3 Major Reasons Behind My Silence

My last post was in November last year. That was nearly 5 months ago, and I am amazed how time has flown so fast. My apologies please to all of you. I have not been so good in updating my blog as frequent and as regular as I want to. Not that I run out of ideas and insights (not only good and positive but also and the negative since there are also plenty of lessons we can draw from it) to share with you, but I simply did not have much spare time to write. In the last 5 months, there were simply too many activities and commitments that occupied myself and took my time away. They were a mixture of personal and professional issues. There were many of them, but I'l only tell you the top 3 reasons behind my silence in the next paragraphs below.

Demands of Regular Job. Yes, I still have a regular job and just like many of you, I am also working my way out of the rat race and towards financial freedom (Achieving financial freedom is possible. There is hope. I believe God wants all of us to be wealthy). The last few months had been particularly demanding for me. It is always like that especially during year ends. But ours is especially more stressful because our program (and that means my job, too since my post is co-terminus with the program) is ending by July 2012. I could only count the days when my work schedule were less hectic. Thus, I did not have enough time to sit down and write.  Sad to say also, beginning January 2012, I was also forced to give up my writing gig as a virtual assistant. For nearly 6 months last year, I wrote marketing articles for a client online. It did not give me lots of money, but gave me additional money that supplemented my income. Since I had less spare time to commit to write marketing articles for a client, I thought it was better to give it up than to commit and not deliver. But I have no regrets, because when one opportunity is lost, another and much better opportunity comes up.

New Opportunities with Sun Life Financial (Philippines). The opportunity to join Sun Life (a leader in protection and wealth management, and the oldest and most trusted life insurance company in the country with nationwide operations) as one of its  financial advisors came up towards the latter part of 2011. Providing financial education to people and helping them achieve financial freedom in life are things I am always passionate about. So when this opportunity was presented to me, I did not have second thoughts. Not only does it give me the chance to pursue the things close to my heart, but it also offers me opportunity to steer the direction of my success and entrepreneurial mindset. So I channeled the time that was fred out from working online as virtual assistant to pursuing this opportunity with Sun Life. I started putting together all my documents that were being asked of me as mandatory requirements, and I also attended series of training and seminars to acquaint myself about the industry and the business. Then, came the preparation for the licensure examinations. I did spend time studying and reviewing for the licensure examinations with the Insurance Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission.  I studied very well to ensure I pass the exams so I won't waste my money to pay for the exams. A license (which is valid for 1 year and to be renewed annually) is needed to be secured from the Insurance Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell life insurance products and investment products like mutual funds. These industries are highly-regulated by the government to protect the interests of the public so it is very safe. Thank God, I was able to comply with all the requirements and pass the licensure exams for both life insurance and mutual funds, with flying colors! Now I am a full-fledged financial advisor of Sun Life Financial Philippines, and spends my time providing financial advice to clients.

Preparations for My Wedding. Yes, this year I have decided to settle down. My fiance and I are getting married in October 2012 in Quezon City. We decided last January so we only have about 10 months left to finish all the preparations. We do all the preparations ourselves. While we are very much excited about handling all the preparations, our case is also challenging because my fiance lives in Manila and I live in Cebu. I have to fly very often to Manila and sometimes we do some aspects of the preparations online.  We only have 6 months left now, but thank God we have accomplished a lot and we have settled almost all the major items. That's why this is also my top 3 reasons why I have not been able to make new posts as frequent as possible. 

I have lots of interesting topics I want to write about and share with you. So please watch out and do visit my blog again.