(Last week, I emailed Filipinos working all over the world to find out how the US global financial crunch is affecting one of the major sources of the country’s liquidity—the so called OFWs. Some are regular readers of MoneySmarts, while some are friends of another blogger Reyna Elena. They were kind enough to reply and a short version of their emails (in the interest of space) were included in a feature I wrote for the Philippine Daily Inquirer. I am publishing this week in installments the full version of their emails. I hope the series will help us understand how Filipinos all over the world are affected and are responding to the crisis.)
I have just recently quit my job as director of finance in one of the largest housing authorities in the United States with over 3,000 employees. I’ve been unemployed since July 2008; however, I have just accepted a job in Chicago as director for one of the largest development corporation dealing with housing tax credits, asset management and property investments. I expect to start very soon.
My parents, very religious, took the church’s “go and multiply” advice by heart and made parenting an algorithmic Fibonachi, that’s why there’s 11 of us in the family. We lived in the barrio and could not find opportunities in the Philippines because at that time, they’re all reserved for the rich, the powerful and the conios. So, I paddled my boat to the land of apples and honey. I’ve been working in the United States for over 21 years now.
Growing up in the Philippines, I really thought that we have perfected corruption. To my surprise, corrupt officials are populating Wall Street and beyond as well. They could literally bring down a world financial system! That worries the heck out of me because I can’t seem to believe that these crooks could actually shake the entire financial system and make our lives miserable. When I say “our”, I just don’t refer to Americans, rather, world citizens as well. For if America sneezes, the world catches cold.
Given that I worked in the financial, real estate, investment and asset management side, I had the privilege of understanding the complexity of what’s behind the current financial turmoil and so I could fully and truly appreciate its implication on me personally, my family and my fellow overseas Pinoy friends.
My 401-k (read: retirement) is now down 15 percent. Two weeks ago, I felt comfortable because my retirement money is with Wachovia, where it sits at the moment. Suddenly, Wachovia is in the news. It’s bad enough that I have increased my monthly remittance to the Philippines because of certain fixed expenses back home.
As you can see, Filipinos here in the States took a direct hit from the subprime crisis, from our retirement investments to our mortgage that can’t be refinanced, to our rising credit card interest. Loans are now difficult to find. Worse, applying for one is even more difficult. So, we’ve cut down on a lot of unnecessary expenses and travels.
Thing is, I don’t invest in Manila because I am not very familiar about the local investments procedures and I have had lousy experiences as a bank customer there. Since I don’t want to surrender the decision making to investment administrators in Manila, and they have not won my confidence as of yet, I continue to be on the sidelines.
However, I will never let those sick Wall Street people dictate my life. I am being prudent in all of my expenditures and wiser in spending money. My strategies are to stay put, cut down on expenses, find more extra income, and continue to be cute and happy. I was planning to go home and find a job in Manila. When all of these investment houses started tumbling down, I asked myself if it would be better for me to stay here. I’m still thinking. I can’t decide. Help me 
64 Responses to “A Pinoy in the US hit by the credit crisis”
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Pages: « 13 … 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 [4] 3 2 1 » Show All
October 9th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
To Ghia:
Thanks for your clarification, but before anyone makes any assumptions, just because you were like me before (as you said) doesn’t mean you’re any better than me where you are now. And I’m not implying the opposite either.
Not just because OFWs make sacrifices and learned life the hard way doesn’t mean the locals do not or did not.
How about the local entrepreneurs who work 16 hours a day trying to make sure they will have money for their families AND to pay their employees?
It is these local entrepreneurs who work hard, make sacrifices AND pay taxes for nation building.
Most importantly, it is these local entrepreneurs who churn up homegrown Filipino products which forms the Philippine’s GDP–which reflects income generated from *within* the Philippines.
In comparison, GNP is GDP + foreign-derived income (OFW Remittances).
That was the point I was trying to put across–it’s such a waste that OFW remittances contribute to the country’s GNP, but are not being effectively utilized to improve the country’s GDP (which is used to compute standard of living—what really matters).
**Bottom line:** we simply need to create more products and services coming from the Philippines. There is no other way to build and develop our country.
And taking your example, simply buying properties (still consumption) or investing in money markets (for one’s own benefit) won’t cut it.
We need OFWs who will come here, take advantage of our abundant opportunities, and put up local businesses that will create jobs (thus, more taxpayers) instead of just saying “Walang Ganyan sa States”.
And for the record, I practice what I preach–In the mid-90s I found a particular niche service in Information Technology and put up my own business. Now I employ close to 50 workers in Makati, Rizal, and Pangasinan–some of whom were thinking of leaving for abroad before they found jobs in my small enterprise.
In that regard, one can say, that yes, that in my own little way, I have helped “empower people” (to borrow your own words) by making them contributors to nation-building while at the same time preserving Filipino families.
Call me a braggart all you want, but I can somehow say that I have made PROUD not only myself but also my TEACHERS who really SACRIFIED by *not* working abroad just so that they could mold me and my classmates in the “bulok” public schools that I attended which were funded by the salaried peso-earning local pobreng obrero.
October 9th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Maybe this is an opportunity for all of us to learn the risks of running our lives on credit. It’s like driving a car on flat tires. Heed the words displayed in many a sari-sari store, “credit is good, but we need cash”.
For Edwin, maybe it’s now time to invest in simpler, more enduring symbols of true value. Buy gold.
October 9th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Ghia, I would love to read it! Email me lightdream (at) gmail (dot) com.
October 9th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
hi Edwin!
Stay put.
Are you willing to risk huge amount of money, a great career and everything else? Life is about taking risks and chances. They can put you in danger, but who knows, they can also become your ticket to happiness. agree, there’s still no place like home…masaya pa din dito sa Pinas…but IT’S HELL HERE WITHOUT MONEY.
don’t come back (for good) unless you’re ready to risk everything.
don’t worry, sabi nga sa TV…ang buhay paganda ng paganda!
October 9th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
I’m just wondering….how can Junebug claim that the Philippines is more corrupt when we’ve seen how the US financial system collapsed? I don’t think our country has reached that type of corruption yet as our economy has been very resilient. And mind you that though OFWs provide significant dollars to our economy, the reason why our housing and real estate sector has been stable is not because of OFW investments but because of investments from foreign nationals especially Koreans. This is why we have not reached a glut in terms of residential condominium space.