Tycoons on Facebook

Lately I've been playing a game on Facebook called Tycoons. It's a simulation of the business world, where you buy businesses and harvest what it produces to be sold to the market or used as upkeep (resources used) of your other businesses. You can likewise upgrade businesses to produce more in a given amount of time, lessen its upkeep, or increase the maximum capacity it can hold (very useful when you can only be online a few times during the day). Production continues even when you are offline, much like in many browser-based games.

What I like about Tycoons is that the decisions you make in the game affects the entire system, as your production impacts on the demand and supply of resources in the market. That means your value changes over time and you have to be aware of what's going on in the market. It also forces you to look into the businesses you have and decide if they are worth keeping or you need to replace them.

Also, there are a number of choices and strategies on how to proceed in the game. You can choose to be self-sufficient, producing the resources you need to produce other products, or you can risk it and go to the market everytime you need something. This removes to a point the "linearity" of progression. With a considerable number of sectors and several businesses within each sector, you can have your own unique strategies and continuously adjust them.

Businesses also has enough capacity so that they can continue producing for a minimum of 12 hours (provided it has the needed resources) before it gets to full capacity and has to stop producing. I can set up the businesses in the morning, stocking up on needed resources and still have it running by the time I can get to check it again in the afternoon or early evening.

On the other hand, a number of features in the game reduces its dynamism. The most significant one is the creation of a single sector that can "produce" population. Since the game has a feature called Tax Revenue, where you earn a certain amount of tax continuously depending on the size of your population (which was placed by the way as a means for players to recover should they made wrong choices early on and squandered their resources), it becomes now a race to own population-producing businesses. At a certain point, the game becomes automated as you start to switch off your other businesses in favor of businesses that produces population. Granted that it takes time before you can sustain this type of business, nevertheless it allows those who already can afford those businesses to just simply accumulate cash and even play the market at the expense of everyone else.

Still, the game is fun, especially at the start, and it offers a change from the usual types of Facebook games. It can even teach a thing or two about business and economics, although you can't expect it to behave like how real economies would. The game is still in beta and hopefully, it will still improve in the future.

Check out the game and let us know what you think.

Caribbean Remittance Forum

Note: Due to recent events in Jamaica, this Forum is due for rescheduling.

I'm off to Kingston, Jamaica this Monday to participate in the Caribbean Remittance Forum hosted by the World Bank in cooperation with the Canadian Government and the University of West Indies. The regional forum aims at sharing knowledge and generating dialogue to enhance the efficiency and integrity of the migration and remittance transfer process in the Caribbean region through effective regulatory and supervisory processes.

The Philippines has been invited to participate in the forum to share experiences in the regulation of innovative remittance products. As a regulator, I will be discussing the overall Philippine scenario on remittance and the policies set in place to provide proactive guidance to different participants in the remittance system.

The Philippine approach to the regulation of mobile commerce, which includes remittance and money transfers, has been favorably recognized by publications such as The Economist. I wrote about it here. Yet, every opportunity for knowledge sharing such as this still holds lessons to be learned and applied to further improve and maximize the benefits to be derived from a well-functioning remittance and payment system.

I will be sharing more on this in future posts, and I hope you will join in the discussions.

Your Net Worth IQ

A while back I've written about the initial steps that you can take to get a hold of your finances. As the focus of that post was about you getting a grip of the more immediate matters, namely your disposable income and your cash balance, a discussion of one's net worth was not included. Now, we turn our attention to the larger aspect of your finances.

Simply put, net worth is what you have left with monetary value, after deducting any obligations you may have. Things with monetary value, called assets, include cash and other items that you can convert to cash. This can include "tangible" assets such as loans you gave and properties, as well as "intangible" assets such as trademarks, patents, or rights that is legally yours. Obligations, also called liabilities, are simply what you owe somebody, such as a bank loan.

