Every end of the month I send money back home for our tithes, to fund my investment portfolio, and a few more bucks for my mother’s monthly needs. Call it routine for many Filipinos like me who’s based and working abroad.
It’s common to see kababayans lining up the banks and remittance centers during the last week and first days of the month. As you know, salaries abroad are given mostly on a monthly basis unlike in the Philippines where many companies pay their employees twice a month.
In fact, there are lots of heartbreaking stories you will hear from fellow Filipinos while waiting in line to send money. These are a few of them:
- Some receive their salaries after 3 months or so
- Older Filipinos, mostly domestic helpers and laborers, sending almost all of their salaries every month.
- Sick and dying loved ones back home that they need to support financially
- A loved one died but they could not come home so they just send money instead
- Started a business that failed
While there are tear-jerking stories, there are some hilarious stuff as well:
- A man sending money for their kids’ “projects” only to see their photos on Facebook, flashing V signs….while in Hongkong.
- Invested their money in a network marketing group that has no product.
But what moved me last night was the sight of an elderly Filipina on the other line, in her late 60’s perhaps.
“Magkano po ang ipapadala ninyo?”, asked the remittance guy.
“200 riyals (2,200 pesos) lang po.”, said the lady.
You could see in her the weariness from a long day of hard work, as a domestic helper.
Her hair uncombed, the sad and tired look in her eyes, her hand on her cheek while shaking her head. For whatever reasons, I wouldn’t know. But for sure it’s something urgent. An emergency perhaps? Her last saved money?
I remember in her my dear mother who went to Qatar during my childhood years to work as a family helper and assistant.
Those were one of the saddest years in my life. I would skip recess meals in school and just sit under those acacia trees in our playground thinking about my mom.
And cry.
There were no cellphones back then. No internet. Only letters that we receive once month.
We could only hear her voice recorded on a cassette tape. And we would do the same for her.
She needed to take that overseas job after my father went bankrupt.
My late father entered into an office furniture business deal after opting to retire early from his high-profile government job. The business flopped after discovering that his partner was a fraud. He was a lawyer but he was duped. So he had no choice but to let my mother go and work abroad.
I saw the pain in my father’s eyes and the sadness from my mother’s face during those last minutes before she left for the airport. My younger brother crying out in screams of “Mama!!! Mama!!!” after realizing that our mother won’t be back very soon.
I was thinking, this couldn’t have happened if he didn’t invest all his retirement pay in a business that he had no knowledge of. If only he saved and invested more of his monthly earnings in real estate or the stock market. Or any other paper asset. If only he knew better back then. We would have been happier. Together.
He was only 54 yeas old when he accepted the optional retirement package from the government. He withdrew everything he saved from his mutual fund investment upon his first early retirement year and re-invested it in a fishpond business that was eventually destroyed by a typhoon.
We also had a small restaurant that didn’t even last for two years as I was always very sickly that they had to focus their attention on me.
Today, is another story. I feel so blessed working overseas while my wife and child are with me as one of the perks. A blessing that my mother and father didn’t have back then.
But how we wish and pray we could go back home soon and try to become entrepreneurs. And contribute to the economy of our nation by providing jobs to people.
We have started investing in stocks and have been looking for ways to earn more online. I am firmly decided to do this monthly investing until my retirement age.
I will not let my family down. I may fail by trying. But I will not give up by trying all over again.
My Advocacy for OFWs
A group of friends and I have been so busy the past few weeks organizing an ambitious international financial literacy drive for overseas-based Filipinos. It’s part of an advocacy of helping OFWs and their dependents become educated in matters of investment, entrepreneurship, and personal finance called OFW UsapangPiso. A forum website has been created as the main venue for free online learning. Visit the site here: OFW UsapangPiso Forum (Site was deactivated back in 2014)
You can also join our Facebook group, which is actually the extension of the forum website: OFW UsapangPiso Facebook Group.
Rock your way to abundance!
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