I have been reading the forum but haven't made a post until I read this. I just have to say what I feel. Sis, you are inspiring. You gave me hope! 
Your post made my day, cescilay.

Naku, ewan ko ba, basta I remember, all I could think about then was how the hell I was going to get out of the hole I was in. It seemed so deep back then -- I was almost a million in debt, I had a case in court to worry about, my partner was incapacitated, and he and his family were all depending on me for pretty much everything (needless to say, they didn't have money either and were all unwilling to borrow). I myself was lost, but since everyone depended on me, I had to be strong. There was no time to sit in a corner and cry, so what I did was buckle down, focus on the one thing I think I could make money from (which was my job), and just did that. Wala na ako inatupag but THAT.
You are right -- the key is to work hard and work smart. As soon as I had saved up a bit of money, I looked for ways to make that money work for me, because dammit, I had growing debt to pay! There were times na sa pagkainip, I entered very risky investments. I did get burned, but thank god they weren't huge amounts.
As I mentioned, I also invested in funds -- I was very lucky that it was a bullish market when I entered, because if you check the returns of MFs within the past 4-5 years, umaabot ng 20%, 30%, 70% and even 100% ang yearly returns. I don't know when MFs and UITFs will post those kinds of returns again.
Hindi pa tapos ang kwento ko. As they say, marami pa ako bigas na kakainin. Just recently, I took on a huge loan for this business I want to start, so my net worth is actually negative again. Ewan ko ba again -- when I was making my pitch for the loan, I couldn't believe how confident I sounded! Kaya siguro inapprove agad. Pero when I'm alone, ang dami kong fears. Haha. Nag-promise din ako ng yearly percentage. When I computed, that percentage is only going to be less than half of the conservative projections, so I think I'm good. I HOPE I'm good.
Eto na naman, time to buckle down and just get to work.