Why Pinoys Like To Shop More Than Save Money

MANILA, Philippines - There's little doubt many Filipinos love shopping and spending, as seen with the crowds that flock to the many malls around the metropolis every day.

Unlike most Asians who are stereotyped as frugal savers, it seems Filipinos like to spend their money, not save it.

In an interview on ANC's "On the Money," Benedicto "Poch" Cid Jr, chief brand advisor of Mansmith and Fielders Inc., gave some insights on why Filipinos like to shop and spend.

"We like to enjoy ourselves. Some cultures value sacrifice, frugality and giving up for the future. We are not quite one of those. We like to live," he said.

Cid explained that this hardwired emotional need affects most of the country's consumer population, differentiating the Philippines from other Asian countries where sacrifice and frugality are valued.

"We like to be noticed. We like to be fashionable. We like to be in style. We want to be 'pogi' or 'maganda' and its a characteristic of ours," he said.

According to Cid, marketers have managed to tap into this need and suggest that buying their product will enable Filipino buyers to live a dream, especially in products which are consumed publicly, like brand name fashion items.

"Today, compared to 10 years ago, people are definitely more brand-conscious. Filipinos have more money. The Philippines is going through a phase in where as income rise, people appreciate brand names more," Cid noted.

The Philippine economy has shown strong growth in recent years, backed by rising consumer spending fueled by remittances from overseas Filipinos and young Filipinos employed by BPO companies. Many foreign brands such as Gap, Uniqlo, Forever 21 and Zara have set up shop in the country, in hopes of attracting Filipino shoppers.

"We have a young population growing to buying age and falling in love with a lot of brands. But as they grow older, they will make mistakes and learn," Cid added.

Cid said young Filipinos should ask themselves how buying makes them feel. "Because you probably would start to understand what emotional reward you're getting from all this buying. But once you've got that understood, see that if you can satisfy those needs by doing something else. It all comes to down to delaying that moment of decision," he said.

So before you hit the mall and buy something, Cid offers this advice: "If you want to safeguard yourself, back away and don't make a decision right away, especially for a big-ticket item... Just ask for a little time. Back away from it, breath, move away and let your mind, sleep on it. What that does is that it allows you to bring up your other needs and you can choose to balance them."

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How Your Behavior On Money Affects Wealth Creation?

It is difficult to believe that in most formal education systems today one of the most important aspects of our lives is not taught. Money! 

Money is sought after and traded by individuals, companies, governments, and countries; but still we are taught little about money in school. How we make money, how we manage it and how we invest it will determine our place in society, our lifestyle and our freedom to make the choices of how we want to live our lives.

Most individuals do not realize the void in their practical education until they are well into their careers and realize that their current or projected salary are not going to provide them with enough funds to achieve the lifestyle that they would like to enjoy and to provide for their families. Many people are willing to accept this and give up on reaching their financial goals, however, others seek new avenues and means to advance their economic positions.

Most people can not afford the time or money that is required to go back to college or university to educate themselves, enabling them to advance in their careers or switch professions totally. This means that motivated individuals have to take the initiative to educate themselves through short courses or by the advice of mentors that can help them to achieve financial freedom.

Most wealth mentors will agree that one of the best ways to get on the fast track to financial independence is to create multiple income streams. The way in which you create the multiple income streams of course will depend a lot on your financial position and interests. However, Sunlife Financial Wellness  is very attractive in this respect as it can be conducted after regular office hours (enabling you to hold down a regular job), involves only a couple of hours per day, and can be done from anyplace or in your office with group of  friends as if do conduct free Financial Wellness Seminar for free, you just have to contact us for scheduling of course.

Why should individuals be concerned about furthering their financial education?

If you are not concerned about money or how to make more of it….who else is? Even high net worth individuals who may not have the time to practice the strategies themselves should learn about options, the market, and about managing risk. By doing so they equip themselves to be able to question their fund managers regarding what decisions they are making with their money. It is never too late to take the initiative of educating yourself so that you can achieve the financial freedom that you seek. I think the bigger question is, 

“Can you afford not to educate yourself about money?”

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My Career As Sunlife Financial Advisor

The Power of Writing: I believe a blog is hands-down the most powerful passion-discovery and career-transition tool on the planet.

It all started here when I attended the Business Opportunity Forum of Sunlife at Max's Roces Avenue, then the rest is history.

The promise to becoming a Sunlife advisor was so high and you really would think that this is a kind of career that will change your life and would give meaning to it.

Im so adventurous that I have explored so many careers in my life, to being an employee to a Law firm, Citibank, San Miguel then explored business, but this does not gave me satisfaction, as if something is really missing, when my friend Regge ask me to try Sunlife,having a second thought, (why would I sell insurance? ) but then something is telling me to try, and why not, then this day at BOF inspired me to go and try this field.

True enough, every learnings and training the more i get excited to share to as many friends, relatives, and filipinos out there how important to prepare for our future, I found the meaning in my life. No matter how many friends and relatives still asking what I am doing here, naghihirap na ba ko? hahaha, but there are others who are positive and supporting me, especially my husband who been very supportive of me.

Here is some glimpse of what I do as an advisor

My role as an  advisor

At Sun Life Financial, we have a proven model in place to help  build long-term client relationships.

The financial planning pyramid shows the multi-faceted approach that advisors take when working with clients. A financial plan provides the base for clients to prepare for non-controllable evnts, priorities and asset accumulation.

A financial advisor can help you with many things, such as:

•   Retirement planning

•   Superannuation

•   Estate planning

•   Insurance eg life and disability cover

•   Investing

•   Wealth accumulation

•   Debt management

Our training and sales tools will show you how to look at clients' needs from every angle and recommend a strategy that will allow them to not only accumulate wealth, but also protect their savings and plan for their long-term health and financial well-being. Here's a high-level view of our products and how they can help clients:

At some point, people need to take personal responsibility for what happens in their lives, and make conscious choices to improve their well being. If that requires the larger-than-life personality peddling common sense that has simply been wrapped in a shiny new package, so be it. I can think of worse things than convincing people they'd be better off if they saved, invested and stayed out of debt.

so now, for those close minded individual, its their lost, there are so many filipino family who needs me, i just need to tell them I'm here ready to help them achieve their dream. 

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