Money & Shopping

Our Savings and Stocks Investment Story

October 10, 2015

Before married life, Fred and I were really good savers. Apart from joint savings account, we also have individual accounts where we diligently save every month. Yes we have reached a big amount but we have used it up for the wedding expenses. Fortunately, we received huge amount from wedding gifts (thanks to our beloved guests) and it gave us an opportunity to start saving again. However, married life brought us a test very early.

3 months after our wedding, we learned that we’re expecting (yey!). But it was no ordinary pregnancy, it was a very rough one. Life was tough that time due to months of complete bed rest and several hospitalizations. Again, we touched our savings. But all went well thanks to God, baby Louise came out healthy and life for us came back to normal. Fast forward, we still don’t have savings though and we clearly know why. We have used huge amount in home renovation (we’re still far from halfway towards completion), not to mention how expensive it is these days to raise a child.

While studying our lifestyle, our jobs in private companies and our goals for our family, not having savings is really like committing suicide nowadays! This realization hit us during the 1st quarter of this year. I then started reading financial articles and e-books. I got the chance to understand better about stocks investment.

Money and investing

Confident that I have understood the basics, we have the needed money as a start and I have chosen the best broker in the country – COL Financial, Fred and I prepared the requirements and sent our application. It was approved after a few days and excited as a kid, we started buying our first stocks. Now this is where we committed our first big mistake. To all readers who are very good in investing, please don’t laugh at us. For those who don’t invest in stocks yet but have plans in the future, please, please learn from this article.

You see, our application was approved last March 26, 2015 but we still have to wait 3-5 business days before we can get access to our account.  While waiting, we thought hard what blue chip companies to buy, which is the correct thing to do, right? We’ve chosen four – Metrobank (MBT), Jollibee (JFC), Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) and SM Prime Holdings Inc. (SMPH). We got the access last April 6, 2015. By the way, this date was very remarkable in the Philippine market. Do you know why? This was the time when the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) reached the highest value – above 8000. Unfortunately, we got so overwhelmed of everything that we bought our first stocks by April 8, 2015 where PSEi was still above 8000.

Psei at 8000

I feel so stupid for buying expensive prices of stocks that time. Now 6 months later, as a result, we’re still in the situation of trying to lower our average price values. I know we’re still on the right track but if we could have just waited for the prices to go down, I don’t think our paper loss will be this big.

So with our experience above, I can say we’ve learned investment lessons the hard way. We don’t have plans of selling right now, maybe after 3-5 years, so we’re still good. Next time, we’ll just make sure to check company’s historical data and buy only when price is not that expensive or at least cheap enough to get a lower average price. I know this is one of the basics but our emotions sometimes make us foolish, right?

Do you have savings/stocks story you want to share? Please free to submit through the comment section below.

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  • kayle October 11, 2015 at 3:26 am

    Good Read. 🙂 I also started COL last May 2015. I am still learning and developing my own formulas. as an accountant, I can understand their financial results under SCI and their Financial Status of their SFP. Currently, I, also bought the basura stocks, I didn’t sold it yet, but who knows it will move up.. Historically, I bought ali, sold it and instead bought basura, I am still learning. 🙂 see you in the finish line then.. 🙂 payaman tayo in the coming years.

    • Hannah Iway October 12, 2015 at 1:29 am

      AJA Kayle! As long as nandun lang money natin, I know time will come makagain din tayo.

  • W s October 10, 2015 at 10:48 am

    I can very well relate to that. We are also a young couple turning 2 years this october. We are very good savers too but started investing though uitf when we are not yet married. Basically the same as what you shared, spent good on the wedding but it was easily reimbursed by wedding gifts. Wifey got pregnant but during that time we are renting a very small and cheap apartment. After a few months our baby was born we decided to buy a house after liquidating our investments with modest gains. We just got lucky. We got our house and still have savings. Just this April, I joined the stock market. So you can imagine us also having paper loss as you have. I tried to trade but it did not go my way. I’m still enjoying the stock market. Good thing the bulk of my wife’s savings is with the uitf as I was apprehensive that I might screw up in the stock market. Just continue to learn. Inspire more people to invest properly. My regards to you and your family.

    • Hannah Iway October 12, 2015 at 1:39 am

      Thanks for the comment, it so nice to know that there are other couples who can relate to our story. Indeed you’re very much lucky for having a savings in UITF aside from stocks and you’re also able to buy a house! Us on the other hand are still working on our emergency fund apart from the stocks we have. Married life is really not easy so we parents should be smarter for our family.

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