Why Filipinos Miserably Fail Financially

According to the Philippine government, there are 12 million poor Filipino families earning Php200 below, with that average income the family is living only with canned sardines and rice as their daily consumption while their kids are left out to the streets due to lack of financial means to send them to school.

As the government beef up its support for the Pantawid Pamilya Program(PPP) to alleviate millions of Filipinos out of poverty, PPP is a government platform where poor families receive monthly allowances from the government in exchange of pre-conditioned settlement such as basic educational attainment for their children and healthcare provisions for pregnant mothers.

Many of us often asked, what is the root cause why Filipinos miserably fail financially which limits them of attaining better lives, and here are some of them;

''Educationally and Financially Illiterate''

Education is the basic foundation of learning things in life in general, many Filipinos lack the persistence to educate themselves. We live in a society where neighborhood gossip’s and showbiz brouhaha is more prevalent than topics concerning the improvement of humanity per se. With lack of education and the laziness to learn things, typically some people end up begging in the streets. Education is a tool dedicated to sharpen and increase our chances to succeed in life, education is not only found on the corridors of universities, education is written on books, magazines, newspapers, and the best among them is Google! Good information is only a click away. Read and digest every information you could grasp.

One major problem concerning this is that Filipinos in general are financially illiterate, we basically hate math and numbers but when money comes to the table, we could see all those evil smiles ready to spend that money down to the last cent. Majority of Filipinos never even knew the basic trades of handling money wisely and intelligently like what Fil-Chinese millionaires are doing – much even worse is how Filipinos love to spend their money on shopping things that they don’t basically need while SM mogul Henry Sy saves every single cent he could get out of the loose change from Filipino shoppers. With those loose change alone Mr. Sy is earning millions already.

Filipinos are not keen on learning the basic knowledge of wealth managing strategies, we never even knew what’s a stock or mutual funds are for. Sadly, people are left out with the old tradition of “Piggy or bamboo bank” strategy just waiting for a disaster to break it open. Financial education is very important, it is a testament on how skillful you are on handling 1 peso to 1 million and money is a very important thing, a person who says that money is not important is surely doesn’t even have an ATM. Start educating yourself on how to grow more money out of your money.

Shaquille O’neal once said; “Is not how much money you have but how educated you are to keep and grow it”,

''Come What May Mindset''

Filipinos have this mentally that is widely known for “Bahala na or come what may”. It is a mindset which connotes disaster in the making. We like to tend things to fend for themselves. It’s like saying to a problem that you have to solve your own while I’m just going to sit here and watch.

This mentality is frequently the mindset of irresponsible people who decide to raise a family without planning wisely or budgeting finances realistically. This is evident in most households wherein an extended family is common among Filipinos. In this setup we find teenage parents who entrust the care of their children to the grandparents. For people who are often a burden to their families or to society, they make the “bahala na” mentality as an excuse to do nothing out of contentment to their situation.

''Big Spender Today, Beggar Tomorrow''

One bad side that we have is that we are generally big spenders when we have the money in our hands. We like to show off with people that we are capable of buying things to satisfy our ego. We buy the latest mobile phones with the money that we don’t have. We take vacations on the money we borrowed on that Indian loan shark(5-6).

This is also one of the common traits I could see to returning OFW’s. They work so hard, save so hard but once they are home in the Philippines, it’s a party every single day. They take their family and extended family to shop and dine on malls. I’m not against with this but you spent 2-3 years working abroad just to save every bit of money then when you are home you’ll most likely spend half of your savings just on celebrations alone. Keep the money, save and invest it wisely because everyone is capable also of working abroad such as your extended family too. Why take all the burden?

I once read about a Fil-Chinese billionaire who gave an advice to his kids; “Don’t follow what Filipinos are doing when they get their salaries, they go to shopping malls to buy things they don’t basically need or they would indulge themselves on drinking marathons then the next day they are borrowing money to put food on the table”.

Well, that sums up everything. We are a very workaholic people and all, just to earn good money but the core problem is the way we approach and think on how we manage our finances. Let us follow what are the rich Fil-Chinese are doing and that is delay gratification.

Don’t buy your wants for now but rather focus on the basic needs such as food, education and healthcare then save as much as money as you can down to the last cent then invest it to a good business you are passionate about or you might as want ask a legitimate financial advisor to educate you on the different levels of safe and risky investments.

Remember financial knowledge is power.😊