BDO's Easy Investment Plan (EIP)

Around 2 weeks ago, I saw an announcement in BDO's website that they are giving a free seminar to introduce their new product-the Easy Investment Plan (EIP). I grabbed the opportunity and signed up with a friend. The seminar was this morning. It lasted for about 2 hours. And I'm glad I attended :). There were new lessons I picked up, aside from the fact that it affirmed the things I read from books and financial articles.

Sad to say, the Philippines has one of the lowest percentages globally. In Asia, China ranks first, followed by Singapore.

Here are some tips shared during the seminar. The short explanation is based on how I understood it.

• Pay yourself first. All financial references say this. Savings should always be part of your budget. The formula should be Income-Savings = Expenses and not Income-Expenses = Savings because the tendency is, you’ll always have nothing to save.
• Stop spending on things that decline in value. We should be spending on things that put money on our pockets, instead of things that take out money from our pockets. Hence, we should know which are real needs and which are just wants.
• Make your financial plan automatic. With the advancement of technology, this is very feasible nowadays. All you have to do is inform your bank to do that for you automatically on a schedule of your preference. A lot of banking institutions are now also online so go, create your online account and monitor anytime, anywhere as long as there’s Internet!
• Make money work for you. Famous line. Make money work for you instead of you working for money. How? By investing so that it will earn you more money.
• Invest wisely and regularly. Should you invest, you should understand what you’re entering into. Again, there are a lot of references online. Otherwise, you can also just proceed to the bank or financial institution and talk to a fund manager (that’s how those people dealing with investments are called J).

I'll post some more if I remember the other things discussed.

**Disclaimer: I'm not  Financial savvy. I'm just sharing what I learned from the seminar. I hope to at least become financially literate though :). **

* Image from here. *