PNB Dream Builder Money Market Fund – Review and Benefits

Are you looking for a bank product that could give you money higher than what time deposits could give you? If yes, I will introduce you to our new friend here: Money Market Funds.

Let’s face it, we can’t almost feel the interest income earned from our regular savings account. Sometimes ATM and bank transaction fees are much higher than these little interests. And if you less withholding taxes, you barely earn a thing.

That is why people turn to time deposits. But there are other bank products better than time deposits. One of them is money market fund and I’m making a review here about one of the best money market funds from the banks Trust Empire, PNB Dream Builder Money Market Fund.

pnb dream builder money market fund review benefits

What is PNB Dream Builder Money Market Fund?

Money Market Funds are suitable for conservative investors because they have the lowest risks among all types of investments. They are usually invested on short-term deposits and government securities making them suitable for short-term investment horizon.

PNB Dream Builder Money Market Fund is one of their 3 money market funds. Unlike the two, Dream Builder Fund is the most affordable fund in terms of initial investment, with only P2000 minimum requirement to open an account.

pnb dream builder money market fund
source: pnb.com.ph

In addition from the requirements above, this fund also allows minimum additional participation of P2000 which is very cool. If you make an initial placement of 5,000 for example, you can add up more funds of 5000 if you wish via PNB Auto Investment Plan (AIP) using PNB UITF Online banking facility.

I honestly don’t know if other banks allow that for their UITF unless what you opened was AIP or EIP type at the beginning of your UITF opening.

How to Know If PNB Dream Builder Money Market Fund is Suitable for You?

  • You can only take small risk
  • You want to keep your money in the bank and gain income higher than TD and SA at the same time
  • You are only investing for short-term
  • You used to like Time Deposits so much

By the way, this investment is not for OFWs and non-residents. The good news is that you can open this UITF account online via PNB online banking if you have existing PNB account.

Fehl is the founder of Philpad. She has a degree in Accountancy and a background in Finance. She is a licensed Career Service Professional and author of a poetry book at Barnes & Noble. In her spare time, she likes to travel and vlog.

44 thoughts on “PNB Dream Builder Money Market Fund – Review and Benefits”

  1. hello…

    ano po ang suggested uitf for ofw? im using pnb online. confused ako kasi yung iba is not for non resident at ofw.

    salamat

    Reply
    • Hi, if you are OFW or non-resident, you are allowed to invest all UITF at PNB except Prime Peso Money Market Fund and Dream Builder Money Market Fund 🙂

      Reply
  2. Hi! Kodus to you for your informative site. I am learning a lot from your articles and answers.

    I’ve thinking about these queries for a long time now, and have been reading your articles and the Q & As here and other resources hoping to find answers. But I haven’t chanced upon any question that’s exactly like them or similar.

    My questions are:

    1. What happens to my investment in MF or UITF if I do not redeem it? Will it be redeemed automatically at the NAVPS or NAVPU prevailing the day after the holding period (even if I do not apply for redemption)?

    2. Or will it be reinvested automatically (even if I do not apply for it) and thereby assume a new holding period? And if reinvested, will the earnings, if any, be invested too?

    3. In counting the days of holding period (say, 30 days), is the day on which yhe investment is placed included or counted as day 1?

    4. When is the schedule for redemption? Is it at the last day of the holding period? Or is it the day after the end of the holding period?

    I’m sorry I have many questions. These simply accumulated over time of reading about MFs:)

    Thank you.

    Reply
    • Hi there! Thanks for visiting. I do my best to answer many queries. And they are too many 🙂
      1. It will roll out and be continued invested. It will not automatically be redeemed unless you set an automatic redemption
      2. Same answer as number 1
      3. The day will start on the date on the COP (Confirmation of Participation)
      4. The redemption will be depending on you, the investor. The Holding Period does not state the redemption date

      Reply
      • Thanks for your reply! I’m sorry it took me a long while to reply because it was only a few minutes ago that I got to read Philpad emails. I discovered that they’ve been screened out by this Boxbe thing from my Inbox. This Boxbe had been filtering out some of my important incoming email (including those from philpad). I scrapped it for good!

        Reply
  3. balak ko po mg open ng uitf s pnb?hnd po kz me marunong s mg online gusto ko po sana personal n mg punta s branch nila my mg assist po kya skin dun?mony market po b ang sasalihan ko? pasenaya n po d kHz ako nkatapos ng pg aaral Nazis ko po lumago ang pera ko s banko.

