Cindy Barbadillo, Cebu Normal University (CNU) Supreme Student Council (SSC) Environmental Affairs Secretary said that her motivation in saving money is to prepare for emergency cases and to realize her dream of owning a business in the future.
A number of student leaders and those who major in Economics and Finance were also able to ponder on their motivation after being imparted with the importance of saving money and budgeting as the National Economic and Development Authority Regional Office VII (NEDA 7) held its financial literacy lecture in CNU last Wednesday, November 6, 2019.
Students from CNU and five other universities across Cebu, namely Cebu Technological University (CTU), University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R), University of the Visayas (UV), Cebu Institute of Technology-University (CIT-U), and Asian College of Technology (ACT) attended the seminar about Savings through Intelligent Consumption held in CNU Tandang Sora Hall.
NEDA 7 has organized the seminar as part of their lecture series in celebration of the 2019 Economic and Financial Literacy Week with this year’s theme Our Planet’s Health, the Future’s Wealth and tapped CNU to be its co-host.
Dr. Filomena Dayagbil, CNU President, welcomed the attendees and requested them to absorb the learning, share the knowledge to others, and apply it in real life.
Roxan Mujeres, Senior Research Specialist at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) 7, graced the occasion as resource speaker and shared about saving and budgeting as part of financial planning. The underlying message of his talk is to save for one’s future to meet specific goals.
It is said that only 40 percent of Filipino adults save because of their limited knowledge and capability, lack of money, distance from the bank, and failure to meet documentary requirements.
Mujeres explained that it is vital to save due to uncontrollable life events like sickness, calamity, accident, and death. Savings could also be used as an emergency fund for medical use, wellness, in times of unemployment, home repairs, and others.
He then encouraged the student participants to start saving in a bank because of its liquidity, safety, security, and interest. He also gave other options such as savings and credit cooperatives, savings and loans associations, self-help groups, and non-financial assets.
Mujeres also shared the benefits of budgeting which organizes income spending and saving. It also provides early warning for potential problems and facilitates decision-making.
He said that to budget, one must track income and expenses, set budget goals and plans, implement and monitor them. He also shared budgeting techniques and recommended to use budgeting tools, and to share budgeting plans with the family to address its challenges.
An open forum was then held which was co-facilitated by Hazel Josephine Cultura, Acting Senior Executive Assistant of the Office of the Regional Director of BSP 7.
Maria Sostheleen Padilla, Chief Administrative Officer of NEDA 7, ended the gathering on behalf of NEDA 7 Regional Director Efren Carreon by giving plaques of appreciation to their partners in organizing the activity and by thanking all the students, and their respective schools for participating.
“When we have set our minds to save, we consume intelligently. When we buy less, producers of what we buy produce less. When we produce less, we require less of our planet’s resources, therefore savings through intelligent consumption. Buying only what we need means not only saving our money but saving our planet as well,” Padilla said.
Nilmar Dublin, USJ-R a fourth year BS Finance student, learned that he needs to save money for his future and to budget his allowance as a student. He said that budgeting is an essential skill in college to sustain finances and to graduate.
Christine Mae Estocado, USJ-R a sophomore BSBA-FM student from hopes that NEDA 7 will invite bank representatives in their next lecture who may also answer and give them a different perspective of their queries. (JDF)
