Learning Is the First Step and Your First Major Investment by Lyndon Malanog I heard about the word “savings” from my parents when I was very young but never about Investing. I can still remember my parents telling me the following words of wisdom: “You need to save for you to have a brighter future. Your savings will earn interest and it will be able to fund your dreams for your future.” For this purpose, they bought me a “piggy bank” so I could save some of the money from my allowance and the money given to me by my ninongs and ninangs on special occasions. So I started putting in coins every day of whatever is left from my merienda allowance because I always had packed lunch daily. I’m also very proud to tell you that until now, I was able to carry on the habit of taking a pack lunch and breakfast for 22 years now as a corporate person. Anyway back to my story… The Story of My Piggy Bank I was also excited to SAVE for my future because I really wanted to travel and visit a lot of places. Most of all, I wanted to visit the United States to meet Captain America, Green Lantern, Spiderman, Incredible Hulk, Thor and the rest of the heroes I read daily in my comics collection. But four months after, I sawmy mother with a puller in hand. The puller that is being used to remove the hair from her armpit and my father’s mustache is now being used by my mother to remove some coins from my piggy bank. And when I asked her, “What are you doing Mom? I thought that money is for my future?” She simply smiled and said, “I’ll borrow some of your coins because wehave ran out of budget until the next payday.” And she promised to repay it when we had extra cash next month but of course most of the time, it never happened. As a child, I really wondered about the real definition of future and why is it too soon? The same thing happened over and over again so my parents decided to solve the problem... One sunny summer day, we decided to cut open my piggy bank and with all the coins inside it, we rushed to our town’s Rural Bank and opened an account. You never can imagine how proud I was to own my first ever savings account. I felt so valued by the way the bank personnel smiled and greeted me. I walked out of the bank feeling taller with all the pride and honor inside me. But after a year, the same thing happened. My parents ran out of cash for more important things so we had to get some from my account. And once again, my future was cut short. My account never reached my future because by the time I went to college, we had to close it to fund some of my initial expenses. Funding Our Dreams For a common Filipino the word savings is “normal” but the word “investment” is an alien word. I’m a grown-up person now and thanks to my mentors in the spiritual and financial industry for all the wisdom, literacy, coaching, mentoring and most of all for their patience until these days. Now, I understand that our savings must be invested in legal investment instruments to achieve positive growth over the years so as to fund for our dreams. Any investment in the three asset categories can be beneficial and can make dreams come true but we need to take time to learn first because: Learning is the first step and your first major investment. There are a lot more to learn before you actually invest to any investment instrument. Among these are the “Right Investment Concepts” and the “Basic Techniques in Investing.” We need to learn the technicalities and equip ourselves with the tools to manage our own investments. I don’t recommend anyone to get into any type of investment instrument without fully understanding its nature and purpose. It’s for our own protection and guidance. SCAMS in the Philippines will always come and go because of three main reasons: 1. Financial Ignorance 2. Greed and 3. Fear Remember that we are the best person to manage our hard-earned money that’s why we need to learn first. (Quoted: 17sep13/1000)
Posted on: Tue, 17 Sep 2013 08:00:44 +0000
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