Surely our parents tell us stories about how they could survive with P5.00 a day in the olden days -- P0.50 for a soda and the rest for food and fare. Now, the same P5.00 cannot even get us a decent stick of barbecue. One reason for this is inflation.

As a young adult, you wonder how your meager income can help you achieve your financial goals - a roof above your head, education for your children, and a few luxuries. The ever-increasing cost of basic commodities makes a reasonably comfortable future seem like a distant dream. How then can you beat inflation?

If you have modest savings, simply putting your money in the bank is not going to help you beat inflation. For P10,000, commercial banks offer interest rate of roughly 1.6% a year. This is substantially below the 6%-7% inflation rate expected by the government this year. Directly investing your savings in the stock market also has its own difficulties. What stocks do you buy? When do you buy them? Will my stock investment decisions earn a return higher than inflation?

Some people resort to hiring seasoned investment managers, who have the skills, knowledge, research capabilities and expertise to manage their assets on a full-time basis. However, investment managers usually focus on individuals or institutions with huge investible funds. Small investors, with say P10,000, will be hard put to find a professional fund manager to handle their investments.

If you are at a lost as to how you can make your money grow, you should consider investing in a mutual fund. A mutual fund is money pooled together from various individuals that are invested by professional investment managers in a diversified portfolio of assets like stocks and bonds. In exchange for the money you put in, you will receive shares of the mutual funds. The value of the mutual fund shares will depend on the prevailing market price of the underlying assets invested by the mutual fund. If you want out, all you have to do is sell your shares back to the company handling the mutual fund.

When deciding on the specific mutual fund to invest in, you must consider your investment objectives and tolerance to risks. You should also look at the stability of the mutual fund company, the appropriateness of the products, and the expertise of the investment managers.

The Sun Life Prosperity Funds may be the answer to your investment needs. For as low as P10,000, you can invest in one of their mutual fund products - the Sun Life Prosperity Philippine Equity Fund, the Sun Life Prosperity Bond Fund, or the Sun Life Prosperity Balanced Fund. The funds are managed by the Sun Life Asset Management Company, which belongs to the reputable Sun Life Financial Group of companies. The investment team employs the most number of fund managers with the internationally recognized Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in the Philippines. To become a Chartered Financial Analyst, an individual must pass three rigorous exams on various investment subjects, must accumulate at least three years of investment management experience, and must abide by the Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct of the Association for Investment Management and Research.

Make a smart move and call the Sun Life Asset Management Company at 849-9888.