There’s no question that car ownership incurs numerous expenses. Aside from the cost of fuel, there are toll fees, upgrade expenses, and maintenance and repair costs to name a few. In addition, it’s a well-known fact that cars depreciate in value through time. According to Consumer Reports, the life expectancy of a car is pegged at 8 years or 150,000 miles.

During the lifespan of your vehicle, it’s best to make the most out of it before it finally breaks down and needs replacing. So how can you maximize owning a vehicle? One way is to monetize your car.

Car ownership provides numerous benefits – convenience and efficiency to name a few. Below are 9 gigs you can do to monetize your car:

Be a delivery man
If you know that your neighbors and friends are busy as a bee, you can offer your services to run errands for them. You can bring their children to school and pick them up, buy their groceries, and even take their pets to the groomers. You’ll be surprised but some people will be willing to pay just to have a little more time in their hands.

Rent your car
If you’re not 100% dependent on your car and can spare commuting for a few days during the week, you can rent your vehicle out to friends or friends of friends. For out of town trips, rent-a-car companies usually ask for a fee of Php 3,500-5,000 a day for van rentals. You can replicate this as well and rent your vehicle during days you can forego driving.

Be an Uber or Grab driver
Being an Uber or Grab driver has become a full-time job and business for some people. If you have the means and the time, you can make this your part-time gig. Take note though that you have to go through a process when registering and applying to be an Uber or Grab driver. More than that, it is a requirement that your vehicle has PAMI insurance, which is passenger insurance for public utility vehicles (PUVs) which Uber and Grab vehicles fall under.

Carpool with neighbors
Aside from offering your delivery services to your neighbor, why not offer your car up for carpool? This is especially effective if your neighbors work in the same area as you do. This way you get to spend less by splitting up the cost of gas, toll fees, and even parking if your space is not provided by the company. More than that, driving to and from work won’t be a drag because you have your friends and neighbors with you.

Pick-up travelers from the airport
In relation to being a tour guide, you can also pick up your balikbayan friend or friends of your friends from the airport. This way they’ll avoid being tricked by taxi drivers who tend to jack up prices when picking passengers up from the airport. 
 
Teach driving
If you have a lot of spare time during weekday mornings, nights, and the weekends, you can be a driving instructor. You can start by teaching your neighbors’ teenagers. This way, you’ll save on gas since you both live in the same area. Supplementing that, it’s best to include the cost of gas and your time when coming up with your teaching fees. As a comparison tool, professional driving schools cost upwards of Php 10,000.

Tour balikbayans
If you have relatives or family friends visiting for the holidays, you can be their own personal tour guide. If they value your time and your effort showing them around, you shouldn’t be afraid to charge them and ask for a fee. With this, though, it’s best to brush up on your knowledge of select tourist destinations, so they can get the most bang for their buck with you as a tour guide.

Use your car as an advertising tool
Using your car as an advertising or marketing tool is a great way to monetize your car. This way you get to keep your car all to yourself instead of renting it out or letting other people use it. Just a look at the buses and taxis plastered with advertisements, and you can see how effective this can be.

Downgrade your vehicle
The last but definitely not the least tip is to downgrade your vehicle or sell it completely. If you live in a metropolitan area, it’s sometimes more cost- and time-effective to use public transportation. Not only will you get a lump sum amount by selling or downgrading a six-figure (or more) possession, but you can use the freed up cash for other reasons, be it paying down your mortgage or opening an investment account.

The Bottom Line
There are numerous ways you can monetize your car, so your vehicle doesn’t have to be an endless money pit. You can use it to your advantage, especially if you’re still paying your car. You can use the tips above to kill your car loans. But of course, with the money-generating tips above come more responsibility. If you plan to drive other people around, it’s important to have car insurance to keep you, your passengers, and your vehicle safe on the road. Once you’ve got that, ready, set, drive…and earn!

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We, your FinancePH advisors, will be glad and more than willing to help you plan your finances. Our customized financial planning approach caters to each individual needs, budgets and priorities.

If you wish to do a financial consultation with a FinancePH advisor or want to request a proposal/quote just click here. We will assign you to the best available advisor near your area.

 
(Originally written by: Kyle Kam, a Digital Marketing Specialist of MoneyMax.ph, a financial comparison website aiming to help Filipinos save money through diligent comparisons of financial products.)

If investments and cars are regulated, shouldn't jobs also be monitored and regulated? The rising rate of unemployment has always been a rampant problem in our country.
One of the factors that cause poverty is unemployment. It can either be the job is not available or the job available is not suitable for the jobseeker’s qualifications, skills and talents.

But in reality, most of the people who have walked along the streets of Makati will agree that there are lots of jobs available in the Philippines. Where can you find companies peddling jobs in the streets? Only in the Philippines!

I have personally experienced this with my first job. I roamed around the streets of Makati in search of a good company to work for. I could count myself lucky among those who can afford to go to big cities and look for jobs from one building to the other and land the job that had led me to where I am right now.

It is a fact that people in the provinces have to go to cities to secure themselves a job or a career. And for those who are incapable of doing so, whether by personal limitations including monetary considerations, finding job is a daunting task.

