Personal Finance: Insurance Updates

*Image from here*

I've shared previously about my first insurance policy being potentially fully paid up last January. So, yes the agent confirmed that. I already made up my mind about making it fully paid up and divert my budget to another investment vehicle but I became hesitant when I was doing the paper works with the agent's secretary. I told her then that I have some more clarifications that I need to ask my agent. Those clarifications were just answered when I called her last week (yes, I procrastinate a lot and I'm not proud of it). Anyway, end result was for us to meet yesterday to discuss in person.

My agent's recommendation was to make it fully paid up because according to her, dividends are not that big now, as compared to 10 years ago so I am not maximizing my money's worth should I opt to continue just so I have more dividends in the future. And so, I gave her the go signal to make it fully paid up and proceeded to the paper works for my mutual fund account. I will also be receiving part of my dividends but that will go directly to my MF account. 

She also showed me a computation of how much retirement fund I should have, based on the estimated expenses I will have when I retire. I also asked her if she has a sample computation for a child's education and lucky for me she has. We tried punching in estimates based on Manila rates. Would you believe that 7 years from now, you would need almost Php 2M to pay for your child's tuition for elementary (6 years, does not include Nursery or Pre-school or Kinder)? Naloka ako hehe. Baseline for that is Php 95k yearly tuition, with 10% yearly increase in tuition and 4% inflation rate.

In all honesty, the figures are daunting hehehe. And while I do believe and trust in God's divine providence, I also think that it is our responsibility to take care of God's blessings. In short, we also have to do our part in making our lives better and one way is to be responsible with our finances. Sabi nga nila, nasa Dyos ang awa, nasa tao ang gawa. Walang mangyayari kung wala kang ginagawa talaga. Also, while money is not everything, money is the tool to allow you to pursue your other goals (like full time volunteer work, just because you know you are covered from your sources of income).

Kaya ito, push lang ng push. And I should always go back to my roots where my parents tried their bestest to provide for us with the meager income they made. Yes, meager because they were tax exempt, hence yearly income was less than Php 72k. Until now, I wonder how they managed with the budget and all hehe.

Praying for financial abundance for everyone.