Financial Ignorance Is Expensive

By:  Bo Sanchez
Philippines renowned best selling author, lay minister and entrep

(Excerpts or one of the articles from the book 8 Secrets of the Truly Rich)

"The number one problem in today’s generation and 

economy is the lack of financial literacy."

 — Alan Greenspan

Some people think buying a book like the 8 Secrets of the Truly Rich is expensive.  I also give financial seminars and people think the price we charge is too high.  If you think financial wisdom is expensive, then try ignorance. You’ll realize it’s a million times more expensive.

FACT: We could all be educated but financially ignorant.

For example, in the past 10 years, I’ve lost a lot of money. Simply because I was stupid about money.  After getting married, I was able to scrape a decent amount of savings into our bank account every month. And with some very generous gifts from our ninangs.

During our wedding, after a few years, my savings reached P200,000 plus. (Sssshh. Don’t laugh too hard.)  That was when a friend asked me if I would like to put my money in the investment company she was working for. “You’ll earn two percent a month,” she said, “and you’ll help me earn a commission from your investment!”

And instantly, I invested our P200,000. After all, two percent a month came down to 24 percent a year—so much higher than the banks’ interest. That was also the time when my wife finally got pregnant.  The thought of becoming a father was an incredible feeling.  But together with my excitement was the stark realization that the baby would now be totally dependent on my finances for the next 20 years of his life.

That thought sent chills down my spine.  We borrowed a wooden crib from a cousin and prepared P20,000 for the birth of our baby. We were ready, or so I thought.  During the delivery, my wife suffered heart palpitations reaching 200 beats per minute and the doctor ordered an emergency Caesarian operation.  Yes, I almost lost my wife and baby. That emergency operation saved their lives.  After three days of confinement, I received the bill from the hospital:  P56,000.

Gulp.  Have you ever received a solid punch straight to your solar plexus?  That was how I felt at that moment. So I called my friend and asked if I could get my investment back. Perhaps just P40,000 of my P200,000 to pay the hospital bill.  She said, “I’ll try...”  “Try? Why try? Isn’t that my money?” I asked, “I need to pay the hospital.”  “It isn’t that simple,” she explained. “Your money is being used.” “What do they use it for? Who owns this company anyway? How long have they been in business?” (Do you see how wise I was? I was asking these questions after I invested my money.)

“We’re a small firm that lends money to tricycle drivers.” “What...” Have you ever seen a cat staring at the headlights of an oncoming truck? That’s how I looked. “And collection hasn’t been very good,” my friend’s mutter was barely audible. “So that means...”  “uh, that means we’ll have to wait for new investors to come in before we can return a part of your money.”  In other words, I waited for three years for nothing. After that the company closed, folded up, crashed, disintegrated, imploded, sunk to

the depths of the earth, vanished into thin air.  With my P200,000 with them.

Don’t you see?  I was financially dumb.  Let me give you my credentials: My I.Q. is 132, I have above-average  social skills, I finished Philosophy in college, I took post-graduate courses in Theology, I founded four organizations, and I’m a more-or-less over-all wholesome guy... But all these don’t take away the fact that I was a financial nincompoop.  I was 100 percent financially illiterate!

Here’s what I found out...

You could be a doctor with three PhDs behind your name.

You could be an engineer building huge bridges in your spare time.

You could be a very holy person, praying three hours a day.

You could be a scientist inventing the first car that runs on spit.

You could be 97 years old.

You could be an extremely loving saint.

You could be a diva with the voice of Celine Dion.

But you could also be financially illiterate.

A world-renowned surgeon doesn’t open up a busted TV set and say, “I operate on people, I guess operating on machines would be a breeze.” No, it won’t be. It’s a totally different world.  So it is with money.  Knowing how money works is a totally different field of expertise. Financial ignorance is expensive.

