Pursuing Life Purpose with Meaningful Financial Solutions

I admire people who says that they are happy despite all the struggles, pain and discomfort they are facing. Some of us strive to get from life to life. We strive to live the life we really wanted by working overtime, getting an extra job to meet our needs and our family's.

Photo taken in Kyoto, Japan 2023

In my more than ten years of working as a freelancer, I have learned how to manage my finances by being mindful that there will be days that I don't have work. With flexible working hours, I learned how to squeeze in a part-time job to earn additional money. Working in sales, it gave me the opportunity to meet various people from different industries.

Another thing I learned when it comes to creating my funds is to take a risk and diversify my money. Some goes to the bank, a portion of my earnings have to be in my investment funds. I also made sure to avail medical and even memorial plans. It made me feel responsible about handling my finances.

In a recent study indicates that Filipino millennials are not very fulfilled with their current careers. In fact, only a third (33%) of the study's respondents find their career fulfilling to very fulfilling. Almost half, or 47.2%, of the respondents could also only consider their career as somewhat fulfilling.

The report also indicates that 1 in 2 Filipino millennials may not be pursuing, or believe that they are not making progress on, their life purpose. Among the study's total respondents, about half (49.5%) are not actively pursuing their life purpose. Meanwhile, more than half (52.6%) also think that they have not made progress in pursuing their life purpose.

 

This indicates that financial limitations are the biggest roadblock for Filipino millennials to pursue their aspirations. 

CIMB Bank and Ateneo University Partnership

Asked if their current careers align with what they wanted to pursue growing up, only 1 in 3 of the respondents (32.1%) said that their career is completely aligned with what they initially wanted to pursue. Nearly two-thirds (63.5%) of those who took a different career path cited financial reasons as the reason behind this. Relatedly, more than half of the respondents (51%) are discouraged to continue their current careers given its inability to sufficiently provide for their financial needs.

Additionally, the study also found that financial limitations were the biggest barrier for the respondents (65%) in pursuing their life's purpose. More financial support needs to be provided for them to achieve their life goals - 88% of the study's respondents think that finances are necessary to pursue one's passion, and about 79% of the respondents also shared the same sentiments about the necessity of finances in pursuing their life purpose.

Bridging the gap towards a purposeful life through meaningful financial solutions 

"This study highlighted that financial limitations are unfortunately a huge roadblock for millennials to pursue their passion and purpose in life, and we hope that the results of this study help to bring more awareness, as well as to drive efforts to equip them with the right resources to navigate their careers, especially during this time of an unstable job market." says Juda Kanaprach, Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Milieu Insight.

 

"CIMB Bank Philippines has always striven to provide accessible digital financial solutions for our customers," says CIMB Bank Chief Marketing Officer D'Artagnan Aguilar. "We have always espoused the importance of having control over one's finances in the pursuit of one's life purpose. This study which was done with Ateneo Business Resource Center and Milieu Insight has had a profound impact on CIMB Bank Philippines. It has strengthened our advocacy to help our customers achieve a purposeful life not only through our products and services, but also through our ongoing financial literacy program."

 

Congratulations to CIMB and Ateneo University for that meaningful partnership. It will surely promote financial literacy especially to our youth.