Many people in Marinsow Village, East Likupang, North Sulawesi, earn a living from managing homestays. As one of the priority tourist areas in Indonesia that is rich in natural and cultural tourism, some of them make homestays their main source of income. However, there are also those who make homestays as an additional source of income because their main jobs are fishermen, farmers, miners, and so on.
The development of tourism must be balanced with the ability of human resources that manage these tourism objects, one of which is in terms of financial literacy. Currently, many residents of Marinsow Village still have the understanding that saving is obtained from the remains of overall income.
Seeing this condition, Vocational Education Program of Universitas Indonesia (UI), through a community service program (pengmas) led by Karin Amelia Safitri, S.Pd., M.Sc. provided financial literacy for Marinsow Village residents to be financially literate. Vocational UI sought to change the mindset of Marinsow villagers that saving needs to be done at the beginning after receiving income, not the remains of all expenses. Through the training provided, Marinsow villagers were asked to record all income, both main income and additional income.
“Financial service products that are familiar to local residents are banks. Meanwhile, only a few of them already have insurance and pension funds and know the concept of protection or benefits from life insurance that they receive. In addition, they also do not know the basic concepts of the capital market,” said Karin.
The Marimsow villagers record their monthly expenses for food, household expenses, taxes, health insurance, and expenses related to homestay services for tourists, such as breakfast and homestay room facilities. In addition, they also need to calculate the ideal proportion for each expenditure item.
The Director of UI Vocational Education Program Padang Wicaksono, S.E., Ph.D, said that community service activities which are part of the Tri Dharma of Higher Education need to be evenly distributed and reach remote areas, such as Marinsow Village. “Providing benefits to Marinsow residents is not only in a form of financial literacy but also in a form of introducing Marinsow Village that has an abundance of natural resources that have not been touched and is interesting to visit,” Padang said.
