Vote for a Better Philippines, for Juan Another, Fight For your Freedom

In a few days, registered voters will be exercising a sacred right: to elect our country’s leaders for the next 6 years or so. I am not here to persuade you to vote for X, Y or Z, or to dissuade you from your almost made up minds.

I’m just here to remind us that yes, our elected leaders may play a part in either carrying us to the next stage of development, or back to being the sick man of Asia, but they can only do so much.

Like it or not, much of our better future still rests in our hands.

Governance

Yes, demand good governance, clean governance, political will, government with a heart, daang matuwid, better change, intelligent leadership, political will, accountability, better Philippines. When you vote, don’t vote for the personality, vote for the ideologies they are pushing. Vote for what you believe is right, for what you believe is best for the country, and for you. Vote for a better Philippines, vote for progressive change, vote for what’s best for your family, for your financial freedom.

The Man in the Mirror

It’s funny how we demand change in the government, and we have the right (and outrage) to do so. Yet, we tend to forget that lasting change doesn’t come from the top, it comes from the bottom, in our individual collective change. Remember Michael Jackson’s song? Let’s ask first the man in the mirror to make the change. Granted that we elect someone who has great character, who has the balls to discipline the country, but if we ourselves are not disciplined, do you think the President can police all of us? If we are not disciplined in obeying traffic laws, use of resources, obeying rules, securing our financial future, do you think the President can help us with that? Positive change starts in our backyards, not in the halls of Malacanang. 

Born Poor vs Dying Poor

There’s a saying it’s not your fault if you were born poor, but it is your fault if you die poor. At this day and age, I’d say it’s 90% wrong to blame to government either if you die poor. Much of getting out of poverty lies in your hands, not in the governments hands.

If you can read this blog then it means you have internet access, you are English-literate, and probably have much better financial standing than recipients of 4Ps. You are leaning towards financial freedom, and not just mere survival. Your financial freedom is in your hands.

Now if you indeed belong to the poorest of the poor, homeless and jobless, then you really need government intervention to jumpstart your life to a better path. But then again, it only lasts for so long. Someday, you will have to stand on your own, fight for your own financial freedom with grit, ingenuity, perseverance and hope. The government will not give you everything. If you don’t think you don’t have enough financial muscle yet, then refrain from spending too much, from having too many children, from having vices, and buying wants, not needs. Refrain from getting married too early in life, finish your studies even if all your cousins are out of school to get married. Graduate then werk werk werk werk werk.

Ayala himself said, regardless of who wins the Presidency, our economy will continue to grow. Of course, if someone who has sound economics acumen and policies wins, then our economy might grow much faster. Might be felt by those in the provinces and countryside. But regardless who wins, our economy will grow, since our economy is not driven by the government, but by the private companies, by domestic consumption, by BPOs and OFW remittances, etc. We drive the economy. It will not be the end of the world whoever wins, but of course it will be good if Juan who wins is an enabler to a better Philippine economy.

Scarcity Mindset

Most Filipinos dream of a better life, yet a simple life. We don’t aspire for grand material wealth, just comfortable lives, a notch higher than just getting by, just surviving from paycheck to paycheck. Nothing wrong with this. However, some who have sort of settled for a simple life, have unknowingly settled as well for a scarcity mindset. That’s its enough that I live from paycheck to paycheck, that I have a job, that I don’t need to save, and the government will take care of me when I retire. Wake up!

While some feel that there’s never enough jobs, never enough income, never enough opportunities. Then blame the government for such scarcity. Yes the government is at fault for scarcity of wealth, opportunities and assistance etc for the poorest of the poor. But not for you, if you have access to this blog and money to pay for your internet. The government may be at fault for slow internet access, but if you don’t have savings and investments, is it still the government’s fault? If you don’t have savings yet you have internet and data plan, it is still the government’s fault?
Don’t think that money is the root of all evil. Worshipping money is evil, but money in itself is just a tool, an enabler. God wants us to have life, life to the fullest. God doesn’t want anyone to die poor, to suffer, God wants us to have financial freedom. The sooner you accept this, the sooner you find ways to fight for your own financial freedom, regardless of who sits in Malacanang.

Opportunities abound, and hopefully more if we elect the right leaders. But regardless of who wins, our financial freedom is our battle to win.

