I’m one of those guys who live by the present. I enjoy the journey more than the destination. I admit that there’s wisdom to visualizing your goals and working towards reaching them; the problem is, people are too preoccupied with their goals without paying much attention to their actions at the moment.
Does a reached goal equate to happiness? Not all the time. There are too many factors that can confound the experience of perceived success. What happens when you have already reached that goal? Like good citizens, we abide by the law of diminishing returns as we try to look for new goals, reboot, and wallow anew in the notion of lack.
“Life is what happens while you’re making plans” is how Kulay, my favorite OPM band of all time, would sing it. Work on a perfect now and tomorrow falls into place is how I like to think about it.
There’s a danger to enrolling in my school of thought though. Isaiah 22:13 quips the existential caution, “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die” to emphasize the impermanence of life. However, I for instance could sometimes take it differently and simply miss out on the future effect of my current actions. Carpe Diem has evolved a new meaning: seize the merchandise.
Thanks to Horace’s Carpe Diem, I am now a proud owner of a credit card debt that’s probably too big for a 25-year old dude like meself. Get now, pay later, is an American pitfall that I checked out and tripped into. I don’t even like most Americans that much.
My gold card is now in the safekeeping of my gal friend to keep me from amassing any further debt. I’m only keeping my lowly BPI edge for the necessities. When Horace wrote about Carpe Diem, I bet he wasn’t aware of the revenue he was going to give the card companies.
My mom gave me a really good tip: Ask BPI to increase my S.I.P. balance and then have my balance transferred to a fixed monthly amortization for a period of several months. That has saved me a truckload of interest and has also forced me to make fixed payments instead of the minimum. Now I no longer wonder when the hell it would get paid off. None of my friends ever suggested something like that. None of my officemates too. And I happen to work in a financial institution.
My sidekick and I are in the same stage right now. We’re both trying to get more financially streamlined. He’s the newest good influence I have in my life. He has lit a fire under my ass to take action, and 2010 is the year we get there. 2010 is going to be the shiznit!
Oh snap! I can’t believe I actually quoted the Bible in this entry.
12 coumouents:
same stage e? well it could be because you're both probably using the bpi edge.
waaaaah. ito ang mga bagay na ayaw kong isipin ngayon. dahil ang credit card ko? isang malalim na buntong hininga. pero salamat sa tip, baka pwede ko din magawa yun! hahaha!
timely post, atleast for me. hahaha!
My mom gave me a really good tip: Ask BPI to increase my S.I.P. balance and then have my balance transferred to a fixed monthly amortization for a period of several months. That has saved me a truckload of interest and has also forced me to make fixed payments instead of the minimum.
--hmmm, i might just give this a try. thank your mom for me. hehehe
@ stan: it's worse--we're both using citi gold! taenang citibank yan haha
@ commuter & iurico: I was on my way to getting a personal loan with almost a whopping 2% interest for debt consolidation. Sobrang effort! Yung iba kelangan pa ng post-dated checks tska kelangan mag-open ng checking acct na di ko kelangan. Buti nalang andiyan si ermats! Nakalibre pa ko ng chickenjoy bucket sa jollibee dahil sa promo hehe
"the banking industry discovered that innate capcity of man for greed. thus was born the instrument that has lead mankind to the pits of debit perdition: the credit card."
- from Eternal Wandeer's autobio, "KUng Paano Naubos Pera Ko sa Boytoy"
hahahahahha
I learned my lesson regarding credit cards a long time and thousands of pesos ago.
Hence, nowadays I am a cash man. The inconvenience of having to physically withdraw money and then gazing at the thick wads of bills you're about to say bye-bye to makes one think and re-think purchases.
Good thing I'm a quite OC with my finances. I've never had to deal with spiraling CC debt. And I learned about that amortization trick from my mother too. :-)
And that's why i don't have a credit card. i'd probably end up in debt. impulse buyers should never be allowed to have one of those things.
i can't completely forego credit cards though. There's so much free miles involved. And free food!
Now my bigger purchases are charged and then I go online and make an online payment right away. Then I get free food. There's always free food. I have a weakness for free food.
"put your money where your mouth is"
yan ang motto ko for 2010.
overspending kasi ako ng 2009 at sobrang nagasgas din ang credit cards ko.
ROLL EYES.
the bible ref had me checking the url. happy new year, johnny cursive.
Happy new year too! =)
So far, so good
so good so clean
hehehe
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