Ignorance is Expensive, Cut Your Budget On It

Money has been the common stumbling block for people who want to start investing. Ironically, it’s their money problem that they want to solve with the idea of investing. Almost everyone would say they want to prepare for their families’ future by investing and getting a protection for emergency needs. But still a lot of Filipinos even at their middle age are not doing anything about it. The usual reason is because it’s expensive, they think. 

But if you look at some people’s lifestyle, even some minimum wage earners have that excess money to buy items which they call “investment to self”. They buy gadgets, they dine out, buy expensive coffee, watch movies, have “gimik” with friends, go out of town and a lot more. You know what I’m saying. You see them being shared in social networking sites. Though it’s every person’s right to choose where to spend their hard earned money, there are those occasions that these people who spend their salaries on these luxuries are the ones not giving other people their rights to spend elsewhere. When these people who do not spend and save their earnings wisely meet an urgent need for their family (i.e. accidents, hospitalization, calamities, illness, death), they have no choice but to ask help from others who they know have saved some. 

Of course, not all who ask for help are irresponsible. Sometimes, no matter how prepared we think we are, the worst things happen and surprise us. And it’s always good to help others. But talking about those who don’t help themselves first and run to other people for their emergency needs, I think it’s unfair for those responsible people who earn the same as they are yet try harder in saving for their own families’ sake.

The fact is if you really want to invest, you can start for as low as 50 pesos per day to get as much as Php 700,000 pesos in protection for your family and possibly Php 1,000,000 (yes, that’s 1 Million) for your retirement fund. That’s cheap, right? You just have to give up some of these “investment to self” that you really don’t need. Or if you can’t give them all up, you can at least downgrade some of them. Downsize your coffee, fewer 3D movies, drink only water when you dine out, travel in budget, cut on your beer bottles, etc. To start on your investment, all you need to do is prioritizing your spending then ask the right people. Then act. 

Truth is protection and investment are not expensive, irresponsibility and ignorance are.


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