With the aim to teach more Filipinos to properly invest their money to attain their life goals, Sun Life Asset Management Company, Inc (SLAMCI) has launched a series of video blogs (vlogs) that particularly target millennials—a group of people who are in their mid-20’s to 30’s.
The mutual fund unit of Sun Life of Canada (Philippines), Inc produced the vlogs as part of its ‘Make It Mutual’ campaign. The vlogs feature athlete-turned-actor Matteo Guidicelli, who also served as the face for its ‘Slam the Scam’ campaign in 2016—a program that aimed to educate consumers on how to avoid being defrauded while investing their earnings.
‘Make It Mutual’ vlogs tackle various topics that are relevant to personal finance like growing one’s earnings, beating rising inflation, and investing regularly. The modules are set in themes that can easily relate to millennials’ prevailing interests—travel, fashion, and fitness, among others.
Campaign ambassador Matteo Guidicelli is joined by Sun Life Asset Management head of Bank & Alternative Distribution Channels Gerald Bautista (left) and Sun Life Marketing Chief Marketing Officer Mylene Lopa (right) during ‘Make It Mutual’ launch in B Hotel in Quezon City.
Boosting financial literacy
‘Make It Mutual’ is the latest in SLAMCI’s initiatives to bolster financial literacy among Filipinos by encouraging them to invest in mutual funds. A 2015 commissioned study dubbed as Project Excel by Insights Asia showed that up to 45% of the research respondents were not familiar with mutual funds. Hence, in the same study, it was revealed that up to 58% of Filipinos prefer to save their money in bank accounts, which generate very minimal interest (barely 1% annually).
“We all have goals that we’d like to accomplish, such as buying a house or a car, traveling to a dream destination, or planning a wedding. These are goals that require a significant amount of money, and sometimes, Filipinos become discouraged knowing how much they need to raise to be able to fund their dreams,” said SLAMCI President Valerie Pama.
Pama assured that SLAMCI remains committed in helping more Filipinos to discover the benefits of investing money. “We’d like to show them that by saving and investing in mutual funds, all their dreams can become a reality. They simply have to ‘Make It Mutual.’”
Mutual funds investments
Investing in mutual funds allow any individual to join a large pool of other investors who comprise to make a significant fund that will be prudentially managed by a professional fund manager. Thus, one may not need to invest a huge amount of money to be able to invest in several investment opportunities like bonds or equities.
Mutual funds are suitable for investors who do not have sufficient time and knowledge to manage their own monetary portfolio. For as low as P5,000, anyone can start investing in mutual funds. Growth of the investment will depend on market performance, thus, it can be a faster way to grow money exponentially. To learn more, anyone may approach any of SLAMCI’s 9,000 financial advisors nationwide.
Sun Life’s initiatives
‘Make It Mutual’ is also the first financial literacy campaign of Sun Life for 2017. Sun Life Chief Marketing Officer Mylene Lopa hinted that the company will launch more related initiatives in the coming days, especially as Sun Life is set to roll out its annual Financial Independence Month in June.
“We remain committed to this cause,” Lopa said. “Sun Life is always eager to promote it in ways that are creative, relatable, and easily understandable. We will never tire of advocating financial literacy to Filipinos.”
Understanding Filipino millennials
As mentioned, SLAMCI is mainly targeting millennials for its ‘Make It Mutual’ campaign. It is estimated that millennials comprise of about a third of the country’s current population. This group of individuals account for almost half of the total workforce across the Philippines in 2015.
Based on a Sun Life study, adulting millennials have been working for 5 years or more and are currently in the middle of their careers. They are open to investing and are comfortable in allocating a portion of their earnings into investments.
They have very general and fluid goals—to be rich, to travel, to have business, etc.—but are still uncertain as to where to direct their efforts to get what they want. SLAMCI aims to fill this gap for this group of individuals.
Hi I’m interested to invest mutual fund but I don’t know how to start I always read your article how to save money. Can I invest even I’m outside the country. Thank you
Hi, Ms Melanie. Thank you for reading Tech and Lifestyle Journal. To answer your question, yes, you can definitely invest in mutual funds even if you are currently out of the country. In the coming days, I will be posting more articles about how to actually do this. Send me a personal email as well if you want to be referred to a licensed financial advisor. Thanks and kindly share with your friends the good news about Tech and Lifestyle Journal!