Your Daily Dose of Useful Stuff

My experiment paid off!  I am not one who easily buys too-good-to-be-true promos, but somehow this earninghabit.com sounded sensible though it still could not explain how they are able to pay their members thousands of dollars a day, assuming that what they are claiming is true.   So upon clicking the site, I was asked to register.  Thank God I have an email I use for these kinds of purposes, just in case.  Without any difficulty, I was given an account and an initial earning of, would you believe, $25 and will easily become $300 once you let others register.  So I promoted the link to all social media that I have, Twitter, Facebook (2 accounts), Google+,  I posted it many times.  Why did I do that? They promised me a pay off when my account reaches $300.  So I monitored my account and true enough after 55 invites, I was able to earn $365.  Wow. I was so excited to get my $365.  I was already making plans to spend it over the weekend.  I was thinking of buying a tab for my m

I thought my faith in Citibank will finally be restored when they granted my application for a credit card after over ten years that I did not avail any of their products because of a traumatizing experience.  I'm sure all of us have heard 'horror stories' of Citibank's  violations of human rights in countries like Indonesia, etc.  where they send "T-H-U-G-S" to pressure card holders to pay up.  For a supposedly large and global financial institution, it's  surprising that they still employ barbaric methods in this computer age.   I was minding my own business in one of the malls in the metro when I was approached by a Citibank credit card agent offering me their products and dangled the fake bait which is zero annual fee for life.  Little did I know that this agent omitted a big factor.  While I acknowledge that it is my fault for biting the bait, I still think that Citibank should not mislead anyone and prey on human weakness.  Anyone would ju

After an exciting and breathtaking 5-setter Game 2 for the Finals of the UAAP Volleyball Games, the De La Salle Lady Spikers emerged victorious and proved to be the more powerful team over its opponent, the Ateneo Lady Eagles.    Game 2 started rather slow for the Lady Spikers as the first set was taken by the ALE, whose attacks and floor defense got better compared to their first encounter.  During the second set,  the multi-awarded setter-captain of the DLSU, Kim Fajardo, threw 9 service aces at the ALE and it became an uphill climb from there. The ALE never outscored the Spikers and the Spikers ran away with the second set in a 14-25 result.   The 3rd set swung back to the ALE's favor again, as their floor and net defense worked to their advantage and the score registered at 19-25, giving the second win for this game to the ALEs.

Were we really surprised about the result of the CA on the confirmation of Gina Lopez as Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources?  Frankly, I have half expected it already, though at the back of my mind, my fingers were crossed that eventually, she can convince the CA of her passion about the restoration of the  cleanliness of our environment.  One of the famous lines she delivered was, "The Philippines does not need mining."  Unfortunately, these famous words became the pivotal point and cost her her confirmation. The entire country watched as the events unfolded and climaxed into a disappointing result.  She is the second appointee of Pres. Rodrigo Duterte who was rejected by the CA.  The first one was Sec. Perfecto Yasay, who had a totally different issue that's why he was rejected.  Will any Duterte appointee ever be confirmed secretary in the end?  Sounds like it is a very steep and challenging mountain slope for them.  They will have to huff an

One of the buzzwords of the early 21st century among Filipinos is financial literacy, especially among the millenials.  Millenials are those who were born in the 80s and have reached the age of 20 or thereabouts in the 21st century.  In a society where saving is not a popular concept and people are conditioned to buy and accumulate material possession, saving money seems a thing that is slowly gaining ground.  Nowadays, it seems that Filipinos have gone into a "financial literacy revolution" and they are starting to be conscious about spending wisely, saving and preparing for the future.    One of the easiest and fastest way to save is by the PAG-IBIG Fund.  When I was younger, IBIG stood for Ikaw, Bangko , Industriya at Gobyerno .  So it was a consolidated effort of the employee, banks, industries and government that the fund was created.   If you are a member of the Pag-ibig Fund, you have access to short-term loans otherwise called Multi-Purpose Loans for

What do we know, barely a week when Pres. Duterte announced that he will not be increasing the SSS pension of retirees, he has now succumbed to pressure (to fulfill his campaign promise) to give the 2,000 pension hike.   That's the reason why I give our president a half-ear whenever he announces anything.  There is just no telling when he will revise what he will say.  I don't know if that is deliberate or not.  And if it is deliberate, why do it and what he gets from it.   It's common to hear him curse and threaten government and public officials especially when he talks to the elected officials that are in the narco-list (list of officials and politicians who are allegedly involved in drug-selling/dealing), so why should changing his mind be a big deal?   So this increase will not be given in one big bulk (otherwise that will be the death of SSS), but in two staggered gives.  In February this year, retirees with low pension (below 2,000) will enjoy an additi

The Philippine Islands is known for the many feasts and fiestas they celebrate every year.  Many believe that fiestas or feasts are pagan practices of venerating and worshiping nature and their traditional gods and goddesses which got interspersed with the Roman Catholic religion's religious rites and rituals.  Because of the combination of both beliefs, what we can see now are the big feasts that are celebrated in honor of religious figures like the Senor Sto. Nino.    The feast of the Sto.  Nino are celebrated in the islands in the Visayas like Cebu and Panay.  The celebration in honor of the Sto. Nino is held in the month of January.  In the Luzon island, the most famous yearly religious observation of a religious figure is held in the month of January as well.  This is the Feast of the Nazarene.  Hundreds of thousands, some speculate that a million would join in the Traslacion.  The passage of the andas ,  the carriage that carries the figure of the Black Nazarene, fr

President Duterte finally admitted that increasing the pension of retirees by P2,000 is an impossible promise to keep.  He finally saw the wisdom that giving an additional P2,000 to the millions of retirees means signing the death of SSS.  I hate to say this, but, guys, those who voted for the president thinking that he can actually enforce this law, you were all taken for a ride.  It is simply not realistic and unfair to the other SSS members.   In fairness to the president, he came to his senses and become practical.  It is not easy admitting one's fault and to admit that it is simply not possible because the money is not only his to decide on, makes him a bigger man to me.   And for that I admire him.  Let's consider the reason why increasing the pension to 2,000 is not a wise decision. By simple math computation, we can deduce that the scenario is going to be like this:  if we give millions of pensioners 2,000, there should be an equivalent 2,000 that will be

I have always been using LBC ever since LBC started servicing the country, but sometimes, they can be frustrating.   My sister asked me one time to send a cell phone and a piece of jewelry to a friend in one province up north.  

Banking in the Philippines is a horror story.  It is a horror story because it would seem like you lost in the casino whenever your bank would charge you fees for their service.  Talk about point blank robbery.  Case #1:  I admit that I would have senior moments occasionally, and at one time, I forgot my PIN totally.  So in order to access my account, which i hadn't done for almost 6 months, I had to also secure another card.  To secure a new card, I had to go to the bank, sign anew and wait for 5 days, of course, you guess it right, I had to pay a service fee of P150.00.  Isn't that great?  Now, the horror story does not end there, since I want to withdraw some funds from my account, I had to withdraw over the counter.   And, why was I not surprised:  To withdraw my money at the bank where I am a depositor, I had to pay another P100.   Wait, there is more,  which is curious to me.  In this bank of mine,  I would be deducted P12 from my account even if I withdraw from my bank