Ways to better determine your future

Posted on October 6, 2022 by Jeannine

Nobody can determine our future except the one above, God. Does that mean we simply wait in vain and wait for things to happen to us? Of course, not! In the Bible, Matthew 7:7 even says, ““Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

This only means that we’re required to do something and not simply wait. This applies in all areas of our life, may it be our personal goals, love life, family, work, spiritual, and also financial. What we’ll focus here though is the financial side where the most obvious way to achieve your goals is to work. That’s what we’re taught from school and by the society, right?!

While that can play a big part of how successful you can be in your future, it isn’t just by working that it can be achieved. There’s something most of us forget though that plays an important for on ones success, that’s HABITS!

That’s right! Every Billionaire or Millionaire have great habits which they do every single day and I’m sure, if you’ll ask them where to start, they’s say, START WITH YOUR HABITS.

Here are the Habits you’ll need to be financially successful:

Mind your own business

Most of us have been raised to mind of what others would think or say or see in you. The negativity of this action hinders your great potential in doing what you should be doing. As long as you don’t step on someone, finding a way to simply work smarter than harder is the way to go.

This way, you get to allocate your time wisely and do more stuff. We all only have 24 hours a day yet you wonder how others can do more? Well, because they simply do. They don’t look at other’s and see how they are gauging compared to themselves.

Set Goals

When doing this, I suggest to do it the “SMART” way. I’m not saying your way is a dumb-way, what I meant is by doing the Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound Concept. This guide is really helpful for you to make your dream into goals and finally your reality.

Re-assess your budget

Making a budget is a great step forward already for someone who is aiming for a financial lifestyle change. A one-time set-up though isn’t enough for this to be utilised wisely. Re-assessing your budget helps you see and tweak more on loopholes where you can squeeze more from your budget.

You might have allocated a $300 for food but since you’ve been doing meal planning, you’ve noticed that you’ve been using $200-250 only for the past 2 months. This is a great opportunity to modify your budget and perhaps, increase your savings or add more to your emergency fund.

Let go of instant-gratification

I heard this is one problem of millennials nowadays. Who can blame them? They’ve been raised in a society where food is widely available through fast food and food deliveries, information is widely available through the internet on their smartphones or computers, and the technology of almost everything to make things done faster.

I’m not upset or against all of this. Believe me, we do eat at fast food, avail food deliveries too, and I’m a fan of the internet (hello! I’m a Blogger and I’m happy that you’re reading this from another side of the world!!!) I’m truly grateful for it. OKAY?!

What’s upsetting about it though is that because of this though, the thought of working for something has been a pain on their a$$e$. Wanting for things to be easily received/obtained doesn’t happen in real world despite all of the technology “now” has to offer. We people still need to work for it.

It is because of this mindset that people settle for things that doesn’t truly matters. Instead of waiting, they settle for instant-gratification. If you want to be successful, financially and in life in general, don’t! The best is yet to come, always! So, hang-in there!

Find someone who knows better

This is one thing the most successful people would surely be doing yet others who sees them on the top doesn’t see it coming. Successful people understands that they don’t know everything and humbles themselves and seeks help from someone who knows better.

Wonder why you hear in the movies this famous lines from their famous characters? “Talk to my attorney, or Talk to my accountant”. Aside from they pay them, they also know that these people know better than them in those specific fields. This helps them do better in their life and focus on what they do best.

Sharing with others

There’s a misconception in the society that when you give, it should be at least a certain amount. You can get rid that from your mindset because the reality is, there’s no big or small amount on giving. Others don’t even give money but time instead. Some may think that giving monetary donations is better than giving their time. That’s not true. It comes hand-in-hand with each other as monetary donations can’t be utilised without volunteers to act on whatever is needed to be done.

Giving back is a great way to show gratefulness on whatever you are receiving. When you are blessed, you tend to give more.

Never Do’s to Save Money on Groceries

Posted on October 5, 2022 by Jeannine

Food is a basic necessity. Unfortunately, because of this, it’s usually being used as an excuse to spend more on it or let’s just way, go way over budget. We got the money, then why do we need to go hungry and die?! Sounds familiar?

Don’t let your budgeting efforts go to waste just because you can’t control yourself from eating. There’s a reason why I’ve always been highlighting the need to have a good mindset first if you want to change your lifestyle. It doesn’t matter if you’re focusing on finances any kind lifestyle change. If all comes together anyways at the end.