You may also like reading the complete book in this link in PDF Format:  8 Secrets of the Truly Reach
7 Tested Ways to Consider When Buying a House and Lot You Want to Call Your Home  
7 Key Financial Advise to All Young Professionals and Wokers Who Are Starting to Earn a Living  
Things the Rich Do Every Day that the Poor Don’t  
 

Seven Ways to Avoid Bad Debt (Pitong Paraan ng Pag-iwas sa Masamang Utang)

Sa mga naglipanang produkto ngayon at sa pagnanais nating maging -in sa barkada at sa lipunan, marami sa mga nagsisimula pa lamang na kumita ng pera ang dahan-dahan nang lumulubog sa pagkakautang at kakapusan ng hindi nila namamalayan.  Marami ang hindi pa panahon ng sahod ay kailangan ng mag-cash advance o kaya’y isanla ang kani-kanilang ATM Cards na usung-uso ngayon sa mga pabrika at mga pribadong kumpanya.  Ang mga datihan namang  may pagkakautang at babago pa lamang nakalalaya rito ay ganun din.  Bigla nilang namamalayan na may utang na naman sila na kailangang bunuin at pagsikapang bayaran.  Malimit dahil sa mga gastusing hindi pana-panahon at hindi naman maituturing na biglaan tulad ng tuition, panghanda sa birth day, reunion, paskuhan at iba pa.

Upang huwag mabulid at matukso sa utang, makatutulong ang sumusunod na tips o mungkahi sa bawat isa atin.

• Magbasa, mag-aral, at bumili muna ng mga aklat tungkol sa Financial Literacy bago ang pagporma at mga gadgets.  Sa oras na magkatrabaho tayo at magsimulang kumita. Unahin agad ang magtabi o mag-impok at pagbili ng mga aklat tungkol sa kahalagahan ng Financial Literacy, at Personal Finance upang magkaroon ng kaalaman kung paano at bakit kailangang lumaya sa kakapusan.
• Panatilihin ang dating uri ng pamumuhay at paraan ng paggastos na tulad noong wala pang trabaho. Bilhin lamang ang mga pangunahing pangangailangan sa tahanan.  O kung nakatira pa rin sa magulang, share sa pagkain at iba pang gastusin sa bahay at itabi na lahat ang matitira.
• Magbudget at maghanda ng tinatawag na irregular expenses account o listahan ng mga gastusing pana-panahon kung dumating tulad ng pagbabayad ng tuition, pagbili ng mga uniporme at mga gamit pampaaralan, Pasko, Birth Day, Valentines Day, Anniversaries, at iba pa at isama na ito at paglaanan upang maiwasan ang pangungutang sa panahon na ang mga ito ay kakailanganin.
• Huwag matoto o maingganyong mangutang.  Iwasan at ituring ang utang bilang isang nakahahawa at nakamamatay na karamdaman.  Tandaan na lahat ng utang ay masama kung ito ay nagiging dahilan upang mabawasan ang inyong kita at halaga ng ari-arian o asssets.  Umutang lamang kung gagamitin sa isang negosyo na siguradong kikita.
• Huwag kumuha ng isang bagay na pahulugan o mangutang para lamang bumili ng isang bagay tulad ng mga alahas, gadgets, damit, mga kasangkapan sa bahay at iba pa.
• Panatilihin ang budget sa dating antas kahit na tumaas na ang buwanang suweldo dahil sa mga nabayarang utang, o umento at ibulid ito sa mga nalalabi pang pagkakautang o kung tapos na ay impokin upang lumago sa pinakamabilis na paraan.
• Huwag padalus-dalos at paimpluwensya sa tukso ng materyalismo at ng kapwa at ituon lamang ang tingin sa layuning makalaya sa kakapusan sa pinakamabilis na paraan.
• Maging simple at huwag mag-astang mayaman.  Sa ngayon, hindi pinag-uusapan sa mataas na lipunan kung anong mga mamamahaling gamit meron ka kundi una muna rito ang uri at laki ng iyong mga investments.

Tandaan, na malaki ang tulong na magagawa sa atin kung tayo ay walang masamang pagkakautang sapagkat iwas isipin din bukod pa sa mas mapapabilis ang ating pag-iimpok.

Maaari ring tunghayan ang sumusunod:

Basics on Personal Finance

Pagiging Mayamang Tunay (Being Truly Rich: A Series on Financial Literacy and Personal Finance in Filipino)

Being Truly Rich: Gaining Financial Freedom (Paglaya sa Kakapusan) Second Part in a Series  

Knowing How Financially Healthy or Un-healthy We Are (Being Truly Rich: Third Part in a Series)

Eight Steps to Get-out of Bankruptcy and Debt (Walong Paraan ng Paglaya sa Pagkakabaon sa Utang)  

Financial Education, A Must for Teachers   

Financial Literacy, A Must for Teachers

By Gilbert M. Forbes
DepEd Quezon, CALABARZON

(Note:  This articles also applies to all young professionals, newly and currently employed both public and private, members of the informal economy, entrepreneurs, and all who have a way of earning.)

