Money and Career

written by Ann Teoh

Carol Yip, the Founder and CEO of Abacus for Money and the author of “Smart Money-User” and “Money Rules” (in 3 languages – English, Malay and Chinese), spent her Saturday morning talking to teenagers and their parents on the topic, “How to talk to your kids about money and career” at KDU University College, Section 13 campus. Before the start of the talk, Dr. Todd Nelson (Head of School of Business and Social Sciences) got everyone to loosen up with an ice breaking game of, "You catch me, you catch me not."

Dr Nelson, "Let's see how quick you can be."

Carol Yip addresses parents and young adults
on the subject of Money and Career.

Playing the Devil’s Advocate

With no-holds-barred and playing the role of the Devil’s Advocate, she spoke sincerely, firmly and knowledgeably, about how children and their parents need to communicate with each other about money and career, and that parents need to treat their children as adults in understanding the value of money. After all, it is an important subject which is not taught in schools at all and hence, young adults do not understand about financial problems and the financial mistakes they make. She revealed that AKPK (a counselling agency set up by Bank Negara) had commissioned her to write “Money Sense” (a complimentary copy was given to each participant) as there are many people who do not know how to manage their money. As money and careers are inter-twined, she advised that young people need to understand themselves better, and what they want in life. And if they do not know better, then a career profiling will help them. A lot of us do not know ourselves well, to the point of not having the right career.

Carol was commissioned to write "Money Sense" by AKPK

Often, parents have lost their invested sum in education when their children decide halfway through the course, that this was not what they wanted to study. Some parents splashed gifts on their children: a car while their children are still undergrads, or a house upon their graduation. While these are symbols of love from the parents, Carol asked, “Is this a good thing? Or should they be allowed to take ownership of their own budget once they start their careers?”

Know yourself

Using the John Holland assessment, participants quickly found out their personality types and the type of careers that match their personalities. For some whose results show that they have an artistic nature, she told parents not to worry. Contrary to perceived notions that only lawyers and accountants make big bucks, she cited the inspirational stories of Mark Zuckerberg (Founder of the social media site, Facebook) and Taylor Swift (a country and western singer). Mark Zuckerberg is a brilliant young man who had dropped out of Harvard, and Taylor Swift is a singer. Carol shared that they both are young and rich, but they are both having non-conventional careers.

Carol also quoted the living example of Dr. Charles Limb who is a doctor with a love for music, who has now done a research on how the brain works during musical improvisation. He has successfully combined his career with music with the hope that music can be used to understand more about hearing and the functions of the brain.

Her rationale is that you can be an artiste and still make money, or you can combine your talent with your career. So parents need not worry that artistic careers are not financially rewarding, as in the case of Taylor Swift.

She explained the differences between job, work, career and vocation, stating that sometimes our careers are not fixed, as they may evolve. However, we need to find a good starting point, which is a good education.

Let young children explore what they want to do

Her advice to parents are to let their children explore what they want to do. By denying them this opportunity and exerting controls, their children will feel they have missed out something and will always live with that regret of not being given the chance to do what they wanted to do. Some young people will do as their parents dictated, but they may later switch to another career, to follow their own hearts’ desires.

However, to the young people, her advice is to have career planning and to know what you want to do. She cited how she had sat down with her neighbour (Vania Quah) who is now a Psychology student, and with another friend’s daughter (Wingky) and personally went through the career assessment and personality test with them.

Vania Quah (front row, far left), " I did the personality test with
Carol and discussed with her about my career."

As Wingky testified, “this career profiling test became a tool of communication between my mother and I. She could understand me better and what I liked to do after that. Initially, My mum wanted me to be an accountant, but actually, I would prefer to be an interpreter and to learn languages instead. Also, Carol advised me to start a book club where I could rent out my books at RM1 per book to my friends. Since I like to read and I have a lot of books, I also wanted to encourage my friends to read to improve their English, and by buying less books, we save money and also the environment. This has empowered me and made me more confident person.” What a wonderful project!

Wingky, "I'm now more confident, after starting my book club."

14-year old Yinnfy shared, "I know now what I want for my career."

Mum and daughter checking out the personality interests.

Money Sense and Sensibility

Carol advised the young people to manage peer pressure to avoid spending foolishly. Today’s influences could condition spending due to: temptation and desires from society, media and advertising influences, credit cards, bank loans and other factors. Hence, parents are advised to go through with their children their derived income against their expenses, liabilities and assets, so that their children are aware too of the family’s financial commitments. Each family should have a financial account and that could be a communication tool for everyone to understand each other better to avoid misunderstandings and family quarrels. A family needs to build a family portfolio of assets and to make wise investment choices.

Let the children help you plan the holiday

As a family gets together to go for a holiday, the children can help the parents through the establishing of a holiday budget, checking and comparing hotel rates and flight expenses. Through this exercise, the children will know the cost of the holiday and how they can look for ways to minimize cost to spend within their budget.

Some of the participants, like Michele Lim and her friends, Chong Hon Zhen and Jasmine who are waiting for their SPM results (due to be released in March), were pleased they came. As they said, “we are now more aware of money issues and it is an effective seminar as we now know ourselves better and about our careers.” Mr. H. P. Poh said, “It’s an eye opener for teenagers to know more about money and career, and to understand themselves better, and the real hard facts about money. It’s good for families to come together and to listen to Carol.”

Another participant, investment banker, Mr Alex Peng Cheun Hong came with his son, Yep Siang, who is a Form 4 student in SMK Damansara Jaya. “It’s really good for youngsters to attend this talk.” Yep Siang agreed, “My father has always talked to me about the power of saving, and Ms Carol Yip reinforces everything my father tells me.”

Before she closed for the day, Carol posed two questions, which were:

1. Do you want to excel in your career and be financially secured?

2. Do you want to learn the right lessons and skills to avoid making some money mistakes at an early age?

Do you want to know more?

If so, she welcomes everyone to join her in a 4-weekend (Saturday) course to be held at KDU University College, commencing on 9^th April 2011, from 9am to 4pm. This will be the first-of-its-kind course by KDU who wants to nurture young people in the art of career planning and managing money. Some of the learning outcomes will be:

· The importance of life and career planning starting at a young age;

· Career planning for financial success;

· Importance of money in achieving career and life dreams, aspirations and goals;

· Learn the meaning and value of money;

· Learn the effects of behavioural psychology;

· Learn the time value of money, interest compound rate and its effect, and Rule 72;

· Learn the banking system: bank accounts, loans, credit cards, investment, unit trust funds, insurance, property, shares and online trading;

· Learn to construct a budget, spending plan, net worth and cash flow statements for different stages of life;

You may contact the course creator and trainer, Ms Carol Yip, at e-mail: carolyip@abacusformoney.com or mobile no. 012 208 5090.

Dr Nelson,the organiser of this talk,
posed a question to the audience.

Carol, in closing, "Feel free to contact me for consultation."

You can surf for more information about Carol and listen in to the TV interview (About Money Talk TV) from this link.