    Reply
    • Yes, you can open your PNB UITF account personally at the PNB branch. Approach the banker and tell them you will open UITF and they will lead you to the Trust rep

      Reply
  4. Hi Fehl,
    I landed to your Blog and it is really very informative. I just started investing with PNB UITF this month with intermediate trust fund and now i enrolled in the Dream Builder Money Market.
    I hope to be successful with these investments in the future.
    Thank you 🙂

    Reply
  5. ano po ang req po nito ms fehl ??sa investing pwede bng ung magiinvest k na lng kase ur only stay home un employed k lng .??

    Reply
  6. Hi mam,

    an agent offer me this PNB peso version 2 diversify. Its a VUL plan then ang taas nga ng mga charges nila on the 1st to 5th year.. I havent submit pa da forms and am still thinking if itutuloy ko ba eto or not. Ksi looking at the charges napa ka mahal parang lugi ako even up to 10 years ang babayaran ko…Will it really gain ang investment or parang insurance lang ang binabayaran ko. the premium is 20k per year. Naguguluhan na ako. Although I wanted to have both investment n life insurance…anong best po ba should I get this separately?

    Reply
    • VUL is usually expensive because of the insurance coverage and the older you are, the higher the premiums pa. If you’re not comfortable, do not get it, instead opt for UITF and look separate insurance of your choice

      Reply
  7. Hi Ms. Fehl,

    i just invested in pnb dream builder today. but I am currently working in Mongolia, would there be a problem po in the near future? kasi po sa pnb global filipino hinihingi yung GFC Number or OWWA ID. Umalis po kasi ako ng bansa as tourist kaya di pa po ako registered sa OWWA. magkakaproblema po ba? I have an account in PNB since 2010 and doing my transactions online.

    Thank you Ma’am

    Reply
    • Log in to your PNB Online Banking account and go over the left menu. Choose UITF Investments then select Make New/Additional UITF

      Reply
  8. Ma’am Fehl your blog is really informative. Just like to ask some questions regarding investment. Me & my wife are both OFW, if we have some money to invest what would you suggest to us? Also if we have 500k, we are planning to split this to 4 kinds of investment 3 100k investment for our 3 kids and 200k investment for our retirement, what would you suggest for this? Or it’s better to invest the 500k in 1 only?

    Reply
    • Well it depends upon your objective and risk appetite. If you’re conservative, put each on Money Market Fund. If you’re aggressive, put each on Equity Fund. If you’re in between, put each on Balanced Fund. I prefer the 3 100K and 200K in that case. It’s your call 🙂

      Reply
  9. Hi ms fehl
    Matagal ko ng binabasa ang blog mo at nakaka adik basahin dami akong natutunan dito. Isa po akong Ofw going home forgood very soon.
    Uuwi ako na maguumpisa palang maghanap ng mapagkakitaan,Investment sa mutual fund at iba pang instrument isa sa mga target ko. Pero since eto ay pang matagalan,naisip ko rin etong Money market fund gusto ko kasi habang nagiisip pa ng bisnis gusto ko tumubo kaagad ang pera ko at any time pwede kong makuha kaagad. Magkano kaya ang interest f mag deposit ako ng 1million peso in 6 months?
    Thanks po sa reply
    Godbless!

    Reply
    • Assuming you invested 1 million on Feb. 3, 2014 and redeem in 6 months Jul 4, 2014, your gain is 1850 only if you selected PNB Dream Builder Money Market Fund. If you want more gains, invest it in 3 years

      Reply
  10. hi ms. fehl. ano po difference ng PNB DREAM BUILDER MONEY MARKET FUND and PNB GLOBAL FILIPINO PESO MONEY MARKET FUND. as of today yung Dream builder ay may NAVpu na 1.141872 while yung Global ay may NAVpu na 1.256356. .. alin po sa dalawa ang maganda mag open ng account. thank you po.. im like reading your blog post kasi very informative ito. thank you po.

    Reply
    • They are both money market funds but PNB Global Filipino Fund is created especially for OFWs coz not all UITFs are available for OFWs (non-residents)

      Reply
  11. Hi .. Just started reading your blog for hours and im really thankful i learned a lot..
    Im a callcenter agent for 7 months now and im starting to open a savings account this year for my future..

    Im actually planning to open a savings account where i would put 2k per month and open a MF with minimum of 2k a month but im looking for better options on my saving account.. Is it a good option to put my 2k savings a month to PNB dream builder rather than open a regular savings account?

    Reply
          • What did you mean by “new placement”? Does it mean the 4k of Tin above would be a new or separate placement? Shouldn’t it be “additional placement”—therefore to be added to the first 2k? And thereafter, there would be only one cert or confirmation of participation for the total placementof 6k.

