With ten short days to go before Landbank of the Philippines ends the offering period for its long-term negotiable certificates of deposit, confused overseas Filipino workers are still at a loss on how to access the offering.

At the heart of the problem are Landbank’s feeble presence overseas and a ticklish issue on documentary requirements. You will find many examples of those concerns from MoneySmart readers in my previous posts on the LTNCDs here and here.

Joey Sale, a senior analyst at Landbank, said the bank has held meetings on these issues Monday afternoon, conscious of the difficulties the OFWs are facing.

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State-owned Landbank of the Philippines’s sweet deal for OFWs launched yesterday is described in this article.

An annual interest of 7.0% and a maturity of 5.5 years is not bad for anyone’s portfolio. Experts always tout diversification and to do that properly, the risky part should not overshadow the secure and boring part. How to cut the cake exactly depends on personal risk appetites, of course.

It is a fact of life that stocks are sexy and deposits and bonds are boring. ☺ Most of the times, boring is good.
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It was an ordinary Saturday for me last March 22, except for the mangled P500 bill I took out of the BDO automated teller machine. Nope, it definitely doesn’t look like something the girl at SM would take from a customer. After a dismayed sigh, I shrugged it off. A few moments after, I was already contemplating my wet market list and forgot about it.

This morning, I saw the mangled bill again. I must admit I was tempted to forget about it but I could smell a MoneySmart moment, so off I went to the BDO branch near the ATM machine to ask if they can replace the bill.

“I have a sort of weird request,” I told the lady in blue behind a desk. “This is one of the bills I got out of the ATM machine near this branch…” I let my voice trail into a sweet silence.

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(Good old days for the dollar! This was taken November 27, 2003. File photo from Agence France-Presse)

For the longest time, the dollar has been the darling currency of the world. In an earlier post, I asked if it was a doomed currency, but as a good friend pointed out, if it is really the end of the road for the greenback, why do its hiccups still affect world markets?

More and more, however, other currencies are starting to shine. So here’s a quick tip for overseas Filipino workers struggling with the weakening dollar: get paid in the local currency.

Of course, this will only work if you are not working or living in the United States. (Duh). Several of my friends, for example, work for Canadian companies. Instead of getting paid in the US dollar, which was the currency of choice for the longest time, they decided to get paid in the Canadian dollar. It proved to be a good plan as the US dollar slid continuously the whole year.

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Banks are marketing special deposit account products more aggressively these days. With the low returns from time deposits and fixed-income instruments, people are looking for more alternatives and I actually witnessed this in a bank branch the other day.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Doris Dumlao reports today that as of February 8, SDAs have sucked in P546 billion of the money in the banking system. Read her article here.

Here are some useful figures to remember from this article:

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BY MALAYA LARAYA

I recently conducted a half-day seminar on financial planning for some professionals and it was a rather enlightening experience on the mindsets of people when it comes to financial planning. As always there was an open forum at the end and quite a number of questions were asked – some were the usual and some were rather unusual. So for those of you who may have had some of these questions in mind but didn’t know who or what to ask; here is a small FAQ on financial planning.

What is the best investment? This is definitely the most common question that has been asked and the short answer is this : There is none. More specifically, there is simply no investment tool that is the best for all people all of the time. There are instead, instruments that are best suited to each individual’s particular needs, plans and current financial condition. Simply put, what is good for your friend, spouse, relative, lover, workmate, neighbour or child may not necessarily be good for you due to the undeniable fact that you and your friend, spouse, relative, lover, workmate, neighbor or child are two different individuals. Consequently, the two of you will have different sets of wants and needs at different times and will therefore need different solutions. Therefore, be very wary of anyone who tries to sell you a panacea for all of your investment needs as it simply does not yet exist.

Where can I get information about (x)? Despite the fact that we are very much in the online age, very many people still do not know where to get even the most basic information about financial products. From equities to managed funds to pre-need plans; people seem to be at a loss as to where to go. Here are some websites that you can visit as well as what you can expect to read.
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(Sleeping lizards don’t go anywhere, but they don’t grow too. So like putting all of one’s savings in low interest-bearing savings deposits. File photo from Agence France Presse)

I picked up several things from Noet Ravalo’s column today:

For those that still offer some interest, the lowest that I have seen is a rate of about one-tenth of one percent and this is still taxable at 20 percent withholding tax. At this rate, your monthly return for an outstanding balance of P50,000 comes out roughly to about P3.33 — an amount small enough to miss out among your transactions but big enough to be a nuisance if you try to balance your books before you get your printed statements. The other way of looking at this interest rate is that you have to set aside and keep untouched a balance of P400,000 in your account so that your net interest affords you a small-sized serving of French fries from a popular burger franchise every month.

