Investing in Experiences: How to be a Better Public Relations Officer? | The Investing P.O.V.

I had my fair share of PR or Public Relations duty when it came to events but I can't say all of them went smoothly from me. So many factors came to play but at the end of the day, it's the experience that matters.

I'm an accountancy student which meant that most of my knowledge if rooted to accounting and finance. If I talk to guest  with this topics, i'm good. But what happened was I was assign to PR for advertising and marketing professionals. It was quite an experience. A pretty mixed one at that too.

So what can you do to be a good PR?

1.) Do your Research
Before the event itself, make sure that you have done your fair share of homework about the industry and the speakers you will be meeting with especially if your not keen to their field. This will help you answer their questions and will let you engage on casual conversation with them while, let's say, waiting for their turn to talk to the audience.

2.) Be Observant
Being a PR also means that you'll be taking care of them while they're at the event. From the time they arrive until they depart for the vicinity. You have to be observant and attentive to their needs. Initiate an offer of food and beverages or may a bottle of water. The little things will be much appreciated.

3.) Be Bold
If you've done your research and if your observation skills are on point, then, the final step would be to just be bold. Speak up! engage with them. I mean, sure their respected people from the industries but their also humans. Just make sure that you stay respectful and polite. 

That's all for this week! I hope you guys can apply this on your next PR assignment! :)

Disclaimer: Found the image on Google images; originally from http://plaidswan.com/proving-pr-works/

The Investing Perspective: The Not-So Perks of Overspending | The Investing P.O.V.

Hi guys! Welcome back to my blog! I hope that you are all spending a blessed All Saint's day here in the Philippines and are having an awesome Halloween on your country as well!

Today, I want to talk about Overspending. We'll tackle what it really means, why it happens and how to stop it.

What is Overspending?

Basically, overspending means living outside of your means. You are spending more than what you really have. If you were given Php 500 allowance for the week, you most likely have spent Php 600 causing you to either ask for more allowance or borrow money from a classmate or friend.

Why do we Overspend and How do we stop it?

1. Misconception of having lot of money
This happens especially to those students that are given monthly or weekly allowances. At the begin of the month or week, there's this feeling that you have so much money to spend with! (which is obviously not true) And so, he/she might be tempted to use it on unnecessary things. You need to pause and remember that this will be your allowance for a span of time and assess first how much you'll need everyday, making sure you've covered it first before spending that rest on what you want.

2. You don't have a clear Budget to begin with

For me, this is the number 1 reason why a person overspends. I get my allowance on a monthly basis and before the start of every month, I would manage that allowance by making a budget (see: How I budget my Allowance) to make sure I can cover all my anticipated expenses, use a portion of it to save and invest, and the rest goes to my daily expenses. I will always save first before spending.

3. You have a Budget but it's not correct
I'm guilty with this one on a few occasions, you might have not anticipated correctly or underestimate/overestimated you budget. It's important to update your budget regularly so that you can be sure it really works for you!

4.Need to keep up with the current trends

Maybe, there's a new phone coming out? or a new game console? Maybe it's because there's a new fashion trend and all your friends are starting to wear it. Keeping up with the trends, make a person, especially, young adults feel like they belong to their group or circle but it's not necessary to do so. Trends will most like come and go, and by the end of the month you'll find yourself buying the next big thing. Sure, if you can afford to do so, then that's good, however, if you know that this is beyond your budget then you better think twice! 

5. It's Human nature?
Mr. Edric Mendoza of ANC addresses this as, people always wanting for MORE. When a person has means they would start a cycle of greed and end up wanting more. However, we also have a capability to change that way of thinking and focus more on what we need rather what we want. 

For me, overspending isn't just a situation a person faces, it could also be a lifestyle for other people. It's important to break from it while we're still young, that way, we are surely one step closer to financial freedom!

Thanks for tuning in! What financial concept would you like to talk about next time? Comment them below and see you next Tuesday!

Note: Found that cute little piggy bank image from Google, credits to its owner! 

Student Leader Chronicles: Dialogue with Sen Bam Aquino

The Dean of OSS on his Opening Remarks

The Council of Student Organizaions,last October 25, 2016 (Tuesday), invited 100 selected Lasallian student leaders were invited to have a dialogue with Sen. Bam Aquino. It was a short affair but it was engaging and spontaneous. I honestly learned a lot more about the current educational reforms and policies implemented in the country. 

1.) The Education Budget

According to the Senator, who is also the chairman of the Senate Eduction Committee, the budget this year for education was a whopping PHP 566 billion, which is also the largest budget of the year. Most of the budget for education goes to building facilities such as schools and classrooms in rural lands. He noted that apart from classrooms, most rural areas ask for better internet connections as well, showing just how much technology is needed even in education.

2.) K to 12: What is it and How does it work?

