NOEL ARANDILLA, RFP – HEAD MENTOR FOR THE MISSION ON FINANCIAL EDUCATION
RICO & MARY PONO – FINANCIAL EDUCATORS AND MENTORS IN ORMOC CITY
GILBERT & PERLA BADAJOS & DAUGHTER, MARY – THE FAMILY WHO INTRODUCED FINANCIAL EDUCATION, AND MY WIFE AND MISSION PARTNER, NIDA, TAKING THE GROUPIE PHOTO
MATTHEW Q. VERGARA
Stressed. Disappointed ‘sa sarili’ (with myself). ‘Ang bigat sa kalooban.’ (It’s a heavy burden!)
‘Hindi enough ang income namin.’ (Our income is not enough.) ‘Walang choice kundi mangutang.’ (One has no choice but to borrow money.) ‘Huwag sana ma-ospital.’ (I hope he does not get hospitalized.) ‘Napakaraming bills ang kailangang bayaran.’ (There are a lot of bills to pay.)
People share these most common feelings and challenges when attending our financial seminars. The most common challenges are not having enough income to match their expenses, low savings and high debt, high cost of education, and increasing cost of living.
These were the same frustrations and predicaments I faced in my younger years before pursuing this mission of financial education.
I met and married Nida, my wife, whom I worked with as a mission worker in a lay Catholic community. Not long after, Nida got pregnant, and I, soon to be a father, wished to provide my young family with a comfortable life. Having a mechanical engineering background, I started working with a big holdings company as a building manager.
As the excitement of a new job faded, I found myself in a dilemma. In my old work as a missionary, I had little money but spent more time with my family. The old local cliche in this new corporate job rang true: ‘Pag-alis ko, tulog pa sila. Pagdating ko, tulog na sila.’ (Leaving, they are still asleep; coming, they are already sleeping.)
God’s answer to my dilemma came by way of a dinner invitation. Once, while vacationing in my wife’s hometown, one of our wedding sponsors invited us to dinner at her home. Ninang Perla Badajos came from a coaching session with a tricycle drivers group on managing finances. Her story of the exchange with the tricycle drivers interested me, and as I listened intently, I realized my desire to be mentored in financial education. Seeing my enthusiasm, our Ninang suggested introducing us to her head coach based in Makati. The encounter opened us to this whole world of Financial Education.
After attending the training and applying what we had learned, Nida and I started to build our family’s financial foundation. Here, we picked up taglines like: ‘It’s not how much you earn, but how much you save that matters’; ‘Pain of discipline vs. Pain of regret’; ‘Find something you believe in and put your heart to fight for it!’ ‘Dreams should have a deadline.’ I never imagined God making something of my heart’s simple desire to manage my money well and spend more time with my loved ones.
Putting what we had learned into action at home, Nida and I started saving by reducing expenses and looking for additional income during our spare time. From there, we started our long-term health care and term insurance with extra savings. We also invested in mutual funds. While the monies did not increase dramatically overnight, we both grew strongly confident. We found our way back to community work.
During my ten years of Gawad Kalinga work, we adopted the lifestyle we were learning: responsibly handling our family expenditures and minding our savings to ensure our children’s future.
I did finance talks, seminars, and mentoring after work hours and on weekends. As Nida and I took on this life as a couple’s mission, the after-training drives became our date nights, and financial advising appointments became couple activities. In the process, our relationship strengthened. We started coaching families all over the country, OFWs, and students. We became part of a community that aimed to reach 30M families by 2030 with Financial Education, from savings to retirement and estate planning.
Looking back, I remember one starry December night when I shared my dreams for my children with God. As if God responded, this thought crossed my mind: ‘You need to be what you wish your children to be!’
On a subsequent morning, while driving the children to school, the kids suddenly asked, ‘What do you do for work, Papa?’ I told them about GK and the finance seminars Nida and I gave after work. A long silence followed. I thought they didn’t understand. Then, as they bade me goodbye on reaching school, I got their response, ‘You’re a good person, Papa! Keep on helping people.’