I conducted a seminar titled "How To Make Money Work For You Rather Than You Working For Money" at the University of Goroka last night. This seminar was conducted in support of the Western Highands Students Fellowship, who are raising funds to conduct awareness campaigns on social issues affecting the Western Highlands Province during the coming Christmas break. The students charged a gate fee of K10/person and raised K270 which went towards the fund raising account.
The main focus of this seminar is the Personal Financial Statement, and the Asset Column in particular, which is the place where peoples' assets (defined as "Anything that puts money into your pocket")start making money.
A similar seminar will be conducted at the University of PNG and other institutions in future. My aim is to get the student community to understand that money can work for them if they know how to harness it and make it their servant. As I state in the seminar, "Money can be your master or your slave." Another related statement is "Money is a terrible master but a faithful servant." Students have not developed the many bad money habits which adults have, so if they can learn how to budget, save and invest their money before they start working for money, they will have a much better chance of making money work for them later, and thereby become financially independent and free while they are still young. That is why my strategy is to start with the universities and other learning instittions first, before taking the seminar to the public.
Another thing that is at the back of this seminar is the conviction that Papua New Guineans can become financially prosperous and wealthy. The country is so blessed it has become the envy of many other nations, yet we the citizens live in poverty. The world calls the country "paradise" but we think it is "hell".
I am convinced that if people can learn how to save and invest their money instead of spending it all on consumption and waiting for free "hand-outs", they can succeed financially instead of struggling and living in habitual debt. I believe that this seminar will liberate alot of people from the many destructive money habits they have developed over the years which keep them in bondage.
Be watching this blog or more on this seminar.