Financial Literacy

Financial Literacy is one of the things we teach at SEDPI. A few years ago, when I was younger, I was quite financially literate. I had savings worth at least four times my salary. (My salary back then was very small.) I did not splurge much. I was able to start paying downpayments for a condominium.


And then came the time when I had to take my masters. I took my masters in the United States. After several months of staying there, my cash flow was disrupted. I lost all my savings and I even had to get a loan to pay for my education expenses. My credit card was maxed out.

Now, I am slowly trying to get back on track. And as I plan to embark on another journey in my life, I had a financial planning consultation with my mentor a few days ago. I would like to share with you some of my thoughts on financial planning, as well as some of the other things we teach.

• When doing financial planning (or any other kind of planning), you must always BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND. You must know what you want. If you know what you really want, then finding resources for those things would be less of a challenge.
• The lifestyle of people is usually proportional to their sources of income. I remember that I never took a cab to the office when my salary was very small. When my salary increased, I began taking cabs, and therefore, my expenses also increased with my salary increase. Try to avoid this as much as possible.
• Do not go shopping with an empty stomach. You usually tend to buy more when you are hungry. And also, have a shopping list and follow it.
• List down all your cash inflow and outflow. It would help if you analyze your spending habits and improve it.
• It is best to set aside your emotions when you are trying to accomplish your plan. But with our culture as Filipinos, this is very difficult; specially, when family is involved.
• Try as much as possible to have a passive income. This would help you have a comfortable life when you get older.
• BE READY WITH THE CONSEQUENCES OF WANTING TO HAVE A HIGHER NET WORTH. This means working your ass off; not being too accommodating of the requests of others; taking a look at opportunities to earn income and grabbing those; living a simple life at first; "postponing the pleasure of spending"; and a lot more.

I promised that my theme for this year is "growing up". Part of growing up is being financially literate. I am ready to reach my financial goals. So, lezzdodis!!!

Yun na! Pak!