“ASENSADONG PINOY SULIT MAG-ABROAD” SEMINAR FOR OFWs

One of my colleagues at work invited me to attend this FREE seminar as part of spreading financial literacy to all OFWs.

Since I want to learn more about financial awareness, I, together with my sister and friend booked and attended the seminar last 05 March 2016.

 The speaker shared how he and his wife decided to take action to go out of poverty. You see, the life testimony of the speaker is what made me realized that nothing is impossible if we truly commit ourselves to do something. The family of the speaker is financially free and can retire comfortably if he wants to because of the passive income investments they had accumulated.

Although some of the things I heard were the same things I heard from other sources, but there are some things that made a revelation to me. Some of them were the following:

Safety Net. Having a financial safety net in place can ensure that you're protected when a financial emergency arises. This can be achieved by setting up a cash reserve, a pool of readily available funds that can help you meet emergency or highly urgent short-term needs. This is what I need to build at the moment.

Passive Income. Passive income is an income received on a regular basis, with little effort required to maintain it. I thought that my Lot is an asset because it appreciates in value over time, but it turns out that it is not because it doesn’t generate income. In fact I am paying for the tax which is an expense.

Condominium Rentals. Condominium is a good investment because there is a demand in the market due to its convenience. Condominiums are always being developed in strategic locations accessible to other popular places with facilities that can be enjoyed by the tenants. There is a rising market in the Condominium rentals so I thought of getting another one once I have finished building my emergency fund.

The seminar is sponsored by Vista Land and therefore they will introduce their properties for people to invest.

When it was time to sell their condominium investments, although I am convinced with the explanation of the speaker that Condominiums are good investments, I already decided not to take the risk as of that moment. I already had a “not-so-good” experience in investing in Condominiums and it gave me great lessons to gain understanding before investing.

At the moment I am concentrating in building my emergency fund that was exhausted in my Condominium investment and other unnecessary spending. I do not want to make the same mistake again. When I have enough savings, I will invest again in real estate (Condominiums or rental apartments) and I will be wiser next time.

It is better to attend seminars that are related to financial literacy because you will learn some lessons from the experiences of other people. If you have the opportunity, I encourage you to attend seminars in order to increase your financial awareness.

God bless us more…