By Carmencita A. Carillo
DAVAO CITY — First he got retrenched. Then, he had to be hospitalized. In desperate need of money, he resorted to financing from a loan shark.
This was one real-life situation played out in a board game during Sun Life Financial Philippines’ “Brighter Life Praxis”, conducted for bloggers, members of the media, and other participants last week in line with the company’s campaign to promote financial literacy among Filipinos.
“Filipinos still have very low awareness of financial literacy. Filipinos have a pre-conceived notion that financial planning is only for the rich, it is complex and very intimidating, so not too many of them are financially prepared for the future,” Sun Life Integrated Public Relations and Corporate Communications Head Mariquit M. Lintag told BusinessWorld in an interview.
Brighter Life Praxis is a board game designed to teach financial literacy in a fun and engaging way, Ms. Lintag said.
The board game simulates real-life events such as getting promoted, losing a job, or falling ill, and players should make financial decisions in different economic cycles.
The goal is to go through all these situations without going bankrupt.
Though the board game, Ms. Lintag explained, players learn basic financial processes like budgeting and saving as well as investing in stocks.
The Sun Life official said the advocacy stresses that one does not need a lot of money to be financially prepared, as there are various investment tools available.
For instance, its Prosperity Card, targeting young, employed millennials, is worth just P5,000 and may be invested in any of the peso-denominated mutual funds managed by Sun Life Asset Management Company, Inc. under its Sun Life Prosperity Funds.
Sun Life aims to sell up to 40,000 Prosperity Cards, worth a total P200 million.
As of last year, Sun Life had P50 billion worth of assets under management, of which Mindanao accounts for 2.56%, mainly from its two branches in Davao City.