  12. Am still waiting for the Good News that you have said from one of your post.

    Really cool learning this stuff. I did actually enrolled in PNB UITF, just waiting for approval..

    God Bless!

    Reply
  13. Hi Miss Fhel,

    I can’t emphasize enough how addicted I am in reading your blog ever since I came across it a few days ago. I haven’t been able to read any other blog than yours I feel like I’ll be able to finish your whole blog anytime soon as I spend hours and hours here. Thank you so much for having this site, I have learned a lot in just a short span of time. Keep it up, Hun.

    Anyway, I have a question. I’ve been doing my research for weeks, probably months now about investing in the Philippines. I am a 28 year old guy working abroad (Filipino obviously), and don’t have much options but the recently launched online UITF program offered by PNB. I say I don’t have much options because of several factors like not having a Philippine bank account and could not open one here in Saudi Arabia since all the Philippine banks here have stopped their services for unknown reasons, and also could not apply for an account in COL since they require TIN which I don’t have yet (or maybe I had one since I worked for a month in a call centre in Makati before I went abroad but lost it). Anyway, PNB is the only Philippine bank offering their services here, so that’s the only option I have. I’ll open an account with them and I plan to invest in UITF high dividend fund. I have half a million pesos I’m more than willing to invest right now so I’m thinking if it’s smart to invest all that money in the UITF I mentioned (as I later on plan to open an account in COL and BDO once I visit the Philippines sometime next year). I know that diversification is important but I plan to do that next time once I get my COL and other accounts running. I just don’t wanna waste precious time as this money sits in my bank and not doing anything. Please give me an idea on what I should do in my situation right now. Should I invest that much money in the high dividend fund on a one-time deposit? Looking forward to hearing from you!

    Also, is there a chance you would know if high dividend fund is offered for OFWs?

    P.S. I’m the same guy who last asked a question on this link (Paul). I figured I change my name to have a distinction and opted to subscribe to your blog too since I know I’m gonna be staying here for good and gonna be commenting and asking hundreds of questions soon. :p

    Thanks in advance!

    Reply
    • Hi Paul. Wow, I’m so flattered with your comments here. Thank you for that. 🙂 I want to say congrats to your investment plan. Hardworking people like you deserve rewards from the fruits of their labor. PNB is one of the big banks I always like sharing here as you noticed coz I had and have impressive banking experience with them. Their UITFs are also performing great. Since their online facility favors your situation, I would recommend you invest with them. I always say to everyone to complete this pack: UITF + MF + Stocks for paper assets and investments. PNB Dream Money Market Funds however are not offered to OFWs and non-residents because BSP prohibits investments with SDAs for non-residents. You can choose their other UITFs like High Dividend Equity Fund or Enhanced Phil-index Reference Fund which follows PSEi components. If you have 500K, I suggest you open different investment products. 300K to 2 Equity funds would be great and 200 for your own stocks. You can open COL account even if you’re OFW and non-resident. But you really need your TIN. You can ask your family or relative here to verify your TIN on your behalf. Just send them authorization letter I think that would work. I think you already ahve existing TIN because you were working in the call center like you mentioned.

      I have one upcoming great news about investments here soon. You will not missed anything when I announced if you subscribe here. God bless and thanks a lot!

      Reply
  14. Hi. What do you mean po by not for OFW’s? I’m an OFW po, how would they categorize that? If I had an account in PNB, they would never know if I’m in the country or not right? How does that work? Does it depend on whether or not the account was opened in the Philippines? Coz I plan to open an account here in Saudi Arabia in PNB for my UITF investments.

    And may I ask if you know if High Dividend Equity Fund in PNB is in offered to OFWs as well? Thanks po.

    Reply
      • Ty po miss Fehl. I really like reading po your blog. Im an ofw, but by jan balik abroad na. Before balak kong pumasok sa stocks at invest sa mutual funds for my siblings. Is his possible pokahit low money as start tapos hulugan after? Hope to read more blogs from you here po. Thank you at Godbless.

        Reply
  15. Hi again, Fehl.

    How much is the earning for this Money Market Fund compared to TD and Savings? How short is the time? 1 month? I’m reading your articles every now and then, while working so I can know where to allocate my 13th month. haha.

    Thanks again.

    Reply
    • In experience, we invested 150K in PNB Prime Peso Money Market Fund 5 months ago and it earned 1,010.94 as of now (looking at my PNB online banking). Compared to Time Deposit, we can redeem this anytime and online. PNB Dream Builder is also Money Market Fund.

      Reply

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