Savings For My Son's Future

Finances -  I am seriously in troubled. That I admit.

Honestly, when I was single and working, I spend my money on… on.. ahm… hmmm… I actually don’t know where. I started working when I was 18 years old and believe me, I never had a savings account. I didn’t realize that savings is fun and will definitely be something that I will regret soon. In 2012, which as per my eldest sister Fraulene said as our most traveled year, I spent all my money paying for my trip. That, I never regret. Of course! I have been to Boracay in April, Coron, Palawan in August, Cagayan de Oro – Camiguin in October then Laoag – Vigan – Pagudpud in November. It was all worth it. When people discuss about where they went on holidays, I have a lot of stories to tell. I even discussed it during my final presentation when I applied for a position from my previous company, the one I left when I got pregnant.

As I have told you gazillion times, when I got pregnant, I stopped working which brought me on a situation and realization that I need money and the health card as it provides me free pre-natal check ups. Though it is for 14 pre – natal check ups only, it is still a great deal right? When I was 10 weeks – 16 weeks pregnant, I tried to go back to workforce pero they are no longer considering me because I was 4 months pregnant by then.

Fast forward to today, I am still struggling financially. Totoo pala yung sinabi nilang magastos yung unang taon ng baby. From the experience I had after giving birth to where I am as of the moment is because of the fact that I wanted James before I was even ready. I never had any regrets though. I know it happened for a reason and I am certain that I will be able to fix this as soon as possible. From the expenses of milks to diapers to vaccines and so on, All I was thinking was I am lucky to have a healthy and beautiful baby. This is what I am most thankful for and cheers to that!

When I get back to work, I was able to read financial blogs and found it really helpful. It was such an eye – opener. So what made me think about things has changed. I came up to a thinking of not having a savings account. Now that I have James, I should have an emergency fund to save us from anything. I found out that it should be an equivalent of monthly salary for six months. Hell, ang laki pala dapat! Hahaha. That’s what I thought. I am really struggling to come up to it but I have to. There’s no way I should not have one. I had 2 ATM savings account na walang laman so I thought of just funding them from time to time pero there will always be this time na I badly need it so walang kaabog – abog, I will go to an ATM then withdraw the money until it is back to zero.

I checked online as to which will be the best way for a starter. I found out about the Junior savings. It’s about having a savings account for your child who are 0-12 years of age or for some up to 17 years old. I checked on my bank but they only allow 10 years old and up so I searched which bank offers a wide variety of benefits. I am torn between 3 banks actually – BDO, Metrobank and PSBank. You may want to find the difference of each when you click on each of them.

I have chosen BDO Junior Savers because it is the nearest bank to me while in the office and at home. I even considered the bank schedules where they are open on Saturdays and Sundays and even Holidays. They also have additional benefits/freebies/discounts for the principal holder. You can see the list here.

I have been thinking about Metrobank because of the educational trust benefit worth P50,000.00 sana pero I have set myself into BDO. It’s very important that I’ll be able to have an access to the bank because due to my work schedules, I can’t manage to go there anymore.

Tadah!!!

Finally, last month, I was able to open an account for James. I put the money I saved couple of weeks before.

For those who are like me na hindi mapakali ang pwet kapag may hawak na pera, I suggest to open a passbook account without an ATM to lessen the tendency of you withdrawing the money.

Here’s what you need:

Authenticated Birth Certificate (Baby)

1X1 ID Picture

2 valid ID’s of the parent

Proof of Billing ( for some branch)

When I was asked for the requirements, I showed them James’ birth certificate that came from the hospital (my copy). The teller quite hesitated so she asked one of her collegues and luckily, they accepted what I have. I just gave them my Unified ID and filled out the form. After a while, I was aked as to how much will I deposit then couple of minutes after, handed me the passbook.

Hindi pa double digit ang laman nyan pero ok na din for a start. I am taking a baby step one at a time. Parang si James lang while he’s trying to learn how to walk diba? =)

Although one of the things that I have noticed is that I wasn’t given instructions on how I will be able to take advantage of the discounts from their partner establishments. Mejo mukhang stress kasi yung teller na kausap ko kasi she’s being pressured by this other client who said that her passbook is missing and she wants it blocked/cancelled. The teller said she has to line up first kasi first come, first serve basis daw. Hindi mapakali yung babae (which I understand) kaya ayun, mejo sumungit tuloy si ateng teller. Anyway, there’s always a way to find out naman on how I can get those discounts diba? In time. =)

One of the reason I am posting this? Feeling ko kasi I will be more pressured to fulfill a goal rather than keeping it myself kasi for sure with this blog that's open 8 hours a day for 5 days will remind me so much about it. =)

I hope this will be a good start. With this, I am planning to let James know how important savings are and what good it will do to him in the long run. =)

Dear James,

I am so happy that I was able to start saving for you. I know it will be quite hard with all the expenses that we are facing as of the moment but I am really glad, truly glad. I hope in your early age, you will be able to save as this is one of the things that I regret not doing. It can take you places Anak, believe me. I will try my best to encourage you on this one. Sana lang di ka gastador tulad ko. For the meantime, You might ask why pero I don’t know why exactly I opened an account for you but surely this will be one of those things that will be useful for you while you’re growing up Baby. Sabi nga nila, the best time to save up is “Now”.

Yesterday was your 8^th month birthday. I really didn’t plan to buy you a cake kasi sarado na yung Red Ribbon when Mama goes home then in the morning naman, they open at 10am pa. Di bale, We’ll have it this weekend na lang baby ok? Stay healthy and Happy. I love you more than you ever know. =)

Love,

Mama