Making Money Work For You: BDO's Easy Investment Plan

Everyday is a blessing and doubly so when we learn something essential and life changing. That is why I was determined to attend this financial seminar conducted by BDO last Saturday. Good thing the rain of the previous day shied away, travel was more convenient.

Easy Investment Plan

The seminar was only 2 hours so I arrived a few minutes before the start, don't wanna be late. I was pleasantly surprised to see a full house, a good indicator that more Filipinos are now interested in going farther than regular savings. The talk focused on the Easy Investment Plan that BDO offers to its account holders. 

It started off with a short intro from our bubbly speaker (forgetful me, what's her name again?) and a video presentation on different types of spending habits of Pinoys. Afterwhich, the speaker presented us with a virtual computation of how long a middle-aged mom who saves P2000 monthly on time deposit can reach P2M for, say, retirement or kid’s college fees. Oh my, she’ll be 141 yrs. old by the time she gets her 2M from time deposit. It was both alarming and sad. 

For those of us who have kids and/or financial goals in our minds know that if only life is easy peasy and if we have enough financial education we could’ve started on achieving this goal ASAP. But life has emergencies, daily spendings and temptations (the nice to haves) so savings becomes last priority. Yeah, most of us are in that kind of predicament. 

So what does BDO Easy Investment Plan offers? Here are what my limited memory gathered from the talk:

• You can start investing with a very minimum amount, for as little as P1000 monthly. Unlike other investment plans that require a lump sum before they start investing your money, EIP allows you to invest in staggered basis. That’s why this is on top of mind for me :)

• Have an existing BDO account to become an investor – savings, current and even payroll account will do. They can just auto debit your agreed amount from your account on schedules that you choose. Auto debit is the way to go for me because I really find it a hassle to visit the bank everyday. I'm a perennial online banker. 

• On just the first month of debit from your account, they will start to invest your money so it’s already working for you. You can choose the investment you want – low, medium or high. As with the rule on investment: low risk, low returns; high rish, high returns. BDO can also help you map out the best investment for you as it’s always different strokes for different folks. Just visit any branch and talk to their product manager.

• You can enroll for EIP in any branch, not necessary the branch where you opened your account.

• The maximum amount per investment is P10,000 but you can invest as many 10K as you can afford. They will issue a COP (certificate of participation) once you reach the maximum value. Here’s a nice tip I got from the talk, once you get your COP/s, fold it neatly and put it inside a coin bank so you won’t forget where you placed it. Some investors were able to fill their coin banks with COPs. Lucky early starters.

• You can redeem your investment if you need to, just go to the any bank branch and present your COP and they will encash the COP value. Be mindful, though, that there is a cutoff time and period to give the bank time to process. So investment is quite liquid but they’re very strict with redemption process to protect the investor. One OFW attendee asked if he can authorize his wife  to enroll and redeem in his behalf but the speaker greatly encouraged him to do it personally. 

 Know more about their EIP here or visit any branch. https://www.bdo.com.ph/personal/trust-and-investments/easy-investment-plan

The only hitch for me is that it's not covered by PDIC as with any other investment options. Other than that, I think this is a good investment. It's literally making money work for you, no sweat. 

The seminar was only half day and I was able to spend ME time in the mall after. However, after attending that seminar it was so hard to buy something because I know they’re just nice to haves. In all fairness, the seminar worked on me, except for that super cute sweater and necklace from Forever 21 hehe. Hey, I needed those :)