Gaining (or Regaining) Investment Muscles with GInvest

I was thinking about the time when I opened a GCash account because some of my favorite restaurants aren't in Foodpanda anymore. Shawarma Gourmet no longer was in Grab Food and I wanted to buy their pita bread to eat steaks with. Eventually, I found the feature called GInvest which is basically investing for a minimum of PHP 50.00 or PHP 1,000.00 for starters. I've had some investments such as AXA's Chinese Tycoon, Retail Treasury Bond (RTB), and Long Term Negotiable Certificate of Deposit. Basically, these are mutual funds. However, I felt the need to do some investment muscles. For privacy purposes, I'm not going to display full data here and neither should you.

I thought about how GInvest has opened some time ago but I only got into it late last year. I decided to drop in a few pesos into the local investments (which have PHP 50.00 minimum) and the international investments (which have PHP 1,000.00 minimum). I took the risk assessment and found myself in the "moderately aggressive". However, the application allows aggressive investment even for that. I guess my risk appetite changed from moderate to moderately aggressive. I decided to drop in some money here and there to see how it goes.

It would be good to know that GCash is short for Globe Cash. GCash is partnered with the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) as well as other partner banks. Pretty much, GCash is a legitimate platform for digital money which can't be compared to cryptocurrency which I'm wary about. I decided to give it a try. I admit that I sold one of my earlier investments (which only made a few centavos) and transferred to a more aggressive package. Meanwhile, I try to keep in mind to invest the money only which you don't need now. So what I did was to put some money in GSavings (which is ran by Commerce International Merchant Bankers or CIMB) to take advantage of the 2.5% interest rate. I decided to abide by the minimum deposit since banks do require them. GSavings is a powerful safeguard if ever I need to use GCash for future transactions.

It would be important to know that just investing PHP 50.00 or PHP 1,000.00 will not make it increase in a short amount of time. One reason why people enter into the Ponzi schemes or pyramid schemes is because of the promise of fast gains. Neither stocks nor bonds promise immediate high returns. Both amounts are the starting point. Chances are the PHP 50.00 was raised to PHP 55.00 and the PHP 1,000.00 was raised to PHP 1,050.00 for a start. It's really not an instant wealth maker which is a good thing. It means that the returns are in moderation no matter how aggressive the package is. There's a reminder function that informs you to invest at least a certain amount at a certain period of time. It's like I should invest at least a certain amount per month or per quarter. It would help develop discipline overtime such as dropping PHP 50.00 a day (which would mean investing PHP 1,500 per month) or PHP 1,000.00 a month for a start.

Basically, it will be a good feeding muscle. One of the things that I felt was pay attention to the Net Asset Value Per Unit (NAVPU). If the NAVPU is down then I feel it's time to buy low and sell high. Buying high and selling higher can be good but only if you're quite experienced. Otherwise, buying high to sell higher might soon result in a loss. Though, some people buy stocks to hold on to them if they give dividends. Some of them buy the stocks to get a share in the company. A share is a specific number of stocks required to form at least one share. I think it would be a good idea to at least buy low and sell high. If the NAVPU is low then one can get more units. Though I don't suggest buying when the NAVPU is way too low either. It might mean the performance isn't good. Though buying at a slightly higher price might be the better advantage.

I think one disadvantage with GInvest is the amount of time from purchase and sales. The good news is you bought the value on that day. For some reason, GInvest delivers your units after a certain number of business days instead. I guess it's because the feature is still new so what's why the purchases and sales can't be made immediately. Yet, if you bought it for that day then that's the amount charged to you. One needs to be rather patient in doing GInvest. I feel the feature was deliberately done to avoid overbuying by making purchasers wait for their investments to arrive. Take note that the cutoff time is from 12:00 A.M. to 11:59 P.M.--something I need to take note of when continuing my journey here.

I consider GInvest it as my petty cash investment. It would probably help me build better muscle for investments. The aim isn't all about making millions but making sure to have money to meet your needs. I think putting some money in the Philippine Stock Index Fund would help me get a know-how before I decide to buy stocks and handle them myself from the Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEI). Getting some feeder funds would mean getting small units of stocks from global companies. I feel learning all about them would be essential before I enter a bigger amount into them. Then again, I won't be showing financial figures because people have the right to financial privacy.

