IS THERE A FINANCIAL DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE?

What would you do if you had P1 million right here, right now? It’s the most frequently asked shooting-the-breeze question next to what you would do if you won the lotto.

Would you:

a) Buy a new car.

b) Buy a new spouse.

c) Give it all away.

d) Get your likeness cast in bronze.

e) Get restraints to keep yourself from blowing it in one store.

f) Invest all of it.

Your answer probably lies somewhere between A and E. As for investing your money, you’d think P1 million was either too little to be serious about it or you’d think investing is what people who are either too old to have fun or too young to have ulcers do.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Experts tell us there’s no such age as being too young to invest. But before getting into it there’s one thing you must get: a financial checkup. Not unlike a health checkup that you’d have to get before joining a 40k marathon; your financial "doctor" should give you a clean bill of health first.

Citibank is now offering just that: A free financial checkup for both clients and non-clients to measure how well you’re doing. It’s a consultative process where your financial health is assessed by the bank’s investment consultants. How much money do you make? How much is your disposable income? How old are you? What is your risk tolerance – are you conservative or do you want to take big risks? Is your money working hard for you?

Ailene Manzano-Litonjua, who heads CitiGold Wealth Management Banking, says, "It’s for people who are in that stage of their lives where they want to start making plans for the future. As a bank we believe that each of the financial plans we make should be tailor-fit for individual use."

A financial checkup can give you a personalized plan, it’s never a one-size-fits-all proposition. "We can never say that all those who have one million should invest in a certain product because people’s risk appetite can be different – one might want treasury bills, the other might want structured notes. Based on your level of sophistication and your needs, there are pots of money that we will discuss with you. Kailangan mag-diversify ka rin to diversify the risks, so if you look at it as a portfolio hopefully the potentials are maximized," she says. "We don’t do product pushing. Even if we want to talk about the more exotic investments, if the client is conservative, we respect that. At the end of the day, he makes the final decision. We’re here to make sure he makes a learned decision, that he’s armed with all the knowledge and information we can provide."

Filipinos are not exactly known to be good investors, we’re more known for splurging on the wrong things, unlike people in the West where as soon as they join the work force they start building their financial portfolios. We’re easily lured by get-rich-fast scams; there are two suckers born every minute here.

Ailene says the financial checkup could start you off on the path of financial responsibility. "For people who have no idea of what proactively managing your wealth is all about, Citibank would like to give you a sneak preview. We’re lending the expertise of our investment consultants, along with the entire line (of products) to clients."

Speaking of expertise, the Citibank Group spent about $1 billion in research last year. "Our investment consultants of course have access to global, up-to-date research because of the Smith Barney connection of Citi Group," says Jeanette Ng-Lim, Citibank communication manager.

"We believe that people should be responsible as far as financial management is concerned. It’s time to chart your financial future," says Ailene.

Citibank calls it "investing in yourself." Ailene says it simply means being responsible for your finances. "It’s an invitation open to all who are interested in having a proactive way of charting their finances. It doesn’t matter whether you’re young or old, whether you’re an existing client or not. It’s for everybody."

"Kahit walang pera?" we ask.

"Sana meron," she says with a laugh. Ailene doesn’t look like your stereotype banker without a sense of humor. In fact, this lady is a champion golfer and loves a good laugh and really good desserts. Many years ago, she was a banker and a newscaster.

At Citibank, she manages the CitiGold Makati Business, which comprises 40 percent of total Citibank Branch Retail Business, manages a team of 21 sales professionals and implements marketing programs among other responsibilities. Before she became vice president for Global Consumer Banking for Citibank N.A., she was the merchant and mortgage sales head, the country marketing services head, CitiGold field sales officer and a treasury sales specialist.

So what is a broadcast major from UP doing in a bank? Ailene says she’s always been interested in finances. Even back in college, she would lap up all the financial publications, from Fortune magazine to The Wall Street Journal.

"That was the way I started ‘investing,’ even before I had the money to invest. I wanted to learn about the NASDAQ and other markets because such knowledge is relevant when you’re talking about the movement of money and money is global."

After you get your financial checkup, you may or may not start a relationship with Citibank if you don’t have an existing one. No pressures.

How much money would you need before you can start your investment with the bank? The more upmarket product, CitiGold Wealth Management, starts at P4 million. Obviously this is for people who do not have to worry too much about making installment payments on a new car. The financial checkup, on the other hand, is for people who have more modest means of, say, P1 million or a little lower.

The sources of wealth are varied, says Ailene. You may be young and earning a modest salary, but then again you might have just inherited money and you don’t know how to make it grow. There are many such people – children of parents who have just sold real estate properties and are getting their mana early. Or they may be the ones who have money buried in time deposits.

"Most Filipinos today are the 30-day kind of lot, looking for the best interest rates from one bank to another. We want to say, there’s life after 30 days. There’s a better, more proactive way of managing your money. What happens in that framework is that you can put some of your money in short term and some in long term. If you take the whole yield of the portfolio and you sum up a 30-day kind of thing, this portfolio would have a better yield. 'Di ka reactive, 'di every 30 days you look for the best interest. And you have a portfolio tracker, a structured way of looking at your finances."

Ailene’s advice is to start investing in your twenties. This is the stage where you don’t have family responsibilities, when you may have a high disposable income.

Then again, many people have come to distrust banks, especially in the past years where banks come and go, where once solid institutions collapse, where mergers happen and catch clients flatfooted. Ailene’s advise is that before you start a relationship with a bank, do a "target selection." Study the bank’s history, its size and globaility, not just what it can offer you now.

Maybe it is time to take that one million from under your mattress and invest it.