THE “You Only Live Once (Yolo)” mentality among millennials, in a way, is a threat to a long-term financial stability, an insurance and finance firm said.
Philam Life Insurance Director of agencies in Southern Mindanao, Jenny Santos said in an interview with VoxPop Davao on Monday, June 12, at the sidelines of the Kapehan sa Dabaw at SM City Davao that this attitude among millennials is not discouraged but should be done with proper financial planning.
“What’s wrong is that, young Filipinos feel that it’s too soon to prepare for retirement, so with this Yolo mentality they sometimes neglect to prepare for the future,” she said.
With this, Philamlife, in time for their 70th anniversary drummed up their campaign dubbed as “Live Ready” with an aim to promote and create awareness among Filipinos that proper financial planning is important in achieving financially-literate nation.
She also emphasized that Philamlife aims to break the cycle of “sandwich generation” or those individuals who are spending both for their children and their parents.
“With the sandwich generation, because all their money go to their children and parents, nothing will be left for their retirement or others future finances, so most likely, when that person gets old, they will also be reliable to their children, we want to stop that cycle,” she said.
Last year, Santos shared that, based on their protection study, Fthe Philippines still has a very low financial literacy rate.
The study focus on three aspects: health, education and retirement.
“For health, 96 percent care about their health but only 16 percent are financially ready for health-related emergencies,” she said.
For education, out of the 1,000 students surveyed nationwide, only 230 students or 23 percent are financially ready to go to college.
“This is because most lack of educational funding,” she said.
While for retirement, none among the working population are financially ready for retirement.
She added that the low financial literacy among Filipinos is caused by the incorrect perceptions when it comes to saving as they often consider it as an additional expense instead of an avenue to prepare for their future.
With their Live Ready program, they target the general public in a bid to boost their financial skills, introducing various available financial services, awareness enhancement and teaching on how to make wise financial decisions.
Santos said they aim to push financial education to empower every individual to be ready in every stage of their lives and assist them to adequate financial planning to attain their short term or long term goals.
At present, the insurance firm has a total of 5,000 financial advisors nationwide, 300 of which are in Davao City.
Asked if how much is the ideal amount for one to save for his/her future, Santos was quick to respond that for as low as P50 daily one can already have an ideal financial standing.
“You just have to know your goals, evaluate your financial situation and commit that you will save a certain amount for a better future,” she said.
