In 2019, the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas published a Financial Inclusion Survey in an effort to gain a “holistic picture of financial inclusion in the country.” In an attempt to measure Filipinos’ financial literacy, they asked adults a series of three basic financial literacy questions, covering basic topics like interest or inflation. Only 8% of Filipinos managed to answer all three questions correctly.
Alkansya.net was born out of my frustration at the state of financial education in the Philippines. It perplexed me to see educated and otherwise competent people failing at basic financial tasks. Students are graduating high school without understanding how to make and follow a budget. Professionals who have been employed or self-employed for years without understanding how taxes work or are computed.
Money is so much more than chunks of metal, pieces of paper, or numbers on a screen; it’s value. Money isn’t just food on the table or a roof over your head; money is time, opportunity, hopes and dreams, and the power to help others.
While a lot of the evil in the world can be blamed on the love of money, a lot of pain and suffering can be avoided by having a basic understanding of how money works. I’m lucky enough to be in a position to learn new things about money every now and then. If and when I manage to string a decent thought together, I write about them here.
