Recently, our organisation started volunteering our services under the financial services industry’s community service initiative – FinCARE™ (Financial Counselling, Aid & Resilience Education).
This initiative came about as our industry body IFPAS recognised that financial education can make a big difference to the lives of people, especially the low-income and less-educated. And we being financial professionals are in the best position to empower this group of people to make positive financial decisions that can help them break out of the poverty cycle.
As part of the project FinCare, volunteers from the financial services industry will conduct a 5-session financial literacy program known as the SEED (Student Engagement & Educational Development) Money Program for the underprivileged. For a start, we will teaching and mentoring teenagers who are recipients of The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund (SPMF).
Working with AWWA
Our organisation adopted AWWA (Asian Woman Welfare Association) to start this 5 week program for the teenagers under the centre’s care. Over the past 2 weeks, we interacted with the students and shared some basic money concepts such as understanding what money is, tracking expenses and differentiating between needs and wants.
It was a good experience getting to know the children and also re-learning fundamental concepts about money in simple, practical ways. Although most of the concepts are basic, they are timeless and they work – regardless of our age and even financial status.
For example, one of the fundamental principle of knowing where your money goes is something that even millionaires practise. In the book “5 Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me”, the author Richard Evans wrote about the 2nd lesson that his millionaire mentor taught him about taking responsibility for his money.
This encompasses the 4 things one must know about our money:
- Where is your money coming from? – Our income sources
- Where is your money going? – That ties in with tracking your expenditure or at least knowing what and how much you spend on
- What is your money doing? – What are you doing with your money, is it working hard for you and growing?
- What’s your net worth? – that’s how much you have now, your assets net off your liabilities
I believe the concepts shared in the SEED money program will form the foundation of good money habits which will enable these young teenagers to change their financial destiny and create a much brighter future for themselves.
Sow a thought and you reap an action;
Sow an act and you reap a habit;
Sow a habit and you reap a character;
Sow a character and you reap a destiny.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
I am grateful for the opportunity to be part of this meaningful community project and I look forward to contributing to the lives of more teenagers through financial education.
To Your Success and Happiness,
Yong Hui
