Trick or Treat: Zero Savings Wins the Best Halloween Costume

It's October 31 tomorrow. I remember writing a Halloween post about protectionist scare tactics. This time, I'm going to address a new issue. A lot of Halloween costumes these days are anything but limited to ghouls and ghosts. Some even dress up as angels and superheroes. Though, some people would still want to dress in the scariest costume, right? The meme above by the Simple Sum Philippines might strike a big point. It's because a considerable amount of Filipinos really have poor financial habits. It's almost as bad, if it not just as bad as the typical American and overspending. The scariest costume is a jar with a label that says PHP 0.00 savings.

As Christmas is around the corner, the November sale is around the corner. Why do so many people wait until the last minute? It's easy to reason about living paycheck to paycheck. However, one could examine the many dumb ways that the paycheck is drained after payday (read here). I believe it's often called the one-day paycheck. It's payday and yes, it's time for a blowout. It's payday and people suddenly decide to start splurging that money. They should've learned to manage the paycheck by dealing with what's important. After that, they can slowly invest what's left. Maybe, they can start investing at least PHP 5,000.00 to PHP 10,000.00 in a UITF stock fund. They can probably commit to cost averaging a sum that they don't need now. They may want to put aside certain wants and invest it. Instead, the typical habit has been spending the money like there's no tomorrow.

Halloween is over and November comes. The Early Christmas Sale is around the corner. The problem is they probably wasted the salary given on October 31. Trick or treat, they went out splurging the money instead of focusing on their needs first. They could've at least planned their Christmas celebration plans. Instead, they focused on having fun all the time. It's a result of the mentality of, "If it's bitter, just add sugar!" mindset (read here). They would rather have fun all the time, only to discover that they're going to be piling up in debt. No wonder last-minute Christmas shopping (read why you need to avoid it at all costs here) is such a trend in the Philippines.

The bigger nightmare will arrive from December to January. The spendthrift lifestyle can end up being buried in debt during the New Year (read here). They feel that Christmas isn't Christmas unless they have all the unhealthy food, the music, and all the desire to just add sugar to the bitter. They discover that they have no money already for the Noche Buena (read here). The scary truth will bite them back eventually when the New Year will not be happy because their debts be many. That's why the jar with no money is the best Halloween costume.

"Will #SahodItaasPresyoIbaba Economics Lower Philippine Gas Prices?

Inquirer Gasoline prices have increased again, haven't they? A few days ago, I wrote why #SahodItaasPresyoIbaba's view of gas prices is questionable . Today, I feel like writing this after several complaints on Facebook. I would like to create a follow-up post. People are complaining too much without understanding the real reason why some countries have lower prices of gasoline. Real talk. We need to talk about economic policies, and of course, please do a study on supply-demand analysis on supply chain management . Let's examine the complaints made by Bulatlat Bulatlat Here's a chart from Bulatlat that compares the increase in prices of gasoline between the Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia. It's always problematic when people ignore simple economics. It's funny, but Bulatlat mentions this on their website: Note also how expensive our diesel and gasoline products are compared to those of our ASEAN neighbors. The estimated common price today of diesel in...

The Good Old Days when Gasoline was Cheaper Under the Late Noynoy Aquino

Millennials' Voice I would like to clarify first and foremost that this post isn't an attempt to say that the late Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III's legacy was all bad. Some good things happened. However, let me be clear that it's stupid to say, " We don't need economic cha-cha because of the late Noynoy. " However, let me clear that I decided to write this because of a Facebook post called Millennials' Voice , which wrote this: Did you know that during President Noynoy Aquino's time, the price of oil in the world market was high, between $100 and $110 per barrel. But even with those high prices, gasoline and diesel at local pumps in the country were still relatively affordable. Under President Duterte, world oil prices went up and down, from a low of $41 to a high of $101 per barrel. The big jump to $101 in 2022 happened because of the war between Russia and Ukraine. Now, under the current president, world oil prices have gone up again to around $...

#SahodItaasPresyoIbaba Economics' Understanding of How Gasoline Prices Work

International State College of the Philippines Today is Flor Contempacion Day , and rallies are expected. However, whether it's Flor's death anniversary or not, rallies are expected for the wrongest of reasons. I would like to address this photo from the International State College of the Philippines' Facebook page. The demands here are rather clunky and stupid. We have the following demands that would naturally clash with each other, such as: No to the oil deregulation law while demanding lower oil prices. This is simply ignoring the basic fundamentals of economics, namely the law of supply and demand . They say that oil companies are greedy for gain. These rallyists probably don't really understand the difference between revenues and profits . Let's understand the Oil Deregulation Law The Oil Deregulation Law, or the Republic Act No. 8479 , passed on February 10, 1998, under the late Fidel Valdez Ramos. Here's how the liberalization works: CHAPTER II LIBERAL...

The Myth of "Invading" Other Countries Through Foreign Investors and Overseas Filipino Workers

BoardGameGeek Years ago, I could remember how "Filipino pride" seems to be required by the DECS. Some songs in the Filipino subject (or called Tagalog) tend to glorify it. One of the songs was called "Ako'y Isang Pinoy" (or "I'm Pinoy") feels ironic since it was played on an imported music player. We had discussions for years about how Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) are often the unsung heroes or the new heroes. The mentality kept going on with how people desired to take a particular course not because they wanted to--it's because they wanted to go abroad. Why I wanted to take Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (BSIT) was not just to impress people but also to go abroad . However, more people shifted away from BSIT either because they were eliminated (common cause) or because it was too hard for them. Some of them flat out admitted that they took BSIT in hopes of going abroad. Some were taking nursing in hopes of again-- going abro...

Learning from the Late Lee Kuan Yew's Proving Protectionist-Driven Economists Wrong About Multinational Corporations

Reading the book From Third World to First is really a must. The late Lee Kuan Yew was faced with the mentality of the development economists of his day. Here's an excerpt from "Chapter 4--Surviving Without a Hinterland" which I'd like to share from Pages 57-58: After several years of disheartening trial and error, we concluded that Singapore's best hope lay with the American multinational corporations (MNCs). When the Taiwanese and Hong Kong entrepreneurs came in the 1960s, they brought low technology such as textile and toy manufacturing, labor-intensive but not large-scale. American MNCs brought higher technology in large-scale operations, creating many jobs. They had weight and confidence. They believed that their government was going to stay in Southeast Asia and their businesses were safe from confiscation or war loss. I gradually crystallized my thoughts and settled on a two-pronged strategy to overcome our disadvantages. The first was to leapfrog the reg...

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