With all the mainstream ‘ipon’ (savings) challenges making rounds on social media nowadays, one overseas Filipino worker (OFW) in Hong Kong decided to join the hype and change her lifestyle for the better. As a result, she was able to complete her version of the 1-year challenge in a matter of 6 months!
Jalyn Navio is a 39-year-old nursing graduate who tried her luck as an OFW in Hong Kong way back in 2002 without her parents’ consent. She was once married to a seafarer but they eventually split up. Currently, Navio lives in the foreign country on her own.
Reportedly, Navio earns a monthly income of HK$8,200 (PhP55,000) from her job. She allocates a part of her money which she sends out to her relatives in the Philippines while the rest, she used to splurge on shopping and treating her friends in Hong Kong. Because of her happy-go-lucky attitude, it took her a long time to realize that she’s not saving any of her hard-earned money for her future.
Several realizations only came to her when she was able to attend a Financial Literacy Seminar conducted by CARD Hong Kong Foundation. Thanks to the seminar, Navio came to her senses and finally thought about saving up from then on. Instead of going back to her usual routine of spending her entire salary on shopping and treating many of her friends, she decided to change her carefree manners.
Navio joined the ‘ipon’ challenge and started collecting all of her HK$20 bills (PhP130). She put them inside a large plastic bottle inside of her room and in just a span of 6 months, the container was already full! After opening it and counting all the money inside, she learned that she managed to save a whopping HK$21,760 (PhP146,250) which could have just vanished into thin air if she didn’t change her lifestyle.
Of course, it’s already too late to feel remorse about all the money she wasted in the past. To make up for it somehow, she is determined to continue saving up for the future. According to her, she’s going to upgrade the challenge by saving HK$50 bills (PhP330) this time around.