Money Talks UAE

By Randell Tiongson on February 5th, 2015

The biggest finance event for the OFW in the United Arab Emirates will happen this March 20, 2015!

Be part of the learning by attending this life-changing event and learn from the experts who have a heart to help bring financial education to the OFWs!

To register, CLICK HERE or email [email protected]

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My guests for this conference are all advocates for financial literacy and have extensive training & experience in finance and investing.

Allan Miranda – Allan is the most recognizable OFW in UAE when it comes to financial literacy. He has been conducting successful seminars in Dubai and Abu Dhabi for a few years now and he is seen as the champion of the OFWs when it comes to financial enablement. He is based in Dubai, UAE.

Burn Gutierrez – Burn is the founder and main driving force behind the hugely successful OFW Usapang Piso forum and the Angat Pilipinas Coalition. Due to his efforts, thousands of OFWs are becoming financially abled through his extensive work using the internet and now even live events in many parts of the world. Burn’s team is composed of many volunteers and leaders and virtually every city in the world where there are many OFW’s. He is based in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia.

Bernard Anduyon – Bernard Anduyon was the immediate past President of the Overseas Filipino Investing & Entrepreneurship Movement, a group that is almost single handedly transforming the financial lives of the OFWs in Qatar. Doha has a high concentration of financially abled OFWs because of the efforts of Bernard and his movement. His group has been deputized by the Philippine embassy in Qatar to provide financial education to the OFWs in that region. He is based in Doha, Qatar.

Jess Uy – Jess is known as the international investing expert and has been active in investment education and financial planning amongst many OFWs. He has successfully conducted seminars in many countries like Japan, Brunei, Dubai, Qatar, Hong Kong and Singapore. Jess is based in Singapore.

Don’t miss this!

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The right education

By Randell Tiongson on June 18th, 2012

I am honored to have a guest post by my good friend Edmund Lao. Edmund is a Registered Financial Planner and a columnist for Business Mirror. He is also in the forefront of financial literacy for Filipinos.

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The Right Education by Edmund Lao

Education  is the formal process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills, customs, and values  from one generation to another. Whatever knowledge we acquired from experiences, experiments and discoveries of the past generations became the basis of our education today. Without formal education nowadays, one is surely bound to be bracketed in lower caste. Such importance is given to education that the status of a person depends on what school school he or she graduated from. Taking a look at the present , it cannot be denied that education has become a luxury already. In the early 80s, tuition fees cost only around Php 50 per unit. Tasking a full load will mean only around a thousand per semester. Nowadays, the fees range from Php 30,000 to Php 200,000 per semester. Worse, the quality of education is not even at par with that of our Asian counterparts.

Just imagine the hardship all the parents have to endure just to have their children finish schooling. Then when the graduate finds a job, unless he comes from an exclusive school, the compensation he will receive pales in comparison to the expense incurred to finish his course.

Then the new graduate will be in the rat race, taking the same road traveled by The Tired, The Retired, and The Re-Tired. This is because our current educational system gave too much emphasis on the technical aspect. Our system gave little importance to teaching the basics and the values to our generation. Ever wonder why we have corrupt people in the government and in the workplace? The only culprit is the lack of right education. The more information and knowledge we have now, the more ignorant we become. The more ignorant we are financially, the more risk we make in handling our finances. Just observe. If really we are more educated especially in this high technology age, why are there more people who cannot make both ends meet despite the fact that they are earning good income? The painful truth is that more and more people are having low emotional and financial intelligence quotient.

To a certain extent, Robert Kiyosaki was right in saying that our current education system is designed to make us employees rather than entrepreneurs.  His biological dad had an excellent education and great job, yet constantly struggled for wealth. His “poor dad” followed all the rules, yet died penniless. His best friend’s dad, on the other hand, dropped out of school but always asked himself how he could make more money. The “rich dad” was a savvy businessman and investor, however, and become very prosperous. We have also our version of Rich Dad in the persons of Henry Sy, John Gokongwei, Lucio Tan, etc. They never finished schooling but they knew the basics of creating wealth. I am not emphasizing that our youths drop out of school and become wealthy. What I am driving at is that

unless schools modify their curriculum, definitely there will be more future “poor dads”. Their experiences and the basic principles of finance can be shared to inspire the students to emulate them in terms of growing wealth the righteous way… Doesn’t it the progress of a country depends on the citizens comprise it? If majority of the people belong to the poor bracket, no matter how good the economy of a country is, it will still belong to the so-called Third World countries. Just take a look at our more progressive neighboring countries and see the difference. Most of these countries have a savings ratio of more than 30% while we are at around 15%. The only way for a country to upgrade its current status is to help educate its citizens be financially aware.

