Money Management

Before I start my speech, I got a couple of questions for you. Do you have a dream?
And what’s your dream about? Jason, what’s your dream? (I want to be a…) Nice!
According to the study made by China Youth & Children Research Center in 2005, no
matter what your dream is, the most important thing you have to have is…the
resolution of course, the resolution of fulfilling your dream. And guess what the
second important thing is? You know… it’s all about money, either the money you can
directly use to carry out your dream, or the money you will need to survive before you
can complete your dream. However according to survey made by the Shanghai
Commercial and Savings Bank in 2006, the children of ages from 11 to 25 years old,
which include us, on average, have 5135 NT dollars disposable income, and over 83%
of them use those money on entertainments only. It seems that the deviation of the
money management concept has already been rooted in our generation. But, don’t
worry, that’s why I am here! Today, I am here to tell you…manage your money now
and do financial investments, then go for your dream! But, a lot of people are still
sitting there, with their cute and lovely resolution, and do …nothing. Why? I guess
you think finance management is something so far away from you, right? In fact, that
is exactly the first miscomprehension of finance management.
Why does it concern me?
You may think you don’t need money management and can still live your lives
happily. And you think you don’t have money to be managed at all. And also, you
don’t want to take risk of losing your money, right? Let me tell you a story. There was
a famous French philosopher, who was very religious. A man once asked him that
“Being a philosopher, why do you believe in god?” The philosopher answered, “There
are two possibilities. One, the god does exist, while the other, it doesn’t. If I believe in
God, but it doesn’t exist, my loss would the vanity of being preached in the church
every Sunday, and the inconvenience of following its code of conduct. On the other
hand, if I don’t believe in God, but the God does exist, in this case, my loss would be
that after I die, I have to go down to the Hell, and this is the cost I cannot afford.
Therefore, I choose to believe in God.” This story is telling us that every time when
we make decisions, we must take the consequence of making wrong choice into
consideration, just like the philosopher did. And at the same time, we must ask
ourselves, “Can I afford that?” So, if you’re still not thinking of managing your
money now, please recall what you your dream is, and ask yourself, “Can I afford the
cost of watching my dream vanish into thin air just because I don’t have enough
money to stick it out anymore?” I believe the answer is no. Therefore, I suggest you:
do not ignore the risks and loss of not doing finance management.
Okay, now maybe you believe that the money management does have something to do
with you. But when it comes to really doing that, doing financial investment, it seems
difficult to you, right? You may wonder maybe it’s better or even necessary to ask the
financial specialists for help. That is the second miscomprehension of finance
management.
It’s something beyond my knowledge.
Do you know what are the secrets behind the financial specialists? There are three
secrets actually. They won’t tell you that:
1. Finance management is not as hard as they’ve told you. Yes, it’s not as
difficult as you think. In fact, everyone can make good use of each cent of
money they’ve earned and make their financial situation “healthier” by doing
“proper” finance management.
2. You yourself have the best understanding of what kind of finance management
suits you most because choosing the types of investment tools is something to
do with your personality.
3. And something to do with how much money you have? And how much risk
you would take?
SThese are the things that the financial specialists cannot tell you.
There is a conflict between your goal and theirs. What you want is your beautiful
future, is making your dreams come true, while all they want is the money in your
pocket.
So do not be fooled and waste unnecessary money on making your dreams come true.
It’s not something beyond your knowledge.

And finally, you may ask

Shall I start now?
I am just a college student. Let me remind you, do you know this month is the last
month of your junior year? And in short, you will be a senior, and the next year
followed, you’ll be graduated and go after your dreams if lucky, or you will need to
find jobs lest you die from hunger. By then, you will realize how important the money
management is when you don’t take money from your parents any longer. So what are
waiting for? Embrace your dreams and start to manage money NOW!