students would be able to overcome their fears because their teachers now know what the root of the problem is. And that would mean more students will excel in school and our country would have a brighter future because our human capital will be ready for the challenges of the labor force. So if you are planning to become a teacher, you should practice now how to get the trust of your students – and you will be surprised how they will bloom under your tutelage. That is what I know for sure.

Why I Won’t Hire Employees for My Company

When I was still a regularly-employed employee at my first job, I encountered co-workers who were not ideal employees. And that’s putting it mildly. Some of them would deliberately try to hack into and change the settings of the Local Area Network (LAN) just for fun. Others would destroy the company office equipment like the office chairs, also for fun. Some were also kind of weird because they would apply for employment at the company then resent it when they were asked to work already.

Needless to say, my experience working with such people simply convinced me that working alone is sometimes really preferable to working with a host of strangers. True, some people might enjoy the company of their co-workers (and yes, even at that job I mentioned I did have some friends among my co-workers) but the odds that you will have to work beside a weirdo in the same office are quite high nowadays. That’s one reason I decided to become a freelance writer and that is also the motivation behind my setting up my own company named Quill Writing and Translation Services.

So obviously, I won’t be hiring any people to work at Quill. I have gotten used to the pace and the peace of working alone as a freelancer. At Quill, I am only answerable to myself and to my client. I can work as fast or as slow as necessary. I can adjust and make changes when necessary. And of course, I can turn down work also when necessary. The decisions are all up to me and the consequences are fully absorbed only by me. True, it can be terrifying sometimes being alone in your own company especially when you encounter a new writing topic that is outside your comfort zone. It can also be uncomfortable especially when you are approaching a deadline and you think that you aren’t working fast enough to meet that due date. And of course, when you make mistakes, you only have yourself to blame and no one else.

But hiring people brings with it its own set of difficulties – and I don’t want that in my life. My job is complicated enough without hiring strangers to do certain tasks for me. And the good news is that there aren’t really that many tasks that I would need to hire for. So life for me has become much easier ever since I decided never to hire any employees for my company, regardless of who those people might be.

What is Quill Writing and Translation Services?

I formed my company Quill Writing and Translation Services last year upon the advice of my sister. Like the name suggests, my company is all about writing services and translation services. At first, I concentrated mainly on writing but I have also been able to do some translation jobs too (mainly English-Tagalog translation work).

The value of having my own company is that it helps me form my own business identity that is independent of any one else’s. Of course, there are also some hardships that come with having your own company. For example, I have to pay for the registration of my company by myself. It cost me 2000 pesos just to get a national registration at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) – national because my clients are mostly foreign individuals and corporations. I also have to pay for a bookkeeper and to have official receipts printed out of my own pocket. In addition, I will need to figure out which clauses in taxation laws and procedures in the Philippines apply to my company.

The benefit of having my own company is that it looks so cool being able to put my digital signature at the end of my gmail emails. I feel a sense of pride in being associated with the name of my company and knowing that this company is mine and no one else’s. When I think of my company I automatically think “How can I make my company better today?” When you work for someone else’s company you may feel that somehow there is a lack of fulfillment because you know that that company will never be yours. On the other hand, when you work for your own company you are motivated to make it better than it was yesterday all the time.

Of course, having my own company also means having to look for my own clients which also means working for other people. That part hasn’t changed – you will always need to find people to serve with your company. But because my company is my brand I know that I stand to benefit over time if I can sustain my work momentum every day.

How to Survive the Competition Faced by Your Business

I have a close friend right now who has way more experience in business than I do and whenever we get together I like to listen to her business experiences closely because I learn more from her by listening than by talking.

One day she told me about her experience setting up a food cart at the MRT. The MRT food cart sold siomai which is actually very easy to prepare and cook and lends itself well to the fast food business model. Nowadays there are so many siomai food carts all over Manila but back then her family was the first to do so at that MRT station.

Everything was okay for some time. The siomai product was a bestseller and they were making profits from the business. However, problems arose when five (yes, you read that right – FIVE) other siomai food carts set up shop at the same MRT station. Having that many competitors meant that my friend had to share the same market with her rivals, which cut into her own profits. Even though MRT stations are usually crowded with passengers, apparently the smaller profits of my friend meant that she could not sustain the business anymore. So she had to give up the siomai food cart business and her business folded.

In any business (not just siomai sales) you have to contend with competitors. However, it doesn’t mean automatically that you would have to shut down your business just because competitors are raring to enter the same market you are in. There are some ways you can protect yourself so that your business has a fighting chance of surviving a highly competitive market and even attaining a high degree of profitability. Let’s check out these ways, shall we?

1) Make sure your product and/or service adheres to 100% quality standards. Just because you have competitors breathing down your neck doesn’t mean they offer the same quality product and/or service that you do. Although you cannot be sure what kind of quality your competitors are offering, you can be sure of yours. So always set high quality standards for your business to follow so that customers will be pleased with you.

2) Try to locate your business in a market where the management won’t let too many competitors enter. Some places, like schools for example, make sure that their area will not get saturated by businesses that are all alike or too similar to each other. You may need to look a bit further than usual to find such a market but this is important for your long-term survival. Such places often stipulate in their contract that they will not let rival companies/businesses set up shop in the location you have chosen – this is good for them as the landlord because it means the rent/lease you have to pay them will be uninterrupted because your business will survive and thrive. It guarantees a long term business relationship between you and the landlord and naturally you want that.

3) Be prepared for dirty tricks by the competition. Business can be a cut-throat competitive world so don’t assume that your rivals are angels. Some dirty tricks that you might come to expect are a) badmouthing of your business by the staff of your competitor; b) annoyances like garbage dumped right beside your location; and even c) downright sabotage like cockroaches released in the vicinity of your food cart. Yes, such things do happen and it’s not all in my imagination. So if your rivals resort to such dirty tricks, your best action plan is to approach the management of your landlord and ask them to correct the situation. Be sure to document these dirty tricks so that you have grounds for a complaint if your rivals resort to worse things.

4) Be sure that your pricing is fair and that your ideal customers can afford it. In the case of my friend, they did price their siomai fairly and they were pretty sure that their customers could afford it. So at first, this business strategy worked. However, their five other rivals seemed to have resorted to the same pricing tier which then meant that they were all offering the same siomai at the same price. So this leads us to number 5 which is…

5) Have something special to offer to your customers that your rivals can’t offer. In the siomai business this could mean offering an extra piece of siomai for every order of regular siomai or offering a free drink maybe per order. Or you could create an extra special type of siomai that your competitors could only dream of creating themselves. In the world of business it is very important to have something unique to offer because customers like variety and offering variety means that your competitors have to work extra hard to offer something unique also.

Naturally, the winner in all this is actually the customer because your target customer will have something great to buy from you or your rivals at any given time. But if you follow these tips your business may last for a longer time than it would if you simply sit back complacently. So look forward to the survival of your business if you keep innovating this way.

