It was a windy morning, but nothing could have stopped my family and I from attending the Money Matters for Mommies. This talk was organized by Sun Life Financial Philippines.

Sun Life Financial Philippines’ mission is to help Filipinos achieve financial security. And one way to fulfill this mission is to conduct mini talks to teach financial literacy. This workshop that we attended is one of the series of workshops that they organized.

Why did I want to attend this workshop? I know that in terms of handling finances, Ej and I have done a pretty good job in increasing our assets. Now that we have Baby Zeeka, I’d like to listen to tips from different parents and experts on how they go about increasing their savings and investments. You know me? I’m a sucker for continuous learning.

So where should we start when trying to build funds for our little one? What do we do when we want to start building a great future for our children? Sun Life Philippines phrases it in a very inspiring statement… Your bright choice will help you achieve a brighter future.

During the session, Ms. Nerie Azurin from Sun Life, introduced the speaker for the day. It was TV host and mommy Suzy Entrata-Abrera.

I enjoyed Suzy’s talk because she gave tips and elaborated on each using her own personal experiences as a mom. She shared stories about her husband and her children.

For you to be able to give a brighter life for your children, here are some tips that Suzy shared:

Set clear goals: This is so so that you will know what you are actually saving for and so that you get to see what you have actually accomplished. Like for her, their goal as a married couple is to be able to have a house built in 4 years time.

Begin a saving habit: As moms and dads, we now have set our children as our main priority. She mentions that there was a time when she would buy branded bags, but now she has learned to stay away from buying unnecessary stuff.

She also says that as early as now, she teaches her kids on how to handle money. She goes on the mention that nowadays, it’s harder to explain the concept of money since a lot of things and transactions are done online with the children not seeing the exchange of money. They also get to see a plastic card being used to pay for things (credit card), which we parents need to explain to them, too.

Prepare for emergencies: Always have enough for the times when you need money the most, like sickness, etc.

Get insured: Growing up, Suzy mentions that her mom taught her and her sibling the importance of getting things insured. Her mom practically insured everything. She would ask her mom why the latter would stress over paying for insurance every month. Her mom then explained to them that everything she was doing was for her and her siblings.

Make money earn more: We really need to place our money in higher yielding investments, if we want to have enough for our children’s education.

Seek professional advice: If you need to understand investment and savings, do not hesitate to ask for help. The sooner you ask for help, the sooner you can start building funds.

Stay the course: You have your plan. You know what is important. What you need now is to keep at it and continue saving. You will reap the rewards in the future for a brighter life for you and your kids.

Other practical tips or realizations that I had while listening to Suzy:

– She mentioned that every time that she and her husband would go to other countries for a vacation, they would already buy the pasalubong for the kids before they leave and hide it from them 🙂 It saves you from paying the excess baggage fee and from carrying heavy luggage!

– I brought my yaya with me to the talk and I realized that it was a good thing because everyone in the household should be in sync on how money should be handled. Yayas are very important, since they are people who spend time with our children. If you want to teach your children good habits on saving and investing, yaya should also be on board and she should help you teach your child. It will also help her (since my yaya has an 11 year old daughter) in creating plans and in building a good future for her own family.

– You and your husband should not fight about money. Early on, try to discuss it already — who will pay what and who will handle the budget. I remember that early on, even before our wedding, EJ and I already discussed  money matters and created a rough draft of how we wanted to handle our finances. Really… do talk about it 🙂 It will save you both from a lot of arguments and tears!

Well, that’s basically it. It was a good session that inspired us and gave us that affirmation that we (Ej and I) are on the right track in our wish of providing Baby Zeeka with a good future.

We also got this free coin bank, which Baby Zeeka loved 🙂

You may want to read my past post about managing household expenses with real life stories from different moms:
How do you Manage your Household Budget?

I enjoyed the talk! Thank you, Sun Life!

Love,