I would tell the bank to shove the French fries up his nose (no funny words here please), but that’s just me. The owners of more than P3 trillion of deposits out there are still parking all of their money in bank deposits.

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The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Philippine central bank, has padlocked a Makati-based bank named Bankwise Inc. and put it under receivership of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp.

This article from the Philippine Daily Inquirer explains why.

Many times, I have received emails from people who read INQUIRER.net, who say that it is all right to put money in a high-earning savings instrument from a small bank because deposits are insured up to P250,000. That’s foolish reasoning.
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(Photo from AFP)

INQUIRER.net’s personal finance offering for the day has a quote that needs to be given the limelight as often as possible:

Some people reason out that with their meager income, they can’t afford to save. But the reality is, no one can afford not to save.

I realize that there are different successful strokes for different folks when it comes to savings. I am not anal with tracking expenses (just like All Financial Matters and he said it so nicely hehe) so jotting down each expense in a worksheet doesn’t work for me also. For others, that’s the only way they can save regularly.

The single most important tip I have heard so far on saving wisely is automating your savings. I was interviewing a newly wed couple last weekend and their eyes just lit up when I told them about automating savings.

It’s no big surprise why people like this tip. Budgeting is such a painful experience. Shopping on the other hand is bliss! So, the best way to save is not to let that money pass through your fingers. Automate your savings, and spend what remains the way you want to spend it! Simple, quick and easy.

How do you automate your savings? Let me count the ways.

1. Set up a separate bank account (passbook only) and write yourself a check for 12 months to the tune of whatever amount of savings you target monthly. Every payday works too. Treat this check as your most important “billing” for the month, second to tithes.2. Set up a separate bank account and program your payroll account to transfer a set amount to that separate bank account regularly, monthly. My checking account with Philippine Savings Bank has this feature. Many other banks already have this service also. If your bank doesn’t, maybe it’s time to switch!

3. Some mutual funds, unit investment trust funds, and variable unit-linked products also allow payroll deductions. This is another option.

For this to work, however, credit card debt and other high interest debt should be at a minimum. No use saving when you’re paying high interest on consumer debt.

Say this with me: no one can afford NOT to save.

Saving automatically will allow you to enjoy what you have. Shop, spend, eat with gusto, because you have already taken care of saving for tomorrow. Compare that with trying to track each little expense and scraping savings from the bottom. Nope, not for me. I like my steak eaten with a smile ☺

Our article from MoneySense today talks about borrowing money from credit cooperatives. Here’s an excerpt:

You join voluntarily. There are five kinds of coops: credit promotes thriftiness and creates funds to grant productivity loans; consumer procures for and distributes commodities to member and non-members; producer undertakes agricultural or industrial joint production; service engages in medical and/or dental care, hospitalization, transportation, insurance, housing, labor, electric and light power, communication, among other services; and multipurpose, combines two or more of the business activities of different coop types.

Your share is limited. As per coop principles reformulated in 1966 in Vienna, by the 23rd Congress of the International Cooperative Alliance, a member’s share is limited to prevent domination of the coop’s affairs by affluent members.

You share in the surplus or savings. The coop is designed to distribute surplus equally, again, so no member will gain at the expense of another. Surplus, upon agreement, are used to develop the coop’s business interest and provide common services to members. This will also help a coop avoid bad debts to stabilize its operations and assure its growth.

You can get training. It trains members to avoid lack of understanding of the principles, aims, and purposes of the coop; improper credit use (borrowers in rural areas are known to spend borrowed money for fiestas or luxuries). It also educates those who are interested in the principles and techniques of a coop.

You can get loans – and help an organization grow. A coop is touted to be founded for a noble purpose – even Jose Rizal, while exiled in Dapitan, established a community school and a coop store. Proponents of cooperatives hope to attract members with loans, as well as the mental and emotional rewards of supporting a helping organization’s existence or preventing its failure.

Let me add two points:

Know the management. The Philippines is a cemetery of many failed cooperatives. Most of the failures were caused by fraud. People running away with other people’s money. But that’s true also of banks and other financial companies, right? And even for banks and investment companies, knowing the management is still recommended.

Participate. If possible, participate in management. If not, be active in decision-making. Stay updated. Joining a cooperative means you want to be part of that community. That’s the only way these things can work.

Good luck guys! Have a great day ahead.