The Value of Having a Passbook Savings Account

I was analyzing my savings patterns this year and I came to the conclusion that I really needed to get into the habit of saving more regularly. Fortunately, I came across this bank named China Bank Savings near the condo where I live that is open from Mondays to Sundays from 10 AM to 7PM. Because the bank is open until the evening and even on Sundays, I decided that this bank is very convenient for my needs because I can always go there after office hours and on Saturdays or Sundays to deposit my money. So I opened a passbook account there.

Why a passbook account? As I was analyzing my spending patterns, I realized that it is hard to save using an ATM account because it is so convenient for me to go to any ATM and just withdraw money. True, the ATM will give you a printed receipt of how much you withdrew and how much is remaining in your bank account. However, it is really so tempting to withdraw 200…then another 200…then maybe 500…until you realize that your maintaining balance is so dangerously low already and you’re on the brink of losing the account. Because of this, I chose to open a passbook account at China Bank Savings instead.

The value of having a passbook savings account is that you will always know how much exactly you have in your account at any given time – all you have to do is open your passbook and there it is printed out for you. You also get to see how much you keep depositing or withdrawing over time by glancing over the past transactions. It is also harder for a thief to get money from your passbook because he/she would have to present proof of identity, meaning the bank staff won’t allow the thief to just get your money just like that. (With an ATM card the thief can use your PIN to get all your money right away.) A passbook is also a good way to prove capacity to pay for other financial transactions such as when you open a postpaid cellphone account at a telecom service provider.

When I opened my passbook account at China Bank Savings, I had to present 3 valid IDs (in my case I presented my SSS, PWD, and TIN ID cards). This allowed them to see that I have a good record as a citizen of the Philippines. It also helped that I had owned a passbook account at their head office in Ayala Avenue, Makati before (though that account was eventually closed). So they just asked me to sign different documents and within an hour I already had my valid passbook.

I have the habit of going to this bank regularly to deposit my money. For example, after I am done with my tutoring job my student pays me right away so I go to the bank to deposit the payment. That way I am not tempted to spend on anything. Because I did this consistently I was able to accumulate enough money to invest into that Sunlife mutual fund that I opened with help from my Financial Advisor Sasha So Seng Yu. So I know that my system really works because I was able to save a lot of money over time. I conclude then that having a passbook (as far as I’m concerned) is a good way to keep track of your savings, so much so that you can accumulate enough funds that you can then choose to use for big expenses or to invest (depending on what and where you believe your money should go to).

The Difficulties Of Being a Network Marketer

I am part of two network marketing systems. The first is Usana which is a health food supplements company and the second is Sante Barley which also sells some health food supplements. I got into Usana because my close friend Joy Ferrer recruited me. I got into Sante Barley because my sister recruited me. However, I haven’t found it easy to pursue network marketing with either network – and that’s my story for today.

In Usana, I was very happy with the health food supplements I tested. Joy sold me a small amount of the Essentials multivitamin, multiantioxidant, and multimineral products. I found them to be very wholesome and really good for my health, even from the first sample I tried. When I notified my sister about it, she told me to go for it and sign up for a Distributorship under Joy’s network. She even gave me the initial amount to buy-in so that I would qualify for the Distributorship. What convinced my sister that the Usana Distributorship was worth our time was that the Essentials helped lower her BP which has been problematic for her. I found that the Essentials made me feel much better overnight. So we were definitely sold on Usana.

With Sante Barley, I wasn’t really that sold on the products. Maybe it’s because the barley capsules didn’t make me feel better overnight like the Usana products did. However, I held on to my Sante Barley Distributorship because my mother does believe in the barley capsules so every year I buy for her in bulk – and that is how I managed to hold on to my Distributorship even if I don’t promote Sante Barley.

You might be wondering at this point “So what’s the problem? What difficulties did she encounter in network marketing?”

Well, the first difficulty I encountered was that it is very hard to find paying customers for network marketing products. One reason it is difficult is that there are so many products out there competing for the attention of the buying public. Some of these products are endorsed by celebrities which is the company’s way of trying to keep itself visible in a crowded market. The more famous the celebrity, the more famous the product the celebrity endorses becomes. And that makes it easier for the network marketers to sell the product. Even if your product is very good, if you can’t get the attention of the public you will find it hard to sell. And if you don’t sell inevitably the company will go bankrupt and fold.

The second reason I find it difficult to survive as a network marketer is that many people hereabouts in Manila simply cannot afford what I am selling. Usana is a very good source of health food supplements but many people balk at the prospect of paying for the products by the bottle. Yes, there are a lot of people around me who definitely need these Usana products but they don’t have the cash to pay for it. A lucky handful of Distributors are able to thrive because they cater to the A-B-C markets – but if there are already Distributors serving this market, that kind of squeezes out the less lucky Distributors from being able to serve that market as well. So you would have no choice but to serve the D and E markets who cannot afford to buy what you are selling. And that means you go broke because you keep on marketing the Usana products but there is no income coming in.

The third reason I find it hard to be a network marketer is that some people consider health food supplements to be an unnecessary expense. Yes, they know the Usana products are good but they would rather spend on “more necessary” things than on health food supplements. Yes, they know that the Usana products would help make them healthier but they may have other priorities such as the tuition of their children or this month’s electricity bill. That is why rich folk are the favorite market of network marketers – the rich have surplus income that they can funnel towards products that make them healthier. Those who don’t have surplus money would rather not buy health food supplements at all because of this.

The fourth reason I find it difficult to survive in network marketing is that it is a networking business. That means that you are required to recruit more people into your network so that they will become Distributors and also market and sell the same products you do. True, there are financial incentives if you manage to recruit people who are very good at selling and recruiting people themselves. But it is hard to find the right people for this and often, the people you recruit might drop out of contention if they find it difficult to sell through network marketing. Sad, but true.

Lastly, the reason I also find it difficult to survive as a network marketer is that I don’t seem to have the personality for sales. It was my younger brother who pointed this out to me: he said “You’re not a people person so you don’t belong in sales”. I guess he’s right because my Usana and Sante Barley network marketing businesses are stagnant at the moment. I’m so much better at being a writer, a tutor and pursuing academics than being a network marketer. Still, I hold on to my Usana Distributorship because I like the products and can get them at the much lower Distributor’s price for myself. I stay with Sante Barley because my mom likes the products and I can also get them at Distributor’s price for her. So I won’t get into other network marketing distributorships anymore because these two are all I can handle for now – and maybe someday I’ll get that big break and land myself select paying customers who need, want and can afford what I am selling.

Tips On Buying Real Estate in the Philippines

Because of some personal reasons, I decided to ask my Sunlife Financial Advisor Sasha So Seng Yu about how I would go about buying real estate in the Philippines, specifically in Manila. Sasha is not just a Financial Advisor - she is also a licensed real estate broker. Her niche is selling condominiums to the A-B market. I asked her specifically about how I would go about buying a condo for myself.

Sasha said that I would first have to compute my budget for buying real estate. In my case, I asked her if 10,000 per month would be enough to pay for a condo (probably a studio type because I would live there alone). Sasha said that it is possible to buy a condo with 10,000 per month but that she personally sells condos that go for a much higher monthly payment than 10,000 pesos. So I guess the amount I specified would apply for the lower-end condos.

