CAMARINES SUR, Philippines – Last Sunday, September 6, 2015 at the Iriga Plaza Convention Center, Iriga City, BeamAndGo—an alternative remittance fintech that offers overseas Filipinos a safer way to provide for their families’ basic needs—launched the first installment of its LearnAndGo series called “The Family FQ Workshop with the Faustos”.
In partnership with dedicated financial literacy advocate and FQMom.com blogger, Rose Fres Fausto and family, together with the driven cooperation of Iriga City Mayor Ronald Felix “Gang-gang” Aleflor and Iriga LGUs, a jam-packed venue of over 500 attendees were welcomed by the BeamAndGo team. The crowd was a multifarious mix of OFW families, members of the academe, religious sectors, businessmen, city officials and even the common fisher folk and farmers who were prominently living in the area.
“Our project, LearnAndGo, is a financial literacy workshop series that aims to provide Filipinos, especially the families of OFWs, the necessary knowledge they would need to successfully manage their money savings and to empower them to sustain their future,” said BeamAndGo Marketing Director, Albert Christian Go.
The 5-hour occasion highlighted the Fausto family’s helpful tips on setting aside savings for the rainy days, insights on money investing and advice on how to raise more financially-responsible children or as Rose Fres Fausto had called it, “children with High FQ (Financial Intelligence Quotient) that are armed with Economic Self-Defense.”
Rose and husband, Marvin, resonated words of encouragement to the audience. They said, “You don’t need to be rich or highly-experienced in investments. Just a simple habit of setting aside money. We believe that investing is for everyone.”
Mayor Alfelor also chipped in on sharing some common counter-productive habits of people when it comes to handling money such as buying excessively on discount prices only to end up spending more, opting to loan money to use it for luxuries and even using own savings to throw extravagant feasts during local fiestas.
“This is a glimpse of the truth. We focus on the illusion of money because of fear—we are scared to lose money. If there is no money on our pockets and there is someone offering to lend some, we immediately loan money just to fill our pockets, temporarily. Because we don’t know how to use money, we don’t know where it ends up going. We become unaware of the money that comes and goes and at the end, we find ourselves losing everything”, he mentioned.
Adding up all these insights was knock in the door for most attendees—some being OFWs themselves who weren’t able to save wisely. Fellow Irigueno, Remie shared, “ I have been an OFW in Saudi Arabia for the longest time in the past but none of my savings sent to the Philippines had been used properly because I was not able to teach my children how to use money intelligently.”
Salve, another Irigueno who went through tough times growing up shared, “I was able to share my memory when I was still young and how I had learned that no matter how much money you have, if you only end up spending most of it, you won’t have anything to keep for important expenses. The workshop was a helpful reminder that even the littlest amount set aside can be a good investment for your future.”
Jonathan E. Chua, CEO of BeamAndGo, expressed his delight over the positive feedback of the Iriguenos to the LearnAndGo kick-off event. He said: “BeamAndGo is ecstatic to have jumpstarted the LearnAndGo series with flying colors, here in Iriga City. It was always going be about empowering Filipino families to have a better understanding of money savings, investments and finance handling. We are a firm believer that financial literacy is not just for the provider or breadwinner but for every single person within the family. It is a team effort and equipping Filipinos with this understanding will serve as the backbone for their successful future.”
BeamAndGo’s efforts to promote the LearnAndGo series will be extending to more locations in the coming months. Interested in setting up a LearnAndGo workshop in your area? Contact Albert Go, BeamAndGo Pte Ltd. Marketing Director at +63 920 938 8983 or albert at beamandgo.com for more inquires and visit www.beamandgo.com