Toni: And following up, I have a question for you. So when did you start saying that, “Ha! Okay, so I am financially stable now in your point of life? Let's make it more personal, I guess. When did you feel that you are financially stable?

Sean: Oh man, it was a journey. I remember when I wanted to get married and here in the Philippines, that means a boat load of money, right? Especially in the Chinese community. So I'm Fil-Chi. I'm more of a Pinoy than a Chinese now because I speak better Tagalog than I speak Chinese. I’m actually not that good at speaking Chinese. And being Fil-Chi means you have to have like, 300, 400, 500 guests in your wedding, which is a lot. For me, it was a 500 guests wedding. And so I would be tilted to becoming unstable again, during that time.

If you don't have those gaps in life where it's going to drain your money, like buying my first house. That was something that put me in debt. Was it a good debt? I would say so. I would say it was a good debt and I loaned my house for 10 years from the bank. But I had the discipline to attack that debt and pay it off in three years. And by God's grace, I was able to already pay it in three years. So again, it's not that complicated. It is difficult because you have to have a lot of discipline.

There are times in my life where I become a lot less stable suddenly because I make investments and I loan from the bank, but I have a steady stream of income to expect. It will fluctuate because it’s a business. So business is not always good. Sometimes there’s a season that this is as good, and sometimes not so good. But still you can expect something there and you can project, that’s why I loaned 10 years to pay, just to be safe. If something happened unexpectedly, I have 10 years, the bank's not going to foreclose on me. But my goal is really to attack it in three years and be done with it.

So I hope that sheds light. I'm not sure if I answered the question, but I hope that sheds light.

Toni: Yeah, you did. You did. Like you’ve mentioned that it was a long journey for you until you actually became financially stable and you had to make a lot of decisions along the way, like getting mortgage loans and then getting married, expecting what? 300 guests?

Sean: 500 guests.

Toni: 500 guests. Okay.

Sean: Yeah, that wedding was expensive, but it's for the parents. It's for your parents. That's how you honor them. How about you Toni? Since you asked me, we're comparing notes. I want to do the honor and give you the question back. When did you consider yourself being financially stable?

Toni: Well, I would say when I first started to take on a lot of side hustles, I was not stable because sometimes I would get this amount of income monthly, and then sometimes there’s none. Freelancers here could relate because we don't really know when we are going to have that stable source of income. And even when I was earning on a good month, sometimes I would have nothing left to save and I guess it would be because of my spending habits.

So I did start seeing or telling myself that I am financially stable when I'm able to put off this certain amount of savings monthly and I actually started investing. So that's when I realized, okay, I got the momentum and I think I am stable now because I expect a steady source of income coming in and I know how much to set aside monthly for savings. Then I got to do the things that I like, traveling and treating my parents. That’s it for me. That to me is when I realized I was stable financially.

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