Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Financial IQ: Do superheroes care about money?

Cover of "Spider-Man (Full Screen Special...Cover via Amazon
Financial IQ Philippines Quick Hit(s):

Even superheroes have to plan their financial journey.  :)

It is essential to grow our investments so we can make money work for us during the retirement years.  While we are building our wealth (via investments), we need to secure our income generating selves by ensuring we are properly protected for life's unexpected circumstances.


Question: Will there ever come a time when money will not be an issue in one’s life?


Answer: Since parents are nothing less than superheroes to their kids, why don’t we answer this question from the point of view of comic superheroes?


Both Iron Man and Batman were rich beyond the wildest dreams of ordinary citizens. They were both born rich and remained single. And they stayed rich because their immense wealth only earned more money. Making money for them was just secondary to fighting crime.


In contrast, Superman and Spiderman earned a meager living. Both Superman and Spiderman had to support themselves through the salary of newsmen still on the rise. Additionally, Spiderman had to take care of Aunt May.  The only difference is that a super being like Superman would probably not need to eat and that the job he takes is just for show, to mask his true identity. As an aside, how in the world can people around Superman not recognize him with just the additional eye glasses and a regular business suit as a cover?  At least Spiderman, Iron Man and Batman wore masks.


Peter Parker aka Spiderman is one of the two poorest of the four superheroes in our list. He was orphaned just like the other three.  Spidey was neither born rich nor powerful. A simple accident wherein he was bitten by a radioactive spider gave him super powers. He could afford only a bike to get him to and from work when he was not swinging between buildings. He actually made his own superhero costume by hand and made a living being a news photographer and occasional pizza delivery boy. So did he worry about money? You bet.


With the exception of Spiderman, it seems that superheroes that are rich or immortal do not need to worry about money, or do they?



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Monday, August 29, 2011

Financial IQ: Ortigas & Madrigal Families in 40 Richest

Casa ManilaImage via Wikipedia
Financial IQ Philippines Quick Hit(s):

Nice to see more tycoons among the country's most affluent.


Congratulations to the entrepreneurship and marketing business students of the 391-year-old Letran College in Intramuros, Manila, for their seminar workshop on Aug. 17 at the St. Thomas Aquinas Hall, with this writer as guest speaker to share our analyses and numerous interviews of top entrepreneurs here and abroad. The project chairman was graduating student and STAR reader Karen Calandria, with the support of Asst. Prof. Virginia Salonga, Asst. Prof. Raem Mendoza and Dean Dr. Cristina M. Castro-Cabral.


During our talk and the interesting open forum, I cited two self-made tycoons who were distinguished Letran alumni and among the best entrepreneurs in Philippine history: Francisco Ortigas Sr. (1875-1935) and Vicente Madrigal (1880-1972).



I told them that the Ortigas and Madrigal families today are still among the wealthiest billionaires in the Philippines, who were erroneously left out by America’s Forbes magazine in their 2011 list of the country’s 40 richest tycoons or families.


One of Vicente Madrigal’s children, the late Consuelo “Chito” Madrigal Collantes, died in 2008 at age 87 and left an estate reportedly over US$329 million, 40 percent of which she bequeathed to niece Ma. Susana “Chu Chu” Madrigal Eduque, 40 percent to grandnephew Vicente Gustav Warns, and 20 percent to niece Atty. Gizela Madrigal Gonzalez-Montinola (wife of Bank of the Philippine Islands President Aurelio Montinola III).




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