Sure, you can get rich with a big inheritance from a great aunt you don’t really know. The source of real financial independence, however, comes from the little money decisions we make regularly.
This article from Lucena City, courtesy of the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Southern Luzon Bureau, says volumes:
LUCENA CITY – Schoolchildren in northern Quezon towns are contributing a few pesos of their daily cash allowance to help fund a campaign against government dam projects in the Sierra Madre mountain rivers and avert a possible environmental disaster.
“Grade school children have all been made aware of the importance of their signatures in the petition,” Pol Derillo, board chair of the Metro Infanta Foundation (MIF), said in a report posted in the group’s website over the weekend. “Some of them even made a vow to contribute a portion of their ‘baon’ just to show commitment.”
Chyrralenin Suapero, a Grade 2 pupil of the Disciple Christian School in Infanta, said she was aware of the danger posed by the dams once these are completed. “I’m afraid that it will again bring floods to our town. I don’t want that to happen,” she said in Filipino.
Aside from signing the petition, Suapero said she contributed P5 from her P20 daily school allowance to support the anti-dam campaign. “My schoolmates have also affixed their signatures. Some of them also gave portions of their allowance. And we’re all willing to contribute more to stop the dams,” she said.
Read the rest of the article here:
MIF may not know it, but they have just ingrained an important personal finance lesson in the lives of these children. Regular savings will do so much more than big, one time but unsustained efforts to build a nestegg.
This kind of mentality also weans us from the mistaken notion that we can only begin to seriously start out savings program when we receive a bonus, a commission, an inheritance, a higher salary … anything that will happen out there in the future. Sort of like beginning a diet tomorrow.
Which makes me think that the problem is not that Filipinos don’t want to save. We do, but we want to do it tomorrow when we have more money…
A student from a public school in Manila looks longingly at school bags. Photo credit: AFP.
September 21st, 2007 at 7:37 pm
Val, kudos to you and your wife :-). You might want to check out our previous discussions on kids and money here:
Trusting kids with cash
http://www.inquirerbloggers.net/moneysmarts/2007/08/22/trusting-kids-with-cash/
Good or bad: paying children for doing chores
http://www.inquirerbloggers.net/moneysmarts/2007/08/21/good-or-bad-paying-children-for-doing-chores/
Children and consistency
http://www.inquirerbloggers.net/moneysmarts/2007/06/25/children-consistency-and-a-free-book/
You are actually doing what personal finance experts preach! Teach them while they’re young.
September 21st, 2007 at 7:29 pm
ninetails, consider this. these kids learned a habit that would help them benefit from something in the future by sacrificing today and every day after that. It’s not easy to set aside money when you have only a little amount to play with. The skill to set aside something regularly is important in building up that little nest egg, don’t you think?
September 21st, 2007 at 3:18 pm
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThe source of real financial independence, however, comes from the little money decisions we make regularly. This article from Lucena City, courtesy of the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Southern Luzon Bureau, says volumes: … [...]
September 21st, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Recently, what we did was to open a bank account for each of our 2 little sons. The first born is already in school, so he already has some understanding of how money works.
Everyday my wife gives him ‘baon’ for his meryenda but also sees to it that he’s got little extra for savings. We told him to set aside this excess ‘baon’ of his and every month whatever the amount he saved we add a counterpart of the same amount to deposit in his account.
This way he gets motivated to save and would usually get excited every time he sees the balance of his passbook. But before we did this we first explained why is it important for him to save and the condition that he cannot withdraw from his account but only deposit.
September 21st, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Contribution is not at all related to Saving.