24/06/2019
True Story:
A OFW in his 40s came home for vacation after 15 years of working. Let's say, we call him John.
He was invited by a friend to attend a financial seminar. It reminded him a lot of how much time he wasted working but not saving for his own insurance, health savings and retirement, and remitted all his money to his wife and 3 kids. Wife has no work and is a full time mom to send 3 kids in the elementary and high school. Bought a house, car and some pieces of jewelry. Since money in all become money out, no savings were allotted for emergency and credit cards became the norm.
Since the couple were not geared into this financial mindset, they were not able to prioritize saving for the future especially for the husband who is a breadwinner. Ask my wife was the OFW's excuse and the wife did not heartily agreed to it.
Until one day,
The husband got into a car accident, went into intensive car and died 3 days later.
Since the breadwinner died, the housewife and 3 kids were left into a precarious situation.
Who will provide for them now that the breadwinner's income is gone? Who will take care of the kids education? Who will pay for all the car, the house in mortgage, and their living expenses? They were not so much into living an extravagant lifestyle but the basic needs are still a problem.
Who will pay for the hospital bills incurred since they were left with no savings and credit card was maxed out?
Eventually, the car was let go, the house too since they couldn't afford anymore, and the remaining pieces of jewelry of the wife were sold to pay for the debts incurred.
All these would have been minimized if they had emergency funds. The wife would not have a problem with the hospital bills if they have their personal HMO or extra cash to spare. Their children's education would have been guaranteed had they gotten insurance that would replaced the breadwinner income when he died. The wife would not have any trouble trying to make ends meet in the next few years while looking for a job to replace the husband as the new breadwinner.
How many people are there are like Juan and his family and are in this situation now?
Isn't it time we step up in our advocacy and be aggressive enough that these things are to be understood and implemented for the sake of their own good.
Our good, in general. Whether your a client or in the industry.
As a financial educator, advisor, person who has knowledge or access to these things, share it to people everyday. Financial freedom and the means to arm our clients with information that could benefit and save their life and their family's one day. That's our overall goal, to help as many families be financially educated in our mission.
The OFW May be gone, and the wife and the 3 kids would have been living an alternative future for the better had they taken steps to save their future. Who knows, one day, you could be saving somebody close to you, or in your family because you were aggressive enough to do the mission of educating them.
CCTO
