When tragedy strikes

How do you prepare yourself for a loved one’s death?

Not exactly a peachy thought on a MoneySmart Monday, I know. But as they say, there’s no going around death and taxes. And while it may be easy to prepare for the loss of a loved one financially, the emotional part is something else again. Can you attache a peso sign to that?

This story from MoneySense about a widow’s journey from tragedy to triumph is worth the few minutes it will take to go through it from start to finish.

Very inspiring. Excerpt below:

I got the worst possible news that a wife could ever receive: a six-seater Cessna plane carrying a skydiving expedition crashed in Tanauan, Batangas. One of the four charred bodies they found belonged to my husband, Jimmy del Rosario II. Pilot error, I was told. On May 8, 2005, I felt that the world closed in all around me. I could not bring myself to go to the morgue to identify his body.

During the first year, I cried everyday. But I also knew that I had a little girl and her future to look after. It was a good thing that we had gotten her an educational plan. One of the provisions of her plan with Philam was a waiver of all the fees if the payor dies. My daughter automatically received the full coverage of the plan. I also received something from Philam, as well as an amount from the insurance coverage of the aircraft company.

One-woman show
I had the option of selling our businesses and going abroad, but I decided to tough it out despite offers to buy them. I knew that I could run the business, since Jimmy had taught me a lot over the years.

But I found out that I still had a lot to learn. Jimmy had very good social skills. He was very outgoing, while I was the quiet type who prefers to stay in the background. He was the salesman and I was the accountant. That was our teamwork. He handled employees who were getting out of line. The biggest part of our income came from Jimmy’s bulk sales of accessories, because he was the one who had a lot of contacts.

I took on all the challenges. I started talking more to people, especially our employees. I let them feel that they can come to me with their problems and that they were part of my family. This is an integral part of our business, because building a relationship with them helps us to trust each other.

We carry the latest accessories, such as LCDs and housings for the newest models. My technicians are constantly surfing the Internet to find out what is new. In this business, you always have to know what is popular or what the customers will ask for next. Filipinos, by nature, want their gadgets to be flashy and up to date. Our peak months are the “-ber” months when people have more money to spend.

Since my shops are scattered in malls across Metro Manila and outlying provinces such as Bulacan and Cavite, I run things from a central office, and a runner goes to the shops for me. I am very hands on; I work late if I have to, monitoring inventories and checking if everything is in order. I feel that I have to set an example for my employees. I cannot show them that I feel lazy or they will start to get lazy themselves. Running a business full-time can get stressful sometimes – to the point that my employees tease me and request that I comb my hair once in a while.

Slowly but surely
There are still consistent offers for the shops, but I politely turn them down. From six shops, we now have eight. We have also added new services: downloads for MP4s, MP3s and PSPs. These are added income for the stores.

There are times that I want to pinch myself. I cannot believe that I was able to handle this male-dominated business by myself. I cannot believe that slowly but surely, there has been growth and progress in my life.

There are few absolutes in financial planning. By absolutes, I mean things that work for the entire universe of persons wanting to have the money-smarts to be financially secure.

But one of that is protection. Savings, protection, investment. It can’t get as basic as that.

There are different ways to attack these absolutes but each one requires the ability to conquer the need for instant gratification and doing something as boring as preparing for something that will happen in the future.

Thanks for sharing your story, Maneth.

(P.S. No, I am not in the payroll of the insurance industry.)

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