You get your net worth by listing down and assigning an amount to your assets and subtracting from it the amount you assigned as your liabilities. Some items are pretty much straightforward: cash on hand and in bank is simply that. However, you may need to do some estimates to determine how much is the value of the car you own or the house and lot that you have. Liabilities are usually simple to find out as well, as it is usually billed on you.

Having a high net worth is of course a good thing, but what is a "high" amount is always relative to the lifestyle that you live. If your disposable income, as discussed earlier, is constantly on the negative (because you are spending more than what you are earning), then you can expect to see a decline in your net worth as you take on more liabilities or be forced to sell some of your assets. How fast the decline is a matter of how much larger your expenses are compared to your income.

One tool that can help out in knowing and understanding your networth is NetworthIQ. It's a site that provides you with a template or a sample of the items that you may own or owe, describe what these items or accounts mean, and provide some level of automation for you and a place to keep a record of your net worth month after month. NetworthIQ also goes further than simply being a site to record your assets and liabilities by providing features such as the chance to post financial questions you may have to the site's members, give and receive tips, and even record your financial journey. It will even allow you to compare your net worth against others once you decide to make it public, although I am not particularly sure what is the value of that. But making one's net worth public can be useful for some individuals such as financial planners and bloggers that may have a need to "prove" something.

I've signed up with the site, and although one can have some apprehension as to security, it doesn't seem much of a concern for me. The information they require at signup is quite limited. Utilizing the template does not require you to provide sensitive information, although you are pretty much limited as to the level of analysis you can make. Keeping your net worth private is the default for the site. What I find as potential value here is the community that can grow and assist you in your financial journey. You may want to try it out yourself. (Note: I am not related to nor gain income from NetworthIQ).

Slot Machine Investing

There are a number of things that differentiate an "investment" from a not-so-carefully disguised form of gambling. Understanding these factors can spell the difference between making a payoff and ending up a financial ruin.

1. Investment is all about making informed assumptions. Gambling, on the other hand, relies heavily on luck. While it is true that luck plays a part in getting an income from one's investment, it should never be the primary factor. This is what makes it tricky this early. No one who will offer you an investment will come to you and say that it has a 50-50 chance of succeeding. Otherwise, you are better off heading to a casino (although I don't think there are games there that offer even a 50-50 chance). Rather, what you will get is a carefully packaged set of assumptions and computations that shows a high probability of getting a high income. What makes it an investment is whether or not you can vouch for the plausibility of these assumptions. Or, as a next best thing, your financial advisor (who is not the one offering you the investment), can vouch for it. Of course, there will be varying degrees and methods, but the bottomline is that the decision to invest was made based on facts, and not chance.

2. Investments offer a reasonable return, while a gamble will promise the moon. So, if you are investing in a highly regulated or very competitive industry, a higher than expected return should be a cause for careful evaluation. Not that it's not possible; it's whether or not the assumptions or methods (as mentioned above) allow for such a return to be achievable.

3. Investments feed on fundamentals, gambling feeds on frenzy. That's why so many who are excited with all these "Ponzi" schemes ended up getting burned. They either knew that there were no underlying reason for such a return on investment, or they couldn't care less.

4. Some investments are really just a step better than a gamble. Let's face it, some investments will have assumptions that will not be any better than a roll of a dice. This is true in such cases as pioneer industries or new technologies. The important thing is to recognize it for what it is.

Hopefully this post can help you in making that very important distinction between investing and gambling. Let me know your views or share what other criteria you may be using.

The Benefits of Mobile Commerce

Mobile commerce (m-commerce) is a way of conducting financial transactions without the necessity of going to an office or place of business such as a bank, a payment center, or other financial institutions. For many of us living in urban areas, we could take for granted the fact that we have access to various electronic channels, like we can pay our bills via the Internet, via SMS or through a simple telephone call. It saves us the time that we could better spend doing our jobs or being with our family. The convenience it provides us is something we can enjoy almost on a daily basis. Likewise, banks and financial institutions are plenty enough in urban areas so that in the event the electronic channels aren't available (or we just don't want to use them), we can always pay a visit to these institution's offices.