Vote for a better Philippines. Save. Pay your debts. Stay away from luho debt. Build passive income streams. Invest. Be financially free and help your countrymen to do the same, regardless of who sits in Malacanang.
Photo: “Philippines Grunge Flag” (CC BY 2.0) by  Free Grunge Textures – www.freestock.ca

2015 Year-ender: Thank You

I always loved sunsets, and as 2015 ends, it feels like watching another serene sunset, to end not the day, but the year.

To say that 2015 was a tough year for investments is an understatement. We had a tough 2014, we thought we have recovered at the start of 2015, only to end lower from where we started the year.

It was a tough ride for all those who were invested in the market. Including yours truly. Some notable factors throughout the year:

Hot Money
Hot money’s been flowing out of our stock market as they are slowly making their way back to supposedly improving USA. The foreign funds have been a very big factor in our market’s uphill climb, because they really have a lot of funds to buy up our emerging market. Getting out of our market has been a slow grind for them since they have sizable holdings while our local market (who would be the buyers) can only buy so much at a certain acceptable price in one day.

The Fed has finally started to increase its rates after years of waiting, and with this I hope we are a step closer towards the new normal. Who knows what this new normal will bring to the Philippines.

Global Economies
Everyone’s slowing down, that’s for sure. And it ain’t a bad sign, but if investors factored in a faster growth than what we’re seeing, then some correction is indeed needed. China’s slowing down, EU concerns linger, among others.

Black Swan Events
A war with ISIS involving many nations? A massive earthquake in the country’s capital? Effects of El Nino? Who knows.

Local Landscape
We’re entering an election year and they say elections have been generally good for the country’s economy, hence the stock market. Will this year be any different? Could this be a good 2016 catalyst given that PH is also slowing down on its economic growth?

On the other side, investors are also cautious on being long with our market since there is no clear front-runner yet on the country’s next leadership. Whoever wins, s/he will be crucial in steering the country to the right directions of sustaining growth, and trickling down this growth to the grassroots and countryside levels.

Personally I am still clueless as all candidates have lingering issues which can make or break their candidacy, and their Presidency should they win later on.

Diversification
It’s so hard to achieve growth in one’s net worth when majority of his investments are in the market. That’s why I’m very thankful nonetheless that despite the punishing market conditions, I still managed to grow my net worth by 33%. That is despite losses in the stock market and one-off expenses for wedding preps. I started the year with the goal of just retaining my 2014 year-end net worth so the 33% increase is a big windfall. Also excited for my 2016 financial goal-setting.

MPI, COSCO, AC and DNL have all managed to squeak some gains despite the 4% loss in the 2015 market. Meanwhile, gains made from CEB and MBT have been trimmed down. FPH, my forever patient holding, is still giving me some heartache but I’m still holding on.

Got burned when BLOOM became bust so I had to cut losses. Was able to ride some exciting moments in a handful of this years IPOs though. Still ended with some portfolio paper losses which could have further boosted my net worth.

Next year, stock market and UITF will remain as significant parts of our holdings, but diversification will be the major strategy. Time to grow further the coffee business and time to put in more effort in growing the farm business (more on this next year). Go back to cattle and piggery business? Transport business such as taxi or Uber? Time to diversify to other business ventures being considered.

2016 Let’s Bring It On
A new day, a new year beckons. Cheers to good health and an even more prosperous 2016 for every Juan! Thank you Lord for 2015.

Photo: Sunset at Kabini River (CC BY 2.0) by  VinothChandar 

Juan Liners: Are You Successful? Or #Blessed?

Why not both right?

While commuting on my way home, I caught myself doing a self-check on my sense of self-entitlement, on how I celebrate the small successes in life, on how I feel about these, whether they are rightfully deserved, of whether they are blessings.

Things that traffic jams make us do.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a firm believer of fighting for your own, holding your ground, ensuring your survival, and if possible, comfort.

Further, I believe that God has so much more in store for us, that He wants us to succeed, and that our small successes can’t be “just it” — there’s more to come. We’re destined for greatness.

But therein lies the important difference. I believe every Juan’s destined for greatness and success, not because we deserve it, but because He wants us to. Call it love if you wish.

To borrow a lyrics from an inspiring song:

Not because of who I am, but because of what You’ve done.

Not because of what I’ve done, but because of who You are.

