average Pinoy has low financial IQ

average Filipino has financial IQ of 48, says American bank. this was headlined by Inquirer.net last friday, january 18. the 400 respondents only scored 47.8, less than half the maximum score of 100, according to Citibank.

the score was derived from the American banking giant's Fin-Q survey, a study across the Asia-Pacific designed to measure the financial quotient or financial intelligence of consumers aged 18-40, who have at least a bank account or a credit card.

the survey showed that 62 percent of Filipino respondents belonging to the middle-income working class had a score of less than 50.

no retirement planning

based on the results, only 1 out of 10 Filipino respondents is consciously saving up for retirement. the rest have some savings but don't know if it will be enough. others have no idea at all how much they need or have not started planning.

lack in savings

if they lost their jobs tomorrow, or suddenly fall ill and cannot work, their savings would last only for nine weeks (about two months) before they run out of money. a comfortable buffer in case of a sudden sickness or loss of job is to maintain liquid savings equal to three to six months worth of current earnings.

my advocacy

i'm not an expert in financial matters but i want to advocate the teaching and propagation of financial literacy among Filipinos especially the youth.

Robert Kiyosaki said in his book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, that there are no formal education, not even a school, that teaches financial literacy. and besides, more and more Pinoys are becoming out-of-school youths at the early age because of poverty and lack of financial support. so where then, they can learn that?

with the help of my friends and co-SFC, we will start with our community in CFC Singles for Christ. actually we already had organized one seminar last year. me and my friends were the resource persons. i came up with an outline based from the CFC-SFC Expanded Talk Outline for Financial Stewardship and the 8 Secrets of the Truly Rich authored by Bo Sanchez.

i'm targeting another seminar this first week of february. this is part of our service so we gave it and we will give it for free. then we will open it to other chapters, ministries, organizations, parishes, barangay, etc.

while doing this, we will look for possible sponsors who will shoulder some expenses like snacks. if we can pool enough money we can get the services of the experts in this field. we will give him/her honorarium for his/her services.

if possible, i will ask for partnership with Bo Sanchez of Truly Rich Millionaires Network, Joey Concepcion of GoNegosyo, Larry Gamboa of Think Rich Pinoy Millionaires Network and other Pinoy advocates.

if you happen to be interested in supporting this endeavor please don't hesitate to contact me. my email address is richchard28@gmail.com

thank you in advance and God bless!