Digital Alkansya

For us who were born in the 70's to 80's, we grew up with our "alkansya" whether piggy bank, bamboo, jars, or tin can. It is where we put our precious coin savings (if there are any left from our baon/allowance). This is where we start to learn the value of savings even before being introduced to banks and "paluwagan". 

A few months ago, I thought of how to maximize these loose change and excess allowance and add to existing investments but the amounts are small considering the minimum of most investment funds and time deposits. Sitting in a regular bank account, these small amount would have an interest of 0.10% to 0.25% per annum if you meet the minimum for interest eligibility. Time deposit minimums ranges from 10,000 pesos to 50,000 pesos while mutual funds and UITFs minimum ranges from 1,000 to 50,000. 

I was able to identify a few alternatives:

Digital Banks

ING and CIMB launched last 2018 their mobile banking services. You can open a bank account just by using your mobile phone. They have no branches to support over the counter transactions but have few other channels for deposits and withdrawals. GSave, a savings account under the umbrella of super app GCash is a partnership with CIMB. These digital savings account offer 2.5% per annum interest rates with promo offers up to 4% per annum. They also do not require a maintaining balance to earn interests but of course you will need a smartphone and mobile data to have these accounts. (I wonder who don't have smartphone nowadays except from my mother)

ATRAM Peso Money Market Fund

Accessible thru GCash, this fund is accepting a 50 pesos minimum investment under the category GInvest. Although the fund can also be accessed thru Seedbox, the minimum is higher using that alternative.

ATRAM Peso Money Market Fund is a unit investment trust fund (UITF) which invests primarily in time deposits. Checking their current fact sheet, YTD returns is 2.9% and annualized 3-yr return is 1.06%.

Sun Life Prosperity Money Market Fund

This fund can be availed directly thru Sunlife or using Col Fund Source which is a mutual fund market of COL Financial. Sun Life Properity Money Market Fund invests primarily in government bonds, corporate bonds, short term and money market placements.

The fund will accept a minimum of 100 pesos. Checking their current fact sheet, YTD is 3% with 3 year annualized return of 2.8%

Risk and Returns

All these alternatives offer higher returns than our regular savings account as well as accept equal or less than 100 pesos starting and top ups worthy to be called digital "alkansya". Although the risks are higher it is still under the conservative category. A good starting point for those who would venture into higher risks investments in the future. ING and CIMB are governed by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and covered by the 500,000 pesos deposit insurance while ATRAM and Sun Life are governed by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

If you can find other lower amount investment alternatives, please leave a some message in the comment box.

Happy Saving and Investing!