We Pinoys I believed are one of the weirdest people n earth. When I was in Guam working as an accountant, I have co-workers and other Pinoys doing 2-3 jobs a day. A few of my co-workers have a job in my employment as their day job and have a housekeeping job or a grocery attendant job at night up to the early morning hours. Often times they are too tired at their day job but when asks why the 2-3 jobs is because life is hard and they have to make ends meet.
source: http://www.scu.edu
Back here in the Philippines I hear the same thing. Times are hard and they have to make ends meet and yet there are few people who have a second or a third job. We can easily blame the traffic because if you have two jobs and they are kilometers apart it is impossible to do it. But it is a sad fact that life is hard. Often times we hear stories of depressed co-workers ending being buried in debt just to make ends meet after exhausting all their SSS and PAG-IBIG loans. It would be impractical to have a second job at night since often times we are tied to one job, doing other things for the company and at times at OTY(Overtime without pay).
The solution to this is not to have a second job, but rather have a second or more income source.
Income source could be active or passive. Active income could be your day job, but aside from it, a sideline like doing one to two-hour work in a weekend for another job or company or the so-called part-time job would really be of help. But another could be using your entrepreneurial skill like selling goodies at work(as long as it is allowed) or having some services offered which you are good at. You could be good at singing and you could be singing at parties or events at weekends or on after work evening where you are free. You might be internet savvy and you could offer social media marketing when you come home after work. You can also offer articles and write-ups if you have good command of English or another language. You might know clerical work like bookkeeping(I am planning on this for the longest time already) which you could do on the weekends at the client’s office or house or even have it done online. If you have artistic passion you can offer services related to the arts(check out my post here for my planned offering of photography services, yes I am a photographer as well).
For those who does not have issues with their finances, you do can have another income source for your future. You may not be in need right now, but if you have another income source to help you save and prepare for the future I believe you are in the sweet spot.
if you have excess funds why not place it in the stocks and earn from trading or from dividends. If you have no idea how to do that, you can either put it i mutual funds or UITF. You need to watch though, since a lot of scams are now out there enticing you high and quick return. For safe investments, make sure that you put your money with a return higher than what banks offer. If you are able to save a big chunk of about fifty thousand pesos you can place this in a Treasury bills, which at least have a higher interest rate than what most banks offer. Also, if you are interested, there are groups out there offering angel investing. Angel investing is more or less like crowdfunding for startups. There are few people out there who have a promising idea or business model, but does not have the capital to make it happen and thus they turn to possible investors who are willing to pour in capital to their endeavor. This is a bit risky, but as they say the higher the risk the higher the return. If you are familiar with Kickstarter, angel investing works like that.
As early as possible, make ways to find and have an extra source of income. No matter how small it is in the long run and when accumulated it turns to big heaps that will save you from headaches in the future.