Happy Dada's Day !!!

It's Dada's Day and I am feeling blessed and inspired to share my story with you.

This is My Story
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I am a Network Engineer by Profession, an ITIL practitioner, a father of a 5 yr old boy and a loving husband. I grew up in an above average family living status. My father was a chief Cook in a cruise ship. My Mother used to work for the largest hospital in Jeddah as a medical secretary. My grandparents were the ones who raised me and my brother. Lets just say i lived my younger years like I thought we were rich, I can buy what I want or need, toys food clothing etc. All they ask of me was to study hard so that someday when I grow up I can get a decent job with decent salary to raise my own family. And I did not dissapoint them, I was kinder Valedictorian, was always on the honor roll list and brought medals and trophies from contests. I was so happy and proud that I thought I had the perfect family.

 

Until one day when my belief was broken and my faith was tested. My parents got seperated, probably because of the long distance relationship like most overseas worker relationships that we witnessed. I crashed like an airplane! Our big house was sold, our car was sold, Me and my brothers joint family savings account was depleted to pay for different things. My family got buried with debts it even caused quarrels between us.  From a private school I went to High School on a government school due to financial problems. The atmospshere was very different. As well as the competition, meanwhile I, feeling devasted tried the opposite of what I was usually doing, from studying hard to playing hard, from the nerdy bookworm to the party gimmick thing with "barkadas". My confidence became less and my dreams and goals in life became vague. I went to college taking up a course I did not want just to satisfy the thought of getting a diploma for a good job, besides we cannot afford the course and school I want since my brother is only 2 years ahead of me and he was already in an expensive School. Unfortunately I only completed 4 years of college, I stopped because I realized I was just wasting time and money since I am not doing well simply because I did not like what I was doing. My family was broke, my Dad died in a motorcycle accident and my Mom lives with my Step Dad now in the province.  My grandparents had to be endorsed to whoever of us that can support their needs. Savings were not enough probably because of  lack of planning for the future. It really crushes my heart to see my family living like this and most of all it really sucks when you can't do anything or have no power at all to help them. 

 

And so my call center career started. I got excited to work early so I can live my own life and be more independent and help my family. There I met my beautiful and loving wife, I am very thankful to God for giving her to me, she gave me a new meaning in life, she knows the hardships in life and taught me how to cope up with the unfair world of life. Now I have been working as an employee for about 9 years. I took up Instrumentation and Control Engineering but ended up in a call center, from helpesk to tech support to NOC engineer up to management. I thought when I reach being a manager, it is enough for me to get to a wealthy living life again but I was wrong. I realized the time and effort I spent was not worth the money I was getting. In spite the good amount of salary, the word rich is still far at hand so  I thought something was wrong.

I  am  like most common people. Working hard for the money, for my family  and career for better living. Go to work everyday, wait for my paycheck, pay my bills and other responsibilities, spend on my lifestyle, strecth the remaining money and  if not enough get a loan and repeat the routine. This in finance is what we call the rat race cycle. From then I kept thinking I need to get out of the rat race to enjoy life but the question is how? Me and my wife tried a lot of businesses, from food carts, computer shop,delivery, and famous networking products. Currently we have a loading station and a "bayad center" like setup at home as additional sources of income, But then again the profit was just at a break even point Then months ago our Ninang invited us for a meeting and shared us something that we never thought would impact us and change our views in life. Most people know how to work for money but we did not know that money can actually work for us. Their mission was to help every family become financially litereate  and secured. From being Spenders to Saver and Investor, from Employees to Entrepreneur and from being Nobody to Somebody. Then I thought hey maybe this is what we were looking for. My wife and I joined the group and we attended different free seminars which taught us financial concepts that helped a lot. We started planning and created our strategy with the guidance of our mentors and coaches combined with very inspiring stories and lessons taught by big people in the industry like Bo Sanchez, Rex Mendozam, Fitz Villafuerte and many more. Now we have protection for our family, have mutual funds, also starting to learn the stock market indsutry and now have a big business of our own to grow. We have savings and investments that would grow a lot bigger than what we have in our traditional bank savings. We learned that there is a proper way in investing your money that you should not miss and most important of all we have the chance to share this wonderful oppurtunity and knowledge to all our loved ones and friends. And to you dear reader, if you were able to relate to my story, I hope you learned that  Wealth is not about what you make but about what you keep. Like Bill Gates said "It's not a mistake when you are born poor, but a mistake when you die poor."

When I  grow old I don't want my son to experience what I experienced. I thank my Family and love them very much, I don't blame them for what happened since they did not know what I just learned now. We are still in the process of building, before I can help I need to help myself first and I a still have a lot to learn. My point is it is still not late for everyone, start realizing your dreams and goals, plan for the future and secure your family as early as you can.   

Thanks for taking time and interest in reading my Blog.
I will discuss more of our stories and financial lessons in this blog.
Please feel to contact me if you are interested in free financial coaching. I would be very willing to help and assist you.  Happy Father's Day and Happy Investing to everyone.