a Letter from an OFW friend

Recently, I received greetings from my inbox folder in Facebook from a friend working in Texas. Since we have not seen each other for a long time and that I knew that she was a victim of a very clever employer who made her travel long distances to see patients (she is a home health Occupational Therapist) and she filed suit to be able to get out of the contract.

Offering a little unsollicited advice, I inquired if she was aware of where the US economy is headed and followed to tell her that she should have a PLAN B AND PLAN C if things do not go well and Medicare will have to suffer a budget cut.

For most of you who do not know this, Pres. Obama is trying to reduce the budget for health care but is being met with widespread opposition. Others may have a tendency to be too optimistic about the US Economy, but I would not bet too much on this since their problems are just beginning. Their next problems will be meeting the retirement needs of SSS Pensioners who are 75 Million in population (Baby Boomers) who will be retiring in the next few years. Their programs are just too insolvent to survive, not to mention the cost of war in Iraq and the threats coming from Bin Laden on the Israeli issue.

It is a sorry audio flick to hear these things but this is reality and we need to prepare for these sort of occurrences. This affects us Filipinos since one way or another many of us have relatives, friends and family who have families in the US and who think that their fairy tale is still going to continue in the next decade.

My friend on the other hand, surprised me and told me she was studying the subject of investing in precious metals. Smart Kid! She told me she was studying many books including Mike Maloney's "Guide to Investing in Gold and Silver" and also a lot of Robert Kiyosaki's books and has been looking to buy actual metals to hedge for the future. Now that makes sense. Motivating her further more, I told her to stay away from ETFs and Metal Futures which are worthless papers.

If you are reading this and know OFWs that you care about, then you would be doing them a favor by helping them understand the dynamics of the economic powers.