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.

Honoring the Recently Deceased Jose de Venecia Jr. in a Business/Economics Perspective

That's right. Jose de Venecia recently passed away yesterday. As an advocate for reform, it's sad but true that de Venecia didn't win because he was boring . It was easy to think of him as a boring guy. I remember the time when he was called in ISPUP as Yoda De Venecia (after the Star Wars character). I was just a clueless college student at that time when the ISPUP episode was shown. I was only 13 years old when de Venecia ran for president. It was also that era when Joseph Estrada (who's now 88 years old) ran for president, and it was that time when Atty. Hilario G. Davide Jr. (who turned 90 last year) became the chief justice. Just recently, I found this eulogy for JDV. I will not post the whole eulogy, but only the one from the one that would "fit better" for a business-economics blog: He helped advance policies that enabled major infrastructure projects through public private partnerships, converted former military bases into thriving economic centers...

Should Noynoy Aquino be a Valid Excuse to Reject Econ Cha Cha?

Philippine Star Updated January 25, 2025 This may be a touchy post. Politics is often a source of fights during parties. That's why we're told not to talk about politics during parties. Unfortunately, some people on Facebook are now using the late Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" C. Aquino Jr. as an excuse not to execute even economic charter change. Never mind that blatant supporter of Atty. Maria Leonor "Leni" Gerona-Robredo, Andrew James Masigan, supports economic charter change . The late Charles Edward P. Celdran was also an anti-Duterte critic. As I looked at some okay boomer posts, I'm not surprised at people who still use Noynoy as an excuse to shout with all their might, "No to economic charter change!" Somebody posted on Facebook the following. As always, I won't publicly shame anyone. If possible, I will only refer to them by codenames or use the name Anonymous. I want to remain as professional as possible. This person said that under N...

Opening #SahodItaasPresyoIbaba Stores Nationwide Increases POGO-Related Risks (NOT FDI)

Alice Guo aka Guo Hua-Ping may be in jail now . However, I believe the saga is far from over . It reminds me that I actually wrote about how several idiots on Facebook go so far as to say, " Alice Guo should be a warning about open FDI! " Some have even gone as far as to say that POGO and Chinese spies should "justify" the Filipino First Policy . However, the harsher reality is that the Filipino First Policy may actually be encouraging dummy investors instead ! As the saga continues, I've decided to write what I might call my harshest entry yet. It's going to be Chinese New Year this year. This might be an entry that may need to be shared before the Lunar New Year! My grievances are still ongoing because some people still demand #SahodItaasPresyoIbaba, no matter how destructive it will be . That's why I use Venezuela as an example, especially during Nicolas Maduro's downfall . Back to the topic, I remember writing a joke post where I said, "Wh...

An Interesting Mental Exercise for Chinese as Second Language Class

Back in my day, I remember we kept memorizing what was called bon toi (written as 问题, Wèntí in Mandarin) without understanding them. I hated memorizing those. I guess another reason was to parrot what one can't understand. We had the biak diam too which is Hokkien for oral recitation. Memorizing the question and answer (written as 问题和答案, Wèntí hé dá'àn in Mandarin) would actually not be so tedious if Chinese was taught as a second language. My bizarre idea is to think about having only one bon toi but there are five answers to memorize. Memorizing (and understanding) why some don't want to learn Chinese These five reasons (above) have to be memorized in both Chinese and English. The teacher (老师, Lǎoshī) would say the question, "不学中文的最大借口是什么？" (Bù xué zhōngwén de zuìdà jièkǒu shì shénme?). The question can't be answered until the student actually translated it as, "What are the top excuses not to learn Chinese?" The student will eval...

Teaching Mandarin by Recalling How Much Chinoy School Students Complained, "Hay, Chinese!"

It's time for a bit of Chinese language Throwback Thursday. I remember how the Chinese school can be summarized as students memorizing without understanding . The problem wasn't the Lǎoshīs (老師) but the system that ran them as persons . I decided to write this article to " bring up a trauma " associated with the Chinese education system. From Kiko Chinese, this picture shows the common complaints from children. Standard Chinese is so hard! The Chinese schools tend to lose students because they keep failing in Grade 2 or Grade 2 in Chinese. In fact, I remember someone failing Chinese four times back in the 1990s. Another one was three years in Grade 3 Chinese, where the Chinese teacher was even stricter than the Grade 2 Chinese teacher. The real issue was that there wasn't any real learning because the old traditional Chinese system wasn't doing anything right . People were treated as if Hokkien were their first language. However, we realize that people can...

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