Hello guys. After all the discussion about cooperatives in my inspirational story series, I want to give an example of what services Cooperatives can give you. If you haven't read my inspirational stories I do suggest you read it. It consists of 4 Parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4. In there I said one of the reasons for my success is a Cooperative and now we shall dive a little deeper into what a Cooperative is, how it works and what benefits do you get from joining one.
Image Source: https://businessdiary.com.ph/3096/credit-program-for-cooperatives/
What is a Cooperative or a Coop?
A Cooperative is a type of business that is owned by it's members. What does that mean? It means that you as a member of the cooperative is a also an owner of that business. Meaning you can influence how the business runs itself through a vote during the General Assembly. Every member is an owner, and therefore has equal rights. There is no discrimination in a cooperative meaning everyone can join, no matter what your status in life is, or what gender you have. Everyone has EQUAL rights.
How does it work?
It works like any other type of business. The only difference is if you join a cooperative then you have to put in your share of the capital called Share Capital. That money will be added to the Cooperative's pool of funds in order for it to run and do business. Different type of Cooperatives serve different type of services and products but there is one thing all Cooperatives have in common, that the members are it's major customers. Members patronize the Cooperatives' products and services to make it grow and in return members get a percentage of what the cooperative earns per year through what we call Dividends and Patronage Refunds.
So basically the more the members patronize the products and services of the Cooperative the bigger the Dividends and Patronage Refunds they will get at the end of the year. Think of it like buying a product in mall. Does the company who you bought from give a share of it's income back to you? No right? Because they are a private company and you don't own shares of that company so why would they give you a percentage of their income? That is the beauty of Cooperatives, since you are one of the owners of the business then you will receive a cut of the business's income per year. Every year the cooperative sets a percentage of it's Net Surplus (Net Income) that will be divide equally among its members depending on how much shares (Share Capital) each member holds. So the bigger your Share Capital is then the bigger your share of the income as well. The goal of each member should be to grow their Share Capital in order to get more income from the Cooperative.
What benefits do we get when we join a cooperative?
Well besides the Dividends and Patronage Refund that a member will receive at the end of each year, Cooperatives also have different type of products and services depending on what type of Cooperative you joined. Example if you joined a Water Cooperative and you are patronizing their water services then maybe you will get 5% to 10% discount on your water bill. If you joined a Consumers Cooperative then you can get a discount on your purchased goods in that cooperative as well. You can also Loan money from Credit Cooperatives in order to help your business grow. You can also save your money through time deposits, savings accounts and other types of savings accounts.
The beauty of cooperatives here is that Cooperatives interests on Loans are so miniscule compared to Banks. Cooperatives with savings service also give much higher annual interests than Banks. So if I were to choose whether I should put my money in a Cooperative or a Bank then the choice is quite clear.
Image Taken From: https://www.dccco.coop/
Example Cooperative
DCCCO Multipurpose Cooperative is one of the many cooperatives that I have joined. They offer very reasonable interests on their Loans, Savings and Time Deposits.
You can see in the picture above that they offer different types of savings accounts and also offer different type of loans as well. All of which have reasonable interests which is great for all your financial needs. But the main reason why I love this cooperative very much is from their Health Services.
They offer what they call a HEAL Program, the purpose of this service/program is to help secure people financially in the times of need like when you got hospitalized due to sickness or accidents. Or when you die. The images above explains everything in detail already so I won't explain each of the things in there. What I want to focus here is when I do get hospitalized due to sickness or accident then I will get 800 pesos for each day that I'm confined in the hospital. For me that is a very good deal for just 823 pesos a year. With that single benefit alone is worth the 823 pesos that I will pay for each year to keep myself and my family financially secured, especially during these times when there is a pandemic going around everywhere.
But the thing that I love the most is their Life Insurance and Accidental Death Insurance. So if I die due to an accident then my family will get 150,000 pesos worth of insurance money. 75,000 pesos from Accidental Death Insurance and another 75,000 pesos from Life Insurance. If I only die due to sickness then they will only get 75,000 pesos but is still a great help.
Now lets do some simple calculations here. I'm only 32 years old right now. So if I pay 823 pesos per year until I die, lets say around 80 is a good age to die right? so that's 80 - 32 = 48 years * 823 = 39,504 pesos. That's the total amount I would spend if I die at the age of 80 years old. That is still low compared to the 75,000 pesos my family will get when I die of old age. But what if I die sooner? and in an accident as well? I think you guys already get what I mean here right? For me this is a very great deal. Not to mention this is not the only cooperative I joined with such great life insurance deals for a measly amount of money to spend every year.
I know thinking of dying is kinda sad but I'm a realistic person. We will all die whether you like it or not. At least I'm preparing my family when I do die. I really love life insurances of Cooperatives so much. For now when I die I know that the family I leave behind will be able to support their lives for a few years or maybe a decade if they manage the money well. I even joke about it all the time with them, telling them that if I die you guys will be rich 🤣. I'm not afraid of dying anytime coz I know my family will be financially secured when I die.
I hope you guys like my blog and if you have any questions feel free to comment down below. I would love to explain things to you about Cooperatives. As always please do your own research before you join a Cooperative and see you guys in the next blog 😎
Hello guys I am Pink Hub and I love all that is pink.
Show me pink and I'll show you a 😍
Living in the province of Cebu in the Philippines.
I am a businessman by nature.
Gaming/Reading/Programming is my passion but I also dwell into other things as long as I find it interesting.
I am also lazy, lazy in a way that I make complicated things easy coz I'm lazy 🤣.
Face your problems, but if the problem is your face. Worry not I can edit 😇