"How to YOLO Wisely" is a finance book written by Nikki Jurado aka Nomad Finance Girl (NFG). It is in the language of Tagalog and English. It has an e-book version, which is released first and is free, and another one is a physical book, which costs around ₱800.
I finished reading it last June 5, 2021, and it was a good one. An added factor is because it's written in Tagalog and English, not purely English like other books, so this one is more understandable and easy to comprehend.
I only read the e-book version because it is free. I don't have the money yet to buy the physical book. Hehe.
Here's where you can download the free e-book: https://www.nfgglobal.com/ebook
For those who don't know yet, "YOLO" means You Only Live Once. This is one of the most famous mantras of this generation.
Travel anywhere, because YOLO.
Eat delicious foods now like milktea, samgyupsal, etc., because YOLO.
Buy your dream car or dream shoes or dream bag now, because YOLO.
According to the book...
"This book is called “How to YOLO Wisely” - and to live the best life possible, let’s suit up and wear our trustee armor with pride and confidence, knowing fully well that no matter what happens to us, we have a solid and strong money defense."
I have learned so much through this book and I wanna share my takeaways here.
I will insert some quotations and lines excerpt from the book na tumatak sa isip ko.
Step One: Set Your Foundation
Find out how you want to feel, then do the stuff that will make you feel that way.
Here are some guide questions and answers just for examples.
How do you want to feel? I want to feel peaceful, happy, and free.
How do you define success? Define success and run that race. Making money in pajamas. Having a lot of free time to explore places and go on adventures. Doing something I love to do.
What do you really want? I really want to achieve financial independence. I want to give back to my parents, travel, and work remotely on something that I love.
Ano yung pinagkaiba ng mga taong naabot ang goals nila sa mga hindi? Marami. Pero may iisang laging nagsa-stand out. Consistency. Those who succeed remain enthusiastic even when things aren't convenient for them.
Step Two: Manage Your Money
In Step One, three critical questions were given. If it were to summarize the essence of these questions, it will be in this way… What would you do if money isn’t an issue?
Where your money goes is a clear reflection of your priorities.
Fake Priorities - are not yours. You prioritize other people’s validation. (Example: You buy trendy clothes because it's trendy, not because you want them.)
Real Priorities - are yours. If designer clothes make you feel energized, creative, and inspired, then go for them! As long as you are staying true to what you really want, as long as you’re choosing this to impress yourself and not someone else, and as long as this is aligned to how you really want to feel, then, by all means, go shop.
Then, this is where the money jar system comes in. It is a budgeting method.
The Money Jar System
Jar 1: Necessities Jar (55%)
Jar 2: Financial Freedom Account (10%)
Jar 3: Long Term Savings (10%) - will be used to pay for the big things, like a down payment for a house, a dream vacation, a car - anything you deem important in the coming years.
"Can I have more than one Long Term Savings Jar?” Yes, you can! Simply divide your 10% between the jars according to your priorities.
Jar 4: Education Jar (10%) - Self-made millionaires spend a good amount of money investing in books, courses, seminars, coaches, and mentors who can help them upgrade their skills and hone their craft. Your network is your net worth. When you place money for education, you’re not just investing in yourself, you’re also investing in new relationships. Imagine being in a class with like-minded individuals who are also willing to invest both money and time for themselves... wouldn’t you want to be surrounded by these people?
Jar 5: Play Jar (10%) - buy the stuff you want.
Jar 6: Give Jar (5%) - birthday gifts, your favorite charity, special occasions, or volunteer work.
Customizing your jars - The amount that you place into Money Jars can be customized depending on your current money conditions. But you cannot remove a jar. All jars play a significant role around your money beliefs – the root cause of all your money problems and money achievements. Remember: you are exactly where you are because of your choices.
Step Three: Increase Your Income
The money-making part is easy. All you gotta do is learn it and practice it. But this is just half of the equation. The more important half revolves around your beliefs. To increase your income, install empowering beliefs. There’s no meaning behind money except the meaning you give it.
You can recite affirmations such as the following. But make sure that you genuinely believe every word you say.
Money can’t buy love but it can buy lots of good times with my loved ones.
I attract the right people into my life.
I attract successful people, successful experiences, and successful connections.
I can enjoy the present and still have money for the future.
Success finds me everywhere I go because I only think and feel successful thoughts about myself.
The rich become richer because they’re good investors. I can be one too.
I succeeded at personal development because I invest in myself first.
God wants me to prosper.
I graduated from a prestigious university. I deserve a bigger paycheck.
Buying a house before I turn 30 will make me feel successful.
Rich people get rich because they see opportunities where others see obstacles.
I honor my money-making skills.
I can become rich by helping other people.
I am blessed in many ways.
Hanging out with wealthy people teaches me a lot of important things about life.
I am very lucky.
I deserve to be happy, wealthy, healthy, and successful.
My arms are wide open for all the abundance in the world.
I believe in myself and my ability to make money.
I can save for the future and still have fun in the present.
Making money is fun.
I always have money.
Step Four: Build Your Emergency Funds
If you want to enter a war with only your boxers on, go ahead and start investing and trading without emergency funds and life insurance policies.
Emergency fund is a stash of money set aside to use for future unexpected happenings such as job loss, sickness, and so on. It is advisable to have this.
Here's a simple formula to know how much emergency fund you must set aside:
Step Five: Protect Your Money
We need to protect your money so that you won’t lose all the time you used making money just to pay for your hospital bills. We need to protect your money so that you won’t pass the financial burden to your family if ever something happens to you. We need to protect your money so that you don’t have to watch your family and friends ask for donations online.
