#PlsSaveMe : Call Me, 5-6

Representation: Motorcycle by those Offering 5-6

Have you heard about the Hierarchy of Needs? Yes, the Hierarchy of Needs by Abraham Maslow has been a guiding principle to motivate individuals to achieve dreams and aspirations. It has also been a guiding principle for us nurses of what to prioritize. The steps involve the Physiological Needs, Safety Needs, Love and Belongingness, Esteem Needs and Self-Actualization. To have a sound foundation of your being, you have to complete or suffice your physiologic needs before safety needs, satisfy your safety needs before love and belongingness until you reach the self-actualization.

I have also come across a concept of Steps in Building a Solid Financial Foundation that is anchored with Abraham Maslow’s Needs. The concept is also the same, you have to satisfy the prior needs before proceeding to the other step so that you will be well-grounded. The steps include Healthcare Needs (long term and short term), Protection, Elimate Debts, Emergency Fund and Investment (liquid or solid). It means to say that you have to at least protect your health by investing something for your health - save for your health; you are also called to protect yourself and that is the insurance so that whatever happens to you, your family will not carry a burden of your loss, instead, they will receive the compensation that you could have supported your family; eliminate your debts as much as possible though there are good debts and bad debts - just be sure that you can pay off the interest rates, too; create your emergency fund - setting aside 3-6 months of your monthly income that can be used in cases of emergency; and lastly, the investment, it is wherein you can use your extra money for investment to house, car and those liquid assets.

That is way too lengthy to be understood in one sitting. The concept needs to be practiced like a habit so that both the hierarchy of needs and steps in building a solid financial foundation will be achieved and well-grounded - a life that will not be shaky.

Then one day, in a forum, a group of fishermen is called to make a Biodiversity Friendly Enterprise (BDFE). It is in a way to plan for an alternative livelihood to allow the seas to recover or from being exploited for the needs of the humans. These fishermen are understood to have lack of idea about building a solid financial foundation and usually they call on their instinct to act on financial needs, which is a bit sad because they usually settle with 5-6.

So, for their BDFE, these fishermen have their boats that needed to be registered with MARINA because they intend to use the boats for transport of tourists to a sandbar for recreation. The group is guided by the tourism and investment office of Island Garden City of Samal for the undertaking. However, the city cannot give the men the finances they need, instead, they can help facilitate in the government processes. With that situation, it is part of the process to register their boats for a fee, repair and maintain their boats for a fee and other fees to process their business, one of the fishermen, Rene, immediately exclaimed that to help them finance their need to pay the fees - they call for 5-6! According to him, 5-6 is the scheme that usually comes to them and very convenient for them with less paper processing to have funds to loan, on contrary to the processes undertaken with loans in a cooperative or bank and that will take so much time. Julius, Rene’s colleague also said, they are already busy looking for livelihood and to sustain their family’s needs, which is through fishing, and to process financial support is too lengthy that they will need to travel to the city center or nearby branches with all the papers to accomplish - 5-6 is more practical and convenient for them. Somehow, the story is sad because most of them who avail with 5-6 are not even earning that much everyday wherein the 5-6 collector usually does collect everyday with interest, so, their loans accumulate more. The term of payment is everyday, accumulating if not completely paid for that day, thus, these men are in a breech of selling off their boats instead of earning a livelihood from it, just to pay off their debts. They can sometimes pay but most of the time with deficit in payment. They need help, thus, they process for a grant.

Considering the steps in building a solid financial foundation, a weighted debt will really cause an imbalance when the savings under it are not even filled out. Realizing investment opportunities will be very slim. Somehow, one thing that can be done is to properly give them the knowledge of what they are going into. With that, they should organize themselves to help each other through a cooperative and limit a 5-6 scheme. Somehow cooperatives can help especially when the entity is well managed and maintained.