The downpayment is another important consideration because the condos that Sasha sells require a 30% downpayment. So the downpayment for a condo for me is 30% of the total selling price. What this means simply is that if Sasha were to sell me a condo whose selling price is 5 million then 30% of that is 1,500,000 pesos. That’s aside from paying monthly payments for your payment scheme. Sasha said her condos would require 5 years to pay the balance – meaning, if I already pay the 1,500,000 downpayment I would need to divide the balance of 3,500,000 by 60 months or 5 years to pay. That means I need to pay approximately 58,334 pesos per month for 5 years. Wow.

Sasha also mentioned that I need to consider the “location of interest” or where I would prefer to live. Some places are more expensive to live in than others. For example, I have a friend who lives in The Fort and she bought her condo for 7.5 million pesos.  Another friend of mine lives in The Fort also and her condo probably cost 12,000,000 pesos to buy. It is interesting that the location would have a big impact on my lifestyle because Sasha did say that I need to consider the lifestyle I wish to lead if I’m buying real estate. My lifestyle would dictate how happy I would be living in that location – for example, if I like to be near places of entertainment like cinemas and prefer to shop near home for weekly food marketing then I would need a condo located somewhere that offers those.

Because I told Sasha that a condo costing 5 million pesos total selling price would be a bit costly for me, she then said that “you can get a good condo for 3 to 4 million”. So if I were to buy a condo worth 3 million total selling price then the 30% downpayment = 900,000 pesos while the 5 years to pay will require monthly payments = 35,000 pesos per month. If I were to buy a more expensive condo in the range of 4 million total selling price then 30% downpayment = 1,200,000 pesos while monthly payments = approximately 47,000 pesos per month.

So obviously you need to have capacity to pay if you intend to buy real estate. Take note that this is just the initial computation, meaning there might be other expenses as well that I would need to factor in. But for now, Sasha gave me a good idea of how I would go about buying real estate for myself. So that’s food for thought for me at this point in time.

Trust – The Most Important Element in Business

In the past, when I was at my first job, my life insurance agent at PhilamLife committed estafa. I was making advance payments for my life insurance plan but she wasn't remitting the money to the company. She also didn't issue me a provisional receipt for the money I handed over to her. Needless to say, that proved to me that she was not trustworthy and it created all sorts of headaches for me. So I let the policy lapse.

Then I got another life insurance policy from All Asia Life, from an agent who was my college barkada. But that didn't pan out well either because All Asia Life went bankrupt. Apparently, they were not up front about the type of investments they were making with clients’ money. Again, that meant the demise of my life insurance policy.

These two incidents proved to me what my Financial Advisor Sasha So Seng Yu likes to say: that she values the trust of the client more than anything. And trust really is what business is all about.

In the world of financial institutions, it is hard to survive because there are so many companies fighting it out for the trust of clients/customers. In life insurance alone, you will find many players that all claim to be the best insurance providers. Not surprisingly, many people who are interested in getting a financial product like life insurance rely on word-of-mouth endorsements from people who have already had a good experience buying life insurance from a particular company before. After all, these people who endorse a particular company are already satisfied with the level of service and honesty of their chosen agent/financial advisor. So that is good news for that agent/financial advisor. But it is also good news for those potential prospects because they can rely on the feedback of their friends/relatives/colleagues/business partners when selecting financial products to buy.

The flipside of that coin is that when an agent/financial advisor does something to offend the client that valuable trust can disappear in a second. Like I said, when my first agent committed estafa I lost my trust in her. One of my mentors in business made it a point to tell me “clients/customers will buy YOU before they buy what you are selling.” So if you go into selling financial products, you need to have a blemish-free reputation and so does the company that you represent.

Trust is also important when an agent/financial advisor accepts a prospect as a client. This means the agent/financial advisor also has to check out the prospect if he/she is also trustworthy because the agent/financial advisor wants to avoid creating problems for herself and for the company she represents. I guess you can say that the agent/financial advisor needs to be good at reading people. Even if the prospect has enough money to pay for the financial product, there may be times when an agent/financial advisor has to turn down a prospect because she can sense that there is something not quite right with that prospect. Better safe than sorry.

This is why financial institutions make it a point to safeguard their image in the world of business. Because even a small incident brought about by being dishonest can tarnish their image, sometimes permanently. Since agents/financial advisors represent the company, it is equally important that they too have a sterling reputation that is free from even a hint of dishonesty.

That is why when I found out that Sasha, my current Financial Advisor, was selling financial products I decided that I could trust her with my money. She was my friend first before she became my Sunlife Financial Advisor. You can say that I “bought her” before I bought her financial product. I told her that I was trusting her because she was consistently honest with me on all levels. So that is good for both of us, because I get to invest my money through a trustworthy Financial Advisor and she gets a new client (me) which is good for her business. If she and I are able to foster that trust over time, then that creates a good business relationship that benefits both of us. And that, in a nutshell, is how an ideal business relationship can and should be actually over time.

My Financial Life Strategy

Back when I was still asking my Sunlife Financial Advisor Sasha So Seng Yu to process my life insurance application, I had lunch with a close friend of mine. She taught me to compute for my “Financial Life Strategy” as she called it, which is basically computing how much I would need to live on when I have already retired from regular work and would need to derive this “living allowance” from what I had invested when I was younger.

So first, my friend asked me what age I am now (which is 40) then she asked me what age I intend to retire (and I said 80). She was taken aback by that (but I really don’t intend to retire actually, because like my medical idol Dr. Augusto Litonjua said “what would I do with myself if I retire?”) I’d probably be bored to death not doing anything all day, after a lifetime of being active and being in the writing profession. So the formula then is retirement age (80 years) less my current age (40 years) = 40 years left of work. Assuming the Good Lord allows me to live that long that is.

She then used this formula: 72 less 6% inflation rate = 12 years. She didn't exactly know how her source came up with the number 72, except that it’s an actuarial fact. She used 6% inflation rate because that’s what her insurance agent used to compute for my friend’s life strategy (which is not far from the truth because I think inflation is at 5% right now). The 12 years means that every 12 years of my life starting age 40 I would have to double my living expenses.

So what does that mean? It means that at the moment my monthly living expenses is at 25,000 pesos per month. That means 25,000 pesos x 12 months in a year = 300,000 pesos for year 2014 alone. But since every 12 years my living expenses will double so at age 52 my expenses become 600,000 pesos per year, at age 64 my expenses become 1,200,000 pesos per year, and at age 76 my expenses become 2,400,000 pesos per year. She stopped the computation at age 76 because I already got the idea clear in my head.

It gets more interesting now – she said I’d have to have “seed money” of 24 million pesos invested at a 10% interest rate so that by age 76 I would have a regular influx of 200,000 pesos per month for living expenses = 2.4 million pesos per year. Of course, that’s assuming that I’d somehow be able to come up with 24 million pesos by age 76.

