Money management is very important in achieving financial
security. It is the key to improving and sustaining one’s financial situation.
As we may know, each individual has his or her own relationship to money - some
want as much of it as possible and devote significant time and effort to attain
it while others prefer to live simply on minimal resources.
A lot of us fall in between, wanting to live a comfortable life without sacrificing the quality of life. No matter what you want to do with your money, learning the basics of money management will help make your financial dreams come true.
For Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) who are sacrificing a lot to provide for their family’s needs, leaving their country and working in unfamiliar territories, money management is a very important undertaking.
Working abroad is difficult, nothing is as challenging as being away from your family and adjusting to a new environment and culture as well as to the standard of work overseas. But OFWs choose to sacrifice and work abroad to be able to provide for their family’s needs and secure their future. They dream of coming home to their families and enjoy the benefit of their hard work.
However, in order to get to that point, OFWs must first learn how to save and manage their finances effectively. Here are some money management tips to help you.
Budgeting
Creating a personal budget is one of the best ways tocontrol your spending. With budgeting, you will be able to know what you earn and spend, which will help you figure out how to live within your means.
It’s easy and simple. In fact, there are a lot of personal budget templates online that you can download and use for free.
Saving before spending
It is a common practice to keep one’s hard-earned money through banking.
But you have to remember that when it comes to deciding where to keep your money, not all banks are the same. There are transaction fees that vary greatly. Some banks might charge you for every transaction like visiting a teller, speaking with a customer service representative by phone, or paying bills online.
Choose a bank that has the best balance of customer service and transactional fees, taking into consideration the types of services you plan to use the most.
Checking account. There are checking accounts that waive certain fees if you have your paycheck directly deposited into your account. Most checking accounts also come with a debit card, which you can use to withdraw money from your account and to pay for items as you would with a credit card.
Savings account. Before opening a savings account, ask about the interest rates, minimum balances, and number of transactions per month so that you would know the limitations to avoid penalty fees.
For most of us, we only get to keep what is left from our salary after having spent it on so many things other than what we need. As soon as we get the paycheck, we feel the need to spend on things that we want in addition to what we need.
Thus, we forget to save a portion of our income and worst, we even wonder why our money runs out so fast. According to most financial experts, the typical rule of thumb is once we receive our salary, 20% of that should immediately go to our savings. Fifty percent (50%) should go to our family, and the rest (30%) is for our personal needs and other matters. By making saving a habit, we can be sure enough that at least a fifth of our income is left unspent.
Prioritizing Needs over Wants
Whenever we have money, especially when we receive our salary, it becomes easy for us to get enticed by things we see in the mall or on online shopping platforms, which often leads us to buy things impulsively.
One of the most basic concepts when it comes to saving money is being able to identify our needs and wants. We should be able to make our purchasing decisions objectively rather than subjectively.
OFWs should be able to prioritize their needs over wants. Needs are the essential things that you must have in order to live while wants are those that you would like to have but you can actually live without.
When we become better at differentiating needs and wants, we will be able to sustain ourselves from day to day while also reaching our financial goals. It will definitely become easier for us to focus on the things that are important in our lives and plan our budget to make our financial dreams a reality.
Earn More to Save More
Saving money is very important. No matter how small your regular earnings are, as long as you consistently save money, your savings will surely go up. However, if we want to save more money, it makes sense that we plan and act on how we can earn more money. As an OFW, you can do side hustles and part-time working opportunities as additional sources of income.
Investing
Most financial experts say that saving money is not an ideal attitude towards money. When yousave money, what happens is that your money is just sitting in the bank, doing nothing. If you want to grow your savings, it is best to put them in secure and stable investment programs. The good thing about investments is that they compound with interest, let alone the dividends that you can receive once the market goes in your favour.
There are different ways to invest your money, which include certificates of deposit (CDs), bonds, mutual funds, real estate, commodities, stocks, and business ventures.
It is important that you have some expertise or knowledge on your investment. You also need to consider how quickly you will be able to cash out of the investment if you need quick access to the money.
In investing, the most common advice we get is to not wait for the perfect moment to do it. The earlier you start saving money and investing, the sooner you will become financially secure as long as you apply the right strategies.
For OFWs, working abroad can be tough, nothing can beat the hardship of being away from your family. But if we learn to save and invest, we can cut down the time that we need to work abroad and be with our families again.
Constantly educate yourself
Those that educate themselves on financial matters have an advantage over others. A person who is wise with their money might understand that they will struggle for a few years before getting that coveted position.
Being able to stay in a job will help you reach your ultimate career goal is a huge advantage compared to finding another job that pays better short term. Financial knowledge and education could also help reduce stress that is usually caused by financial problems.
Financial knowledge and money management skills are valuable as many people lack healthy spending habits due to not knowing any better. These skills can help you determine your short and long-term financial goals and create a balanced plan to meet these goals.
If you are planning on investing your hard-earned money in real estate, you may want to consider investing in a Vista Residences condominium property.
Vista Residences is the condominium arm of the country’s largest homebuilder, Vista Land & Lifescapes, Inc., which offers ready for occupancy and pre-selling condominium projects in Manila and Quezon City that are strategically located within inner-city areas, in close proximity to premium universities and developed business districts.
At Vista Residences, unit owners can take advantage of the property’s centrality. The properties of Vista Residences are strategically located near the country’s premium universities and CBDs, making them an attractive investment for both local and foreign investors.
Vista Residences has ready for occupancy condo projects in Manila such as Vista Taft, Vista Heights, Vista GL Taft, 878 Espana, and Crown Tower University Belt. It also has pre selling projects in the said area which include Vista Recto, Plumeria Heights, Tennyson Heights, Bradbury Heights, Sky Arts Manila, and Kizuna Heights.
Meanwhile, its ready for occupancy projects in Quezon City include Wil Tower, the Symphony Towers, Pine Crest, and Vista 309 Katipunan. It also has pre selling condo projects in the said city such as Hawthorne Heights and Vista Pointe.
Living in Vista Residences enables you to enjoy convenience, where everything is pretty much within walking distance or a few minutes away from the property; comfort because the project features and amenities are designed to deliver comfort at all times, which makes condo living a worthy investment; security that is 24/7 and CCTV monitoring, which makes the residents safe and secure within the property.
In line with Vista Residences’ thrust to offer convenience among its residents, it also features an AllDay Convenience Store and Coffee Project in all its projects.
For more information on Vista Residences, email [email protected], follow @VistaResidencesOfficial on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube, or call the Marketing Office at 0999 886 4262 / 0917 582 5167.