Down the Rabbit Hole

I have always been interested in learning about personal finance and how to make my money work for me. In fact, I have been listening to various podcasts on investing and financial management, such as:  The Money Guy Show We Study Billionaires Value Investing with Legends The interest stems from dinner discussions with my parents since childhood. Daddy would read an article from the Philippine Daily Inquirer or Manila Bulletin and discuss market trends with us as we ate dinner. Also, both Mommy and Daddy brought me, Anna, and Biboy to Divisoria every weekend for shopping and scouting suppliers for the family business. This was where I learned the fundamentals of economics from a business perspective: the law of supply and demand . Since moving to California, we have resumed these business discussions during dinner. Donan has been a passive participant in these discussions because he doesn't understand the concepts of interest rates and investment instruments just yet. However, ...

I was with Kuya Rendo and Ate Lorie during my first visit to the Kennedy Space Centre (KSC) in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Twenty-four years later, I was excited to see how Donan would react when he saw the life-size versions of the rockets and spaceships that brought men to the Moon and back. Mommy, Daddy, Ninang Trining, and Anna were with us, too; this made this visit even more fun. During this adventure, I drove our rental minivan, so I didn't take as many pictures as I would've loved. It was a 61-mi trip from Orlando. The day was sunny, allowing us to enjoy the view on the way. We went through wetlands before reaching Merritt Island. It felt like the road was going on forever until we saw the welcome signage of the KSC Visitor Centre. Donan was so excited! The bus tour brought us close to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). When I was there in 2005, this building housed the space shuttle. 2005's STS-114 was dubbed the "return to flight" mission after the Colum...

I have attended conferences where climate change was discussed from a food security angle. Increasing temperatures, drought, excess rain, and flooding would lead to food shortages. Therefore,  climate-smart  food sources must be incorporated into planetary health diets  so that people get their nutritional needs while keeping their impact on the planet at a minimum. During Solano County's Public Health Division-Wide Meeting this year, Mr Jerry Huber (Director, Department of Health and Social Services) and Dr Bela Matyas (Public Health Officer and Deputy Director, Department of Health and Social Services) highlighted the need to talk about climate instability from a public health perspective. This encompasses the associations between public health and clean water, public health and **exotic** disease-bearing vectors, and public health and wildfires, among others. Zooming out of these specific links to public health reveals that climate instability is the underlying common ...

I got in contact with Lem Rosellon from Mind the Gap Communications regarding Philippine RA 11229, the Child Passenger Safety in Motor Vehicles Law . A virtual press conference was held on January 29th to inform the general public about the implementation of the law (which starts February 2nd). Since the time difference made it tricky for me to watch the event in real-time, I fielded my questions to Lem, hoping that some of these would be answered during the press conference. (And then I watched the video recording a few days later) Some of my questions were addressed during the press conference. In fact, many of my questions were also asked by other viewers. In this post, I share salient points from the responses of the resource persons during the Q&A portion and from the presentations (in italics). I add my comments to these responses in red. Can I bring and use in the Philippines a child restraint system that I am using in the USA? If the child restraint system was bought befor...

I was neck-deep in learning how to install my child's convertible car seat (a Diono Radian 3QXT ) when I heard that the Philippines has enacted Republic Act 11229, the "Child Safety in Motor Vehicles Act". This law states that children younger than 12 years old are not allowed to ride shotgun; if they are 12 years old and older, they may sit on the front passenger seat if their height is at least 150 cm or they can use the seatbelt properly. Otherwise, they must be placed in child restraints that are installed in the back seat of the motor vehicle. This law is applicable to private vehicles but not to tricycles or motorcycles. This is indeed a step forward towards transportation safety. Curious, I decided to check out how this law compares with the child restraint laws in the USA and practices in Sweden. I currently live in California and am using its child restraint law for comparison. Sweden, on the other hand, is well-known as a benchmark for best practices regarding c...

Adulting 101, California edition! This year, I learned how to get these utilities up and running for a residential property in Pittsburg CA. It turns out that there are three utilities that I needed to set up: water, garbage disposal, and electricity. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic , I was allowed to create my account for each utility service online rather than doing the application process in their respective offices. That's convenient because I could work on these while the little one was sleeping. Anyway, I am writing down how I enrolled to the utilities for future reference for me and to help others who are stumped... the process is quite simple. Electricity and Gas Daddy has an account with PG&E. I didn't have to do much about it. Water and Sewer For the city's water and sewer services, I was advised to fill out an application form and submit it with other documentation. The staff in the Payment Centre would then take care of processing the papers. Once my accoun...

One of the first things I had to do was to get my driver's license at the DMV. I had to take two tests before I could be granted the privilege to drive here. The first one was the knowledge test; the second one was the behind-the-wheel test. Knowledge test On the first day I arrived at the DMV, the queue was so long that I didn't have the time to take the test. However, I was allowed to process my paperwork (and pay the fee), take the vision test, and then have my photo taken. I just had to return another day to take the test. On test day itself, I was told that I didn't have to wait in line; I could directly go to the exam room. The technicians there remembered me because I was one of the last clients on my first visit. One of them was very encouraging and made sure that the examinees were relaxed before and during the exam. He also made sure that we understood the instructions before we took the test. I didn't realise immediately that the test was on a touc...

