.. con’t.

Here are some hard to swallow facts as well: the level of savings of Pinoys are well below many of our neighbors, consumer debt is rising in an alarming rate, we are not preparing for retirement, number of people with financial investments or insurance remains to be one of the lowest in Asia – in short, the average Pinoy is not prepared for the future. The growing number of seminars and books on personal finance is encouraging because it really does make a lot of sense. However, it is also discomforting at the same time because we need to tell people what they should already know for themselves already. Sometimes I find it silly that people need to be ‘tricked’ by many mindset alteration and motivational gimmickry just for them to be responsible enough to handle their finances. People are being duped that there is a secret to achieving wealth and financial freedom through the internet, seminars, speakers, books and all that. Just like Inception, many of today’s folks need to escape into fantasy land for them to achieve some peace. They spend like there’s no tomorrow and when they realize that they are headed south, they frantically grasp on illusions like new age hogwash or believe some individual who claims to unlock the ‘secrets’.

We need to wake up to our reality that we are responsible for the actions we take in personal finance and in life in general — and that’s the reality! There is no secret to achieving financial freedom and there is no short-cut – it is a process and we build it little by little by the actions we take. There’s no substitute to industriousness, prudence and discipline, to believe otherwise is full of folly.

In life, we can take the road of dreams but the fact remains that we need to wake up at some point. Take a hold of reality and be deliberate in the path we take. Work hard, be disciplined and put your faith in the source of real happiness, Jesus Christ – that’s a reality that will always be better than any dream.