Leaving the Past Behind: A Fresh Start for 2026

For a long time, this blog has been my space to share my heart ❤️ — the struggles, the challenges, the financial stress 💸, and the realities of figuring out adulthood. I’ve been honest about my mistakes, the things I wished I’d done differently, and the moments I felt completely lost 😔. And while that honesty has been necessary, holding onto the past doesn’t serve me anymore 🚪

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Rest assured that 2026 will be different. It will be the year to reset, to leave the old patterns behind, and to focus on something better — something hopeful 🌟

This blog will reflect that change. Expect new content, fresh perspectives, and a focus on what’s worth looking forward to 🔮. The mistakes of the past? I’ll acknowledge them, but I won’t dwell there ⏳❌

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This blog is changing for the better. It will be a space where I celebrate today — not yesterday 🎉. Life can be full, intentional, and stress-free — even while navigating responsibilities.

Here’s what you can look forward to:

• Budgeting tips, practical money strategies, and book reviews (like Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps) — all designed to help you plan for the future without stress 💵📚

• & Most important of all, doing all the responsibility of an Adult stress free. Just like the Lord Jesus would remind us not to worry.

Philippians 4:6-7

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

You’ll see how I balance planning for the future while enjoying the present 🌸

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Above all else, I want this blog to remind both myself and anyone reading that life can be calm 🌊, intentional 🎨, and joyful 😊. You don’t need to sacrifice happiness for responsibility. You can grow, make thoughtful choices, and still enjoy life every day ✨

So here’s to 2026: a year of fresh beginnings 🌱, thoughtful planning 📅, and mindful living 🧘‍♀️. A year where mistakes aren’t erased but learned from 📝, and where the present is just as valuable as the future ⏳

I hope you’ll join me on this journey of calm, clarity, and stress-free living 💖 — let’s make this blog a place that celebrates life as it is, right now 🌟

2026 vs 2017 - Review post: Reasons Why You Are Not Satisfied with Your Job?

It’s fascinating to reread a post I wrote almost eight years ago 📖. I’m genuinely grateful that I can now look back and clearly see how my perspective — and my understanding of the world — has changed 🌱🌏.

When I read my old post, “Reasons Why You Are Not Satisfied with Your Job,” I notice a familiar pattern: most of my reasoning was about why things weren’t working for me 🤔. I was quick to point out external causes and slow to recognize my own role in the situation.

At the time, that felt logical ✅. Now, I see it differently.

While it’s true that a bad environment can affect you — as I mentioned in my third point about listening to negative coworkers 🙄 — I’ve come to believe that environment only has power when your internal foundation is weak 💪. One negative voice can influence you only if you lack the strength to filter it out.

With strong mental clarity 🧠, emotional stability 💛, and good physical health 🥩, you don’t absorb everything you hear. You choose what deserves your attention 🎯.

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See bulleted points below, where I asked ChatGPT to summarize my post 📝:

• Frequent job changes after graduation 🔄
  I moved through five jobs across industries and locations, constantly searching for fulfillment but never feeling settled.

• Decisions driven by youth and external approval 😓
  Many choices were motivated by the desire to impress others rather than genuine alignment, which led to burnout and dissatisfaction.

• Negative influence from coworkers 🙃
  I allowed constant complaining and gossip to shape how I viewed my work, even in roles that were relatively stable.

• Living paycheck to paycheck — mentally 💸
  Work became about survival, not growth, accompanied by frustration over missed goals and limited finances.

• Misalignment with company goals, especially in sales 🎯
  Struggling to meet targets revealed a deeper mismatch between my personality, skills, and the role itself.

• Enduring jobs as “stepping stones” ⏳
  I accepted roles out of sacrifice and urgency, which resulted in wasted energy rather than progress.

I love how ChatGPT helped me summarize and organize the reflections above 😄💡 — a small reminder that the right tools can make thinking, writing, and growth so much easier.

