An OFW Needs PhP3M Savings to Stay Home
MANILA: For an overseas Filipino worker to make Philippines his permanent home, he needs to have an average savings of PhP3 million and his own business, a recent study has pointed out.
About 82 percent of OFWs believe they need to have their own business so they can stay home permanently, while 63 percent said they’re ready to come home for good when their kids have finished school, Sun Star quoted Philam Life, which commissioned market research provider Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) to do the study, as saying.
Around 47 percent reportedly said that they will return home when they have their own car, and some 24 percent said they will be ready to stay when they have their own house, Sun Star reported.
According to Philam Life director of agencies Rolan H. Enriquez, the respondents of the study mostly involved OFWs who are under a two-year contract, with an average tenure of six and a half years of working abroad and earn an average of PhP50,000 per month. The nationwide study on OFWs was done in April 2015.
The same study reportedly showed that 82 percent OFWs surveyed said “they are not yet ready to stay home permanently.”
They reasoned out that they did not enough savings or their children are still studying. Some said they have no house yet, had “more dreams to achieve” and are “not yet stable,”, the report said.
This means only 18 percent of those surveyed are ready to go home, believing that they are better off staying with their families or already have an established business and have enough savings, it added.
The study reported that 55 percent of the income of these OFWs is sent back home and what remains is for personal use, Sun Star reported.
Respondents also reportedly said they save on average PhP13,000 per month. If they save this amount religiously, Enriquez said this would take one OFW 18 years before he can save PhP3 million and stay in the Philippines for good.