Having left me with such happy thoughts, my friend didn't explain how I’d manage to come up with 24 million pesos seed money. But I checked my own current income. I am currently being paid 220 pesos per hour as a writer. That means eventually I’ll be working 8 hours per day at that rate as a writer. And that money is just enough to cover my current living expenses. So what that means is that I would need 228.3105 pesos per hour in surplus income for 8 hours per day for 365 days per year for 36 years.

In jest, I told my friend via text “I guess I have to suck up to my boss then so he’ll give me that surplus income”. However, that amount is not really far off from reality. It just means that I have to do really well in my job and somehow find a way to legitimately earn that surplus income of 228.3105 pesos per hour. Weirder things have happened so perhaps God will show me a way by which I will earn that. Right now, it’s a mystery. An interesting mystery, yet a mystery nevertheless.

So I also conclude that my Financial Advisor Sasha So Seng Yu was correct in steering me towards mutual funds and advising me to get into the Equity Fund at this point in time. This way I optimize the potential of my investment to earn the maximum amount possible, given the time I have to live. However, I still need to figure out what I’d have to do in my job to be qualified to earn more, given my talents and skills at the moment. Perhaps in time it will become clear to me what I’d have to do, even if right now I have no good ideas yet cropping up in my head.

Saving Using the Envelope Method

My friend Juan Bernardo Patino (owner of Stock Market for Pinoys) once introduced me to the envelope method for saving. Basically, you just get one envelope and assign to it the funds that you intend to save for a specific purpose. If you have varying expenses that you need to save for, then you need an array of envelopes with each one assigned to just one expense. So if you have to pay for Electricity you get one envelope and assign to it "Electricity Bills". Then if you have to pay the water company you get another envelope and jot down "Water Bills" on it. And so on and so forth...

Because I overspent this September 2014, my siblings and my sister's best friend concurred that I need to use the envelope method. So here is the breakdown of my savings plan using the envelope method.

In terms of allocation, this would mean that for every 100 pesos I earn:

- 40% or 40 pesos will go to my Medicine envelope
- 20% or 20 pesos will go to my Food and Other Living Expenses envelope
- 20% or 20 pesos you can spend freely (put in the Free Spending envelope)
- 10% or 10 pesos goes to savings - not to be touched (put in the Savings envelope)
- 10% or 10 pesos will go to the Emergency Fund (put in the Emergency Fund envelope)

To make sure that I stick to my savings plan, my younger brother will hang on to the money for me. This means that whenever I earn anything, I have to turn over the gross income to him and we will separate the funds according to the envelope it belongs to. I also have to keep a small notebook into which I will write every expense that I have paid for. That way, I know exactly where I spent what and when. My younger brother acts as my "check and balance" so that he can help me control my spending. Also, he serves as my banker because I cannot take money from the envelopes without informing him first.

Of course, there are risks even with this method. For example, I am notorious for not listing down each and every expense I've incurred so there may be discrepancies. So that's my lookout. The money might also be stolen from my younger brother's place even if we put it in a locked cash box (after all, people are only human). I might also get into emergencies that might suck the life out of my emergency fund meaning we might be forced to get money from the other envelopes to make up the difference.

But saving this way is better than not doing anything and it's simple enough to follow regularly. So for now we stick to this method so that I don't go overbudget with my spending on a regular basis.

Making Mistakes is Good

Someone once said that “you learn more when you make mistakes than when you get everything right”. I forget who said that but it’s just as true today as when I first heard it. Today was a good example of that.

I was trying to do something at work and my boss was fortunately online while I was doing it. I kept making mistakes and I was getting frustrated until my boss stepped in and pointed out what I was doing wrong. Then a light bulb flashed in my head and I realized that the experience of making all those mistakes is just as valuable (if not more valuable) than the experience of getting everything right the first time. The value to me this time was that I was able to see the process at work from the point of view (POV) of the user of the system. If I were an instant expert who could see everything only from the point of view of the developer of the system, I probably would not have that kind of insight.

In my case, I was able to see where the system would wind up confusing the end user. There are many ways that an end user would wind up getting confused as he goes through this process and I saw some of those pitfalls. Fortunately for me, that is important because it serves as useful material for my work blog. I could point out to the readers where they might make mistakes but more importantly, to acknowledge that no one is perfect and even the most intelligent of people do make mistakes too when trying something new.

If you start to feel that you’re never going to get your work right and that everything you are doing seems futile, don’t give up. You may eventually get your own light bulb flashing in your brain and you will then realize that the effort you put in is really worth it in the end. And if the process of learning does become so tedious, tiring and discouraging, don’t give up – most likely the solution is within reach and you just have to be persistent about finding it.

My First Try at Investing in a Mutual Fund

My Financial Advisor at Sunlife (Sasha So Seng Yu) helped me buy into a Sunlife mutual fund lately. The money I used was initially supposed to go into a Sunlife insurance plan but due to various reasons I backed out of the insurance idea. Then Sasha said I can always invest in a mutual fund because it gives good returns anyway although there’s no insurance coverage. So I gave her written authorization to process my entry into mutual funds, signed the necessary documentation and now I have 1937 shares in the Equity Fund.

Although I knew that buying into equities is a big risk (because the returns can even be zero over time) I agreed to it because a) I trust Sasha’s judgement and b) I know also that the opposite is true, that the returns can be 20% over time or even more. I remember a guy friend of mine telling me that for decades he owned these shares of stock that were practically worthless and he merely held on to them for sentimental reasons – then all of a sudden the shares became profitable and he cashed in. Sasha did make it a point to tell me that I can still withstand the risk because I’m only 40 and though there may be some bad years down the line the odds are on my side that I will profit from my mutual fund investment. She also stressed that a mutual fund is good for a long term investment POV.

I’m still learning about how mutual funds work as I go. Today I learned how to find the fund value, by following Sasha’s instructions. The value of putting my money in a mutual fund, for me, is that a Fund Manager will be managing it on my behalf, because I really have no experience in investing in stocks. I do have one friend who let me peek at her stock shares and she was 4000 pesos in the red. She says it’s been that way for months now. To me, that’s a pretty big loss though of course she might eventually recover everything if the market turns in her favor. So that’s why I decided to invest in a mutual fund instead of being a Lone Ranger and doing every stock transaction by myself.

Sasha also taught me about the Cost Average Method which basically means investing in the mutual fund regularly whether the market is up or down. The idea behind this Method is that eventually the average value of your investment evens out to around 20% if the market doesn’t crash over time. I did my homework about the Cost Average Method with help from my friend and my brother so I trust that this is the right way to go. All things considered it’s still preferable to a regular savings account in a bank where your money will not profit as much. So I assume that I did the right thing by trusting Sasha’s judgment about putting my money in equities, for the long term.

Why Life Insurance is Important to Me

Why Life Insurance is Important to Me

Even though I am schizophrenic, I am getting a life insurance policy soon from my friend Sasha So Seng Yu who is an active Sunlife agent. Because I am schizophrenic, I only qualify for the basic insurance plan (no riders) which is okay with me because I am glad the Sunlife company is willing to assume the risk of insuring me. And I am thankful to my friend for taking the time to explain to me how the policy coverage works. But why take life insurance in the first place?