✅ Read the full 2017 post: Reasons Why You Are Not Satisfied with Your Job?

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How I See It Now (2026) 

As I often share on this blog, I couldn’t truly understand what was wrong until I addressed my health 🥗💪. An undernourished body and mind don’t stand a chance against the constant negativity the world throws at you 🌪️.

As my health improved — through proper nourishment and eating real, nutrient-dense food like beef 🥩 — my thinking became clearer 🧠. I began to see the bigger picture. Gossip became noise 📣❌ and should never have a place in your mind.

With a healthy body, clarity feels natural — like standing on top of a mountain 🏔️ and calmly observing the scenery below instead of being lost inside it.

That shift changed how I make decisions, how I listen 👂, and how I choose what deserves my energy ⚡. Fixing my health helped me realize the real reason I was never satisfied with my job.

This isn’t really about the job itself — it’s about the fact that my financial goals weren’t being achieved the way I wanted 💰.

With a clearer mind and better health, I can finally see that my dissatisfaction wasn’t caused by gossip, other people, or external circumstances 🙅‍♀️. The real issue was that I hadn’t yet learned the steps needed to reach my goals 📈.

Today, I am fully transparent about the financial plan I’m following 📊. I am committed to taking conservative, baby steps 🐾 as taught by Dave Ramsey, trusting the process, and keeping my faith in the Lord ✝️ at the center of it all.

This way, I don’t live for money alone 💵 — I live a life that also nourishes my soul 💛 and aligns with what I believe in 🌿.

That’s all for now.
Thank you for reading all the way through.

 

Stress & Baby Steps #2

The Quiet Weight of Debt I Didn’t Know I Was Carrying 💭💸

I don’t think I ever truly knew how much stress I was carrying while living with two major loans:

• An SSS loan

• A personal loan close to six digits 😮

Just writing that still feels heavy. I lived with that debt for more than a decade, and somehow, I convinced myself it didn’t affect me.

I kept telling myself I was fine. That I was chill about it. “I can pay it off if I really want to,” I’d say. It became background noise—something so familiar that I stopped questioning it. Like it was just part of adult life. 🤷‍♀️

But debt doesn’t always announce itself as stress. Sometimes, it sits quietly in the corners of your mind. It shows up in subtle ways—hesitation, tension, overthinking—things you brush off because they feel normal. 🧠

My SSS loan took around three months to fully pay off (I actually need to look that up because I can’t remember the exact timeline anymore). My second-highest loan, aside from my mortgage, took me a full year. A year of consistency, discipline, and living on a tight budget. 📆💪

And then one day, I made the final payment.

There was no big celebration. No dramatic moment. Just a quiet, internal sigh of relief. 😌 A simple thought: “Thank you. I don’t have to carry this anymore.”

             ✅Check out related post Debt snowball... my 2nd debt

That’s when I realized something important.

I hadn’t noticed how much stress those loans were adding to my life until they were gone. The constant mental weight. The low-level anxiety I had normalized. The way it subtly affected my peace of mind. 😴 I thought I was handling it well—but I was really just used to it.

Who would have thought that something I brushed off for years was quietly affecting my emotional well-being?

Paying off those loans didn’t just free up my finances—it freed my mind. It taught me that just because we can live with something doesn’t mean it isn’t costing us. And just because stress feels familiar doesn’t mean it should be ignored. 💡

If you’re carrying debt right now and telling yourself you’re “okay,” maybe pause and check in with yourself. Relief doesn’t always come with fireworks—but when it arrives, you’ll feel it. 🌱

That is it for now. Thanks for reading all the way 🙏💛

Baby Step # 3

I never realized that skipping an emergency fund 💸🛑 could still leave you feeling like you’re chasing every paycheck 🏃‍♂️💨. I’ve experienced it firsthand.

You probably know that I started investing through time deposits/MP2. On paper, it felt like the smart move—I was putting money aside and thinking about compounding interest. But deep down, I knew I couldn’t touch that money for at least five years. Even with investments growing in the background, I was still living paycheck to paycheck, never feeling fully secure about my immediate needs.

