Shaun T. Dy's Business & Economics Perspective Blog

  It's fascinating (and annoying) that people want to get rich quick. The bad news is it's easy come and easy go. People do all sorts of crazy stuff trying to get rich quick. Back in 2022 while repairs after the Odette disaster were done, I wrote an article about not investing while having a gambling addiction . Some people may have pulled their money out of the index funds and played Axie Infinity trying to make a quick buck. Some people got into cryptocurrency with the same hopes of getting rich quick fast. Before cryptocurrencies and  Axie Infinity , the lottery ticket has been treated like a "golden ticket". When I mention "golden ticket", some people may have seen the classic Willie Wonka movie where each child had a golden ticket. Only one of the children could inherit the main character's candy factory.  It makes me laugh (and cringe) that people waste their money on the lottery ticket. A wife can complain about her husband buying lottery tickets

WWD I really hate December because of the heavy traffic. Some say that people do last-minute Christmas shopping because they just live paycheck to paycheck. However, the way things go during payday can tell why they can't have the money to do some early Christmas shopping . An irony indeed that Christmas comes early in the Philippines (September) but not the Christmas shopping.  Indeed, so many should realize that living paycheck-to-paycheck should be a warning not to splurge on it (read here ). Instead, they choose to many stupid activities. Maybe, call in the one-day paycheck where they immediately go splurging the paycheck when it arrives. They would focus more on their wants than their needs. I guess that's why some fools are demanding the stupidity of higher salaries and lower price of goods aka Sahod Itaas Presyo Ibaba. I'm afraid that such a move isn't economically feasible (read here ). Even if they do get a high-income job (or even become an OFW for better inco

  It's September and the countdown to Christmas began on September 1. One thing worth noting is why I personally hate December is the abundance of last-minute Christmas shopping . There's a lot of traffic to deal with one way or another. It's going to be a year after Odette hit last December 2021. I guess many last-minute Christmas shoppers were crying that they don't get to experience the thrill. This reminds me of a lot of stuff that was presented in regard to poor timing. Yup, timing in the Philippines is notoriously bad and the term "Filipino time" is almost synonymous with being late .  Analyzing the logic behind last-minute Christmas shopping Here's an article called " The Neuroscience Behind Last-Minute Christmas Shopping " by  Jocelyn Solis-Moreira. This is an excerpt that may help explain the mentality of last-minute Christmas shopping: Gift-giving is stressful. Even if you’re excited to get someone a present, the pressure of finding som

CardCow.com Right now, I decided to monitor the stock market opening and closing almost daily. It looks like the bear market is far from over . I decided to Google "bear market not yet over". This is the latest report from the Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi) website : The recent observation has some scores in green but the percentage changes are anything but significant. In short, the bear market is still on. It's a good time to buy more stocks (either through DIY or through a stock index fund). The PSEi's overall change is barely one percent. I feel Warren Edward Buffett's excitement right now since it might mean, "I'll probably buy in bulk yet again." In another case, the AXA Chinese Tycoon Fund will end up buying more units per month than it was during the bull market . I would dare say that the bear market is far from over based on the scores. True, they are in green (signifying an increase ) but the increase is far from significant.  This

CardCow.com I remembered one of the reasons why I was scared to do stocks was because of the day-to-day trading losses. I feel like the person I heard who borrowed PHP one million (and lost it) to invest in stocks must've done a day-to-day trade. One of the warnings Warren Edward Buffett gave is never to borrow money when you buy stocks. Stocks are not as liquid and they get hit by day-to-day fluctuations. Sometimes, the big gain in stocks happens after a certain period of time. Checking the feeder funds from ATRAM this morning made me think that while it's rising--there are still day-to-day fluctuations to deal with it.  An earlier post was discussing why I want to avoid day trading (read here ). I heard people emake money out of day trading. I decided to try a simulator  in day trading. It turns out it's not worth it. I already lost a huge amount of money to a bad customer. I felt every loss I made in the simulator was reliving that moment. Several times, the fluctuations

