The key to investing is time and a fund management program like Banco de Oro’s Easy Investment Plan is a way for the ordinary Filipino to start creating his investment portfolio that can yield good savings across a period of time. For as little as 1,000 Pesos a month, anyone can now watch their money grow without having to learn the complexities of financial markets and funds. Whether it’s a short or long-term savings requirement, the benefits still outweigh the usual interest rate of an ordinary savings account.

Personal finance management is all about planning and managing your money, creating wealth, sustaining savings, investing, lessening costs, and finding more means to increase income. It sounds obvious but many of us don't do it. And when a huge trial hits us requiring money, we are never prepared to deal with it.

Everybody's gotten into the social media bug. Even grandparents have asked help to be taught and grandchildren painstakingly trying their best. Moms and Dads have gone awry on the social media bug. What was once the private realm of teens and yuppies has now been invaded by their parents, Uncles and Aunts. If e-mails and websites successfully made the world a smaller place a decade ago, social media networking sites have compounded it o a two-block radius.

It’s been weeks since I attended Randell Tiongson’s “No Nonsense Seminar on Financial Planning,” more often referred to as a personal finance seminar. I met Randell after having e-mailed him a few times and asked if we could meet – I had a web project then that needed writers of his stature for enticing the North American market to come to the Philippines besides vacationing. This involved not only retiring in the country but more towards investing and hiring (or outsourcing), to name a few. The only thing we had in common was our high school alma mater.