On May 26th 2011, RHAND hosted its first iteration of Financial Literacy Programmes for the year 2011 at its Roof Top Facility. The registrants for this year’s Membership Skills Development Programme were invited to be a part of this ground-breaking session. A total of 56 persons attended the forum. The chairman for the evening was the ICT Manager, Mr. Keith Risbrooke. The Presenter for the evening was Mrs. Ladi Franklin who regularly works in connection with the National Financial Literacy Programme facilitated by the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago. Mrs. Franklin is a Female
Management Executive with twenty (20) years experience in Finance, Marketing, Human resources, General management, in private and public sectors both in Africa and Trinidad & Tobago.
Money Management was the central theme for the evening’s proceedings. Throughout her presentation, Mrs. Franklin stressed the importance of Budgeting. She explained that a budget is the most effective financial management tool available to all of us. Whether you are earning thousands of dollars or hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, a budget is the most fundamental part of achieving our life’s goals.
She also noted that from our income; we should set aside money firstly for ourselves then; once we have paid ourselves; we can consider paying others. That simply means, from our earnings, we should always set aside a fixed amount towards savings and investing and whatever is left after savings and investing, could be spent. Therefore the Best principle to follow is to Earn – Save – Spend; although most of us tend to Earn – Spend – Save.
If we haven’t been in the habit of saving all our lives then we should begin with an assigned salary deduction or a standing order with our bankers, both of which are facilitated by the Credit Union. As it pertains to investing, we should invest based on our level of risk tolerance and the timeliness of the return on investment. Instruments like Mutual funds that have guaranteed returns are for the short-term and the risk averse while investments in company shares on the stock market are for the real risk takers that can ride out the long wave of highs and lows.
A cross-section of the attentive audience A sample of the Literature Provided to attendees
Mrs. Franklin stressed the importance of Self Assessment in order to know and understand our financial position, we can then determine our Money Personality and finally we can determine What are Our Financial Needs in order to set short and longer term goals. The evening’s proceedings were quite a success as most members left better equipped to make sound financial decisions after Mrs. Franklin’s detailed presentation. This Financial Literacy session is part of RHAND’s commitment to educating our members about the importance of saving, budgeting and investing wisely. If you are interested in attending such a session please call or email us to pre-register for an upcoming session in the later part of this year.
