Cebuana Lhuillier Celebrates World Savings Day

It’s October 31, 2022! It’s Halloween!

Well, aside from that, there’s also another event worth celebrating today – it’s World Savings Day! In fact, Cebuana Lhuillier has been celebrating this consistently for some years now, never missing a bit in their quest for awareness of the importance of saving as a fundamental step towards the journey to financial freedom.

This year, in anticipation of the event, Cebuana Lhuillier, the Philippines’ leading and largest micro-financial services provider, held an intimate but knowledge-packed blogger session dubbed ” 2022 World Savings Day: Restart Your Finances”. It had a guest speaker, SavingsPinay.ph’s blogger, Ms. Izza Glino.

The Financial Advisor in me was delighted to have been invited as any talk about financial literacy is always a welcome treat. Savings, after all, is the best foundation that can jumpstart one’s journey toward achieving financial freedom.

The talk aimed to impart valuable knowledge and awareness on how we can get our finances back on track. Towards the end, there was even a bonus activity – a workshop on how to use bullet journaling to help us keep track of our finances, monitor our cash flow, and stick to your set budget.

All attendees were oblivious to the heavy rains outside as we were all focused on the topics on hand. In the end, Izza and Cebuana Lhuillier were able to successfully send the message across. How can Filipinos reset and solve their money problems? Izza shared seven (7) steps you can follow and take to heart:

1. UNDERSTAND YOUR CURRENT FINANCIAL SITUATION
   • Take inventory of your finances – your income. expenses, debt, and assets. With a clear picture of your current financial standing, you can easily draw a plan to solve your money problems.
2. REVIEW YOUR SPENDING HABITS
   • Find out WHO and HOW are you when it comes to spending your own money lately.
     • Are you a SAVER or a SPENDER
     • Do you spend more on your needs or your wants?
3. MAKE SMALL CHANGES
   • Find small ways you can reduce your daily expenditure in order to save more
     • What tiny habits can you do for your finances?
4. BUDGET
   • Setting and following a monthly budget can help you gain a sense of control
5. SET NEW OR BETTER SAVING GOALS
   • Set S.M.A.R.T. Goals – as any financial advisor will teach everyone, our goals should always be “SMART” – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound. These parameters as they pertain to your goal help ensure that your objectives are attainable within a certain time frame.
6. PUT YOUR PLAN INTO ACTION
   • Implement steps that can minimize the chances of another financial setback.
7. CORRECT AND ADJUST
   • Perfection is impossible. Get started with your saving goals, correct and adjust along the way.

Starting your savings is key to opening the doors to financial freedom. With well-established savings, you can level up to more financial instruments that are necessary to provide that peace of mind and a lifetime of financial stability.

Choose to restart your finances now!

With Cebuana Lhuillier’s Micro Savings, you can open regular savings account easier because it doesn’t require a maintaining balance. Account holders can deposit anytime and withdraw anywhere at their most convenient time with Cebuana Lhuillier’s network of more than 3,000 branches nationwide. As a Micro Savings account holder, you can also pay cashless using your card in any of 350,000 Unionpay and Bancnet accredited retail stores and withdraw in any of  21,000+ Bancnet ATM nationwide.

Micro Savings provides Filipinos with a more convenient and affordable means to save their hard-earned money.  Filipino citizens as young as 7 years old are qualified to open a savings account, which can be considered as a “kids savings” or “junior savings” account in banks.

Happy World Savings Day everyone. I wish you all a smooth journey to financial wellness. As Cebuana Lhuillier always reminds us, “Maging isang IPONARYO, dahil PANALO LAGI ANG MAY IPON!“

The Barangay Resilience Exchange 2022

Are you and your community ready when disaster strikes? Can you survive a calamity?

These and other disaster-related issues were the topics that the 2nd Barangay Resilience Exchange Forum (BRX2022), an initiative of Cebuana Lhuillier Foundation, Inc., aimed to discuss when it held its sessions on October 13 and 14, 2022.

Adopting a theme of “Ang Handang Barangay, Mahusay!”, this year’s forum – the first and only digital conference of its kind in the Philippines, highlighted the importance of collaboration and coordination among the government, private organizations, NGOs, and the community in order to survive and thrive following a major calamity.

“Cebuana Lhuillier has always prided itself on its commitment towards helping Filipinos lead better lives—whether through our call towards financial inclusion or through our CSR programs designed to empower Filipinos. Disaster Resilience is one of our main thrusts as it impacts the safety, security, and livelihood of the very communities we serve. Through BRX2022 and with the help of our partner institutions, our hope is that our barangay leaders will get valuable learnings that they can use in times of emergencies,” shares Jean Henri Lhuillier, president & CEO of Cebuana Lhuillier.

Jonathan Batangan, First Vice President & CLFI Executive Director, adds, “The second staging of BRX2022 continues CLFI’s thrust in promoting the importance of public-private and community collaboration. We are lucky to have gotten the support of the government, as well as the organizations who lead the way when it comes to disaster preparedness, mitigation, response, rehabilitation, and recovery encompassing the disaster risk reduction and management value chain”.

First Vice President & CLFI Executive Director, Jonathan Batangan was joined by BRX2022 Speakers Dr. Ted Esguerra, Ms. Veronica Gabaldon, Ms. Simonette Lat and Dr. Mahar Lagmay as they sign the BRX2022 Manifesto

With the support of the government through the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Office of Civil Defense (OCD), this year’s BRX Forum offered two days of online learning courtesy of the number of agencies who signed up to share their knowledge. Leading its roster of speakers are DILG Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr., and Secretary Renato Solidum of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). Also sharing their expertise for the first day of the two-day event include Dr. Alfredo Mahar Lagmay, Executive Director of UP Resilience Institute, Joy Santiago, EnP of the UP NOAH Center, Dr. Jojo Sayson, President & Founder of Project Michael Angelo Foundation, Usec. Raymundo Ferrer from the Office of the Civil Defense of the Department of National Defense, and Felix Ayque, Founder & CEO of Komunidad.

The second day of BRX featured talks from Dr. Teofredo Esguerra from the Energy Development Corporation, as well as live interviews featuring disaster resilience advocates, local community leaders from across the country and panel discussions with representatives from Department of Trade and Industry (DTI),  Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF), German Cooperation Agency (GIZ), Globe Telecom, SM Supermalls, Oxfam , Sagip Kapamilya, Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Offices, Cebuana Lhuillier Insurance Brokers,  among others.

At least 4,000 registered for this two-day event. They were composed of Barangay Leaders, Local Government Units, Non-profit and Civil Society Organizations, MSMEs, and the media.

You probably missed out on this but don’t fret, you can still check out the forum as it was recorded and streamed live on various social media pages. Learn a lot of knowledge and tips on how to be fully prepared in times of calamities. Check out days 1 and 2 of the forum from the following:

• Cebuana Lhuillier FB Page
• Cebuana Lhuillier Foundation Inc.

For more details, visit https://cebuanafoundation.org/brx-barangay-resilience-exchange/