For some people, however, m-commerce is more than just convenience. It can become a life-changing innovation in their lives. Take for example a farmer who lives some distance away from the nearest business center. For him to make some transactions, like getting a loan, paying bills, or receiving payments for his produce, he would need to make the trek to town that can probably take him away from his business for a full day every time.

Through the m-commerce network, however, the farmer can receive proceeds of loans and payments made to him delivered electronically through an access device, like a cellular phone, in a form commonly referred to as e-money. He can then use the e-money to also electronically make payments for expenses of his business, or he can "cash out" through a nearby cash center and pay his suppliers and creditors who may prefer to be paid in regular cash.

Through all of these, he would probably spend only a fraction of the time and expense he would have to make if he had to go to town for each and every financial transaction he needs to make. He can then devote this saved time and money to producing more and possibly engaging himself in additional profitable business. Likewise, the risk of losing the money by traveling large distances is also minimized. You can only imagine the impact once this process is replicated and compounded.

For the companies and individuals the farmer deals with, they also benefit from receiving his payments faster. They likewise need to have less people manning their offices, or they can channel their personnel to more productive activities as well. Safety also comes into play in these situations, as fewer people need to handle cash and transport them over long distances.

A lot needs to be done for this system to work, though. Legal frameworks need to be set, infrastructures need to be laid, and the target market need to be made aware and capable of using the network. The efforts, however, is worth it once a vibrant m-commerce is set in place.

eBillme: Paypal killer?

A recent post from The Christian Dollar featured an interview with the Vice President for Marketing of eBillme. This is a payment method that one can use when shopping online. With eBillme, there is no need to provide any personal or financial information to the merchant store or payment partner, like in the way with the traditional payments via credit/debit cards or via Paypal. Based on some of the instructional videos, when a buyer choose eBillme to pay for his online purchases, he gets an email from eBillme for the amount of his purchases. The buyer now has the option to pay eBillme through online banking or even over the counter to their bank.

The approach of eBillme does seem safer, since payment transactions are done through the online banking channel of one's bank, which limits the number of instances where one's financial information can be compromised. One issue, however, is the additional effort of making the payment yourself. It can find itself challenged by the reputation of safety of Paypal, coupled with its ability to streamline the process of one's online purchases.

Another aspect that eBillme highlights is the fact that since all of the payments coursed through them are essentially cash payments, it can be very effective in helping people to control their expenses. While this is a noble goal in itself, it somehow immediately limits the market for them. What's more, it can alienate some people who may feel that eBillme is viewing credit transactions as inherently wrong.

The entry of eBillme as another payment method provide consumers with another way to conduct their online financial transactions in a manner they deem safe, efficient, and aligned with their financial goals.

Electronic Payments in Government

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of Finance (DOF) of the Philippines issued the Joint Department Administrative Order No. 10-01 last March 24, which provides the guidelines in the use of access devices for the payment of government fees that would not require face-to-face contact with a personnel of the government agency concerned. This would include payments made via the internet and mobile devices like cellular phones. Modes of payment include credit cards, debit cards, and electronic money.

Most of the payments made to the Philippine government are still done manually, meaning you have to queue to a cashier at the agency's office. One of the exception would be the Electronic Tax Filing System of the Bureau of the Internal Revenue, wherein corporations can make their payments via their BIR-accredited bank.

Utilizing technology for government payments can provide the benefits of speed and security. However, the challenge would be the setting up of the necessary infrastructure to support such a payment system, as well as educating the public enough on the benefits of using the system. It's still unclear to me at this point who is the target market for this project. But I am guessing that this would primarily be for the corporations and other businesses. That is plausible and practical since they would probably be dealing with the government quite often in the normal course of their businesses. That may probably be the reason why the guidelines were issued by DTI and DOF, which deals with both trade and finances. Hopefully this initiative will be a step forward in the development of payment systems in the Philippines.