Advanced Merry Christmas every Juan!

Photo:
42-15529695 by  meridican 

PH: Too Many Banks Yet Many Pinoys Still Unbanked

Inquirer.net published two separate articles months ago (Aug 19), where one talks about where Filipinos prefer to borrow money from and the other, why our biggest banks here in the country remain relatively small. Sharing with you some  quotations and highlights plus my three cents.

• Banks only account for 2% of preferred fund sources (i.e. loan). 62% prefer to source from family, friends and relatives (of course) while 10% from informal lenders.
• On average it takes 21 minutes and P43 roundtrip fare to reach cooperatives and e-money agents (some even accessible by walking) while it takes 22-26 minutes to reach the nearest bank and/or ATM, costing P47 to P52. In short, Pinoys find non-bank fund sources to be more accessible and perceived as “affordable”.
  

Too Few Banks in the Countryside

Banks still have a long way to go to tap the underbanked segments especially the countryside where access is very limited. Case in point is our recent experience in Quirino province, but that’s for another time.

Other sources are perceived to be easily reachable like pawnshops or money remittance business, which have more branches, less costly to put up and some of which even operate 24 hours. Further, even if there is access, banks have relatively stricter lending and documentary criteria so either customers get declined or hesitate to apply to begin with.

We can’t expect BSP to be too aggressive at this front (though they have been relaxing policies for the longest time) since banks use the public’s money to lend. Nonetheless, banks will have to grow further to reach more customers and they have to be more creative on how to grant credit to these new-to-bank customers. Common trend within banks nowadays is to rely on past credit behavior to grant new credit so customer with existing savings and credit facilities (loans, credit cards) from other banks, have higher chances of approval compared to those applying for a bank credit the first time.

Sure, presentation of income documents still help but most of the time, past behavior is deemed more indicative of repayment than demographic info on how much a person supposedly earns. There’s gotta be a game changer somewhere.

So how can those from provinces with no prior credit history borrow from banks then? Collateral? If the collateral is not easily disposable or resellable, then banks will not probably take them. High rates? Meanwhile informal lenders have a more ingrained local (motorized) presence in the countryside. It’s like their suking sari-sari store. They basically know where these people work or live and can easily go to their places daily or weekly to collect.

Interest rates of these lenders are atmospheric but Pinoys don’t usually compute that and compare the rates with banks. They are more concerned with the amortization payments. As long as it fits the daily or weekly budget, gora.

Indeed, banks have a long way to go in terms of penetrating the local market.

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Our Bigs are Still Rather Small

Meanwhile, ASEAN integration is fast approaching, and when it goes on full swing, our biggest banks here will even become dwarves relative to other ASEAN banks. Apparently, it is not just in basketball that we lack size (kudos to Gilas 3.0 by the way).

• Singapore’s DBS is roughly as big as the Philippines entire banking industry. (Wow.)
• PH bank assets, around PHP11 trillion is around 75% of Philippine GDP. Big enough? Think again. 
• In Brunei, bank assets  are 365% of its GDP, Cambodia 85%, Malaysia 193.9%, Singapore 575.5%, and Thailand 123%.

BSP has been encouraging banks to do mergers and acquisitions (M & As) with the presumption that even bigger banks will have better reach (to address above article) and better stability. Better competitiveness too upon ASEAN integration. 

This is slowly happening in our rural banks and cooperatives, merging with one another, or the universal banks buying rural banks here and there. Nonetheless, they only comprise 2% of the industry so even if all the rural banks are merged to bigger banks, the real game is still with the bigger ones to do M&A themselves.

But why not? 

So far banks have been very profitable so there’s not much incentive to let go of a lucrative business. A lot are also owned by families and conglomerates. As such, selling to other families is not too enticing, maybe difficult to come up with mutually beneficial terms for both parties, or if even considered, acquisition prices are said to be inflated.

Per the first article, there is still so much room to grow for banks, organic growth that is, to tap the countryside. M & As will significantly accelerate this growth, but among bank owners, this might not be a top priority.

When the ASEAN banks come into the country, will they beat our existing “smaller” players? Maybe not, especially in first few years as we Pinoys have grown to be loyal to these banks of ours. But with much much bigger fire power, who knows what they can do? Maybe they can just buy our big three.

Or maybe they’ll beat our local bigs to the lending race to our Pinoys in the countryside?

