Between day-to-day expenses, big-ticket one-offs like appliances and vacations, and important goals like education or homeownership, many Filipino families find that their savings barely have room to breathe, much less grow. When you add family emergencies and inflation into the mix, it’s no surprise that many households feel financially stagnant, even while doing their best to save up.
Fortunately, new tools and emerging digital products make it possible to earn more from your money without making any risky moves or huge sacrifices. Use these practical strategies to get more out of every peso and build your family’s wealth over the long term:
1) Look for High-Interest Savings Options
Traditional banks tend to offer meager interest rates that won’t even come close to matching inflation. However, some digital-first banking platforms now offer deposit account products with rates that start as high as 3.5% annually. Maya Bank, for example, offers account holders the opportunity to boost rates to as high as to 15% per annum—more than enough to keep pace with today’s living costs.
Even better, boosting your interest is often just a simple matter of using your digital bank account for everyday activities like paying bills or shopping online. These kinds of accounts help you to preserve your earnings and even build on them, simply by going about your regular routine.
2) Set Separate Funding for Each Major Goal
While a better bank account is a good start, you’ll get to where you need to be sooner if you set realistic financial goals. Having these goals keeps you from spending on things you shouldn’t, giving your bank account a fighting chance at collecting compound interest.
It helps if you have a bank that actively helps you reach your objectives. Aside from just good interest rates, you can also make good use of a feature like Maya Personal Goals, which allows you to create multiple sub-accounts and set aside money for specific financial goals that give you more control over your day-to-day savings. With these banks, such worthy targets as college tuition, a family emergency fund, or that long-overdue overseas vacation move closer within reach.
3) Take Advantage of Time-Based Deposits
If you have funds you won’t need for several months, a time deposit product is a good way to preserve your buying power. These options typically offer higher interest rates than regular savings accounts and are perfect for savers who want to grow their money without potentially-risky active investing.
You just have to remember that traditional banks offer limited control over time deposits. Not only do you pay a penalty for early withdrawals, but you usually can’t even top up your funds to grow your earnings. Thankfully, a product like Maya Time Deposit Plus offers flexible top-ups for an account with a tenor ranging from 3 to 12 months, which can be useful if your family has any medium-term financial goals.
4) Start Saving with What You Have
Don’t wait for your 13th month salary or for some other windfall to start saving. Even savings of just PHP 100 a day can translate to PHP 36,000 a year, which could buy anything from a laptop or even a quick family vacation. Now imagine how much more you’d get if you had compound interest working on that money.
These days, many digital banks will allow you to open an account with just one valid ID and no minimum balance requirement. If you pick a deposit account that offers high interest rates, even a few hundred pesos a week can make a huge difference.
5) Pick Regulated Institutions, Not Fly-By-Night Operators
Unfortunately, the digital transformation of daily finance has created new risks for families. There’s no shortage of unscrupulous businesses out there that are ready to scam families or put their funds in high-risk ventures. For that reason, you’ll want to go with financial institutions supervised by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
Going with these licensed entities means you enjoy strict security, transparency, and data protection standards, fully backed by the Philippine government. This gives you legal recourse should something go wrong with your savings or investments. Putting your savings in a BSP-supervised digital bank also entitles you to Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) coverage up to PHP 1,000,000, guaranteeing your fund’s safety.
6) Use One App Ecosystem for Better Oversight
Managing multiple apps for spending, saving, and investing just isn’t practical for most families. You’ll inevitably find yourself constantly forgetting your goals, resetting passwords on infrequently-used accounts, and missing opportunities to grow your finances.
If you’re switching banks, make sure they’re able to do it all and offer everything you need in just one app. At the minimum, you’ll want digital wallets, savings, time deposits, and even investment tools to be in one place. This takes away most of the headaches of day-to-day money management and makes those year-end family finance audits that much easier.
Start Growing Your Family’s Savings with Renewed Confidence
In truth, getting better returns on your savings doesn’t always involve endless years of sacrifice. Sometimes, all it takes is choosing the right tools and partners for the job. Once you have a bank that understands your needs, you’ll find it that much easier to grow your family’s funds, completely aligned with your goals. Start searching for the right bank now and you’ll enjoy more financial breathing room years down the road.