About The Ipon Challenge

What We’re About

Beginner-friendly finance and investing for young Filipinos  who want to build something real and sustainable.

We talk about money (saving it, investing it, budgeting it) without the noise, the gimmicks, or the pressure to have it all figured out.

This newsletter is not here to tell you to “just stop buying coffee.” It’s here to unpack the emotional, messy, and sometimes lonely path of building your finances from scratch, especially when you didn’t grow up with anyone handing you a roadmap.

Why We Exist

We started The Ipon Challenge because we couldn’t find what we needed when we were just starting out. There were a lot of finance blogs, sure, but they either assumed too much or spoke in a language that didn’t feel like ours. 

So we built something better.

This newsletter is part journal, part guidebook. A place to share real numbers, real thought processes, and lessons that come not just from theory, but from experience (including the uncomfortable ones).

What’s In It For You

This isn’t some crash course on getting rich fast. This is a collection of frameworks and principles that helped us grow not just in savings, but in confidence around money. And if they helped us, they might help you too.

Especially if:

  • You’ve ever felt behind

  • You’ve tried reading about stocks but tapped out the moment it got technical.

  • You’re trying to unlearn toxic money mindsets, or heal from them

  • You’re quietly trying to build something that no one else in your family has done before

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This project exists to remind you that you’re not too late, not too slow, and definitely not alone.

Who We Are

We’re two friends who met in college. We have different backgrounds, different money stories, but the same drive to build something honest.

Matthew made his first million pesos through freelancing. He started with PHP 250 gigs, saved aggressively as a student, and learned how to invest by figuring things out the long way.

Marianne worked in finance for two years, and passed CFA Level 1 to climb the ladder. But the ladder wasn’t for her. She left and is now building something from the ground up in the VA industry.

We don’t sell coaching and we don’t do PHP 30K courses. Just stories, guides, and thought models that have helped us, and might help you too.

Where We're Going

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We’re building The Ipon Challenge to become a go-to resource for real and honest personal finance content for Filipino 20–30-somethings.

Most of all, we’re here to make you feel excited about something people rarely feel excited about: long-term wealth.