Here are the links to the articles:

Happy to Stay Away from Mergers Game

Why Borrowers Prefer Informal Fund Sources

When Your Supplier Fails to Deliver, Literally

It happened again.

Courier failed on their next day delivery promise, took them 3 days to deliver. Client expected the item one day after purchase due to an urgent need. Good thing he still accepted the product. The previous customer to suffer such inconvenience was less forgiving, demanding his money back and won’t ship back the items unless he gets the refund.

Another instance, we promised a customer that he’ll get the product the next day, as courier is scheduled to pick up the items today. Motorized pick up never came, and we had to ship the items via a bigger more known courier, at much higher rush rates just to meet the next day delivery promise.

The business suffers when a supplier or a service provider fails to deliver. Worse, a customer may be inconvenienced because of this. No matter how sound and effective our inventory management and courier coordination may be, there will really be instances that sh*t happens and there’s nothing much we can do about it except manage customer experience and minimize business impact.

At this day and age of online stores, door to door delivery is the norm. Sometimes, a purchased item may not arrive on time or worse get lost during shipment. Yes, item may be insured by the courier but damage has been done, to the business and worse to the expectant customer. Changing your service provider might be a good solution in hindsight, but still Juan has to deal with the issues at the moment:

• an irate client (who did not receive his purchased items within the promised delivery date)
• a tarnished reputation, your customers might think that maybe you’re one of those dubious online stores, bad publicity and bad word on web; and
• a dilemma since the purchased item is in “transit limbo” — Juan does not know whether it will still arrive at the destination, albeit late, and whether customer shall still receive it if it arrives at last OR will s/he demand his/her payment back. The latter means you’ll have to ask the customer to send back the good to you, at your extra expense. Lost sale plus lost customer. Can’t do much here but endure the wait.

All these, and perhaps more, just because your service provider did not deliver. Might not be your store’s fault, but in the eyes of the customer, it’s still your fault.

Operational glitches happen to all businesses (even gigantic fast food chains suffer from this) but still it is not an excuse not to minimize these occurrences.

Frontliner Problems

Whenever the MRT bogs down or the ticket turnstiles malfunction (both of which are frequent), passengers become irate and chances are, they vent their anger towards the security guards, who for all we know are outsourced from agencies by the MRT. Generally, we tend to vent our frustration to helpless frontliners (other examples are bank tellers or waiters), whom in actually, may just be following protocol and can do little to fix your concern (Hence the usual movie line is “I’d like to talk to your manager”).

In running a business, we may get the rants and criticisms of unsatisfied customers even if the problem wasn’t completely / really our fault (e.g. like a courier failing to deliver on time, or an expected shipment of inventory / new materials again not arriving on time, or at all).

Manage Customer Expectations

Transparency might lower customer expectations a bit (for the better), so explain and disclose as much as you can. At the onset, tell them that purchased items will be delivered by a third party, within their promised turn-around time (not yours) and that once you hand the item to the courier, your hands are tied and fingers crossed that they deliver as promised.

In case of failure, help out with the tracking and follow up. And tons of apologies to the customer. Of course the customer might wonder, if the service provider is that inefficient, why is this business still partnering with them? Minus pogi points for your business. Some customers, upon knowing the process, might even prefer a different courier, one whom they trust and whom they’re willing to pay the rates for, so your business may also consider this.

Concentration Risk

It might be ideal to have a wide array of options for service providers. Nonetheless, like all risks, a business can only do so much to minimize it but will not be able to eliminate it. Say a business decides to kick out the incompetent service provider in favor of a promising one. Once the business commits to this new provider, its hands are once again tied and fingers are crossed. There will still part wherein all the business can do is trust and pray that the new provider lives up to expectations. If it fails like the previous one, then the business still suffers. When we commit, be ready to get hurt. As John Legend says, “love hurts sometimes if you do it right.”

Maybe a better option is to have another option, a plan B. Or C. It goes without saying that this may be a more expensive option, otherwise it would have been option A right? Like a back up courier, or an alternative immediate source of supplies in case delivery of raw materials suffer a delay. Then include a provision for these costs in pricing your product, so that every successful sale and delivery pays for the expense of once in a while unfortunate incidents.

