How I made ‘growing up’ something to be excited about

Just three days after graduation, 25-year-old Safa was thrusted head-first into the adult world (a.k.a, his first full-time job). It didn’t take long for him to realise that the ‘later stage of life’ that he and his peers had often deferred financial planning to had now arrived. Getting started was daunting, but here’s how he made it something to be excited about.

With 16 years of formal education done and dusted, it was safe to say that I was ready for the next stage of my life – adulthood, or at least that’s what I thought. But as I stepped into my first job, I started to realise the one thing I was not prepared for: how to be responsible for my finances.

Here I was with a stable source of income, parents nearing retirement, and the desire to be a responsible and filial son but I simply lacked the know-how.

I recalled the numerous career planning talks back as an undergraduate and the occasional chats about trending topics such as robo-advisors and digital currencies among my friends, but personal finance was never really something we talked about.

In fact, financial planning seemed to be something that my peers and I could defer to a “later stage of life”. Even amongst my more financially savvy friends, I was amazed at how much they knew about investing but how little they knew about insurance.

How it all started

As I started my first job, I was filled with excitement about the impact I’d get to create and the ways I’d get to grow. My first few weeks went by smoothly and I could focus on seeking out opportunities to learn. But this attitude somehow didn’t extend to my personal finances.

I never drew a link between insurance and myself, and I would sometimes feel uncomfortable when my colleagues discussed financial news, because I didn’t want to reveal my lack of knowledge or consideration towards my own finances.

It was only when I received my first CPF letter after getting my first paycheck that I knew I had to face my reluctance towards dealing with my finances head-on. It was the first time I started thinking of my parents as soon-to-be dependants, after years of thinking that scholarships and educational grants were the only way I could lighten their load.

The thought of having to support them just a few years down the road strengthened my sense of responsibility than any personal financial goals I had briefly considered before.

It’s a marathon, not a sprint

Financial planning can seem daunting but I realised that it can be as simple as seeing each milestone as a small piece of my bigger financial puzzle, solving it little by little each time rather than leaving these small but important decisions to snowball later on.

I managed to avoid being overwhelmed by taking a step by step approach to focus on what’s important to me – from protection and savings, to credit cards and investments, and more. At each step, I was able to find plenty of resources online to inform my decisions, and suddenly my financial puzzle didn’t seem so puzzling anymore.

The first big purchase I wanted to make as a working adult was an electronic drumset which I had always wanted since I first started writing music. To me, this purchase was a symbol of my financial independence as it was something that I could rely on myself – rather than my parents – to achieve.

As I pass the halfway mark of my first year as a working adult, I’ve learned that financial planning can be something that young people like myself get excited about too. And while my financial planning journey is still a work-in-progress, I’m certain that starting earlier can help make the road to the end of the rainbow even clearer.

Regards,

Safafisalam

Start early and secure a lower premium  

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