Friday, June 12, 2009

Happy financial independence to all!

Remember the '70s commercial jingle "ipagpatuloy ang kaunlaran, mag-impok sa bangko"? The tagline has since been used by banks in an attempt to promote domestic savings. We perennially lag behind in economic performance compared to our Asian neighbors. Raising investments is one way of aiming for a higher economic growth. Investments require financing that will can be sourced from domestic sources like savings.

Household savings, according to official government data, have consistently been decreasing. The data also shows that remittance from Overseas Filipinos is a major source of aggregate household saving. OFs should be encouraged to save a portion of the remittances using formal channels.

There is a Youtube channel that showcases videos to promote a culture of savings and encourage the channeling of these savings into productive investments in financial instruments and business ventures. There is also the Financial Learning Campaign advocacy of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas which aims to encourage the productive uses of remittances, not only for consumption or spending for the basic needs, but also for savings in different forms of financial instruments and/or investments such as in small- and medium-sized enterprises or microfinance. They also have the OF videos there. O, ano pa? Save na!

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:58 AM

    tama ka jan perry huge!

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  2. Anonymous2:09 PM

    this article "ignites" some questions/thoughts in my mind...

    1) "household savings have been decreasing" - is it right to think that, theoretically, household savings = household income - household expenditure? if so, can the decreasing household savings be due to the constant increase of the prices of prime commodities while household income stays the same, or in the case nowadays, decreasing? in some cases: household income < household expenditure of basic necessities... how can a household save when its income isn't enough to meet his basic needs?

    2)OFs should be encouraged to save because their household income > household expenditure of basic necessities. Instead of spending the surplus in extravagance i think it would be better if they wisely spend their money and put their savings where it will multiply

    3) wala na ba talagang makikitang trabahong may sapat na kita dito sa pilipinas at umaasa na lang ang lokal na ekonomiya sa padala ng mga nagtatrabaho sa ibayong bansa? maaaring may magkomento na meron namang trabaho, kaya lang ay hindi angkop sa trabaho ang mga napag-aralan ng mga tao. kaya siguro masigasig ang TESDA ngayon na punuan ang kakulangang kaalaman ng mga tao sa pamamagitan ng pagbibigay ng mga libreng klase.

    maligayang araw ng kalayaan... sa isipan o pampinansyal man! :>

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  3. Perry2:53 PM

    Household savings is the difference between the household's disposable income and the household's consumption expenditures. The HH savings rate declined because of the increasing number of young children in the economy, resulting to increase in the education and health expenses, which leads to lower savings.

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