To me, getting life insurance is important because I know that there are many unforeseen risks out there that can threaten my life at any point in time. Take that MRT train getting derailed recently, for instance – I used to be a frequent passenger at that station where the train was derailed. I wonder how many of those 30 people who were injured in that accident actually had life insurance coverage. Although apparently there were no fatalities, how would the families have coped if their breadwinner had died in that accident? How would I cope if I had been there that day in the MRT station and suffered a serious injury leading to loss of a hand, an arm, a leg or a foot? The thought of it is scary because right now I have no life insurance coverage yet, meaning if something happens to me now (before I am able to pay even one premium) I cannot afford the medical treatment. Life insurance coverage only starts once you pay the first premium.

I know some people who don’t believe in life insurance – but that’s because they have not thought carefully for a long time about how they would pay for huge medical bills if they suffered a serious accident or how their families would survive if they (the family breadwinner) were to die suddenly. I have, because I am schizophrenic. Having this kind of illness makes me wonder how I can pay for surgery if a jeep loses its brakes and suddenly plows into me as I wait on the sidewalk for a ride. I wonder what I will do if I lose a hand in the accident because touch typing is a necessary skill for my freelance writer job. And I wonder how my siblings can pay for my wake and burial in case I die in an accident (because even cremation is costly, though it is the less expensive option compared to being buried in a coffin).

I hope I am getting through to you people about the need for life insurance. If you would like a referral to my Sunlife agent, please do PM me and I will be glad to refer you to her.

Her name is Sasha So Seng Yu.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

ELEANORE O. HATTA

Why You Should Care About Carbon Sinks

Note: I wrote this for a client but he rejected it for not being "popular enough". So I decided to post it here and on Cyber Isko.

Why You Should Care About Carbon Sinks

For many people, global warming is an alarming prospect but one which they do not fully understand. This means they leave it up to the scientists to interpret the data and then filter the conclusions the scientists reach to come up with their own interpretation. However, carbon sinks is not one of the more well known concepts related to global warming – although it should be because this could mean the salvation of the human race from the many effects of global warming.

Basically a carbon sink is any kind of reservoir (natural or man-made) that can absorb the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it for an undetermined period of time. Forests are the most viable form of carbon sink and the most desirable. Not only do forests change the carbon dioxide humans and animals emit as part of normal respiration into pure oxygen, but forests will absorb the surplus carbon dioxide. That, in a nutshell, is what a carbon sink does. The theory is that if the surplus carbon dioxide floating around in the atmosphere is absorbed by forests then global warming will slow down or at least be mitigated. We then gain more time to plant more forests and thus create more carbon sinks. The end result? The reversal of global warming.

One side effect of having too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is ocean acidification. Basically this means that the carbon dioxide is absorbed by the ocean which then turns the ocean into a more acidic body of liquid. This is not good because acidification of the ocean can result in many disastrous outcomes such as destruction of the fragile and delicate marine ecosystem because marine organisms like coral cannot replicate in an acidic ocean. If the marine ecosystem is harmed this way, it is possible that our supply of seafood will be cut off because the oceanic food chain that is dependent on smaller marine organisms will find their food supply terminated. The ocean’s food chain will collapse and its effect on us humans is that we can no longer get our food supply from the ocean because there are no more marine life to harvest. And yes, that includes fish too.

So that means our survival as humans on this planet is heavily dependent on carbon sinks. We can and must revive our forests and raise these to maturity. Not only that, but we must repopulate countries whose forests have been decimated by overharvesting and illegal cutting with new growth so that they too will be able to nurture carbon sinks. The idea is to keep putting up new growth and guarding them so that they reach maturity so that the carbon sinks will absorb all the surplus carbon dioxide. Presumably then the negative effects of global warming will slow down and we will be able to cope as humans on this planet we call home. So do the human race a favor and plant trees today.

Can We Halt the Cancer Epidemic?

The client rejected this article (because he's a lunatic) so I'm posting it here:

Can We Halt the Cancer Epidemic?

Doctors are alarmed by the steady increase of cancer cases not just in developed nations but also in the developing nations throughout the world. For example, Dr. David Servan-Schreiber claims in his New York Times article “We Can Stop the Cancer Epidemic” that the types of cancer which afflict children and adolescents has been on the rise by at least 1% per year since the 1960s. Dr. Servan-Schreiber further notes that these types of cancer that afflict this demographic cannot be screened, so it may be too late for the patient when the cancer is detected. However, is it possible to stop this extensive spread of cancer before entire populations come down with it? Dr. Servan-Schreiber believes so.

This doctor thinks that physicians have to dig deep into the causes of cancer in order to halt the epidemic. And we now know more about what causes certain types of cancer. For example, most medical research has given evidence that smoking tobacco products leads directly to oral and lung cancer. Obesity is also known as a contributing factor to cancer as studies show that obese people are more likely to come down with cancer than skinny people. Eating a diet rich in fat, sugar and salt may also contribute to other types of cancer.

The problem now though is that there are other new probable causes of cancer that have only recently been identified. Examples of these (according to Dr. Servan-Schreiber) are phthalates and parabenes that are found in some shampoo and cosmetic products; alkylphenols that can come in cleaning products; and of course pesticides and insecticides that are used in households and commercial establishments regularly. There is also evidence, says Dr. Servan-Schreiber, that allowing liquids in plastic containers to be exposed to extreme heat can allow elements of the plastic to leach into the liquid – case in point, bottled water left in cars that are exposed to direct sunlight. These elements (such as bisphenol A) are suspected to be carcinogens as well. So we need to be aware of the new probable causes of cancer as well as the traditional causes if we are to halt this spread of cancer in global populations.

Doctors like Dr. Servan-Schreiber are in agreement that a diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables can contribute antioxidants which are useful in preventing cancer from starting and spreading. Stopping the use of tobacco products and prolonged use of alcohol are also good ways to prevent cancer. But since we know there are new causes of cancer these days, we also need to be vigilant about keeping up with research as to probable new causes of cancer that we are exposed to without our realizing it. Doctors, medical researchers and the general public have to cooperate with one another in analyzing possible new causes of cancer, reporting this, testing new theories, and finally coming to some logical conclusion about how to prevent these causes of cancer from afflicting the general population. We may not be able to wipe out incidence of cancer but we can slow down the rate of the global epidemic to manageable levels.

Why Brothers Will Guide You to Healthy Relationships With Other Men

I wrote this for a client but he rejected it (he's in a straitjacket now at some hospital). So I'm posting this here. Enjoy everyone:

Title: Why Brothers Will Guide You to Healthy Relationships With Other Men

Let’s face it – brothers are really good to have around, especially if you are the type to get into the wrong relationships with the wrong men. Brothers will guide you to the right men because brothers know what other men are thinking about you. Here is a list of why your brother will help you find healthy relationships:

Brothers once played dollies with you.

