Investment Month 2018: Philippine Financial Summit Cebu

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It was when I am on my third year high school that I heard of these lines from my teacher, "The youth should study to give work, not to work." As I have had my struggles being an Accountancy student, I may have regretted my decision sometimes, for petty reasons, but practically, it's the best step I had taken to achieve the life I wanted.

Further adding the good reasons of staying as a CPA-in-transit was what we had last March 3, 2018 at the SMX SM Seaside, the Philippine Financial Summit. It was the UPJFA Investment Month 2018 celebration wherein business students gathered to earn knowledge about investment and business, which I could say by the way, would have so much of importance to at least raise the level of living.

If people had met the old me, they could visualize me during the seminar, maybe listening but not attentively. I was someone who had not learned the importance of these kinds of seminar in my life. But as I go along my journey in College, I had realized that right now, I need to be more of what people think of me, of what they think I will be in the future. Many parents in the marginal section, somehow, tell their children to study hard and graduate then find a job. But it shouldn't have been like that.

The whole-day activity further taught me that with what the world is becoming to be, people, especially the youth should know how to play the game in the business world. After all, even many people disagree, life is a gamble and so is business. Youth should learn how to see everything… on and from the top.

The seminar is composed of five talks. Though after the three speakers, the whole group was divided into two, based on the topic they chose: Investment or Banking. Almost everyone from UCLM chose the Investment topic yet before the afternoon talk started, many where requested to transfer and listen to speakers with topic about Banking.

The first speaker, Ms. De Castro, talked about the stocks and other intangible products like bonds and balanced. For the second time, since she was our guest speaker when we had our Stock Knowledge Seminar in the UCLM, she taught us how to invest in stocks and the basic concepts and reminders if ever we do invest in this kind of business. I do always know that the bigger the risk, the greater the return so she asked us if we are the kind of investor that is conservative or aggressive.

The second speaker was the one I loved the most! He always had a point in everything and made us laugh many times. He talked about the potential of Visayas and the youth to progress and economic development. It was very helpful because for people who are thinking of starting a business, it is good to know what kind of industry is good to invest in.

The third speaker talked about the future projects of the Duterte administration for the Visayas region. Bridges, airports, and seaports will be constructed to further connect islands. According to Dutertenomics, the current administration focuses on the infrastructure development and I do believe this will bring more investments in the Philippines. Supported by the second speaker’s belief, this will lessen the time lapse and it would be easier for businessman to reach other businessman for their island-to-island transactions. Places difficult to reach will now be reachable, increasing the probability of discovering new good tourist spots, thus the possible boom of tourism in the country.

The fourth speaker is popular. He has this tagline: “Ang pagyaman, napag-aaralan” and “Business with a heart”, which I like very much. As a future businesswoman, I do want my business to grow and earn profit progressively. But what I really wanted aside from that, I wanted to be a businesswoman to help other people. In this way, I could give them job and decrease the unemployment rate in the Philippines. I wanted to have a business that not only I will get the most benefits, but also the community I am in.

The last speaker talked about insurance. As I listened to him, I realized that many people had the wrong idea about it. And I thought that it is indeed hassle-free to plan ahead for the future so that people we love will not be having hard time to move forward (if we’re to die).

To sum up everything, this seminar is one of my best learning days in College because I know beforehand that the ideas I will gather will really help me. It was also fun and inspiring because I got to see successful people, motivating me more to do better than before. This was just a one-day activity yet I know that this will be one of my weapons in playing the game of business.