Ask someone about their savings
account and you'll usually get numbers back — how much they've put away, what
interest rate they're getting, how far off they still are from their target.
But the number is rarely the point. Behind most savings accounts sits something
more specific: a trip that's been put off too long, a kid's tuition, a first
house, an emergency fund, or just the quiet relief of knowing you could handle
whatever comes up.
Maya, the country's leading
financial services platform, recently looked through its own anonymized,
aggregated savings data to see what that actually looks like in practice. The
short version: priorities shift a lot depending on where someone is in life,
but the underlying reasons people save turn out to be more alike than you'd
expect. Across generations, it's less about hoarding money and more about
building toward something specific.
Travel Isn't Just a Gen Z Thing
One finding that stood out
immediately: travel shows up as one of the top two savings goals across every
single generation in Maya's customer base — not just among younger users, which
is usually the assumption.
That shows up clearly in Maya
Personal Goals too, where travel is consistently one of the most commonly
created goals. Users can set up to five personalized savings goals at once, and
a lot of them are earmarking specific funds for trips — everything from a big
overseas vacation to a smaller family getaway — while still keeping their other
financial priorities moving in parallel.
Maybe that's not so surprising
once you think about it: a lot of the moments that matter most in life aren't
things people buy, they're places people go and memories they come back with.
Feeling Prepared Matters as Much as Any Milestone
Travel might be the flashiest
goal, but it's far from the only one people are working toward.
General savings and emergency
funds keep showing up near the top of the list across every generation in the
data, pointing to something pretty universal: people just want to feel like
they could handle a curveball, regardless of their age. Depending on where
someone is in life, other goals — investments, retirement, and similar
longer-horizon plans — start to factor in as well.
Everyone seems to define
"financial security" a little differently, but the underlying
motivation is strikingly consistent: wanting to be ready, whatever happens
next.
For a lot of people building
that kind of cushion, Maya Savings is built to let money grow while staying
accessible — useful whether it's going toward something planned or something
unexpected. Balances can earn up to 15% p.a. as they grow. In a lot of cases,
the real financial win isn't a purchase at all — it's just knowing you're
covered if things don't go according to plan.
What People Save For Changes as Life Does
People keep saving throughout
their lives, but what they're actually saving toward shifts noticeably by
generation.
Younger Maya users tend to
prioritize things like education, gadgets, and travel — the earlier-life
milestones. Retirement and long-term financial security become more prominent
further along.
Maya offers a couple of
different tools depending on what someone's actually building toward. Maya
Savings is meant for money people might still need to tap into. Maya Time
Deposit Plus — offering rates up to 6% p.a., with the flexibility to top up
funds during the deposit period — has become the more popular choice for money
set aside with a longer horizon in mind.
Younger Filipinos Are Already Playing the Long Game
One of the more unexpected
findings: Millennials, Gen Z, and even Gen Alpha make up the largest share of
active Time Deposit Plus users. That's a notable shift from the assumption that
younger savers are only thinking about what's immediately next — a lot of them
are already setting money aside for the long haul.
Older generations, on the other
hand, tend to deposit more per transaction — not necessarily because they're
better savers, but because they've simply had more time to build up their
financial capacity.
Taken together, the data
suggests saving habits track more closely with life stage than with age itself.
The specific goals change over time, but the underlying habit of preparing for
what's ahead doesn't really go away.
If there's one thing Maya's
savings data makes clear, it's that people rarely save just to watch a number
grow. They're saving for a first plane ticket they've been dreaming about for
years, an emergency fund they're hoping never to actually need, a child's
education, or just the freedom to renovate a home, start a business, or say yes
to an opportunity without doing mental math first.
In the end, the money itself is just the mechanism. What
people are actually building is the life it makes possible.
Learn More
Visit maya.ph or mayabank.ph,
and follow @makeyourmoneymaya on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. Maya
Philippines, Inc. and Maya Bank, Inc. are regulated by the Bangko Sentral ng
Pilipinas (www.bsp.gov.ph). For 24/7
assistance, visit the Help Center in the Maya app or call +632 8845-7788, daily
from 8 AM to 7 PM.
About Maya
Maya is the #1 Fintech
Ecosystem in the Philippines, encompassing Maya, the #1 Digital Bank, and Maya
Business, the #1 Omni-Channel Payment Processor. Maya Bank is a digital bank
regulated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), with deposits insured by
the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) up to ₱1 million per
depositor.
To learn more, visit maya.ph and mayabank.ph.
Follow Maya at @makeyourmoneymaya on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok,
and @mayaofficialph on Twitter.
For more information: Nick Wilwayco, Head of Public Affairs
and Communications, Maya — nick.wilwayco@maya.ph
Comments