Where,

Provision = (Chances of Failure Happening) x (Incremental Cost for resorting to Plan B)

For example, usual delivery costs P80 while plan B delivery is PHP140. Say there’s a 20% chance that Plan A courier will fail which also means plan B will be activated 20% of the time. Incremental cost of PHP60 will be incurred 20% of the time, so you hide additional PHP12 in your costs and pricing.

Doing it this way is much better than say asking the customer for additional payment of PHP60 since you had to resort to a more expensive courier or raw materials, even if it was not the customer’s fault or express wish. This is bad customer management.

Then look for a new service provider and express your disappointment to the previous one. After all, you’re also a customer to them, a lost customer that is.

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Photos:
Angry Face by  _gee_ 

12 Money Lessons From a Gaming App

I started playing SimCity BuildIt more than a month ago and here are some personal finance insights I gathered while slowly building Investment Juan01.com and keeping its 800K++ residents (and counting) 100% happy (so far).

More than keeping Sims happy though, it should be us, every Juan who should be striving to be both happy and financially free!

1. Great things take time to build. 

So does great wealth. So make sure you make time your ally. As we say, it’s less of how much money but more of how much time you give your investments to grow. Amount of money is secondary. Time is primary.

2. Delay of gratification is key.

You learn how to slowly and painfully save up for a need. And prioritize it over a want, or a good-to-have. In the meantime, while still accumulating Simoleons or true wealth, you sit tight, patient and disciplined. Focused on the goal. Once you reach it, enjoy the fireworks!

 

3. Learn to differentiate a need vs a want. 

Residents may clamor for specializations such as education, transport or entertainment but they may remain 100% happy without these (as long as the basic services are provided). Whereas congested roads and lack of parks, police, firefighters and hospitals, if not addressed ASAP, will result to abandoned buildings, plunging population and city tax revenues. Same with your finances. Check which ones are necessary and urgent. The rest can wait as these are just good-to-haves.

 

4. Keep your resources and factories busy.

Ensure that they are working for you, preferably day and night, even if you sleep. In real life, your money should be busy working for you too, day and night. Busy — not just you but your money too. Passive income streams and investments.

 

5. Sleep on it. 

There’s no use watching the countdown for your items to be available. Just ensure that you’ve properly queued the items on demand. Then be productive somewhere else. Once you’ve built your investments, set it aside (which is different from ignoring it) and let it grow. Then start new ones while checking up on existing ones from time to time.

 

6. Identify and address your bottlenecks. Increase your capacity.

Usually these are  supply stores as they can only process / manufacture one item at a time. Make sure to prioritize the items that will have a bigger immediate positive impact to your City. Don’t use their full capacity on items that are not useful at the moment. Keep them efficient. Increase your City Storage gradually. Expand your land area gradually. 

 

In the same manner, increase your financial capacity gradually. Crucial here is an increased financial IQ and renewed view about money. Let go of false beliefs and old-fashioned apprehensions. A key teaching from TRC is that many of us want to be materially rich but are not ready to be spiritually and psychologically rich (e.g. notion that money is evil and that striving to be truly rich is a sin). God wants us to have a good life, life to the fullest.

 

 

7. Sometimes we can anticipate the expenses along the way and budget for them. Sometimes.

Other times emergency expenses come up (such as congested roads or uncovered areas) and there’s nothing we can do but endure it and slowly find capital for these. We might suffer along the way but such is the game of SimCity and game of life. That’s why prudent financial management advises keeping emergency funds.

8. Don’t rush into upgrades.

Sure upgrades lets your city earn more taxes but it also may also give you more responsibilities and expenses (such as higher utilities capacity, police, sewage and fire protection coverage). In the same manner, don’t rush into an upgraded lifestyle. Sure it seems more desirable but behind it all are higher expenses. Can you afford it?

9. Necessary items such as parks, police, fire and health come in various sizes, prices and coverage areas.

While the entry level services may seem cheap, a closer look reveals that it’s actually more expensive when Juan computes it in terms of “coverage area per Simoleon” (like our sachet economy mindset). Meanwhile, other services such as sewage, waste management, factories may have less pricey options but big dirty radius, which also translates to wasted space that could have been used for residential areas, which in turn equate to tax revenues.