There are two viable solutions:

First is to teach children at home and create the mindset and habit of saving money. I,  for one, teach my kids by example. It is very important to practice what you want to teach. I have my own piggy bank to show them I save and now they have their own piggy banks. Whenever I give them coins, they automatically put it into their piggy banks.  What RFP Randell Tiongson said is true, that personal finance is 80% behavior and 20% knowledge.

Second is to include personal finance as a curriculum starting from elementary up to college as a continuation and strengthening of what was learned at home.. To some, personal finance is boring but it depends on the professor. In fact, having heard RFPs like Randell Tiongson, Efren Cruz,  Alvin Tabanag speak, I can say that they help create interest and excitement in the minds of the audiences. Schools have been including minor subjects which have no bearing on the course.  Why not include personal finance subject which can create positive impact on their lives later. If the government wants to create a progressive Philippines, then make financial education an investment that will give the country an unlimited return.

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The 3 dangerous money attitudes

By Randell Tiongson on July 28th, 2011

When dealing with money issues, one must always be aware of deadly behaviors that will cause financial havoc and I call them the 3 dangerous money attitudes: Greed, Fear & Ignorance.

Greed has been man’s downfall since time immemorial. When it comes to our finances, greed clouds our judgment and in many cases it can even make us compromise our values. In investing, greed makes one too optimistic on possible returns based on some experience or even the potential of remarkable growth. While the principle of risk & return always dictate the performance of one’s investment, greed will make one go beyond his risk tolerance in anticipation of fantastic yields. In business, greed makes one engage in cut-throat enterprise and often times have collateral damages like ruined business relationships and even legal issues. After all, it is the love of money which is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10). In the movie Wall Street, Gordon Gecko made a famous line that seems to have been the mantra of many… “Greed is good” (‘That greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit’). Well, it is because of greed that there was the recent financial tsunami which almost put the whole world economy into chaos. In fact, the US has yet to recover from their financial crisis which was really a result of greed. Greed is often times the reason for our economic woes. Regardless of how we romanticize it, and despite Holywood’s dangerous seductions, greed is not good.

Fear is not necessarily a bad behavior. In fact, fear allows one to act in prudence and makes us check if we are already becoming greedy. The issue here is too much fear, or crippling fear. Many a times, people would not take any risk at all when it comes to money and they will find themselves with hardly any financial growth because of it. It is a common notion that Filipinos are ultra conservative when it comes to money and to prove a point, one only needs to look at where our money is actually invested – locked in 30 to 90 day short term deposits that give you almost negligible returns. While keeping your capital safe is important, we must also be reminded that inflation is constant and it will erode our wealth. To illustrate, let’s assume that you place your savings in short term placements like time deposits earning 2% p.a. and you don’t mind the low return because safety of capital is your paramount concern and  you will probably keep the money there for maybe 3 to 5 years . Let us assume that during those years, the inflation rate will be at an average of 5%, you are actually losing real value in your money with the erosion of its purchasing power by as much as 3% per year. In the end, you will actually experience a real loss despite having no capital loss. In risk management, risk avoidance is not always a good choice because avoiding risk also means one can’t gain. I really like the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:13-40) – it is as a very good illustration of fear.

Just like greed, ignorance is a very dangerous attitude. While people lose money because of greed or too much fear (in purchasing power), people do so knowing what they are getting into. Losing money because of ignorance makes one well, ignorant. It is said that you should never ever, ever, ever, ever put your money into something you don’t understand. It is ironic that despite Filipinos being risk averse (ultra conservative), we are also prone to a lot of scams. Citibank came up with a survey that says our FQ or financial quotient is very low as compared to other countries. Financial education, though immensely important, is not on the top mind of our citizens. Schools look at financial education from a text book approach rather than on a personal finance perspective and many homes will not discuss money issues until the family is in severe financial situation. I counseled so many individuals that are in dire financial conditions and most of the time, the core of their problem is ignorance – financial ignorance.

So what is the solution to all these? Financial education and checking one’s heart. We need to live a life of purpose which will keep our greed in check. It is not hard to realize that our purpose goes beyond ourselves, isn’t it (Matthew 6:33)? Overpowering fear is an issue of faith – we need to believe that we are not given a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power (2 Timothy 1:7). The only fear we should have is a godly fear (Psalms 111:10). As to ignorance, we only need to open our hearts and minds and embrace learning and seek godly wisdom (Proverbs 8:12).

Catch my event “Steps to Financial Peace” with guests Francis Kong, Paulo Tibig and Jayson Lo. Details at https://www.randelltiongson.com/steps-to-financial-peace/

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