Who Are The Filipino Millennials And What Are Their Spending Habits?

3 min read By eCompareMo on April 14, 2015

We are now living in the era of the Millennials: young professionals who live in cloud storages, a wide array of gadgets and gizmos, and more flexible working conditions. According to the National Statistics Office, there are 27 million Filipino Millennials ready to take charge of the country’s economy, all hungry for their own place in society. While the Millennials are now set to displace their predecessors within a few years from now, their spending habits as well as financial handling is totally different from others. What makes Millennials’ spending habits a curious case?

Read: Is It Possible For You To Earn One Million Pesos By Doing Small Lifestyle Changes? You’ll Be Surprised That It Is!

1. Millennials love gadgets so much

When it comes to gadgets, other generations cannot topple down Millennials in their mastery of technology. They know every nook and cranny of their gadgets: screen size, camera resolution, processing power, and other details that are too difficult to be understood by older generations. However, this mad love affair with gadgets tend to go overboard—and Millennials love to spend on their gadgets. A lot. Aside from smartphones, Millennials also fancy gadgets like cameras, laptops, tablets, and other gadgets,

2. Millennials use the power of technology to their advantage

While Millennials may have a mad love affair with their gadgets, which prove to be a financial pitfall for most members of the Millennial generation, they are actually harnessing the power of technology to cut their spending and get discounts. Most of the time, they use their gadgets to scour the internet for discounted airline tickets, food deals, travel packages, and so much more. To a certain extent, Millennials also tend to use the internet to help them make better financial decisions like looking for and comparing credit cards, homes for sale, and investment options. They may be armed with expensive smartphones and tablets, but they use it to gain the upper hand when it comes to spending.

3. Pinoy millennials do not face much debt as compared to global counterparts

In the Philippines, the notion of having student debt is almost nonexistent, mainly due to parents of Millennials preparing for their education since day one. In other countries, college students have the option to borrow money for their tuition, which will burden them with debt after they get out of school. However, Filipino Millennials should thank their parents for either preparing for their future or teaching them to work for it instead of borrow money. This, in turn, gave Filipino Millennials the good head start they needed, which is having zero debt as they start in life.

4. Millennials trust cash more than credit cards

In a survey conducted by Visa a few years ago, 8 out of 10 Millennials still prefer cash to make financial transactions as opposed to using credit cards, which are more convenient to use. However, the survey furthered that the Filipino Millennials’ lack of trust in the credit card system stems from the lack of information about credit cards, their security features, and advantages of cashless payment. With proper financial literacy about the ins and out of credit cards, Millennials will definitely learn about the advantages of credit cards as well as the pitfalls Millennials should avoid.

Filipino Millennials still have a lot to learn when it comes to their financial health and their spending habits. Let’s be honest: it will still take a long time for Millennial to truly master their best way of handling their finances and curbing their spending, but with the tools that they have right now, it is not impossible for them to reach such great feats, both individually and as a generation.