Cable TV

I just had our cable tv provider changed today. I was unhappy with the previous service provider which I have subscribed for the past 5 years.  I lost several channels for the past months due a move by the cable operator to go to digital. I have to have digibox installed to be able to watch the channels  I am paying for.
Our house has a cable tv distribution where I have cable tv ports in our major rooms. Should I upgrade to digibox, I would have to purchase additional boxes.

Well I thought we don't have other options since the cable tv industry here in the Philippines is monopolized already by one company. One alternative was to go with a satellite TV but it is a very expensive service.
Guess what, there is still a cable TV (Click here for their website)operating in South Manila area. They have a basic package half the price of my previous cable tv service provider but offering more channels. And note these are not just ordinary channels, but premium channels ie now I have the following channels:

1. Disney Jr - something I need to purchase to have in my previous cable TV provider
2. Discovery Channels - something I need to purchase to have in my previous cable TV provider
3. StarMovies
4. Universal
5. Fox Filipino
6. Turbo
etc

And last thing, now  I have better tv quality pictures than before. Now I can enjoy again watching cable TV.
There goes my eletric bill.

Tips: Saving on Electricity

I just received our electric bill this week. Guess what, our bill for the past month was at 6.7k. The previous electric bill was at 8.5k. That's a whopping 1.8k reduction and that's huge. Apparently our consumption reduced from 694kwh to 572kwh. That's a difference of 122kwh. So I tried recalling the things we have done to be able to achieve these savings.

The following are so far what I have recalled:

1. I had our two window-type aircon units cleaned.
2. I used electric with speed setting low and placing the fan nearer to me.
3. I used my 3G usb modem more often than our dsl + wifi.
4. I shutdown my laptop instead of sleep mode or hybernating.
5. I changed my usage of laptop and TV, ie not having them switched on at the same time.

I wonder if this trend will continue in the next bill as the next months will be summer and the aircons will consume a lot of electricity.

Tips: Investment on Insurance and Savings

At a early adult age I was influenced by mother to invest of insurance and savings. I greatly appreciate and thank her because I was able to saved a lot. There a lot of investment instruments nowadays that even double your investment in 5 years. For example, my mother invested in a double your money in 5 years and it will mature this year. Her investment of 500k will be 1M. In this type of investment, we have to be careful of the companies offering these types of products and make sure these companies are stable.

You have also stocks where you can invest your money,
a) short term where you profit from buy low and sell high
b) long term where you gain from dividends issued by companies, increased in stock value over long period.

My first insurance saving investment I made was when I as in the early 20's.  My total investment in 5 years was 150k and since 2003 I have been getting a pension of 2k a month and this is for life. I hope the investment company will not close.

The second insurance investment was long term savings with a huge international insurance firm. Since 2010, I have invested over 500k over for 8 years. Since 2011, the investment's income has paid for my premium. To date, I have a cash dividend amounting to 200k and this investment is returning to more than 60k year on year. Not bad right? If you are interested on the insurance company please drop a comment.

Tips: Save on Fuel on Full Tank

Just yesterday fuel pump prices increased by more than 1 peso. It was good thing a day earlier I had our two cars filled their tanks to full. Our SUV's full tank is 75 liters of diesel while a small car was at 43 liters of gasoline. Then it hit me if carrying around the extra weight of the fuel affects my mileage at all. So to satisfy my curiosity and peace of mind, I researched and evaluated if is it worth to get a full tank (to avoid the price increase) versus carrying around extra fuel weight (affecting my fuel consumption).

Here are some information (mostly from the internet)  I have searched to be used for my evaluation:

1. 1 liter of diesel has a weight of 0.851kg or 1.872lb (source: google search)
2. 1 liter of gasoline has a weight of 0.749kg or 1.648lb (source: google search)
3. The study Impact of Vehicle Weight Reduction on Fuel Economy for Various Vehicle Architectures by Ricardo Inc. for The Aluminum Association in 2008 showed that

      a. for a small car a 100-lb weight reduction resulted to 1.7% improvement in fuel economy city driving
      b. for a large SUV a 100-lb weight reduction resulted to 0.9% improvement in fuel economy city driving



 So how does it compute? For example for our SUV, the full tank is 75 liters of diesel which is about
140 lbs. Let's say if I want to remove 100lbs of excess weight driving around MetroManila, I will only fill to 30 liters. With this, my mileage would improve by 0.9%. Let's assume that I would have save 0.9% of my 75 liter full tank which is about 0.75 liters. I would have about 32 pesos per full tank. Compare this versus a price increase of 1 peso and full tank of 75 liters equivalent to 75 pesos saved.

