EMPOWERed Futures - Gaining confidence in handling personal finance, by Susena Gurung

Last month, I was honored to attend an insightful event organized by the Amber Foundation, focused on financial empowerment. A special thanks to Sheetal Sarup for sharing valuable tips on money management and investment strategies.

Key takeaways for me included the importance of budgeting to track expenses, the necessity of establishing an emergency fund for unforeseen circumstances, and the wisdom of paying credit card balances in full rather than making minimum payments.

"Key takeaways for me included he wisdom of paying credit card balances in full rather than making minimum payments."

Here are some of the important lessons we learned that night:

1. Budgeting rule 50/30/20 - where 50% of income is put towards needs, 30% towards wants, 20% towards savings

2. Emergency Fund - keeping 3 to 6 months’ worth of expenses to prepare for income shocks

3. Credit card bills - It’s generally better to pay off your balance in full each month to avoid interest charges

4. Compounding multiplies savings / debt at an accelerated rate : (1 cent doubled every day for 30 days - The power of compounding interest)

5. Different types of asset classes - Cash, Bonds, Equities, Alternative investments ie Real Estate, crypto

6. How to read an MPF statement sheet & how to determine which assets are low, medium and high risk

I’d like to thank the Nomura group for sponsoring the venue and Empower ExCo Member Renna Rollason for organizing this inspiring session. My gratitude also extends to the group leaders from Nomura and our guest leaders—Yvonne Lau, Jiyoung Park, Renne Lee, Annette Neesom, Anupama Poduri, Catherine Graham, Christina Pantin, and Reena Desai—for their dedication in coaching our cohort.

Finally, this event wouldn’t have been possible without Elizabeth Thomson, chairwoman and founder of Empower by The Amber Foundation, and the entire Empower Team: Felicity McRobb, Petunia Kingsley, Anisha Sakhrani, Manisha Wijesinghe, May Anne Bird, Mamta Hotchandani, Soundari Mukherjea, Christa Nuijs, and Meena Palad, along with our evening helpers, Munazzah Kamal, Mahak Jain, Suja Khajum Limbu, and Susena Gurung.