Start a Long-Term Savings Plan with your Christmas Bonus

It may not sound like a typical investment move, but if you want to begin a long-term investment and savings plan, it would be best to pay off all your debt first.

From credit card bills to personal loans, the best investment anyone can make if they’re planning to start a good financial regimen is by eliminating debt. With debt comes high interest rates that you need to pay on top of the amount you already owe. You may not notice it, but all those interests add up to a significant amount you could you elsewhere.

You'll save plenty of money by reducing your interest payments - all by paying off all, or most, of your debt every month. That's a better plan than investing your bonus somewhere else, while still having to pay interest on something you could have easily avoided.

Contrary to popular belief, anytime is the perfect time to start your own business. And with greater access to technology and information, starting your own venture—whether at home, online, or through franchising—has now become easier. Put your Christmas bonus to good use as capital to fund your entrepreneurial journey.

The important thing to consider when planning to start a small business is whether you have a unique product or service to help solve people’s needs. Whether you’re baking pastries or cakes, creating websites, providing accounting services, tutoring students, designing clothes, or buying and selling merchandise, all these address a certain need that consumers are willing to pay for.

With your Christmas bonus, set up a small office at home, market your business online or, if you don’t have a concept in mind, look at various franchising options for a business set-up that’s already proven to work.

When thinking of long-term investment plans, stocks or mutual funds usually come to mind. However another investment product that you should consider is something called bancassurance.

Its odd name aside, bancassurance is simply a partnership between a bank and an insurance company. Through this partnership, insurance companies are able to promote their life insurance products within the premises of their partner bank - no need to rely on any one agent, as bancassurance products and services are available wherever your bank has a branch!

While purchasing life insurance is a subject that many choose to delay or ignore, it’s an important financial and life decision that will protect you and your family’s future—making it a good long-term savings and investment plan and a good use of your year-end bonus.

Through the bancassurance partnership, purchasing life insurance is made easy and convenient. It gives clients the combined expertise of two trusted companies in one comfortable setting, and features products approved by both the Insurance Commission and the Central Bank.

There are various life insurance products meant for specific needs and specific budgets. BPI AIA’s Life Ready Plus, for example, is a unit-linked life insurance plan that you can get for as low as PHP 2,100 a month. This makes it perfect for employees and workers earning a decent wage.

It’s specifically designed for those looking for an insurance plan that offers both protection and savings benefits at a cost that won't break the bank. Because it’s a unit-linked investment, it automatically allocates a portion of your monthly premium payments in investment funds. At the same time, you enjoy all the usual benefits of life insurance.

Life Ready Plus offers coverage of up to 30 times your basic premium which gives you protection coverage while you perform staggered affordable payments during the life of the policy.

There are also optional benefits that you can get together with the basic policy: extra coverage in the event of a critical illness, accident or disability, for example. It also includes AIA Vitality, a wellness program that offers points and rewards when you take active steps in knowing and improving your health.

Whether it’s used to pay off your debts, start your own small business, or to purchase a bancassurance policy, at the end of the day, your year-end bonus shouldn’t be completely spent but, rather, saved or invested because it’s essentially not part of your monthly budget; it’s a bonus.

For more information on bancassurance, visit the nearest BPI or BPI Family Savings Bank branch and speak to a Bancassurance Sales Executive. You can also click here to view bancassurance products.