The YOLO millennial & financial literacy
Hoping to further raise the bar of our millennials’ sense of financial literacy, Sun Life Financial recently launched a new product that would seem to be tailor-fit for this significant segment of our population. And this millennial demographic has been “courted” by Sun Life for some time now, as witness how Sun Life partnered with the TV production arm of The Philippine STAR and came up with the Single/Single TV cable series that airs on ABS-CBN’s Cinema One. The new product, championed by Sun Life endorser Matteo Guidicelli (who coincidentally is one of the lead stars in Single/Single), is the all new Prosperity Card.
Valerie Pama, president of Sun Life Asset Management Company Inc. (SLAMCI), was proud to mention to me how the Prosperity Card was conceptualized by the Philippine team, and may now be similarly launched in other territories. A little smaller than a regular credit card, the Prosperity Card can be availed of with a minimum “load” of P5,000 — the minimum amount needed to invest in mutual funds. The idea being whether as a personal purchase, or as a gift one can bestow on some individual, the card, once activated, can be turned into an investment that one can add to whenever one chooses.
And why avail oneself of this option as opposed to, say, placing funds in a bank? As Pama presented, a 91-day time deposit placed in a bank 10 years ago would have given one a 28-percent return by today. That same amount, if invested in a Sun Life Prosperity Bond 10 years ago, would have grown by 66 percent. If invested in a Sun Life Prosperity Balanced Fund, that would have yielded 155-percent growth and if in the Sun Life Prosperity Philippines Equity Fund, an astounding 221-percent return would have been realized. Those are stark, eye-popping statistics to consider when thinking wealth management; no matter what the amount.
Millennials are often criticized for harboring an entitled mentality, which their “You only live once” or “YOLO” mode seems to exemplify. But statistics and studies compiled by Sun Life show that a good majority of millennials interviewed said that financial security is a major concern; although ironically, a very minuscule percentage said that they had invested in instruments, which would help protect such security. The Prosperity Card can be one small, first step, accessible and of no great financial burden, of being in possession of such an instrument.
Just my own observation, but perhaps some blame for this millennial attitude can be placed on us, the generation of parents. After all, in our striving to provide for their future, how many of us would persevere and then say with pride we have now set up things so they won’t have to work a day in their lives? In retrospect, possibly the worst thing any of us could have said to them. With Sun Life’s Prosperity Card, it is hoped that this generation of millennials can better appreciate first hand how savings and thoughtful disposition of funds can still be of paramount concern in their lives.
Buttered with irony
Our three novels today come from three very wonderful writers of great depth. Ruff is the rascally one, while Barnes has built a storied reputation for elegance and texture. Enrigue, my new discovery, hails from Mexico and writes a storm with this “tennis” tale.
Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff (available at National Book Store) Ruff is a writer who enjoys a cult status because of his original take on a subject matter. From schizophrenia to his alternative twists on current events (in 2013, his The Mirage imagined Christian fundamentalists of a Third World USA attacking Middle East landmarks), he mixes social commentary with wild plots and devious, ironic humor. His latest is set in a racist 1950s American Midwest, where an extended family of Afro-Americans become the target of a band of white supremacists/sorcerers. The Lovecraft reference emanates from the elements of dark fantasy and science fiction all thrown in for good measure. Mixing the sad reality of racist America with surreal passages reminded me of an adult, black Harry Potter-tale, with tons of comic book insider jokes.
The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes (available on Amazon.com) Art vs. Power — this is the major theme running through this masterpiece from Barnes. Taking the life of Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, and providing us with three fateful junctures in his life, 1936, 1948 and the 1960s. Barnes imagines the inner turmoil facing an artist as he ekes out a living under a totalitarian regime, that can celebrate said artist one moment, and summarily dismiss his work as formalist or counter-revolutionary, and put death by execution at his doorstep the very next moment, or leave him in artist’s limbo. Stalin in ‘36 and ‘48 personifies power, while Khrushchev wields the “mighty stick” in ‘64. The cost of survival, of keeping one’s life and that of one’s family intact while producing art, are themes of this powerful novel. Oh, how complicated an artist’s life can be.
Sudden Death by Alvaro Enrigue (available at Page One HK) Utilizing pallacorda, a 16th-century precursor of tennis, as a starting point, Enrigue whips up a delicious smorgasbord of historical trivia with the tennis ball serving as a metaphor for human souls — constantly struck between good and evil. Competing at the tennis match are Italian painter Caravaggio and Spanish poet Quevedo, playing with a ball made from the hair of recently beheaded Anne Boleyn. Conquistador Cortes and his savage form of colonialism in Mexico, plus his descendants, also figure in the sprawling narrative. If you appreciate elliptical narratives, random thoughts injected as plotlines and an exhausting command of facts about the Reformation, art and the exercise of power, then prepare to be thoroughly entertained by this challenging feat of creativity.
