Do you want to design your financial life for the better? (FQ Book 3 is here!)

Hello hello! I was out for a number of months and I am excited to be back writing about money, family and everything in between. I was out because I had a semi-hibernation in order to devote all my writing efforts in completing the last installment of the FQ Trilogy. 

During our family goal-setting on New Year’s Eve of 2024, I realized that completing FQ Book 3 was already in my 2023 goals but it did not happen. Then I remembered an old adage that goes doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is insanity or stupidity. I decided not to be one and committed to do something differently. I cut back on my activities and really spent my thinking, reading and writing hours in finishing the book. I also set a launch date. I said it should be when I turn senior! Yup, that’s right, this writer is now a dual citizen.

To all of you who journeyed with me from the very start, you will remember that "FQ: the nth Intelligence" was originally a single book back in 2016. I finished the rough manuscript and showed it to the four men in my life, my greatest cheerleaders and at the same time, my most honest critics. They all said, “Hmmm… it doesn’t sound like you anymore. The easy story-telling style is gone.”

I looked at the manuscript again, and realized that they were right. It was because I wanted to put everything in one book that I had to do away with a lot of storytelling. Then I remembered what I have always believed in–lessons are best delivered and remembered when told in a story. And so, I began to figure out how to bring back my voice and cater better to my audience. When I broke FQ into its parts, I realized that it was best to have it in three parts, a trilogy.

FQ Book 1 is "FQ: The nth Intelligence." It talks about this important life skill, financial quotient. Here, we discussed the myths about it, went down our childhood money memory lane to understand our relationship with money, and learned how to improve it with the help of our core values. We had the FQ Test (consists of knowledge and behavior), and studied the basic laws of money.

In FQ Book 2, "Why Financial Education Alone Does Not Work," back-to-back with "The Psychology of Money," we discussed why there’s a huge gap between knowledge and behavior and had a crash course in Behavioral Economics, with the help of our characters, Makatwirang Mak and Emotional Emong, in order to eliminate nose-bleed in the usual finance and behavioral science jargon. 

So, if our go-to solution called financial education does not work, what do we do now?

That is now the subject of our third and final installment in FQ Book 3, High FQ by Design (Shape Your Environment For a Financially Healthy You). 

I am thrilled to bits that the foreword was written by no less than our former Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas governor, Amando “Say” Tetangco Jr.! Gov. Say holds the distinction of serving the longest term as governor in the history of both the BSP and Central Bank of the Philippines. He served two consecutive terms from July 2005 to July 2017, for a total of 12 years. He was the first BSP governor to be reappointed for a second term during which he earned international recognition for his leadership and stewardship of the Philippine central bank.

I also wish to thank the Edward Lee, Bo Sanchez and April Lee-Tan for going through my manuscript and writing their blurbs for the book.

In FQ Book 3, we will discuss the power of design, choice architecture, information architecture and many, many more. You will learn how to design the environment in your family, company, our nation with the help of numerous evidence-based studies, again, in no nosebleed style but just my usual storytelling manner. 

This is the culmination of many years of studies and experiences (both mine and my readers’) and I am excited to finally share my obra with you all. If you want your advanced copies of the book, you may click this link and avail of a 10% discount for orders made during my birthday month, September. 

Happy reading and cheers to high FQ!