When it comes to investing, or even financial planning in general, people want to be told exactly what to do. We ask where to invest our money and how much, which bank to approach for advice, which stock to buy and which book to read.
At INQUIRER.net, I get an average of 50 questions every week from Filipinos in Hawaii to Ireland, Qatar to Singapore asking for advice regarding their personal finances. I consider it a great privilege to be trusted with the information they give.
At the end of the day, however, I am hoping that our panel of experts are teaching the broad strokes and sound principles that would help readers make their own decisions in the future, not just the specific tips and strategies our readers crave.
As Generali executive vice-president Augustus J.V. Ferreria keeps on telling me: a real financial professional would teach his client the principles so the client can continue practicing good financial planning even if their working relationship is over.
In his column this week, Ask Dr. Noet’s Johnny Noet Ravalo tells Erick he can get his feet wet in investing through time deposits and Treasury bills, and other conservative investment instruments to give him a feel of what investing is like. He even went as far back as addressing the need for advice on how to save in the first place: save with an end goal in mind.
However, as Noet says the heart of it all is financial literacy. The article says:
At the heart of the issue is financial literacy and what drives that is information. The great majority of our investors — existing and would-be ones like Erick — do not have access to information on all the options available. Since money is comparatively tight and the complexities of the financial market can be intimidating, liquidity will be a primary concern. But in this situation, keeping tabs on market changes is important. Unfortunately, access to these information remain very uneven.
I would like to think forums and blogs on personal finance, wealth management, investing, help in making information more accessible to the public. There are new ones coming up everyday. They should not be the only source, of course. But there’s nothing wrong with grabbing every opportunity to inspire someone to be more responsible with his finances.
Just recently, Income-Tacts made its debut. I also recently discovered Absolute Traders, which aims to help people on personal finance and investing. Those who have websites and would like to be reviewed, drop me a line at lightdream (at) gmail (dot) com.
I like the way Noet ended his column.
The fact that you are asking is a very good sign. But for the question to have any real value, you will have to act on it.
Let me end by tempting your imagination. Can you imagine what the cumulative value would be if you invest P10,000 a month regularly for 1-month placements and continuously rolling over at a modest 3.0 percent per year for 30 years? It is P5,841,937.27. Not bad, don’t you think?
Some of the steps we may be able to make at certain points in our lives may seem small and insignificant. But every little achievement can go a long way!
- November 2009 (2)
- October 2009 (1)
- September 2009 (4)
- August 2009 (5)
- July 2009 (2)
- June 2009 (4)
- May 2009 (1)
- April 2009 (5)
- March 2009 (15)
- February 2009 (19)
- January 2009 (19)
- December 2008 (23)
- November 2008 (19)
- October 2008 (24)
- September 2008 (23)
- August 2008 (13)
- July 2008 (21)
- June 2008 (16)
- May 2008 (15)
- April 2008 (23)
- March 2008 (16)
- February 2008 (26)
- January 2008 (15)
- December 2007 (12)
- November 2007 (20)
- October 2007 (23)
- September 2007 (20)
- August 2007 (27)
- July 2007 (28)
- June 2007 (15)
- May 2007 (22)
- April 2007 (21)
- March 2007 (15)
- alternative investments (2)
- banking (36)
- blog manners (3)
- blogging (3)
- bonds (10)
- books (2)
- budgeting (45)
- buying tips (23)
- career (12)
- charity (4)
- consumer issues (6)
- corporate governance (2)
- credit cards (32)
- customer service (1)
- debt (16)
- economy (38)
- education (3)
- Educational plan (1)
- emergency planning (3)
- entrepreneurship (8)
- estate planning (4)
- family finance (99)
- Financial Planning (84)
- food (4)
- forex (15)
- Frugality Week (23)
- Gifts (3)
- Government (2)
- Guest Posts (3)
- Holidays (12)
- insurance (22)
- Investing (143)
- kids and money (20)
- Lifestyle (5)
- Marriage (3)
- memorial plans (1)
- men and finance (1)
- Millionaires (75)
- Money Makeover (15)
- Money Myth Busters (23)
- MoneySense (4)
- Mutual Funds (8)
- network marketing (1)
- OFW (34)
- Plain Vanilla/CFA (3)
- poverty (6)
- Pre-Need (12)
- Pre-need industry (1)
- Quiz (1)
- Quotes (12)
- real estate (5)
- remittance (1)
- retirement (19)
- Saving money (67)
- scams (20)
- shopping (24)
- Smart Habits (8)
- So What Chocnut? (67)
- spending habits (57)
- SSS/GSIS (2)
- stock market (25)
- subprime (15)
- taxes (5)
- uitfs (1)
- Uncategorized (4)
- vacations (5)
- wala lang (6)
- weddings (1)
- weekly roundup (2)
- who's who in personal finance (1)
- women and finance (11)
- Word of the Week (4)
- Workplace (3)
13 Feedbacks on "The need for financial literacy"
w a w a
and i like the way you ended your article, too, salve… ” Some of the steps we may be able to make at certain points in our lives may seem small and insignificant. But every little achievement can go a long way! “.. i can’t agree with you more…as someone once said and i quote: ” Victory is not won in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground and later win a little more. “
Ding Estraza
Financial literacy is absent most of the OFW and some of the filipinos working in the Philippines. No matter how high is your salary, if you do not know how to grow it chances that it may be spent on the unproductive one.