When eating habit changes, it comes with your finances, which affects all over wellness. Get it?! Everything comes hand-in-hand.

As a mom, we usually are the ones in-charge of buying groceries. If you’re blessed with a hubby like me, you’ll have another watchful eye on those food meals you cook, food you buy, and expenses you pay.

Here are 5 Grocery Shopping Tips you’d need to make sure you spend your money wisely:

Never go to the Grocery Store without checking your refrigerator and pantry

The last thing we want to find out when we arrive back from the grocery store is to find out that you still have a lot of chicken in your freezer that you forgot to cook the other day because your friend invited you to have dinner at their place for her son’s birthday party.

Checking these two places can help you with your meal planning, making sure that first stocks gets cooked first before the new ones. This way, you avoid spoilage and make sure you get fresh food to eat always.

Never go to the Grocery Store without Meal Planning

Meal planning is the the foundation to make your meals stress-free, easy, budget friendly, and intentionally made. Planning your meals lessens food waste, saves you from cramming what meal to cook for dinner, and keeps your budget intact as you can allocate properly your money per meal.

You can spend more on your other days of the week and prepare a meal with cheaper ingredients on others. This way, you don’t feel like being deprived from eating your favourite meals nor sticking only budget friendly meals.

Never go to the Grocery Store without checking seasonal fruits and vegetables

Being an avid blog reader, I’m so much aware on how much information there is about seasonal fruits and vegetables around the net. Unfortunately, there isn’t much information that is relatable to the 2 seasons (sunny and rainy) we have here in Singapore. This is the best that I can find which hopes help you decide which fruits and vegetables could be on a lower price range (or on sale)when you visit the grocery store.

Let’s not fool ourselves though, we all know that Singapore imports 90% of its food from 170 countries all over the world. So my frustration on not having much data online available may seem useless after all. haha

This only means, despite not having 4 seasons, it’s still important for us to consider the seasonal fruits of countries where we import our food for us to gauge the price of food we will buy.

Never go to the Grocery Store without a List

We’re half-way till the end and you’ll notice that it’s really a step by step process. By now, you’ll for sure be able to create a “correct” list of food you need for your meals. This is where you get to play around with your budget and see if you can add some of those “wants” you might see in the grocery store. The struggle is real and I know it! Add to that those stores with free tasting which it seems impossible not to resist.

Never go to the Grocery Store without a Budget

All of those written above is useless if you don’t have a budget on hand. Sure, having the money at hand is great when you go shopping but note that you’re going through some financial habit changes right now.

And with this, having a budget means you get to use the other part of your money for more important matters that matters most to you, like an investment or your future or creating an emergency fund.

Never buy Online Groceries if your budget doesn’t reach their minimum FREE DELIVERY

This additional tip is for families like ours who got the hang of online deliveries. We first started using online grocery when our 2nd daughter was born. Going for a trip to the grocery to buy diaper, water, and formula milk can be tedious and be a work-out! haha.. To solve this problem, my wise hubby suggested we just do all of it online.

We’re paying for the items anyways, so why not use our time on other stuff to do and simply wait at home for our goods to come. This habit of ours carried on as we noticed that we’re able to utilise our budget more by doing this as we can see already the price we need to pay already.

With this, we can assess more if we need to remove some items and trace back to our meal plan to change it all together for our budget to be right. And of course, when the Pandemic struck and we can’t go out. This has been the safest way for us to buy our food.

Ways to keep Money Problems out of your Marriage

Posted on October 4, 2022 by Jeannine

Money they say is the root of all evil. It also can lead to a lot of arguments and disagreements. oh I can see all those nods from couples who just had some heated discussion about money with their spouse/partner.

All this negativity can be avoided though. If you think of it, money can also help ignite that love between couples. With money, you could go on a date, go on a fun family trip, be able to give gifts to each other, etc.

Now, money becomes a positive thing that you would want to be in your family. That’s the first lesson I want you to get from this article. It starts with your mindset.

MINDSET

Before getting married, you used to be on your own. You think the way you are depending on your upbringing, experiences, and learnings you’ve picked up along the way. Your decision making when it comes to money is put into test but since you’re still on your own, you can pretty much do about it. All the consequences, good or bad, also falls back to your shoulders.

Then marriage comes. Your mindset when it comes to money can be totally different from your spouse. You can be stingy with your dollar while your other half don’t mind at all spending every dollar on things that gives him/her happiness.

