(GIVEAWAY) It's International Women's Day! Share a story about a woman who has influenced your financial journey. Keep it interesting and stand a chance to win SEPHORA gift cards!

I have 3 short stories to share.

Let me detail it here:

• My Mother: Who has been a working mother for the past 20 years of her life and raised up 2 kids from young till they have grown up to lead their own lives. Also, she’s probably the smartest and savviest person I know about saving money but also investing in stocks and funds (every month my brother and I pass her money, she’ll RSP it into a fund and is looking to grow it for us, instead of spending it) she has also grown her property portfolio with my father and it was truly and amazing experience to see it all happen and how she managed to climb the ladder of today’s capitalistic Singapore.

• My Fianceé: Whom will become my wife really soon. Also a very strong lady with strong money habits inculcated since young. Becoming very savvy with the big money decisions, so it’s a real blessing that I have her in my life and for my future kids as well

• The ladies in our Seedly team: We have a bunch of amazing ladies at work! They work really hard and most importantly smart. The financial element here is that we are all working for each other to make this a success as work contributes to the largest portion of our time. So, thank you to: Cherie, Xinyi, Yixuan, Charmaine and Min Sun!

Like most people, my mum influenced my financial journey the most. She was really supportive in terms of financial decisions I make throughout my life and would even pay for me to learn those mistakes.

Here are a few examples:
1) she was my first math teacher. A skill that personal finance depends a lot on.

2) she supported my first MLM product, know it was a scam. (Investing in Iraq dinar. Who does that?!)

3) she insisted that I open a CDP account while in university and handed me a bit of money to learn to invest.

4) she's a homemaker. And every single cent in her savings account is from scrimping on her own expenses. That taught me how to save better by observing some of her life habits.

Also, the ladies in Seedly! Even more so for Xinyi and Cherie in the content team who share the same mission on helping Singaporeans make smarter financial decisions. Thanks for the constant teamwork and hardwork! You ladies rock!!

Investing is the Key to Wealth shared by Ms Indra Nooyi (Ex-CEO of Pepsi). How she achieved her financial freedom working in MNC as an executive and at the same time investing in financial instruments. She always insisted that
1) we should start saving at least 20 to 30% from our salary from the young age. The reason is a) investing to beat the inflation b) saving as an habit irrespective of expenditure we have.
2) Never borrow money for investing. Means borrowing is like gambling and it creats cascading effect and influence a) borrowing from friends and families b) debt will start increasing. there is something called good debt and bad debt on borrowing. Sure never enter into the trap of bad debt.
3) always need to have financial goal with SMART approach. need to be specific, measureable, Achievable, Relavent and Timely. each word has high implact on financial saving.
4) Diversification on different asset class: Stocks, bonds, futurs, options and Mutual fund.
5) Invest in long term for stocsk (equity), which has strong business propostion ( Ex: Amazon, Netflex, google, oracle, sales force etc...).
6) Mutual fund - invest in fast growing sectors like dealing with india / indonesia etc.. (Bricks sector can be).

today getting insight from her speech and others big investors i could able to take my 4 digit US$ cash to 6 figure in equity. similary i have invested in endowment, mutual funds etc....

regards,
rajan

My wife is the who influenced me the most. Before knowing her, i was living the Yolo life style and personal financial planning for me was a thing for "uncles".

The 1st thing i learnt from her was to do simple budget every month. She has been doing so ever since she started working. From that point onwards, there is no turning back. I have been reading and studying about personal financing and this will be a lifelong journey for me.

I am satisfied with our current financial situation and we are working hard towards our common dream which hopefully can be achieved!

Thank you so much, Laopo (Vivienne Low)!