a refrain all of us are familiar with ....
and we want - and therefore try to plan, to have some - at all times
some call it by some fancy name like real estate planning, retirement plans, and what have you
others do it by judicious cash flow management
regular people just call it saving......and to use Elizabeth Barrett Browning's immortal words from a favorite poem that i know by heart, let me count the ways
one must have some cash stored away in a bank. why? because cash speaks in any emergency.
others have credit cards. this is good too, if you know how to use a credit card, keeping track of the interest. they add up. besides, this sort of money usually is kept for the here-and-now.
money for later is usually kept in some investment instrument - such as money deposits. it is hard to save money. really. unless your income is up there in the so-many-digits per month. if you are earning 7 digits a month (that is a minimum of 1,000,000/month), then perhaps saving is easy but otherwise, it may not be that easy.
then there are retirement plans, money for the future normally. there are 2 government sponsored ones here in the Philippines - SSS and GSIS. the mechanics are fairly the same, except that SSS allows you to continue your contributions even if you are no longer employed in the private sector. Contributions are then made under "voluntary membership". SSS also has coverage under "self-employed". i suggest that people provide and cover themselves under the this one. There is no reason for anyone not to be covered. Choose to provide for yourself and your family. i am going to find out how one may be covered under self-employed, especially for the informal sector. everyone needs to have a pension.
of course rich people dont call it a pension, it is merely a stream of monthly cash flows from sources such as investments, rental real estate properties, money market arrangements, and other financial instruments.
i ask every cab driver if he is paying his SSS. Young or old, it is a standard question for me. why cab drivers? i usually have their attention, particularly because of the traffic everywhere.
i take it upon myself to ask because i once saw an old lady, her face ravaged by age but bearing traces of the beauty she was before, crying because she thought she had at least her SSS pension to help her with the hard times she was facing and it turned out that she didnt qualify for one. She didnt have enough contributions.
Currently, SSS requires at least a 120 months of contributions to qualify for a pension. The minimum pension is 1,200.00. An old friend of mine - who shall remain nameless in this blog - says this amount is not good for anything. He says this is not even enough to pay his mom's driver. there speaks a man with money, well, he's from Ateneo, so i will leave you with your own conclusions.
i tell the drivers that amount is indeed the minimum pension, and it is small. this is the pension for those who pay 104.00 for a 1,000.00 MSC. MSC in SSS parlance, or if you prefer, hiphop speak is the monthly salary credit. so i encourage them to up their contributions so that their pension will have some meaning.
what do i suggest? obviously, as high as one can. the maximum if possible. the current MSC ceiling for SSS is 15,000.00. the contribution to be paid is 1,560.00. so to save up for this amount, a person needs to save only 52.00 pesos a day. reachable. about the cost of one (1) 2 liter coke zero.
this post would be incomplete if i did not specify the deadline. to decongest queue lines, SSS management has decided to have different deadlines depending on the last digit of the member's SSS number. The circular is posted below for your quick reference. The revised deadlines are now in effect.
and we want - and therefore try to plan, to have some - at all times
some call it by some fancy name like real estate planning, retirement plans, and what have you
others do it by judicious cash flow management
regular people just call it saving......and to use Elizabeth Barrett Browning's immortal words from a favorite poem that i know by heart, let me count the ways
one must have some cash stored away in a bank. why? because cash speaks in any emergency.
others have credit cards. this is good too, if you know how to use a credit card, keeping track of the interest. they add up. besides, this sort of money usually is kept for the here-and-now.
money for later is usually kept in some investment instrument - such as money deposits. it is hard to save money. really. unless your income is up there in the so-many-digits per month. if you are earning 7 digits a month (that is a minimum of 1,000,000/month), then perhaps saving is easy but otherwise, it may not be that easy.
then there are retirement plans, money for the future normally. there are 2 government sponsored ones here in the Philippines - SSS and GSIS. the mechanics are fairly the same, except that SSS allows you to continue your contributions even if you are no longer employed in the private sector. Contributions are then made under "voluntary membership". SSS also has coverage under "self-employed". i suggest that people provide and cover themselves under the this one. There is no reason for anyone not to be covered. Choose to provide for yourself and your family. i am going to find out how one may be covered under self-employed, especially for the informal sector. everyone needs to have a pension.
of course rich people dont call it a pension, it is merely a stream of monthly cash flows from sources such as investments, rental real estate properties, money market arrangements, and other financial instruments.
Kaya. Hwag kalimutan ang sarili sa pakikibaka sa panahon.
i ask every cab driver if he is paying his SSS. Young or old, it is a standard question for me. why cab drivers? i usually have their attention, particularly because of the traffic everywhere.
i take it upon myself to ask because i once saw an old lady, her face ravaged by age but bearing traces of the beauty she was before, crying because she thought she had at least her SSS pension to help her with the hard times she was facing and it turned out that she didnt qualify for one. She didnt have enough contributions.
Currently, SSS requires at least a 120 months of contributions to qualify for a pension. The minimum pension is 1,200.00. An old friend of mine - who shall remain nameless in this blog - says this amount is not good for anything. He says this is not even enough to pay his mom's driver. there speaks a man with money, well, he's from Ateneo, so i will leave you with your own conclusions.
i tell the drivers that amount is indeed the minimum pension, and it is small. this is the pension for those who pay 104.00 for a 1,000.00 MSC. MSC in SSS parlance, or if you prefer, hiphop speak is the monthly salary credit. so i encourage them to up their contributions so that their pension will have some meaning.
what do i suggest? obviously, as high as one can. the maximum if possible. the current MSC ceiling for SSS is 15,000.00. the contribution to be paid is 1,560.00. so to save up for this amount, a person needs to save only 52.00 pesos a day. reachable. about the cost of one (1) 2 liter coke zero.
this post would be incomplete if i did not specify the deadline. to decongest queue lines, SSS management has decided to have different deadlines depending on the last digit of the member's SSS number. The circular is posted below for your quick reference. The revised deadlines are now in effect.
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2. For household employers (HRs), self-employed and voluntary members (except OFW-members): For instance, if the SS number is 01-2345678-9, the payment deadline for both contributions and member loans for the applicable month of April shall be on May 30. 3. In case the payment deadline falls on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday, payment may be made on the next working day. Otherwise, penalties shall be imposed on late contribution and member loan payments of employers and late member loan payments of self-employed and voluntary members; while late contribution payments of self-employed and voluntary members shall be applied prospectively 4. The frequency of payment shall remain on a monthly basis for regular and household ERs, and on a monthly or quarterly basis for self-employed and voluntary members. Payments on a quarterly basis shall mean payments for all three months ending in a calendar quarter (i.e. March, June, September, and December). 5. The payment schedule for OFW-members shall remain as stated under Circular 32-P dated 15 November 2006. This Circular shall take effect starting applicable month of June 2011 in case of monthly payment or applicable quarter ending June 30, 2011 in case of quarterly payment and shall supersede the provisions on payment deadlines of Circular No. 13-P dated December 22, 2003 and Circular No. 2008-003 dated June 10, 2008.****************************************** | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
so dont forget, plan for a little money at a time when you may not have as much.
and put a little money away in the bank. to tide you over when your pension is a little late.
i will say this for SSS, SSS has never been late with pension deposits to your account.
Kudos to SSS for that.
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