Zen Habits

Zenhabits.net has a nice article on frictionless work and working towards doing ONLY what you love to do. Sounds like a pipe dream for some, as the article admit, but it's still something worth checking out. You might be nearer to it than you think. Click on the pic to get you there. And while you're there, do explore the site. It's got a couple more nice reads. I personally enjoyed the articles on solitude and spending time on myself.

I have to admit, this blog has had its influence from Zen Habits, which I had been visiting regularly at the time this came to life. Not that it's the only reason. I've always been fascinated with Zen and the very sound of it (makes me feel relaxed just saying or thinking about it in my head. So, I thought for this weekend I'd introduce you to the Zen Habits blog/site along with a point to a recent article they had that had really been useful for me. If you like the articles, you can always sign up for their RSS/email alerts to always get the newest post. Sadly readers can no longer leave comments on the site, for reasons specified by the author. Well, it's his site anyway :) I still enjoy what I read there (btw, this is NOT a paid post).

Warning: If you try to get there by typing the URL, it's zenhabits.net. For some reason, Google is giving out a virus warning alert for zenhabits .com.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend :)

How The World's Poor Live on $2 A Day

My job often takes me into some unexpected mental excursions. I was reviewing a document when I took notice of a reference in the Annex pertaining to a book entitled "Portfolios of the Poor: How the World's Poor Live on $2 a Day". My online search got me to their webpage, which you can reach by clicking on the pic at the left.

The book is the product of a year's worth of on-the-ground research on the world's poorest, which is defined as households living on $2 a day or less. The research provided some surprising insights into the financial lives of the poorest. Although I wasn't able to read the book (it wasn't available locally), I was able to read the 4-page summary that you can get when you click on the Link tab in the site, along with some other summaries and a free look at the book's first chapter. It was already an enlightening account by itself. For example, it was noted that while middle class households would normally decide which loans to take based on the interest rate, the poor is much more concerned with the flexibility of the payment terms and the availability of credit even if it means higher interest rates. Quite practical if you think about it, but these insights are often overlooked since the focus of most financial planning is on getting the cheapest credit possible.

You can also get more insight by reading the three household profiles found on the main page. Do visit the site and get a fresh viewpoint of the financial lives of poor people. It will definitely impact the way you look at them again.

Financial inclusion is a topic that deals with the provision of basic financial services to the poor. It is closely related to the activities of microfinance, as well as the concept of providing financial access to the "unbanked". The provision of financial services to this segment of the population is also facilitated by the use of e-money, which I have been discussing a bit already. I will be providing more information on these subjects in my future posts.

E-Money in the Philippines: Types of E-Money

There are basically two types of electronic money in the Philippines, each one with its own set of arrangements.

1. Prepaid cards, also called stored value cards, have been issued by banks for some time now as one of their electronic banking products. The cards are loaded with electronic value upon exchange of an equivalent value of bills and coins. You can either load the value over the counter (i.e., the bank tellers), or have the value transferred from a deposit account.

2. Electronic wallets, in contrast to prepaid cards, are usually "inside" a cellular phone, or specifically the SIM. In the same way, value can be loaded via over the counter transactions or a transfer from one e-wallet to another (also called P2P or phone-to-phone transfers). E-wallets are usually issued by a non-bank company, or by a bank in partnership with a non-bank company, like a telecommunications company.

In both cases, the record of the value is actually stored not in the card or the SIM, but in a database managed by the issuer. This is because of the requirement of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (the central bank of the Philippines), for issuers to have a system that can track balances and usage of each of the e-money holders that subscribe to them.

More on this topic on future posts. Subscribe via email/Twitter/Google Reader so you can be updated of new posts.

