Today I will give you a behind the scene on how I organize my finances.

When I was finding new ideas for a blog post I saw a thread called “Create Your Own Money Map”.

The rule goes like this:

1. Write a post in which you create your own map, explain how you did it, and talk about anything you discovered about your finances using the map.

2. At the bottom of your post link back to the other bloggers before you in The Chain.

3. When you tweet out your post tag the other bloggers. (You may have to do a few replies to your post as the chain gets bigger)

4. Try to keep your list of chain members up to date. This helps encourage others to keep their back-links up to date and in turn helps you.

The thread was started by Apathy Ends and Budget on a Stick and to date there were 34 other finance advocates who already joined the thread. Links to each below this post!

A money map is basically a visual representation of where your money goes. You can use apps to create shapes that would best represent the movement of your money. Or you can simply organize everything on Excel.

The end goal of money is to have a clear picture on what’s going in and what’s coming out. I believe organization plays a big role in attaining financial freedom. Pinpointing which part of your income goes to savings, investments or expenses is important.

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Before I spill the details on how I organize my finances and what’s inside my money map, here is a list of facts about me and my finances:

1. I am 24 years old, single professional.

2. I have a full-time day job in one of the country’s top asset management company.

3. I manage to stay away from financial liabilities like personal loans and credit card debts.

4. I love to hustle on the side. Among the plenty of jobs I do to make extra money are hosting weddings and events, blogging and YouTube.

5. I have no monthly financial obligation/responsibilities to my parents. But, my company provides medical care to both my parents and whenever they need money I’m ready to provide 🙂 I also see to it that I give my share whenever we have family bonding.

MY MONEY MAP

INCOME

I have two sources of income – my salary from day job (System Documentation Associate) and my passion projects (blogging, hosting weddings and events, freelance writing and YouTube).

For my main job, I’d like to point out that I don’t get a lot in terms of salary. I stay in the job because it is closer to my passion, it pays the bill and it offers great benefits.

I mean that healthcare for my parents is important to me and they are covered up to 70 years with no salary deduction which is hard to find nowadays.

We also have a guaranteed yearly merit increase, guaranteed 15th month and so on. Really, the benefits I’ve been longing on my previous company, my current employer provides. To date, I’m celebrating my first anniversary at work.

Note: Dati sabi ko sa sarili ko hindi ako tatagal ng five years sa isang company. Pero, dito sa bago kong work parang mag-tagal. It’s just ngayon lang nakampante yung parents ko sa akin. And ngayon lang din ako nakampante. There’s stability ika nga.

For my side hustle, what I get on a monthly basis is irregular. I really treat all the extra income I make as opportunity fund because I know there will be month or months where I will get less than what I need.

I’ve always been transparent on my net-worth as well as the extra income I receive in month. Here’s a quick link to all of my extra-income reports.

Below are the different things I’ve tried and I am still doing to make extra money. I also mentioned some related links that will help you more in your journey.

Become an Event Emcee for all Occasion. On October 2011, I created an online advertisement about my talent in hosting. I have never hosted professionally but people around me knew that it’s something I can and I love to do. I used to emcee school programs and family gatherings plus I took up a Communication course. In 2011 alone I managed to emcee about 50 special occasions. To date I am still hosting and it’s one of the side jobs that gave me soooo much extra money. You can visit my www.izzagevents.com for more information.

Wedding Planner/Wedding Coordinator. I also widen my horizon in event management and tried to sell my service as a wedding planner/coordinator. It was a nice experience sharing my ideas to the couple and helping them sort out ideas for their big day. I created my own wedding coordinator team and have been to Tagaytay, Antipolo, Batangas etc.

Makeup and Hairstylist for Special Occasion. My love for makeup made me earn instant extra income. I have widen my event management experience by applying my knowledge in makeup and hairstyling. Making debutant, bride, entourage and guests beautiful makes me happy.

Invest. One of the biggest financial decision I’ve made so far is opening my FAMI-SALEF account. It is a mutual fund investment where you and other investors money are pooled together to fund a common financial goal. There are no guarantees when it comes to investing but the younger you invest the better. Time will be your greatest ally to make your money grow. I have shared most of my FAMI-SALEF investments here. Also in 2017 alone I diversified my investments by opening a direct stock market account and crowdfunding.

