Sometimes I laugh because my life sounds made up when I explain it too seriously.
I stay quietly in Makati doing laundry, washing dishes, writing long thoughts on my phone, and watching random YouTube vlogs with my cousin Sachi.
(With my cousin Sachi.)
Meanwhile, an entire pig-based survival system keeps running 700 kilometers away in Antique.
(Maia's second parity, she's mestiza.)
That’s genuinely my life right now.
Most people imagine financial systems as corporations, meetings, presentations, or men in long sleeves discussing investments and scaling. Mine runs on pigs, chickens, digital banks, Shopee vouchers, family coordination, provincial trust, and whoever remembered to message me.
And somehow, it works.
From Debt to Structure
This setup didn’t come from comfort. It came from almost financially destroying myself first.
Years ago, I was drowning in debt from a failed feed store and chicken layer business, which left me with significant obligations to a local cooperative ( which I already paid up and now enjoying the low interest loan again). At the same time, I was supporting two siblings in college while still trying to stabilize earlier financial decisions.
That season humbled me right when I thought I was already grounded.
Cash flow problems don’t wait for total collapse. They suffocate you long before that.
Eventually, I pulled out before everything, including unhealthy financial dependencies and friendships, fully buried me.
That decision saved me financially and mentally.
After that, I stopped trying to look successful and started focusing on building systems that could survive real life without borrowing from my maternal uncle or relying on appearances.
Not aesthetics. Not status.
Just survival.
Building Systems Instead of Image
Instead of spending money to look stable, I started fixing what was actually draining my life.
(Teens with me last summer helping out hauling water for my chickens and pigs.)
I invested around ₱150,000 drilling a well because hauling water during dry season was exhausting. The old water source required a steep 15 minute walk. Eventually, I realized something simple: if a system exhausts everyone every day, then the system is the problem.
So I fixed it.
It is still debt I am paying, but it solved something real.
(Hired hands to dig up)
I also renovated the pig house and cemented the pillars because temporary repairs kept failing. Labor shortages, feed costs, and unreliable manpower made constant patchwork more expensive than rebuilding properly.
Then there were my teeth. I suffer from enamel erosion, and my American plastic crowns had already exceeded their lifespan. They were supposed to last five to six years, but I kept them for almost eight.
I eventually had six MFP crowns done just so I could eat and smile without constant pain. Half from piglet sales, half from a loan, with my dentist kindly allowing installment payments. I still have more dental work ahead, but it can wait.
That part still makes me laugh a little.
Some people go into debt for status. I came out of mine with a water system, a reinforced pig structure, and functioning teeth.
(Still suffering trauma but I can smile after 2 days awkwardly.)
Very province survival-core.
The Shift
But those years built the foundation of everything I understand now.
Once you almost drown financially, you stop romanticizing money and start respecting structure.
All photos are mine.
Used AI for the Ghibli style.
I had written 5 parts already but I'm having a hard time looking for photos. Haha
One down. Four to go.
Thanks for reading this far.❤️