I first met Bianca Monica Gonzales Intal when she interviewed me for her popular you tube show Paano ba ‘to? (Click video thumbnail to watch Financial Advice from FQ Mom).
The episode elicited a lot of questions because let’s face it, everybody needs to mind his/her FQ, so she interviewed me for a part 2 (Click video thumbnail to watch Financial Advice from FQ Mom part 2).
Of course before that, I’ve already known about her. I remember her as a youngmodel turned tv host who collected Chucks (sneakers by Converse), studied in Ateneo, and proud morena beauty. She joined the first Pinoy Big Brother Celebrity Edition where she stirred some controversy but which ultimately boosted her popularity. As I mentioned in my previous article, you can’t put a smart woman down and that’s also what happened to Bianca’s career. She focused her attention on building her career as a tv host, consequently, building a huge following on social media. She now has millions of followers on different platforms – 2M on Instagram, 2.8M on Facebook, and 6.9M on Twitter! These, she continues to build while she raises her own family.
She was engaged to basketball player JC Intal (Ateneo Blue Eagle basketball player now professional player for Phoenix Fuel Masters of the PBA) after that romantic proposal at the airport!
They got married in a lovely ceremony on the island of El Nido, Palawan in a lovely ceremony.
Like most couples, Bianca and JC didn’t really have a serious talk about Couple FQ before the wedding, but suffice it to say that they probably did some preliminaries as they spent for their own wedding. They now have their almost three-year old daughter Lucia, and are expecting their second baby next month.
During my free-flowing conversation with Bianca, she admitted that she could use some help in budgeting. Their main challenge is in not having regular income like most employees, making it more crucial for them to be disciplined with their spending habits.
When we talked about her CMM (Childhood Money Memory), I was happy to note that way back in grade school, she already had systematic savings in place designed by her mother, “My P100 weekly allowance was given to me by my mom on a Monday, and she had some sort of forced savings for me. She withheld P20 and logged it on her ledger. She’s an accountant who’s really on the dot with money. Then if I wanted to buy something, I would ask her and then she would ask me what it was for, then log it there.”
Hurray! for accountant-moms. This is what I always suggest to parents, “Find your expertise, then use it in your parenting.”
For their child, JC and Bianca have already started a fund where they deposited allthe earnings from endorsements done with Lucia plus additional contributions from Papa and Mama’s earnings. “She is one lucky child!” says Bianca as she narrated Lucia’s account.
When asked for her FQripot tips, she said, “Save on the things you can cut costs on, then splurge on the things that you love.” In their case, it’s travel. They love to hang out in beaches and just do nothing but be together. In fact, last weekend, they spent their first ever holiday away from their daughter for the first time! They were at a beach in Cebu.
As pahabol tip for couples, she shared, “When we were still boyfriend/girlfriend, we would give each other gifts on anniversaries, birthday, Valentine, Christmas, and other special occasions. Then after our third anniversary, I noticed that it was getting ridiculous buying stuff, spending moneyon things that we just use for a couple of times, so we decided that for these occasions, there was no real need to give gifts to each other just for the sake of giving gifts. We will just save that money, then when we have time, we would travel. So since then, it’s trips and experiences that we give as gifts to each other, which for me are immensely more valuable than a wallet, a pair of shoes, and other stuff.”
Bianca is now a 35-year old celebrity wife, mom, and host who generously shares her adventures and misadventures with her millions of followers on various social media channels. She has been sharing since the early stages of social media, no wonder she has that big of a following.
In a separate interview, I asked Bianca to share how she earned her millions of followers. But that belongs to another article.
For the meantime, let me share with you a preview of our FQwentuhan so you will hear the details straight from @iamsuperbianca!
Watch the full video of ourFQwentuhan on Thursday September 20, 2018 on FQ Mom Facebook page and you tube channel.
For the followers of Bianca on her you tube, Facebook, IG and Twitter who asked additional FQ questions after the two episodes of Paano ba ‘to? kindly visit FQwentuhan for Singles group and FQwentuhan for Married/With Dependents group and post your questions there, I will be answering them in a more orderly fashion, so you can understand them more clearly. We will also be categorizing the discussions so you can easily go back to them for future reference. It’s something new and I’d love to start it with you since a lot of you have reached out to me with your questions and concerns. Early joiners also have a chance to attend future meet ups for live FQwentuhans!
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Are you a book lover? Do you always attend the MIBF (Manila International Book Fair)? If so, there’s a chance for us to meet up! I hope to see you on September 13, 2018 Thursday at 1:30pm. We will discuss your relationship with money and many more! See you there!
- If you want to professionalize homemaking, check out the seminars of H&S in collaboration with Kenvale of Australia. Visit their FB Page “Homestyle & Skills” to participate in their seminars that start on August 31, 2018. My session will be the last one scheduled on October 3, 2018. Click link to sign up - #HomeGoals
- Thanks to those who already bought the FQ Book, especially to those who took the time out to send me their feedback. Your feedback is food for my soul. To those who have not gotten their copy yet, here’s a short preview of FQ: The nth Intelligence
You may now purchase the book in major bookstores, or if you want autographed copies, please go to FQ Mom FB page (click SHOP), or FQMom.com (click BOOKS), or email us at FQMomm@gmail.com - Want to know where your FQ stands? Take the FQ Test Challenge now! Click link. http://rebrand.ly/FQTest
Rose Fres Fausto is a speaker and author of bestselling books Raising Pinoy Boys and The Retelling of The Richest Man in Babylon (English and Filipino versions). Click this link to read samples – Books of FQ Mom. She is a Behavioral Economist, Certified Gallup Strengths Coach and the grand prize winner of the first Sinag Financial Literacy Digital Journalism Awards. Follow her on Facebook & YouTube as FQ Mom, and Twitter & Instagram as theFQMom. Her latest book is FQ: The nth Intelligence.
ATTRIBUTIONS: Videos taken from Bianca’s Youtube channel and used to help deliver the message of the article.