This is a reposting.  The original blog was posted last Jan 2013.

Sorry if I have been out of touch in the blogging world for the past month as I was busy with work and spending time with friends and family during the holiday season.  I wish you had a great Christmas and a prosperous New Year ahead.

Today the Happiness Factory had an offsite company-wide business planning session for 2013.  We reflected on the 2012 performance metrics, what we did well and what we did not do well.  We then looked at the key initiatives for the company for 2013 and did a break out session focusing on what our function and department can do to help achieve the key initiatives of the company.  This is doing action planning with the end in mind in order to achieve our targets.  Reflecting on the day – it was an exhausting and draining but productive day given that we have clarity on our goals and we have detailed action plans and clear cut timings to implement each action plan.

The funny thing is I did a similar exercise last Saturday night what you may call a financial health check.  I did a personal reflection on what happened in 2012, what I have done well and what are the opportunity areas.  From there, I relooked at my dream board.  My most immediate target was the 1M Php by end 2013.  I looked at the plans I have put in place to check if it is doable and fine-tuned and tweaked my monthly budget.  It is a rewarding feeling to see that my goal is achievable though stretched.  For some people 1M Php may not be a lot but for someone who was only looking at a savings of less than 100,000 Php in Jan 2011 it is a very big jump.

As of today, I have 2 month worth of Emergency Fund, investment in stocks (with a return of 27%) and mutual funds (with a return of 11%), a monthly contribution to World Vision (Bohol area) and a debt reduction plan.  I am proud of what I have achieved in one year.

I am not sharing this to make people envious but to inspire people that for a person who is happy go lucky and clueless about handling finances, it is possible to change for the better and take charge of the future.  All you need is motivation, determination and investing time in education to build your belief and confidence that you can achieve your goal and education to build capability in finance handling.  Most importantly find a support group with the same mindset who can understand delayed gratification, living simply and being thrifty while enjoying saving and investing to be financially free in the future.  I have been blessed with a friend who introduced me to IMG in Dec 2011 and found friends in IMG who are my source of strength and inspiration.

If I can do it, you can do it.  As the Koreans would say in their drama series, “Aja aja fighting fighting.”