Teh Tarik Sunday | The Role Money Plays In Our Lives

I'm super excited to have been invited to be a part of the 28 October's Teh Tarik Sunday session!

The topic is going to be around personal finances. Particularly how for most people, money plays a limiting role in our lives, whereas it should be playing a role of fueling your aspirations.

I don't want to give a lecture. You can find lectures everywhere on the web.

Instead, I'd love to answer questions you may have.

Who am I

Probably a question that's going through your head right now, eh?

For those who are not familiar with the "eh", it's a phrase that Canadian's like to use. It has many meanings, such as a replacement for huh (as in the paragraph above). Or another popular one is to replace it with a cheer such as a "yay".

Anyway, hopefully by now, you've picked up the fact that I'm Canadian.

I was born and raised in Canada, but both my parents immigrated there from Malaysia.

image from edmontongazette.com

What Money Experiences Have I Had

Besides that random fact, a few things that have happened so far in my life:

• I have lost $30,000 Canadian dollars from the stock market while in University (everything I've made in my life)
• I almost had my girlfriend commit suicide because of money
• I learned more about money
• Bought my first house 6 months after my first job
• I got an 18% raise after the first year of work
• I learned the ins and outs of how money works in Canada and was able to get the government to pay me to renovate my house, write, travel, learn
• After working here for one year, I was able to travel to Thailand, Laos Vietnam for one month and right after, go to the Baltics for another month on a 4k/month salary
• After being here for one year, I had my salary increase by 1500/month

Me in Estonia

The Personal Finance Project I'm Working On Now

Also, because I'm super into financial literacy, I am building a brand here in Malaysia that will help everyone in Malaysia improve their relationship with money. Some of the things that are happening are:

• A free program was created where anyone can learn all the fundamentals of money completely free, because I believe that basic financial literacy is a human right
• A weekly newsletter where all the best personal finance information is summarised so everyone can get access to the information, regardless of how busy they are
• A facebook group where people can share their experiences and get financial advisors to weigh in on their thoughts, without feeling like the advisors are trying to sell anything inferior (since there are a few from different companies who will call each other out)
• A weekly video series where people can get advice directly from a financial advisor for free (whereas it would normally cost 1500+ to work with them)

Why I'm Doing This

So now that you have an overview of who I am, and what I'm doing, I guess the last part is why.

There are a few reasons. But the big one is the experience with my girlfriend at that time really shaped my thoughts around money. Although I hope that our case was on the extreme side, there are so many abused relationships, so many substance abusers, so many negative emotions around money.

And I find that really sad when I know those who have figured money out are living lives that really excite them.

What I'll Be Covering

Which brings us to the 28 October's Teh Tarik Sunday session.

I want to provide you the most value I can, so what I'll do is start by going over the free program I've created. From there, I hope to answer as many of your questions as I can. If you can leave a comment here or if you rather message me in private, please do so on discord @cshaw (I won't refer to you directly in the actual session when I cover your question).

I hope to see you there!