Filipino First Policy Linked with Crab Mentality

Having sea crab yesterday or just eating crab, I always think of that old commercial in the 1990s. It was called, "Iwasan ang crab mentality." or "Avoid crab mentality." This makes me recall a scene when I was a child. I saw a pail full of mud crabs (called alimango in Filipino) and if one crab got out, the others pulled it down. The TV commercial showed how if the crabs got together, they could all escape their grizzly fate of becoming eaten for human consumption. Chefs are just lucky crabs pull each other down. However, it also shows that the crabs would rather all be cooked together than let that crab escape. Unfortunately, crab mentality is one of the biggest problems in the Philippines. It's not all that unique among Filipinos. However, it doesn't Filipinos should ever take comfort in engaging in a crab mentality, just because other people do it . Here's an interesting excerpt from Inquirer by Jerry Peres de Tagle PhD: Studies in human behavior ...

It's a Common, Broken New Year's Resolution Among Filipinos to Do Better with Their Finances and Economic Knowledge

Happy New Year, right? There's this statement in Cebuano that says, "Sa Disyembre nag lipay-lipay. Sa Enero, naglikay-likay." For non-Cebuano speakers, it means, "Enjoying all December. Fleeing in January." It's because of the bad habits that are common during the Christmas season. I wrote an entry talking about when a Merry Christmas leads to an Unhappy New Year . After Christmas vacation, it can be common to talk about New Year's Resolutions. Sadly, there are resolutions meant to be broken or resolutions on paper only. Several people finish high school, go to college, get a job, but never gain the necessary knowledge of economics and finances. Instead, they continue to live the same habits year after year. Even worse, the same foolish behavioral patterns get passed down f rom parent to child to grandchild. Still stuck with financial habits that put one in a financial dodo The New Year starts and it can get funny. I tend to hate December because of the ...

Rejoicing Over Filipino Businesses Getting 100% Ownership Abroad While Crying Over FDIs Getting Allowed to Own 100% Ownership

The Philippine senatorial elections are on, right? One of the many things candidates (regardless of party) need to hold is the need for economic reform. As I continue discussing economic charter change, several objections are held. One of the objections is allowing 100% FDI--a subject often subjected to mockery. These mockeries can range from promoting colonial mentality, selling the Filipino to foreigners, borrowing money from abroad (which is definitely not investment, read here ), or even the ridiculous notion that FDI includes Filipino women dating foreigners (read here ). This time, I would like to address another hypocrisy. This time, it's all about Filipinos who rejoice that Filipino businesses are investing with 100% FDI ownership. All the while, this is crying foul when there's a law passed that will allow foreigners to own 100% FDI ownership , in the Philippines. This is a meme to expose the hypocrisy. Jollibee has 158 branches in Vietnam, which I assume happened bec...

The Recent Microsoft Global Outage Should be a Wake-Up Call to the Philippines' Need to Fix the 1987 Constitution's Economic Flaws

The Express Tribune The recent Microsoft Global Outage was caused by Crowdstrike. Since I'm no IT or CS expert--it's better if I let them talk in the news. From BBC News , here's a detail from Crowdstrike that reveals the root cause of the problem has been systemic with an update: This is still a little unclear. CrowdStrike is known for producing antivirus software, intended to prevent hackers from causing this very type of disruption. According to CrowdStrike boss George Kurtz, the issues are only impacting Windows PCs and no other operating systems, and were caused by a defect in a recent update . "The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed," he said. "This is not a security incident or cyber-attack." What exactly was wrong with the update is yet to be revealed, but as a potential fix involves deleting a single file, it is possible that just one rogue file could be at the root of all the mayhem. Thankfully, those who created th...

Is Vietnam Getting More FDI Inflows than the Philippines, Because of Its Supposedly Better Fight Against Corruption?

Discussing international marketing or world economics with boomer Filipinos can be painful. Some people still believe in the Filipino First Policy. I cite Vietnam as an example of why economic charter change (called econ cha cha) should be done. Some people cite that Vietnam's increase in FDI is because of the fight against corruption. I don't deny Vietnam has a crackdown on corruption. I don't deny that fighting against corruption helps the economy. However, fighting corruption without the proper tools and not having economic development, is useless. Fighting corruption isn't a panacea or cure-all either. Spanking is part of child discipline, not the whole of child discipline. People who only spank but never teach right and wrong, render spanking ineffective . Instead, look at Vietnam's economic policy vs. the Philippines' economic policy. Some people blame the following for the Philippines' lack of foreign investments, some things Vietnam also suffers fr...

