Adventure Accounting

I like dogs and cats. I believe that people who love dogs and cats are good people. Peace on earth We had a Siamese cat at home for 5 years. I loved his antics but I hated when he claws at my stuff, or worse, at my legs, when he is hungry.  Moshi and puppies   He died. He didn't recover from his sickness. Now a cat cafe. Wow. We didn't go inside Cat Cafe in Singapore although it was located along the street of our hostel. Maybe someday. Someday is already here. We have a cat cafe in the Philippines. Miao Cat Cafe is located in Congressional Avenue , above Cakes2Go. The place is still new as the sign was still being built when we visited last weekend. We had a slot of 8pm to 10pm. Please make a reservation as the place is small and there are a lot of cat enthusiasts (who probably dragged other friends).  Parking is pain, but don't let it stop you. Hopefully, you'll be lucky and find a spot. Don't let this minor detail stop you. Hea...

Willpower is not enough to conquer your goal.  You need a support system to achieve your goal. A healthy lifestyle requires determination, commitment and discipline. Among the three, discipline is the most challenging element. Discipline requires you to make the smarter choice in a set of bad options (like ordering in a restaurant, or eating at a birthday party). At some point in your life, you’ll gain weight. (Read: when you age) Losing weight is a short/medium term goal. Getting healthy is a long term goal. As 2015 rolled in, I chose to kickstart this healthy living project by going on a detox.  Research led me to local and foreign options. The Farm in San Benito is a popular choice but a week in it would cost me the same as three weeks in Europe . I'd rather spend the money in Europe. There are also mid-range options in Phuket. There's also Bahay Kalipay in Palawan, but I was a bit iffy with their bathroom arrangements. Fortunately, Ananda Marga Cebu came...

If you are just interested in my travel adventures, skip this post. Background 2014 was a transition year for me. I changed jobs. From Makati to Quezon City. From a 1.2-1.5 hour commute per way to a 20-minute drive (30-35-minute commute). Distance from home to office: 18 kilometers to 6 kilometers. Role: From Tax to General Accounting. Setting: From corporate to a local non-profit organization. I’m back in UP Diliman. 

I post a photo.  I change my profile picture.  I change my cover photo. I upload an album.  I get 3 million likes over 3 days.  Everybody comments: “Lucky you!”, “Ikaw na ang mayaman!”, or “Amazing photo”.   The photo captures a single moment. There are other not-so-happy moments around that shot. These are the ones that do not get posted in my timeline. Trip Planning & Preparation Budget & Research Every trip begins with an excel file. For the past 5 years, I committed 30% of my net income to my travel fund. In some months, I allot even 40% of my net income. Bonus? I dump 80% of that to my travel fund. It takes months of continuous saving before I get somewhere and take a photo that you can all like. Not glamorous at all. Packing. There's this popular travel-expert advice: "When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money . Then take half the clothes and twice the mon...

Hello Blogsphere. I am alive. This blog isn’t. Not very much. Blogging has become a chore. Look at this post’s title. I can’t even get creative. I just put “special” in it just because. Ho ho ho! What’s so special about this post? I blogged, and published the entry in the same day! Ho ho ho! *Looks at the draft year-ender posts for 2011 and 2012* Like 2011 and 2012, I filed my leaves for 2013 on the first working day of the year. The flights for my trips were booked in 2012, except for my trip in Malaysia. January is the busiest month of a tax accountant because of all the necessary permits renewal, tax audits and year-end reports. I’ll stop blabbing about my work here. Read on! I channeled my travel energy to prepare for the Wushu Discovery Friendship Games. I was an athlete *cough cough vomit* With my Wushu family in Wushu Friendship Games in SM Annex No trips since my Japan trip . Four months of travel hiatus was a refreshing break. I took a break from al...

Long weekend. A rainy night. The "5-day-long-weekend" ends tomorrow. The sun has been hiding; I've accumulated enough bedweather for a whole month. Had covert this stored up potential energy something productive. I caught up with some BIG TIME BACKLOG entries on blogging.  However, the internet has been irritatingly wonky during this 5-day workbreak. I can't even work from home decently because of the slow connection. I saw this revised Maslow's hierarchy of needs posted in Facebook: Too bad Maslow didn't see this Facebook, Twitter and Gmail have been loading unusually slow from time to time. It made me think about my other non-Gmail email addys.I remebered: Edsamail! Edsamail CD anyone?   Remember those 56 kbps dial-up days? When the cheapest internet card was Reb el? It was Php 100 for 4 hours, and you can get a free email add with Rebel. Then Pacific offered Php 100 for 10 hours. Then came ISP Bonanza with Php 100 for 20 hours. I...

The Birthday Blues Post. In a couple of days, I will blow another candle in my cake. Okay, so I am not that young for the birthday cakes. I’m not turning 30...yet. I still have some years before I get there.   Some of the thoughts that I thought when I was younger... elementary, high school.... By the time I was 30... I should: Be filthy rich. Have Php 1,000,000 (it sounds like a really huge huge astronomical amount when I was a kid) Travel and set foot on the 7 continents. Travel the world! Get a Masters Degree. Everybody wants it. Everybody does it. A higher sense of accomplishment. Get married and have kids. Doesn’t mean that you’ll have a great marriage or   you’ll be good parents if you do these before 30 though. Have my own house. But what if I haven’t even decided WHERE I should live? And to do this "everything before 30 list", I have to finish my studies and have a great job. So that’s the formula and the path if accomplishing all this thing...