Related Topics:

What is E-Money?
More E-Money

Under Renovation

I'll be tinkering with the layout of this blog for a couple of days and I just thought it appropriate to let you all of you know about it for a couple of reasons. One, I wouldn't want you thinking you were redirected to some unknown internet backdoor alley that would eventually strip you of your valuables. Second, the changes may affect the placement of some items, or I might unintentionally remove it. This would be the case with the Entrecard widget as well as the Ask2Link tabs. I understand I can have some problems should that be the case, so this advance notice and explanation. Lastly, and most importantly, I would like to get your feedback. The new layout will definitely not be the last one I will implement. I don't even consider it earth-shaking, but in my opinion it would be an improvement over the current standard Blogger layout.

If I might not be able to implement your suggestions at this point, it will go a long way when I start planning for the next set of changes. Also, the changes I will implement will not happen in one big bang, but I would probably put the layout in, leave it a while, tinker with it again after a few hours, then leave it a while again. That could provide me the opportunity to see how the changes are being appreciated. So, I hope you'd pitch in ^^

With that said, thank you very much for your patronage this far and I hope my efforts will be able to somehow provide you with a pleasanter experience when you visit this blog.

Should I stay Linkedin?

Just finished a week attending a training/workshop, and as usual I was able to network with other professionals. Before, it was my regular routine to get the info from the calling cards I collected and load them up at Linkedin. But lately, I've been concerned about the idea of inviting all my newly found colleagues to be my Connections in the professional networking site. Here are a couple of reasons:

1. Complete visibility. You would think that Linkedin would have realized that some level of confidentiality should be built in to their design. Even in our private circles, we tend to put limits on who gets what info, the way that people do it with List in Facebook. But such is totally absent from Linkedin. You allow one person to be your direct connection, and he gets to see all of your other connections. Something just doesn't feel right with that.

2. The headhunting dilemma. This flows from the first reason. I won't mind getting a headhunter in my Connections, considering the opportunity that they can provide a the proper time in my career. However, it feels like I am violating the trust and confidentiality of the rest of my Connections by allowing these headhunter connections that I have to browse their profiles. For all I know, getting headhunted is the last thing in the minds of my friends. So, for me to increase my network without unduly violating the confidentiality of my Connections, I would have to turn down all invitations for connection by headhunters, which is something useful but will have to be sacrificed. And still it doesn't solve the issue of how to limit what my Connections see in terms of my profile and other connections.

3. Too many things for a price. You want to be able to create folders? You have to pay (though they have a free trial at the moment). You want to see who's been checking your profiles? You have to pay. In this age, the concept of having to pay a networking site to keep it alive is probably resting on a wrong business model.

4. Lack of innovation. I had my Linkedin account for quite some time now, and I can't remember getting excited again after the time that I joined when I thought it was the best thing in the world after Facebook. No real new features. Tripit is the only application that seems to be improving, albeit so slowly, and for additional features that I hardly find any value in.

With that said, Linkedin still has the potential to provide benefits to its members. A wider network allows you to bounce your ideas with more effectively; groups catering to professional niches; and of course, the possibility of developing your own personal brand. Companies themselves find Linkedin so important, that every Fortune 500 company has a presence in it. Just right now, I am reading a magazine that says the boss of Accenture intends to hire no less that 40% of its new staff in the coming years through Linkedin. And Linkedin has responded by hiring key personnel to drive its direction and spruce up the site.

So, I'd probably keep Linkedin despite those "problems", which I hope they would get to address soon.

Have you Linkedin as well? How was it able to help you so far?

Hubze: One card to link them all

Just finished watching a webinar replay about Hubze. I've signed with them very early on, when they were still called Moneza. The change of name is an effort to make it sound more like what they intend to accomplish: to become a "hub" or a central point where one can automatically update all the social networking sites and subscriptions one is connected to.

To give an illustration, let's take this blog. After I have written and published this post, the only people who will know that I have a new post are those that subscribed to either the Feedburner or the Google Reader on the sidebar (which I am encouraging you to do right now ^^). To be able to let other people know, I need to make an update on my Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook accounts. The effort to do so is multiplied with the number of social network sites that you belong to.