Start a Blog. If you love writing and sharing on the internet then why not start a blog? You can earn through advertisements, affiliate marketing, sponsored posts and the traffic you get through your blog. There are many who’ve found massive monetary success online and this is such a great avenue to relieve stress etc. Click this for my tutorial on How To Start a Blog.

Create a YouTube Channel. If you”re comfortable talking to the camera like me then why not start your own YouTube Channel? I have a lifestyle YouTube Channel that helped me earn some money through ads and views. All you need is a good camera, laptop, internet connection and you’re ready to go. Visit my YouTube channel today.

Create an Instagram Shop. I also tried selling stuff online through Instagram. Creating your store is free, marketing is fast and the return of investment is good. There are a lot of things you can sell online from clothing items, accessories, phone cases, baked goods etc.

Freelance Writing Online. With my degree in Journalism I decided to try doing some freelance content writing work online. It turned out great with clients from abroad asking for web pages and other writing materials for a high pay. $$$

Currently, the only active side hustle I have are blogging, weddings and events and YouTube although I only get extra income on the first two.

How to make extra money is one of my favorite topic to search online.

I crave for new ideas to generate income aside from my full-time job. I know reading the list above will prove how crazy I am in finding side hustles to keep my financial life in a good balance.

My main goal is to retire young and enjoy my adult life while cash coming passively thanks to the side jobs I have built.

I know that many will contest that they don’t have much time to spend on another workload. You may have a ton of excuse to settle on being an employee. But I want to open your eyes in the reality that you need extra income too.

We all have 24 hours in a day and it is what we do with our spare time that determines how successful we will be in the future.

Why Earning Extra Money is So Important?

Because it makes you closer to achieving your goal!

You may have that emergency fund or travel fund written on your goals every time but nothing happens because your current salary is too low. That’s where a side job come in place.

The money you earn from your hobbies and passions can get you closer to your dreams. You have more means to save, to invest and to share.

Extra income no matter how small or big it is opens opportunity for you to achieve more.

All the side hustles I did and I still do helped me to become the person I am today.

It definitely increased my knowledge, widen my network and explored my potentials. Now I am not afraid to turn my idea into something for I know that if only I believe and I do the proper action I can definitely generate extra income with it.

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INVESTMENTS

Currently, I have investment in mutual fund, stock market and crowdfunding.

I automatically set aside 10% of my salary to add in my mutual account. Same 10% goes to my stock market fund as additional buying power.

My investment strategy for my mutual fund is peso-cost averaging. I invest the same amount of money on a monthly basis. For the stock market I mostly follow the List of Undervalued Stocks by DailyPik.

Here’s the photo of my current investments:

So to recap,

1. I transfer 10% of my salary to my mutual fund account on a monthly basis. I am currently investing in FAMI-SALEF.

2. I transfer another 10% of my salary to my stock market account as additional buying power on a monthly basis. My current broker is FMSBC. I did a step-by-step tutorial on how I opened an account with First Metro Sec in this post.

3. I stopped making additional investment to my crowdfunding account with FarmOn and choose to just reinvest whatever amount I generate.

I treat my mutual fund seriously and it’s been the very account that functions like a retirement account habang wala pa kong ETF, Index Fund or PERA.

My money on stock market is really just for fun and additional learning. Kumbaga it’s a hub for me to play around my money and see which individual stock in the Philippine Stock Market is good.

SAVINGS

I have three active savings account as of the moment.

1. Metrobank #1 or Emergency Fund. My goal is to hit Php 60,000 with this and focus the rest on investment. I have to hit that goal this year so I can make a significant progress over my retirement account.

2. Metrobank #2 or Excess Fund. I mentioned in my 2017 goals that I’m doing the 1% Saving Rule. In this rule I am increasing my saving percentage to 1% every month. So for January I transferred 1% of my salary to this account. February I transferred an additional 2% and for March will be 3% and so on.