In the recent years, the government implemented K to 12 in the hopes to be at par with other nations surrounding the Philippines. This programs, according to Senator Aquino was pattern of that of Singapore and Germanys's educational system. And here's how it works,

Senator Bam Aquino on different education
reforms of government

By Grade 11, students will be required to choose a "track" which are Academics, Technical-Vocation Livelihood, Sports, or Arts and Design. This four tracks are further subdivided into more specifics tracks for students to choose. So if a student is aiming to go to college he will most likely pick the Academics track. I also discovered that Gr 11 and 12 students will also under go a mandatory OJT depending on the chosen field (which I think is awesome)

Why was it implemented? What were the expectations?

The main reason K to 12 was implements was not only to keep up with other nations but, most importantly, to make sure that after Grade 12, a student is already EMPLOYABLE. This means that they already have the necessary skills needed by companies that will allow them to be employed right after graduating. Sen. Aquino also said that because of this, it was expected that most students will pursue the Tech-Voc tracks rather than go to college. Classrooms were being built and teachers were being trained to be able to cater to the new system. Youth entrepreneurship in all levels will also be implemented where they will be teaching about financial literacy and the value of money. This are two things I am most excited about!

Issue:

But here's the thing, the government grossly underestimated the numbers. A lot of the students chose the academics track. They were expecting a big dropout but 92% of students chose to enter grade 11. The underestimation was mainly due to the negativity of the people before the start of the implementation.

3.) Free tuition for State Colleges and Universities Bill

Although this was yet to be passed, this will surely make a positive change in the country. This will allow less fortunate filipinos a chance to go to college and pursue a degree. I'm personally looking forward to this.

Dialogue

After stressing his key points, students were then given a chance to ask him some questions regarding the reforms

A Psychology student asked him about current special education budgets to which the senator said was pretty low. 

Senator Bam Aquino on his Dialogue with student leaders

A political Science student also asked to confirm the budget cut for the National Commission of Culture and the Arts which might ultimately cut budgets for programs such as arts and dance, that which the senator also confirmed. 

A Filipino major student petitioned to give the Filipino language more importance in the K to 12 system 

and lastly, when another Education  student asked him to justify the k to 12 system, Sen. Bam said that ultimately he believes that this is the step to be able to address, unemployment and job mismatch issues and that, over the long run, this is enable Filipinos to get jobs quicker.

Experience:
In the end, I am proud to say that I was part of the organizing committee for this event and though it was quite rushed, the students were able to get better insights about what to government is doing as we speak. Sen. Bam was friendly and engaging and was trying to insert as much laughs as he could while in the dialogue. He also encouraged the students to maximize their use of social media and to stay connected with the government as much as possible. He hopes that we will be sending our suggestions of what we thinks will be a good reform or law and they might possibly bring those suggestions forward -- you'll never know until you try!



That's all for today, see you guys next Tuesday!

Investing in Experiences: 2nd DJSS

Last Saturday, I attended the 2nd DLSU-D JFINEX Students Summit: Money Matters, Changing The Way You Think About Money at the Ugnayang La Salle Gymnasium, DLSU-D. It was one of the biggest events I have gone to so far in this year and I must say they did a really splendid job. The DJSS is a fund raising event held annually in our school. I organized the first DJSS but this year's summit far outshined and outperformed the previous one. 

Four amazing and engaging speakers graced the stage and talk about how money affect our sense of leadership, investing, relationships with others and our spirituality. All of the speakers are in the top of their fields and were so engaging, you couldn't help but get drawn in their talk.

The organizers also didn't disappoint the participants with their generous sponsors and food partner. Food quality was ensured by McDonald's and thousands of pesos worth of raffle draws were given by their sponsors! The most memorable ones were the 5 lucky winners for the 25k accident insurance by Sunlife;the 3 10k discount from Tree Top Adventure and 10 lucky backpack winners  from Hawkbag. 

The weather was especially sunny on that day as well and there were a lot of participants. the whole gymnasium was jam-packed! It's really amazing how one organization is able to spearhead all of this is certainly a feat.

The summit all in all had a wholistic view about money and gave its attendees insights on how money affects a person as a whole. The morning talk focused more on money and how it affects your sense of leadership with Mr. Abante of the Department of Finance, he talk about how as young government officials are constantly facing a lot of challenges. Mr. Marvin Fausto talked about how you can use money to start investing and start to accumulate wealth at a young age by investing in the stock market. Mr. Pangilinan enumarated how important building good relationship with others affect your mindset in money emphasizing that a great relation ship with God and your family can help you better handle your finances. Lastly, Pastor Soriano, inspired us to be better investors while also stressing out that we need not be consumed by money in order to experience a full and satisfying life.

At the end of the day, everything went on smoothly up until the closing remarks to the distribution of certificates. The only thing I could comment on was the lack of ventilation and poor air-conditioning of the venue but other than that I  was super happy with everything else rating this event a 9/10! But seriously, I think it was the freebies  and merchandise that really caught my heart.

Disclaimer: This post is not sponsored. It is simply my review for the 2nd DJSS. Credits to DLSU-D JFINEX for the posters.