You don’t get to be taught at school about money until you reach a level where Economics is discussed. Even then, the people that teach it to you, will never get most of the things written on the textbooks. The earliest time a child could learn about money here is through their parents. And how their parents act when it comes to finances matters as most of the time, their children will also follow.
Mostly, Filipino parents live from paycheck to paycheck. Working is the easiest and the only thing they can teach to their children to support financial responsibilities. As a worker themselves, they set to their children the close to poor mindset towards earning money. Usually, the cliche lines of work harder to earn more applies to the bulk of their teaching. Even parents that go into business can have difficulty teaching money matters to their kids especially if these parents didn’t come from a lineage of entrepreneurs.
What I’m getting at here is that the quality of Financial Literacy will be dependent on how much the family can communicate the value of money and how wise spending can affect their children’s future in the succeeding generations. The new set of crazy rich kids in the Philippines will definitely play a big role in spearheading a new age of Philippine economic growth and wealth. The successful few that get a good head start from the rat race are families from well off and understandably Chinese-Filipino citizens. I could name a few of these well-known business personas but there's only one that I considered as the best when it comes to persistency and risk-taking, it's the story of Edgar Sia of Mang Inasal.
If you’re not familiar with Philippine History, Chinese traders have been in contact with the local tribes from the Philippines even before the Spanish conquerors ruled. Chinese citizens that migrated from China and settled here carried their traditional values when it comes to money-making and is passed down to succeeding generations. It was only after World War 2 that these entrepreneurs picked up their momentum from the daily grind that they subsequently end up owning most of the major businesses this country has. The best example of this is the comeback story of China Bank where despite its current bank standing, still maintains the merits it got after major setbacks from the past.
There is a huge gap in how the rich and poor see the world. But the gap lessens once the person is willing to learn more about how money works. You want the poor to be poor, keep them being stupid and unaware. The reality here is that only when adulting responsibilities come to bite an average Filipino will they ever appreciate what it means to know how taxes affect them, how budget and spending affect their quality of life, and how their resource management will affect their present and future conditions.
I never understood why I should bother learning about taxes and filing an income tax return when I could just hire an accountant to do it for me. It was only when I realized what accountants know that makes me appreciate how much I’ve been missing out. Money is a taboo subject here. So an average Filipino grows old knowing little about it and then is initiated as the fool as soon as they discover money influences their lives even before they were born.
Photos by Chitto Cancio on Unsplash
Edited via Canva
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About the Author
Awesome article.
Unfortunately its similar in Germany. The normal and even the high educated people don't learn about money and investing. They accumulate wisdom to be a good worker. Nothing more.
My Parents is a well payed high academican, but he knows little about money. We never had any problems, but I think knowing something about investing would have changed a lot in my life.
Unfortunately, working is considered a safe haven for individuals leaning to sustainability and contentment but if a major problem arises, things get worse than expected.