That’s where arguments, disagreements, and at times (or should I say, most of the times) hurtful and unintended words is said. And what has money have to do with that??NOTHING!

It’s a thing that comes and goes depending on how you manage it. Your mindset comes to play with it and since you’re in a marriage, your mindset needs to be at sync with each other.

I guarantee you that when your minds are in sync with where you want to put your money on, you’ll have better conversations about money, work your asses to earn more money, save some, get to enjoy your hard earned money on the things you love, and watch your money grow with the investments you put your money in.

Let’s not make this blog so much flowery good though. Of course, there are the expenses. Bills to be paid, debt for some, unexpected expenses, etc. This may be an outflow of your money which some may think as a bad thing but if you’re in good terms with your spouse/partner with money, everything will be accounted for and you’ll have a better picture of where your money goes.

This saves both of you from senseless arguments about money as your proof of where it went is as clear as water can be. Instead, you’ll have better appreciation of the hard work you’ve been doing as it had saved you from stressing out about money.

And you know when positivity is in your home, everything, including MONEY, flows in seamlessly! Who doesn’t want that?!

GET INVOLVED

This may be a no-brainer but I might as well mention it too. It takes two to tango. Same as how you set your money goals. When both of you are in sync with your budgeting and goals, you’ll know how to act even without your partner beside you.

You don’t need to have your partner around to keep your sight straight while walking through the mall to do some grocery when you happen to pass by your favourite shop on sale. Your partner would know he doesn’t need to compete with his buddies who had upgraded their TV to the latest model where you can see even the pores of those people you watch with it.

You’ll know because you’ll have that discipline within you. You’ll know because you’re working with your spouse towards something greater for both of you to enjoy. You’ll know because you have that much respect with each other to honour each other’s words and have self-control.

GOALS

Being blessed to be in a marriage with my amazing hubby for a decade already, I can tell you, this is the most amazing part! Planning on your goals, working on it, and achieving them one by one knowing both of you have worked so hard for it is an incomparable feeling of achievement because you know you’ve done it with your better half. And that’s an amazing thing!

I understand this isn’t for everyone as there’s other couples who are better managing each other’s finances individually while still having a happy marriage. That’s great! But this is for the majority who goes with the traditional way of joining everything they have after they got married and gets the surprise of their life knowing how the other handles their money. YIKES!

I hope this quote I’m leaving you with helps.

This blog post is part of the blog challenge ‘Blogaberry Dazzle’ hosted by Cindy D’Silva and Noor Anand Chawla in collaboration with Baked Happily Ever After

How to make your Budget work: Wants vs Needs

Posted on October 3, 2022 by Jeannine

When it comes to budgeting or planning your money, defining your wants vs needs plays a big role. It is extremely important to have a budget for those needs first before moving into your wants.

Here’s a rough list of your needs:

A place to live (may it be owned and still be paying mortgage or renting)
Food to eat (the basic 3 x a day and no eating out)
Utilities (water, gas, and electricity)
Transport
Mobile phone
Health and personal care products (basic ones to keep you have a good personal hygiene)
Clothes (enough number to last you a week or two/ not branded)
Baby products if you have a lil one (milk, diaper, etc)

While here is a rough list of your wants:

Eating out
Owning a car (and all the expenses that goes with it like its COE and maintenance)
Pricey skin products or going to a skin specialist
Branded clothing
Latest Mobile phone

When it comes to budgeting, you must first and foremost cover the expenses of everything under your NEEDS list before jumping to your wants. What’s great about budgeting though is you aren’t strictly follow it. It’s like a guide but not necessarily deprive you to spend.

As a matter of fact, we do go over our budget ourselves and we’re okay with it! There’s other months were we over spend on our “eating out budget” which we compensate and be more mindful the following month by choosing to go on nature trips rather than a trip to a mall where we still get to spend some fun time with the family but spend only a fraction.

STRUGGLES

I used to be a mall rat. I remember when I was on my first job in Manila, despite my work being on nightshift (9pm-6am), I still always find myself in the mall by 10am. Doing what? Well, window shopping (at first) then sees a “SALE”. Pretend to think if I really want it while sipping my overpriced coffee, then eventually decides (as always) that the sale was too good to be true and if I don’t buy now, it will be gone by tomorrow. That’s how I decide and off i go with my new purchase on hand happily going back home for a quick nap before I work my ass again during the night to pay for that “SALE” I’ve just bought. I even proudly tell others before that I can’t leave the mall without buying anything. Such a lame excuse. hahaha

Sounds familiar or do I resonate yourself or someone you know? That’s the “before-me” which I may not be very proud of now but grateful that I’ve passed that pace, learned from it, and moved on living life, financially wiser.