Two inevitable things in life: death and taxes
Here’s a quick recap of the non-negotiables so that you can YOLO wisely:
Emergency funds that amount to at least 6 months of your monthly expenses or to the amount that would guarantee your peace of mind
Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) benefits - You don’t have to worry about age limits when it comes to PhilHealth - anyone can have one for ₱1,500 to ₱6,000 annually. Ang mura noh? Kasi maliit lang din yung coverage, and this is why a lot of people opt for another healthcare provider. But then again, just like what I said, these are not options. These are necessities. Get PhilHealth if you don’t have one yet, then add an HMO.
Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) benefits - HMOs work like PhilHealth, but give you better coverage in exchange for higher monthly payments and cover more expensive hospital stuff.
At least one life insurance policy - What you specifically need for life insurance is its Critical Illness Benefit, which is just one of the many benefits you’ll get with a life insurance policy.
Life insurance policies cover the expensive stuff that some HMOs cannot, like cancer, major organ transplant, coma, Parkinson’s disease, etc. Eh eto naman talaga yung kakain at uubos ng ipon mo at ipon ng pamilya mo, kaya we gotta be prepared for these as well. PhilHealth, HMOs, Critical Illness Benefits all work together as one network and you can’t miss one of these as these are essentials and necessities.
But before we even start hoarding, ang tanong... Insurable ka ba?
The younger you are, the better it is for you to get a policy because...
Benefits are bigger / Your premiums (payments) are more affordable. •
Higher chance for you to get insured. Remember that not everyone is insurable!
You have more time to grow your money.
Your life insurance is not all about death and critical illnesses. A part of your payments go to investments too.
“Eh para sa patay patay lang yan.” The younger you are, the more time you have to grow your money. The guaranteed death benefits and guaranteed medical benefits are just some of the benefits of a life insurance policy. A part of your payments also go to investments. This can be placed in the bond market, stock market, and other markets
Anyone who isn’t prepared for the future with emergency funds and life insurance policies will definitely worry and will essentially live life without a solid financial plan. Kung mag yo-YOLO ka nang wala ka pang emergency funds o life insurance, hindi yan YOLOing wisely. Safeguard your future so that you can enjoy the present all you want.
With wise financial planning, proper money management, the right money-making skills, and a good set of friends, you’ll be able to check items off your bucket list one by one - with no limits.
Because hey, the only limit that we really have is having only one life to live.
Step Six: Make Your Money Work
“Making your money work for you” or “Making money while you sleep” is such a common money advice that it’s almost cliché. Financial freedom is not having to work on things you don’t have and want to do because your passive income covers your expenses. Passive income is income that you get even if you’re not working.
The formula looks like this: Financial Freedom = Passive Income > Expenses
Whenever people learn about this, they just jump right to it! But the truth about passive income is it only becomes passive after some enormous active work. To build your Golden Goose that will lay your Golden Eggs for you, you first have to be able to give any of these three things:
Money called capital which you can put upfront, knowing well that there are risks involved and that it may take time before your money grows. You can attain passive income by placing money in various financial markets.
Massive energy and effort, knowing that you only have to do this once and it eventually can give you passive money through sales. An example would be writing a book - it will take time and effort to write one, but you can sell it later on and earn from it even as you enjoy life.
Lots of time in which you upgrade your skills and also lose money and effort knowing that if you become good at it, you’ll make income. Notice that I only said income and not passive income, because I want to put trading here. And as I’ve said earlier, trading is not a passive skill. If you don’t trade, you don’t get or lose money.
Pwede kang mamili sa tatlong ito or you can have all of them.
Unless you have so much capital that can be placed in money markets, you still have to do some work. And trust me, it will not happen overnight!
Being slow but consistent is the key. Slow is always fast.
Step Seven: Build Your Legacy
“Legacy is not leaving something for people. It’s leaving something in people.” -Peter Strople
Whatever your answer is to “What will you do if money isn’t an issue?” will be your legacy.
I have learned that building a legacy is really about creating the kind of impact you give every person you meet along the way.
What matters is still this: what kind of impact do you have on other people? What kind of legacy will you leave behind? To build your legacy, all you gotta do is live. Actually live. Live your life your way. Live it according to your personal values. Live it in your own terms. Live intentionally.
It all end up with the author's biggest question to the readers...
"Ikaw, what will you do if money isn’t an issue?
Closing Thoughts
This is one of my favorite finance books along with "Rich Dad Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki. But maybe I prefer "How to YOLO Wisely" better because the language used is very understandable for me as a Filipino. And the step-by-step guide is really helpful for every Filipino.
If you're a fellow Filipino reading this, I highly suggest that you read the book. I swear it's worth it! Maikli lang naman yung ebook version kaya kayang-kaya yan kahit sa mga hindi pala-basa.
Along the way of reading the ebook/book, the author mentioned the private Facebook group that anyone interested could join, for free. I also swear na marami kayong matututunan sa Facebook group na yun.
Example topic: Art Investing!
Konti lang ang nakakaalam ng tungkol sa "Art Investing", mostly mga mayayaman o mga sobrang mayayaman lang. But in that group, Nikki aka NFG, the writer of the book, shared about the details of it. At marami pang ibang topics na malalaman at matututunan nyo dun. For free!
Yes to free financial literacy for everyone!
Happy reading! I wish you all to be blessed financially!
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I write things that spike my interest such as finance, investing, kdrama, kpop, architecture, my learnings, and misadventures.
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Date Published: July 10, 2022
Parang nakaka enjoy yung Jar tapos may label na travel to Japan, Paris. Want to try it too. I will read that book. Thank you for sharing.