05/04/2024
Last week, I was invited by Narpani Paeravai Youth and the NUS Tamil Language Society to be part of their Youth Connexions event and share my journey in building financial resilience.
To stand in front of a room full of college students, I thought long and hard about what I was going to share with them that could potentially make an impact on their life decisions, or would I simply be one of the many talks they have heard that would soon be forgotten?
At their age, they probably won't understand what it means to be a mother of 2 beautiful children and balancing family obligations with commission-based financial planning work.
But what I wanted to share with them was a message of hope.
Because no matter what their background was or where their starting line was, it is possible for them to turn their life around and pave their way towards financial resilience. I am a living proof of that.
“If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, then crawl. But whatever happens, keep moving forward.”
I shared the above quote with the students, because this determination to keep moving forward has guided me through life and helped me to achieve financial resilience. With this determination, I was able to:
🎯 Set financial goals and work towards them with eyes on the target.
📚 Focus on building the right knowledge to achieve my goals.
💭 Establish good habits to improve my productivity.
☸️ Rely on my 'wheel of happiness' to achieve balance in my life.
Ultimately, my modest background did not stop me from dreaming big and taking calculated risks in life to get to where I am today. It’s the ability and courage to move forward no matter what situation you are placed in that defines success for me.
Of course, once you achieve resilience in finance, it fortifies your resilience in life too. Therefore, it's useful for these students to start thinking about planning their finances early, so they have a longer lead time to work towards financial resilience while they still have their biggest advantage - youth.
Many thanks to the organisers for this wonderful opportunity to share my experience with the students. I hope they have benefitted from this session, as much as I did from their participation.