LEARNING TO SPEND WISELY

You might be thinking I’m not a mall rat anymore nowadays. WRONG! I still love the malls and even it’s aroma which I felt I need to smell once in a while. hahaha.(do you feel that way too?) Anyways, I still do go to malls, and now with my daughters, could be more trickier, right?

Well, not really as we’ve come to be disciplined enough to make sure we’ve got a specific agenda whenever we go on mall trips. Though we may eat out, be assured that that’s on the budget too! And as for our kiddos, they know they’ll have to wait for Christmas and their own birthday so they can pick a toy or whatever they “WANT”. Other than that, when they say “I WANT xxxxx”, my answer would always be “I think I heard the word “WANT” when you said that sentence…hahaha

Learning to spend wisely isn’t being frugal nor depriving yourself from your hard earned money, as long as you make sure you budget your income wisely, be a responsible adult by providing first all the “needs” you and your family needs, then there’s no harm on spending your extra $$$ on whatever “wants” you and your family desire.

Reasons why you need to re-assess your WHY’s

Posted on September 28, 2022 by Jeannine

If you have been following me over the years, you’ll notice how much I jumped from one topic to another. There’s so much I want to share and hope to make an inspiration to others that I fail to remember that focusing on one thing at a time is where I can really make an impact.

As I seek my real purpose, I find myself wanting to do a lot of things. Way too much that I fail to focus on a niche to be able to inspire other moms.

So here I am, a couple of years of Social Media and blogging, starting again on a clean slate. Well, technically, not really a clean slate but vow to present a more focused space where moms can really dive in and be inspired with a specific goal, which is…..(drum-roll please!) FINANCIAL SELF-CARE!!!

From now on, this space (blog) would be dedicated on inspiring moms to be better in achieving their financial goals. Thinking about it, after 4 years of being out of the corporate world, I still breath numbers, though not computing on other’s money but our family’s now and making sure we live within our means and budget here and there.

Don’t get me wrong, with all the learnings I’ve accumulated over the years about Self-Care, I for sure would still relate those aspects of Self-Care and how they are co-related to your finances and achieving the life you want.

Why? Cause, why not?! Only a hypocrite would say they don’t need money, especially nowadays where everything costs every time you move. So that’s where I want to focus more one. With our family’s set-up right now where my hubby becomes our sole income earner and I’m able to enjoy watching our daughters grow and be a SAHM while living in one of the most expensive countries in the world, Singapore.

So here’s my WHY’s:

Be able to relate the habits I’ve learned in my Self-Care journey and share how they had helped me and my family financially

Be able to share my life learnings on how our mindset and mindfulness can help make a budget work

Be able to make an impact on other mom’s finances and their families for the better
Be the Singapore’s go-to mom when it comes to Family Budgeting
To be able to create a new source of income for our family through workshops and courses

I’d like to end this article with this family meme which can also be inspiring:

Note that I’m not being a feminist here but merely saying that as a mom, especially if you are a SAHM, you may not be earning an income but you have all the means to stir your family’s life however you want it to be.

And lastly, other’s may think, it’s too late to change their money habits and lifestyle or it’s only 3 more months before the year ends, how much could my budgeting make a difference to our family’s finances. Well, let me tell you this, just give it a try, and do it.

3 months from now, you’ll thank yourself!

And if that’s still not much, how about some inspiring phrases for you to ponder…

You are so blessed, all you need to do is be grateful.
You are skilled, use that to inspire others.
You are a great wife and mother, continue being you.
Be patient, trust your guts, and go for whatever you desire!♥️
-Jeannine Javier-

And to start this new aspiration, I invite you to be part of this motherhood community and get my FREE Mindset Makeover e-book which aims for you to look at your finances less aggressive and eventually enjoy the fun parts of what money really is. Don’t miss to grab this while it’s still for FREE!

I hope this inspires you to re-assess your WHY’S and not to be scared to start all over again. Know that starting again doesn’t mean you failed.

In reality, you learned tons of lessons and was mindful enough to make action/adjustments so you can work more towards your goals.

Follow me in Instagram @themommywithagoal if you want to work on those dreams, focus on those goals, and make them your reality.