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Showing posts from January, 2015

14 Call Center Interview Questions & Answers

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The call center industry is one of the fastest growing in the country these days. As recently as ten years ago, there were only a few call center agents and the word call center was hardly ever used in the country. Today, almost every family has at least one member working in the call center industry. The reason for this boom is partly economics. In the Philippines, low paying jobs are very notorious and while call centers set up shop here because of the low labor costs, Filipinos decide to work for the call center industry because it pays higher than average wages. Consider this: if you are an average worker with an entry level position, you probably are getting paid seven to ten thousand a month; meanwhile, an average employee in the call center industry with an entry level position will get around fifteen thousand pesos a month, plus free dental and health benefits (HMO). Call centers also will pay your SSS (Social Security), PAGIBIG (home building fund), and PhilHealth (health ins...
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Does Frugality Make Sense?

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I have always struggled to marry the concepts that "Rich Dad" Robert Kiyosaki and "Money Lady" Suze Orman teach. I listen to both financial gurus, and both teach conflicting lessons about money. Robert Kiyosaki does not like living below your means while Suze Orman does. If you have read my other articles on personal finance , you'll know that I am big on living below your means and frugality. So let's look at why Robert Kiyosaki doesn't like frugality. Wealth is abundant and is limitless; therefore frugality doesn't make sense. This school of thought can be found in Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich. If you think about it, wealth is infinite and, in fact, can be created by anyone who wishes to do so. Robert Kiyosaki tells us to EXPAND our means instead of to live below our means. Another reason Robert Kiyosaki does not like frugality is because it can drive you to stagnation. If you live below your means, you might find yourself too c...
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The Economics of Spending for Happiness

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A friend of mine once asked me how one should deal with spending for leisure. For this person, it is hard to say no to eat outs, night outs, parties, and out of town trips. Frugality is the efficient management of wealth, spending primarily on NEEDS; so this begs the question: is spending on wants an inefficient way of spending? Not necessarily. This is where knowing how to budget and control spending becomes very important. Before we even talk about budgeting, let us start with this: Happiness is Subjective . Your happiness is different from someone else's happiness. When we buy something or travel somewhere because we saw how happy people were who have bought that same thing or have gone to that same place, what we actually want is to be happy as those people and not the thing that they purchased or to go to the place that they went to. When you emulate the things that your friends do that make them happy, you are forgetting that what makes them happy will not necessarily ...
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Did you beat inflation in 2014?

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photo source: unknown According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, 2014 inflation was at 4.1% . Theoretically, something that cost 1 peso at the beginning of 2014 is now worth around 1 peso and 4 centavos.  If you are saving money with  BDO , Chinabank , or  BPI , you are currently just earning 0.25% interest per year on your savings and let's not forget that the interest earned is still being taxed at 20%. This means that the money you parked in a savings account actually depreciated, losing about 4% of its value just this year. Time deposits are just a bit better but nowhere close to being able to combat inflation. Beating inflation is one of the reasons why people invest. Were it not for inflation, we'd all probably be content with just saving money. Because of inflation, savers become losers. But what if you weren't able to beat inflation? Should you feel bad if your investments failed to beat inflation?  This depends on your investment goal. I...
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