Through Hubze, one update on my Hubze card informing those connected to me at the Hubze network that I have a new post will also tell people on my Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook networks (who may not be using Hubze) that I have a new post. When I change my contact details, the mirror details in Twitter and Facebook also gets updated. In effect, it becomes a single point of updating for me, allowing me to concentrate more on matters more important to my blog (such as content creation and site design) than having to repeat the announcement in every social network site. It also helps to ensure that I get to update each and every social network site I belong to. For a business person, that would mean being able to reach more audience at a fraction of a time. Other contents are in the works such as an in-house blog and making the site searchable.

Well, at least that's what the developers envision Hubze to accomplish. It's still in its very early stage, though the Hubze card will probably be out in a couple of days. You can click on the pic above to take you to the registration page, with me as referror. It really doesn't matter if you have been referred or not, you can simply go to their site at www.hubze.com if you like. But by being connected to me, we have started the networking and we can check on the effect of Hubze to our networks.

Thanks and let me know if you signed up and what's your initial impression of Hubze.

Fiverr - How Much Is Your Five Dollars Worth?

What will you be willing to do or sell for $5? Or conversely, what would you be willing to buy for the same amount? Fiverr provides the platform to meet the needs of sellers and buyers of good and services that are priced at very low amounts.

You register to Fiverr, and if you have something to sell (either something you will deliver or service you will perform) you post a notice called "gig" which are fixed at the price of $5 each. Conversely, you can browse or search through the gigs and buy one that you need.

Buyers pay $5 in advance via Paypal, while sellers get their net share of $4 (the site keeps the $1 as fee) after the sale has been completed. Sellers are notified that buyers are interested in what they are selling, and they have 24 hours to accept the order, otherwise the system cancels the order.

I haven't gone through the list of gigs available for purchase, but one problem I see in this set up is the lack of protection to the sellers. The Terms and Conditions state that if a purchase is canceled by the seller, the amount paid by the seller through Paypal will not be credited back to their Paypal account but will remain in their Fiverr account and will be available for their next purchase. The trouble with this is if you've got several canceled purchases or you do not see other goods and services that you would like to buy, you've got your money locked-in. It would be better if the buyer at least has the option to get back his money (minus any processing fees) when his Fiverr account reaches a certain amount, the way that the seller gets their Paypal account after reaching the $40 threshold.

With that said, the possibility of finding some gems in this virtual haystack is always there. And for those of you who have time to burn, you may check out the Silly Stuff category for some amusement.

And while you're at it, why don't you leave a comment and let us know what will you be willing to buy or sell for $5. You might just get the deal of your life!

E-Money in the Philippines: What Is E-Money?

I'm off to Bacolod on Monday to give a short presentation about electronic money. And I thought I'd get myself all primed up by posting a bit on what I will be sharing there. I provided a short perspective about e-money in the Philippines in my previous post here, and now I would like to start going deeper into the subject by defining what is considered e-money in the Philippines.

E-money in the Philippines is defined as monetary value that is:

1. Stored in an electronic device or instrument; and

2. Issued in exchange for an equal amount of cash (or sometimes less, if there are charges involved, but greater than the amount received); and

3. Acceptable as a means of payment to the issuer and other merchants; and

4. Withdrawable in cash and other cash forms; and

5. Have complied with the requirements of Circular 649 of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) which is the Philippine central bank.

What are the implications of this definition? If you are an issuer (meaning, you accept cash in exchange for e-money), then you must ensure that the e-money you are issuing complies with BSP guidelines.

On the other hand, if you are an e-money holder (you've exchanged your cash for e-money), then you should be aware of the various features of the e-money that you have, including those that the BSP required for certain reasons.

Next time, we'll discuss some of the types of e-money. Do leave your comments and questions to liven up the discussion.

Wish me well on my presentation!