Living as an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) poses various kinds of challenges similar to what Filipinos living in the Philippines have, and even more. Aside from dealing with homesickness, the adjustment to the new living conditions, work, environment, and the people they deal with on a daily basis, managing their hard-earned finances can also pose as a challenge because of their distance away from home. But that should not be the case.
In this post, we share 5 easy ways on how OFWs can manage their finances (savings and investments included) better through BPI Express online banking. Here’s how:
Here are 5 Ways on How OFWs can Manage their Money Overseas
1. Send remittances directly to your beneficiaries’ accounts.
Even if your primary intention for working abroad was simply to earn more to provide for your family’s needs, it doesn’t mean that you can’t track where your money is spent. Having someone you can entrust your money to back home (a spouse, a parent, or a sibling) to use your funds to responsibly pay the bills and other much-needed purchases is a good thing. You can directly credit your remittances through this person’s account back home. Alternatively, you can choose to remit only a portion of your earnings to your beneficiary’s account, and manage your family’s expenses back home thru an online banking platform such as BPI Express Online.
2. Send remittances through your personal savings account.
Providing for your family’s needs is a good thing to do. But it’s better to save up some for yourself for your retirement, future investments, as well as emergency funds. Taking care of these things while you still have the means is a smart way to ensure that your family is taken care of by eliminating the burden that they have to carry in case things don’t go as planned.
By setting aside a portion of your earnings abroad and remitting it to your personal savings account, you are slowly building your savings funds which will prove to be quite handy in more ways than one in the future. There are certain tools that can help you realize this goal. For instance, BPI’s Save Up automatically sets aside a portion of your funds from an ATM account to a savings account.
3. Oversee your investments on-line.
Aside from your monthly pay checks, you may have already considered building on your investment portfolio as another source of income. Banking with BPI will help you monitor your investments perform transactions through the internet. This means that wherever you may be in the world, for as long as you have access to the internet, and through services such as BPI Investments Online, you can manage your investment portfolio without fail.
4. Take advantage of the benefits of using prepaid cards.
Budgeting is one of the first skills that every working individual should learn no matter how big or small their earnings maybe. This is simply responsible handling of your funds versus your expenses. This is all the more expected of OFWs who support not just their first family, sometimes, even their relatives. And there’s no shame in doing so, but it’s also important that we know how to maximize our finances while there’s enough going around for all those we can share it with.
Using prepaid cards is one of the smart ways to ensure that we don’t go overspending beyond our set budget. By setting a budget through the use of prepaid cards, you can track your family’s expenses from grocery shopping to other leisure buys.
5. Use the best remittance method(s) that suit your personal and family’s needs.
Nowadays, there are various methods of sending and receiving remittances other than crediting it to bank accounts. Depending on what works and what is more convenient for your family, you can have them collect remittances through accredited outlets such as payment centres and pawnshops. You even have the option to have your money delivered straight to your home. With BPI’s extensive network of payment and remittance channels, you can expect that your money will be handled safely and sent to your loved ones in a timely manner.
With today’s technology and upgraded banking services such as that of BPI, it’s very easy to manage your personal and family’s funds even if you are miles apart from each other.