Echoes of the Wallet: A Portrait of Personal Finance Practices of Employees

Abstract

The effective management of personal finances is fundamental to achieving financial security and overall well-being. The primary objective of this investigation is to assess the personal finance practices of the selected public and private sector employees in Cebu, Philippines, C.Y. 2025. The outcomes served as the basis in crafting a personal finance primer for public and private sector employees. This study employed a descriptive-survey research design to determine the personal finance practices of the 100 public and private sector employees in Cebu, C.Y. 2025. This study was undertaken in Cebu, Philippines. The research respondents for this study were the public-sector employees of Arcelo Memorial National High School and Yati Barangay Hall, as well as the private-sector employees of Duros Land Properties, Inc. and Cebu Eco-thermal Horizon Inc. This study used a researcher-developed instrument to collect data. It consisted of four (4) parts. To test the reliability of the self-developed survey tool, a dry run was conducted at J Lopez Enterprises LLC. Frequency counts, percentages, rankings, weighted means, the Chi-square test of independence, and One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used for data analysis. This investigation observed the ethical principles of beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, and autonomy. Half of the public and private sector employees aged 25 to 34 years old, while the majority were females, single, college gaduates, regular employees, earned Php18,000.00 to Php30,000.00 and spent within the range of Php18,000.00 to Php30,000.00. pe rmonth.  More of them lived with their parents while contributing to expenses, had 1 to 2 dependents, public school teachers, had been in the company for 2 to 3 years. The public and private sector employees moderately practiced personal finance in terms of budgeting, savings, expenses, insurance and debt management, while they less practiced personal finance in terms of investments.  There is a significant relationship between the highest educational attainment of public-sector employees and their personal finance

practices in terms of insurance practice. There is also a significant relationship between the average monthly expenses of public sector employees and their personal finances in terms of investments. There is a significant relationship between the occupation of the private sector employees and their personal finance practices in terms of investments. Moreover, there is a significant relationship between the number of dependents of private-sector employees and their personal finance practices in terms of expenses. Another significant relationship exists between the number of dependents and monthly income of private-sector employees vis-a-vis their personal finance practices in terms of expenses and insurance. Additionally, the results indicate a significant relationship between the average monthly expenses of private-sector employees and their personal finance practices regarding savings. There is a significant difference in the personal finance practices of public and private sector employees in terms of budgeting when groupsed according to gender and length of service. Hence there is a concerning trend in their money management: both government and private sector employees demonstrated low levels of investment engagement. Thereby, limiting their income opportunities. This also denotes that they were risk-averse.