✅Check out related post Why Emergency Funds Matter to Me 

Then I started my emergency fund, following Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps. After paying off my debts in Baby Step #2, moving to Baby Step #3 completely changed my mindset. Just knowing that I could cover one month of expenses without stress gave me an incredible sense of relief 🏠.

This “gap fund” isn’t just money set aside—it’s a psychological boost. Suddenly, I feel rich, not because of what I’ve invested for the future, but because of the control and security I have in the present 💖. It’s amazing how having accessible, liquid funds can change your relationship with money, reduce stress, and give you confidence to make decisions without fear.

I now see that an emergency fund isn’t just a step in a financial plan—it’s a foundation. Investments will always be important, but the freedom that comes from knowing you can cover your essential expenses without any problem is amazing. For me, starting this fund has been a small action with a huge psychological payoff, and it’s made all the difference in how I experience my finances.

That is it for now. Thanks for reading all the way.

Compounding Interest vs Following the Baby Steps # 3 to the Tea 🤔💭

Compounding Interest vs Following the Baby Steps to the Tea 🤔💭

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about compounding interest and the incredible advantage it can offer over time 📈✨. Being in my late 30s, I feel the pressure to make the most of the time I have left. The idea of letting even small investments grow exponentially over the years is hard to resist—it feels like a way to get ahead without constantly hustling for more money 💸.

Yet, here’s the challenge: I’m still not done with Baby Step #3, and that makes me pause. For context, Baby Step #3, as taught by Dave Ramsey, is all about building a fully funded emergency fund—3 to 6 months of living expenses tucked away safely 🛟💰. It’s designed to give peace of mind, a buffer for life’s unexpected events, and the freedom to make decisions without panic. And honestly, starting this step has already lifted a huge weight off my shoulders. For the first time in a long while, I feel calmer, knowing that my essential expenses for the next few months are covered 🧘‍♀️🏠. In other words, I’ve experienced it firsthand, and it’s solid proof that the Baby Steps really work.

And yet, the pull of compounding interest is strong. Time is one of the few things we can’t get back, and the thought of letting my money grow over the years makes me wonder if I’m “missing out” by focusing on safety first. I think, “If I start investing now, even a small amount could grow into something significant decades from now.” That feeling is hard to ignore.

✅Check out my blog post on how I started my emergency fund here.

But then I remind myself of the peace that comes with following Baby Step #3. There’s something about knowing that your basic needs are covered that no chart, no projection, and no percentage can ever replicate. It’s a type of freedom that’s hard to explain—a calm that allows you to think clearly, make decisions without panic, and plan for long-term growth 🧘‍♀️💖.

This has made me realize that there’s a reason the Baby Steps exist. They’re not arbitrary—they’re a proven system for building both security and wealth sustainably. While compounding interest can help grow money, its purpose is really different with the Baby step # 3. 

So, what’s stopping me from following the Baby Steps to the tea? Honestly, nothing. I’ve already felt the relief and confidence that comes from Baby Step #3, and I know it works. I could continue investing and chasing compounding gains, but the safety and stability I’ve gained by focusing on my 'gap fund' emergency fund are invaluable 🛡️💰.

At the same time, the thought of letting my money grow while I wait is hard to ignore. I know that once my emergency fund is fully in place, I’ll be able to invest with confidence and take full advantage of compounding interest. But for now, I’m left wondering: is it wiser to prioritize safety and follow the steps exactly as outlined, or should I try to balance both—building my emergency fund while still investing a bit here and there?

I don’t have the answer yet 🤷‍♀️💭. For now, I’ll continue along currently what I am doing—hoping that when the time comes, I’ll make the choice that’s right for my future.

That is it for now. Thanks for reading all the way 🙏💛

Having fun topping up my Emergency Fund 💰🥳

I didn’t realize that funding my “gap fund”—or emergency fund—could actually be enjoyable 💰.