It is in my personal opinion that having a Centralized Database for Jobs is a solution to this Unemployment Dilemma.

I have based this “solution” with my experience with the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB). The first time I bought a condominium property was a mess. The turnover date indicated in the sales material and as presented by my real estate agent was not true. Hence, I have to request for a refund after two years of paying for the said property. Luckily, the HLURB now requires all marketing materials to be presented and approved so as to be given an HLURB ID number. Having the HLURB no. is an assurance that the real estate companies will only print materials that are in line with the actual plans and specifications of the property development.

What would be the impact on the employment rate?
Imagine for a moment these below scenarios with the creation of Centralized Job Database:

1. All employers are required to post in DOLE website details of their job offerings and be given a DOLE ID before they could post on their own websites and advertise in the newspapers or in other media.
2. Applicants looking for jobs could easily go to the DOLE website and search for jobs and categorize them according to location, pay, skills needed, education needed and other requirements.
3. Individuals from the provinces without electricity or internet could access computers of DOLE provincial offices and search for jobs.
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Below are three (3) major reasons why having a centralized job database which requires a DOLE ID number before you can offer a job and advertise is very important.

1. People from the province without internet access can simply go to the DOLE provincial office and look for jobs there which will reduce their expenses associated with job hunting.
2. Employers benefit from being able to get a wide range of talent to choose due to increased exposure of job listing while employees, on the other hand, get to find the best job suited for their skills due to the completeness of the job offers in the centralized database.
3. This will also protect jobseekers from illegal recruiters/jobs and from employers who offer below minimum wage salary and that through their DOLE IDs will be identified and be properly sanctioned.

For this to be effective, the government through the DOLE must create a team who will monitor websites, newspapers and the likes to insure that all job offers have the DOLE ID number.

Congress must enact a law that provides for heavy penalties to employers who hire an employee without first getting a DOLE ID number. The same penalty shall also be imposed to websites, newspapers and media companies for publishing any employment information without the required DOLE ID.

Initially, the law may require this for companies with at least 3 employees. And for companies which are in the remote areas, they can send an SMS to the DOLE hotline to post about the job and get their DOLE ID number.

If this suggestion is executed correctly, this could cause a significant decline in our country's unemployment rate and thus, lead to a more prosperous and poverty free society.

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​We, your FinancePH advisors, will be glad and more than willing to help you plan your finances. Our customized financial planning approach caters to each individual needs, budgets and priorities.

If you wish to do a financial consultation with a FinancePH advisor or want to request a proposal/quote just click here. We will assign you to the best available advisor near your area.
​

My consulting and financial literacy work has at times taken me to some of the country’s poorest provinces. I have encountered many good, honest, hardworking people who still fall prey to one of our culture’s more enduring traditions: preparing extravagant food during fiestas, even if it breaks the bank.


In one town, the residents would use up all of their employers’ loan facilities as early as summer, even to the point of borrowing against their 13th month pay, just to be able to prepare food for the town fiesta.  And if employee loan facilities fall short, there are always personal loans from both licensed and unlicensed lenders outside the company.


The Human Resources head of one of the companies I was consulting for even commented that during the town fiesta, he would be invited to the houses of their employees.  And he would see the exact same viands, desserts and drinks served.  Top himself, he was thinking that these people could have saved if they just pooled their money and prepared one long-table for each street or even village.


Here’s a lengthy but still-incomplete list of fiestas, which still has to include the fiestas of patron saints in small towns and barangays. (http://wikitravel.org/en/Festivals_and_Events_in_the_Philippines).


When asked why residents have to prepare lavishly, the common answer is “tradition.” A family runs the risk of facing social ridicule if it did not serve food during the annual fiesta. Never mind that there is a need to save for maybe a new house elsewhere or a car or tuition or to help send a relative to work abroad–saving face is important.


One solution is as proposed by the Human Resources head I mentioned earlier, and that is the pooling of funds.  “Cooperativism” has long existed in the country.  We could even say that it is an extension of the “bayanihan” spirit.  So why not work together for a common celebration to benefit from economies of scale.  Of course, there is a need to persuade neighbors that tradition will not look unkindly on a home that opts to serve food collectively rather than individually.


Another way is to move out of the town where practices are steeped in tradition and move to one where people are likely to be less neighborly, like in urban centers; there is just the need to ensure that there is no small version of the hometown in the new place.


Regardless of the strategy, savings will naturally occur, sooner or later.  And to fully take advantage of breaking the tradition (even if in part), these savings have to be deployed as investments. And the simplest way is also in the bayanihan or collective way, again through the pooling of funds. And that you can take to the bank.

By the way, literally there are options other than the bank for deploying savings as investments in a pooled way. The others are variable life insurance, mutual funds and again the old cooperatives (i.e. but this time, just invest; do not borrow).


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​We, your FinancePH advisors, will be glad and more than willing to help you plan your finances. Our customized financial planning approach caters to each individual needs, budgets and priorities.

If you wish to do a financial consultation with a FinancePH advisor or want to request a proposal/quote just click here. We will assign you to the best available advisor near your area.
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(Originally written by  Efren Ll. Cruz, RFP at http://www.savingstips.com.ph)
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