Mr.
Joen de las Peñas is a founder of the International Marketing Group (IMG) and
one of Brother Bo Sanchez’ investment mentors.
The Story:
We
met at a most unlikely place – inside an airplane. I was bumped up to business
class and he was seated right beside me. Since then, Jose Enrique (Joen) de las
Peñas became my mentor in investing.
Joen
has a mission: to change the adage that “the rich get richer and the poor get
poorer.” He believes that “the average person, even the poor, has an equal
chance to become wealthy if given the right information.”
Joen
certainly knows what he’s talking about. He is a registered financial planner
and has more than 12 years of financial management experience. He sits as the
president and chairman of the board of International Marketing Group (IMG)
Insurance Brokers Corporation.
BO: I still remember your
dialogue. You said, “I like your book.” I think you read Simplify and Create
Abundance. And then you said, “Can I share some more to you?” In other words,
you were trying to say, “You still lack some knowledge.” But I truly appreciate
all the financial knowledge that you have shared with me all these years.
JOEN: That’s true. I
read a lot of your books. It’s always been my dream to meet you so I could tell
you a bit more about financial services, about the mission that we do. I know
that you can help spread what we know, so it was a good chance to let you know
all the things that we know.
BO: Can you share with us
this mission, this crusade in your heart that’s been driving you for the past
10 years?
JOEN: It’s about the
statement “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” Our mission is to
change that. The rich get richer, it’s good. But the average person also has
the right to become wealthy and I know that with the right information, he will
have the same opportunity as the wealthy people.
BO: That’s wonderful. So
the rich, yeah, they can get richer, so long as they share their riches. But
you’re saying now that the average person can become rich as well.
JOEN: Yes, if the
average person understands what the wealthy people are doing, if he understands
the right financial vehicles, then there is no reason to be poor. Sadly, the
average person focuses on different things while the wealthy people focus on
how to become wealthy and successful.
BO: Can you give some
specifics?
JOEN: If I ask the
average person, “What is the rate of return on your savings?” most of the time
he does not know. But ask him about the rate of return on his debt, he’d know.
It’s always at the back of his mind. But the wealthy people – they know the
rate of return on their savings, when it will double, how much their money will
be in so-and-so years.
BO: You know, just
yesterday I went to my bank and they gave me this leaflet on new interest rate.
I was so shocked – it was 0.75% for a year! I thought it was at least 1%.
JOEN: And that’s still
gross. You still have to deduct 20% withholding tax. What a lot of people do
not understand is this: that the bank is a good vehicle for business; but for
your own personal savings, there are lots of other financial vehicles that you
can use.
Most people think that
by saving they’re already doing something right. But the fact is, you could
save the right way and save the wrong way. And saving the wrong way, at the end
of the day, will not change anything.
BO: That’s a very
important point. You know, Joen, my role is to give people the capacity to have
a vision. I give them the capacity to dream. I remove their limiting beliefs –
that I can’t do it, that I’m poor. So you’re absolutely right. People don’t
have a vision of doubling their money.
JOEN: A lot of people
are like that – they do not understand that with a meager rate of return on
their savings, they will never have a chance to become wealthy. But I can show
you a way that, even if you save P20,000 for six years with a total of
P120,000, over the years as it compounds, it can be P9.5 million.
BO: Wow. So you’re
saying, Joen, that if the average Filipino can save P1000 or P2000 a month,
they can become a millionaire over time? But they need to know how to save,
where to save.
JOEN: Yes and at the
same time they should have a vision where their money is going and how exactly
their money can grow. All of us work hard for the money. But eventually if we
know how to handle money, money can actually work for us. We can be the boss of
our money and not the other way around.
BO: OK, you’re saying,
don’t put it in a bank, use the bank for business as loans, maybe business
loans. But tell us, what vehicles are you talking about that can make one a
millionaire over time?
JOEN: One of the widely
used financial vehicles right now, even is the US and Europe, is the mutual
fund. In a mutual fund, your small amount of money becomes part of a very big
fund. If that fund earns 12% or higher, whatever savings you have there will
have an equal rate of return as the whole fund. Many people think that the
mutual fund is for the wealthy. But in fact it was created for the average
persons to earn equally with the wealthy people.
I look at a lot of
Filipinos and they’re very focused on how to make money but that’s only 50% of
the equation. The other 50% is learning how to let their money go back to them
much faster.
JOEN: A mutual fund is
regulated by the government and managed by a professional person to let the
money grow. It’s one of the safest vehicles to let your money grow and to have
the best rate of return. They have what you call asset allocation. The fund is
spread correctly and all that the fund manager does is to think how to let the
fund grow. And because of regulation, it’s a very safe vehicle.
BO: I’m sure we could go
on and talking about this wonderful topic. One last thing before we end. You
said that in the US, 20% of the people there put their long-term savings in the
bank, but 70 or 80% put their money in mutual funds already. In the
Philippines, it’s the opposite. Not even 1% of our people invest their money in
mutual funds. And so you have a long way to go.
JOEN: Yes, there are a
lot of things to be done. But I believed that with the right information we can
actually become like the US and there will be more money in mutual funds
compared to the regular savings in the bank.
Source: Kerygma Magazine
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