Especially now that I’m saving my emergency fund in a high-yield savings account 📈. Yes, I finally made the move—carefully, as always, and with the right precautions in place 🛡️.

There’s a small dopamine hit every time I see my fund growing day by day 😄📊. It’s a simple joy, but it feels like a little win added to my day—and I’ll take those wins whenever I can.

A quick note on interest and taxes 🇵🇭🧾

Just sharing this for transparency and awareness:

• Interest earned in the Philippines is subject to a 20% tax

• My high-yield savings account earns around 3.5%–6% interest

• I earn roughly ₱50 per month in interest

• After the 20% tax, that becomes about ₱40

It’s not a huge amount, but watching money grow—no matter how small—still feels rewarding 💸🙂.

Protect your online presence 🔐📱

Using online banking has been incredibly convenient and efficient. That said, it’s also important to stay vigilant. Creative hackers are everywhere, and protecting yourself is non-negotiable.

Here are a few practices I follow to keep my finances safe:

• ❌ Don’t click suspicious links

• 📶 Never connect to public Wi-Fi

• 📞 Be cautious of scam calls asking for personal details

In today’s digital world, we need to be smarter and more proactive about protecting what’s ours. These simple steps go a long way toward reducing financial stress.

Less worry about money is one of my main goals 🧘‍♀️💖. If I can eliminate even one major source of stress from my life, that already feels like a win.

That’s it for now.
Thanks so much for reading all the way through 🤍

I Didn’t Wanted to Pay off my Debt Until I Did

Why do I have to pay off debt? 🤔

Isn’t going straight to investing the best and most logical way? 📈💭

That’s how stupid the way I used to think back then 😅.

I didn’t want to pay off my debt until I discovered Dave Ramsey’s 7 Baby Steps, specifically Baby Step #2 👣.

To be honest, I skipped straight to Baby Step #4 because I wanted to try time deposits 🏦, thinking at least my money would earn a bit of interest 💰. Not to mention I was in my 30's already back then and I really want time to be on my side. That so-called “investing” felt slow 🐢, while my debt kept creeping back into my mind 👀💳.

That’s when it started to feel like Dave Ramsey was actually right.

“The borrower is slave to the lender.” 📖⚖️

That verse haunted every money decision I made 🧠💸.

To give more context, I had two kinds of debt:

• SSS loan 🏛️

• Personal loan from a family member 🤝

I felt that Bible verse the most with the second loan.

For context, my brother was kind enough to fund my ticket so I could work overseas ✈️🌍. But after three years abroad, I still didn’t have enough money to pay him back 😔. Maybe I’ll make another post about my OFW life as an update someday.

Back to the topic. As the years passed, I began to understand what Dave often says on his show 🎙️—suddenly, every money decision becomes a big deal.

Even though I was spending my own money, I constantly felt like I was being judged on every decision I made 😶‍🌫️. Because I had debt to my brother, every comment felt like strict judgment. I know the intention was good, but the pain of unsolicited comments affects me.

I truly felt like a slave ⛓️.

The borrower is slave to the lender.

Proverbs 22:7

After two years of thinking about it and putting off the idea of paying, in 2023, I finally had the courage to pay my brother in full 💪💵. My budget felt tight 😬, but I pushed through.

And I’m glad I did ✨.

No more feeling judged by my family 🙌.
For the first time, it felt like I had a backbone 🦴.

I know I’m still lacking in many aspects, but I’m grateful that I finally got this debt out of the way 🙏.

That’s it for now ✨

Thanks for reading all the way!

Forget about leverage! I Now Save Slowly & Invest Conservatively

I still remember the time when I wanted to get rich quick 💸⚡… and how it backfired instantly 🤦‍♀️💥
Instead of getting rich, I somehow managed to get poor quickly instead 😂🥲.

😂

That’s why I wanted to look back and reflect on why I now prefer saving conservatively 🐢💰, and which financial guru I currently follow.