For a small car, filling up to half full will reduce my weight by more than 35 lbs. The equivalent fuel economy improvement is about 0.62%. Now that's equivalent to 12 pesos. Compare this versus a price increase of 1 peso and a full tank of 42 liters equivalent to 42 pesos saved.

Hmm so what's the verdict? I will not definitely drive around MetroManila on a full tank. It will improve my fuel economy saving me at least 1 liter of fuel, helping in the carbon monoxide reduction. I will only fill our cars to full if there are scheduled fuel price increase of more than 50 centavos.

Auto Loan: To Settle or not to settle

I am planning on settling my auto loan this year. I have about 26 months of amortization still and the main reason for considering this settlement is that I can be able to control my cost ie.

1. Achieve cost avoidance, that is by settling the loan early, the settlement amount is smaller than the total balance loan to be paid.

2. Reduce my cost for insuring the car, ie I can dictate the insured amount for the car. The lower the insured amount, the lower will be my premium.

I called up the bank and inquired about my settlement cost. Likewise, I checked also my capability to pay the settlement amount either thru loan from family member or from another credit facility. My credit company was offering a low monthly interest. I evaluated the situation and I made a graph to simplify my analysis.

 

From the graph above, I can say,

1. I can avoid cost of 11k if I settle my auto loan by this month. That's about 10% cost saved. Now the only thing to do is here is to look for the money to settle it.

2. My credit card offered me a low interest per month. This facility will give at least few months to look for the money to pay the loan aside from the fact that I can still achieve cost avoidance. This cost saved will get smaller as the payment duration is increased. Another advantage of this option is I can earn reward points which I can use to pay my annual credit card free.

3. Let's say you have the settlement money of 104k. What if we just invest it and continue to pay the monthly amortization. At the interest rates banks are offering, 104k will not yield 11k in two years time.

The bottom line here is that settling this auto loan will let me avoid cost. I can be able to reduce also my insurance premiums and that's another cost avoidance. So what's the next thing to do? Find a family member whom I can borrow money with little or no interest, and/or check my credit card facility for good low interest offers? What do you think, should I continue paying my dues or settle it if I can get the money?

Buy and Sell Online Part Two - Experiences and Tips

Since my last sale transaction with regards to my buy and sell online, I made two sales of my items. Selling my items are bit slow but posting them on Tipidpc.com helped a lot. Here are the rest of the things I had to do.

1. I needed to update my items and pricing versus the current posted price on the internet. I had to lower  a bit my prices to be competitive. That resulted to several inquiries for my items.

2. I also reviewed the title post of my items to ensure that it gets to the top searched items. Sulit.com.ph had a feature to check the rank of the item in the most search keyword related to the item. I had to revise my item name to align to the keyword. For most part, I made my item name more generic as usually keywords type are general words.

3. As I am mobile  most of the time, whenever a I receive an SMS query, I have difficulty to responding because I don't have onhand information on my items. It is a good thing I have mobile internet to check on my posts. It is still a good thing to have a softcopy of the items especially to check if prices can still be lowered.

4. Whenever there is query, there is a need to respond immediately. A lot are selling similar items and buyers are inquiring and comparing. I answered an SMS query too late, the buyer bought from another seller.

So far these are my experiences I can share. Do you have any tips for selling online?

Tips: Storage Boxes

We just had our Christmas tree stowed this weekend. Since we bought this 12 footer Christmas tree, I have been searching locally for a extra extra large plastic box which is at least 1 meter in length. The paper box or wood box is not recommended as mouse and termites are perennial problems in the house. The longest so far I was able to search thru the internet was 90 centimeters. I went to local home depot, Ace Hardware, Handy man and Wilcon but they don't have that plastic boxes that long.

I also got a chance to search in the US visiting Costco, Target, Walmart  and Bed and Bath. Fortunately I found these extra large boxes in Home Depot. You check it here. The storage box cost 20USD. It was perfect to store our Christmas tree. I am unable to bring home the box because it was a bit large so I planned to ship it home.

After I got back from the US, I research again the internet for a local plastic storage and fortunately I came upon this from sulit.com.ph. The dimensions are perfect for our Christmas and it will also fit in our storage room. I compared the cost of the local plastic box and the one from the US (with shipping cost) and it turns out the US is more expensive. Likewise, I will still wait for at least 30 days before the US item arrives. So we purchased the local plastic storage box (you check the product on trioplast).

Let me know also if you find alternative extra extra large storage boxes.