Parrot on a PorchA Journey Toward the Little Mansion Dream

The husband and I have a serious discussion again last night about the standing of our finances and savings. We have assessed our purchasing behavior over the last couple of weeks and we’re pleased to know that our expenses for the little one’s birthday last week didn’t get overboard. We even have some savings left enough to be pooled to our appliance-shopping budget before the end of the month. Perfect! We also brushed up the idea to buy gold coins as a new investment project. He said that the timing could be perfect because the euro is doing well against US dollar and this means that gold futures are on the rise, too. In fact, the January 11th gold value at $1,151.40 just dictates that any time, a new gold high can be reached again.

An investment is a way of securing one’s future. It comes in different forms, ways and value.  The bottom line is, we can never be complacent at any time as nothing in life is certain including one’s riches. An investment can be a gamble but more often than not, it always ends up highly valued and indeed, gives peace of mind.

Venturing in any type of a business, an insurance, buying a real estate, buying stocks are just few samples of long term investments. Another type is purchasing precious metals such as gold and silver. It may be tricky and confusing at first like when is the right time to buy gold bullion, but the precious metal industry is actually challenging and not to mention, high profit yielding especially that the value of gold does not change at all over time.

One of these days, the husband and I will sit down for a brainstorming session as we will draft our 2010 financial goals and plans. With our “little mansion” project as our top most priority goal, it is already given that saving up measures and frugal spending will be strictly observed in the months to come. In fact, I am already preparing myself as my budgeting skills will be tremendously put to test. No luxuries, no whims, no unnecessary expenses. Simply put..no travel plans and most especially, no extravagant shopping. Looking back at my budgeting and shopping attitude last year, I could say that I fared well and I’m already pretty geared up for this year. The “little mansion” project has been indeed a big motivation. I just hope and pray that we’ll be continually blessed with lots of work opportunities so it will translate to bountiful earnings and more savings as well. If everything goes well as planned and hoped for, we could probably take on our other goals like venture on a business franchise. I got motivated while browsing FranNet.com where I chanced upon great franchising opportunities that are surely a big hit in the business industry today. If this might be a little shadowy, then we can pave way for a more exciting and fulfilling “project” instead. How does baby number 2 sounds? Hmmm, let’s see.

It’s every couple’s dream to have a place that they can call their own. It doesn’t matter if it’s just a simple structured and less extravagant abode. What’s important is that they have their own sanctuary where they can start to build a small family and a household they can fully control on their own. However, it’s understandable that couple may not have the start-up purchasing means for a house not unless they have already saved for it before settling down or they are handed down through an estate or they’re gifted big time by their parents. For some, they opt to rent a house or live with their parents for the mean time while they save up for the house.

The latter is our current setup as we work on the establishment of our little abode. With supportive parents, we are on our way, little by little, to reaching and realizing our major goal..hopefully by mid-year of next year.

It’s no doubt that buying a house is indeed a one big project and that it takes time to process. The major hurdle usually is the financial part. But couples who wish to buy their own home have actually several means to take on that will aid them realize this big dream. The most popular, most exhausted and the easiest way is through Mortgage Lending or Mortgage Loans via government initiatives or bank programs. Mortgage loans are basically long term loans, usually a period of 30 years or less, where periodic payments are calculated according to the money value (over time) formula. Monthly payments are often fixed but can also be subjected to repricing over a certain period depending on the economic situation. Over this period, the loan little by little reach its maturity as the principal component of the loan would be slowly paid down through amortization.

Here in our country, the government through the Home Development and Mutual Fund provides easier means to acquire property for the average Juan through lower interest rates and more flexible terms compared to banks.

Let’s face it. With the world recession and a far from improving economic condition, life is indeed getting harder each day. Tune in to the nightly news and what we hear are the never ending and depressing news about inflation and laborers getting retrenched. As a homemaker and the finance manager of the house, I can directly feel the effects. Doing the math of our monthly expenses and budgeting are the tasks I truly abhor because the numbers just depress me.

It’s no wonder why people resort to availing loans and credit just to augment their salaries and make their ends meet. However, a debtor should always be in control and be wary of his availments because he may end up falling deep in the pit of high interest rates, charges and possibly negative impact on credit rating later on. In the US, their credit score is really important and it’s a thing that they do take very seriously. Future credit and loan availments are dependent on it. For multiple loans, they do debt consolidation which is a process of taking out one loan to pay off many others to secure a lower or a fixed interest rate. It is advisable to consolidate debt when paying multiple credit card debts to lower the interest rates which consequently means increased capability to zero out the debt. It may appear complicated but there are helpful service entities out there like the 3debtconsolidation.com that are well versed with such transactions. Their site even has a resource for sample debt settlement letter collection whatever the nature of the debt-related transaction is. In these difficult times like these, they certainly are lifesavers of those that need credit help.

The husband works for one of the top Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies in the country. Not only performance wise are they almost number one in the industry but in terms of employee benefits and compensation as well. When I was still in the work force, I even thought of transferring to their company because the pay and benefits were really that attractive. However, my plans didn’t pursue anymore because I got pregnant and transferring to another company wasn’t a good idea.

The world recession made them cut a few of their benefits as part of their saving measures but a lot are retained and one of their well appreciated benefits is their Car allowance program where work-related mobile activities are entitled for gasoline reimbursement. According to the husband, the reason why the employees rave about it because the reimbursement process is very systematic, easy and efficient. I heard the company is contracting a third party consulting firm that specializes in customizable vehicle reimbursement program.

That is when I first heard about management consulting firms such as the Corporate Reimbursement Services, Inc. (CRS). Their expertise spares a company’s accounts payable staff from going through the very detailed and comprehensive process of such reimbursement. What’s great about this firm is that they have numerous vehicle-related reimbursement programs tailored to suit the needs of the client like easy report generation of mileage reports and trends, detailed reimbursement, specific insurance information, program compliancy reports and other miscellaneous customizable reports. Cost savings, reduced risk and liability exposure and ease of administration are just a few of the employer benefits.

I have just browsed the site of Corporate Reimbursement Services, Inc. (CRS), a management consulting firm that specializes in providing support and highly flexible and tailored auto-related reimbursement programs for companies with mobile employees. Reading their site makes me hope and wish that the company wherein I worked for as an Accounts Disbursement staff in the past, knew about this firm then. That way, my task of pooling and computing all the transportation allowance of our big bosses and qualified managers wouldn’t have been hard and stressful. I remember I used to spend tremendous over time hours just to complete all these. I even neglected a few equally important tasks because of this. The Car allowance program of CRS is really commendable because it makes life easier by providing in a breeze important reports mileage reports and trends, detailed reimbursement, specific insurance information, program compliancy reports and other miscellaneous customizable reports. I recall that my immediate superior used to nag me about such reports and demanded that I give them right away. Having a “manual” experience about taking charge of car allowance reimbursement, I really find this CRS program very time saving and advantageous to a Disbursement staff of a company. Testimonials of satisfied clients also claim that this program is cost saving.