Unsullied Perspective's 2015 Year in Review

We opened our 2015 with Unsullied Perspective's 2014 Year in Review.  With the resumption of work and classes for that year, we were greeted with transportation fare hike so we provided you the Commuters' Guide to New MRT/LRT 2015 Fares that you can use for budgeting your family’s transportation allowance if you are using those train lines in your daily commute.  

Since it was the start of the year and almost everyone was in the mood for planning, we created a planning tool to get your finances on track with 2015 Financial Calendar Planner.  The month of January afforded us a week-long vacation to give way to papal visit in the Philippines.  The Roman Catholic Church’s Leader had provided spiritual relief for all our down-trodden Catholic fellowmen especially those who were badly affected by typhoon Yolanda.  With that, we complied the Seven Lessons Gathered from the Papal Visit in the Philippines to remind us of valuable teachings that we can apply in our day-to-day lives whatever is one’s religious affiliation. 

In February and March, we continued our gift-giving advocacy and announced our January and February winners of our Monthly Fun Treat.  Due to numerous queries about our post on SSS maternity benefit, we decided to have a dedicated post answering our reader’s comments and questions about that topic thus we had our Q & A on SSS Maternity Benefit Part 1.  Our blog also reached another milestone in March when we had our very first Nuffnang Cash Out in 2015. 

We also continued our undertaking to be warriors for the environment through the Global Citizen Earth Day and Earth Hour campaigns.  our readers’ queries about SSS that we had our Part 2 and Part 3 of our Q & A.  For some reason we felt we missed so much in the summer months thus we created a to-do list with our plans for the month of May.  Coincidentally, we released our July to December Financial Calendar Planner as we promised at the start of the year.  We were too happy to receive our check in May that we decided to divide the money to our different advocacies where part of that went to donation and to our fun treat, check out how we spent our Nuffnang Cashout. 

In June we made a repost on Earthquakes and Disaster Preparedness to inform you my dear readers on what to do in case of disasters.  Around that time, several news of networking and investment scams hugged the headlines thus we felt the need to remind you on how to protect your money and things to consider before you invest. I really hope that it reached many readers as it is too disheartening to see people who lost their hard-earned money and their chance of a good life because of those greedy souls.

Sometime in August we made an article about the steps on how to file for an SSS Salary Loan since we received queries about that. In preparation for the 2016 National General Election where we will be voting our next country leaders, we informed you about Comelec’s mandatory biometrics capturing which is required before you can vote in the coming election.   

In September, most of us living in Metro Manila suffered from horrendous traffic like it was Two Miles, Two Hours Traffic every single day.  Everything seemed to be at a standstill when we were caught in it. 

On the same month our blog reached its 10^th birthday so we posted the article of our Monthly Fun Treat Closing and 15th Anniversary Announcement where we made a winners list recap of our 12 months of fun treat and we also made an announcement of our soon-to-be published book.

The month of October was the deadline for claiming the prize for our Fun Treat.  As some of our winners did not claim their prize, we decided to give the equivalent money value for donation to Philippine Red Cross.  At least it served its purpose, it was meant to be shared anyway. We wish to remember how we were swayed with stories about love, hope, values and the Filipino culture that was the reason we also got hooked in Eat Bulaga’s Kalyeserye featuring the Aldub loveteam and the three grandmas.  It also reminded us about waiting for that right moment, about letting destiny work its way “at the right time”. 

We missed posting articles for November as it was a very busy month for us where we gave way to personal dealings.  Planning for a family travel abroad was too taxing that we devoted much of our time in it making sure that it would be a worry-free vacation.  True enough, we were able to relax and had a good time in Singapore.  We did not only had a good time, we were as well inspired and motivated when we came back.  That was the very reason we brought home essential lessons from Singapore.

In all, we had a very full and memorable 2015. Cheers to all the good times and we will forever be grateful for everything.  Looking forward to a fruitful 2016.

Free Downloadable 2016 Financial Calendar Planner

Happy New Year Everyone!  I hope that you had a wonderful celebration with your loved ones.  We just bid goodbye to 2015 and here we are again planning for 2016.  I also wished that you accomplished most of the plans and budget that you wrote in your 2015 calendar planner.  It is best to have something to follow when it comes to what we want to achieve for the year.  To help you with your planning, here again is a simple calendar planner that you can use.  This free printable 2016 calendar planner is very convenient and easy to use. You can put this wherever most convenient for you.  Again, I made only the first half of the year (January to June 2016) so it will be easier to keep track of your plan.  I will publish the July to December of the calendar in time for the next semester so check it out.  Meanwhile, here is the copy of the 2016 Financial Calendar Planner.  You can get and print it here in this link for free.

This 2016 Financial Calendar Planner includes tracking of your savings and expenses such as contributions for SSS (Social Security System), PAGIBIG  (or Home Development Mutual Fund - HDMF) and PhilHealth (Philippine Health Insurance).  If you are an employed member, these are mandatory deductions from your salary so it is easier to track.

However, if you are a voluntary/individually paying/self-employed member, you need to tick the appropriate space to indicate that you have already paid for your contribution so you can track your monthly premium payments.  We also included recording of you weekly money challenge.  The weekly money challenge is much like the 52 week money challenge but with some deviations.  You can keep track of the schedule when you should have already deposited your savings in the bank as provided in the calendar.  Simply highlight or check the date on the provided boxes if you have done so.  At the end of the month, you have the option to record your total monthly savings in the space provided.

There is also a calendar and the non-working holiday schedule so you can keep account of the  correct dates when you should make your transactions in the bank or government offices.

You can put down notes in the Other Reminders part should you wish to put the dates of other important transactions that you need to track such as the following:

1. Renewal of your business permit (mayor's permit,  BIR annual registration)

2. Renewal of licenses (LTO registration/driver's license)

3. Payment for insurance (home, car, etc)

4. Tax (real estate tax, income tax, etc) and other things that have direct impact on your finances.

We have also included tracking payments for your electricity and water bill since non-payment of those utilities usually add up to your expenses if not paid on time.  You simply tick the space provided to indicate payment for the particular month. 

Happy 2016 planning and budgeting!