Financial security is a lifestyle choice: 38 ways to save money now

Have you ever felt that our state of contentment or discontentment with money stems from the lifestyle decisions we make?

Simple assumption, but true. Think about it: it was fun treating your friends to a round of Friday night mojito and eating at the new restaurant on The Block, but what a nightmare if you wake up tomorrow and find out that you don’t even have an allowance for the next five days until the next paycheck comes.

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High Rise Condo

When I think of where I’ll be five years from now, I imagine myself living in a cozy, one-bedroom unit in a high-rise condominium. This is how I picture it in my head.

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Save our “new heroes”, the Filipino OFWs and their families

Modern Day Heroes In the Filipino Families

Truth is, almost all Filipino families have an overseas Filipino worker in the family, either as close of kin or to the next degree. They are what our government dub as the modern day “heroes” as they bring to our country a profusion of dollars that would boost our economy.

In my travels the past 15 years, with myself perhaps considered a semi-OFW traveling a third of my time to foreign countries as part of my work, I have met a lot of OFWs working in different conditions, some even in countries poorer than ours. Majority of them leave their children either to the remaining parent or to their own parents or siblings for a long period of time, with infrequent vacations back home. Lucky are those who are able to negotiate for a yearly holiday.

I have met nurses, singers, domestic helpers, band members, quality control workers in factories, and many others who work for menial jobs. Some are luckier, like nurses, and other professionals in banks, financing companies and IT firms, but still, they are OFWs just the same, far from their families. They would talk about how lonely they are and how they miss their families way back home. Oh yes, there is the Internet, with all its possibilities, but this is no replacement for the warmth that physical closeness to a family member brings.

Here at Home–The Sad Truth

We are witness to real life stories, watch in movies and television or read in newspapers the sufferings and loneliness of the OFW dependents/families, missing the children’s growing years, milestones, birthdays, anniversaries, religious events, homecomings, etc.

At the same time, we also see how some OFW dependents/families behave. While the OFW parent toils abroad, lonely, bored, and craving for anything Filipino, here is his/her child/ren spending money like as if
money comes in abundance. Some are hooked on drugs, alcohol and drop out of school. Extended family members ask help to finance their needs or solve their financial problems. Because of this the poor OFW spends more than what he/she earns, not telling his/her family the real situation. Loan sharks also thrive where there are lots of OFWs. By the time the OFW is ready to come back home, there is not even any
savings left to start a new business. Because of the social impact of being separated, some become broken families, and the children are left out to fend on their own.

Save Our Modern Day Heroes–Save Our OFWs

These are the very reasons why I have thought of an advocacy—save our modern day “heroes”, save our OFWs and their families/dependents—through awareness, to both sides. It is high time that something be done. Other than deploying our foreign service staff to represent the country and taking care of protocol and workers’ documentation, our authorities can initiate a regular gathering of the Filipino community—to make them aware of the realities that are true to the lives of the Filipino diaspora. To aggressively campaign for a
better life, give them tips and options, open doors to micro-investments, and connect them with their families.

Families/dependents of our OFWs need all the support we can give them—to educate them, initiate support groups and make them aware of the harsh realities of the life of an OFW, be more down to earth, and
be more caring of their OFW parents. This way, even if families were dysfunctional (the absence of one or both parents), the dysfunctionality may be as minimum as possible.

Buying Your First Home

Most people my age get so overwhelmed with the money they earn and the things they can buy with it. Ask any young office worker, and he or she will probably say that the first place they go to after payday is either the mall or the nearest watering hole. I used to spend my money wantonly on clothes and stuff, but lately I realized the practicality of saving at least half of my paycheck for my own place. Read more

In search of the good life….

The proverbial search for the good life is what drives  countless Filipinos to greener pastures and foreign lands.  Some  succeed in their  odyssey, some return home  where their hearts belong.

But whatever the reason, the Philippines is our Motherland  and images as well as memories of it will forever be etched in our minds - majestic mountains, the bluest seas, unruly jeepneys, summers at the beach,  happy, smiling people and more!

For all its imperfections, there is frankly nothing else  in the world  I’d rather be at this moment.  Perhaps, it is out of a deep-seated sense of loyalty for the country which has not only nurtured me since birth, and now my children as well. Perhaps, because I feel at home in all the familiar and complicated crannies of my homeland. Perhaps,  because I’ve resigned myself to my fate and don’t see the need to get any richer, apart from the old, cramped car I now own.

There is just something about this place that pulls me with its beauty, whether am sipping coffee in an al fresco cafe or watching people take a whiff of the bay breeze amidst the golden sunset. Life is easy here, call it laid-back if you may. But most of all it is knowledge of the fact that this Motherland will always cradle me and welcome me, even it has upset me a number of times, and vice-versa.

To give hope to the Motherland, we should give it hope.

Here are the reasons:

The Philippines is an ever-changing place. What the country was 15 years ago cannot be compared to what  it is now because  the landscape has drastically changed. The Philippines has become a globalized village  where  it is possible  NOT to fly out of the country to get what you want. This is attested to by the rise of cosmopolitan hang-outs, fusion cuisines and other aspects of our life and culture which have clearly become international