Filipinos seen to splurge on motorbikes, phones this Christmas

New motorcycles and phones are among the most expensive gifts that Filipinos save up for the forthcoming holidays, according to data from financial management app Lista.

Motorbikes topped the list, with an average target budget of P54,000 based on data drawn from the app, which has been downloaded 1.4 million times since its launch in November last year.

This was followed by new phones with an average budget of P25,000, and travel, with P23,000.

“According to our data, most users are saving up for Canada, Europe or Australia,” Lista co-founder Khriz Lim told reporters during a media briefing in Makati City on Wednesday.

The average Christmas celebration budget was estimated at P17,000.

Lim added that the top items that personal users of their app save up for the long-term include housing, with an average budget of P683,567.

Others on this list are: emergency funds with an allotment of P117,341; tuition with P89,682; personal savings, with P79,452; and new phone, with P28,340.

“Emergency fund [is] a very new concept that, I think, [that] Filipinos learned about during the pandemic,” Lim said.

Business users comprising micro, small and medium enterprises also save up to buy houses in the long term, with an average initial budget of P463,799.

This was followed by: long-term saving for capital at P117,341; emergency fund, P80,789; motorbike, P57,046; and tuition, P37,960.

It was observed that the number of downloads for the app had increased in close proportion to the inflation rate over the last few months.

“Even if we don’t market the app for personal finance, people are actually downloading it,” Lim said.