Yes, that same hulking behemoth who inhales food like a vacuum cleaner at the family dinner table was once your constant playmate when you were young. Your brother was your regular companion and so he knows when to be there for you when you are going through tough times, bouncing back from a bad relationship.

Brothers know when sisters are in trouble.

They just know. And don’t be surprised if he invades your privacy just to tell you that your guy is bad news – he’s doing that out of love. Your brother wants you to have the best relationship possible.

Brothers know how far their territory goes.

Don’t be surprised either if your brother sends suitor after suitor away just as they are prepared to enter your home. Your brother wants to protect you and the best way to do that is to show your suitors that he is the man of the house.

Brothers will never date anyone you hate, so he doesn’t want you dating someone he hates.

Your brother wants the family to like whoever he or you bring over for a getting-to-know-you dinner because that is how you keep peace in the house. And remember, brothers know what other guys are thinking about you. So if your brother makes it plain he disapproves of your current beau it would be wise to send your boyfriend away.

Brothers are good at picking up the pieces, even if they hate that.

If you have just broken up with your boyfriend for any reason, your brother knows that the best way to get you out of that funk is to date someone better. So your brother will let you cry it out of your system then help you put the broken pieces of your life together because that’s what brothers do.

Brothers sometimes meet the best guys through their own girlfriends.

If your brother has a girlfriend your brother probably knows a lot of other guys that are friends with his girl. Without you knowing it, your brother probably has someone lined up for you to date already (with his approval).

Brothers have to answer to Mom and Dad if you wind up with the wrong guy.

Yep, there is a higher power – two of them actually, and one is named Mom and the other is named Dad. If you have never heard your parents tell your brother to watch over you, that’s because that’s a common secret between your brother and your parents. If somehow your brother fails to guide or protect you, that means World War III will break out at home.

Now that you know why brothers are the best advisors for health relationships, you can freely go on dating other men – just be sure your brother knows about it first. Brothers like that.

The Mental Shoplifter

The Mental Shoplifter

This morning I woke up and my two other in-body friends also woke up, albeit grumbling for another five minutes of snooze. But I had to wake up because…I am hungry. And now here I am taking my sweet time getting dressed because I know…that the refrigerator is empty which spells trouble for me right now.

Georgie is saying “well, so what’s for breakfast?” And again I take my sweet time replying because I don’t want her to remember that the refrigerator is only full of mold and spilled grape juice that I was too lazy and groggy to clean up last night. Happy then pipes up “I’m sure it’s pancakes” and I want to strangle her because there is nothing worse than a perennial optimist in denial of reality. Then my tummy rumbles as I put on my shirt and pants. Georgie and Happy rub our tummy as I try to make up my mind what to do.

“There’s no food, is there?” whispers Georgie as I face the mirror to comb my hair. Again I refuse to answer. Reality sucks but it sucks more when you have an audience staring at you from the mirror, accusing me of being a negligent in-body buddy. I can feel Happy sighing in the background.
“What are we going to do? I’m really hungry now” says Georgie raising her voice.

“You know what we have to do” I reply, trying not to raise my voice in return. I then ask myself if this is what normal people feel like after they’ve been rendered jobless for two weeks and are tired from going from office to office and interview after interview. I also ask myself if other people have to contend with eating for three even if you’re not pregnant. I finish combing my hair and stare at my hungry although still healthy looking reflection. Man, I look good! But let’s see what I look like after another week like this.

“I’m okay with stealing food you know” says Happy in her cheerful pre-adolescent voice. “I mean, it’s better than having hunger pangs. And I’m not okay with begging so you can throw that idea out with the trash”. I wince at the word “stealing”. Yep, I’m definitely not okay with this. But I have no choice because…I’m broke. And I’m not going to my friends and relatives to ask for food and money…because I’m pretty sure I’ll not only get humiliated but they will readily show me the front door and lock it after I leave.
“What about you, Georgie?” I ask my reflection. “I vote we beg.”

“Annie, we don’t really have a choice do we?” Georgie snaps back. “But if I had my way, we’d go through the garbage to see what we can scrounge around for.”

“Great” I reply. “Happy wants to steal, I want to beg, and you want to go through other people’s garbage to find leftovers. Not much of a consensus is it?”

I sit on the bed again and sigh. Ever since I was fired from work, my life has not been easy. I suppose I should be glad the landlord hasn’t come by asking for the rent yet. Being independent is not all it is hyped up to be – meaning I want to strangle Mary Tyler Moore with her crocheted cap right now. Or maybe the person I really want to strangle is myself, for not being marketable enough to employers.
“If you hadn’t talked back to your boss, we wouldn’t be in this mess” hisses Georgie. “You had a great thing going for you and you had to mess it up.” I stare at the floor. “Why is it so hard for you to do something as simple as accepting reality?”

“If you mean dodging taxes forever, yes I do have a problem with that” I reply. “It’s wrong not to pay taxes”.

“Your doctor dodges his taxes. Why shouldn’t you?” asks Happy. My blood pressure is rising but then I remind myself that Happy is only an adolescent and not the same age as Georgie and me. Georgie however is getting angrier.
“All this is doing is making me feel hungrier! Let’s go do as Happy says and steal something from the grocery” snaps Georgie.

“A minute ago you wanted to go through the dumpster. Why the change?” I ask.

“We might get food poisoning if we eat food from the trash, that’s what happened” she replies. “Besides, you don’t have health insurance anymore. If we get sick, how would we pay for the emergency treatment?” Good point, I think and Georgie laughs sarcastically. “Some partner you are” she drawls.

Well, I’m tired of the argument and finally give up. “Alright, Happy wins. It’s two against me. So which supermarket are we going to target this time?”

Happy gives a loud hoot of triumph and we dance around the room, until we realize that we’re using up valuable blood sugar and could come down with hypoglycemia at any point. Happy thinks for a moment then suggests “Hmm. Why not Tony’s Grocery Store on the next block?”

We head to Tony’s, not running, just jiving down the street as if we were healthy with full stomachs, as if we were normal people in three different bodies instead of just one person arguing constantly with two alter egos inside her head. The advantage with going to Tony’s is that I don’t usually shop there, not even when I had a steady paycheck on 15/30. The disadvantage with going to Tony’s is that I might run into someone I know. But a growling stomach cannot be ignored, especially with two other people to complain about it when it goes unfilled.

“Good morning!” says the young man behind the counter as we come in. Great, I think, busted as soon as we cross the threshold. I smile back at him with my best I’m-not-thinking-of-robbing-you smile. Happy giggles. Georgie sighs in disgust. “Can I help you?”

“Oh I’m good.” I say cheerfully. “I just want to shop around if that’s okay?” I thank whoever is in charge of my life up there that my teeth are perfect and still white, and my smile hasn’t drooped yet despite malnutrition. He smiles back unsuspectingly.