Casino.org I was looking for a new topic to write about. Apparently, my post on Robin Padilla who I didn't vote for but now agree upon (read here ) is catching wind on Facebook . However, I didn't want to resist writing about the cryptocurrency hype. I recall some of my biggest mistakes aside from letting a family friend buy in huge credit or taking offers without asking. Another thing that I could've gotten into is cryptocurrency . The reason is I've been into hype-riding, praise addiction, or afraid of being left out. It didn't matter how much theoretical information   I learned if my  temperament is bad. As Warren Edward Buffet said the following: The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect. You need a temperament that neither derives great pleasure from being with the crowd or against the crowd. The issue is people tend to take pleasure in going against the crowd or for the crowd. I've experienced both of them and who hasn't?

Back then, I remembered being told to invest only money I can afford to lose. I would confess that's really very bad advice. I decided to dig out an old article from The Philippine Star by Rose Fres Fausto who had written these words of wisdom: I cringe whenever I hear this advice. Why? Because it is a bad advice! Imagine if Uncle Warren Buffet followed that advice. He wouldn’t have become the world’s best investor. Okay, let’s get more real. Imagine if the regular Juan and Juana would follow that advice. Both would never get to say, “I am ready to have a decent retirement.” And that is even after they have set aside savings religiously from the time they started working! Inflation would have eaten up the purchasing power of their savings leaving them feeling kawawa despite being conscientious in following the first basic law of money, “Pay yourself first.” It should be remembered that yes, all investments have risks but to invest only the money you are willing to lose? Come on. Th

A recent article I wrote was focused on the not-so-surprising outcome that Axie Infinity finally crashed . I really have no reason to enter into cryptocurrency--not especially since its volatility is way too high in contrast to stocks. I've been recently monitoring my UITF investments every now and then. I tend to do it daily because I might get an opportunity to buy more or to see which UITF (from GInvest for now) would have lower NAPVU--meaning my PHP 1,000.00 for the month will buy more units. Now, I decided to give an update on my most recent post on Axie Infinity's crash with this one.  I remembered writing about the irony of turning down investments while having a gambling addiction . A "follow-up" to it was a write-up where I mentioned  the irony of saying AXA is a scam while possibly playing Axie Infinity thinking it's an investment . I wrote some of my memories while living in Downtown Cebu until I was 14 years old. I could remember how gambling addiction

llustration: Daniel Guerrero Fernandez for Bloomberg Businessweek I remembered some time ago when I wrote about Axie Infinity . One article I wrote about why I never bothered to enter the Axie Infinity arena was the poor security . I compared it to a cockfighting game--a game where so few win and so many lose. A previous article I wrote was all about why play-to-earn games are too good to be true . What's not too surprising is the collapse of Axie Infinity . It's pretty much too good to be true. A casual gamer can testify that they buy online passes not to earn but to play . It's like buying a Playstation Plus card to play online for an entire year. You buy games out of the money you earn. You don't earn money out of gaming.  What truly never surprised me was how Axie Infinity crashed. It promised riches but onoy resulted to disaster. I even wrote that there could be an ironic moment somebody says that AXA is a scam while playing Axie Infinity thinking that it's an

I was thinking about this video above where somebody said, "Don't invest in AXA or make the loss that I did." It was a person named Bill Baker. Try checking out the comments in this video and be ready for facedesk comments . I was thinking about how this guy doesn't realize that AXA isn't about instant gains, there are premium charges to pay which is money allocated to the insurance portion of the investment. Did this guy expect his money to multiply fast? Some people commenting on the video are commenting out of ignorance. It might be worth asking, "Did you keep withdrawing your funds or do you even bother to understand the ups and downs of the equity market?" The money market is no easy game. I remembered being told to hold my Retail Treasury Bond (RTB) after selling my first bond and reinvesting it again. I decided to get a Long-Term Negotiable Certificate of Deposit (LTNCD) as another investment. I'm trying to learn petty cash investments on GCas