"Seven Steps To Financial Freedom" Workshop

I am glad to report that a company has engaged me to conduct a one-day workshop for its staff on how they can manage their pay and succeed in the area of personal finance.

The company is Hasting Deering (PNG) Ltd, an Australian company which deals with heavy equipment and operates in PNG and the Solomon Islands. The company has been in the country since 1949. Apart from its head office in Port Moresby, it has offices in Lae, Rabaul, Lihir Island, Tabubil and two other centres, and employs 196 Papua New Guineans. I will be conducting the workshop in Lae from 21-24 May 2008 followed by Port Moresby in early June.

I will be presenting the workshop as a set of 7 logical steps people need to go through if they want to get out of debt, save money and invest for several streams of income. Much of the workshop will be based on my book "Young Money". The company has arranged for each of its employees to obtain a copy of the book as well. Two major financial goals I will be presenting to participants is the need for them to become financially independent and ultimately become financially free.

I am excited about the workshop because it is an idea I have been thinking about and putting together for several months now. In the process of writing "Young Money", it struck me that there was more to the subject of personal financial management than what I could squeeze into a book. I also realised that reading a book is one thing, but hearing the author in person, and having the opportunity to ask him questions as well as get him to elaborate further on his ideas, is another. So I have been putting together this workshop titled "Seven Steps To Financial Freedom".

When Mr. Ray Ninnes, Area Manager of Hastings Deering got in touch with me about purchasing copies of the book for his employees, he asked what more he could do for his staff. When I told him about the workshop I was working on, he got really interested. One thing led to another, and now I am ready to present the workshop, which I believe is the first in the country. Depending on how things go, I intend to take the workshop public.

When news of my book came out, I received an avalance of emails, text messages, faxes and telehone calls from people interested in reading it. I even received a call from Radio Australia and got interviewed on their programme called "In The Loop", which is broadcast throughout Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. (Incidentially, this is how Mr. Ninnes got to learn about the book. I am convinced it as been a divinely-arranged set of events). The level of interest was such that I was able to sell about 800 copies (out of 1,000) in the first 4 weeks, and place an order for a second print of 2,000 copies. I am now down to the last 100 copies of the first printing.

This indicates to me that money and finance is an area of interest to many people. I state in "Young Money" that money is an essential area of life for which we do not learn anything about in school or even at home. School prepares and conditions us mentally, psychologically and emotionally to work for money, but not how we can harness money and make it work for us. That is why the majority of working class people struggle with money problems most of their working lives, regardless of how much they earn. They have not been taught or learnt through experience the art of managing money and making it grow and work for them. Money has become a master for whom they work to a point of addiction, not realising that it can trun out to be a faithful master if they can tame and employ it.

I am beginning to think that it is probably one of my life's callings to empower other people to become good managers of their own money, whether they earn it from fortnightly salaries or from working on the land, or trading goods and services. I am therefore writing books and developing several other workshops on areas such as starting a small business, investing in real estate (rental properties), buying and selling shares, etc.

Watch this site for a report on how the workshop has gone and other developments on the books and speaking fronts.