Do you still remember the time when you were trying to learn how to read and write? You started with the alphabet, right? That is a form of basic knowledge right there. When we talk about basic knowledge, it is the first set of information in the process of learning and discovering new things. In budgeting and saving money, knowing the basics is also essential and crucial. Understanding basic financial concepts will help you make better financial decisions whether it’s about saving, investing, borrowing, and even more.

Let us now begin your journey on being financially literate!

First and foremost, acknowledging the importance of saving money is important. Keep in mind that this money is the fruit of your hard work and perseverance that is why you should think more than twice about how and where to spend it. Some of the reasons why saving money is an important thing to do: it helps to protect you from being caught by emergency expenses; it could also help you with your future expenses and achieve your goals.

1. Needs vs wants. Determining the needs and wants may be hard at first, but this will help you a lot in being financially stable. Always consider which are necessities where you should spend your money. For example, every payday, learn to prioritize buying the essentials such as food, medicines, transportation allowance, rent fees, and the like. Next, set aside an amount for your savings – make this a habit every month. A 10-20% of your total monthly income could be a good start to put on your savings. Try to write down your monthly expenses and categorize them into needs or wants. You can observe that the things that are listed on wants serve only for temporary convenience, or pleasures that are not essentials and could be acquired when you have extra money.

2. Make a budget plan. It is so much easier to monitor your monthly expenses when you track them. List down all the expenses, and the total of your savings every month. This will serve as your monthly guide to help you manage your money along the way. A budget plan can be adjusted anytime you need to change or modify your expenses.

Month of April 2021
Total earning: PHP 15,000
ITEM	BUDGET	EXPENSES	SAVINGS

3. Have a SMART financial goal. Knowing the objectives and purpose of why you are saving could help you to be motivated to keep going until you reach your financial goal and stability.

Specific: What are the things you want to buy or do in the future?	Example: Wedding
Measurable: How much is your target savings?	Total: Php 200,000 (Php12,000 - savings per month)
Attainable: Where your savings would come from?	Salary and Part-time job
Realistic: Why do you need to save money?	To provide a decent and simple wedding for my partner.
Time-bound: When do you plan to start saving your money and complete it? Provide exact target date.	Start date: Jun 2021 Completion date: Dec 2022

These questions might help you in setting your financial goal: - What are the things you want to buy in the future? - Why do you need to save money? - How much is your target savings? - How can you save money? - When do you plan to start saving your money in the future?

To complete your financial goal, remember that it must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound (SMART).

Saving money may seem to be challenging for a lot of Filipinos because there are still more than 51M who are unbanked to date, according to the 2019 BSP Financial Inclusion Survey. This may be a challenging task to do, but we can always try until we can fully learn what will work for us. Aside from the Juan, Two, Threes, there are different ways of saving your hard-earned money. Choose one that will fit your monthly income and expenses, and your lifestyle, too.

Open a savings account. Savings accounts are interest-bearing deposit account that will be held by a bank or any financial institution. Usually, a savings account has maintaining balance, though this is a good option if you want to park your cash for a while and get it anytime for your short-term needs.

Here are the reminders for opening a savings account: - Choose and go to your preferred bank - Prepare a government-issued ID (accepted IDs: Postal ID, Passport, Driver’s License, Voter’s ID, PRC ID, Senior Citizen ID, School ID (for minors), SSS ID) - Fill out a form - Prepare your desired initial deposit

Use the money saving feature of your e-wallet. There are some institutions that are not affiliated with banks that also offer savings features.   Here are some:

– On the GCash app, click the icon ‘Save Money’ – Register your GSave account, and fill out personal information – A prompt will show ‘GSave Registration Success’ – You will be redirected to the GSave dashboard – An SMS will be sent to you from GCash confirming that you have opened a GSave account

– Go to any branch and fill out the Client Customer Information File Sheet and bring the following: – 1 government-issued ID – PHP 50 as an initial deposit – PHP 150 card fee (for clients w/o 24k card), PHP 75 for card upgrade

Digital savings. A digital savings account is a paperless and fast way of opening an account using a digital platform. This is the most common account that people are getting themselves into nowadays because of its convenience and more secure way of banking. You can access and monitor your account online anytime, anywhere.   These options might be intimidating to you but don’t worry, in the next article we will learn the different features of these tools and even how set them up in your smartphones.   To know more about the status of financial inclusion in the country particularly in the aspect of saving, check out this Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ Financial Inclusion Survey thru this link.   Links [https://gflec.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/3313-Finlit_Report_FINAL-5.11.16.pdf?x56258](https://gflec.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/3313-Finlit_Report_FINAL-5.11.16.pdf?x56258)