I'm grateful to God He allowed me to start young. Somehow.
We're not super billionaires, but my parents were avid fans of insurance and investments. My paternal grandmother apparently was a fan of buying "cheap" real estate here and there. So despite having 11 kids (3 died in childhood), passing away early in her 50s due to cancer, and her husband losing his leg & job due to diabetes they managed to thrive. The investments increased in value and we continue to thank her up to this day.
A lot of my parents' investments failed (they couldn't afford to continue paying some of the Sunlife plans and a time share they started in the past due to financial problems here and there triggered by small businesses and decisions that didn't work out). Thank God, others provided what we needed to get by especially around the time when my dad almost got blind due to diabetes complications. These were the educational plans from Eternal. I was in college at that time when he lost his job abroad. (That was around the time I started ushering events and modelling.) All three of us were able to graduate and have better jobs later on, my parents still own their condo & their rental apartment, and somehow life turned out better than it was before.
People say it's morbid but my mom's 18th birthday gift for me was a pre-need funeral service plan from Eternal Plans where Ma still works up to now part-time. She earns only a fraction from commissions yet she continues to do it; it has become our sort of hobby to attend funerals when I was a kid. She says it's part of our duty as Christians to comfort the grieving as hard as it may be. People sometimes call her in the wee hours of the morning asking if she has a plan they could buy at the last minute because someone died. "May kabaong ka ba dyan?" I joked we should set up our own coffin making business. I wouldn't have to deal with the dead; I would just make environment-conscious coffins, then seek accreditation. Haha. But that's for a different blogpost. My ideas my mom hated.
Anyway, you could actually use someone else's plan but the benefit is much less. It's wiser to buy when you're really young. At that time, the contribution required was as much as a venti frappe in Starbucks per month. I never had Starbucks until I was 28.
When I turned over my crown in Bb Pilipinas, I chanced to attend one of Bro. Bo's Truly Rich Club Seminars because I always ended up emptying my savings. There has to be a better way than spending all my money in the grocery buying food I could only dream of when I was a child. He said we should diversify our investments no matter how small our incomes were and no matter how much family debt we were in. I scrimped on travel and delayed buying real estate so I could buy what I really wanted later on.
Fast forward to a decade over, Tinka Herrera Dan from Sunlife conducted a financial wellness seminar online catered especially to moms. She has three tips to achieve better peace of mind and manage risks especially now that it's quarantine season. The things she mentioned agrees with Bro. Bo's Truly Rich principles:
1. Keep 3-6 months worth of salary.
Tinka says it's better if this quarantine season, you could stretch your easily accessible money (money you could easily withdraw) up to 12 months or more in case of job loss/ less family income.
2. Have an HMO provider for Serious Illnesses
She suggests to get one with up to 2-4M PHP coverage per illness for each member of the family for immediate needs and emergencies. Other people prefer health cards with family packages that are sometimes more affordable by the bundle with long-term hospitalization coverage. Some families prefer to just prioritize the breadwinner; and they're lucky when their company actually sponsors this (or a part of it).
3. Protect the breadwinner/s' dependents
Tinka says the target total life insurance coverage should be at least five years of one's annual income. She adds that according to research, it takes a family around five years on the average to bounce back from grief and financial burden when the family's breadwinner dies.
She suggests to be specific when we write our financial goals. If you have a partner, she adds that you have to build a roadmap together.
Want to learn more? Message a Sunlife advisor closest to you. I'm sure you have one in your friends list. ;)
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