The Financial Planner Experiment
September 25, 2008 by Jayvee Fernandez
Filed under The Unwired Life
Many months ago I forced myself into an opportunity to learn how to manage my finances. What it was – a social experiment of sorts with a journalist friend who had me consult a financial planner and see whether this would bring about any behavioral change in my spending habits.
After a few meetings with my new (free!) financial planner, we narrowed down our goals to the following: to have at least 2 months salary worth of liquid income in case of emergencies, to verify my newly acquired investment insurance policy, to get independent health care (I was a freelancer) and to identify and cut on unnecessary expenses.
As of today, I’ve achieved the savings and the health care (I got Maxicare because the annual price is similar to having paid for a quarterly blood test).
As it turns out, the biggest chunk of my expenditures went to operational expenses (gas and “going out” 
). Next in line was the bills (credit card, cellphone, etc). Yeah the cellphone bill was there. I computed that I spent roughly $700.00 a year for bills. One huge chunk of advice my planner gave me was that I shouldn’t neglect the small expenses because these expenses multiplied by 12 will give you a huge amount you could have saved for something. I pay less about $50.00 a month for my phone (although I haven’t bought a phone since 2003 because the retention plans I apply for always have phones). Wow, $700.00 – that’s a laptop a year!
But then again, I do need to make calls as I run my own virtual business back home. How much do you spend every month for your cellphone bill? They say that getting a wireless landline can help you save money, but that’s not available everywhere!