Remember the phase when I was raving about “leverage” 📈, desperately trying to ditch my so-called “poor dad” mentality 🧠❌. I have a lot of post about it here in the blog. I genuinely tried to learn, try to read more book 🤓📚, believing leverage and get-rich-quick ideas were the way out 🚀. But in reality, that mindset burned my bum straight back to the ground 🔥😅⬇️.

Just to be clear, I’m not blaming anyone 🙏. All the decisions was done by me to begin with. 🪞.
This is simply a reminder that not everything you hear on the internet is meant for you 🌐⚠️. & I have to learn this lesson the hard way 🧱.

I’m truly thankful that I eventually found Dave Ramsey’s conservative approach to building wealth 🧾✨. His philosophy helped me slow down 🛑and stop chasing shortcuts.

This is currently where I'm at with his 7 Baby Steps

• Baby steps 2 : Pay off all debt (except the house) 💳➡️❌
• Baby steps 3: Save 3-6 Months of expenses for emergencies🚨💵

I didn’t follow the steps perfectly or “to the tee” 🫣 at first, but when I started the Baby steps #3,  after I paid my SSS loan and my personal loan I started to feel lighter financially 🪶. Together with the practice of gratitude 🙏—something Dave Ramsey always emphasizes—I truly felt grounded 🌍. It helped me understand the importance of staying humble 🤍 and being a good steward of the Lord’s blessings ✨✝️.

Looking back, I think I had enough of that grabbing mentality 🤲⚡, the need for everything to be instant ⏱️. It revealed a part of my character I had to confront 🪞. Being brought back down taught me something valuable 🎓: there’s peace 🕊️ in not chasing material things that don’t truly matter 🧘‍♀️.

Right now, it’s enough for me to:

• Manage what I have as best as I can 🧠💼

• Nurture my relationships with my family 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦❤️

• Show up well for my colleagues at work 🤝🙂

That’s it for now ✨

Thanks for reading all the way 🙏💛

Why Emergency Funds Matter to Me

 Why Emergency Funds Matter to Me

🚫 Definitely, there is no way I am going to skip this 1st step on how to be financially responsible & this time, nothing's gonna stop or halt or stall me from creating one.

📖 A little back story.

😖 The word emergency has always left a dull taste in my mouth whenever I hear it. You know that mindset — why would I anticipate an “emergency” in my life? I was that person for many years. This became my excuse to save for almost anything, except an emergency fund.

💭 To be fair, my financial goal has always been a transformation — like it went all over the place:

• ⬅️ to the left

• 📈 from false peak

• 📉 back down

• 🔁 then back down and starting over again

& it's impossible to describe it, I think I have tried a bunch of approach in finances. So for the sake of this story, let us just put it that way.

✨ My ultimate goal for saving back then was never really an emergency fund. What I wanted is the usual financial freedom that everybody talks about.

🧠 But over time, I started to accept that financial freedom doesn’t happen overnight. It happens through a series of steps — and one of the first steps that many people agree on is building an emergency fund.

🙅🏽‍♀️ Still, because I disliked the word emergency so much, it took me a long time to fully accept the idea. I even tried renaming it at one point — I forgot what I called it back then, but I clearly remember giving it a nickname just so I could feel better about saving for it 😅.

📱 More recently, I came across someone online who shared a perspective that finally clicked with me. Instead of calling it an emergency fund, she called it a “gap.”

🚫 Not an emergency —👉🏽 a gap.

💡 Her logic was simple:

• the bigger the gap between your money and your expenses, the safer you feel

• the more months of expenses you can cover in advance — three months, six months — the richer you feel internally

✨ Brilliant isn't it? Now you are not expecting for something bad to happen. It’s now about you know you are covered in advance. Like I feel rich that way, I can take care of the future expenses — hair flip 💁🏽‍♀️.

🎉 I was pretty proud of myself for finally seeing it that way 😄.