Having no resources to support education in other fields that will warrant a higher income, many opted to take education as a stepping stone but still land as a full time license teacher in the end. Teaching however in the public school at present already command an above the daily minimum wage salary.  In fact, above the entry level salary of call center agents and most professionals starting a career.  So, becoming a teacher and getting employed should be making a difference to the family members and most of all to the individual teacher in the economic bracket where most teachers came.  Handling finances properly should have been a way for a better life - much better life of poverty prior their graduation in college. But this is not the case of some of our new and even senior teachers.

Photo courtesy of Google Images.

Upon permanent employment was the improvement in their buying capacity and so the sudden change in their lifestyle including immediate family members. Instead of putting savings a priority, of increasing their net worth, they stumbled on a spending spree. They start renovating or constructing a new house without careful planning, start to buy signature clothes, gizmos and gadgets. In other words, they start to embrace a middle class life style instead of maintaining their previous simple life style only to find out later that they are already indebted to the neck. What is worst at times, they have exploited family members to join them in the band wagon. The cost, they have become poorer. The worst case scenario is that some family members became dependent which is not the case when the teacher is still studying to be one.

It is very frustrating that many of these teachers education were financed by peoples taxes (for those who studied in state colleges and universities) and subsidized by the government and some private individuals as scholars (for those who studied in some private schools) to help them get out of poverty but end up even poorer due to complicated lifestyle for some after just three to five years in the service or worst after marrying a bum.

On the other hand, others became highly indebted after financing expensive education of younger siblings which don’t match their interest and skills or are just results of peer influence, a fad. These courses charge very high tuition fees and yet the probability of getting employed after graduation is so thin and so appears to be so impractical that it has only put the financier in debt in the end.  Or failure to save or get protection for emergencies like sickness and death.

These situations proved to be not only demeaning and alarming on the part of the teacher experiencing it but to their mission of educating the youth and most importantly to teaching as a profession. Commonly, end result is burnt out and lack of professional direction. Hence, their mind is already pre-occupied where and how to get money to meet their daily needs. They have memorized and master when and how they could renew their loans in different lending institutions in every three months. Some even does it on a monthly basis leaving them with only a quarter of their monthly salary for a living—supplanted by renewable loans from any available credit sources. Indeed, these debtors have mastered the art of loaning and in return have lost their sense of propriety.

With the influence of materialism so strong that some have forgotten the disparity between what is needed and wanted, financial literacy or stewardship is seen to be a form of relief if not the total solution. This is something that should be looked into not only by Teacher Education Institutions but most importantly by the Department of Education to educate teachers, students, and the rest of the stakeholders. The Commission on Higher Education and the Technical Skills Development Authority in partnership with other government agencies should also do the same.

If everybody would be financially literate and educated, they would be motivated to plan for their future, embrace a simple life style or live simply, become responsible stewards, and to acquire the means to help more i.e., to be wealthy or financially independent. As spiritual and religious writers put it, they’ll  be financially independent or get rich for others in their respective pace. Just imagine if all salaried workers both in the government and private sectors including the OFW’s will learn and practice how money works as a result of being financially literate to a lesser extent. Come to think of its effect to the country’s progress and economy!

(This article also applies to other government employees particularly policemen who because of being financially illiterates have become hoodlums and kotongs in uniform. To other government employees and politicians who have become corrupt, private employees and OFW’s who even with their fat salaries have not improved their lives. To micro entrepreneurs and informal sectors of the economy who have stagnated through the years.)

You may also liked:

7 Ways to Avoid Bad Debt

Ang Tunay na Mayaman

The Value of Personal Finance

(The writer is an educator who was also a victim of financial ignorance.  Upon stumbling on a financial literacy book in 2005, he realizes his own situation and soon financial literacy or wellness has become a part of his personal advocacy aside from politics, good governance, education and environment.  He holds baccalaureate and post-graduate studies from the Philippine Normal University and currently employed as a school head in DepEd.)