Trying to Plan Out What to Do as a Bull Market Starts

I was laughing just thinking about ignorance about the bear and bull markets. Yes, we know about social media gossipers (seldom called a marites in Filipino) tend to spread gossip. I ran into several people panicking when the Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi) was mostly red. Others would panic but Warren Edward Buffett recommends, "Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful." That's the best market timing. Some people do cost averaging because it's practically less risky in contrast to lump sum investing. Buffett recommends that non-technical people should periodically invest in a low-cost index fund over a period of ten years. Now, the Philippine Star has an article by Wilson Sy, where the first paragraph talks about the Philippines' entry towards the bull market : Most stock markets have undergone a dramatic shift to start the year, transitioning from a bear market to a bull market. Peak inflation, a slower pace of interest rate h...

When the Education Cares TOO MUCH About Grades, Schools Produce Idiots Instead of Intellectuals

During the pandemic, I was left in limbo thinking about my poor performance under K+10. It was something to think about that a classmate of mine who was both a summa cum laude and an honor student, ended up posting on his wall, "Students cheat because the education system cares more about grades instead of learning." The class salutatorian of our batch even commented about the good old days. I always had that feeling of insecurity and envy towards people better than me. But as Warren Edward Buffet would say, "Don't hate successful people. Learn from them instead." One of them is currently a teacher and the other is in Canada. I thought about my insecurities especially when I used to believe I was descended from a fine scholar and my family was a family of scholars. I remembered the time I was taking MBA and got conned. I was asked, "Is that what MBA taught you?" I got touchy and ended up admitting, eventually, that I was only taking MBA for the presti...

My Personal Opinion on the Recent Universal Robina Incident

I was doing some news readings and I found out about the death of a certain Stephen Corilla. The incident happened in the Universal Robina Corporation's factory in Mandaue a few days ago. It really chilled my bones to read these details which I'll share from Sunstar : POLICE are set to investigate a food and beverage plant in Barangay Tabok, Mandaue City after one of its workers was killed on duty while cleaning a pulverizer machine Thursday afternoon, June 2, 2022. Cpl. Glenn Bordalba of the Mandaue City Police Office Station 3 in Barangay Basak who is leading the investigation told SunStar Cebu Monday, June 6, that they will visit the Universal Robina Corp. (URC) Mandaue City plant in Tabok on Tuesday, June 7, to investigate the matter. Bordalba added that they have not started the investigation yet as they were not allowed entry to the site by the URC management after the incident was reported to them. An approval from the corporation’s consultant is needed for the police to...

My Experience with Tealive Cebu at the Ayala Central Bloc

I have tasted several foreign-owned tea shops. My first experience with tea shops was with Chatime (read here ). Now, I heard of this new coffee shop (or tea shop, take your pick) called Tealive. At first, I thought it was Taiwanese but when I Googled it--it was Malaysian. It made sense that the company uses only Halal-approved ingredients since Malaysia has a huge Muslim population. The founder is Malaysian-Chinese businessman Bryan Loo of Loob Holdings. Loob here also means inside as the Tagalog language also derives from the Malay language. Tealive would later head to the Philippines. It would be like getting Filipinos closer to their Malaysian heritage after all. The branches in Cebu include SM City, SM Seaside, and Ayala Central Bloc. The one I ate was at Ayala Central Bloc. Someone gave me a taste of their sandwich and their signature coffee. I was pretty much impressed that I decided to dine in there. I went to try their lychee tea and chees burger. For a note, their ...

Getting Stingy at the Cost of Fire Safety?

March is fire prevention month, right? If there are people who are too extravagant then I'd like to talk again about stingy people (read the article here ). I've tried growing up with the stingy vs. extravagant extremes. Some people become stingy even with the necessities. It's one thing to deny a child a children's party since it's a want . It's another thing to deny a child stuff they need all in the name of saving money . Even worse, some people may be more than stingy enough to ignore fire safety. A stingy person just wants to save. It's almost like the story of the Miser and His Gold or The Rich Miser . I really find these stories entertaining at the same time, irritating. The first story has the miser who hid his gold under the ground. Some people today are too distrustful of banks and investments. The second story has a rich man who even dresses in rags, denies his son's shoes, had his wife cook some cake only for him, and was so greedy he had it ...

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