3. BPI or Extra Income Fund. I use my BPI Express Savings Account to house all of the extra income I make from my passion projects. Recently, I got my second payout from Google Adsense. After withdrawing the money in Western Union in pesos I deposit 90% of the amount in the Extra Income Fund. Same whenever I have hosting gigs.

Note: I also try to save some money on my Payroll account, whatever is left after I follow my budget.

So all-in-all I have four savings account.

My Payroll Account
My Emergency Fund
My Excess Fund
My Extra Income Fund

EXPENSES

Roughly, 50% of the income I get from my day job goes straight to my expenses. Among the expenses I have on a monthly basis are: Home Bills, Phone Bills, Transportation Allowance, Food Allowance, Eating Out and Shopping.

I also do tithe based on my gross salary (or the money I earned less tax and deductions). I give this on the first church service after payday.

Here are ways I try to spend less than I earn:

Eat lunch in the building cafeteria which sells around Php 55 to Php 80 per meal (rice and viand).
Eat dinner at my parent’s home instead of spending hundreds on fast food or restaurant. But, I also reward myself sometimes of a good meal after work.
I don’t have TV and refrigerator. Because I spend most of my time outside the house I feel like having a TV or refrigerator is unnecessary. Most of the weekend I stay at my parent’s home to have breakfast, lunch and dinner 🙂 I also cook! And it’s something I’ve been serious come 2018.
Walk from office to the FX terminal instead of taking a jeepney. This saves me Php 8 every day.

Area I always fall short of would be keeping my data within the my plan which is Php 999. I most of the time go overboard my plan and pay as much as Php 2300.

SUMMARY

My salary from day job is budgeted into three categories following the 50-20-30 Rule of Budgeting.

50% goes to fixed expenses

30% goes to savings and investments

20% goes to lifestyle expenses

The money I earn from my passion projects goes straight to My Extra Income Fund which I use to pay for any new opportunities that comes my way like travel.

I don’t have a credit card but I plan to apply one before May. The reason why I’m getting a credit card is to be able to sustain all the online purchases I make for my websites including domain and hosting.

Also, I feel like this is the right time for me to learn how to take care of a credit card.

Some takeaways from creating my own money map:

Just do it. This and tracking your net-worth goes hand in hand. I love that I now have a visual representation of where my money goes.
I’m still single so My Money Map is not as confusing as the others. There are plenty of Money Maps from the links below you should check just in case you have multiple income or you and your spouse are both receiving income.
At first I thought my finances is out of order but when I sat down and did the chart it seems like everything is in its proper place. I knew deep inside the purpose of my main job is to cover for all of my major expenses. Thus, in order to sustain travelling and other life upgrades, I need to hustle.

What should you when you have too many excess money?

If you have any extra money whether it came from a side job, bonus or unexpected gift then here are some recommendations on where you should invest it:

1. Save it

Excess cash can be used to fund your savings. Open a new savings account or use any separate account your have deposit it.

2. Invest it

You can also choose to invest your extra money on a mutual fund, stock market, retirement accounts or other alternative investment in the Philippines. These type of funds are perfect for beginners plus opening fee are most likely around Php 5,000 to Php 10,000 only.

3. Use it

You deserve a reward for your extra hard work so why not use the money to go on a much needed vacation. You can also save all your extra money to buy your bigger expenses like luxury items, car, downpayment for a house etc.

Final Notes from SavingsPinay

I really enjoyed creating this blog post. Let me know in the comment section your thoughts.

My Next Action For You are as follows:

1. Answer where does your income go? Grab a pen and paper and create your own money map. Or you can also use MS Excel or MS Word or MS Paint. Take note of the areas where you spend your earnings from monthly bills to unnecessary expenses.

2. Find a side hustle you can earn extra money! This next action is actually life changing. It could make or break your ability to earn money. Do you have any skill you can offer to others? Maybe you are good in writing too then start finding freelance writing gigs now.

The Official Money Map Chain Gang:

Anchors: Apathy Ends, Budget on a Stick

#1: The Luxe Strategist

#2: Adventure Rich

#3: Minafi

#4: Othalafehu

#5: The Frugal Gene

#6: Working Optional

#7: Our Financial Path

#8: Atypical Life

#9: Eccentric Rich Uncle

#11: The Retirement Manifesto