I was nine years old when I experienced my first plane ride. I barely remember how I felt during that flight from Manila to Hongkong. It took another 13 years before I rode a plane again, thanks to our company outing. Puerto Prinsesa made me realize that the ocean holds more fun than the swimming pool. I used to hate the ocean because the water is salty. PP introduced me to a wonderful activity called snorkeling. I can still recall the joy I felt when I saw fishies eating the bread in my palm. I vowed to travel more in the future. Island hopping in Puerto Prinsesa in 2007 Unfortunately, being an auditor meant doing lots of overtime while budgeting your meager salary. I didn’t have the chance to travel because of my working hours and my tight budget. I wanted more income and more time – to travel, to save, to spend and basically do whatever I want. So I happily left the auditing world in 2008 to get a normal 8-5 job and vacation leaves that I can use.

Personal finance books and blogs discuss the importance of having an emergency fund – your “rainy day fund”. It is an accessible reserve that will be used in case of an emergency. This fund can range from three to six month’s worth of expenses which will be your fall back fund in case you lose your job or lose income. There is no absolute standard in determining the amount; it all depends to each one’s needs. I’d like to share some insights about this, from a travelholic’s perspective.  My piggy bank and my world map The Benefits of Having An Emergency Fund Additional Fund for visa purposes The emergency fund will serve as an extra fund when you apply for a visa. Most visa applications will require you to submit your latest bank statement – if you will shoulder your vacation expenses.

A break from the Europe series. I’ll still be updating my backlogs. We travel to unwind, discover, experience and enjoy. During my adventures, I encounter some people and situations that just ruin entire experience. I compiled my two-cents worth of thoughts on good manners when traveling. Say Thank You I believe that this is one of the first few lessons taught to us when we were kids. Don’t leave this at home when you travel. Say “Thank you” even when you are in a hurry. Notice that even the contestants of the Amazing Race manage to say “Thank You” to all the people they deal with. Even better, learn how to say “thank you” in their native language. I’ve noticed that they have a bigger smile when you say this in their language - even if your accent is off. Accent Alert Every dialect/language is unique. There are endless jokes about funny accents or people trying to speak your dialect but their accent is so obvious. While most may laugh, try to leave this at home (or k...

It has been almost nine months since I got back from my 24-day solo DIY Europe trip (this post is backdated) . The euphoria should’ve faded. But, every time I write another Europe post, I can still feel the happiness. The euphoria wouldn’t die. Everytime I come back from a trip, my “bubble of happy thoughts” gets bigger. After this trip, I’ve accumulated happy thought bubbles that I would rekindle forever. Random things remind me of random memories that occurred during my trip. As I blog my adventures, I am amazed that it really happened . Why am I feeling so victorious?  This is one trip I’ve been aching to do forthe longest time . Now I finally did it. An idea was translated to numbers,saved and tracked in an excel spreadsheet , plotted and planned in another workbook then blessed with a stamp in my passport. After all the saving and planning, these finally translated into an actual experience, imprinted in my mind, immortalized in pictures. The Colosseum in Rom...

Arriving In Paris I’ve heard and read a lot of horror stories about the pickpockets in Paris. As a solo traveler, I opted for the more costly option of booking the ParisShuttle to pick me up in Paris Orly Terminal and drop me off to the hostel for only €18. Their regular rate is €25 but I got a discount because I flew using Easyjet. Alternatively, Paris Orly Terminal has a train connecting the airport to the main line. But I didn’t want the hassle of reading maps while being alert with my luggage in a new city.   Getting Around You can buy a carnet of 10 tickets for €12,50. The carnet is valid in zone 1 only. There is also the Paris Visite Pass comes in two options: a pass valid for zones 1-3 or zones 1-5 which can be valid for 1-5 days.  Plan your itinerary in such a way that the adjoining areas can be reached by foot. You can use one ticket to go there and another one going back. Maps are useful. A pen would be a handy accessory. Don’t be afraid to use t...

These are all part of my to-do lists before flying off to Europe. I researched those errands that I should be doing but due to my visa issues, I only had a short time-frame to do this. Currency The philippine Peso (Php) is not accepted in European money changers. You have to bring USD to Euros. Sanry’s Money Changer does not sell currencies anymore. If you want to change Php to USD or Euro, you have to resort to other money changers like Czarina’s (they require three working days reservation I think). Since I did not have that time, I had to buy dollars which I planned to convert to euros once I find a decent money changer in my first stop (Amsterdam). Turned out that the exchange rates were bad bad bad. I was expecting a 100 USD= 72 EUR exchange when I was  there but the best deal was 100 USD = 70 EUR. A total rip-off! I just changed 200 dollars to 125 euros (really bad airport rates) to get to the city and I regret changing that.I should have done an ATM withd...

A lot would think one has to be rich to travel. Not exactly. But you do need the funds to travel. When the travel bug bit me , I knew I had to allocate my income accordingly. Or else I will be booking all the seat sales out there. There are quite a handful of blogs and forums discussing personal finance management. It is actually quite overwhelming. Despite being an accountant, it took me six months of reading and researching before dipping my toes in investing. I’m not going to discuss that in detail here because that would warrant another blog. After some tweaking around with my budget, I baked the ultimate budget pie. Let me discuss with you the flavor of each slice: