Most OFWs, One Day Millionaires?

[chua_riwap]

I got this as an email from a friend, although this has been posted in the Inquirer.Net this Oct. I just want to share this with my fellow OFWs.

He-he! Agree ba kayo dito? Although, for sure, some would readily disagree with the author's statements.

Ako tanungin niyo? TOTOO PO ITO!

Pero di po ako kasama rito sa One Day Millionaire's Club. Marunong po ako sa perang pinaghirapan ko sa abroad.

How My Wife Saved Her Earnings From Kuwait

First posted 15:41:58 (Mla time) October 29, 2007
Armand Nocum
INQUIRER.net

"LET'S KEEP THIS FAMILY together even if we have to sell *taho."* This was
the pledge my wife Ann Sahi-Nocum and I made when we decided that she would quit working as a nurse at the Al-Jahra Hospital in Kuwait in 1997.

That was the time our eldest child Arriza was growing up with my brother's
family in Zamboanga City and becoming more isolated from us day by day,
having grown attached to her adopted family.

Born in Kuwait, Arriza was just two months old when Ann brought her to the
family of my brother Joey and his wife Edel. We found the arrangement convenient because it allowed Ann to work for five years abroad.

And what a five-year ordeal it was! We were a family living in three corners
of the globe — I in Manila, Ann in Kuwait and Arizza in Zamboanga City. To
say they were pain-filled years for us is an understatement.

But was it all worth it?

Because we opted to live a frugal life, we earned the notoriety of being the
"stingiest" in a clan with lots of spendthrift OFWs.

Saving up was not easy when most of your relatives expected you to give
money on every occasion and every imaginable emergency situation.

While others gave out gold necklaces, watches, shoes and hundreds of
dollars, we gave cheap perfume, chocolates and a few peso bills.

While other OFW families lived in rented condos and apartments, I stayed in
a rat-infested rented room originally built as a dirty kitchen. While other
OFWs were buying cars, I was reporting for work in my beat-up 175 cc DT
Yamaha motorcycle.

It was a joke in the family that in her five years abroad, Ann only bought
me a watch, a ring, a necklace, perfumes and three music compact discs. One couldn't point then to any electronic appliance in the house brought home from Kuwait.

Fortunately, those days of sacrifices paid off. Ann has invested and
prospered in the used-car business, with outlets in Zamboanga City, Quezon
City and Edsa near Robinsons Galleria.

We now give our relatives gainful employment in the Satti Grill House food
outlet we opened in SM-Fairview Food Court not long ago. And we are set to
employ more with the opening of another Satti outlet on MH Del Pilar, Manila
next month.

*One-day millionaires*

I still feel a twinge of pain whenever I read about surveys showing that
many OFWs spend their money on frivolous things and continue to live like
one-day millionaires.

It's ironic that the OFW heroes who prop up the Philippine economy do not
experience true and lasting economic uplift in their lives.

OFWs should be reminded that the more they engage in wanton spending, the longer they're keeping themselves trapped in their overseas jobs.

What use is their money if, by the time they retire from their work abroad,
they're too old and debilitated to enjoy life? If they discover upon their
return that their children had grown up and were living their own lives,
virtual strangers to them? This was Ann's and my biggest fear.

I have friends who return home with a jaw-dropping array of stereos, pianos,
cameras and other gadgets, but after about three months, they start selling
them, having run out of money. I have another friend, a teacher, who made it a habit to buy those gadgets at half the price. So guess who's the wise one, the local teacher or OFW?

In my book, the worse crime we Filipinos inflict on our OFW relatives is
turning them into milking cows. I have noted with amusement how many family members — including the extended ones — tend to become afflicted with some sickness after a relative lands a job abroad.

It seems salary grade abroad is inversely proportional to the health index
of the family members they leave far behind. Feigned sickness, it seems, is
a very effective way of making an OFW fork out money. That is depressing.

*Say no to solicitations*

OFWs and their families should learn to say no to unnecessary solicitations.
If not, they should at least be careful in screening out requests for
financial help to see whether they're real, legitimate or a sham.

They're not helping their relatives any if by being abroad, they have turned
them to hopeless sloth living on their generosity.

In our case, we really tried to explain to our relatives that they have to
cut us some slack as we start life anew, promising that when we do succeed
with our plans, we would give them bigger and more meaningful help.

Again, we are the few lucky ones. There are many OFWs out there who return
home broke, mangled, raped or in body bags. Those who survive serious
ordeals return to poverty and find their families fallen apart or have
forgotten them.

Apart from saving up, they should also work hard at making good investments
in land or businesses to hasten and cushion their return. On Ann's part, she
had seen so many friends retire from work with lots of money; only to return
abroad a year or two later because they ran out of money or their business
investments had gone wrong.

Until now, when Ann looks at Arizza all grown up, she can't help but wonder
why a mother like her left Arizza to relatives at the tender age of two
months. Those exciting baby years when she first smiled, uttered her first
word and started taking her first baby steps are gone forever. We were not
there to witness those baby milestones – and that's that.

But all the pains of her OFW years only embolden us to do better in our
businesses so that neither of us will have to go abroad for work again.

So, for OFWs still living the *vida galante, *it's time to say the party's
over, and for serious savings to begin now.

[theveed]

Well written IMO...

[boybi]

It's not the OFW's themselves, but their families here in the Philippines. Feeling kasi minsan ng mga pamilya at kamag anak na naiwan dito na ang daling kumita sa abroad, unang padala palang, may bagong TV na agad. Pero hindi po naman lahat ganito, karamihan lang.

[ts1n1ta]

Most OFW's here in our community were one day millionaires. Sad to say pero wala nangyare sa kanila. Naghirap den pag uwi sa Pinas.

[mazdamazda]

IMO - that's not just applicable to OFWs (and let's not single out OFWs too for spending lavishly on unnecessary things).

That article is applicable to a lot of Filipinos also. Heck, just observe in an office elevator on who is fiddling with the flashiest mobile phone or thingamajig. More often than not - it's not the office executive with a 6 figure salary.

[chua_riwap]

It's not the OFW's themselves, but their families here in the Philippines. Feeling kasi minsan ng mga pamilya at kamag anak na naiwan dito na ang daling kumita sa abroad, unang padala palang, may bagong TV na agad. Pero hindi po naman lahat ganito, karamihan lang.

Tooto po yan.

Pinakamasakit, yung mga tao sa paligid. Yung mga kaibigan at mga relatives na pag di mo napagbigyan (like yung uutang, hingi ng pasalubong, painom) magagalit pa sa iyo at kung anu-ano na sinasabi.

Eh hindi naman pinupulot ang pera sa abroad.

[cc81352]

Most OFW's here in our community were one day millionaires. Sad to say pero wala nangyare sa kanila. Naghirap den pag uwi sa Pinas.

yeah true. nung 80's andaming kapitbahay na nag-saudi, pag nagbabakasyon sila, isang linggo ang inuman... now, puros na tambay at walang trabaho

[BoEinG_747]

IMO - that's not just applicable to OFWs (and let's not single out OFWs too for spending lavishly on unnecessary things).

That article is applicable to a lot of Filipinos also. Heck, just observe in an office elevator on who is fiddling with the flashiest mobile phone or thingamajig. More often than not - it's not the office executive with a 6 figure salary.

naalala ko nakasabay ko sa elevator sa MAKATI..ilan floor lang kami nag kasabay parang nilagnat ako sa lamig sa Loob

dami daw nila gimik last weekend nag scuba daw sila ang sarap daw, ang mahal ng rent, ganda daw sinakyan nila FORD..papunta Batangas .pero pa txt daw muna sa kasama nia..nag expired na daw kasi unlimited txt nia ..

iyan problema kasi sa mga Familya naiwan dito sa Pinas di nila alam kung gaano kahirap kitain ang pera sa abroad

[DonT]

Excellent post there chua_riwap!

[XTO]

I agree too. In the 70’s to 80’s na nauso ang abroad particularly Saudi many of our neighbors ay nakabili ng mga usong electronics (colored TV’s, stereo components, SLR cameras, 2 francisco passenger jeepneys (brand new) but after hindi na naka-alis isa isa nang nabenta at nasanglang benta. Katwiran ng isang anak na kababata ko “Sana’y naman daw sila sa dating buhay eh kaya wala daw dapat pagsisisihan”

But there are those na magagaling particularly may relatives. Daming loteng nabili. Later pinatayuan ng apartment, ngayon mga anak / pinsan ko ang nakikinabang sa walang humpay na income.

Sabi ng mga aunties ko pag di raw marunong humawak ng pera ang babae na naiwan dito wala lahat ang pinagpaguran ni lalake. Do you agree?