Let’s admit it, saving for our family is a real struggle if you are in a stage where you still have to pay for a monthly house rental. The sad part is, no matter how long you pay for it, it won’t be yours to take. Unless of course if you have availed of a rent to own scheme. And as you can read on the title, I’m also one these millions of people still enslaved by exorbitant house rental fees. Yes, blogger’s indeed need a house too!

I have only been married for about 3 years and based on personal experience, house rental is a such an item on the budget that we all want to rid ourselves of because it takes a big chunk of our monthly income. And imagine if you wouldn’t have to allot that amount, instead, infuse it to an investment or savings. Wouldn’t that be great? I’m confident it would even be a lot easier for every family to cope with the current financial crisis if everyone has a house of their own.

Ok… You might be wondering why I’m in such a mood of talking like this. Actually the reason for all these is because I am fresh from a Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF) (commonly known as Pag-IBIG Fund) housing seminar. And to those who are not aware, (Filipinos or not) Pag-IBIG stands for “Pagtutulungan sa Kinabukasan: Ikaw, Bangko, Industriya, at Gobyerno” which I learned is a 2 million peso question in one of the popular game shows here in the Philippines. Unfortunately, the contestant was not able to win the hefty prize. I surmise that most of us couldn’t answer it as well because we only seem to recognize Pag-IBIG every payday, when deductions are being made for the monthly contribution.

The 2hour seminar was actually a very good start on getting-to-know what you’re-getting into. I learned a lot of good things both from being a member and for securing a loan from the Fund. Some misconceptions that I have were actually cleared out because of the seminar. First, is the fact that Pag-IBIG’s purpose is not solely to provide housing loan but to act as a savings fund itself which you can withdraw after meeting certain criteria. (I bet you didn’t know that)

I’m not looking into getting a house worth millions, unless of course someone of generous and kind heart would drop a million on my Paypal, then by all means I’ll put up a dream house for my family. But for now, it’s better to be content with little things, as long as it meets our needs. I just want to secure my kids and my wife a place we can call our own. Life is filled with uncertainties that even age cannot guarantee, so whatever happens I know that my family will have a safe and sure place to stay.

I’m setting aside my online earnings starting this month for monthly amortization. I guess a good title for my next post would be “The House That Blogging Built”.

There are however, people who still shun these changes. Whether they consider it a radical change or a technological leap that is so much difficult to cope up with is beyond the point, this technologies will remain and continue to evolve. And the best way to benefit from it is to learn it, to explore it. Change is indeed inevitable.

I’m sure life’s simplicity is something that we all long for at some point. And too much attachment with technology can certainly be frustrating at times. But does it mean that we have to revert to the old school, old fashioned way when technology is still a distant glimpse of “easy life”? Well of course your response can just be a tweet away… As Justine Ezarik said, 140 characters is enough.

It’s been months since I wrote the last article regarding my decision to go freelancing. Many have been asking how it was to be a freelancer. Some were curious on what I do on the internet, while others are still in amazement that I was able to find work online.

This may be a surprise, but I’m actually still connected with my call center work and at the same time engaged in a part time online job.  With the current financial and economic situation we have on a personal and global perspective, the foreseeable full time freelance work that I am opting to is still a few more months (or probably a year) before reality. I must say that I was too excited to get myself into it but I’m glad I have the counsel of many who sat with me, weighing the pros and cons if I give in to the big gamble that I’m about to make. The opportunity to work online came like an unexpected visitor knocking on my front door. And when it arrived, I was caught in awe. I equally felt excited of course and at the same time rushing to grab it for good. And you know how it is when someone catches you unprepared.

Probably the most dreaded and fearsome thing that I did was to go over the what ifs of being unprepared:

• what if the company closes out
• what if I get sick and I don’t have any health insurance in place yet
• what if my kids get sick
• what if my computer breaks down
• what if my internet was cut off
• what if my system gets hacked

I’m sure if you were in my place, you will have all the creepy scenarios at the back of your head also. But does that mean that freelancing is no longer a possibility? Of course not.

As with all other things in life, success is more realistic if there is a definite plan that will guide you. That is what I lacked. I realized that there is more to being able to a full eight hour sleep or the convenience of working at home, no commuting, no supe, and almost totally being in control of your time. But as a family man, I should also consider my kids and my wife being my dependents.

We’ve read and heard so many stories of people conquering the hurdles of success. Numerous inspirational testimonies have been written and published that could fill an entire library. But if we are to look at the good number of citizens not only from the Philippines but also from the different parts of the world, we see that nothing much has changed. Poverty still remains as the oldest enemy of every nation.

But in the commonality of it we can name a few,  select people who have made a great difference and defied the spell of failure. Bill Gates who emerged from dropped out schooling to a billionaire, Philippines own, Lucio Tan who put the famous Philippine Airlines up the skies, Tony Tan Caktiong who cooked his way to financial stardom with his brainchild Jollibee, and let’s not forget the latest member of the group, Manny Pacquiao who just captured the whole worlds attention by using his powerful fist.

There is no contention that these people have reached the pedestal where they are right now because of diligence. Gates’ could not have produced Windows without working so hard to crack his way to making the most influential software in the world. Nor would it be possible for Lucio Tan to establish PAL without being diligent.  I can still remember during my orientation as a crew of  Jollibee  in Baguio City how the presentor used Mr. Caktiong’s life story as an encouragement for us to strive hard like the Jollibee tycoon. And of course, Pacquiao is not far from their stories as well, from a defeated boxer, he rose to become the most popular pound for pound pug because of his hard labor and constant training to attain perfection in  his field.

The truth is, we all have our destined successes ahead. The only thing that keeps us from reaching that point is because we give up easily. We give up because we feel tired. We give up because we can’t leave the comfort zones of our life. We give up because we always want to achieve things easily. There are many people who posssess great skills and talent but still end up as failure. In contrary there are average Joe’s who are making waves because of diligence. As  Samuel Johnson appropriately described; “Few things are impossible to diligence and skill.”

Keeping a call center agent fired up in a work that goes on, day in and day out, 9 hours a day and  5 days a week  is a big challenge not only to companies who are trying to control attrition but to the employees themselves who are subjected to stress and frustration.

I surmise that you can reason out why call center agent’s have high salary, good perks and benefits, and all those good stuff. In fact, call center companies are devising and innovating ideas every now and then just to keep their people intact. Because training new ones would certainly be an expensive investment and qualified candidates are hard to find to meet the demand for manpower, retaining the current employees is the best solution.

More often than not money does the talking. Pay hike, bonuses, blitzes and other monetary rewards are employed to motivate people not only to perform but to stay in the company.

But in the long run, money as a motivator loses its power. No matter how high the salary may be, or how good the company benefits are, or how well managed is the company there is no one who can push a demotivated employee to work other than the worker himself. Unless he finds his purpose and his role why he is working, encouragements will only remain as words.

As one good saying eloquently said: “You can bring a horse to the riverside for a drink but you cant force it to drink the water from the river.” You can only do so much as a mentor, supervisor, and friend but the rest is up to the person to decide for himself on what to do.