Megan Young on why protecting your health and finances is key to living a happy, healthy, and vibrant life

Being the first Filipino to win the Ms. World crown, Megan Young has license to lead an ultra-glam life, but people will actually be surprised to know that she is “matipid.” In fact, she and husband Mikael “Fofo” Daez has a finance system in place where they have two bank accounts—one for expenses and one for savings. 

 

“I plan it out with my husband kung ano yung gusto ko, trips I wanna go on, K-pop merch na I wanna buy or new experiences na we both wanna try,” says Megan in her latest Instagram video post about living a vibrant life. That means sticking to the budget despite the “wants”. “If I know I can’t afford [the designer bag], bakit ko bibilhin?”

Megan Young inspires everyone to live a happy, healthy, and vibrant life with FWD Life Insurance.  

For Megan, planning your finances is one way to stay happy, healthy and vibrant because “you can enjoy and have peace of mind.” Why would you overcomplicate your life with unnecessary spends that’s not part of the budget?

 

Aside from being matipid and taking care of your finances, the actress and TV host on GMA’s The Best Ka! also included nutrition, exercise, self-care, and relaxing via traveling in her tips to lead a vibrant life in her video collaboration with FWD Life Insurance.

 

Megan Young puts great focus on living a healthy lifestyle. 

Nutrition and physical fitness

 

While the rest of the world do no-carb diets, Megan considers a meal incomplete without bread or rice and dessert! (Hallelujah!). For her, we should not be depriving ourselves with the food we want to eat. “I love having carbs, carbs, carbs! And also meat and dessert. We want to make sure we treat our bodies well. We can eat 80% healthy food and 20% kung anong gusto nating kainin.” 

 

Rather than focusing on diets, people should focus on creating a healthy lifestyle.  A diet puts her in a mindset that she needs to eat less, which should not be the case. It all comes down to moderation. Plus, exercise. (The secret to her smashing body, perhaps?)

 

That’s why even if she finds it hard—often second guessing herself like the rest of us why she is even doing it—she always makes sure she works out. 

 

Financial planning 

 

When you want to experience more out of life, she says, plan accordingly. (For additional health and financial tips, check out FWD’s blog). And she did not mean just the luxuries and the “wants”. 

 

Plans should also include the things that are important to you and your family like your health and your future coz we can never really be sure of what can happen. “Health protection…kailangan na ring i-budget ‘yan dahil mataas na rin ngayon ang medical expenses so we make sure that we have insurance para less worries.”

 

And it’s important that all bases are covered. A product like FWD Vibrant Critical Illness Insurance does that, protecting you from wellness to treatment to recovery. You’re covered from before you get a health problem up to when you get diagnosed and all the way to your treatment and recovery. 

 

Quite impressed, Megan enumerates every benefit you’ll get from it. “With FWD Vibrant, you can get cash for health screening so that you can monitor your health; you’ll also receive cash for medicines to support your recovery in case you get sick; and for your peace of mind, you can claim up to 6x for major critical illnesses; and on top of that, you get minor critical illness coverage worth 25% of the benefit amount. So, you can focus more on your health and celebrate living!”

Megan Young on why protecting your health and finances is key to living a happy, healthy, and vibrant life.

 Travel 

 

While planning is very important, there are times when we just need to let go and enjoy and appreciate life. As Megan advises: “Pause and take a breather!”

 

Taking trips abroad is when Megan gets to do this. This is the time when she and her husband can just relax and go with the flow. In her trips for instance, Megan likes to go to places that lets her get out of her comfort zone. There was even a time when they just went on a trip in Japan with no prior plans beyond the airport. After all, where they go and where they stay while abroad are not half as important as how they enjoy it. “Enjoy your time with your family and loved ones. Or even if you’re going solo, just pause and enjoy the view.” 

 

But don’t get her wrong. For Megan, planning is essential and is the precursor to living a vibrant life. Knowing you’re all covered—your health, finance, your family’s needs—gives you the freedom to just enjoy and let go. “We save up and take care of our health para ma-enjoy talaga namin these things. To do that, we always make sure that we work out and take care of our finances.” 

 

How about you? What are your secrets? Here’s a tip: start doing it! In the words of Megan, “we all deserve to be happy, healthy, and vibrant!”

Want to live a happy, healthy, and vibrant life like Megan? Set up a meeting with an FWD financial advisor to know more about FWD Vibrant and start planning for your health and finances. 

FWD Life Insurance announces the inclusion of COVID-19-related coverage reward through affordable and digitally accessible insurance plans

FWD Life Insurance announced the inclusion of COVID-19-related coverage reward through affordable and digitally accessible insurance plans that provide life, accident and critical illness protection. In partnership with Pacific Cross Insurance, the reward covers in-patient treatment of diagnosed COVID-19 illness or complications from COVID-19 vaccinations.

The reward comes with every new purchase of FWD Life Insurance’s KanMend, KanLive, KanGuard or a combination of all three in one protection plan. Customers can claim their cash rewards amounting from PhP30k to PhP90k regardless of their hospital bills from confinement for COVID-19 or vaccination complications. The benefit is on top of their Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) and other health plans.

 

“We constantly look to innovate our products and services with the goal to meet current needs and conditions with our vision of changing the way people feel about insurance. We’re here to help them prepare for any eventuality that the pandemic may cause so they can continue to celebrate living with their loved ones,” said Li Hao Zhuang, President and CEO of FWD Life Insurance. 

The reward comes at an opportune time when the virus continues to mutate in spite of ongoing global vaccination efforts. FWD Life Insurance designed it in such a way that customers can purchase their preferred plan conveniently and easily through the online insurance shop without needing to go through underwriting or submitting medical history. 