“Sure!” he says. “Go and see what you like. We’ve got plenty to choose from.” So we do. I’m torn between heading to the processed food section as Happy suggested (because she really wants pancakes) and the health drinks section (because Georgie is a health nut aside from being such a prude). I grumble beneath my breath and force myself to go to the bread section. Happy and Georgie break out in a cacophony of yelling, almost making me knock over some canned tomatoes stacked in the aisle.

“Will you two shut up? I’m trying to steal here” I whisper. Happy starts to cry, as all adolescents do when they run out of arguments or simply want to get their way. Georgie laughs. “We’ll get to what you want later. Just shut up so I can think.”

I glance at the young man behind the counter again and he seems to be reading the morning paper, occasionally looking my way. “Damn, my cover is blown.” We’ll never be able to get a box of pancakes, a can of Gatorade, and a loaf of bread this way. I ponder what to do. Then I have a great idea.

“Okay, you two shut up now. I’m going to fake it” I say inside my head. I then fall to the floor, violently knocking over god knows what all over the place. Happy screams in surprise and even Georgie is stunned into silence. I moan and keep my eyes closed. I can then hear the young man’s steps hurriedly coming nearer and I have to fight back a smile.

“Hey! Are you alright?” he says anxiously. I open my eyes and pretend to be disoriented. He takes off his hoodie jacket, rolls it into a ball and places it under my head. “Are you sick?” he asks again.

“Ooohhhh” I moan. “I feel so bad.”

“What’s wrong? Did you faint?” he asks.

“I guess I must be hungrier than I thought” I say wearily. Actually, I’m not faking all of this because I can feel the onset of hypoglycemia already. But I make it seem worse than it is because I really have to make this work to get what we want.

“You haven’t had anything to eat this morning?” the young man asks.

“I wasn’t really thinking of eating anything. But I guess my body really needs its sugar right now”. I moan again, milking the drama for what it’s worth. The young man places a hand on my forehead.

“You don’t seem feverish. Maybe you’re just really hungry” he says.

“I guess so” I say. Then I try to get to my feet but he makes me lie down again.

“Lie still. I’m going to get something.” He goes to the counter and gets some doughnuts from the display case. He comes back and helps me to a sitting position. “What you need is a big surge of sugar. Here, have a doughnut.”

I badly want to smile but I know if I get out of character that he’ll be on to my act. I chew on the doughnut slowly even though what I really want to do is snatch all three doughnuts from his hands and wolf them down, even without coffee to kill the sweetness. He watches me eat all three doughnuts slowly, the look of concern never leaving his face.

“Do you feel okay now?” he asks.

“Um yeah. How much do I owe you for the doughnuts?” I pretend to reach for a non-existent wallet in my hoodie.
He waves away my offer to pay. “You don’t owe me anything. Glad to help. I just hope you’re okay enough to get home?”

I pretend to smile weakly. “I’m okay now. Thanks so much for your help.”

He stays behind the counter but I know that he is watching me even from there, as I walk out the doors of Tony’s. I keep up the slow walk until we are well out of sight then I burst out laughing. Happy whimpers.

“I wanted pancakes” she says simpering.

Georgie laughs sarcastically. “Great, so we got three doughnuts in our belly. Too bad we can’t repeat the same trick twice, in the same place”.

We walk home now, our walk powered by the sugar of three doughnuts. It’s enough for one morning but somehow all three of us know that there is still lunch and dinner to scrounge around for in a few hours. I pace ourselves so that we don’t use up the sugar rush right away.

“I still say we should have gone through the trash this morning” snarls Georgie, as expected.

“Well, if you like we can go through Tony’s dumpster later.” That shuts her up.

I wonder how long this kind of existence will last. Especially since I’m eating for three.

THE MISTAKE OF THE SNAKE IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN

THE MISTAKE OF THE SNAKE IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN

The grievous error of the devil when he seduced Eve in the Garden of Eden is that he thought and Eve thought that God is not on the job 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In a way, the soul of the devil was actually crying out for relief from his loneliness. So subconsciously he wanted to get caught. This is why the devil always tries to corrupt us throughout the history of mankind – being alone in your own loneliness is the most cruel punishment that God can deal out and ironically also the kindest because there is no violence involved.

This is why the Devil becomes violent and loves it when humans become violent. He cannot understand why God refuses to be violent towards him because subconsciously the devil wants to be destroyed. Because he can no longer stand on his own without God’s support. This is why the devil is KSP. He is actually saying to God “You were supposed to destroy me when I sinned. Why did you not end my misery?” God did not destroy the devil because God is a kind God and understands the devil and the devil’s motivation which is loneliness.

But God also understands the need for a penalty that the devil has to live with because that is the natural order of things = for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction = justice.

God had to lock out the devil from God’s presence and also lock out Adam and Eve from God’s presence because forgiving them would have upset the natural order of things and would have been unjust to the rest of Creation that does what God wills.

However, God is not a cruel God. He said “If you are not going to behave yourself, you get a time out until you come to your senses by yourself”. It is like making your disobedient child stand or sit facing the corner of the room as punishment. So the devil, Adam and Eve got a time out from God’s presence.

But because the devil, Adam and Eve refused to acknowledge their sin, this “time out” punishment extended for centuries, even millennia. They refused to acknowledge their sin which was assuming that the devil and man can know everything about the universe. This is a lie, a heresy and just what Eve and her husband Adam were subconsciously looking for. So they got what they wanted – the devil got his companions to accompany him through his lonely walk through time (meaning evil humans), Eve got her wish to be superior over men and especially over God, and Adam got his wish to delegate his responsibilities (of making wise decisions) to a woman (because Adam was weak psychologically).

So there really was no tragedy of the Garden of Eden because these three (the devil, Adam and Eve) got what they set out to get. All three of them set out to make God look incompetent but subconsciously wanted to get caught in this sin so they could also prove that God is competent.
God knew that this would happen because God knows and can control past, present and future time. But he knew that human development is based on free will. God was saying and is saying that “It’s time to grow up my children and learn to think for yourselves. This is my gift to you – the freedom to determine your own future by yourself.” This is the ultimate kindness a father can show to his beloved children.

So Adam and Eve refused to acknowledge their sin and got a time out to think about what they had done. And the devil became even more illogical, insane and lonely because he really wants to end his life rather than persist living away from the benevolence of God.

The lesson here is that time is a frightening fact of life. We all must return to the Creator at the end of our life and at the end of time. God will then ask us “So my child, what did you learn from your exile on Earth? Do you realize now the sin of your parents Adam and Eve?”

God is a loving God but he is also a just God. We humans cannot exist without acknowledging our sin because God can never be evil like us. God is saying “You need to become pure, just as I am pure, then you can live in my house without messy illogical problems”. We need to learn our lesson from these years of exile on Earth – that God is good, loves us, and wants to reconcile with us.

Jesus is the key to this because he and Our Father in Heaven talked about it. Jesus said and is still saying “Father, I feel sorry for humans because they really have no understanding of their sin starting with Adam and Eve. Can’t we do something?” And Father God replied “Yes they don’t understand what the sin of the devil, Adam and Eve was. What do you think we should do, my Son?” And Jesus replied “I will go to Earth and teach them because I love them and want them with us.”

