Is the world coming to an end in 2012?

Question: I can’t seem to make ends meet. My monthly pay is barely enough to cover basic necessities. The price of gasoline seems to be on an upward trajectory. While we maintain our budget for food, our money doesn’t buy the same amount anymore. Even our favorite hot pandesal gets smaller and smaller. There are yearly increases in tuition fees at my children’s school of as high as 10 percent per year. How can I cope financially with this kind of living condition?–Disgruntled breadwinner

Answer: If you see the world around you crumbling, even if it be just financially, you have apparently reached the height of pessimism. But know this: your world is not coming to an end. At Personal Finance Advisers (PFA), we are firm believers that everything happens for a reason. And for us, that reason is to make us stronger, wiser and better individuals. In the end, things will align themselves.

Many share this belief—whether through Adam Smith’s invisible hand theory; Steve Jobs’ connecting the dots story, which he related in his June 12, 2005, commencement address; or faith. So when you reach the height of pessimism, just take the “h” in height, the “o” in of and the “pe” in pessimism, put them together and you’ll have “HOPE.” Nobody can predict that your finances will cause your world to end because you alone hold the key to its flourishing.

Doomsayers are plentiful. That is how they sometimes get people to buy the stuff they peddle. Take the belief that the world will come to an end in 2012. People came up with this prediction based on Mayan literature, which says that we are currently living in the fourth world. According to one research, that in Wikipedia, the gods first created three failed worlds with the last failed world ending after 13 b’ak’tuns, or about 5,125 years. The end of the third failed world is the start of the current fourth world, which could be the equivalent of Aug. 11, 3114 BC in the Gregorian calendar. And if the current fourth world were to also have 13 b’ak’tuns, it would have also reached its 5,125th year on Dec. 21, 2012. Some say that cataclysmic events that could lead to the end of the world as we know it will mark this date. Such a belief is part of what is called the 2012 phenomenon. Regardless of interpretation, many scientists and scholars have argued against this 2012 phenomenon saying that the Mayans never mentioned the end of the world in their literature.

As I was writing this column, Yahoo! News popped up on my screen with an article by Gabie Leslie entitled, “Five Ways the World Could End.” These five ways were by meteorites and asteroids, solar storms, pole shift, super-volcano eruptions and global warming. But in the same article, Leslie found sufficient reason to say that the world may not end in 2012. To be sure, the world will one day end, but that may be later than sooner. What is interesting is that of the five ways that the world could face cataclysmic events, four are by nature’s hand and one is by man’s. And the one with the highest probability of happening and which in fact is happening right now is by the hand of man, that of global warming.

According to Yahoo! News, The Union of Concerned Scientists said, “…we should think of climate change as presenting us challenges for which we must prepare as well as opportunities for reducing emissions and the associated climate change risks that come with them.” After all, with grace from above, we can be the masters of our own destiny.

Going back to your question, you have the capacity to turn things around and be the master of a better destiny. For one, you are paid by your employer according to your ability to work, not your propensity to spend. We have done personal finance training for maintenance people (janitors), and we have come across one who was able to build his own home, buy a car, send his children to college and set up a business—all funded by his janitor’s income.

Inflation is the financial moth that destroys purchasing power. But more than 2,000 years ago, the Bible (Matthew 25: 14-30) already talked about the need to invest, which is a great way to combat inflation.

Financial concerns may present major upheavals in the way we live our life. But they are not necessarily apocalyptic. They are mere symptoms to problems, much like coughing tells us that the body is trying to rid itself of an irritant in the throat and/or lungs. They are our call to action to make us stronger, wiser and all-around better individuals. All you need to do is to ask for grace from above, make the commitment to get out of your financial rut and use the proper personal finance tools.

If you want to learn the right personal finance tools, attend the EnRich training scheduled on Feb. 16, 2012. Visit www.personalfinance.ph, e-mail [email protected] or call (632) 216-1541 for more details.

From all of us at PFA, we wish you and your family a prosperous 2012.

(Efren Ll. Cruz is a registered financial planner of RFP Philippines, personal finance coach, investment adviser and bestselling author. Questions about the article may be sent by SMS to 0917-505-0709 or e-mailed to [email protected]. To learn more about the RFP program, visit www.rfp.ph or e-mail [email protected].)

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