My car was out of commission for a few weeks because it had to undergo repairs at the shop (it got rear-ended earlier this year). Anyway just as Biboy and Barbara were going to start the Laguna leg of their vacation, I got word that the car was ready. Finally! But before I could let them use the car, I had to get the car registered at the LTO first. Last year, I was able to finish registering the car in under an hour.  Hence, I was wondering if the LTO will continue to hold their impressively fast service record this time around. I picked Biboy up so he could see how we register motor vehicles in the Philippines. His best friend, JC, had serious doubt that we could get it done in under an hour. If not, I had to drive Biboy and Barbara around; not a big deal but I didn't want to impose my schedule on them. Biboy and I arrived at the LTO Calamba Satellite Office around 4pm. I already had all the registration documents on hand. Because there were no other cars for registrat...

Yes, in under one hour! Four years ago, I finished renewing my car's registration in under two hours . But this year is the record breaker: I was able to finish renewing my car's registration in 45 minutes. I was amazed at the streamlined process! I just have to thank the efficient staff at the Land Transportation Office's (LTO) Calamba Satellite Office! So here's what happened: 1515H: I arrived at the LTO and was directed by a security guard to a nearby certified car emission              testing centre (a few metres away from the LTO). I was told to hurry up to reach the cut-off              time. 1535H: I finished the car emission test, purchased a compulsory third-party liability insurance policy,              and one of the emission guys finished stenciling the car's engine information. 1546H: An inspection officer assessed my car's headlights, taillights, brake ligh...

For the past few years, I've always stayed at the Land Transportation Office (LTO) for several hours either for vehicle registration or for driver's license renewal. At the worst, I spent more than five hours waiting for my registration papers to be processed (this was before the rule against "fixers" inside the LTO was enforced) AND the time I had to get a replacement for my license card... which, at the end of the day, misspelled my name. Today, I am glad to note, that I finished the whole process of vehicle registration in 1 hr 40 mins, my best time yet. If you're tired of spending more than half a day in registering your vehicle, these few tips might help: NOTE: These are all based on my experiences only. If you have other ideas, please feel free to post a comment at the end of the post. A few days before registration, renew or sign up for the vehicle's compulsory third-party liability insurance (TPL). That should give your insurance agent en...

Red light, red light, what do you say?                                                                         I say, "STOP" and stop right away.                        Yellow light, yellow light, what do you mean?                                                               I mean, "WAIT" until the light turns green.     Green light, green light, what do you say?                                                               ...

It's the nth time I've registered a car at the Land Transportation Office and still each time was far from perfect. So in case anyone needs a beginner's guide to vehicle registration, here are a few things I've learned over the years, one blooper after the other... Having the car registered on time is cheaper than having it done later. A vehicle's registration deadline depends on the plate number. The last digit corresponds to the month ("1" is January) and the digit just before that determines which week is the deadline for registration. For more of this information, check out the blog entry:  http://rochiecuevas.blogspot.com/2011/01/car-registration-2011.html . The Third Party Liability (TPL) policy is required for registration. In case a policy is already reactivated, make sure that there's an extra envelope whose contents include the policy and a copy of a note from the Philippine Insurers and Reinsurers Association ( PIRA ). Car emission...

It's that time of the year again when I need to brave the long queues to have the car registered at the Land Transportation Office (LTO). For the past few years, since the satellite office has opened in Calamba, I no longer need to travel to the Binan office for this (yey!).  The LTO  website reminds the motoring public: For those with plate numbers ending in  "1" , don't forget to register your motor vehicle on  January 2011. I couldn't remember when in January I should go to the LTO and have my car registered. Thankfully, the website also furnished this schedule: Reminders   Registration Week Middle Plate Number First Week 1,2,3 Second Week 4,5,6 Third Week 7,8 Last Week 9,0 Now all I have to do is bring the car there next week.

I had to renew my driver's license today since it's expiring tomorrow. When I had lost the 2007 card in late 2008, I applied for a duplicate card in Las Pinas (because my 2007 card was issued in Alabang) and it took a whole day to get it... only to find out that my middle name was misspelled! Hence, another objective today was to get that name fixed. The Land Transportation Office website ( http://www.lto.gov.ph/new_fees.html#v6 ) instructs people who need to correct their names to bring the following: Current driver's license Original and photocopy of the applicant's birth certificate Accomplished "Application for Driver's License" form An unexpected requirement was the "Affidavit of Discrepancy", which outlines what corrections must be done on my license. I wish the LTO had that listed down so I could have gotten the document in advance!  Nonetheless, after a few hours, my name's spelling is now correct.  As I walked back t...