 

There are times we can only afford the entry level items as it’s urgent. Sometimes we can wait, save up a bit more, and purchase the bigger item with wider coverage. Or other times, we can demolish the old items, get 50% refund and buy a bigger item. Same with Juan’s finances, we have to be perceptive on how to handle different financial situations, whether we have to spend now of if we have time to endure and to wait. But always try to journey towards the end goal of being cost efficient and practical as frequent as possible.

10. It takes a lot of patience and sitting down while waiting for your items in production to finish. 

You can shorten the waiting time but you have to pay SimCash. In Juan’s investments, patience is also a must. Rushing into Juan’s investments or impulsively pulling out existing ones can be costly.

 

11. Trade. Do buy and sell to earn Simoleons faster. 

Sometimes the city makes a living by globally trading donuts, smoothies, TVs, refs, even shoes and watches instead of upgrading buildings. If you have items you don’t need for the meantime or excess supply, sell these in the Global Trade to someone who needs it. Here internet connection is required. Similarly, trade stocks. Do buy and sell of items. Be a middleman to bridge supply and demand. Don’t just rely on one or two income source.

 

12. We will make mistakes.

In SimCity you can easily move around buildings at no cost, bulldoze paid items and infrastructure for a 50% refund and rearrange the whole city as need be. In investments, mistakes can be more costly but that’s a reality we cannot escape. Sometimes we have to cut losses, learn from it, avoid repeating it and move on.

Come visit my city and looking forward to be your neighbor. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Subscribe to us via email for FREE. Simply encode your email address below:

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Inflation: Passive Expense and How Much Just To Keep Up?

If we’re after building our passive income and growing our net worth, then we should also be wary of a passive expense. A silent leak so to speak.

It’s a quarterly and annual figure we rarely pay attention to in daily life, whether those financially literate or more so those lacking in financial education. Admittedly I don’t give much thought to it as well, I just read updated figures, until it made me think deeper more recently.

A colleague was crunching some numbers to justify a proposal on an outsourcing rate hike, with inflation through the years as among the justifications. Was helping out my fiancee on her groceries and noticed that a can of sardines now costs PHP14 whereas when I was younger (and still doing the errands to sari sari stores, it only cost PHP7.) A canned corned beef used to be PHP40, now PHP54. A 1-pc chicken joy meal in Jollibee used to cost somewhere in the PHP50s while it’s share price (PSE: JFC) used to be PHP40s. Now the former is PHP90s while the latter is PHP210.

So it made me ask, was I able to keep up with inflation since I started my employed career? How much is the hurdle rate for Juan to keep up?

Investopedia defines inflation as a sustained increase in the general level of prices for goods and services. It is measured as an annual percentage increase. As inflation rises, every dollar you own (or PHP in our case) buys a smaller percentage of a good or service. 

Simply put, prices of goods increase over time, and as it does, the purchasing power of each peso goes down. Just to to keep up with the inevitable inflation, your income must increase in a rate that beats inflation. Otherwise, even if your income might have nominally increased, but since the increase is slower than inflation, you end up with a smaller purchasing power, and technically you lose money. Worse, you lose money passively.

If above image shows the inflation rate since 2006, below image shows how much it impacted the purchasing power of our beloved Peso, with 2006 pegged at PHP1.

As of end of last year, a peso in 2006 is now only worth PHP0.72. Which means Juan needs more pesos to buy an item which Juan could have bought at PHP1 in 2006. Or conversely, what Juan can buy at PHP1 in 2006, Juan can no longer afford with the same amount as of end 2014 since a peso’s actual power is now just PHP0.72.

Candies we can buy at 2 for PHP1 is now usually sold at 3 for PHP2. A cheap junk food might have stayed at PHP1 but if you notice its contents have significantly lessened.

And inflation is not just a simple increase over time. It compounds over time, very much like compounded interest. That is why, if we are up against an economic force that uses compounded interest, our investments much take advantage of compounded interest too.

Did some rough computations on how much our income and net worth must grow to barely keep up with inflation and I got the following:

Juan’s PHP1,000 in 2006 should be PHP1,395 in 2014 just to get by, keep up with inflation and retain the same purchasing power for the same level of expenses. With rising needs and standards of living (hence more expenses) and more mouths to feed, keeping up with inflation is not enough. A 40% return in 8 years is then, not enough. Now do your own math.

There’s always hope though. Invest. Now. Happy Easter!

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*Inflation and purchasing power figures from BSP website.