Aaaaah June is here! It’s the month when we parents, at least us who live in the Philippines, somehow dread, because school is about to start for our kids. Emotionally, we are connected with our children and some of us tend to have separation anxiety. Physically, it would mean we are partly back-to-school ourselves as we’ll be involved with our kids getting to and from school, attending and participating in school activities and constantly guiding them with their homework. Financially, we need to secure enough money to fund our children’s tuition fees. 13 years of schooling, tertiary level not included. What dreads you the most out of the three aspects when your child starts school this year?
Mentally computing 13 years + 4 years (in college) of schooling for my two children would mean my husband and I would have to cough up roughly 4 million pesos for their 17 years’ worth of education. Four freaking million! Give or take a few hundred thousands of pesos, no thanks to inflation rate and tuition fee hike. Despite the overwhelming sum of money we have to come up with, thinking about how we can save that amount induces the need for us to work and strive harder. Investing time and money is what we are doing now for them. These are after all part of our preparation for their future.
To be honest, I haven’t given much thought about K-12 ever since it was implemented back in 2012. It was only this year that lil’ Ms. GJG is entering big school that I have started researching about the new education system of the Philippines, as I was so used to K10 (Kinder + 6 years Primary education, 4 years secondary education) that I need to understand what K-12 is all about. All I know is that two more years are added to my children’s education. Come to think of it, the additional 2 years can help prepare the students for college, making them globally competitive once they’re out in the real world.
After much reading and understanding, I figured sending my kids to school would really need some serious financial planning. This one’s a bit of a challenge for me. I know how much valuable education is, given I’ve sent myself to college, but I know this isn’t enough. I tend to pay lip service, knowing that somehow if I did it, it wouldn’t be any different when it comes to my kids as we would somehow manage to send them to school. But most parents would agree that uncertainty isn’t really the best option especially when it comes to our children. I don’t want to just wonder and wait yearly if we can afford to send our kids to school now do I? I know I have to start planning as early as now when lil’ Ms. GJG is in Pre-K, just in time for when she officially enters K-12 next school year. In line with my efforts to further understand financial planning, I’m sharing with you all some options Insular life has presented to me which might help you start your own financial planning- focusing primarily on your child’s education.
Insular life has two education savings products called Wealth Secure Education and Wealth Assure Education.
#InsularEducation
Wealth Secure Education is an investment-linked insurance plan that provides funds you can use for your child’s future education. It can even provide you with lifetime insurance protection that can help sustain your family’s needs. Plan for your child’s future in a systematic way. Wealth Secure Education is designed to help you save up regularly whether annually, semi-annually, quarterly or monthly. In case of windfalls, feel free to add it to your policy to build a bigger fund in the future. This investment can easily adjust to your financial needs, allowing you to save for several years of schooling depending on what you require. Whether it’s for high school, college, or even post graduate degrees, Wealth Secure Education can help you. You can even withdraw funds according to your child’s enrollment period. This plan gives you the opportunity to gain higher yields, depending on your risk appetite. It can potentially cover all school expenses (tuition, allowances, etc.) or supplement funds of an existing education plan. Choose to invest your money in the steady performance of fixed income assets or opt to maximize your returns by placing your money in equities. A mix of these two is also an alternative.
Wealth Secure guarantees a death benefit equal to the sum insured plus the fund value. The sum insured is at least 500% of your annual premium. This provides you the assurance that whatever happens to you, your child’s education can be provided for, regardless of market performance.
Wealth Assure Education is an investment-linked insurance plan that maximizes your education fund’s earning potential. It allows you to be more capable of supporting your child’s dreams and ambition and even provides you with lifetime insurance protection that can help sustain your family’s needs. Whatever profession your child wishes to pursue, you need not hold him back from reaching his full potential because of insufficient financial preparation. Be in a position to afford who he wants to be by setting aside a significant amount regularly starting today. Through annual, semi-annual, quarterly or monthly savings, you can be assured of available funds that may be required for his chosen field of study, in the future. This product allows you to save for several years of schooling depending on what you require. There are available programs for high school, college or even post graduate degrees. You can even withdraw funds according to your child’s enrollment period. The low charges of the product allow a bigger part of the premium to be allocated in its investment portion, which is in turn, invested in high performing funds composed of fixed income assets, equities or both. This results to potentially higher fund values in the future, from which you will withdraw your education funding requirements.
Wealth Assure Education guarantees a death benefit equal to the sum insured plus fund value. The sum insured is at least 500% of your annual premium. This provides you the assurance that whatever happens to you, your child’s education can be provided for, regardless of market performance.
I’m still on the ropes when it comes to learning about planning for the future as I am really so used to doing away with what is available at present. But to get me started on it, I used Insular Life’s Assessing Your Needs tool to help me determine my family’s financial health condition.
Simply fill out the form based on your cash flow, that, being your monthly income and monthly expenses.
I love how very detailed it is, as you can really compute everything from basic needs to other spendings that we don’t often include in our accounting, such as charity.
The present is always the best time to invest for the future. Get started on planning and have more than one option to choose from. Start by learning the basics and assessing your financial situation. Visit http://www.insularlife.com.ph if you want to learn more about their different products that are flexible for everyone.
You can also learn saving tips at http://www.savingstips.com.ph and join Insular Life’s Magandang Araw Movement http://www.magandangaraw.com.ph
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