Our sin is assuming that God is stupid and we are smarter than Him in every way. This is why the world is in chaos. Jesus showed that through his life, death and resurrection that God is wise, knows everything, and is not arrogant because he has self confidence therefore the Son of God (Jesus) is also wise, all knowing and humble about it.
God wants sane, humble and intelligent children. He could always just decide to create sane, humble and intelligent children from scratch. But God really loves us and wants us to learn our lesson so we can be forgiven. So our example for this is Jesus Christ. He was, is and will be obedient to God and was rewarded for it with his resurrection from the dead.

We are not gods nor do we know everything. True wisdom starts when you admit you don’t know everything. This is also the start of reconciliation with God. This is why it is so hard to remove our sin by ourselves because we really don’t know or have forgotten what our sin was in the first place.
Jesus understood our sin = the motivation (weakness of character), the action (deliberately doing something forbidden by God), and the consequences (being shut out by God from His presence forever). But He also knows and is teaching us that there is still a bit of time to say sorry to God. And it all begins with admitting you don’t know everything.

THE TRAGEDY OF SODOM AND GOMORRAH

THE TRAGEDY OF SODOM AND GOMORRAH

In the beginning, the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah were godly people. You could even call them children of light – and this led to their downfall.

You see, they thought that the light came from them – that they had created the light, owned the light and could dictate how the light would behave. This is the same sin of Lucifer and this is why Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed.
The light is a blessing from God. It is supposed to help us guide our way as we remove the darkness in society. That is the true nature of our souls.

The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was thinking that light can coexist with the dark. This is the lie of Lucifer. He says “I am an angel of light and I can coexist happily with the darkness – and so can you. My way is a happy way and you too will be very happy following my pure way.”

Why do people fall for it? For some, they truly love the perversion and they cling to it like a lonely man clings to prostitutes. For others, they want to experiment out of curiosity. For others, they are frightened of the real perverts so they go along with the ride.

This then is the tragedy of Sodom and Gomorrah – they were actually destined for greatness. But since they thought that they could control the light and mix with the darkness at the same time, Lucifer was able to make the situation a lasting one. So the perversion spread throughout Sodom and Gomorrah this way.

The cruelty of the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah is that they were not satisfied corrupting themselves. Their lunacy was such that they wanted to have sex all the time, thereby spreading their gospel of “try-anything sex”. That is why It had to be destroyed. It was symbolic of God’s desire to destroy the evil one.

However, God did not want to destroy them, in the same way God actually wants to give Lucifer a second chance of regaining a normal relationship with God. But because they were stubborn, arrogant and harmful to the innocent, God realized that there was no hope of repentance anymore. God also feared these perversions would spread to the innocent. So He had no choice but to obliterate the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah to protect the children – because the devil really hates everyone and really hates innocent children.

Hate cannot coexist with love. Children who are innocent spark a wild illogical anger in the devil because secretly the devil wants to be saved. Children who are illogical hate children who are innocent because innocent children love God automatically. The devil actually loves God and recognizes God’s superiority and authority.

However, the hate overpowers the love because of pride. The sexual perverts want to get caught because their souls cry out for help. But the darkness (the sexual perversions) cannot logically coexist with innocence. So the perverts are actually lunatics.

This is why sexual perverts eventually became psychotic. Their minds can absorb that the darkness can coexist with the light because God is good even to the evil ones.
However, the souls of the sexual perverts are crying out to be killed because their souls cannot stand separation from God who is The True Light. This leads to a spiral of lunacy so the city of Sodom and Gomorrah was actually a dead society already. When you are insane, you cannot think straight so you cannot hold down a job or perform well in school.

God is about logic and order so his blessing is expertise in multiple professions. When you become a sexual pervert you prevent yourself from receiving that gift of multiple expertise. So the society of Sodom and Gomorrah was actually on the verge of economic collapse because the perverts could not hold down a job and earn a decent living. Violent crime is only a system of a society dominated by perverts = financial bankruptcy.

God is not a violent God therefore violence cannot mix with peace. So God wanted to make sure the innocent, particularly the children, would not be corrupted spiritually. So that God’s true children would not be devoured by the society of perverts that was on the verge of economic collapse anyway.

This is why repeatedly God says in the Bible: “Come out of her my people”. Sodom and Gomorrah was and is a prostitute who spreads his/her legs for any man but especially for the perverts. Once you sample a prostitute you want more because there is no love, only hate. So sexual perversion is not psychologically fulfilling. It leaves you wanting more sex because what your soul really desires is true love.

There was no way anymore for Sodom and Gomorrah to be saved. God had to make a choice between waiting for the sexual perverts [to confess their sin, seek repentance and become angels again] and protecting the innocent, especially the children.

So the devil was able to destroy a whole community by claiming that he does not love God. This played into the hands of the rebellious children who were in love with sexual perversion and want to say “fuck you God”.
This kind of misdemeanor led to the destruction of even the innocent residents. Most of the innocent residents were killed because they lacked the courage to destroy the sexual perversion. These innocent residents were fence sitters and remained neutral. So God also had to destroy the fence sitters because they did not do their obligation of protecting the innocent, particularly the children.

The fence sitters thought that by ignoring the hurt done to the innocent children that they [the fence sitters] were absolved of all sin. But they knew about the hurt done to the innocent and chose to do nothing. But their soul told them to do something which they suppressed. So in the final analysis, not stopping evil is also a perversion.

In the end, everyone from that community lost big time because not only did they kill innocent tourists and visitors to their city but they killed their own souls.

This is the victory of the evil one – preventing the innocent from becoming mature, loving, caring, responsible adults. So that is why the devil is after the children.

Free will is the key. You make a choice then you stand by it. Sodom and Gomorrah made its choice and was destroyed by God, including the fence sitters who lacked the courage to be loyal to God.

For this reason, the Holy Spirit was sent to us. Our society in the Philippines is now Sodom and Gomorrah. It is on the verge of collapse. The devil’s lie is that this is the normal way to go. This is why many Filipinos are going insane.
The Holy Spirit is speaking to the souls of everyone, including the evil ones. Because God wants to restore the community of perverts to their rightful place as children of God. But this is hard to do if you’re a pervert who likes perversion anyway.

So God cannot coexist with evil because God is all good. The devil wants the children as trophies because he hates them so much. God is a protector and provider while the devil offers false salvation and false ownership of light.
So don’t be gullible, listen to your soul. This will lead you to prosperity and a truly happy life. Because only God can create life and ensure happiness because God is a happy God. The devil is all of hate and lies and will never return to God despite his love for God. It’s lunacy.

God in his Mercy had to destroy the whole of Sodom and Gomorrah as “mercy killing” to relieve the souls of the perverts of their suffering. Once the body has given up the soul, the soul is free of the perversion and is free to love God again in a pure way. Our solace today is that the sexual perverts destroyed by fire by God now have free souls, relieved of their suffering and chastised. These souls that repented are now united with God. So they found peace.