Filipinos are known to be very superstitious and sometimes those beliefs hinder their growth. Here are some 5 financial myths that stop Filipinos from being financially independent.


SAVING ATTRACTS SICKNESS

I can’t remember how many times I heard people say or comment that savings attract sickness, especially saving using piggy banks/coin banks.

There’s always a story about how they started saving for something and then all of a sudden a family member got sick.

According to a survey done by the Bangko Sentral Pilipinas (BSP) in 2019, there are 53% of Filipinos who have savings (formal or informal savings) and about 47% of Filipinos do not have any form of savings.

The number of unbanked Filipino adults is 71% of the total adult population. In the same survey, the percentage of Filipino adults who have or had debt noticeably increased to 41% in 2019 from 29% in 2017.

Savings do not attract sickness. Savings help you when you get sick.

Just imagine what will happen if something happens to you and you don’t have money to buy medicine or seek professional help.

To break it down, a consultation alone will cost you Php 500-800, a typical blood test is around Php 1,500-2,500, and then there’s the medicine that you need to take that will cost you around Php 3,000.

Filipinos should stop thinking about how saving manifests sickness, instead, we should be thinking about how to prevent and prepare for sickness.

Sickness is inevitable, so you choose.

Do you want to get sick with savings or get sick with no savings and turn to loans and debts?

LIFE INSURANCE MEANS DEATH

Life insurance means death- somehow true somehow false. It is not about the end of your life alone, it’s about the life and security of your family when death happens to you.

Most of the myths boil down to manifesting bad omens. In this case, most of the people around me whom I talk about financial literacy are afraid of availing of life insurance because they are afraid that death will come their way.

Well, life insurance somehow means death but it’s not a grim reaper. Life insurance is a safety net just in case something bad happens to you. It is a safety measure for your family that will help ease the burden of death. It is a cushion from a fall that might break your family.

We will come face to face with death, and when that time comes wouldn’t it be nice for you to leave a trail of crumbs for your loved ones towards a brighter future instead of baggage in the form of hospital bills, debts, and an uncertain future?

In India, a re-evaluation of insurance’s premium of about 40% is being studied due to the influx of people who want to secure their lives and at the same time the rise in mortality rate from the pandemic.

Just imagine how they were able to realize the importance of insurance that even the company itself has to protect itself from the economic risks of the pandemic.

RAISING A CHILD TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF IN THE FUTURE

Growing up, I always heard people say how lucky my parents were for having daughters because of the care they will have when they get old.

And I was okay with that idea because I saw how my parents took good care of my grandmother.

Fast forward to now, I still think our parents deserve the best care that they can have, but I want the sandwich generation cycle to stop with me.

The sandwich generation is those people who are both providing for their parents and their own family and often forget to prepare for their future.

Our parents work hard to provide for us and in that process, they forget to plan for their future.

Somehow, we’re grateful because we weren’t forced to take care of them and provide for them since they’re both still capable of working.

People should not treat their children as an investment or retirement fund that they can use once they are retired. You don’t conceive children for the sake of having someone when you grow old, that is selfish.

Children don’t owe you anything for raising them, you owe them a great life because you choose to conceive them. You fed, clothed, schooled, and taught them necessary things because you chose to have children.

If you were so afraid that no one would take care of you in the future, you should’ve invested somewhere else or paid for your future spot in a hospice.

So you gave birth at an early age and in the process, you were forced to take a different path in your career, is it your child’s fault?

Does limiting them to growth after providing for their basic education will even out the things that you missed in life?

This is a sign for all the parents out there to prepare not just for their children but also for themselves, because not preparing ahead also means having to ask your child to step up and provide for you.

YOLO (YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE)

The term YOLO is a bit on the positive side and gives us the positivity to conquer life.

You only live once, so live life to the fullest. It’s true, but perhaps we’re being too lenient that we forget to prepare for our future.

It’s not enough that you live life to the fullest, you have to be responsible enough to realize how fleeting time can be as well, and we have to use it to our advantage because as much as we believe that we only live once, we have to remember that you also die once so there’s no do-over.

Yes, you can’t carry your assets to the ground but you can’t also pay the bills brought by your death when you’re already dead.

You only live once, so you cherish all the waking moments that you have. You become a better person every single day but remember to be a responsible human being for your family and your future self.

The average lifespan of human beings is about 76.71 years. You have 76.71 years which translates to 28,000 days.

You’ll have a chance to wake up for 28,000 days, and only 1 chance to die.

So, do you want to take that 1 chance and leave your loved ones with expenses or make their life stable even after you are gone?