When 3 Good reasons are Bad

It's good that from time to time we hear or read about success stories of overseas Filipino workers who have graduated from menial jobs to become entrepreneurs.After all, the OFWs, of which there are now more than 10 million  spread out across the four corners of the globe—have left the country precisely to improve their economic conditions. 

 

But we should not be surprised at all if there are OFWs who end up even worse off than when they started.

We can cite several reasons why this is so.

First, OFWs come home penniless because their families become too dependent on their remittances and see no need to uplift their economic situation because their breadwinner is doing that for them.  Since OFW families look at overseas employment with high income as a godsend, they see no need to stand on their own two feet.

Two, OFWs may already have financial problems even before leaving the Philippines. Many of them borrow huge amounts of money to pay for overseas employment since they reckon that they can recover their investment anyway at some future time.

And three, OFWs end up poorer than before because they make no conscious effort to save their hard-earned money.

According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas,  eight out of 10 Filipinos don't have bank accounts. That only means one thing: they have to be taught financial literacy.

If many OFWs don't really save for the proverbial rainy days and instead splurge on luxurious goods and gift items for their families back home, they should be made conscious of long-term financial planning.

While many OFWs usually earn more money in other countries than if they stayed here, some of them experience financial problems despite years of hard work because they fail to spend their money wisely.

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