Even in Christ’s time, He cited in the Bible the Parable of “Ten Talents”. He rewarded a good steward and punish the lazy servant. This is the first recorded history of “Banking and Lending” activities in the old times.
The aforementioned principle should supposed to be our guidance on how to increase our wealth let alone the knowledge we have obtained from the school and continuing studies.
No wonder why the rich become richer because they practice this principle in addition to their “wealth mentality” and discipline. In contrast, the poor get poorer bacause of lack of knowledge and their wrong notion of obtaining wealth. Most of this poor believe that getting enormous wealth is not pleasing to God and they just contend with what they have and enjoying poverty eternally.
The fact is God want us to be rich in order to help expand His Kingdom . If we are rich we can be able to give tithes and offering to our churches. We can alleviate poverty by giving donations and charities. Being rich we have the opportunity to spread the gospel of Jesus by supporting missions.
Being rich we can have influences that affect our family, community and our country. We dont have to be a slave of other people or country to earn our living.
Obtaining financial literacy is not so complicated. In simple and small way, do not spend over with what you have earned. Save regularly. Invest your money wisely that earns regularly. Have a simple lifestyle. Live within your means.
GODBlessUs
hi salve! saw u on tv today.. sa light talk. you look younger than what you write. hehehe
russ
i saw you on tv yesterday…we dont expect…your that young…..thanks for all the financial advises and ideas you share in your blog…..we learn a lot from it…..without you knowing it we improve our financial literacy through it…..you know what …your post about the first million… it really a big challenge for me…..and i reach that million last december….its not how much salary we earn but how much we save from it….thank you….. please do write more.. it helps us a lot.
Salve
@wawa, thanks for the compliment :-). i love your quote more! really.
Salve
@Ding Estraza, i find a lot of truth in what you say, but at the same time i feel that it won’t be appropriate to generalize either. The first quintile of our population who owns …maybe one third of the Philippines?…may not have to work their entire life and still they won’t go hungry. At the same time, Efren Cruz told me of a client that he has, a janitor from the Ateneo de Manila University, who with a business on the side already has his own jeepney and is doing well in saving for his retirement. (Smile) This world is really full of surprises! I agree with you also about the many good that we can do if we are responsible with the way we use money. How indeed can we help others if we ourselves are lacking in resources?
Salve
@GODBlessUs: I look younger than I really am because of my size hehe. But thanks, I will take it as a compliment
Salve
@russ, i got a bit teary-eyed with your comment. thanks for sharing that. you know, sometimes, writing can feel like a job until people like you remind me that it is more of a mission and a vocation. so congratulations on your first million! wooohoooo! im sure your second, third and fourth and so on will come sooner and that you will do a lot of good in this world as a result of this blessing! as someone very special to me says: keep on keeping on!
hachiko
Salve I’m back online!!! My internet connection got “lost in translation” here in Japan hehehe… I’ll catch up with all the chismis here in a few days… so u were on TV, ne? So who netted more, you or me? hehehe…
Salve
hachiko, welcome back! i thought you’ve been recruited into the Japanese mafia! or become a samurai. Geisha? hahaha. The TV guesting was not a paying event hehe. So I’m absolutely sure you grossed more.
Louie
Hi Ms. Duplito. Just recently i read your latest article in MoneySense , and once again got inspired by your money wiz. Im not a regular reader of your articles (print or blog) but i do remember a point or two of whatever i read from your writings. After reading that article in MoneySense i remember writing you sometime in 2006 or 2007 , can’t place the exact date, I think it was around the time you were starting your blog in the Inquirer. I wrote responding to your pet project something like a money makeover?. . .you were soliciting for volunteers. Unfortunately I was not able to follow that through as im working and living in a province far from Manila.Anyway, I’m just curious what came out of it. Or maybe I’m just completely out of the loop that I’ve missed it! I have moved to a better paying job in an american-owned companybased in makati, i felt a bit of ease in my finances, but still im concerned with my finances. Now that i feel i earn enough to pay for my own needs, my family obligations and still save a little for my future, all the more that i need some money sense as i plan for my future (re: retirement. :). Thank you for what you are sharing to us your readers. They may not be much to others, but for ordinary professionals like me trying to make sense of the value of our material existence, i am forever grateful.
Salve
Louie, thanks for your note. That was heartwarming :-). Money Makeover 2007 has one more month to go before it ends. You may want to look at the updates in the Money Makeover category here.
http://blogs.inquirer.net/moneysmarts/category/money-makeover/
Second to last update to be uploaded this week, and NEW Money Makeover sessions will begin in May so watch out for our call for a new set of volunteers!
Randell T
Thanks for mentioning income-tacts.com
Please Leave a Comment!