🌱 That inner resistance I had for years slowly disappeared, and for the first time, I felt excited to save for my emergency fund. For me, the bigger the gap, the better 😊.

🙏 I still have a lot to work on, but I’m genuinely grateful that I finally started building my emergency fund during the 2025 holiday season 🎄. That alone feels like real progress.

💌 That’s it for now — thank you for reading all the way through.

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Simple Mistakes I made why I stall funding my Emergency fund

Even when I first entered the workforce at a young age, I felt I was a fairly responsible person 💰. I already understood the importance of saving, and I truly believed that this alone would set me up financially.

Like most people, I saved because I dreamed of a time when money wouldn’t feel so heavy. I wanted to earn more, worry less, and provide generously for myself and my family 🤍. Saving felt like the obvious solution — and of course, having an emergency fund sounded like the first thing to do.

So why is it that, looking back now — over a decade later (yes, OMG 😅) — it’s only in 2025 that I’ve managed to gather a small amount that I can finally call an emergency fund?

This is what I realized.

Even though I knew the importance of saving, I was never able to maintain it keep it -as it keep it aside. I think this is what's logically happened. To start of with savings, to make room for it, I often adjusted my food budget 🍚. It felt like this is the easiest place to cut back.

My thinking was simple:

• Eat less →

• Spend less →

• Save more (which will go towards my emergency fund)

That was the logic I followed & apparently the biggest mistake that I made in my life that affects my finances.

Even though I saved consistently, I kept running into the same problem.

My savings were never really growing — they were constantly being used to patch up basic necessities.

I would dip into them because:

• I didn’t have enough money to last until payday 💸

• I needed money for food 🍽️

• I needed transportation 🚍

• I had to replace worn-out work shoes 👟
  (I might write a separate post about this — I want to start with what I did wrong starting about food here 😂)

That’s when I began to understand something important: being low income comes with a hidden premium.

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The Hidden Cost of Cutting Food

Cutting back on food may look smart, but the body eventually demands proper nutrition. Maybe not today, but tomorrow — when hunger catches up and your body asks for real nourishment 🍽️.

Yes, fish is healthy 🐟. A piece of fried chicken 🐔 sounds yummy too. But a small portion doesn’t always meet your daily protein and nutrient needs. Back then, I lived very simply — even a meal from a popular fast-food chain in the Philippines felt like a luxury to me.

Eating this way kept me constantly hungry. And because of that, I often ended up spending more on food than I originally planned.

This cycle followed me for years (like I said, over a decade, it's unreal) of my working life. I dreamed of saving more, but the money kept going toward survival — mostly food and other basic needs.

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What Finally Changed

Once I realized something was wrong, I went deep into self-help and self-care 🧘‍♂️📚 and experimented with different diets until I eventually stumbled upon the carnivore diet 🥩. Gone were the days of eating just to eat, without thinking about proper nutrition 🍽️. & thank God I finally let go of my childish behavior of eating fast-food that I thought was the best thing in the world.

I started choosing my food more intentionally — not at a professional dietitian level 👩‍⚕️, but in a simple, practical way. For me, beef naturally provides essential nutrients, especially B vitamins 🧠⚡, without requiring much overthinking. I may be a bit biased here 😅, but compared to chicken 🐔 or fish 🐟, when I eat beef in a day 🥩, I feel:

• more focused 🧠

• full for longer ⏳

• less tempted to overspend later 💸

Yes, it’s that simple.

With a properly nourished body & felt full longer - much longer-  my money decisions became clearer. I could finally set a food budget that made sense — and actually stick to it.

I stopped overspending, and for the first time, saving and building my emergency fund felt possible. More importantly, being properly nourished helped clear my mind — no more brain fog or constant forgetfulness — which allowed me to plan my life and approach my finances with intention. I finally felt grounded, with a real foundation to face life’s challenges, including money.

Who knew that a simple change — choosing the right food — could set you up for success in whatever you’re aiming for, even something as simple as starting an emergency fund 🙂