When I started my financial literacy journey in 2012, I committed to pursue further learning and education through reading books, articles and blogs and attending seminars (live and online). I decided that I should first invest in myself and to follow later is investing in paper assets and eventually real estate. But even with this commitment to further learning, August 2014 was extremely unusual for me.

Aug 5-7, I attended a company sponsored workshop for Women dubbed as “Achieving Your Best Self.” The workshop was a time to step out of the whirlwind and do reflection and touched on my spirit. It gave me insights that even though I have my dream board, I have not really identified action plans or even taken baby steps on how to head to the direction of my dreams.
Key learnings I had:
1) As my Mom had to be the sole parent present when my Dad was working overseas, this forced her to be the pillar of strength of the family and in turn this was cascaded down to me being the eldest child I was responsible for taking care of my brothers when she was at work or had out of town conventions, which is usually thrice a year.
2) I had 2 valleys in my life and these things really happened for a reason. I am where I am right now because of the 2 valleys. I have risen over these “down times” and emerged stronger, albeit losing a good friend, at the prime of his life, is not easy.

Aug 25-30, I attended a company sponsored workshop called “Supply Chain Manager Excellence (SCMX)” Program that started with 8 weeks of online learning and check in calls with professor and classmates and this really focused on technical learning. The one week workshop gave us a chance to network with Business Units & Bottlers, do plant visits, learn more about other aspects of supply chain an example of which is Maintenance. After the one week workshop, we need to do an applied project and implement it by 1st Dec. Good luck to me and my partner in crime, Lili.

Our team picture in one of the activities during the SCMX program to build the tallest building using the given materials.

Aug 30 pm, after the half day workshop in SCMX I rushed to attend TGFI’s “Get Rich: Time Value of Money and Property Investing.” This workshop helped me focus in my financial aspects and reinforced that TIME is the most important element in investing and not money. It also gave a different avenue for investing or alternative income stream through the topic on Property Investing. I am proud of this group for their relentless and selfless pursuit of financial literacy to Filipinos all over the world. Kudos TGFI 🙂