Can you imagine being over 50 and penniless after working all your life as an OFW?
Can you imagine being over 50 and not having been able to save enough money for yourself after being an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) all your life.
That can be depressing, especially if it dawns upon you that your children, for whom you’ve spent a lifetime working abroad, now have their own lives to live, having become parents themselves and obligations to their offsprings.
A sound financial decision should include a retirement plan as it is a critical and essential element of becoming financially independent come the “rainy days,” or when you’ve become too old to work and start living off your own or whatever your children could afford for you.
Sadly, a large number of OFWs are not ready to return permanently to the Philippines. This is because they didn’t have concrete financial blueprints for their retirement. Some OFWs, too, are still in need of finding a new source of income upon returning home.
The aging population in the Philippines would normally rely on pension such as the SSS or GSIS. For the unfortunate ones, charitable institutions become an option. Only a small segment of our old-age population is financially literate. The rest fall for overspending while they were moneyed; fail to anticipate future financial needs, and see saving for retirement as not a goal or priority at all.
What are the implications and consequences when an OFW isn’t prepared for retirement? Some thoughts to ponder:
1. You will continue to spend money
The problem with retirement is that your daily expenditures never stop even if your monthly paychecks have. When you get old and your health declines, you will need medicine, food, and pay for utilities regularly. You shouldn’t worry about those expenses if you have pension or reasonable source of passive income when you retire.
2. Become a burden to family members
An aging, penniless, former OFW becomes a burden to family. And you certainly do not want to end up that way. Your failure to have a retirement plan can cause emotional anxieties and financial burden to your loved ones. In other words, aside from your personal needs like food and paying for utilities, they will have to worry about your medication or hospitalization especially when your health is not anymore at its best.
3. Your children can become substitute for retirement
By this we mean, children of penniless, former OFWs suffer the consequence and spend on their parents’ retirement instead of planning for their future so as not to end up like their moms and dads.
4. You may be obliged to keep working despite your old age
When you’re at a retirement age, the challenge is how you are going to survive when you are no longer physically fit to make money. We’ve heard countless stories of OFWs who are already 50 or 60 years old yet they have to extend contract even if they already wanted to go back home permanently. The reason is that either they don’t have enough savings for themselves or some family members are still depending on them financially.
It’s great that some of our parents are receiving pensions from SSS or GSIS when they have retired as professionals. But due to high inflation rate in the Philippines, this may not be enough to cover their expenses. In the twilight remaining years of their lives, they should be travelling and enjoy the retirement age, instead. But most of them have to work to survive.
5. Failure to have a retirement plan can cause financial worries
Retirement planning is one of the most important financial goals you’ll need to undertake; failure to do so could ruin everything. When you don’t have a savings plan, you will end up with tragic debts causing your family to financially and emotionally distressed.
Final thoughts
Some financial goals you might want to consider as an OFW is enjoy a debt-free life, secure a comprehensive health and life insurance, have a house you can call your own, invest in paper assets and have a passive or stable income like rental properties. Also, consider putting your money in smart investments that will provide you with financial security through time.
Needless to say, saving for retirement all comes down to discipline, commitment, and hard work. Aside from creating a budget and getting out of debt, build a long-term savings plan through investing a portion of your income regularly. It’s never too early or too late to prepare a retirement fund and achieve financial success.
JUN AMPARO is the author of OMG! OFW’s Money is Gone: Practical Tips on How to Be Wise with Your Hard-earned Money which was featured at GMA News Online. Being an OFW for over a decade, he’s aware about the common financial challenges of many Overseas Filipino Workers. He is also a founder of www.richlyblessedtoday.com, a blog about financial education dedicated to fellow OFWs
