I have a friend named Victor Pangilinan. Vic and I went to Leyte the other day for rural bank matters, a small business concern, really. While on board the vessel that would take us to our destination, he shared with me his striking a new friendship with Maning. I am keeping Maning's family name for a number of reasons not excluding his being possibly bombarded with a lot of non-sensible questions.
Vic was happily surprised to know that the Maning he was talking about is a friend of mine too. Our friendship dates back to about two decades though we have not seen each other for some time now.
Maning, Vic told me, retired from government service few years ago. Upon his retirement, he received about one million pesos in separation benefits. It was a rather hefty figure. But Vic's face registered profound sadness when he told me that Maning spent almost all of his retirement money in a blur. Since according to Vic he could not afford to ask Maning how the latter exhausted his funds so quickly, I shared with him the story of still another friend of mine, another retiree named Antipas. I asked Vic to watch out if Maning and Antipas had the same plight.
Big sum. Antipas held a respectable position in government. He was not simply rank-and-filer but neither was he a mighty spender. His economics was observably simple. Modesty was the rule. He lived a frugal life in making do with his salary. As soon as Antipas received his retirement pay in lump sum of a little over a million pesos, he was ecstatic. He never held such a big sum in cold cash in his lifetime.
Personal loan. Antipas was just like many government employees. There were several occasions that he had to obtain loans in order to meet certain unexpected financial requirements. Among the first few things he intended to do upon receipt of his retirement fund was to honor his loan obligations. That was what he did - pay a hundred thousand peso loan.
Multicab. With still a huge amount left suddenly at his disposal, the feeling of self-indulgence overwhelmed him. The financial plan Antipas so carefully laid out while still anticipating the retirement pay lost its significance. Buying a Multicab was not among his original priorities, but the retiree thought that he was too old to wait for public transport each time he had to go out of home. Why not spend one hundred twenty five thousand pesos for his comfort. “Mosuway lang gud ta gud og sakay sa atong kaugalingong sakyanan†was his very convincing reasoning.
New-look home. The residential house of this former government worker, Antipas, had seen better days. It did not anymore match his status as a moneyed man. After postponing many previous attempts to renovate his home, the time has really come to repair it, especially that he had to provide a garage for his new toy. When the face-lifting was completed, Antipas drew from his retirement money a little over two hundred thousand pesos.
Antipas thought that nothing should be added to those three huge expenses identified above.
Florsheim. For years on end, he relied upon the sturdy shoes made in Carcar City. Oh, he found them comfortable even if the costliest pair he bought was worth eight hundred pesos. One day, however, he went inside the Florsheim shop. Deep within him, he longed to sport such a branded wear and jumping from the P800 Carcar shoes to the eight thousand peso Florsheim pair fulfilled his dream. Of course he loved his lifetime partner so much that “motilaw lang gud ta of mahalon nga zapatos†explained why the two of them should buy Florsheim.
Chicka-an. Antipas and family followed a vegetarian diet. It fit their budget well. He figured out that each meal they shared would cost a modest one hundred fifty pesos. Since retirement though, he has taken his family to good restaurants like Chika-an, a few times and did not mind paying about one thousand five hundred pesos each dining.
Before I could finish narrating to Vic my story, he nodded his head. Vic's smile confirmed the similarity in Maning and Antipas' financial woes late in their lives.
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