 

KanMend is a starter critical illness coverage plan that protects against 42 critical illnesses like cancer, heart disease or meningitis. It comes with six months of free tele-medicine service from KonsultaMD. KanLive is a life protection plan that provides beneficiaries with financial support in case of the insured’s death. It comes with one year of unlimited medical consultation at Aventus Medical, Inc. clinics nationwide. KanGuard is an accident insurance plan that provides cash benefit in case of the insured’s death, or total and permanent disability from accident anywhere in the world. It comes with one-year global emergency services via Assist America.

 

KanMend, KanLive and KanGuard are available at FWD Life Insurance’s online store, shop.fwd.com.ph.

FWD Life Insurance innovates employee experience with WorksForMe

At a time when work-life balance and personal time-off days have become strong buzzwords for employees, FWD Life Insurance (“FWD Philippines”) has gone beyond the tried-and-tested route and rewrote the employment rule book, enhancing its brand and business in the process. Considered one of the fastest-growing insurance companies in the Philippines, FWD Philippines launched “WorksForMe” in 2018, its enhanced employee benefits program designed to help the organization’s workforce celebrate life while they work.

 Through the program, FWD employees can now say, “At FWD, I can choose what works for me!”

“WorksForMe is the outcome of collaborative efforts to improve benefits for our employees, after surveying what the challenges and areas of improvement were,” said FWD Philippines Chief People and Culture Officer Rozanne Parungo. “It all boils down to providing better experiences for our employees.” Making Brand Advocates out of FWD EmployeesThere is a business principle that people-oriented leaders of organizations strive to adhere to: in order to best serve customers, employees need—first and foremost—to be empowered and to be motivated. They also need to stay fit to carry out their functions.

 It all starts with top leadership intent on helping promote the health and well-being of a vital component in the organizational wheel: its people. Indeed, FWD Philippines’ unique people-oriented employee benefits program WorksForMe has the solid backing of senior leadership team, headed by President and Chief Executive Officer Peter Grimes.
 Adapting to the Changing Times“FWD pioneered the WorksForMe program to advocate work-life balance while empowering and giving our employees the flexibility to choose what works for them,” added Parungo. “Our new and improved employee benefits program is a testament to how we adapt to the changing times, strongly encouraging our people to live the brand spirit and “get ready to live” for themselves and their families.” 

Part and parcel of FWD’s WorksForMe program are special leave entitlements for employees. As part of the program, employees’ vacation leaves (VL) can be rolled over during the next 12 months of the succeeding year. The longer the employee stays with the company, the more VLs they earn. Upon reaching the employee’s third year of tenure, an additional VL will be given, and one more every year thereafter up to a maximum of 24 total VLs annually, hence recognizing the employees’ loyalty.

 Sick leaves, on the other hand, can be used up to the end of the year. Unused SLs can then be banked and converted to VL, as the employee elects. This benefit feature gives the employees the option to utilize their unused leaves in a way that is more suitable to them. Pioneering Flexibility, Enhancing ProductivityThe benefits do not stop there. Employees may work from anywhere (WFA) up to five (5) days for each quarter. All that is required is manager approval as well as availability of appropriate tools to perform tasks at the same productivity level offered by the office environment.

Flexible work arrangements have also received the FWD top-level management’s nod of approval. They show extra consideration for people’s mobility or commuting problems, as well as varying peak performance time. At FWD, employees can start their work day as early as 7 a.m. or as late as 10 a.m., with corresponding end of shifts at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., respectively. This flexibility is aimed at not only lessening the employees’ commute or transit time to and from the office, but most importantly enhancing their productivity level. Parungo said, “The work schedule options allow our employees to be flexible and to be innovation- focused at the same time.” Giving Back, Paying It ForwardFWD Philippines’ “Community Care Time-Off” serves the dual purpose of encouraging its workforce to pursue their passions through community service. Employees are given two (2) paid time-off days to give back to their communities.

In order to be entitled to the allotted paid time-off days a year, employees need to take part in FWD’s existing Community Care programs or perform charitable work/community service. Reinforced by the company’s own Community Care employee passion group (committee), employees are encouraged to take part in various efforts, internal or otherwise, supporting the community and contributing to their betterment. Since the program’s launch, FWD employees have volunteered in the company’s host of Community Care partners Humanity & Inclusion, Special Olympics, and Tanging Tanglaw Solar Lolas Project. Beyond these initiatives, employees have likewise supported organizations that drive feeding programs, rehabilitation of the Pasig River, and even marathons whose proceeds go to charities, amongst others.
 “Our values guide our actions, and so do our policies and practices,” Parungo said. “Engaging and letting people thrive and prosper is one of our key priorities. We want to constantly encourage our employees to support and take part in achieving FWD’s Community Care vision: to empower people to live fulfilled lives.”

 Driving Positive Change for and with EmployeesFWD employees are now as motivated as ever to go beyond their comfort zone and reach out to members of the community. “I feel my world is bigger because I get to explore and be in love with other activities outside work – like running, hiking, and volunteering for the environment,” FWD employee TJ Catapang shares.
 WorksForMe gives current and future employees a better sense of what makes FWD a very good workplace to be part of. By contributing to its employees’ well-being through this program, FWD Life Insurance is not only living up to its vision of “changing the way people feel about insurance,” it also innovates employee experiences as it aims to truly become an employer of choice in the Philippines.

To know more about how FWD Philippines empowers its employees to "get ready to live", visit www.fwd.com.ph/en/join-us/.